Thurs 07.02.09 - Dan's latest installation. Photo taken by Ms. jen with a Nokia N97.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Tue 06.30.09 - Fare thee well, London-town.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Mon 06.29.09 - Speaking of Carl Zeiss lens's, Dan Rubin brought his lovely eBay steal of a Hasselblad with him to my last night in London meet up at the Phoenix Artist Club. And the Hasselblad had a Carl Zeiss lens on it. Everyone at the table was very excited when Dan brought the Hasselblad out of his bag.

Yes, photo geeks we are. All too true.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Mon 06.29.09 - As I was walking back to the Tower Hill Tube station after visiting Steve and Lobelia Lawson at their house barge on the Thames near the Design Museum, I saw The Gherkin, the glass skyscraper euphemistically named after a pickle rather than a phallic symbol, framed by the Tower Bridge. I was in a rush to not be late to meet up with folks at the Phoenix Club, but I stopped nonetheless to catch this photo.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Mon 06.29.09 - A small tug boat on a barge dry dock in the Thames River, moored to a wharf on the Southbank near the Design Museum. I was visiting Steve & Lobelia Lawson when I spied this marvelous approach to boat repair.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Sat 06.27.09 - Saturday was a big delight. I took the train from London Paddington out to Oxfordshire to hang out with Family Hicks. We had a nice lunch in their backyard, I got to meet Tufts and Tom Tom the new guinea pigs, and then we went out to Chipping Norton for Mantha's 8th birthday musical theatre adventure.

Upon return to Chez Hicks, the little ones had tea then went to bed. Leigh and I procured beverages and very good Chinese to go food, friends dropped in, and then karaoke was sung on Sing-Song (?). Unfortunately for me, I had to get to the train station to catch a the last train back into London before I could sing my Darkness song.

Even more unfortunately, my train was 1.5 hours late (o.O). But it was all worth it for the gloriousness that is Oxfordshire in the summer.

Big thanks to Leigh and Jon for hosting me.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Fri 06.26.09 - After dinner at Busaba Eathai on Wardour St, we walked over to Broadwick St. to get a photo in front of the cholera water pump (see "Ghost Map") and then to have drinks at the John Snow Pub. It was good fun and Dan Rubin brought his bag of camera fun, which included a Fuji polaroid style camera that at the very end of the night, we took lots of photos with. More like all the ladies took photos with Jason Santa Maria (in the red shirt) and Jeremy Keith (white shirt with stripes & crosses).

All in all, it was a completely delightful evening. Many thanks to all.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Fri 06.26.09 - Jon Hicks and Andy Budd enjoying the sunshine outside of the Southbank Royal (something) Hall near Waterloo Station, London. About a half hour later, or as the cat herding organizers turn, a group of us walked over the bridge, through Leicester Sq, up into Soho to go have dinner to the same delicious Thai restaurant that Andy took my Mom and I to in Nov of 2007 and whose name I have forgotten now. The said Thai place was able to seat 14 of us with no reservation after a small wait on a Friday night. They Rock. If I could just remember the name...

A nice Google search has yielded the name - Busaba Eathai at 106 Wardour St. Delicious.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Fri 06.26.09 - Two of the bestest, dearest gentlemen on the planet: Steve Lawson and James Whatley.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Fri 06.26.09 - This morning I had the most delightful time at the Tuttle Club London, which due to a music conference at the ICA was held on the deck of a cafe in St. James Park just across the Mall from the ICA. Being in the park, on a deck, surrounded by grass and trees on such a lovely, sunny morning was the most delightful summery thing I can think of doing in London. Esp. when said activity includes great conversations with like minded geeks.

I think the Tuttle Club LA (LB) needs to meet outside sometime this summer.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Thurs 06.25.09 - A horse chestnut flowering in Hyde Park.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Sun 06.21.09 - Sunday night the nice folk from Zeiss took us to a restaurant in the Aalen town center that had good food and drink, and a shiny table.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Sun 06.21.09 - Driving from the Stuttgart airport to Aalen via the autobahn. The countryside was lovely in its summer glory.

Late this afternoon, I will board an airplane at LAX to travel to Stuttgart, Germany, with the eventual destination of arrival in Aalen tomorrow evening. The important detail here is that Aalen is the home of one of the two Carl Zeiss lens factories in the southern part of Germany.

Yes, that Carl Zeiss, the Carl Zeiss of gorgeous Hasselblad lens kits, the Carl Zeiss lenses that photographers drool over for their (D)SLR's, the Carl Zeiss lens that has been on every Nokia Nseries camera phone since the N90. Yes, that Carl Zeiss lens.

