Posting From The Land Of The Free 4.0

I think I left my heart in San Francisco. It's such a wonderful city.

The Golden Gate Bridge, as seen from Battery Spencer.

Tonight, we say goodbye to America as we fly back home to Manila. There are so many things I will miss here: the wide roads that barely see any real traffic; the varying landscapes from the rolling hills to the ocean like desserts; the friendly people; and the cool weather. But home is where my loved ones, my work, and my life are.

Last time I was here, I felt homesick. But that was before the Internet became so rampant (thank you free WiFi) and roaming phones became possible. Now, it feels like I'm leaving home. It actually depressing, but it's time to go back to reality, and embrace the good and the bad that comes with it.

I am thankful that I have experienced visiting the other side of the planet. Some people here cannot even visit the adjacent state. And I am thankful that I met some wonderful people during the course of our trip.

And on a positive note, at least my wallet won't bleed anymore, if you know what I'm saying.

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I'm starting to figure out iPhoto, as well as this MacBook. It really is fun to use. Here are some of my thoughts:

- Boot up and shut down are fast, especially the latter. No more system tray that takes time to load.

- The boot up sound is weird for me, I prefer the one from Windows.

- The sound the optical drive makes is kinda scary, like it's going to break.

- Installing applications is so easy. Drag and drop easy.

-Battery life is okay, it goes for more that three hours (with WiFi turned on). I'll try to time it one of these days.

-Firefox, Yahoo Messenger, and Google Earth works better here than on my Windows machine. Better means faster and less crashes.

-It took me a while to get used to browsing files.

So that's all for now, from time to time I'll post more about my Apple experience.

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That filter I bought in San Francisco is causing some serious vignetting (dark corners) on my 10-22. It became really noticeable when I took pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge at 10mm. So now this filter goes to my 17-55, and I'm back to my old filter for my 10-22.

My camera has also experienced some serious beating while here in the US. The constant lens swaps has introduced dust in my sensor, plus some minor bumps and scratches caused by travel (it's usually just swung around my neck and shoulder like a bag, even during shopping).

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So that's it for now. Most probably by my next post I'm already in Manila. And hopefully soon I'll get to post more of my pictures from our USA tour.