So I'm a sentimentalist and a digital hoarder who is particularly OCD about original photos & videos.

Last year, I wrote an email to Apple's SVP of Software to point out a common, real-world problem that comes up every time a group of friends get together:

Hey Craig [Federighi],

The iPhone is the best and most popular camera on the planet…yet sharing photos & videos in full quality with friends & family is so hard! I wish sharing full-quality photos/videos was as easy as sending stickers to a group chat in iMessage.

I was recently on a trip to Hawaii with a dozen of my childhood friends. 10 of us had iPhones and 2 had Samsungs. We’re all taking photos, with plenty of candid shots, great group shots, and just living the moment. But when we wanted to share each other's best photos on Facebook, we were faced with several options that all have downsides:

• Send over iMessage — but then everyone receives a downscaled version of each photo and video.

• Send via AirDrop — (my Samsung friends were getting a jealous about this, lol) but AirDrop assumes all phones are unlocked and within bluetooth range, which isn't always the case. It forces us to take ourselves out of the moment just to make sure all our iPhones are unlocked and ready to accept the AirDrop.

• Share folders via Dropbox or Google Photos — but not everyone has an account on either of those.

• Use iCloud Photo Sharing — but not everyone has that enabled. And even if I send them a link to the album, photos/videos are downscaled to lower quality.

I take pride in the quality of photos I take with my iPhone! It’s a shame though that with all these priceless group photos on our phones, we either have to take ourselves out of the moment to coordinate an AirDrop with everyone, or we have to settle with downscaled versions of photos that are meant to last a lifetime.

I feel that of all the companies in the world, Apple is the only company that could solve this elegantly. Hope you take this into consideration!

-Mel

He read my email that day, but he never emailed me back…

Fast forward eight months later.

On Monday, at Apple's annual developer conference, Craig Federighi announced an awesome new photo sharing feature for the upcoming iOS 12 (skip to 0:30:21):

I'd like to think this feature was created 100% because of me — that way I can justify the celebratory chocolate chip cookie dough cinnamon bun I ate before bed — but even it wasn't, I'm just glad all you guys will be able to use this feature coming this fall.

So buy the best smartphone camera you can afford, take lots and lots of photos, and always, always, always keep the full-quality originals. Because the reality is, you can NEVER go back in time to take better photos of your loved ones.

For the past eight months, most of my purchases had been towards things that would help me in my first trip to Japan and first time traveling alone.

There were four key ideas I adopted in preparation for this trip:

• Bite-sized vlogs with my iPhone. GoPros are great and all, but I couldn't justify $350+ on an action camera I'd rarely use ever again. And the last thing I want to do when I come back from vacation is spend hours compiling a highlight video for YouTube. With a 256 GB iPhone, I'd have plenty of space to record 4K video, plus I'd be able to edit & upload bite-sized videos on-the-fly.

• Carry-on backpack only. Having everything in a single backpack means not dragging around secondary luggage as I explore the city between the 10am hotel check-outs and 4pm check-ins.

• "Capsule wardrobe". Bringing only neutral-colored clothes & layers would give me plenty of possible outfits for the trip, making it easy to adapt to the weather as needed.

• Unique experiences instead of typical hotels. Standard hotels are expensive and for the most part, the exact same. With Airbnb, I can stay at better locations, pay way less, and experience what it's like to live like a local.

With that said, here's a list of everything I brought, what worked, what didn't, and what I'll bring next time.

Killer Purchases

• 256 GB iPhone X. The extra space was crucial for recording all my 4K videos throughout the trip.
• Unlimited 4G SIM card by JAL ABC at Narita Airport¹. This was definitely better than the other option: renting a pocket wifi that I would have to recharge and turn on/off throughout the day.
• 33L travel backpack by Aer SF. This bad boy literally carried everything for me.
• Outbreaker Daypack by Tortuga. A super light-weight backpack I used to explore the city while I left the rest of my stuff at my Airbnb/hotel.
• Ultra Light Down Jacket by Uniqlo. The ratio of utility-to-weight is ridiculously good with this jacket. It's super comfortable, loose-fitting, and kept me plenty warm in 45 degree weather.
• merino wool t-shirts by Unbound Merino. It was my first time relying on (only two) merino wool shirts for an entire week, and it totally lived up to the hype that backpackers have sworn by for years².
• merino wool socks by Unbound Merino.
• Long Sleeve HeatTech t-shirts by Uniqlo. A key clothing layer that helped me manage my temperature throughout the trip.
• extendable selfie stick with tripod attachment by Smatree. This was invaluable to me as a solo traveler because I wanted pictures of myself without asking other (non-English speaking) people for help.
• quick-release tripod mount for smartphones by Glif. A handy attachment that allows me to connect my iPhone X — and any future smartphone — to whatever standard tripod or selfie stick I want.
• 2-in-1 battery pack & wall charger by Anker. Helped me cut down on the extra wall chargers needed for all my devices.
• Cut Story app for splitting my vlog recordings into 15-second clips for Instagram Stories.
• Apple Watch 3 for keeping track of two timezones and useful as a camera remote for my iPhone.