Now I love factory tours. Love 'em.

This love dates back to elementary school when we were taken on a tour of the Laura Scudder's peanut butter and potato chip factory in Los Angeles. I love the maze of machines, I love the idea of constructing items within this large space and seemingly endless array of processes. I have gone on tours of champagne bottling, plum jam, peanut butter, extra large printing presses, among others.

On Monday, I get to go tour the Carl Zeiss lens factory.

Photography + Great Design + High Tech Factory + Tour = HAPPY!!!

***********

The next equation I will write about in this series on the Carl Zeiss tour, will be what makes a great digital or mobile phone camera:

Lens (optics) + Sensor Chip + Algorithms + Memory

Fri 06.12.09 - Created with PicSay on my Google Ion... I am trying out
all my moblogging options. So far, PicSay is a bit of a fail.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.

Sun 05.17.09 - Here are my photos from our first day in Honolulu / Waikiki plus the travel to get there. I am here for Alex Hernandez and Paige McCormick's wedding, when my mom and sister heard I was going they decided to come to Hawaii, too. Family Hernandez plus the wedding party are staying at a rented house on the North Shore of Oahu, and we are in Waikiki.

My favorite moments of the day involve birds: of the feathered and metal varieties. On the flight over, about half way through, I noticed out my window that a United Airlines plane was quite close to us, close enough to get a photo with my camera phone. Of course, I ran the GPS so that I could get an accurate geo-tag on ShoZu and then map it to Flickr. My idea of entertainment mid-flight when there is no wi-fi on board. Once we arrived, my Mom and I took a big walk (probably about 4 miles) down the length and breadth of Waikiki, and I was delighted by the lovely birds and flowers we encountered.

To end our long day of travel, we had an excellent dinner at the Bombay Indian Restaurant on Ala Moana Blvd. I would definitely go back. Tasty!

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)

Photos taken on Sat. 05.02.09 by Jen Hanen with a Nokia N79.

Sat 05.02.09 - Oh Sweet, Young Love. Sometimes when one of your friends is in love, it can be a bit too sweet, a bit sticky; but at other times it can be sweet indeed to know your friend is so happy.

It was good fun to hang out with James Whatley and Vikki Chowney today, and sweet indeed to see them both so happy. I am glad that they decided to take their much needed holiday, or escape from London to SoCal.

We had a good time going to dim sum at the Elite Restaurant in Monterey Park, driving around downtown, stopping to take photos at the Gehry Disney Concert Hall, driving from the start of Sunset Blvd at Main Street all they way to the 405 fwy, and then off to the Getty Center and Museum on the hill for the views and the art. After toddling about the Getty for a few hours Matt Singley and his lady met up with us and I departed for home.

All and all a lovely day.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N79.

Sat. 04.25.09 - Happy sixth birthday to this blog, Black Phoebe :: Ms. Jen! Or happy blog anniversary! Yay!

It has been a big day with Jesse & Krista Wilder's baby shower, grocery shopping, the April Birthday Girls BBQ at my place, then to Salon Pop for Nicole Welke's art show, thus I am - like Scruffy - all tuckered out.

Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N79.

Thurs 04.23.09 - A big Happy Birthday to Ms. Haley Callis for her big 25th birthday! And to add happiness to joy, Happy Anniversary to Haley and Jeremy for their 2nd wedding anniversary!

Tomorrow, the 24th, is my birthday. And Saturday, the 25th, is this blog's 6th Anniversary!

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N79.

Tues. 04.21.09 - My lunch was *not* agreeing with me, so I stopped at Bay Liquor to get a 6-pack of Diet Coke (oh, lovely bubbly nectar of the post-modernist goddesses), when I got back in the car Magnus was perched on the passenger side dashboard and was not moving. He did not get off until we parked at home, luckily we were only 2 blocks away, that little sandy rascal.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N79.

Fri. 04.17.09 - This afternoon, I met up with my mom to go to lunch and to see the Roger Kuntz painting exhibition, Roger Kuntz: The Shadow Between Representation and Abstraction, at the Laguna Art Museum. We had a delightful outdoor garden patio lunch across PCH from the Museum at the Madison Cafe and Gardens before we headed over to the Museum to see the Roger Kuntz show.

Both my mom and I truly enjoyed Kuntz' Freeway series of paintings from the early 1960s as they had strong light and shadow all the while hovering between Abstract Expressionistic Color Field paintings and Pop Art. We also loved the marvelously impish "surrealistic pop" Blimp series from the early 1970s, I particularly liked the "Lunar Approach" and "Goodyear Hits Target".

