Summer Solstice Parade

I went to the Fremont Solstice Parade yesterday. Something new, something interesting. How it is different from other parades I have attended before; mainly costumes and probably this is first time I am attending any parade during the daylight. I don't remember if we had any parade in Oklahoma in daylight. Since, it is a day time event, it is a superb opportunity for photography. It is so colorful. My only complain is, not all participants are up to mark. But I was amazed to learn that, they deliberately avoid any kind of advertisement or sponsorship. That's kind of big deal :) And of course the solstice cyclist! They were new and interesting.

Sigma 10-20 mm f/4-5.6

I bought this wide angle two or three months ago. The lens is quite cheap in that range. Wide angle is a whole different paradigm of photography. I am trying to learn wide angle but I must say the pictures are magical if taken correctly. More often than not pictures have way more things than I would like to have. I guess this is because of me. I have to learn how to use wide-angle. One quick tip, you would feel the pain of wide-angle lens if you take it with you for travel as an only carry around lens. So far I like the lens but my only complain is, pictures are not sharp. By not sharp, I mean they are significantly not sharp. I am not talking about razor sharp; the difference is noticeable by human eye, even in a crappy laptop display. If someone is fastidious about sharpness I guess he/she would hate it. Pictures are really soft. But most likely this lens is going to be used for landscape; in that case sharpness does not really matter much. But if you have a plan for close range distorted picture, be aware this lens gonna be real soft and that could be a huge turn off for some pictures. Here are some sample pics

New apartment

Finally, I moved to my new apartment. It's nice. It is tiny but big enough for myself. It is really difficult to stay alone now, I become so much habituated to have lipa around. It feels like something is missing, something is not right. It is not like we always spend time together, but now that she is gone I kind of always looking for her. It seems like I have nothing to do alone at home.

If you ever live together with somebody else, you would know; when he or she is not at home it seems like the other one does not know what to do. Time seems like a burden. I guess I better learn to live alone again. New life, new beggining.

Google keyboard

Finally Google keyboard is in play store. I have been using swiftkey for some time. My primary complain is it does too much and most of them are annoying. I find Google keyboard more balanced approach. It has correction and it does not do it too much. In that a sense I like it better. On the top of that I make less error on Google keyboard compared to swiftkey.

It looks like Google is disintegrating many killer feature of android. I am expecting Google luncher next. That would be very interesting. All the OEMs are spending so much money to make their own skin and then if people start dropping their skin that would be a total waste of their resource. Android ecosystem is interesting. Sometimes, I feel like it is wild and uncontrolled. And that's the beauty of it.

Washington Life

First week was pretty crazy. I had to cope with everything. Moving from a campus town in Oklahoma to the heart of the downtown of a big west coast city was quite shocking. And then start working for a corporation is a big jump as well. I think I enjoyed my first week. It was lot of work though. I am still working hard to cope up with everything. The transportation is driving me little crazy though. I can't drive because usually it takes about 30 minutes to park the car. I can ride the bus, but it is somehow not working very well for me because of road work.

My office environment is quite nice. I kind of enjoying it. People are interesting and cool. I met lot of cool people, I think my experience gonna be great. BTW, this is the last thing I am saying about my office. Unfortunately I am not allowed to write about it; well I am allowed but, there is a chance that might cause security breach. And so I have decided not to blog at all.

Washington is a beautiful state. Tons of places to go. I guess once I fix everything and get used to Washington life, I would have lots of places to go. Let's see how everything goes for me in future. The interesting thing about Washington is the road signs/instructions are on the top of silhouette of George Washington.