La Sportiva gore-Tex boots, an expensive Gore-Tex jacket, merino wool, etc.
Why? The goal isn’t to live in the most luxurious home in the mountains, but to be outdoors.
Therefore, the best way to think about clothing is outdoor armor. Any type of clothing which helps you be outdoors longer, go further, and be more brave is better.
(more…)Very efficient.
This recent Lake arrowhead trip I did, I brought iPhone Pro with SD card lightning adapter, as well as my MacBook Pro laptop. I didn’t even take my MacBook Pro out of the bag. I found that importing my photos into iPhone Pro, and quickly using Photos to flag and favorite my best photos, and upload to my WordPress media library is the most efficient. Looking at all the photos a small thumbnails, and selecting my favorite photos based on what pops out at me with the small thumbnails.
Also some thing that I found efficient is with iOS, you do not need to re-export your photos. Because it is all synced in iCloud and Apple photos, you could directly upload to your WordPress media library without a second step. Therefore in this way, using either an iPhone or iPad removes a step from your photographic workflow, even when compared to a MacBook laptop.
Other nice details which I appreciated include hanging out on my Airbnb porch, in the direct sun, while flagging my favorite photos. Rather than being stuck indoors with a laptop.
And the most beautiful clothes.
Something nobody really talks about: the importance of safety. For example, I just did a quick weekend trip in Lake arrowhead, and when driving up the mountain, there was an insane amount of fog, which was very dangerous. At that moment, the thought: what would be the maximum the safe car to climb up the mountain, surrounded by fog, with icy roads?
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Nobody knows what it means to be happy, but we know what it means to be focused. Knowing how to focus on something better you can control.
Therefore, put your strength and efforts towards focus. That means, knowing how to get rid of distractions.
The Palm Springs modern art museum as a great place!
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Currently doing a weekend retreat at Lake arrowhead, in the mountains at an Airbnb cabin lodge. To escape the cold, we drove to Palm Springs, checked out the art museum, and did a short fun hike, and walked around the downtown area. It was my first time in Palm Springs, and the main Avenue is very interesting. Almost like a bougie Santa Monica meets Vegas. Great for Street photography!
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The mountain air and elevation as very restorative for your health.
(more…)Is schadenfreude a virtue?
We currently live in the year 2022, we live in the extreme future. Yet why do we still think retrospectively and into the past? Shouldn’t we rather think present and into the future?
The best socks. Iniji socks.
Uber — ubermensch, overman, or “over†better. Better to be over-caffeinated, over-engineered, over-prepared.
Tesla Model S Plaid — triple tri motor. Three, or tri for ourselves and our lives? Three, triangle, 3 as an interesting concept.
I love cruel and harsh landscapes. They sharpen me, focus me, and inspire me.
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How can we optimize our lives to live more dangerously, more recklessly?
Living in the mountains, desert, or more unforgiving climates. Places where it snows. East coast people as having more hair on their chest compared to soft California folks.
Great for landscape photography. HDR looks great and balanced.
Replace vs complement.
The purpose of life isn’t to stay at home, but to leave, embark, explore, discover, conquer, and traverse.
If you judge others or compare yourself to others, you equivalize yourself to others. Assuming you’re a rare plant, treat yourself as your own category, your own species.
When people challenge you to an argument don’t be suckered — there is no “winning†an argument by reason, logic or dialectics. Just ignore them, and don’t acknowledge what they said or their existence.
If I shot a lot of photos in a given day, it is a sign that I had a great day.
What do we want? Things to be faster, more instant.
Consider the “Insta-potâ€, or even “Insta-Gramâ€. Instant film (Polaroid, Instax).
Digital photography as superior to film photography because digital photos are instant.
Even when you go out to the mountains, or the desert, what is it that binds all of humans? And society? Commerce.
Opt for smaller. With Tesla, get Model 3 Performance over Model S Plaid. iPhone Mini over iPhone Pro. Small is the new (clutch) luxury.
Small luxury apartments (less square footage, more modern and premium) over big (boring) and ugly suburban homes.
Retro is bad; a step backwards, not forwards.
No more gas cars. No more turbochargers. No more hybrids. No more manual transmissions or automatic transmissions (only 1-gear electric).
No more romanticization of past forms, prefer the radically new.
Old things, old designs are bad. Old thinking is bad.
Embrace and love and *prefer* the new.
Not a matter of a ‘step forward’ or a ‘step backwards’. Rather, just different.
I say–
Embrace it.
Don’t stick to the old ways, even if it were in fact … ‘better’. Ride with the new.
Your aesthetic tastes will change and evolve as your life changes and evolves. Ride it!
Become less concerned with consistency. Should your life goals at age 12 be the same as age 21, or 33? Or 50? Or 120?
The sign of progress and evolution?
With technology, the march of technology is always forward and brutal. And whether we like it or not, perhaps it is best to just ride that wave?