Meh

• First Cabin capsule hotel room. This has been on my bucket list for years, but I won't be doing this again because I really disliked having to be completely silent the whole time, especially when I need to zip/unzip for stuff in my bag.
• 12.9" iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard. I love my iPad, but my iPhone was simply enough for everything I did on my trip.
• running waist pack by Flip Belt. I wore this to hold my passport so I could keep my pockets empty, but the tight size caused my passport to fold/curve up awkwardly.
• water-resistant sneaker boots by Nike. Would've been useful had it rained, but it was a bit heavier than I'd like for travel.

Next Time

• another merino wool t-shirt. I felt a little weird rotating between just two shirts for a whole week, especially with people were watching me in my vlogs every day. A third shirt merino wool would be perfect for my next one-week trip.
• lighter sneakers in case of rain.
• a smartphone gimbal, so I can record smoother video with my iPhone as I walk around. I still can't justify a $350 GoPro, but I think I can justify a $150 gimbal.

Overall, my first solo adventure was a huge personal success. I learned how to get by with much, much less. Solo traveling — especially with one backpack — is so freeing, I could do whatever I want, whenever I wanted. I didn't have to wait up for anyone. I didn't have to rush for anyone. Everything I did, I did on my terms, and no one else's.

I can't imagine traveling any other way anymore.

When you email Tim Cook as a loyal but disappointed customer…and his people make things right by reserving you the rarest, least available model on the market.

Hello, Jet Black Plus 256. Wasn't expecting you until November.

Hey Tim,

Loyal customer of 10 years and iPhone Upgrade Program customer here. Last night I tried pre-ordering my 7th iPhone under the iPhone Upgrade Program...and now I feel cheated.

Not getting it on launch day doesn't bother me; I completely understand supply & demand.

But what bothers me is that once reservation units ran out, the site/app merely said "try again on the 17th at 8am" and offered ZERO options. I was led into a dead end.

Meanwhile, customers who are not in the Upgrade Program were able to get their orders in and get a shipping ETA. Many in Oct/Nov, but they at least got their orders in.

As an iPhone Upgrade Program customer, I feel like I had a significant disadvantage compared to non-Upgrade Program customers. Isn't that backwards? Shouldn't the loyal customers — especially customers who are committing directly to Apple instead of their carriers — feel rewarded for their loyalty?

I feel like a reasonable solution would have been:

• let Upgrade Program customers get their pre-orders into the system. Orders ship to the store, even if that's not until Oct/Nov.
• when a customer's phone arrives, notify by email, let them set up an appointment.
• finish transaction in store.

This way, at least your most loyal customers have an order attached to their name in the system. The backordered ship date isn't the problem...it's the feeling that we ended last night COMPLETELY empty-handed while less loyal customers continue to get their orders in.

I hope you consider solving this problem.

For me personally, I've been recommending all my friends and family to get on the iPhone Upgrade Program...and now I have to explain to them why we came up empty-handed last night.

-Mel

Update: Tim Cook's people called me the next day and made things right.

Over the past couple years, I’ve noticed how many of my friends have been traveling all over the world. It totally makes me jealous. I asked myself:

Why the hell am I not traveling like that?
Oh, money.
Okay, what are my biggest expenses that I can cut back on?
Oh, food.

The problem I’ve struggled with since boarding school is trying to find the right balance of food that is healthy, cheap, convenient, and tastes good.

I’ve tried a few things:

Eating Out Every Meal

For years, I’ve settled on spending $30 per day on food. That comes out to $900 per month. (It’s no wonder why I haven’t been able to set aside money for vacations.)

On top of that, eating fast food every day means slowly killing my body with all sorts of unnecessary sodium and preservatives.

