Photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Sun 05.31.09 - After three days of "June Gloom" or maritime inversion layer or clouds that have not evaporated by the afternoon, my sister Allison and I decided to see if we could get out of the dreary clouds near the beach and go east to the desert to find sun. We called Sandra and Justin who live in Ontario (Inland Empire) to see if there was sun at their house and there was, albeit hazy, and by the end of the afternoon the haze had shifted to clear sun.

For a spontaneous Sunday afternoon road trip, it was delightful to not only not only be saved from a May-June case of SAD but also hang out for a few hours with Sandra, Justin and Pogo in their backyard soaking up the sun and laughing.

Sat 05.23.09 - This afternoon, my Mom and I took Scruffy and Magnus down to Dog Beach. It was nice to be back at "our beach", mostly it was nice to walk the length of the beach with Scruffy and Magnus watching them greet all the other dogs and to feel the cooler California ocean water.

Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.

Wed 05.06.09 - The Anaheim Bay sand transfer to the beach at Seal Beach dredging project appears to be over as all the oversized Tonka Toys are being packed up to go elsewhere.

The Nokia N95 and her attendant Lifeblog software are back in action.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N79.

Tues 05.05.09 - The best part about this morning's walk was seeing the Long Arm of Concrete at work in pouring a foundation in the 1300 block of Seal Way. The even better (perhaps, sweeter) part of the whole concrete extra extension long arm pumping thing was the young man in a hard had with a large-ish remote control pad that controlled the pump arm movement and rate of concrete spewage!

Sorry, I didn't get a photo of him in action, but he looked quite surprised to see me taking photos of his truck & pumping set up. But then again, I should never apologize for taking photos of fun and interesting construction events. Really. ;o)

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N79.

Tues. April 21, 2009 - Carnations are interesting flowers, in that depending on place and culture, they can be seen as cheap, throw away flowers of the industrial flower age or as a flower of celebration and history, or as flowers of ritual, time and place.

In California for most of my lifetime, they are the cheapest flowers that one can buy in a mixed bunch at the supermarket or on a busy street corner. To purchase carnations says that the buyer did not think, as well as the grocery store carnations smell bad in a clean sort of industrial way.

According to various sources online, carnations have a grand and long line as a meaningful and majestic flower through history. And last year, when I was in the south of India, they were everywhere and beautiful. Bright red and yellow carnations floating in big bowls of water, being strewn in the streets of Chennai by a funeral procession, or in the streets of Panaji as a shrine, used as the flowers in garlands for wedding and laced along gates & buildings, temples, and trees.

Given the context and color and look of the carnations in India, they did not convey cheap and industrial, but were lovely, sacred, and vibrant.

When I saw this typically modern American red & white carnation washed up in the intertidal zone of the beach today, instead of thinking of my not so great American carnation associations, I thought of the loveliness of the flower in India and its role in ritual.

I wondered who tossed it in the Pacific Ocean and for what life occasion. Then, with the diurnal ritual known as the tides, the Pacific brought it to the beach. And I photographed it.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N79.

Tues 04.14.09 - One of the neighbors has a Buddha's Hand Citron tree on the edge of their yard. And I photographed the two citrons that were big and lovely whilst walking home with Les Doggies.

Photo by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Happy Easter!

Sat 04.04.09 - More photos on this tomorrow, when I don't have a funky headache.

Fri 04.03.09 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N79 as we were driving south on PCH to get the car fixed.

Sun 03.22.09 - Drive out to Paker, Arizona to see la familia. Off and on raining while partly sunny in the desert. Overall, nice four hour drive, lots of grass and wildflowers in the LA/OC area, but most of the flowers were gone by the time I got to the desert.

Mon 02.16.09 - A candle shrine inside La Placita Church.

Yesterday, I took Steve Marshall on a curated tour of Los Angeles; by curated, I mean sites picked by me as interesting, opposed the usual Santa Monica, Venice, Hollywood and Beverly Hills tour of LA. The most delightful parts of our day were visiting the La Placita Church and Union Station.

I have loved Union Station since I was a child, but yesterday was the first time I stepped into La Placita, the oldest church in Los Angeles. The interior reminded me of a smaller version of San Thome in Chennai, as both churches were fairly plain inside* and just as delightful.

From Explore El Pueblo de Los Angeles:

Directly across Main Street from the Plaza, La Placita Church is the oldest Catholic Church in Los Angeles. It was first established in 1784 as a chapel. Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles (Our Lady Queen of the Angeles Church) or Old Plaza Church as it is also known was completed in 1822.

19th Century Photos of La Placita from Wikipedia:
A photo of the church from 1869
A photo by W.H. Jackson from the 1890s

My Flickr photoset from yesterday's Photowalk.

Los Angeles - At least one facet thereof. Union Station.

Thur 02.12.09 - Or the Nokia N95 is back in action.

Tue 02.10.09 - As seen driving on PCH, photo taken with a Nokia N82.