Quick thoughts on iPhone 13 Pro:
The first thought is that I don’t actually really like the new design. I think it is big, bulky, heavy, and ugly. Yet, there are many things which are redeeming: this includes the improved battery life, the brighter screen, and the faster processor.
The iPhone is no longer a phone. I think the iPhone Pro is just an iPad mini mini. It is an iPad which happens to fit in your front pocket.
For myself personally speaking, I actually really like the new iPhone Pro for blogging, vlogging, and processing and editing my photos.
I am also a big fan of the new 120 Hz screen, everything is so much more smooth and buttery. It makes for doing things like Zen Brush 2 and calligraphy even more fun.
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Uplifting habits:
Being outdoors, in the direct sun, walking, thinking.
Depressing habits:
Sitting on your butt all day, being indoors, also being indoors on a laptop all day on a standing desk.
Thought —
Better to just be walking around all day (30,000 steps a day) on an iPhone for work, instead of being at home on a laptop all day … even though the Laptop ix 1000x more efficient?
The upside of a laptop:
The form factor doesn’t change.
Compare this with the iPhone — the form factor is always changing (with the Pro — always getting bigger, thicker, uglier).
Thus a simple idea:
Perhaps it is a good idea we keep the form factor consistent (in regards with our tools), and instead … innovate based on the artwork and things we create!
For example, Toyota seems to always be changing their designs of their cars, for the sake of it … and to perhaps drive sales?
At least one good thing with Porsche (911) — the goal is to continually refine it, perfect it, while keeping the form factor consistent.
With cameras, RICOH GR, and Leica M Rangefinder — the form factor doesn’t change, whereas the guts and engine is strengthened, improved, made smaller and more thing. More refined.
Therefore from an innovation perspective … maybe it is a good idea to keep consistent the form factor, and innovate instead by…
For example, even the future of TESLA:
No need to make a totally new design for the car designs, but to keep improving and innovating the self-driving features, and the UI/UX software on the screen.
What I love about the desert is how cruel, Spartan, and vast it is.
Also, something strangely zen about being in the desert. It purifies my mind, and in someways, makes me go into primal mode. You you think a lot less about the luxuries of modern day society, and instead think about the essentials.
Joshua Tree is my new favorite place. I can’t wait until I go back!
Therefore, if you want to clear your mind, I recommend going to the desert.
I just came back from Joshua trip, and I have nearly over 2000 photos to quickly sort through. In order to maximize speed up my workflow, this is what I did:
First, I shot both small JPEG, an extra small JPEG on my Ricoh GR 3X. I used the lightning to SD card adapter, and imported my photos into my iPhone Pro. Then, I look at the photos as aspect ratio, and favorite my best photos from the contact sheet screen.
The way I favorite my best photos is when I see them as small thumbnails, I click and hold the photos I like, and then I favorite them.
Also, a new hack I discovered is that when I like a certain photo and don’t want to lose it, I just screenshot it and crop it, and therefore it becomes their first photo in my photo stream, and I can quickly upload it to my WordPress media library.
To make a better composition, get closer, fill the frame, and make your compositions tighter.
For example, in this portrait I shot of my mom, Umma, look at how I worked the scene, and kept shooting from a distance and getting closer. Ultimately, I prefer the tightest composition, which has the maximum visual impact and intimacy.
A good way to make better compositions is this: place your subject in the extreme top of the frame.
The most fire shoe!
The reason why it is so great is that it fits your feet so well, is insanely comfortable, has a wide toebox, aesthetically looks great, and also it’s not a Croc. You can wear it everywhere, I’ve even seen a guy hiking with it. I also love that you could comfortably wear it without socks, which is great in Southern California. I hate socks.
My grade joy of seeing a super base level Nissan versa, with stick shift. No frills, no unnecessary flourishes. Black on black. It reminds me of my first car, my 1991 Nissan Sentra XE, five speed, 4 door, 1.6 L engine. I would be very happy if Nissan made a Nissan versa SE-R.
The reason why I also love the spartan interior of the Tesla model 3.
One thought that comes to my mind a lot is this: if a spartan hoplite were alive today, how would he live his life, what would he own, what would he own? What car would he drive?
Some thing I learned from my friend Sean, who is a Japanese woodworker: the notion of honesty of materials. For example, if it is not wood, don’t make it try to look like wood. For example, the interior of cars should not simulate fake wood.
Even some thing I thought about the new iPhone Pro, with the stainless steel edges: even though I hate how shiny it is, untreated stainless steel is more honest. That is the purity of form, rather than coating it with another material.
This is why I really hate fake leather, a.k.a. “pleatherâ€. If it is plastic, just let it be plastic. Real leather should be real leather, fake leather or “vegan leather “should not be a thing. Also this is why “fake meat“ is such a bad idea. Why are we trying to make soy beans taste like ground beef? Shouldn’t we just enjoy soy beans for the sake of soy beans?
Invest in Tesla — why? Simple thoughts:
My great anger and disgust with Google — no I do not want notifications here!!!
Perhaps time to DuckDuckGo
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