Too many times I’d find myself not in the mood for anything in particular and defaulting to the nearest fast food dollar menu.

It’s not worth it.

Meal Prep Mondays

This is a popular option that I see a lot of my friends doing on Instagram. The problem for me is two-fold:

• I don’t trust my cooking skills enough to eat my own food every day.

• I get bored of food too easily.

Meal prep life simply won’t work for me unless I invest the time in learning to cook.

Prepared Meals by My Fit Foods

For a few months, I tried an alternative idea to meal prep — My Fit Foods. Instead of cooking everything myself, I could conveniently call up My Fit Foods and have days worth of healthy portioned food ready for pick up.

It worked great! I lost 19 lbs easily, even without working out.

The problem was the meal plan was costing me $35-$40 per day. Plus, it conflicted with my social life. On nights when I’d spontaneously hang out with friends, the meal I was scheduled to eat would expire. Money wasted.

It was the most expensive — and honestly, increasingly boring — meal plan I’ve tried.

Going Vegan-ish

For a while, I was working in Culver City, which is filled with great vegan restaurants. For the first time ever, I found myself enjoying vegan food!

But there was a problem — the good vegan restaurants are always expensive, typically costing between $12-$15 per meal. It simply wasn’t financially sustainable.

Also, I found myself gravitating towards the vegan food that was deep fried. I’m no nutritional expert, but deep frying vegetables probably isn’t any healthier that any other fast food.

So again, I’m brought back to square one — how do I find the right balance of food that is healthy, cheap, convenient, and tastes good?

Enter Soylent

This is the latest idea I’m trying — a food replacement shake called Soylent. It is a legitimate food product, providing maximum nutrition with minimum effort. And best of all, it comes out to about $3/meal.

When I posted about Soylent on Facebook, a typical reaction was:

But Mel, you’re a foodie! You need real food!

True! But I realized something — drinking Soylent doesn’t mean I have to replace every meal; it just has to replace one or two per day.

Two Months Later

I’m happy to report that I’ve lost 7 lbs in two months and easily saved $7-$14 per day! Soylent has truly been great on my waistline and my wallet.

And there was one great unexpected benefit that has come out of it — I can treat myself out to a nice $16 meal at a sit-down restaurant every day and not worry about breaking the bank.

So now, I think I’ve found the right balance for me. I’m eating healthier. I’m saving money. I’m saving time and gas money. And best of all, because I can afford to eat one nice meal per day, I don’t have to give up my foodie adventures.

I’m living the healthy foodie life now. And I’m loving it.

I want to tell you a story of the best thing that ever happened to me at Cal Poly.

It's somewhere around the third week of my first quarter. I really haven't made that many friends. I'm still adjusting to the whole college life thing. You know, getting used to all of this newfound freedom that I've never had before.

So I'm coming back to the dorms from a Carl's Jr. food run with one of my roommate's, Chris. We race from the parking lot, up a couple flights of stairs and up to our room. The door is closed and locked, which was typical, but this time there is a suspicious small yellow post-it note on the door written by our third roommate.

"Doing laundry. Do not disturb. -Craig"

Chris and I both look at each other thinking "what the fuck?" We both get a chuckle out of it and then proceed to opening the door.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

The room is dark (thank god!) but the room totally reeks of sex. I can see the shadowy figure of Craig's girlfriend on the top bunk. She's naked and she's mad.

Read More

// this is my persuasive speech for my public speaking class. its a much more elaborate version of my original Imperfection deep thought a few months ago.

A couple years ago I was having dinner with two buddies of mine. Originally we started out talking about girls and sex, you know, manly stuff. But then somehow we eventually got to talking about love & relationships; and it was one of the most deepest conversations I've ever had.

I remember my friend Chris telling me about his ex-girlfriend. He said, "I hate her so much. She put me through so much pain."

I asked him, "If you could go back in time, would you do it all over again?"

He looked me dead in the eye and said, "Yeah. Even though it hurts now, I did love her at one point. And we really did have some great times."

We kept talking about it. I started asking him questions like "What do you look for in the perfect girlfriend? And the perfect relationship?"

He said to me, "Mel, you need to stop looking for perfection; you're not gonna find it. No one's perfect. Nothing's perfect. Everything has flaws. But its these flaws that you have to deal with to make it work."