Sat 02.07.09 - Plus the nearly full moon rising, as a bonus to today's amazing turnaround from pouring rain this morning to very gorgeous this afternoon.

Sun 01.11.09 - Photo taken at Dog Beach with a Nokia N85 camera phone.

Mon 01.05.09 - On the way to Kathy's Memorial Service.

Sat 12.27.08 - The Barflies.net post-Xmas White Elephant Party at the Hillskemper Haus.

Wed 12.24.08 - Just after a delightfully real Christmas Eve service at St. Mary in Palms church in Culver City.

Katrina and Sam invited Erika and Thomas who invited me. I am glad I went.

Tues 12.23.08 - The day in between storms.

Fri 12.19.08 - View from the Los Angeles Convention Center looking out over the Nokia Theatre and the new development.

Thurs 12.18.08 - The rain stopped sometime last night and I woke up to clear, sunny skies and snow low on all the mountains and local hills! Very exciting! The last time I have seen snow this low on the Irvine & Orange hills was in Nov. 2004 the day before Erika & I went to Ireland.

I couldn't just stay home in Seal Beach and natter way on images and slideshows on my computer, no, I had to go out at lunch time and drive up Santiago Canyon Road to take in the low snow line myself before it all melts away.

Truly a lovely day.

Wed 12.17.08 - Driving home in the rain from a lunch meet up with George and Ankita Kelly.

Sun 12.14.08 - At Dog Beach about a half hour before sunset.

Sat 12.12.08 - The Derby Dolls LA warm up for their big Saturday night match against an all-star nationwide team (Lil Santa's Helpers).

All photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82 at Dog Beach, Huntington Beach.

Fri 12.12.08 - This afternoon at 3:16pm was an extra, extra low tide due to the Full Moon. Usually the low tides are 1 to 3 ft with high tides at 3 to 5 ft, today the low tide was -1.78 ft and the high tide was 7ft! Whole sections of beach that are normally underwater and the domain of surfers, stingrays, and halibut were dry land today. There were tons of baby clams at the surface opening and closing their little shells in wonderment of this air stuff rather than the normal ocean water.

The extra low tide was a blast for the dogs, as they had a lot of flat hard sand to run on. We arrived at 3:10pm and did not depart until sunset around 4:45pm. It was a lot of fun.

Tues. 12.09.08 - View this morning from the parking lot at Buffalo & Broadway in Santa Ana, Ca.

Mon. 12.08.08 - This same holiday seal won for best local lawn holiday ornament last year.

Sun Dec. 7, 2008 - Today my Mom and I took a 3 mile walk from my sister's house in Huntington Beach down the bike trail on the north side of the Santa Ana River, past the OC sewage treatment facility, to the delta where the Santa Ana River meets the Pacific Ocean, where the dividing line is between south Orange County (rich) and North Orange Country (upper middle class to working class). Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in OC is rich, white and Republican.

The day was gorgeous in my eyes: chilly, cloudy, and windy - great walking weather. We saw 5 different species of wintering river/sea ducks in the Santa Ana River: Ruddy Ducks, Ring-necked Ducks, Gadwall, Lesser Scaup, and the glorious Bufflehead. The other delights were pelicans, a great white egret stalking fishy prey, and comorants.

Marvelous.

Thurs 12.04.08 - I love to live in older houses. In the last 14 years, I have lived in apartments and houses ranging from the 1860s (with little updates), to 1894 (the best one), to a WWII era former Navy family apt (now), to early Boeing engineer housing (1961). I like the funkiness and lack of sameness that older homes have. I really like the unique features, then un-renovated bits, and the termites.

Not really the last bit about the termites, but I live in SoCal on the edge of a large desert, termites were here before we were. When folks from other places move to the LA area one invariably hears two things, 1) What do you mean we have water problems? Isn't there plenty of rivers around here. [Why yes there are, they are concrete and are lawn runoff, not rain], 2) Why do the ants fly in the spring and early summer? [Uh, those aren't ants, they are termites.]

I have used flea spray to get the termites out of and off my antique furniture and it is surprisingly effective.

Thurs 11.27.08 - Driving to Palm Desert to Cousin Lynn's for Thanksgiving. Today was just gorgeous as the last of the storm moved out.

Sat 11.15.08 - Santa Ana Winds + Fire = Fire Season

Sat 11.08.08 - One of the delightful bits of Dog Beach at Huntington Beach is at low tide there is a layer of glittering fool's gold on top of the standard issue beach sand in the inter-tidal zone.

Be it mica or pyrite, the inter-tidal zone glitters and shimmies as the water pulses in and out with the waves. Scruffy, who previously hated water, has learned this past summer to love running in the low tide zone.

Today, my dear friend George Kelly wrote on Twitter:

"California voters who voted for Obama and voted yes on Proposition 8: I need to hear you explain why."

I do know at least one voter who was passionate about both voting for Barak Obama and voting Yes on Prop 8. This person is an immediate family member.