My mom liked Kuntz works so much that she bought the exhibition monograph the Museum bookstore. As a small aside, my Grandma Grace studied painting under Roger Kuntz in the early 1960s, so after we went to the museum, my mom left to directly go over to my Grandma's to show her the Kuntz book.

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 03.29.09 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N79 while out walking the dogs.

Sat 03.28.09 - Who knew one could use one's ear plugs to hold one's cigarettes? Innovative.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen on 03.28.09 with a Nokia N79 at Alex's Bar, Long Beach, CA.

Thurs. 03.26.09 - This afternoon, my Mom and I walked over to Seal Beach's Main Street to try out the new Vietnamese restaurant, Phở Basil Leaf. I had been watching the arrival of a Vietnamese place with trepidation, as I am so spoiled with being less than 15 minutes away from the mecca of Vietnamese food - Westminster and Garden Grove's Little Saigon. My trepidation was further fueled by the menu that Phở Basil posted in the window of the storefront just a few buildings closer to the Seal Beach pier from O'Malley's.

The posted menu seemed to be Americanized Vietnamese. Instead of the usual Phở menu of about 10-15 different variations of beef phở, there were only four listed: beef, chicken, pork and tofu. I have never, in 25+ years, of going to authentic Vietnamese restaurants seen a tofu phở on a menu before.

As a dedicated cha gio bún (Bún chả giò) fan, to see that the only bún options were in beef, chicken, pork and tofu, made me think, "Ugh, the attack of Americanized Chinese-Vietnamese food. Ugh."

Even though Phở Basil Leaf opened over 6 weeks ago, I was waiting to try it out. Waiting for my Mom to be available, so that if the restaurant was dull and Americanized, then my Mom could not force me to go again.

Luckily for us, Phở Basil Leaf was good to surprisingly fresh. The "Summertime Spring Rolls" (as seen above) were fresh and delightful. My Mom declared them the best she has had in years, I thought they were good. My pork bún was good, but not nearly fish sauce-y or basil-y enough. My Mom liked her beef phở.

Phở Basil Leaf is good, but given the immense amount of competition within 7-15 miles, I would love to see them step up their game and aim for a wider variety of authentic Vietnamese and not just dumbed down for Seal Beach's Main Street.

Phở Basil Leaf, give me some rice wrapped pork (not chicken) chả giò for my bun with a big basil & fish sauce kick. Where is the beef phở with meatballs, beef marrow, and fish balls?

Phở Basil Leaf, challenge us. Seal Beach's Main Street is not Main Street America, but a main street in the most diverse metropolitan area in the world, we can not only handle kick ass Vietnamese, but we will drive for it.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen at Chiraco Summit with a Nokia N79.

Every butterfly and its brother must have been migrating today across the desert today. As I was driving home from Arizona about 15 miles before Desert Center on Hwy. 177 until Chiriaco Summit (about 34 miles in total) on I-10, waves and waves of butterflies were flying low across the roads and highways.

It was beautiful and sad. Beautiful to see hundreds and thousands of butterflies all at once. Sad to see so many meet their deaths on the grill of my car.

Mon 03.23.09 - This afternoon a group of us went offroading: Joe Hanen (on motorcycle), Joe Maxwell (on quad), Kyle Vestermark (Mr. Toad in the lead Tyrex), Cayden Vestermark (as Mole in the lead Tyrex), Christine Woods and I (in the following Tyrex). We went from Shea Road (Parker Speedway) to the Bill Williams and Planet Ranch and back in the Arizona Sonoran Desert.

It really was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, even odder with me taking photos every 30 seconds with the Nokia N79. The photos were exported into Quicktime with iPhoto and then uploaded as a movie to Flickr.

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.

Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.

Sun 03.15.09 - Showing the Nokia N79 to Kenyatta and Ella of Rocketboom on a stair landing at the Austin Convention Center at SXSW Interactive.

Here you go, the first day of Ms. Jen's panel transcripts:

Sat March 14, 2006 - SXSW Interactive
Austin, TX

11:30am - The Creative Path
Jim Coudal - Coudal Partners
Brendan Dawes - Magnetic North
Gary Hustwit - Filmmaker "Helvetica", "Objectified"

Objectified premier is at the Paramount at 5pm.

Jim Couldal:
Creative Path: show don't tell.
Speaking on Joseph Conrad, literary theory, "we are complicit in our own corruption" By the time you have finished the book or movie, the narrative leads you through your own corruption much more powerfully than if Conrad was to write an essay.

