Green or Blue!?

I need a new laptop bag. Mine is falling apart and is a pickle to get my 17″ Macbook Pro into it.
So look at these. What do you think? I’d be totally happy with both. The green has a design yet it can be subtle too, and I love the color of green. But the blue is fun and funky too!

Need your opinions!

NBC is on crack. They should have just dumped Leno in the beginning. They didn’t even give Conan a chance. It took about a year before his old show was finally a hit; a whole new audience has to get used to his style of humor.

Conan’s letter is awesome, especially the part where he points out he was only given seven months and thought he’d be given the time and primetime ratings support like Leno was given.

Anyway, just rambling about this..

010/365

Today is day ten of my adventure into the photo project. I neglected to post 007, 008, and 009 to my blog, but have kept up with it over on Flickr.

007 – Lobster from the tank at Red Lobster where Adam and I met up with Al and Shannon and split a plate. I ate some snow crabs and yummy shrimp scampi – love it!

008 – Pink Javelinas! I took this shot when we were in Sedona. You know how each city has artists decorate the same sculpture and they’re in various spots throughout town? (Hearts in SF, Sharks in San Jose, Cows in Modesto.. ) Well Sedona has Javelinas. These hot pink ones were outside the Pink Jeep Tours office.

009 – We were pretty busy running errands most of Saturday and even though I brought along the point-and-shoot, I stupidly forgot to put the SD card back into it. As we walked out of Bed Bath and Beyond (where I scored some Wonder Hangers to fix up my closet) I saw awesome fluffy clouds. After trying to take a pic with the camera, I opted for the cameraphone.

This morning I woke up and checked what I refer to as “the news” (signed into Twitter and read a few pages) and saw that there was a fog advisory for today. It was about 8:30 so I looked outside to see just how foggy it was. It was super thick – we don’t see it that thick here in San Jose that often. So I asked Adam if he’d mind coming with me so I could take some shots at the north part of Guadalupe Gardens. Why there? The other day I was on my way to work and as I drove over the Coleman overpass I saw the sunlight shining through some fog and the trees at the park. It was lovely! However, at the time I didn’t have my camera and that whole “had to get to work” thing got in the way.

Anyway, Adam and I left about ten minutes later and as we got closer I realized it was actually a bit TOO foggy for what I was looking for. Regardless we drove around and I snapped some shots of the eerie trees in the fog. Then we parked at the Heritage Rose Garden. There were a few cars there – some people were out walking or jogging.. but one must have belonged to the BAGPIPER. Seriously! There was a guy practicing the bagpipes! It was kind of spooky. Foggy area, bagpipes in the distance.. it was great. I told Adam that if he started to play “Celebration” I was going to lose it.

So the photo above is from that part of this morning’s foggy/dewy adventure. I snapped a bunch of macro shots (using the lens AND my tripod- woo hoo for using equipment! hah) and a lot turned out pretty well.

Later I’ll tell you about the sheep that ran toward me.

006/365

Adam and I decided to finally check out one of Lonny’s hockey games tonight. Unfortunately Adam got it mixed up and we went to the wrong ice rink first – but thankfully the other one wasn’t too far away and we made it for most of the game. In the shot above, the Pager Flakes (the team that our friends Lonny and Martin are on) just scored another point. Lonny is #19 in this photo.

It wouldn’t be a hockey game without a little fight now would it?

Here’s Martin the goalie and a pic of JUST as Lonny scores a goal!

It was pretty fun and Adam and I are going to try to go to some more of Lonny’s games. We got to chat a little bit with him after the game and finally got to hear the big story of how he proposed to Janean over the holidays. It’s super sweet, but I’m not going to share it here as it’s not mine to share. So happy for them!

And now, seeing as it is 1:33am, it is time to sleep!

005/365
It’s been well over a month since Adam and I came back from our trip to Sedona but I still have oodles of photos to go through. I haven’t even gotten to the card that has the Grand Canyon photos on it. Yipes? However, I can’t even THINK of putting those photos on my computer before backing up older photos onto my external drive. I’m also backing them up on DVDs.

Back to the photo. I took this photo at the top of Boynton Canyon Trail. Let me tell you, going up that hill made me very nervous. Honestly it wasn’t terribly steep, but for the last oh, six or so years I tend to get really nervous about hiking. As I got heavier my balance was always off. I was always afraid that I’d go slipping down a hill because of the loose rocks and my lack of balance. So hiking up this hill with Adam took me awhile, but I made it. Of course, seeing people who were older than me or I dunno, six-months pregnant, take to the hiking like it was NOTHING really made me feel awesome. But whatever, I did it. I got to the top and took some photos of the mountains, land, and twisted trees. Twisted? Yeah, apparently this area is one of those Sedona vortexes I found out about at the Alien store. Like I said about Bell Rock, I didn’t sense or feel anything. Boo!