After all of the conversations that I had with this person about why we were both going to vote for Obama, it was a shock last Sunday evening at dinner to find that this person was going to vote Yes on Prop 8. At the time, I felt betrayed and we talked about the Bible vs. discrimination and true love. My sister kindly brought up that we should not be burdening the State Constitution with non-structural/non-governmental moral issues.

But the person remained steadfast that it would be wrong for a Christian to vote No on Prop 8. I held my tongue after I made my arguments and walked away from dinner quite disappointed. A couple of days later, I had a long talk with Erika about the subject, as we are both Christians who were voting No on Prop 8.

Here's my stance: I have wanted to get married since I was a little girl. I had hoped for years to find a man to love, to have, and hold who would also want the same with me in return. An equal in intellect, faith, reason, reading and passion for life to make a life with and have a family with. I now stand before you at age 40 and somehow by the roll of the dice of life, I have yet to meet such a man. I have yet to fall in love. I have yet to get married. I have yet to have children. And it breaks my heart.

Given this, I can not any way or fashion deny another human the desire to marry their one true love, I am too much of a romantic to do such a thing. I have for years joked that it is everyone's right to get married, get a mortgage, and grow boring together. Everyone's right.

Not just the right of the ultra-more-perfect-than-thou Biolan's I went to college with who not only were virgins at marriage, but many of them were saving their first kiss for the wedding*. Not just the right of the folks who met their one true love and married them right away just after high school. Not just the right of middle class people from undivorced, unbroken homes**. Not just the right of the righteous.

Are you righteous? Are you really that perfect? Judge not, unless ye be judged.

Since I choose to live without a TV, I am "watching" the online election results until 6:30pm when I go out for drinks with Judy and other friends, whereupon, I will start watching the mobile web results.

Here are the most entertaining results, commentary, and stories:

Twitter (I recommend watching Skeskali's feed as she has took the day off from work, is on west coast time, and has started drinking Jack & Coke. Her tweets should get good in about an hour, as drunk tweeting is the best.)

The Daily Dish : Andrew Sullivan has been hitting the ballpark home all day with notes from his readers and links to other stories.

Making Light - Bruce Schneier
is guest posting as the election progresses.

FiveThirtyEight - a blog that is bringing the various polls together in a statistical manner.

There is also the Daily Kos map.

Various News Networks: CNN | BBC | MSNBC | LA Times | NY Times | The Guardian | NPR

And if you need a good laugh, Stewart & Colbert's Indecision 2008.

California's polls are open for another 2.25 hours, so if you haven't voted, get thee to your polling station.

The Great Hack by Heather Gold (a complimentary parody of Sarah Silverman). Heather encourages us geeks to open source marriage.

And for further argument, Anil Dash's excellent blog post, "In Defense of Marriage."

If you are over 18 and a citizen of the U.S., vote tomorrow.

Thur 10.30.08 - Here in Southern California our metrological year starts on July 1st. Our Rain Season is possible from Oct. to April, but the rain we count on is Jan. to March.

We need rain, so hopefully it will start tonight.

All Photos taken by Jen Hanen with a Nokia N82 at the Haute Dog Howl'o'ween Parade, Oct 26, 2008, in Long Beach, CA.

To view the Lightbox slideshow, please click on the thumbnail you wish to see and then use the "Next" & "Previous" to maneuver through the slideshow.

Big thanks to all the folks at Haute Dogs for putting on a fun parade and many thanks to our own Scruffy McDoglet & Belle Le Cane for being willing to be dressed up and sit on a dog parade float!

Update: More photos of the Howloween Dog Parade can be found at howloween.info.

Sat 10.25.08 - At the Getty for the Bernini exhibition.

Sat 10.18.08 - The Red Cinder Cone in my mirror.

Tue 09.30.08 - The air was so very clear this evening that not only could I see Catalina clearly, but also San Clemente Island to the south and Santa Barbara Island just to the north. Extraordinarily lovely.

Wed 09.03.08 - Scruffy and the Labradoodle at Dog Beach.

Fri 08.22.08 - Ryan staked Bird's sunflowers last weekend as they were falling over. Soon the seeds will be harvested, then soaked in salt brine, then roasted, and then we can eat them.

File under odd but True: This summer at least once a week we have had June Gloom (maritime inversion layer clouds) until 10am or noon. Usually, from July 4th to October or November, we are cloud free. The days we have the inversion clouds it makes photography difficult.

Tues 08.19.08 - This morning, rather than going to take boxes to my storage room, Mom and I took Scruffy to Dog Beach. Scruffy, at the end of our walk, found a seagull feather to bring along.

Sun 08.10.08 - Los Mysteriosos played a great set at Alex's Bar tonight.

Tues July 29, 2008 - This morning at 11:42am, SoCal had a nice, lovely rolling earthquake. I was sitting on my couch showing my Mom how to use the Mac Powerbook that I am loaning to her when the whole room started to roll, and shake, and roll, and move. And we decided, after years of previous such experiences, that it wasn't going to get big enough to move, so we just watched and chatted the whole time the earthquake was quaking.