Montessori - Teaching kids to learn.
Layer Tennis - Live on Friday afternoons, two artists swap a file back and forth in real time. Continue to add to the file on top each other's work. Ultimate end is to probably to reduce productivity on Friday afternoon. Restraint and freedom, creativity comes out of the balance between the two. Keep in mind that the act and result of creation is a conversation, not a lecture.

Gary Hustwit - Seventy-five minutes and thrity-six seconds.
I make documentary films, which are linear fixed forms of media. There is no way for the viewer of the film to change the plot line, characters, destination, or duration of the film, unless they get up and leave.
How do you make a fixed documentary film to be interactive?
1. use ellipsis... Intentionally leave out information, that the viewer of the film needs to put in themselves, a moment of discovery is more compelling than if someone tells you what the story is.
What is not there, what is left out. It leave the piece open to interpretation.
Delayed gratification.
2. Make it a game. bring in puzzles.
Dialogue going on between the viewer and the film.
Timing, juxtaposition.
"If all else fails, put a dog in the film." - Gary Hustwit

Brendan Dawes -
Made a flash video editor in 1998 - Pyscho Studio - See if folks could make their own version of the pyscho shower scene.
The danger is that when you give folks things to play with, you get some weird shit. Then you realize that people are weird.
Human beings versus machines. Computer would plot an efficient line from a to be. Critical Mass by Philip Ball is where he had folks walk across a park, before they put in the paths, to see how humans used the park.
Good design is about taking things away. Gives example of traffic calming in Brighton, by having the sidewalk & street be the same space with no directions & signs -> it makes drivers slow down to 10mph and be much more aware.
Makes sketches, as sketchbooks don't run out of batteries.
doodlebuzz.com - We get complacent with interface, why can't we create new interface.
"People think these days that if you can't use an interface in 2 seconds that it is rubbish. That is rubbish." - Brendan advocates making new UIs and making the user work for it.
You can start with Britney Spears and end up with the Pope. Any interface that allows you to do that is good.
"If you don't go out in the woods, nothing will never happen & your life will never begin..." Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Part I :: Scruffy Walking Bird :: Two Years Ago

Sat 02.28.09 - My Mom and I decided to drive up and explore Lake Havasu City to combat "cabin fever" this afternoon, as we drove north on the Arizona Hwy. 95, I decided to stop at the Bill Williams Wildlife Reserve "scenic view" spot for photos. Scenic it was.

All photos taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95 and stitched together with Fireworks.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with Mom's Nokia N82

Mon 02.23.09 - The rear guard / back up troops have arrived... Mom and Scruffy pulled into my brother's place in Parker, AZ, around 5pm or thereabouts today. My mom kindly agreed to come out to Parker to help me keep Cam resting and taking care of himself.

Which is a very good thing, since when I walked out of Joe's house this morning to go across the street to my dad's place to check on him, I found my dad in one of his crony's trucks about to take off to go to have coffee. Grrrr....

While it seemed like a good idea after a night's rest, when Cam returned from the jaunt, he was much worse for the wear and more willing to go back to his bed and nap. When Mom showed up, she told him that if he didn't behave that she would get a electronic dog training collar for him and set up a perimeter. She was only half joking.

On the Vicksburg Rd from the I-10 to Parker, AZ.

Sat 02.21.09 - Cam didn't want to eat his chicken pot pie.

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

Sat 02.14.09 - In the parking lot of the Lakewood First Baptist Church before David Andrew Golz's memorial service. Much love and big hugs to all of the Golz family.

Sun. 02.01.09 - My cousin Katy at the Equine Affair at the Pomona Fairplex this afternoon.

Sat 01.24.09 - And now I am driving home.

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

Wed 12.31.08 - Alex's Bar all dressed up and ready to go!

Sun 12.21.08 - Today is the shortest day of the year, the start of winter, and starting tomorrow the light wins.

Sorry for the lack of words here the last few days, I have had a very stressful last week in work world, I have been fighting a cold for a good week and a half that has decided to revisit with a vengeance this weekend, and last but not least - after a delightful Friday of celebrating Thomas' joining the Land of the Free & Brave - yesterday I received a phone call that a friend who I have greatly admired for years was killed in a car accident on Friday. Thus, the last 24 hours has been very sad on top of tired & sick.

I truly hope that the light starts to shine tomorrow and into the next year.

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

Fri 12.19.08 - A certain Thomas became a true hyphenated German-American this afternoon, or as he put it, a "Germerican".

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

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.

Sat 12.06.08 - Or Mom and Scruffy across the cross walk.

Sun 11.30.08 - Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the last day of November, and the last day of the November NaBloPoMo challenge (3rd Annual).