I thought about this idea of imperfection for several weeks. I finally realized that this theme of imperfection applies to so much: it applies to people in the form of flaws, to relationships in the form of heartbreaks, and to life in general, in the form of failure.

We all have our fair share of flaws, heartbreaks and failures; things we'd rather not have or rather have not experienced. But I'm here today to tell you that these imperfections are okay.

---

First, I'd like to explore the idea of imperfection in people.

When you apply imperfections to people, it comes out in the form of flaws. Let me ask you this: what if everyone in the world was perfect? And if everyone was perfect, what would seperate one guy from the next? What would make people unique? What would make your boyfriend or girlfriend more special to you than everyone else in your life?

Lets look at TV as an example. What would the TV show Friends be like without Chandler, who's insecurities cause him to make witty comebacks all the time? What would the movie American Pie be like without the bluntness and cockiness of Steve Stiffler?

You see, our flaws give us personality. It gives us diversity. Our flaws are what make us human. If we were all perfect, we'd all be the exact same.

---

The second aspect of imperfection is the idea of failure. When I think of failure, I think of what happened to me just over a year ago.

Just about a year ago, I received a letter from Cal Poly. That letter cited my 2 consecutive quarters of straight Fs. I knew it was coming but I couldn't believe it -- I was academically disqualified. I was kicked out of Cal Poly.

After reading the same letter over and over and over again -- in hopes that I was just misreading the whole situation -- my denial finally gave into reality. I had to admit it -- I was a failure.

For the next few days I'd come home and just look around at all the things I have"¦and I'd just feel guilty. I'd think to myself "a failure like me doesn't deserve any of this." It was just painful trying to think how I was gonna break the news to my dad.

I eventually decided that I would not tell me dad about it. This was my mess; this was my hole that I dug myself into and it was my job to get myself out.

And that's exactly what I did.

I talked to my advisors. I took classes @ Mt. SAC. I paid $200 a unit for classes here @ Cal Poly through the Open University program.

One year later, it all paid off -- I got back into Cal Poly. I get straight A's and B's now, I haven't ditched class in a year, and I am finally reaching the potential that my dad had been preaching about for so long.

I remember feeling so depressed when I first got that letter. But now, I almost feel proud of it, because I look back on it as the turning point in my college career. I have no regrets whatsoever.

---

And now I'd like to talk to you about imperfection and relationships.

Imperfection in relationships comes in the form of arguments and heartbreak. This topic in particular reminds me of my relationship with my dad.

My dad and I would get into pretty big fights once in a while. A little over a year and a half ago, on my 22nd birthday, I had the biggest fight with him ever. I don't want to get into what that fight was about. Instead, here's a small portion of what I wrote in my journal after that fight:

My Journal:

Do you even love me, Dad?? Do you??

Cuz you have a funny way of showing it...by not showing it at all.

When I was younger, I promised myself that one day I would make you proud.

Maybe I should devote my life to PROVING YOU WRONG.

I AM NOT A FUCKING KID ANYMORE.

WHY WON'T YOU LET ME BE ME???

THIS IS WHO I AM.

THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO BE.

I'M SORRY IF THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU.

I'll never forget how much hate I felt that day.

Fast forward about 18 months later. October 22nd, 2004. I was lying in bed when exactly at 12:55am, I got a phone call from my cousin, Rosemary. She was in tears and at a complete loss of words. When she finally managed to catch her breath, she said to me, "He's gone. My daddy's gone..."

I woke up my parents and we headed over to her place. Her dad, my beloved Uncle Rolly, had passed away to lung cancer.

Even though we all knew that day was inevitable, it was painful, nonetheless. I will NEVER forget the tears on my cousin's face as the coroners came and slowly strolled away her dad's body.

That night opened my eyes forever. I could see the love and the loss on Rosemary's face. I promised myself that I will never take my dad for granted again.

---

Its sad to think that it took the loss of a loved one for me to realize this. Bad things happen to good people; and we can't change that. Imperfections are just a part of life; all that we can do is accept it and learn from it.

So this is what I ask of you: to embrace all of the bad as well as the good. Its okay to have imperfections in your life. Know that its your flaws that give you personality and make you who you are today. Know that failure is just another opportunity to succeed. And lastly, know that heartbreaks are just a dramatic way of keeping things in perpective; it opens your eyes to important things like who you really love and who you can really count on.

Don't let imperfections hold you back.

Dance like no one's watching. Love like you'll never get hurt.

Thank you.