As it was ending, I took the Powerbook from her and typed in the USGS.gov website to see if it was reporting the size yet (hello, how fast is it in 3 seconds, silly me). Within 3 minutes the USGS site had all the pertinent details of which I twittered (although initially they reported the quake as a 5.8). Mom was very impressed. After the initial real time novelty had worn off, we looked around my living room and noticed that not a thing had fallen out of one of my many bookcases or out of my beloved china cabinet.

Good earthquake proofing. Here is my secrets: Put all the heaviest books / stuff on the bottom two shelves, invert all glasses or other breakables so that the widest part of the object is on the shelf not in the air, if the bookcase is over 5 feet tall then bolt to a wall stud, and when looking for places to live choose an older place as they are better built (older wood framed one stories can live through the biggest of earthquakes).

The only thing that went awry in my apartment is that one kitchen cabinet door opened a bit. All the numerable bits of crap on the bookcases swayed but did not fall down. w00t!

Wed 07.23.08 - I took Alex and Jackie to the Udupi Palace for a lunch business meeting. Amusingly, as we departed, Alex said, "They don't get many punks here do they?".

Fri 07.18.08 - I love it when folks customize their cookie cutter track houses.

I have posted my restaurant review of India Sweet & Spices over at The Happy Tastebud:

India Sweets and Spices is the main place for my Pea-a-Palooza festivals as they regularly serve peas & cheese (Mattar Paneer), as well as Potatoes and Peas. Most of all I like the surprise of showing up and looking at the six lunch hot choices, choosing two for my $4.99 plate which will also include rice, raita, fresh crunchy veg plus a lime pickle or two.

Due to my gluten-free life, I usually get a rice/lentil papad or two instead of the wheat-ful chapati or poori. The nice folks who run the lunch counter at India Sweets and Spices in Tustin are very accommodating about substitutions.

If you are not up for a great veggie lunch, then there is always the Beef Palace in Huntington Beach..

Sun 07.06.08 - All Photos taken by Ms. Jen whilst on a bike ride from Seal Beach to Dog Beach in Huntington and back again with a Nokia N95.

Sat. 07.05.08 - While walking Scruffy this afternoon, I ran into Paul and Tanya Bonaventura at the Seal Beach Pier. As we were chatting, Paul asked if I was ditching the Hootenanny, too. Yes, I was. So were they.

I seriously thought the past month about going to the Hoot today. Wanda did. Sandra did. And so did Tink. But I just couldn't justify paying $40 plus TicketMaster Rape Charges of at least $15-20 to see the 2 bands I wanted to see on top of the bad parking, gang fights, hot weather, overflowing porta-potties, huge lines for an overprice beverage. I am sorry, I love my friends and want to support the bands, but...

I decided it would be much more fun to sleep in today, hang out with Erika, walk Scruffy, and make dinner rather than get my annual case of heat stroke at the Hoot. Looks like Tanya and Paul were in the same boat.

On an additional note, HAPPY Wedding & Marriage to Tanya and Paul. They got married in early May and I am pleased as punch to see them happy together.

On an extra additional note, on the same walk today, I saw the pink food domes that became today's Happy Tastebud post.

Fri 07.04.08 - As seen on my Fourth of July bike ride to the Huntington Beach parade. This photo was taken riding south along Bolsa Chica State Beach. Oriole the dog and his human, the 9-11 year old shaggy haired surf kid, were running / riding down the bike path.

Why all whited out? Sometimes with the Nokia N95, if you try to push the camera button too fast, repeatedly, while it is trying to test the light and focus, it will take a whited out photo. In this case it worked, as all the best parts were saturated with color enough to define the images.

Impatience can work.

Wed 07.02.08 - More on the opening of the weekly farm box over at the Happy Tastebud.

Tues 06.24.08 - Eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains as seen while driving south on Hwy 395 between Big Pine and Independence, Calif. The smoke was from two fires in Mariposa County (Yosemite area) and one fire in eastern Sequoia (Tulare County).

Tues 06.24.08 - Wild Irises as seen in a little meadow on the side of the Bishop Creek outlet pond just downhill from Aspendell on Hwy. 168.

Tues 06.24.08 - Looking up Hwy 168 towards Jawbone Canyon and the road to Lake Sabrina as we turn left to go to the little outlet pond on Bishop Creek just below Aspendale.

Sun 06.22.08 - 4:09 pm - Have hat, will hike. ;o)

Sat 06.21.08 - 3:31pm - I couldn't stand staying within 10 miles of Lake Tahoe and not going to see it & dip my toes in the lake.

Fri 06.20.08 - Driving northbound on the I-5 from SoCal to Lake Tahoe for CampCamp 5.0.

Thurs 06.19.08 - The Bird of Paradise Tree, as seen on Central Street during my morning walk with Scruffy.

All photos taken at the CARMA Radio Telescope Array by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95 camera phone.

