Tablet usecases?

I guess I want little more than bigger screen from my tablet compare to my phone. I am not sure whether my tablet really offer anything else other than bigger screen! What is the use case of a tablet? Just the convenience of having bigger screen? I am curious is there anything that I can do in my tablet but not in phone? In this age of high resolution super phones, pretty much everything is convenient on the phone. Then, why would I carry two different devices with exactly same functionality? Especially when they are exactly identical. I do agree that having larger screen is sometimes convenient for some tasks. But most of the time portability supersedes that convenience. On the top of that, phone has a 'must have' reason that tablet is missing. Then my question is what is the strongest usecase for a tablet?

Chronicle of a Mundane Life!

My poor blog, it feels like I ditched you. Somehow, I feel like I am loosing my ability to write anything. I was never been a great writer but I used to post a few every month. I was super infrequent in last month. I feel like I cannot write anymore. I know it is a practice; the more I would do, the better I would become in posting. Am I too busy? Not really. I have plenty of spare time but it became increasingly difficult to get something done in those spare time. I have started couple of books and stopped in the middle of all of those. I have some ideas to work on, but could not make enough time to concentrate on those. I have one more paper to finish but hard to write even a single word. I think I should take control of everything again! I think Lipa's absence is pronounced in every steps in my life. I guess she has way more influence on me than I can think of. I should get her here in Seattle as soon as possible.

Sunday morning

I am sitting in my patio in this beautiful Sunday morning. Everything is so calm and quiet. Westlake is not a busy neighborhood. People live in this area are very quiet. I have little bit of lake view and gentle breeze coming from the lake. The water also looks calm and quiet. Everything together makes the perfect tranquil Sunday morning.

Sundays are always notable to me. Back home it was a lazy day. I remember we always ran out of work on Sundays. When I first moved in Norman, Sundays were horrible. It always comes with the empty feeling and homesickness. Then I moved with lipa, Sundays were our personal time. We spend most of time watching movie or entirely doing nothing. And now after five days of work, Saturdays are usually taken care of some exotic plan. That left the Sundays for relaxing. The tranquility of Westlake added little more spice to that. I am enjoying this beautiful Sunday morning.

Nikon E 50mm

I got a Nikon E 50mm. After reading all the good things about it by Kenrockwell, I decided to get one. I think this lens takes great pictures but focusing is a pain though. If focused correctly, this lens is capable of taking very good picture. The pictures came out really sharp and crisp. But I had to throw away eighty percent of my pictures because of soft focus. Again, bad focusing is entirely my fault, the lens is perfect. My version was okay, no visible dust and issue. This is a thirty years old, so I should not expect too much. Here are some sample pics.

November Rain

When I look into your eyes

I can see a love restrained

But darling, when I hold you

Don't you know I feel the same?

'Cause nothing lasts forever

And we both know hearts can change

And it's hard to hold a candle

In the cold November rain

We've been through this such a long, long time

Just trying to kill the pain, ooh yeah

But lovers always come and lovers always go

And no one's really sure who's letting go today, walking away

If we could take the time to lay it on the line

I could rest my head just knowing that you were mine, all mine

So if you want to love me

Then darling, don't refrain

Or I'll just end up walking

In the cold November rain

Do you need some time on your own?

Do you need some time all alone?

Ooooh, everybody needs some time on their own

Ooooh, don't you know you need some time all alone?

I know it's hard to keep an open heart

When even friends seem out to harm you

But if you could heal a broken heart

Wouldn't time be out to charm you?

Oooo, Oooo, Ooooh! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sometimes I need some time on my own

Sometimes I need some time all alone

Everybody needs some time on their own

Don't you know you need some time all alone?

And when your fears subside

And shadows still remain

I know that you can love me

When there's no one left to blame

So never mind the darkness

We still can find a way

'Cause nothing lasts forever

Even cold November rain

Chorus,

[Don't you think that you need somebody?

Don't you think that you need someone?

Everybody needs somebody

You're not the only one

You're not the only one]

[Guns N' Roses]

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.