Monday, September 21, 2015

Running out of storage

It's been a little more than 2 years since I got my iPhone. It's been 5 since I got my Nexus.

I've had to clear up space in my iPhone every 5-6 months. I have almost 300 apps in my Android and I've never had to clear up storage space. I even have friggin music in my android and no other media in my iPhone! They're both 16gb. They both do not support external storage devices.

That just added one more reason I can't understand why do people want to insist that iPhone is the best. It's so frustrating to use! I keep going back to my Android just to breathe better. Just so I know I have a better option here.

iPhone. You may have a longer battery life, but you're not all that.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Do you keep a journal?

There are many benefits to keeping a journal; from expressing emotions to logging daily events, the reasons are plenty.

What are your reasons for keeping a journal?

I am a sporadic journal-keeper. I had diaries during my pre-teen years. Then I kept online blogs and took to typing my thoughts as opposed to penning them down. It wasn't something I did every single day but I knew I had to do it. It was in my soul. There was a yearning that kept me looking for empty pages to fill with my handwriting. I just had to write.

Granted my musings may not always been inspirational or amusing or in any way interesting to the general public, I did have a sense of satisfaction in simply writing things down. Be it making a list of things to do or a list of things I am thinking about to organize my thoughts. It helped create a sense of fulfillment. A sense of accomplishment in my otherwise quotidian life.

Mostly, I had to write because I was afraid of forgetting. I have this fear that I'll forget everything one day and I won't even recognize myself. I am afraid of forgetting who I am, what I stand for, what I believe in, or simply forget what makes me, me.

So I write, to remember. To remember what I want to do. My aspirations. My inspirations. My opinions. I write so that I will be able to remember that this was who I used to be. However embarrassing my past self was. (I know I am embarrassed of my past self; I've read my old diaries.)

Even so, I don't think I will ever stop.

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Boingo Free WiFi

It turns out, Boingo is a great service for using free WiFi near train stations and other public places with lots of WiFi services.

I couldn't use it at school because there were no public WiFi services nearby. We have a private school WiFi that's free to students anyway so that's not a problem.

I couldn't use the service at home for the same reason.

In my last trip to Beijing, there was no need to use the service at all in the hotel considering free WiFi was provided by the hotel.  McDonald's also provides free WiFi but you can only use it if you have a working mobile contact number. That works in Beijing.

In Japan, Boingo provides me online access as long as my phone can connect to any of the public WiFi hotspot provided by Japanese network providers (DoCoMo, Softbank, etc). These public WiFi services often require you to register with a working Japanese mobile phone or phone mail (not the same as email). Or they require that you own a password that you have to pay for first. But with Boingo, you can connect to them for free as long as Boingo recognizes them as a Boingo affiliated service.

Just register for an account with Boingo and you're good to go. They also provide a premium service if you're willing to pay for it. It's probably worth it if you're going to be travelling every month or at least frequently enough to need it. It's cheaper than getting a portable WiFi device but be reminded that it only works best in public places.

Portable WiFi devices on the other hand works like a mobile phone that lets you connect multiple devices to that one WiFi service. Kind of like a portable router. Its versatility is worth the money you pay for it.