Sat. 06.14.08 - The Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) Radio Telescopes (aka The Ears) in the White Mountains had their annual Open House today. My Mom and I have been wanting to go to The Ears' open house for a couple of years now and today it worked out.

It was a blast. I love all things astronomy and this radio telescope array up at 7,000 ft plus was a true delight, both from the scientific curiosity perspective and then it was just aesthetically lovely perspective. A real treat.

Fri 06.06.08 - Two women painting on the beach as seen this morning while walking Scruffy.

Thur 05.29.08 - Alongside the beach bike path between Dog Beach and Bolsa Chica State Park.

Thur 05.29.08 - As seen at Dog Beach in Huntington this afternoon. Gorgeous.

Wed 05.28.08 - Dave Irish and Alex Hernandez in the parking lot at Alex's.

****

In a fit of moblogging journalist fevor, Scruffy McDoglet and I went over to Alex's at about 6:30pm to watch the fun as folks waited in line to get into the Foxboro Hot Tubs (Green Day + 2) show. We stayed until 7:40pm and I will return later for the show (sans camera phone, per the rules, and sans Scruffy McDoglet).

Here are my two qik.com/msjen videos streamed from my Nokia N95:

Beer Truck tests the wand on Green Day's drum tech before any of the line is let in.

The Line to get into Alex's for the Foxboro Hot Tubs Show Tonight. There were hundreds more folk standing in line than capacity in Alex's.

Tues 05.27.08 - Morning vs. evening...

Tue 05.27.08 - The extra-late winter storm moved on and today was clear and beautiful all day long. I could see and count 13 oil tankers & container ships within a couple of miles of shore. More oil tankers than I have seen in a long time off the coast of Long Beach, waiting for their turn at the Port. Hmmm...

Sun 05.25.08 - At the annual Scottish Games / Highland Festival at the OC Fairgrounds.

Sat 05.24.08 - Walking about Culver City.

Wed 05.21.08 - Hanging out on the Greenbelt with Scruffy and Belle after walking down to the Library to return a book.

Sun. 05.11.08 - The windmills in the pass between the Coachella Valley and Beaumont/Banning along the 10 Freeway / Interstate.

Fri 05.09.08 - Photo taken at Love's Gas Station, Dillion Road, Coachella (Indio), CA, whilst driving out to Parker, Arizona, for my brother Joe's birthday and Mother's Day.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95 on 05.05.08.

Mon. 05.05.08 - Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Greg & Leah stopped by this evening in "Ojitos - Hecho en Nuevo Mexico", a fun 1927 modified hot rod owned by Greg's friend Thomas. Thomas wants to sell Ojitos to Greg, Leah is wary, so they have Ojitos for one day/evening.

Ojiotos, she was the toast of Seal Beach. And danged loud, too.

All photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95 in and around Seal Beach, Calif., on Sat. 05.03.08.

Wed 04.09.08 - Dismantling the winter storm berm.

Tues 04.08.08 - As seen today in a strip of "garden" under a house's raised porch, whilst walking Scruffy down Seal Way.

Sat 04.05.08 - My 3.5 day adventure to my Mom's house in Bishop is over and am now driving home.

Thur 04.03.08 - Walking in Aspendell.

Thur 04.03.08 - The grape arbor in my Mom's front yard.

Tue 04.01.08 - Spring has arrived in SoCal when the hills are green with grass and yellow with mustard flowers.

On Friday night, circumstances evolved that I invited a friend of a friend to join me for Happy Hour at my favorite local restaurant/bar/grill. For the sake of the story we will call the friend of the friend - QBB, call the bartender - Devi, and call the place/bar/grill - Freddy's. All names & relationships have been slightly altered to protect the innocent or guilty as the case may be.

Upon arriving at Freddy's we both ordered the Friday Happy Hour Spice Shrimp special and a glass of wine. Conversation proceeded. As the evening proceeded, things got weird. Most of the other patrons around us at the bar/grill part were well-to-do beach-bleach-blond-Americans of indeterminate ethnicity in their 40s and 50s. As the Happy Hour progressed it became highly evident that every man within a 15 foot radius was going to come and talk to us, with his date / female companion's permission or not. As time wended on the females went from friendly to claws openly bared.

Why? Well, the friend of a friend, aka QBB, is a woman in her early forties who has made several set of choices to conform to the highest standard of Southern California's Culto de Corpo through a rigorous and disciplined regime of lack of eating, extreme exercise, and visits to the plastic surgeon. QBB is the Cali-Puerto-Rican Barbie Doll - tall, thin, tiny hips, big boobs, big eyes, hair extensions, etc, etc, etc. Fill in all the stereotypes of LA bimbos.

Except QBB is more complex than a bimbo. By choosing to go out with her it meant that for 3.5 hours all of the explicit and implicit gender theatrics played themselves out. QBB is very intensely involved in her current relationship but due to sub-conscious need or a lifetime of sending out sexual signals or both (ding ding ding), she attracts men and women in droves. QBB is inordinately proud of this, which is why I came out of the evening thinking most of those folks got pnwed by QBB.

