Simplr M1w - A great wrist strap for the Ricoh GRIII

Soon after buying my Ricoh GRIII, I decided that the included wrist strap wasn't right for me. I did a brief search on Amazon and BH Photo but found that most camera wrist straps fell into some combination of three main qualities I didn't like:

The strap is either too thick or rigid. My main rationale for getting the Ricoh is to have a powerful but portable camera. I did not want a thick or stiff strap reminding me that I'm carrying a dedicated camera in my EDC.

The strap feels cheap and comes from a generic mass manufacturer. Having spent many hours shopping in technology market malls in Hong Kong, I can quickly point out the straps that are a dime a dozen and piss poor quality.

There's no mechanism to secure the strap onto the wrist. My biggest issue with the included strap is there is no fastener to secure the strap onto my wrist. When I've been shooting, I've had to consciously check that the strap hasn't slid off my wrist as I move my arm around. It's annoying and negates the sense of security I want from using a strap.

Through the magic of Instagram marketing, I came upon an ad for Simplr and I'm surprised they aren't spoken about more in the Fuji and Ricoh community. Simplr has a variety of neck and wrist straps and utilizes a quick release system that allows them to work interchangeably together. I decided to first try their wrist strap, the Simplr M1w. Here are a few thoughts:

The quality is superb with the strap material and fasteners feeling very high quality. I love the strap material because it retains its structure without feeling stiff like the Peak Design Cuff.

The fastener slides smoothly up and down the strap, smoother than I expected for this type of material. It's the right amount of resistance while keeping it easy to loosen and tighten the strap.

High quality plastic hardware

There's a level of craft and attention to detail you can feel and see with this wrist strap. The tag is tastefully branded and integrated well into the body. When I first saw the M1w, I was concerned about the plastic release system and hardware but now feeling it in person, I have no concerns that it's going to split apart or break easily.

While I'm currently satisfied with the JOBY neck strap I have on my Fuji X100f, I would be lying if I said I wasn't regularly browsing the rest of the Simplr strap lineup. If you're a new Ricoh GRIII owner and want an upgrade from what comes in the box, Simplr nailed it with the M1w.

How the strap sits when I’m shooting

2020 Work From Home Desk Tour

I started my YouTube channel in 2007 when I bought my first computer and realized that my digital camera could record video. I decided to return to dust off my camera and film a 2020 work from home desk tour. Enjoy!

Scanning and Archiving Family Photos

During quarantine, one of the bright sides of being at my parents' house for an extended period of time was that I could tackle longer term projects. One project I've been meaning to do was to gather all of family photos from the last ~35 years and go through the process of scanning, uploading, and organizing them all.

Why?

• During a move in 2008, a number of our family photos were ruined from liquid damage and I wanted to avoid that outcome in the future as much as possible. Family photos are one of those things in the house that cannot be replaced with any amount of money.
• With my family living all over the world, I wanted to a central location online for them to access family photos. We have Google Nest Hubs and Chromecasts set up as Google Photos picture frames for my parents and family members, and photo gifts from Shutterfly are an easy gift when holidays come around. More simply, we just want to be nostalgic when we're together so having these photos on our phone just makes sense.

Tools used

• Avision Photo Scanner
• EXIF Date changer
• Google Photos / OneDrive
• Photo storage boxes
• Label maker

