Virgin Mobile $35/month Data Plan

• AT&T termination fee – $0
• Transfer the number to Google Voice – $20
• Device (Overdrive Pro 3G/4G) – $60
• BROADBAND2GO – $35/month

Now, iPhone 4 is just like an iPod touch. Google Voice with a device WiFi only is a little tricky. Google Voice app itself on iOS/Android doesn’t receive any phone calls nor call to any numbers. Texting and listening voicemails are fine. On desktop with a browser, both receive/outgoing call works though.

Talkatone is one of the applications that enables outgoing calls. The sound quality is bad over low speed connection, so you might want to apply $1.99/m premium plan.

The biggest complaint would be the shortness of the battery life of Overdrive. It runs only a few hours even you don’t use too much. I bought an extra battery, though replacing it on a street would be a headache. Besides, it was too easy to forget charging two batteries and iPhone itself. Its size is fairly small, and I could carry it in a pocket. It was kind of nice in a chilly day holding the warm device in a pocket. It takes a minute to wake up from power off. I saw a bug that it won’t turn on sometimes.

The signal was not very strong in San Francisco, there might be some places that you can’t get the connection. The speed was okay, not blazing fast even if it gets 4G connection. But it wasn’t a big problem for me.

I had been using this plan from October 2012 to April 2013.

T-Mobile $30/month Unlimited Web + 100 min Talk Plan

• Micro SIM card – $10
• Data Plan – $30/month

Before I blame T-Mobile’s weak signal, I must admit that iPhone 4 is outdated. It doesn’t catch 4G connection, so maybe there’s a faster connection when I see the ‘E’ mark on my screen.

A few cafes, like Sightglass, don’t provide Wifi, though most of them do. I thought tethering is in need, but not much at this point.

So far, I’m satisfied with this plan. I can forget about that the tracking ID of UPS was invalid and I faced an error page on t-mobile.com while I was activating the SIM card…

Next?

StraightTalk $45/month is another choice. Potentially better signal. Replacing iPhone 4 to Nexus 4 would be an alternative under the T-Mobile plan. Since T-Mobile hasn’t supported 4G LTE in San Francisco yet it sounds too early to switch a fancy HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4.

Administrator password: Passw0rd!

Ctrl + Alt + Del on VirtualBox: Cmd + Fn + Del

When I was about to leave to my country after 6 months stay as an ESL student, friend of mine said to me see you soon. See you soon. As if it was just another everyday goodbye. I wanted to come back. I wanted to say I’m back. I got something important. As you know me living in San Francisco, luckily, thankfully, I could keep my promise.

In early 2012, Daniel and I were looking for a new gig, and found that Meetup.com offered 50% off discount. I liked Meetup.com very much and wanted to be an organizer. Since many friends helped me to learn English I had been thinking that I should pay it forward someday. So far, there was no reason not to start. Soon after I started the group, I realized that this is it. I knew what should I do. I had been struggling to find opportunities to practice speaking. I wanted a place where I can use English as long as I want. I wasn’t sure how to study. I needed a mentor and role model. What the group provides now are what I wanted as a learner.

It’s been great with awesome members, and I know we can improve the group activities more and more. I believe we have the potential to become the best place to learn English.

I’m very happy when I notice that members use new phrase. It will be my great honor if members find lifelong friends in the group. It’s not easy to meet again once one left to his/her country, but I’ve already seen more than a few pictures of members’ reunion in another country. And, yes, I’d like to be the person who says “see you soon” when they’re leaving.

A man came to my apartment in Tokyo with a small truck. I was about to move, and I gave all my furniture and things to him. Two suitcases were left in my hands. Coincidentally, he had lived in Los Angeles for ten years. I was curious the reason of his living abroad. He answered that he just wanted to live in America. He added that I should take a flight training. It must be a few decades ago, he had flown a plane in California where I was heading to.

GF3 with 14mm Pancake lens

GF3 with Olympus 45mm

Comparison

iPhone5 might be a good camera, though I didn’t think it would push me to take more pictures. DSLR is still heavy and expensive, so naturally my choice was focused on low-end mirrorless cameras.

There are many choices, and you can easily spend many hours to read reviews on The Verge etc. Well, I did. After all, GF3 looks cute with curvy head with decent specs.

NEX series from Sony has been shiny from the beginning I started searching. But it’s double price compared to GF3. Besides, I saw more than a few NEX 3 and 5 around me. Um, I want to avoid popular things.

Actually GF5 was already released, but I chose previous model because I didn’t see any critical difference, and GF3 was cheaper.

14mm and 45mm

I purchased Olympus 45mm 3 months after got the camera and 14mm. It was more expensive than the camera + 14mm lens. But, this might be a joy or morass of having an interchangeable-lens camera.

With GF1

The biggest difference between 14mm and 45mm is how close to the object from the camera. When I use 14mm the object is farther than I see with my eyes. The distance seems similar to iPhone4. 45mm is very different. Many of my friends get confused and ask me if it can zoom out. If I and someone sit next each other I can’t take a picture of the person. It’s too close. I need more than 1 meter to take someone’s portrait. Often, I have to step back. It’s not good for a group of 10 people photo. I have to stand really far from them. So, I often bring both of lens.