First Spring Poppies taken on Tues. 03.18.08 by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Happy First Day of Spring! Happy New Year to the folks who celebrate the New Year with the beginning of Spring! While the technical vernal equinox was this morning at 5:48 am (GMT), the start of spring at 9:48pm last night for the Pacific zone.

Mon 03.17.08 - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Photo taken by Ms. Jen in Seal Beach with a Nokia N82.

Thurs March 6, 2008 - Flying to Austin for SXSW 2008.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Wed 03.05.06 - Taken by Ms. Jen while on morning walk with a Nokia N82.

Sun 02.03.08 - While driving to meet up with Julie Wanda for lunch at the Udupi Palace in Artesia, the clouds broke up a bit and the sky peeped through. 'Twas a beautiful sight.

According to Phil, it is six more weeks of winter.

If Candlemas be fair and bright, Come, Winter, have another flight; If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, Go Winter, and come not again.

Both here in SoCal and in Pennsylvania, Candlemas dawned fair and bright. It clouded over mid-day here, but then again, other than rain one cannot call what we get from Dec - March a real winter... ;o)

Mon 01.28.08 - at Phó 79 in Garden Grove, Calif.

Fri 01.25.08 - At Alex's 8th Anniversary show.

Wed 01.23.08 - Photo Walk/Drive of Los Angeles with Nokia Urbanista Diaries' Devin Balentina.

Flickr Photoset with Maps

The Sports Trackr Version of this Photo Walk, part I

The Sports Trackr Version of this Photo Walk, part I

Wed 01.23.08 - Photo Walk/Drive of Los Angeles with Nokia Urbanista Diaries' Devin Balentina.

Flickr Photoset with Maps

The Sports Trackr Version of this Photo Walk, part I

The Sports Trackr Version of this Photo Walk, part I

Wed 01.23.08 - Photo Walk/Drive of Los Angeles with Nokia Urbanista Diaries' Devin Balentina.

Flickr Photoset with Maps

The Sports Trackr Version of this Photo Walk, part I

The Sports Trackr Version of this Photo Walk, part I

Mon 01.21.08 - Driving home from Punk Rock Bowling - Lunch stop in Baker, Calif.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen just a few minutes ago with her MacBook Pro's iSight camera.

In early May, I moved my essential furniture and lifebits into my new apartment. In late summer, I finally returned to both my storage room and the loft in my brother's garage to get the rest of the boxes, but I did not have time to get it all.

Today, eight months after I moved in, I went to my brothers and to my storage room for Round III of the move in process. Only one problem, I am already out of room of which to place books and kitchen stuff. Anyone who knows me in person knows that I mostly own books and kitchen stuff. The rest is all superfluous.

I need to open the boxes tomorrow, sort, put things away or desperately look for somewhere to stuff all of it. Hopefully, there will be no black widows lurking in a box, like there was in one of the book boxes in the late summer. I will have hairspray ready if there is one.

Hairspray is a much better solution to black widow extermination then the time one caught me unawares with lighter fluid in my hand. It was pissed to have been forced to exit its nice dark charcoal bag cavern and was coming at me, so I poured the lighter fluid on the charcoal and spider. The spider kept moving, albeit slowly drenched in lighter fluid, I found the click-click lighter and put flame to coals and spider. Spider was pissed and not giving up. So, more lighter fluid was poured on the fire and a column of flame shot up at least 15 feet.

Two lessons from this adventure:

1) Make sure you seal your charcoal bag up before putting it back into a black widow infested garage.

2) Never, ever, never put more lighter fluid on a fire. Bad idea.

Needless to say, I did not see the spider after that. I was missing some eyebrows and the backyard elm tree was missing some leaves, but hey the spider was gone.

Now I use hairspray (very effective on black widow spiders) or Scruffy's anti-flea spray (less effective then lighter fluid sans flame) when opening boxes that have been living in my brother's garage loft and no flames whatsoever.

As of Jan. 1, 2008, the State of California has a law on the books that one can only use an mobile phone while driving if it is hands free.

In all the articles released in the last week that I have read and the summaries of the new laws that went into effect on January 1st, no one defines what exactly hands free means, there is an assumption that one knows the legal definition of the phrase.

Does this law define hands free as you must have a "hands free" system that mounts your mobile phone on the dashboard and only works with voice commands? If so, I am screwed and will be illegal, as every time I check the NokiaUSA.com website, they do not have any hands free car accessories for the N95 by this definition. Should I ask a European friend to order a Nokia n95 hands free car set up for me on their local Nokia website, I pay them back, and then they can ship it to me?

Does the law define hands free as a bluetooth ear/headset that allows one to answer calls with a minimum of touching one's mobile? If so, then more problems, as I have yet to meet a bluetooth earset / headset that fits me and is comfortable. If I have a problem with small hands, also have a problem with small ears.