The Process

1. Gather all photos from around the house This included finding all miscellaneous containers of photos and albums scattered throughout the house and removing photos from some old and beaten up photo albums.
2. Scan photos using the scanner This scanner was about ~$50 from Amazon and really made it easy to scan photos at 600 DPI quickly. While my parents owned a printer with a flatbed scanner, I think it was worth investing in dedicated device to speed up the scanning and lessen the need to edit/crop photos. Scanning took place over multiple "sprints" where I would decide to tackle one box or album and have Netflix or Hulu in the background to keep me entertained as I scanned.
3. Fix orientation and update the created date I noticed with the scanner, it struggled if I placed photos in landscape as there was some distortion caused by the feeder. I decided to scan all photos in portrait and fixed it using the built in photo tools in Windows. I also used a utility called EXIF Date Changer to update the created date of photos. I didn't do it specifically for each photo but batched them into larger events or event by decade. For example, all of my brother's baby photos were set to 1985 while my baby photos were set to 1993. That way when looking through the Google Photos album, photos were ordered generally by when they took place and not when I scanned them in.
4. Upload to Google Photos and OneDrive This was pretty straightforward using the file upload utility from both services. I use Google Photos for the person search and album sharing features and I use OneDrive for the high res backup since I have 1TB of storage through my M365 subscription. I also created one backup to the Western Digital NAS located in the living room.
5. Move physical photos into storage box system I found this plastic photo storage box set at Michaels and it really made it easy to subdivide photos into categories and store them safely. They are advertised to store up to 1600 photos which I think is accurate but I recommend buying multiple since one nearly full box is very heavy and I worry about the handle holding up to the weight. As I was placing photos into boxes, I used the label maker to create categories and place the sticker on the spine of the box.

Conclusion

This photo archival project has been one stay at home project that has been a relief. Now that our photos are scanned and backed up in multiple locations, my family and I have the assurance knowing that these priceless memories are both safe and accessible.

My favorite books of 2019

Every year I set a goal to read a number of books by the year end. Although this year I fell behind on my Goodreads Challenge, I read some wonderful books and wanted to share. In no particular order:

No Hard Feelings: Emotions at Work

I wish I was gifted this book when I graduated RPI. University doesn’t prepare you with all the emotional resilience you need to work in a full time job, especially as a young woman. I love how this book mixed real advice wrapped with whimsical infographics and assurances that I wasn’t the only one that ever felt that way at work. There was so many quotes that I wanted to scream from the rooftops because it was way too relatable. If you just started a new job, pick this book up and pick it up for your best friend too. Their hilarious cartoons can also be found on Instagram.

Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber

I’ve been following Mike Isaac’s pieces on Uber and Travis Kalanick when the events were unfolding, but it was super eye opening reading the entire story in one book. Super Pumped goes behind the scenes of how Uber was started and the culture that led up to Susan Fowler’s bombshell whistleblowing blog post. It was a train wreck of a story that I couldn’t put down until I finished it. If you’re looking for the next business drama book to read after Bad Blood, this is a good one.

The Class: A Life-Changing Teacher, His World-Changing Kids, and the Most Inventive Classroom in America

This book I binged read in two days while on vacation on the beaches of Thailand. It tells the story of a year of a beloved teacher at Connecticut’s top public high school and his students as they compete in national science fairs. I graduated from a small and humble public school in New Jersey so it was a new fun experience to read about students who had reached national acclaim while still in high school. But my favorite part of the book was reading about Mr. B’s dedication to his student and for myself remembering the teachers that gave me so much.

Becoming

This is an easy one to write about since I think it’s at the top of many people’s list. I’ll keep this short since I think the many reviews about Becoming will cover what I have to say but I will just say this book is wonderful and a must read for all the young women out there. Michelle Obama writes with a candidness and hopefulness, and it reassured me that I don’t need to know what my entire life is going to be by my mid-20’s. PHEW

In 2020, I want to pick up againthe habit of reading on my morning commute and will be doing another GoodReads reading challenge. Feel free to send recommendations as well!

iPhone 11 Pro - What am I buying?

The iPhone

As part of the iPhone Upgrade Program, I am trading in my silver iPhone XS 256gb for the silver iPhone 11 Pro 256gb. I was tempted to try the forest green color but after trying out every color iPhone at this point, I know I end up enjoying silver the most.

The most exciting new feature of the iPhone 11 Pro for me is the ability to shoot wide angle shots on the front and back facing cameras. No more trying to squeeze in everyone for a group shot or selfie!

The case

With every new iPhone model, I always start with a simple clear case. This year I’m choosing the Spigen Liquid Crystal case. I will make one small note about Spgien’s clear case selection. I find that their Ultra Hybrid case makes the phone feel thicker and heavier since it is a plastic plate back fused to a TPU bumper. I prefer the one piece TPU design of the Liquid Crystal since it’s lighter and thinner but both options are great.

