Pinterest: the answer to the social gap I’ve always been a big fan of Tumblr. I don’t see it as a photo-blogging or sharing platform like the majority of the people on it but I see it as a really simple blogging platform that does the job so well for most casual bloggers. A lot of people may prefer Wordpress or Blogger to it but if you ask them whether or not they’ve ever used all the functions that Wordpress and Blogger offer, I doubt they do. The amount of time spent on fine-tuning them is enough for me to say, fuck that, Tumblr it is, for you. They are just overkill’s. Now if you talk about Twitter, it’s just information overload. I follow most of the people because I want to hear everything they say but for some I just want see what they have to share, not all their thoughts, opinions and rants. You are seeing where this is going right? Introducing Pinterest, a new social platform dedicated to sharing your interests. It resembles a pin board where you can pin links using photo or video as reference. I am always a bit concerned before I am going to “reblog” things I like on Tumblr because I want to keep my blog tidy and full of useful stuff to me and my readers. Not every single thing I want to share without having time to write descriptions or the reasons why. On the other hand, my Twitter account is beyond readable. I tweet in both Thai and English. It’s pretty hard already just to understand half of my tweets yet I tweet so much everything I’d like to share then disappear within hours. Even I myself can’t dig my own Twitter timeline to see what I’ve shared. This is why I find Pinterest a perfect platform that fills the “social sharing” gap here. If you are already a Pinterest user, why don’t you just follow me! I am new to Pinterest too and could use a few friends. If not, have a look at my Pinboard, you may be you’ll learn to like it. The learning curve is a bit steep though. This is not an advertorial, in case you’re wondering.

Pinterest: the answer to the social gap

I’ve always been a big fan of Tumblr. I don’t see it as a photo-blogging or sharing platform like the majority of the people on it but I see it as a really simple blogging platform that does the job so well for most casual bloggers. A lot of people may prefer Wordpress or Blogger to it but if you ask them whether or not they’ve ever used all the functions that Wordpress and Blogger offer, I doubt they do. The amount of time spent on fine-tuning them is enough for me to say, fuck that, Tumblr it is, for you. They are just overkill’s.

Now if you talk about Twitter, it’s just information overload. I follow most of the people because I want to hear everything they say but for some I just want see what they have to share, not all their thoughts, opinions and rants. You are seeing where this is going right?

Introducing Pinterest, a new social platform dedicated to sharing your interests. It resembles a pin board where you can pin links using photo or video as reference. I am always a bit concerned before I am going to “reblog” things I like on Tumblr because I want to keep my blog tidy and full of useful stuff to me and my readers. Not every single thing I want to share without having time to write descriptions or the reasons why.

On the other hand, my Twitter account is beyond readable. I tweet in both Thai and English. It’s pretty hard already just to understand half of my tweets yet I tweet so much everything I’d like to share then disappear within hours. Even I myself can’t dig my own Twitter timeline to see what I’ve shared. This is why I find Pinterest a perfect platform that fills the “social sharing” gap here.

If you are already a Pinterest user, why don’t you just follow me! I am new to Pinterest too and could use a few friends. If not, have a look at my Pinboard, you may be you’ll learn to like it. The learning curve is a bit steep though.

This is not an advertorial, in case you’re wondering.

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Using mobile internet, iPhone or iPad in Japan for tourists This April I am planning a trip to Japan, and as we know Japan is one of those countries where there aren’t that many English speakers around. Given how complex the city itself is with language issues, an internet connection which tends to be my last resort of survival in a foreign country, is needed. Here comes the problem: Japan is a country that doesn’t primarily use GSM mobile phone technology, which means obtaining SIM cards isn’t exactly the easiest thing for short-term traveler. I also heard that obtaining and filling down local paperworks isn’t one of the things I’d love to be doing on a 8-day trip either. After an extensive research (yes, I did spend 2 hours on this), the easiest and the cheapest option for me is to rent either a SIM card or a device from this company. The rates are probably the best you can get if you live in Japan for less than a month and they even let you rent devices.  Since I’ll be traveling with my parents this time, I’ll just go with the Mi-Fi that lets me connect five of the devices to the internet on the go since I can route all the calls via Skype or Viber anyway so there really is no use to get a plan with local calls. And after seeing what my hotel is going to charge me for 24-hour internet access, it’s a no brainer. Oh, and the link: Global Advanced Communications

Using mobile internet, iPhone or iPad in Japan for tourists

This April I am planning a trip to Japan, and as we know Japan is one of those countries where there aren’t that many English speakers around. Given how complex the city itself is with language issues, an internet connection which tends to be my last resort of survival in a foreign country, is needed.

Here comes the problem: Japan is a country that doesn’t primarily use GSM mobile phone technology, which means obtaining SIM cards isn’t exactly the easiest thing for short-term traveler. I also heard that obtaining and filling down local paperworks isn’t one of the things I’d love to be doing on a 8-day trip either.

After an extensive research (yes, I did spend 2 hours on this), the easiest and the cheapest option for me is to rent either a SIM card or a device from this company. The rates are probably the best you can get if you live in Japan for less than a month and they even let you rent devices. 

Since I’ll be traveling with my parents this time, I’ll just go with the Mi-Fi that lets me connect five of the devices to the internet on the go since I can route all the calls via Skype or Viber anyway so there really is no use to get a plan with local calls.

And after seeing what my hotel is going to charge me for 24-hour internet access, it’s a no brainer.

Oh, and the link: Global Advanced Communications

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2011

Summary of events in 2011 in a very well presented three minute video from Google Zeitgeist. The soundtrack playing in the clip “Sooner or Later” by Mat Kearney.

Zeitgeist is a Google yearly publication summarising its search terms over the year. And this year tops the list are Rebecca Black (*facepalm*), Google+, iPhone 5, Battlefield 3 and not surprisingly Steve Jobs.

2011 will be remembered as a remarkable year for liberation, and for me it has been a year of personal reflection and discovery. Life decisions have been made and postponed:

I’m going back to school in 2012. Fuck yeah :D

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