Does the law define hands free as using the Nokia wired headset / microphone set that comes in the box with the Nokia N95? I don't think so. Some of the early literature I read about the new law last year said that wearing wired earbuds did not count and violated a law from years ago that one can't where headphones while driving. Yet, other sources, such as the California Highway Patrol site's FAQ page, suggest that the idea of the law is to keep both hands on the wheel and not to be distracted while driving.

Hello, Nokia USA, please start selling useful accessories on your website for mobile devices that you are selling in the US!

Hello, Nokia! Hello, how about having one website for accessories that is not country dependent?

Let's be honest here... I am not really a talker on my mobile phone. I have a lovely lovely camera with GPS and an internet connection that on occasion rings much to my dismay. Given the amount of time I spend in my car, if the State of California wants me to be completely hands free with voice activation for tasks, then Nokia - make my Nseries phone's camera voice activated and let me moblog with voice activation while driving safely.

Anyone who reads this website or watches my flickrstream or has been in the car with me knows that I love to take photos whilst driving and moblog them on the spot... ;o)

In other parts of the world, people decorate their lawns year round with gnomes and other bits, in Seal Beach there are lots of seals - cement seals, plastic seals, stone seals, etc. As the Christmas house and lawn decorations came out, at least four homes with 3 blocks of my house now have Christmas seals on their lawns.

Welcome to Seal Beach, we like our kitsch in pinniped form.

Sun 10.28.07 - Today was the Haute Dog Howl-oween Parade on 2nd Street in Belmont Shore area of Long Beach. Scruffy was a "Little Devil", Belle was a bee, and we commandeered Abbey from Family Callis to be Mephisto (although most folks thought she was Toto). It was a warm day, a bit confusing, and there were many, many more dogs registered for the Parade than last year (550 dogs in last year's Parade, Belle was 1432 and we were not at the end of the line). There were a surprising amount of lobster dogs this afternoon of all shapes and sizes.

The highlight was all of the wonderful dogs and the creativity of their owners in terms of costuming. The lowlight was me stepping in dog barf that flowed over my flipflop on to my foot at the very end of the parade, which caused a bit of shreaking and much laughter on my part. Last year, Scruffy, Belle, and I watched from the sidelines, and this year it was good fun to walk in the Parade. Big thanks to Justin Rudd and the Haute Dog folks for putting together such a fun event.

Fri 10.26.07 - Big thanks to all the firefighters and rescue folk who worked so hard this week!

Satellite photo of Southern California taken by NASA on Mon. Oct. 22, 2007 at 2:50pm (PDT).

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is that season again. While it may be autumn in the rest of the northern hemisphere, it is Fire Season here in gritty, smoky, Southern California.

Add one part super dry land due to the driest year on record
Add one part Santa Ana winds
Add one part arson or human error or a downed power line
And within the course of 24 hours one can have 12 fires, count 'em 12, in Southern California!

The LA Times has made a Google Fire map with a current listing of the fires. The nice folks over at the Earth Observatory have once again provided a 2 times daily satellite shot of SoCal in all of its smoke plumed glory. Waiting for the FireMapper folks to get their aircraft up, so that they can document the current round of fires.

While the air quality is quite low here in Seal / Long Beach area, it is nothing like the folks up in the Castaic area or in San Diego where 250,000 folks are being evacuated.

If you are not in a fire zone or being evacuated, the authorities are asking folks to stay inside due to air quality and keep cell / mobile phone usage down as to be able to free up the networks for emergency work.

Fri. 10.19.07 - Big excitement in Seal Beach.

Update: ABC News reports.

Fri. 09.21.07 - The Seal Beach pier on a crystal clear morning.

Sat 09.01.07 - At the Orange Street Fair.

The Tsunami Hazard Zone signs went up in the last few months on street signs in Long Beach, Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, and southward. Signs have also been put up on the major boulevards going east that say "Tsunami Evacuation Route".

What makes the whole thing absurd is that the signs are quite small and hard to read unless you are standing (not driving) within 10 feet and there have been no governmental announcements / pronouncements about ANY type of tsunami potential threat or evacuation plans. Usually local governments in the area send mailed info about water quality, earthquakes, and parks.

So, why only the signs and no public service announcements or letters? Is this one of those things where the Federal Government gives a budgetary allotment of a small amount of money for all the ocean / sea states to have tsunami education & warning and thus we all get cheesy signs and no real plans and education?

Looks like scaffolding.

Miracle! Rain in July in SoCal...

This evening I went to theWiener Nationals qualifiers or the Dash of the Dachshunds at the Los Alamitos Race Track with Eoin and his Mom and Dad.

Family Gubbins is visiting Eoin from Ireland and are big dachshund fans, so I thought the Wiener Nationals would be a perfect introduction to California.

Sun. 07.08.07 - View of downtown Long Beach from the Seal Beach pier. I walked down to the pier this evening at sunset with my Nikon FM3a & its 35-135mm zoom lens to take sunset photos of the container ships and oil rigs just parked outside of the Port of Long Beach break waters. While on the pier, I was able to shoot a few photos of a pod of dolphins leaping through the waves. When I get the film developed, I will post the dolphin photos.