14mm, daytime

14mm, sitting next to the person, dark room, ISO 800

14mm, small closer object might get blur with auto focus

14mm, outside at night, ISO 1600

14mm

45mm

45mm

45mm, distance 2 meter or so

45mm, distance 50cm or so

45mm, bright room, across the table

45mm, distance 50cm

45mm, dark room, across the table

45mm, on a street at night

45mm, bright room, distance 1m or so

45mm, moving object on daytime

45mm, moving object, outside at night with a light, ISO 1600

45mm, on a street at night

45mm, on a street at night, pressed a shutter before it got focused

With ISO 1600, it covers most of situations. It doesn’t work well in a really dark situation like a bar or taking a picture of moving object.

No stabilizer seems like a no big deal, though no auto rotate is a little frustrating when you organize photos.

Overall, those are the only down side.

Amazing Olympus 45mm

Especially Olympus 45mm gave me many wonderful portrait photos. I see only a few of them were out of focus. As I expected, bokeh is just awesome. Both 14 and 45mm has a quick focus.

A friend of mine from Korea told me that Olympus 45mm is called a lens for lovers. I’m sure you’ll want to take someone’s best smile with this lens. It was definitely one of the best shopping in terms of changing my lifestyle.

Me, at Maison de Tante Léonie.

In December 2005, I met In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust at a public library in Tokyo. The library is near a park where I used to bike often. I biked there at that day too. After passing through the busy main street with young pop culture enthusiasts, there’s an old building among trees in a shade of tall buildings. The Search sat in a bookshelf with all 13 volumes showing its light blue spine. I picked up the first volume and read an introduction by translator. He explained that some volumes are actually boring, and by contrast how wonderful the ending is. I was curious. Besides, I liked the title. I was seeking myself badly at that time. I didn’t know what I should do nor what I love to do. I thought that the book might tell me a key to solve my problem. So, I started the journey.

It’s December 2012 now, and I’m about to read the Search again. I’ve been waiting for the revisiting so long. I barely remember the details. The impact is not fresh anymore. I just know that it drastically changed the way how I see my life. If I consciously try to remember, a blur image will come up, at my old apartment sitting on a tatami floor, put the book on a coffee table, leaned back and closed my eyes, and I was shocked by flooding enormous amount of impression I never experienced. The Search is like a mirror, mountain or marathon. I’ve been trained myself to be ready, and it chose the timing to face. I’m 7 years older than before with the same length of memories. This time, I’m reading it in a foreign language. I had an important moment this year when I realized, rather, it was more likely deciding with being full of fear, that what I love to do.

So, anyways, here I am.

As Long As Possible

How long do you use English in a day? Everyone agrees that we should use English 24/7, though it’s not easy even if you’re in San Francisco. How can we use English more than we do now? If your smartphone runs in your first language, just change it. That’s the start.

Care Your Pronunciation

When you speak, you should be very careful. Make sure you pronounce correctly for every single word you utter. When you’re not sure you murmur. That’s not good at all. You must speak up. Louder is better. Grammar is important too. Even while texting, you should write perfectly, in my opinion. Interestingly, if you record your conversation you actually are able to correct mistakes by yourself.

Pretend as if you were an American. Imitate native speakers saying, face expressions and gestures. Care your pronunciation because people praise your proper accent. That adds fuel you to learn more. It makes you confident. Oh, you speak English well. What’s your answer? Forget about being humble. Being confident is extremely important.

Check this web page as well: Learn English without mistakes

Rebuild Your Vocabulary

Probably you learned English with your first language. Each English word might be connected to a word in your first language. If that’s the case, it’s time to rebuild them in all English. There’s no time to translate into another language when you speak. What is dog? A common animal with four legs, fur, and a tail. (ref. Longman) You should be able to describe everything in English with easy words. Using English-English dictionary is crucial to achieve it.

Being Passionate

Being fluent is just one of the steps you’d like to achieve. It’s not the final goal. You want to do something with English skill. But learning English takes a lot of time and very frustrating. You need some motivated learners friends. Talking with fluent speakers who got a job here would be another way to get inspired. They are your role model. Be passionate about learning. Being around passionate people is the best way to become passionate.

So, Here We Are

Learning English is hard. I’ve been struggling for almsot 4 years, so while I’m learning, would love to help new learners.

San Francisco is such a wonderful place to live. You never be bored. Interesting thing is happening everyday in the city. Don’t be stuck with the routine. You won’t feel any improvement. Get out of your comfortable zone. I know it’s not easy. But there are many opportunities to make learning fun. A lot of fun.

Beyond all the efforts, there are some things we can discuss. We can exchange our cultures. We can get new perspectives. We can discuss about our future. If you allow me to have a big mouth, I would say that’s the start to make the planet a little better place to live.

Join our SF ESL Group where you’ll meet bold learners – www.sfesl.org

When I tried to download it with Chrome, it redirects to ‘Begin genuine Windows validation’ page and Genuine Advantage returns an error ‘This version of the Windows Genuine Advantage validation tool is no longer supported.’