Screen protector

I bought the Tethys screen protectors last year for my iPhone XS and was genuinely surprised and impressed. This screen protector features a colored black bordered which makes it look more seamless than other screen protectors and has one of the best coatings I have used. The included handy alignment frame makes it easy to install on straight. For the money, these are great.

NFC tags

As part of the new automations coming to the Shortcuts app in iOS 13, I decided to get a small pack of programmable NFC tags. I plan on putting one on my night stand to trigger to my “going to bed” shortcut and one near my front door to trigger my “everything off” automation. I’m still brainstorming what other automations I can use them for.

Anker PowerCore Fusion

I love this battery pack because of its overall versatility. It has the power prongs to act as a wall charger, a 10,000 mAH capacity, and this new model has both USB C and USB A ports. It’s perfect for traveling since it can be my everyday battery pack on the go and then act as my power adapter when I’m back in my hotel room. I bought it originally because I wanted USB C charging for my iPad Pro but now, it’s going to pair really well with the new included USB C to Lightning cable.

My Everyday Carry | Fall 2018

Earlier this week, I submitted a picture of my everyday carry to EverydayCarry.com and it got featured on the homepage! Let’s dive a little deeper on what I carry and why:

iPhone XS, White 256gb

With the iPhone Upgrade Program, I can pay a monthly flat rate to have the newest iPhone with AppleCare. This year, I chose the iPhone XS in white with 256gb storage. With Apple’s current storage option, I have to get the highest capacity since my photo collection is just a little too big for the 64gb. I currently use a generic clear case from Amazon but will switch out soon since it’s already begun discoloring.

Izipizi Foldable Sunglasses

This is the newest addition to the EDC and truthfully something I’m carrying less and less daily as it slowly becomes fall and winter here in Seattle. I found these sunglasses while shopping at the MoMa gift shop in SoHo NYC and quickly fell in love with the shape and portability. Being able to fold them in half drastically reduces the footprint in my purse or my jacket pocket.

Apple Airpods

These are a no-brainer. I have a 35 minute commute via bus and various work calls to take during the day which means they are either always in my left pants pocket or in my ears.

Andar Pilot

I’ve been carrying a slim wallet for almost 5 years and I love the novelty of being able to pop out my cards when I need to go pay. The beauty of the rigidity of this wallet is that I don’t have the affordance to carry anything more. I have to be intentional in the 6 cards I can carry and keep cash light which keeps the wallet as minimal as possible.

Madewell Keychain

I love this shade of leather and bought this keychain to match the satchel purse I carry from Madwell. The carabiner is convenient to clip to my backpack when I need to free up my hands and doesn’t look tactical like other carabiners.

Gerber Dime

I lost my beloved Swiss Army Midnite Manager during a security screen entering a Dua Lipa concert and am still too salty to go and buy a replacement. The Gerber Dime is definitely less refined as a pocket multi tool but I couldn’t say no when it went on sale on Amazon for $9. It does the job and doesn’t look too bad on my keychain. My only complaint is that that the paint does not age well. I’ve owned multiple and they all look pretty beat up after a few months.

My College Productivity Workflow

*Note, this was originally published on Medium in December of 2017. It's been republished as I move off of Medium for blogging.

So with the end of Fall 2017, I can officially say that I am now a college graduate! After five and half years as a college student, I have gone through numerous iterations of my productivity setup. Here’s a short list of what I used to get work done during my last semester:

Task Management

I have been a chronic switcher of task management apps since I was in high school. When I wanted to procrastinate, I would download a new app and justified the time spent as “being productive”. All of this stopped when I started using Todoist.

There’s a deep level of complexity and customizability wrapped underneath a simple design. The app allows you to set subtasks and sub-projects and create complex reoccurring due dates. My other favorite feature is the natural language input. It’s not as robust as Fantastical’s, but I really do feel more efficient when I can input tasks without needing to lift my hands off the keyboard.

On the nitty-gritty organization aspect of Todoist, I create one master project for each semester and make a sub-project for each class. That way, I can see an entire overview of my semester and all the related assignments by just clicking the semester project. I also made sure to include the course code in the title of the projects since it’s a handy way to access it when you’re asked for them on forms, etc.