Fare the well, November. Until next year...

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.

Wed 11.20.08 - At the family pre-Thanksgiving party: Dana, Anne, and my mom - Sue.

Sun 11.16.08 - Today I set my alarm clock to wake me up at 8am (on a Sunday!) so that I could meet up with Julie Wanda, Jessica B, and their friend Beth at Julie Wanda's house in Orange, so that we could drive up to the Shriner's Auditorium near USC in Los Angeles for the Felt Club.

There was a huge line around the building and parking structure a good half-hour before the event even started and once we got in it took rigorous, organization to be able to see all the booths and not get too separated. I went along, not because I was planning on shopping, but to see a bit of the world that many of my friends love - crafting - and have the time to hang out with and talk to Julie Wanda, which was worth it. After 3 hours of the zaniness that was a couple of thousand folk milling around the Shriner's, I was ready to get the heck out of dodge and have some lunch.

All in all it was very good to see the amazing creativity of the folks who are involved in the alt-craft / alt-art scenes. My favorite booth was the Nifer Fahrion felted elf ladies, super cool nifnaks and the Nifer elf gals were also super cool. Julie Wanda bought one of the black & white flower brooches to wear with her conservative work suits as a sprucer-upper.

Jessica was very excited to buy two squirrel prints from the Berkley Illustration, which were super cute and subversive all at the same time.

While very crowded, the Felt Club was fun browsing and great people watching.

Sat 10.18.08 - The Red Cinder Cone in my mirror.

Sat 10.11.08 - Water hole cover as seen this evening on a sidewalk in Culver City, Calif.

Sun 10.05.08 - The 12th Annual Japan America Kite Festival at the Seal Beach pier. The sky was beautiful.

Thurs 10.02.08 - Allison and Belle.

Mon 09.29.09 - Today's 2/3rds of the House Republicans' revolt against the Republican Administration's bailout bill signifies the definitive beginning of four months of George W. Bush's lame duck presidency.

All Photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

The synopsis of the very first ever Nokia Open Lab 2008 is below the "fold" (aka click on the continue reading bit)...

All Photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Wed. 09.10.08 and Thurs. 09.11.08 - Thus the Nokia Open Lab 2008 starts off with travel from Seal Beach, California at an ungodly hour of the morning on Wednesday (ie before 5am) to get to LAX in time for a 7am (!!!!) flight to New York's JFK airport before transferring on to Helsinki via Finnair.

My neighbor Earl was so kind as to give me a ride to LAX before the crack of dawn even thought of getting up. The flight from LAX -> JFK was wonderful due to the lovely inflight GoGo wifi, as previously documented. At JFK, Micki and I stopped for lunch at an amusing "bistro" that was themed as a New York cop bar with the servers in fake police uniforms.

The plane ride from New York to Helsinki was uneventful, in that there was no wifi, and my poor rowmate, Rahul Nair, got a chatty Ms. Jen (sorry, Rahul...). But hey! Rahul was a part of the team that was responsible for Zonetag and Zurfer. Oh how I would have liked to have met him 2 years ago when I was working on the Around Ireland project. In my defense, it was an 8 hour flight to Helsinki and Rahul has been working in geo-location for a couple of years... ;o)

Thurs 09.11.08 - Best sunrise I ever seen, mind you I try to avoid them, but this had an amazing range of reds.

Photo taken today on a Finnair flight over the Baltic on the way to Helsinki.

Sun 09.07.08 - Julia Elman at DjangoCon 2008.

Thurs 09.04.08 - Pup outside of the Pike.

Thurs 09.04.08 - My Favorite invention of the week : Champagne in a Can. Thanks, Sofia!

Wed 09.03.08 - Scruffy and the Labradoodle at Dog Beach.

Fri 08.15.08 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95 at Dog Beach, Huntington Beach, Calif.

Mon 07.28.08 - Earl assembling the paint sprayer.

Fri. 07.25.08 - Earl and Jeremy are painting our apartment building. They have spent this week sanding, scraping, power washing, and patching in prep for next week's painting.

Wed. 07.23.08 - While sitting at the Wine Tasting area of the OC Fair, one of my brother's old friend's from high school, Louie, came up with his family and said hi. It was excellent to see, even if briefly, Louie, Janine, and their sleepy, tuckered out little people.

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

Thurs 07.17.08 - Bird themed day - As seen in Earl & Sharon's living room while standing on Earl's couch to look at the nesting morning dove and her two newborn chicks just out the window. The photos of the dove and her chicks were obscured by two windows and a screen, thus you must settle for a puzzled cardinal.

