January 2, 2020
A return to Shanghai
I am back in Shanghai after 16 years. And back in Mainland China after 10 years.
I didn’t get a chance to spend a lot of time out and about, but I managed to go to a bookshop to see what people are reading. I felt that the selection was tamer compared to what I used to see in bookstores about a decade back. The trouble with coming back to China is that now I realise how much I missed China after defecting to Taiwan. Suddenly, I am borrowing library books on China, I am subscribing to China-related podcasts. I want to go back to the West (Sichuan) and the North East.
The bug these days is that the visa is around 100 USD and it is an only single entry. They are also far stricter about where you stay overnight - no more adventures.
I sometimes think that places have a certain time where they kind of exist in a twilight zone - you can steal a little bit of chaos and there is some optimism that the things will keep tending towards less rigidity. I think in China that time was the late 1990s and 2000s. Surely, China is more affluent now and I have no doubt, most people have better life. It is just that the selfish me wishes for China from that time. It was my China.
China
Travels
December 24, 2019
Post mid-night Hanoi
The Lotte logo illuminates the heavy air. One joy of being a vampire is the sight that you can only see late at night.
Travel
Vietnam
Hanoi
December 14, 2019
Bangladesh in Hanoi
Walking along a narrow alley in Hanoi’s Japanese town, I spotted this art featuring the map of Bangladesh. Turns out a new curry place has opened up.
No Japanese area is complete without a curry house.
Travel
Vietnam
Food
November 23, 2019
A new book shop
Nice to see a new bookshop in the city. Versus other Asian cities where bookshops are shutting down. People have interesting encounters with other people or places or circumstances. They write these in books encouraging us to try new things. Books (and the ideas within them) are the nutrients that a society needs in order to grow.
Saigon
Books
November 20, 2019
Come Undone 2019, using iPad only
In 2012, I got rid of my computer and decided to go full time working on an iPad. I mostly stuck to the iPad as the main computing device with small gaps in 2013 and 2014 where I dabbled with a Chromebook, mainly to experiment. From time to time, I had to have a MacBook around mainly to deal with software or web services that would not run on the iPad or the mobile browser. With the launch of iPad OS and the browser supporting file downloads and more complex web services, there is even less reason for me to get back to a computer.
Here are the apps that I use on a regular basis.
| Writing and archiving |
Apple Notes |
| Blogging |
Ulysses and Custom Shortcuts |
| Image editing and enhancement |
Darkroom |
| Image archival |
Google photos |
| Video Editing |
Lumafusion |
| Audio |
Ferrite for recording and editing audio, Anchor for posting podcasts and Auphonic (web service to clean up the audio) |
| Presentations |
Keynote |
| Drawing and illustration |
Paper, Linea and Apple Pencil. The Paper app is it a minimalist drawing app that lets me make functional drawings |
| Documents |
Word, Excel, Pages, Numbers, Google Drive |
| Teaching |
Microsoft Forms (web), Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams |
| Conferencing |
Zoom, Blackboard Collaborate, Skype |
| Reading |
Kindle, Apple Book |
| Video |
Amazon Prime, You-tube Premium (mostly so that I can save talks or presentations offline) |
| Events |
Adobe Spark for creating social media posts |
| Scheduling |
Agenda, Fantastical |
In my use case, I prefer the iPad OS mainly for some apps that I use all the time.: Paper, Linea, Ulysses, Fantastical, Apple Notes. I also enjoy Shortcuts to speed up some repetitive tasks. Most of all, as a regular traveler, I like the simplicity of an iPad - one charging plug can charge everything that I have. I do not have remove the iPad from the bag at airport checks. I have the cellular model which allows me to connect from almost anywhere I go.
November 14, 2019
Kagurazaka
Kagurazaka neighbourhood of Tokyo. Tokyo has many such interesting neighbourhoods that are worth exploring. This neighbourhood is a bit upscale but there are cheaper restaurants that you can find if you spend some time exploring.
Travel
Tokyo
the art of getting lost