After Eoin's swearing in, his mom, dad, my sister Allison, Eoin, and I went to Cafe Pinot for lunch. View from the outside Cafe Pinot on Fifth Street.

Fri. 06.22.07 - Mom and I were walking the dogs down Ocean Ave in Seal Beach when I noticed that the last house just across from the San Gabriel River had its street address announced in a sans-serif font (name it?) between the first and second stories. I had to take a photo of this whimsical blend of modernist typography and architecture.

I have never seen a nopal or prickly pear cactus have so much fruit that the cactus paddles are bending down.

Oak lined way in Irvine Regional Park.

Everyone has small or large assumptions that they make about life that they are unaware of until it is right in front of them. Yesterday, I was hit upside the head, lightly, with one of my un-thought through assumptions.

Since 1999, when I met a nice swing dancer who was also a Pilates instructor, I have said to myself that I would like to go takes some Pilates classes. Over the years since, I have met some very nice dance / pilates / yoga folk who are all in some sort of subculture or another, usually of the hippie / vegan variety. These folks have been very calm and encouraging.

Mon. 05.14.07 - A Monday afternoon on the front lawn of the new apartment building with Scruffy, Belle, Earl and Ryan. My first real day off in over a month. Or Ryan's first day off after graduation from his M.F.A. program.

Sun. 05.13.07 - After a lovely Mother's Day lunch at Grandma Grace's with my Mom, Allison, Aunt Anne, Aunt Dana, and Grandma, I met up with Erika for a hike around the Bolsa Chica Wetlands to clear out the brain and tummy. Lovely day, lovely walk, until I had a gravity storm on a levy when some gravel slipped, I slipped, I tumbled end over end and luckily did not end up in the muck of the lagoon. I do have lots of scrapes.

Quite a few bird photographers were out and about at the bird bridge with outrageously large lenses. I have one small Nokia N80 camera phone and it did a fine job of snapping the birds and wetlands. Makes one wonder what the gianormous lenses for? PEL, anyone?

I have never, ever, never been on the eastbound 91 freeway through the Santa Ana Canyon on a Friday evening during rush hour traffic and been able to drive over 25mph. To drive 70 mph was a miracle. Most of the rest of the traffic must have had Good Friday off or at least half day.

So, the fellow in front of me with all of the flags and the overly patriotic wording on his truck, also had a speaker playing the "Star Spangled Banner" for anyone who drove by. The best part is that Shell gas truck was driving by at the same time.

America, Apple Pie, Mom, Red/White/Blue, and Gasoline!

@ Bordello in downtown L.A. for Kim V.'s birthday.

All photos of Royal Crown Revue taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N80 camera phone.

All photos taken on Fri. 2/23/07 whilst on a walk around the neighborhood with Scruffy and Belle with Ms. Jen's Nokia N80 camera phone.

A few meyers lemons from Cousin Lynn's in Palm Desert. I am making escarole salad.

Sat. 02. 17.07 - All photos taken by Ms. Jen at Bolsa Chica Wetlands with her Nokia N80. More photos were taken with her Nikon FM3a, but those photos are pending film processing, et al. ;o)

The ornamental pears are blooming.

Thank you, Arctic Cold Snap! You have brought real winter temperatures to SoCal for the first time in many years.

It is 9:20am and it is 42 degrees F in Huntington Beach and 39 degrees in downtown LA! Wahoo!

Too bad we don't have snow...

Yesterday, a scrap metal collector was touring the neighborhood in front of the trash truck to see if there were any good pickings on the curb. My brother saw him cruising in his truck and Joe went out and got him before the metal guy left the track.

Joe has been collecting, holding, or storing broken construction and auto equipment for friends or himself telling himself that he will repair them and use them. The full auto jack from 2000, still in the garage. The Steinbock mini-forklift (above) from his friend's shop, in the backyard. Etc., etc., etc.

Joe showed the scrap metal guy the forklift and the jack and the fellow said, "Caro...." in a sweet drawn out voice. He announced to my brother that he would be back at 7am on Saturday with a bigger truck for the various bits of equipment.

The photo above was taken about 10:30am this morning after much effort on the part of my brother, the metal collector and his friends/colleagues, to get the forklift in the bed of the truck. They were heaving and ho-ing using chains, leverage, and brute force, but the extra heavy little forklift was being quite recalcitrant.

The scrap metal collector was smiling through out the whole operation and so was my brother, Joe.

A bit blurrier than I had hoped, but it was dusk and the two cars with the palm trees looked fabulous in the rear view camera.

**I just started a new Flickr group entitled Prius Rear View Camera to celebrate photos that one takes of the rear view camera screen...**

As seen by Black Phoebe the Prius's rear view camera while backing up.

Mon 11/06/2006 12:55 Driving to downtown LA.