Sat 07.12.08 - As seen at the local garden center.

Fri 07.11.08 - Actually these were "Late Afternoon Glories".

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.

All photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95 on Sat. June 28, 2008 at the Ocean Star Restaurant and at the Huntington Library and Gardens.

Sat 06.28.08 - Today Erika and I had the great pleasure of helping Dave surprise Lauren by leading her off into distraction land, so that he could ask her to marry him without her having a clue of what was to transpire.

Over a week and a half ago, Dave emailed me asking if I could help him pull off surprising Lauren, who is the ultimate planner and very hard to surprise. I said yes, I would love to help, but give me some time to cook up a few good options in subterfuge. That day I talked to Erika about it, we decided that we should trick Lauren with a plan to go to lunch and a museum for Erika's "birthday". I was determined that this would go off properly and that Dave's presence in Southern California would be a big surprise.

Today "The Plan" was executed - Erika, Lauren, and I had a lovely dim sum lunch at the Ocean Star in Monterey park. After a good lunch we proceeded on to the Huntington Library & Gardens, where we went to the "This Side of Paradise" Photo Exhibit and to the Main House to visit Pinky & Blue Boy. Much chatter and laughter. Then off to the Rose Garden. Erika kept Lauren busy, while I texted Dave on our progress towards the Japanese Garden where he awaited our arrival.

I won't go into all the details, but let's just say that Lauren had no clue and was VERY surprised to have Dave tap her shoulder while she was taking a photo of a water lily at the Japanese Gardens.

And let's just say that Erika & I were very happy that D&L were very very very happy.

Dave & Lauren:

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

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 - 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.

Mon 06.23.08 - Activity Schedule for Les Doggies at Camp Sue:
5:50am Wake up call
6:00am Running around the property and following Sue around as she watered.
6:30am Dogs barking as Camille drops off 2 canoes.
7:00am Sue throws ball, Belle and Reo catch it.
8:00am Weed the vegetable garden.
9:00am Belle goes in and out of the house following Sue.
9:30am 1st Nap of the day.
11:00am Belle v. Reo in the 2008 Bishop Chuckit Finals. Belle 8, Reo 1.
Noon 2nd Nap of the day.
2pm Watch the Humans.
3pm All dogs climb in old Escape to drive to Rock Creek Lake.
4pm Throw ball and stick, dogs fetch.
4:30pm Walk all the way around the Lake.
6:00pm 3rd Nap of the day
7:00pm All dogs get bathed
7:30pm Dogs fed
8:00pm Humans eat dinner, dogs beg.
9:15pm Last outdoors excursion.
9:30pm Dog lights out.

Update:
1:10am Tick found crawling from Scruffy across bed to Human. Human completely freaks out, uses side of hard cover book to try to kill tick. Instead flushes it down the toilet.
2:38 am Camp Director Sue wakes everyone up to ask then to open windows, as she has turned off the A/C. Scuffy rolls on carpet next to Reo & Amigo, picks up YET another truly disgusting and evil tick. Human again picks up tick and flushes it down toilet.
4:something am Human finally falls asleep, then dreams of 20 foot ticks attacking dogs and humans.
6:10 am Dogs and Humans wake up to find the air filled with smoke from lightning strike fires.

Sat 06.21.08 - 1:49pm - Hoff and Kevron in the midst of their favorite activity.

Fri 06.20.08 - 1:52am - Mike explaining the rules.

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

Sun 06.15.08 - Scruffy poops out on the McGee Creek trail.

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 06.13.08 - As seen in my brother's backyard this afternoon.

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.

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.

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.

Tues 05.20.08 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen out the window of her 4th floor hotel room in Bayswater, London, with her Nokia N95 way too early in the morning before departing to the airport.

Mon. 05.19.08 - Last evening in London before departure back home.

Mon May 19, 2008 - Today, my last full day in the UK, I was supposed to go to Bath, but due to exhaustion which turned in to a sore throat I stayed in my hotel room all day.

Sun 05.18.08 - Ribot, Guinevieve, and James at the Food 2.0 Nom Nom Nom dinner.

Hanging out with the lovely folks who participated in the cookery contest and the Trusted Places after party was the most fun I have had in a very long time!

Sun 05.18.08 - Abhi lives in London and we met up for tea / coffee at the Apostrophe's in Notting Hill today. We hung out chatting and having a good deal of fun before I went off to the Food 2.0 Nom Nom Nom event and Abhi went back to studying for his CFA exams.

I met Abhi on the 4th Chennai Flickr Photo Walk on Sun Feb 10, 2008 as we were both looking for the rest of the photo walkers at the beginning of the morning.

