The very unique and special relationship between father and son:

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I really love the new WordPress mobile app, especially for iPhone iOS. Why? Buttery smooth, insanely fast load times, and everything just flows. I find it the best way for me to stream my thoughts.

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Something very unnatural about being on a college campus. What is the issue? It is very unnatural, and very unlike the “real world“.

However, if we desire to be more rigorous, what is the ”real world” anyways?

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As of late, there are lots of utopian places and designs constructed. For example, asymmetrical design, floor to ceiling windows, steel, and abundant brightness. Yet, even though the design looks beautiful superficially, and wonderful, it feels very unnatural in bizarre, in an unsettling way. Why is this?

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Arguing is for losers. If you scuffle feathers with someone else, just acknowledge them, say OK, and move on.

Upon much consideration, thinking about what I am — I am a visual entrepreneur. I have a passion for the visual (visual arts), photography, design, etc.

Some points of personal interest for me at the moment:

1. The future for LIDAR in iPhone Pro to be used as a compositional tool and device.
2. More mobile photography: using iPhone Pro as a mobile photo-sorting and uploading device. iPhone Pro to replace your laptop for mobile editing on-the-go while traveling, etc.

The point isn’t to ‘work’ more (this is a slave mentality), the purpose is to free up your time, mind space, mind labor, and brain space to focus on your arts work, your artistic production.

With cars, either get a Tesla Model S Plaid, or nothing. No more Lambos, no more Ferraris, no more Porsches, no more gasoline things. No more hybrid, no more plugin hybrid, no more SUV’s, no more ‘cross-over’ SUVs, no more ‘compact’ SUVS, no more manual transmissions, no more automatic transmissions, etc.

The future is electric. The future is TESLA.

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With things, tools, and stuff in our life … choose the least ugly thing, the thing which offends you the least.

For example, I need a phone now that I got Seneca and must be contact-able. When I was in Vietnam, I enjoyed my techno-zen existence living *without* a phone for about 2 years. Now since I need a phone, currently the *least* ugly or the *least* bad iPhone in my eyes is the iPhone Pro (silver/white). Even though I consider the iPhone Mini the best iPhone, the back finish is very ugly (this really ugly plasticky-thing). And also the aluminum sizes aren’t so sexy either. The stainless steel (pure) on the Silver iPhone Pro is the most honest, and even though I prefer the ‘all black everything’ (murdered out) aesthetic, the iPhone Pro in graphite is a bit boring, and depressing.

Even with cars, I find the plastic trim on the Tesla Model X, Model Y, as insanely ugly. The little plastic trim that is above the wheel-well on the car. Looking at the plastic, it would drive me insane to have to look at it every single day. With cars, either Tesla Model 3 Performance or the Model S Plaid.

Google AMP (accelerated mobile pages) is a ‘free’ plugin in which your WordPress.org website automatically serves the information of your website as more ‘mobile optimized’ things. For example, your JPG photos turn into ‘webp’ (optimized web-friendly) images which are smaller in size, yet still high in image fidelity and quality.

So the question is, *should* you enable Google AMP on your website, or not? And why does Google offer this anyways? An analysis:

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What will be the fabrics of the future, for clothing and beyond?

Some thoughts:

1. GORETEX: Goretex as good enough for the military (Gore-Seam) and GORE fabrics. Thus good enough for us pedestrians.
2. Merino Wool Blends: 100% merino wool is not good– poor longevity. A mix between Merino Wool and Polyester or some sort of synthetic fabrics as ideal. For example, SmartWool and the 80% merino wool/20% polyester leggings, or even the new Outlier.nyc ‘sportweight‘ T-shirt (50% merino wool/50% polyester).

Spartan aesthetics?

Technically if we think about the spartan hoplites — they just essentially were more or less naked (just a crotch covering, menacing crimson-red cape, and exposed chest and legs). And their shoes were just technically sandals.

In fact, training barefoot is best. So ideally … the most minimal shoe, or no shoe is ideal.

Keep the ruthless march forward!

Anti retro, anti past lifestyles, etc.

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught me anything, it is that capitalism is stronger than pandemics, and people care more for capitalism and consumerism then health, safety, and other pragmatic concerns.

Wu wei is the Taoist notion of not forcing yourself to do anything. That even not trying to do things it will get accomplished, somehow, in its own time without need for foreign intervention.

In other words, don’t ever force yourself to do anything.