004/365

Can you guess what this is? CAN YOU!? No you can’t because I’m going to tell you. It’s the dial that adjusts the air conditioning/heater in my car. All soft-blurry-focuslike. Oooh so fancy! Well self-mocking aside, I actually like this photo a lot. The colors POP! And I took this while it was COMPLETELY SAFE to do so… I was only going like 50mph, eesh.

003/365

Today’s image for Project 365 is a familiar site for those from San Jose (well mostly.. and it should be dammit.) La Victoria Taqueria! Located less than a block away from the SJSU campus, it’s a spot that a bunch of us would frequent when we lived in the dorms and various downtown apartments. Now we only go there for “special occasions”. We went today because Maya is visiting from Lesotho, Africa (where she is volunteering in the Peace Corps.)

Adam, Iris, Maya and I went to La Vic and while everyone else got things like burritos and super yummy quesadillas (my fave, super carne asada quesadilla.. SO GOOD) I opted for something new, a carne asada tostada. I figured it would be my best bet since I could just eat the topping of meat, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado and sour cream. Oh it was good, but it’s tough not having a quesadilla from your favorite spot.

Perhaps I should call it “The Year of Jen, Part Deux?”

Last year I managed to accomplish some pretty major goals that I made for myself at the beginning of the year. I didn’t want to make “resolutions” because every year I fail to accomplish them. So my goals for 2009 were: 1) Deal with my health and make real changes and progress, 2) Get a car, 3) Deal with some work/career related stuff. Well I accomplished all of them in one way or another. It feels good, but I know I’m not done yet.

Since my surgery has taken my life into a new world of clothes and feeling healthier it’s also allowing me to consider all the other things I am going to be able to do this year. I get to do things I USED to do – simple stuff like riding rollercoasters again. I LOVE rollercoasters, but I had to stop going to theme parks because I couldn’t fit in the seats comfortably anymore. (And don’t get me started with seats in the theatre, restaurants, or airplane seats.. sigh.) But once Great America opens up this year, I’m there. I crave the rush of rollercoasters and I can’t wait to ride them again.

What else do I plan to do this year? Check out the list on the side of my page. I’ll update it as new ideas pop into my head or cross off items as I accomplish them.

For example, yesterday I accomplished part of one of my new goals; I signed up for a 5k marathon! A 5k is only a little over 3 miles and I don’t have to run the whole thing. It’s my first marathon so I thought I’d be safer with a 5k rather than a 10k. Shannon told me about one she and some of her coworkers signed up for in Mountain View, The Mermaid Run. I think that having this 5k to train for will help keep me on track with my workouts and it’s a great new goal to complete in April.

Other goals include many photo-related projects; using some of my cameras or accessories more often, making some photo books, etc. Going through my files from last year, I really didn’t get out and take a lot of photos (minus candids from parties and such.) That bummed me out. I love photography so I decided I need to step it up this year.

But! While the rollercoaster plans are exciting, to me what might be the MOST exciting – I’m going to learn to ski this year. I will probably fall down on my ass umpteen times, but I don’t care. I will get out there and try it out! I’ve got a handful of friends who love to ski and all seem very excited to help teach me and take me to favorite spots in Tahoe. This one is coming up soon, I think sometime in February, so I’m really excited about that.

C’mon 2010, let’s have some fun!

002/365:
Decided to take the lensbaby out today. I have a handful of photo toys, the lensbaby being one of them, that I just don’t use enough. But this year will be different! I love taking shots of lights; this one in particular I took on First Street downtown.

001/365:
This is my first entry (for yesterday) in Project 365 – a group project that’s been on Flickr for a few years and each year I consider trying it out. I kind of forgot about it in the last few weeks but when my friend’s boyfriend tweeted about joining it, it not only reminded me that it existed but also reminded me about one of my 2010 goals – to do more photo projects. Well, there ya have it. I’m gonna participate. That means a new photo posted to the Flickr group that represents everyday for the year 2010. I’m going to try to post them here as well.

The great thing is, you can’t really stock up on photos and “cheat” – but you can use old photos. So for example, if I took 30 photos today, I’d only be able to use one to represent one day. But I can use older ones if needed… at least that’s how I interpret the rules. I’d like to really challenge myself though and try to take new pics daily. Though, be warned – it may mean an increase in Penny photos!