Sat 05.18.08 - The first Geekyoto at Conway Hall in Holburn, London.

Sorry the photo is slightly blurry, but I was trying to get a photo of Ben jokingly doing jumping jacks without the Nokia's flash on.

Fri 05.16.08 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95 while waiting for the Circle Line train at the St. Pancras / King's Cross Station after a lovely evening of hanging out with M. and various other nice Moo.com folk at the Prince's pub.

Wed 05.13.08 - Anytime that Chris and Alec want me to conduct a market research interview about my opinion on Nokia, I am available... ;o)

The only downside to my trip to the Nokia store is the did not have any wired headsets available for the N95, neither does nokiausa.com. Bluetooth is too crackly to listen to music on and the pair of earbuds that came with my N95are broken. Thus the trip to the Nokia store on Regents St.

Tue 05.13.08 - London Day 0.5. Dinner with Donna, Siobhan, and Colin at The Aphrodite Taverna on Hereford Rd, Bayswater, London. The evening was so lovely we ate outside. Delightful.

Sun 05.11.08 - Eoin and the front half of Joe's boat gets soaked while on a Mother's Day cruise of the Colorado River. Ms. Jen gets blamed from some corners for driving the boat too fast into a choppy wind driven swell, but gets kudos & clapping from other corners of the boat for catching such a great wave at the right angle.... ;o)

Video captured by Ms. Jen whilst driving brother Joe's boat on the Colorado River with a Nokia 95.

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

Sun 05.11.08 - Belle and Mom on Joe's boat today in Parker, AZ.

Sat 05.10.08 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95 camera phone while boating on the Colorado River in Parker, Arizona.

Sat 05.10.08 - 9:23 am. I am the designated Rhino driver for the b-day boy.

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.

For a variety of reasons, fast cars and even faster panicked dogs at the vet, the last few photos I have moblogged here have been blurry.

I am happy with them. Yes, blur is good.

When Greg took off before I could capture the photo of him & Ryan in the hot rod, I was afraid that my Nokia N95 could not and would not take the photo fast enough to capture Greg's peeling out on to Electric avenue. But the N95 did get the photo.

Last evening, as I drove north-east to Sandra & Justin's house in Ontario, I wanted to get a photo of the golden Brea Hills that were speckled with oak trees and shrubs. I kept pointing the N95 to shoot while I was driving at the or a bit over the freeway speed limit. Due to the fact that the sun was going down, the light was all wrong and I kept getting a bright sky with dark hills. I decided to fool the light meter in the N95 by pointing it low and then moving it to see a bit of the sky as the shutter was releasing, which caused the white out effect. I love it when I can get a Nokia camera phone to white most the landscape out but leave a few saturated objects, in this case the red car speeding by on the other side of the freeway.

This morning I took Scruffy for his yearly vet check up and shots. He gets nervous and shakes violently when he is at the Vet and the Groomers. This morning it took a while for the vet, Dr. Kali, to come into the examining room, so to distract Scruffy I tried to take photos as he attempted to jump off the exam table and into my arms.

It wasn't that bad. Scruff survived. I love how the N95 focused on his legs & paws on the exam table but everything else is slightly blurred.

Which brings up one of the major reasons I primarily shoot photos with my camera phone: the gift of a good shot within the randomness of very little control and the constraints of capturing good photos with a mobile phone.

Wed 05.07.08 - At Scruffy's annual vet visit. Dr. Kali rocks. He is very calm and he calmed Scruffy down.

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.

Sun. 05.04.08 - Happy Sunday to you from four local iris-type flowers making their May debut into the big bright world.

Last Sunday I made a note for myself of four things I wanted to blog about this week, but due to busy-ness I have not gotten to a single one of them until tonight.

Let's talk about work vs. rest or how to take a day off when you are a freelancer:

I have blogged a few months ago that I have spent the last year traipsing down a variety of career avenues in search of the perfect post-graduate-school career position but there has been no perfect path, only the path to being overwhelmed and over-committed as I have found myself involved in a wide swath of interesting projects and working many days in a row without a true day off. Then I get frustrated with spending all day every day with my computer and then I start to slow down & procrastinate about finishing things up with the excuse that I need time off.

Add it up and you get....

A desperate need to catch up, finish up, and actually take a day off. But the worst part is that when I do take time off, I feel too stressed out and guilty to enjoy it. This is bad.

Enter Ryan's article on the 4 Day Work Week. Carsonified says the 4 day work week makes their office more productive as folks arrive on Monday actually rested.. The 37 Signals folks found that they were honestly only productively coding a certain amount of hours every day so why not distill that time into 4 days and have 3 days off.

