Also shot from the iPhone and tweaked using Snapseed. This was from the same day as the shot from the previous post. Just adjusting your angle a little and you lose the sunset colours, but that’s ok, since I’ve already planned to shoot it as a black and white image. The added texture in the sky from post processing gives it a vintage kind of feel.

Sometimes you look at the lines and details even if the lighting is not great and you can get something out with contrast and texture.

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Heh, beginning to think that while you can do almost the same stuff using a PC vs a Mac, there are more elegant software solutions being developed for the Mac. They look good and for me, applications should be about simplicity, getting out of your way so that you can get things done. Lots of them are starting to use Dropbox as a sync tool so that you can share stuff between your computer and your iOS device.

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Needing to start using the snowball technique to do stuff. I do a lot of things, a little here and there, but never seem to get enough momentum so that by the time I get back to it later, it seems like I’ve reverted to where I started before. So I’m thinking of allocating 5 hours to a task, and even if I don’t do it straight for 5 hours, I must find things to do within that 5 hours to reach an outcome that I’m satisfied with. There are plenty of things around the house and my life that require this kind of personal attention, so I think I’ll start it now and see if I get any progress on the things I have on my to do list.

Took a walk with Vyanne and Alfie by the river in the sweltering heat. At least I know with the vivid colours from the sky that the next day is going to be just as warm, or so they say.

The picture was cropped to a 16:9 format and I brought back some colour and contrast using Snapseed.

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I like that I can capture images on the fly with my iPhone, edit them and post them on a social networking service like Facebook or Flickr without having to touch my computer.

It probably looks better on my iPhone due to the smaller screen but you make the best pictures with the tools you have with you at the time.

The iPhone 4 has a decent enough camera, and with Snapseed, you can sort of make interesting photos on the fly. They probably won’t print very well, but I’m not really expecting much currently.

I’ve seen samples from the iPhone 4s, so whatever amazing camera they can cram into the internals of the next iPhone, I’d be pretty interested to get it. More and better pixels might make it possible to grab images and I could compile a quick photo book for the coffee table. The ease and speed of capturing, editing (albeit with some limited options) and sharing photos on your phone makes it such a joy to use.

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I really am a gadget person, just liking to try different alternatives to see what I like best, but then again, my practical side overrules all of that. As flashy as some things are, it’s also sometimes the simplest things get the job done, and function should trump aesthetics all the time. If I could loan an Apple computer to use over a period of time, I wouldn’t mind trying it out, as opposed to buying one outright on a whim.

I’m starting to find ways to cater to my hobbies through cheaper means, so if it means borrowing something from someone to try out, I wouldn’t mind doing that. I also know that sometimes you cant deliberate too long on the pros and cons of getting something when you need to use it, as you could have benefited from the use of such an item more quickly instead of going back and forth deciding if it’s the right thing to get.

Heh, I have cameras, lenses and cooking items on my mind as a list of things to get. So we’ll see how we go down the months with trying to acquire these items.

Today would be mum’s 64th birthday. It’s a little ironic, I had a some ginkgo leftover in the fridge and had bought barley and beancurd sheets earlier so I decided to make (for lack of a better translation) barley, beancurd sheet and ginkgo sweet soup. The irony is that this was one of my favourite desserts that mum would make (and my brother agrees) and I don’t know anyone else who makes it as nice as she does. She did mention previously that you had to boil the beancurd sheets separately and they would disintegrate properly if it was very fresh.

Heh, I don’t have the option of getting it fresh so all I did was boil it and ‘disintegrated’ it using a hand blender. It’s not as silky smooth as what mum used to make but it was close enough.

This was my first attempt at the dessert, having had success a couple of days before making glutinous rice balls for dessert. Dessert has never been one of the things I was good at preparing, but they are pretty simple, as long as you have some cooking experience and just enough courage to overcome the fear of destroying the food.

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It’s been a year plus mum, still missing you. I am trying to be the son that you’d be proud of and your upbringing has given me enough belief to do so.