Perhaps the reason why travelers who go to foreign places like it is that they feel superior. For example, when you when you travel to a foreign place, there is a feeling of superiority that your culture, wealth and riches is superior to theirs.

Or the feeling of being pampered, or served. For example, the feeling that Americans love going to Japan is feeling served. They love the special service, which is often absent in America.

Also, perhaps the reason why people like giving aid to developing countries is that in doing so, they feel that they are more fortunate than the poor people they are helping.

On my last recent trip to Lake arrowhead, and even Joshua tree, I was able to import, favorite, and upload to my blog media library all of my photos, from iPhone pro, instead of using a laptop.

In fact, perhaps it is a good idea to just leave your laptop at home when you’re traveling, and just travel with your iPhone Pro and Ricoh GR 3X camera and SD to lightning adapter when traveling.

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Traffic is a huge problem. For example, the other day I went to see my uncle in K-Town, and the traffic on the five freeway was atrocious. How can we deal with or fix the problem of traffic?

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Everything in life is just a suggestion.

Take it or leave it. Life improves when you suggest things, and you offer your suggestion. However this is what I say: offer your suggestions without spite and malice, and do not feel upset if people do not decide to integrate your suggestions into their life.

Also, when others tell you certain things, just think of it like a suggestion. If somebody tells you to do something, it is not an imperative, and you are not obliged to obey them. Treat it like a suggestion. Take it or leave it.

Nothing is good enough for me. Yet, in order to just get on with our lives, perhaps it is actually just best for us to “satisfice” with 90% good enough.

For example, I really don’t like and almost hate the new iPhone pro, but it seems about 90% good enough. Therefore I should just stick with it, even though I hate it. In fact, I wonder if by admitting that you hate some thing, yet you still decide to stick with it, it allows for more peace of mind, and satisfaction.

Something I believe in: the idea that we should eliminate options, instead of adding options.

For example, I find it very bizarre how the exclusive iPhone pro is now being created in so many different colors. In fact, I believe that the iPhone pro should only be made in either black or white, rather than all these other strange finishes.

Why is having too many options a bad thing?

Too many options will ruin your life, David Alan Harvey.

Certainly having some options and life is good, but having too many options in life is bad. Too many decisions leads to paralysis by analysis, in which nothing is done or accomplished.

For example in the context of photography, and having more than one camera, one lens is bad. Rather than just going out and shooting photos, which is the goal, you waste valuable mindspace and brain space to always figure out what the optimal camera for every single situation is.

In fact, I find that the most miserable in the flicted photo ers are the ones who own too many cameras and lenses, and cannot just stick and commit with one. This is also why I believe in monogamy, than the new trendy millennial ”polyamory”. Even if you think about the ancient Greeks, like the Iliad by homer, Hector only has one wife and one son, not legions of concubines.

Reduce

Therefore, a great way to innovate, or just to live life or design life is strive to reduce options, rather than adding.

Some thing on my mind: the difference between iterative innovation and carte blanche, totally new innovation from scratch.

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My aesthetic ideal, to create insanely beautiful things (HAPTIC INDUSTRIES), my passion for my insanely beautiful life partner and wife (Cindy), my passion for insanely beautiful products, my desire to create insanely beautiful photos, and my passion for my insanely beautiful child Seneca.

Also aesthetically, my personal desire to craft my body into something insanely beautiful, a work of art.

A turbo life thought: if the whole purpose of existence and your real life allowed you to just make one insanely beautiful photo in your eyes, your entire life and existence was worth it and justified.

What if you have already made an insanely beautiful photo? Or several? Then the goal and the motivation in life is to continue that thread: to continue living, adventuring, and experiencing new things, in order to continue making more insanely beautiful photos.

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Blog about your photos to make sense out of your photos.

Why photography is my life Passion:

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Something I believe strongly in: don’t buy or use a case. It takes away from the design purity and the beauty of things.

For example, if you put a case on your phone, you rob the beauty from it. It is like putting on a very very thick and ugly condom over your devices. Or it is like Asian people who put sticky ugly plastic vinyl wrap around their nice furniture and leather couches.

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Somethings surprisingly good about the iPhone 13 Pro compared to the iPhone 11 Pro is this: the flat edges make for a better grip, when using the phone without a case.

Then it seems that grip is essential. That we should design more things in regards to grip, for example, the reason why I love the Ricoh GR camera so much is that the grip is great. It is such a small camera, yet it is the best compact grip for the hand, in such a small and compact body.