There also is the guy writing/talking about the 4 hour work week. The trick to this is outsourcing every task in your life and then writing a book about it and it selling well.

I don't think that I will want to whittle my life down to a 4 hour work week, but I would like to set a goal to a productive 4 day work week rather than a stressed out with productivity falling 7 day work week.

Where to start? Just do it? I love being online and on my computer, my work merges with my passion. My computer is also my main tool, next to my mobile camera phone, for my creativity and art. When I create art with these tools, the Protestant Guilt Ethic creeps in and asks why I am playing instead of working.

How do the Carsonified & 37 Signals folk walk away for 3 days? Or do they separate their job work on their computer with their love / passion for being online and creating?

If you are freelance or your work & love are on a computer, how do you manage the work / life / creativity balance?

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

Fri. 05.02.08 - I meant to post this over at the Happy Tastebud, but I did not fully inspect Lifeblog before I pushed sent. Oh well.

This is a photo of the diary-free Shrimp & Argula (Rocket) Risotto I made tonight. It was tasty.

Tues. 04.29.08 - Jason, Bryan, Arnold, and Donna at the Sky Room Bar in Long Beach.

This photo was taken with my Nokia N95 and then posted to this blog via the N95's Lifeblog as a demo on mobile blogging during the Nokia Open to Anything event.

Mon 04.28.08 - Robbie and Amir at dinner at FuRaiBo in West LA.

Sat 04.26.08 - Happy Birthday, Bill West!

All photos taken by Ms. Jen in Mumbai, India, with a Nokia N82.

The above photos were taken in Mumbai (the city formerly known as Bombay), India, from Mon. Feb. 18, 2008 until late Wed. Feb. 20, 2008 while on the Nokia Urbanista Diaries. Mumbai was my last stop in India and my second to last stop before passing the 'baton' on to Ryan Gallagher.

What to say about Mumbai? Within 15 minutes of being away from the airport and driving the hour plus south to my hotel, I knew that I was going to love this city. Mumbai is great big beast just like my other two all time favorite cities: Los Angeles & London. Mumbai is the Indian sister city to a mash up of LA & Miami. Big, spread out, something going on all the time, lots of lovely art deco to modernist residential architecture from 1920s-1960s (like LA & Miami), lively, and more than a bit chaotic.

I stayed at a hotel that came recommended by Lonely Planet in the Colaba district of southern Mumbai, as I could walk to most of the stuff I wanted to do from there. In the 2.5 days that I was in Mumbai, I walked around as much as possible, took as many photos as possible, and took an afternoon ferry out to Elephanta Island in the Mumbai Harbor.

I would like to go back to Mumbai and spend more time exploring the city, as 2.5 days was not enough.

Click on a thumbnail and then navigate through the lightbox slideshow by putting your mouse over the top right hand side of each photo, titles along the bottom.

Enjoy the photos, I have only the Austria photo essay to do to wrap up the all of my favorite photos from my leg of the Nokia Urbanista Diaries trip.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82 in Goa, India.

[After a mad six week hiatus, I am back to posting my Best of Urbanista photo essays...]

As a wrap up for my Urbanista Diaries adventure, I am going to be publishing photo essays of my favorite photos that I took in each city that I visited. Some of these photos are in my flickrstream, most of them on the nseries.com website, and some are new to everyone but me.

The above photos were taken in Panaji, Goa, India, from Fri. Feb. 15th, 2008 to Mon. Feb. 18, 2008. Why did I stay for 2.5 days in Panaji (Panjim) rather than go to one of the Goa beach resorts? Well, I both in Bangalore & Kerala I asked taxi drivers their recommendation for Goa, and they both said: Panaji. I wanted to go to the city (Urbanista, after all) in Goa that was the most Indian rather than the attack of the Euro-Aussie-Whatever-Party-Piglet-Beach. And I am glad I did.

Panaji was a great mix of old school Portuguese buildings, 1940s art deco architecture, 1960s concrete brutalisme, with a good dose of India. It was laid back with a strong tourist component. Most of the other tourists or holiday makers I met were down from Mumbai for the weekend.

Unfortunately, I did not get to Old Goa and the Bom Jesus Basilica, mostly due to a crooked cab driver who I would not let gouge me. Next time I will walk the 9 km rather than be shook down. I will go back eventually to see the Bom Jesus.

Click on a thumbnail and then navigate through the lightbox slideshow by putting your mouse over the top right hand side of each photo, titles along the bottom.

Enjoy the photos, two more cities to come.

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.