Slow Fast Food

 What do you call fast food that takes forever to serve? No idea? Neither do I.

*shrug*

Photo by Mustafa Bashari on Unsplash

Super Mario Bros. Movie's Best Act

I can tell you straight here that this scene is the best act in the new Super Mario Bros. Movie... Bowser singing his heart out in this tragic tale of unrequited love.

The Glass Best Left Alone

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Adrian Tan (@ionbuck)

Baymax!

 What a pleasant surprise! I've loved Baymax since Disney's Big Hero 6 movie!

Everyone needs a big hero ●—● Watch the new trailer for Baymax! and stream the Original series starting June 29 only on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/ZeAjxYZkCE

— Disney Animation (@DisneyAnimation) May 20, 2022

Random Thought - Future Cars

My random thought of the day - self-driving cars before flying cars. I had always expected cars would fly but hardly considered the self-driving variants.

How about you?

iPhone 13 vs the Pro/Pro Max

A quick rant.

Before the announcement, I had a hypothetical thought: Were I to upgrade my iPhone this year, which I won't because it's really expensive and my Xs is still working fine, I would get the iPhone 13. Not the Pro/Pro Max version.

BUT! But Apple had to put in this really cool macro function into the Pro/Pro Max ultra wide camera and make the lens brighter... gosh! This is a deal killer for me because I love macro shots!

iPadOS 14: Widgets, Scribble, Notes and Some Qualms

This year’s iPadOS 14 is quite exciting with the introduction of, among other things, Widgets (finally!) and Scribble. To Android users it is nothing new at all but to Apple users, widgets had always been something of a wishlist. The ones that appeared on the iPhones and iPads several iOS versions ago felt half-baked because they do not appear on the Home Screen. Finally, in iOS 14 things are once again moving in the right direction. Widgets can appear alongside icons, seamlessly on the Home Screen. However, the Widgets will most likely need several iterations before getting close to Android levels of interactivity and functionality.

I wrote the above paragraph with the Note app using Scribble on iPad Air 2019 (and the first generation Apple Pencil). It’s refreshing to literally write instead of type. Here are my brief experiences:

***Before starting it’s important to watch the brief pop-up tutorial when you first launch Scribble. Otherwise, like me, I’d thought it doesn’t work in Notes. If you missed it, you can always go to "Settings > Apple Pencil > Try Scribble” or search YouTube for more in-depth tutorials. Here's one that might help:

1. To Scribble on Notes, you will have to select the new pen with an alphabet on it (the first pen from the left).
2. It’s obvious I’m not writing on paper but glass so the feeling is still a bit off. I guess this is as good as it gets.
3. The handwriting recognition is pretty good. It recognised most of my scribbles save for some.
4. The difficulty comes when I try to make corrections such as capitalisation, delete alphabets, etc.
5. I still do not know how to place a full-stop at the end of a sentence unless I included it along with the last word (I don't seem to face any issues with a comma). Whenever I try to separately place a dot, a floating comma appeared instead.
6. When I try scribbling in tight spaces such as between lines of text or paragraphs, my actions will often be detected as an “insert” or the cursor might end up somewhere else.

It’s pleasant to be able to hold the Apple Pencil and use it to perform most functions while using the iPad. There is less necessity to put the Pencil down, use touch to perform some functions and then pick Pencil up again. This is something that people who frequently switch between Pencil and touch-only apps will really appreciate. Besides that, this implementation (kind of) solves the argument where handwriting is more beneficial to our well-being compared to typing. Unfortunately, the issues that I've pointed out above can be frustrating so I wouldn't write an essay this way. I would stick with typing for long-form writing. Scribble in its current young age is more suitable to fill in short phrases in forms and cells.

The upgrading of the iPad Air to the beautiful iPad Pro form factor effectively increased the price of the device by a hundred dollars. For people like me on a tight budget, the Air loses some of its shine as the middle sibling that balances between computing power and price. The more convenient Apple Pencil 2 that just attaches to the side of this new form factor for easier transport, charging and pairing, is also more expensive than the original version. Besides that, the new iPad Air now only works with the more expensive Smart Keyboard Folio and the much more pricy Magic Keyboard.

To be fair, Apple still sells the cheaper iPad (with upgraded internals) and the once again ignored iPad Mini, both which still support the first Apple Pencil.

Ultimately, Apple’s technological progress comes with a high price tag. Users will have to decide to stick to the lower models or pay more for ecstatics and convenience.

Watching Fireflies Cover

I’ve written a fantasy short story about procrastination, inspired by current times when most of us have to work from home and how easy it is to put off work.  The short story can be found in my Random Shuffles blog.

I’m bad with designing covers and not too good with drawings either so I made a few covers and decided on the last one.

A Joyful Morning Artwork

The artwork that I made using Paper by WeTransfer for my latest short story “A Joyful Morning”:

Stressful Santa Claus

It’s that time of the year again where Christmas is just around the corner. Shoppers are stressed, so is Santa. ;)

Artwork for "Elusive Success"

I've just published my first post on Medium titled Elusive Success. You can read it here. Before I did the artwork, I'd drawn a less attractive one which is this:

The one that I finally used is this (which is slightly better):

Both are done using Paper by WeTransfer.

Artwork for “A Scary Pumpkin Story”

Here are the artwork used for my short story “A Scary Pumpkin Story” posted on my Random Shuffles blog. It’s about a killer Jack-O’-Lantern that came alive...

I drew these using Paper by WeTransfer with the iPad Air and Apple Pencil.

Midnight Sketch - Writer's Tools

Sketched this late in the night when I was supposed to be writing. The original sketch was done on paper with a real pencil. The one below was sketched again with Apple Pencil on my favourite app Paper by WeTransfer. The non-coloured version with an inset of the original sketch can be found here.

Ice Stalagmite Test Draw

Thinking of drawing something like this with sort of an abstract feel. Starting with a test draw with Apple Pencil.

Watching the Moon

On a fine mid-autumn night, mooncakes gather to appreciate the full moon...

Made with Paper by WeTransfer and Apple Pencil gen 1.