Calendar

In contrast, my calendar setup has been a lot more consistent. I use Google Calendar as the backend with a variety of calendars added for class, activities, and social events. All of this data is synced to Fantastical on both my iOS devices and my Mac. Fantastical has been my go-to for years because of its fast natural language input. Like Todoist, I feel a lot faster entering tasks without having to swipe and scroll through menus.

Note Taking

Evernote has been my bread and butter for note taking since I started university. Similar to Todoist, I create a notebook group with the semester name and included notebooks underneath it for each class. It is the central repository for things such as the syllabus, lecture notes, and other odds and ends that aren’t formal assignments (I did all of those in Google Drive).

Truthfully since I have graduated, I’m actually experimenting with other note apps like Bear since I probably won’t be needing any of the “heavier” features of Evernote. If you are still in college, I still do recommend you sign up for student pricing so you can get features such as unlimited syncing to all devices and OCR searching of PDF’s.

While I used Evernote to store and search my lecture notes, I mainly used Notability on my iPad Pro 9.7 with the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard. This setup is the trifecta that I dreamed of since high school. During most lectures, I would type out lecture notes in Notability’s outline mode and would occasionally pick up the pencil to highlight or diagram quickly. If I felt like I was losing interest in the lecture, I would force myself to hand write the notes with the Pencil to force myself to re-engage with the material. These notes would be sent to Evernote after the end of each lecture as a PDF and a backup of the notes would be synced to Google Drive.

File syncing

This section is going to be short since my file syncing is pretty straightforward. I used Google Drive to write up and sync up all my files while in college. I'm deeply invested in the Google ecosystem and really rely on Inbox, Google Photos, etc. daily. The other main reason for using Google Drive is that its collaboration tools are the default for any group project in the classroom.

Studying for Exams

This last semester, I went back to a simpler and much more analog method of studying. I would grab a stack of standard 8.5x11 paper and create a study guide using a combination of Sharpie pens and colored pens.

I think there was a powerful effect in going back to a simpler method when studying for exams. Using the different colored pens kept me engaged because I love stationery and thinking about information hierarchy. Writing everything by hand also made me very aware of what was important to note and what to leave out. After the exam, I scanned in these study guides so I could share them with underclassmen.

Miscellaneous

Paperless

One of my original goals, when I started university, was to carry and keep as little paper as possible. This is where Evernote and its OCR technology really shined. Any papers that I got in class were scanned in and organized in Evernote. If I ever needed to find the note I jotted on the piece of paper, searching in Evernote would bring them up.

I had two main scanning solutions: Scannable and the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300. Scannable is made by Evernote and is a simple iOS scanning app. The main reason why I used this app over others is that it autodetects the pages and doesn’t require you to actually push a button to capture the image. It seems like a minor difference but really made it easy to scan in many pages while on the go. If I was back in my apartment and had a large document to scan, I would use my Fujitsu scanner. It’s a duplex scanner that can scan in tens of pages quite easily. It also was the tool that facilitated my roommates and me to create a digital repository of all of our old class material that we could usually share with underclassmen. The next time I’m in the market for a scanner, I will look for one that has built-in WiFi because I seriously disliked needing to plug in my MacBook Pro whenever I needed to scan something.

Staying focused

The two main things I did to combat procrastination were using the Pomodoro method and having StayFocused installed on Chrome. Pomodoro is a method to break up your time into working for 25-minute chunks with 5-minute breaks in between. If I felt overwhelmed by the scale of an assignment, I would promise myself to work for 25 minutes and be rewarded with 5 minutes to goof off on Reddit or YouTube. I didn’t use it all the time but it was very effective in making a task like studying for an exam a much more achievable task.

The other tool I used with the StayFocused Chrome extension. StayFocused is very similar to other blocker extensions in which you can list the websites you want to stop yourself from going to. The reason why I like StayFocused the most is that you do get an allotment of time daily in which you are allowed to visit those blacklisted websites. That way, you’re not fully depriving yourself or removing functionality from your browser but teaching yourself on how to set time limits on websites that waste time.

Conclusion

If you’re interested in reading more about how to become super efficient in college, I highly recommend Cal Newport’s books and the College Info Geek YouTube Channel. Anyway, if I missed anything critical in your workflow, feel free to share with me!