Some thing that I’ve also learned in regards to baby Seneca is this: when he is learning how to do things, there is much intelligence in his hands. That he loves to hold things in his hands, grip things, and use haptic and tactile things in his hands.

Therefore I think we should spend more time being very very very very very uncompromising in design in regards to grip design. For example, doorhandles for cars, handles for the doors in our house, handles for our bathroom shower knobs, water knobs, steering wheels of our cars, anything that we put our hands on and have to grip.

Always good to have things to look forward to. Why incompletion is good.

It seems in today’s world, there is this insane rush to complete things. We want to check off everything off of our check boxes, in our to do list. If we do not finish everything, we feel this sense of “un-accomplishment”.

However, perhaps it is actually best for us to have something to look forward to. That leaving things unfinished and incomplete is actually a good thing. Otherwise, what motivation or inspiration would we have to look forward to the next day?

This is what gives us hope and optimism towards the future?

Therefore the best photos– the photos which promote hope, optimism, the future, and future adventures?

Photos which inspire movement, photos which inspire adventure!

Via negativa YouTube settings. No ads, no comments, no likes.

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Lake arrowhead as a great weekend getaway. Rent a nice airbnb in the mountains, breathe that fresh mountain air, and do some quick day trips along the way (Mojave Desert, Palm Springs — shoot street photography in the downtown, the Palm Springs modern art museum, or go on a short hike), and shoot some photos in the snow:

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An experiment:

Shooting XS (extra small) jpeg on RICOH GR IIIx.

I actually think the photos are *big enough*!

Surprisingly good, especially the default color mode, and the default HDR settings!

What makes it so good?

Great creative tool. Lidar, ability to screenshot and mark up photos, and the default camera is very strong.

I still prefer RICOH GR IIIX as my primary (monochrome) camera. But iPhone Pro is great for color photos and macro photos, or video selfie vlogs.

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The screen is great. Also because of the great HDR, it makes for a great landscape camera.

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Avoid free. Why? In ‘free’, there is always a hidden trap, somewhere. Whether it be distractions (Google), whether it be advertisements (Facebook/Instagram), or whether some sort of subliminal brain-washing (the overly sensationalist news).

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Joshua Tree– maybe one of my new favorite places on Earth:

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Small thumbnails; the quickest way to most efficiently go through your photos, and flag/favorite/download your favorite photos based on what ‘pops’ as a small thumbnail.

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Google Photos– a great tool (Chrome) to edit (select and flag) your best photos, and also to share your best/favorite photos with friends and family.

Google Photos is great, especially if you don’t want to spend money on Adobe Lightroom (monthly subscription), or if you don’t have a Mac with access to Apple Photos.

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A step towards techno-zen.

You pave the path, and cultivate your own culture. You don’t follow anything or anyone.

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I love barebones. Clean, minimal, without flourishes and superfluous elements. More spartan, cold— this is our new luxury.

Uber-base level Tesla Model 3, white, black interior, cheapest model, no additional autopilot (~$39,999) with the cheapest aero rims.

iPhone SE with no case in black. Or MacBook Air, cheapest base model (only $899 with Apple education discount).

RICOH GR III/GR IIIX, black and white high contrast monochrome small JPEG mode.

No headphones. If you want to listen to music, just play it off your laptop speakers or off your phone speaker.

Just one all black everything outfit. Black merino wool t shirt, UNIQLO black athletic shorts, black leggings, no socks, only minimalist shoes (water shoes, or Vibram 5 finger type shoes, or the “L-Run” brand minimalist zero drop shoes on Amazon).

Barebones website and blog design.

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Whether it be looking at and reviewing your photos, working out in the morning, seeing your kid in the morning, or your morning coffee!

Not that things are getting more expensive, but the value of the USD is becoming less because of inflation? Don’t save your money in USD, buy Bitcoin or Tesla stock instead.

Towards “re-usable”, things that aren’t disposable. Fewer goods, more expensive and premium-luxury. Better curation of our tools, life and things.

Anti gas cars, anti hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars. Electric as supreme, as it is “re-usable”. Even with babies and kids — transitioning them out of disposable diapers as soon as humanly possible.

Anti film, pro digital. Anti physical things, pro ephemeral online or digital things.

More expensive, and better.

Lidar as a game changer. Polycam is the one. iphone Pro good for portable Lidar:

Why toe socks are so great?

Beautiful things don’t make for a beautiful person.

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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.

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