New 'True Blood' trailer

Gaga and True Blood...what could be better?

New 'True Blood' trailer shows werewolves -- The Live Feed | THR

Won't You Be My Neighbour

View of our soon to be neighbourhood looking down at our house from the hill.

Eye See You

Becoming referee | dooce

If you aren't already reading Dooce's blog you should be. It has quickly become a daily click for me without hesitation. Seriously - click the link - you won't regret it.

Becoming referee | dooce�

I want to have all these outfits to shoot with...

Goodbye BC Place Dome - time lapse

Check out this awesome capture of the BC Place Dome deflating. For me BC Place is such a Vancouver icon and one of the first thing that spring to mind when I think of downtown. It is a bit sad to think of it being deflated but I am sure the new roof will be cool in its own way....maybe.... 

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

This is Perceptions from Puddles

Left is *Em*
Right is *Jess*

Perfection?

Amazing what a little quick and dirty photo manipulation can do. 

Recess

This is Perception from Puddles

Left is *Em*

Right is *Jess* 

Emerald City

A Year in Review

365 The Final Images

The final images from my 365 challenge. Enjoy! 

Owls

I am loving owls at the moment. 

"Killer Whale"

Funny comic to light up your Friday. 

Side note - I feel that the recent events with this killer whale fully justifies what many consider my "illogical" fear of whales. Whales kill people. They may not mean it but they are big and in water and they kill! So there haters.

New Haircut - New Beginning?

Maybe, maybe not - but a change is as good as the rest.

Apple's Sexy iPhone App Ban Explained - Techland - TIME.com - StumbleUpon

Apple's Sexy iPhone App Ban Explained - Techland - TIME.com - StumbleUpon

How about don’t download it. Who are these women and why can’t they just get a grip? I don’t have any use for the Bible Phrase a Day nor does it apply to my belief system but I am not asking Apple to take the app away.

A change this way comes...

365 Outtakes December

Valentines Love

Pancakes in bed, gorgeous flowers and awesome Bluetooth for my iPhone?

Best husband ever.

November 2009

365 Outtakes

Tiny Words

Dedicated to J.D. Salinger

This is Perceptions from Puddles

Left is *Em*

Right is *Jess* 

A New Year

A new year, a new layout, a new challenge?

It has been a couple of months since we all said good-bye to 2009 and I am just stopping for a moment to catch my breath and reflect upon the year that has passed and all there is to look forward to in the year ahead.

A year ago today (a year exactly. this was not planned I am no where near that organised) I started last year's personal challenge which was the "Year of Jessie". So did I succeed? That is a tough one. I did make a conscious effort to stick with the Year of Jessie plan, really I did. I saw out my 365 photography challenge to the end and am loving the results. It forced me to shoot everyday and to learn to look at my own photos without criticizing every part of my self (well most of the time anyway) and my work. I did continue to lose weight and get healthy this year while managing to except that I wasn't a contestant on Biggest Loser and any loss was a good loss. I spent time with friends and having fun - sometimes a little bit too much fun (ahem, Emma and Rob's housewarming).

So where did I drop the ball? I was going to stop thinking the grass is greener some place else. This has apparently been challenging. Once again we have returned home from a trip to Perth more confused than ever on where we should be and what is the best choice for us and our family. I am constantly struggling with myself at the moment as to whether or not the pull to move back to Perth is one of a practical and strategic nature or, if once again is a case of things aren't perfect here so they must be better there. I fear it is the latter of the two.

The key factor of the year of Jessie was to hate less. I believe my words were to keep my prickles but avoid becoming thorny. Out of all the goals I set myself for last year this was the one that I kept close everyday. It is a hard one to know if you really succeeded on or not but looking back now I think I did alright. Is there room for improvement? Of course! But I definitely gave people the benefit of the doubt a bit more and realized (often due to watching myself make mistakes) that no one is perfect and that is okay.

So what does this mean for this year? Keep on keeping on I would say. With the following goals in mind:

• Stress less - anyone who knows me knows that I stress at an unhealthy level. Must stop that! 
• Quality time - tying in with stressing less, I want to spend more quality time with those I care about this year. I want to use that time to do memory making activities instead of just going through the motions.
• Write more - that "novel" sitting in my laptop is not going to write itself. Since I have wanted to write a novel for as long as I can remember I need to make it a priority to sit down and type it out. Take the challenge and not get scared when it is hard. 
• Give more thought to my photography. I gave a lot of time last year to my 365. Taking a photo everyday was awesome and really did get me shooting more. But often the shots were rushed and I just got what I could. I want to take more time this year to plan out shots. Get an idea and follow it through. Take the time to play with certain shots and ideas until they become something I can be proud of. 
• Love better - I often take the people that are closest to me for granted and don't show them the love that they really deserve. This will change. 
• Make the best with what I have. Stop looking for the next best thing and realize that with a few tweaks, what I have could be paradise. 

So here we go - another year, another personal challenge. Let the "Year of Quality" begin.

Going in with eyes wide open

October 2009 365 Outtakes

Tumbling Away

Just as an FYI - I have also started a Tumblr blog which I am spending a lot more of my time on now. I will still be posting on this blog for sure but for cool things I stumble upon, little quips, etc check out my Tumblr.

Also if you have a tumblr I would love to follow you so please comment with your Tumblr address.

September 2009 365 Outtakes

365 Outtakes August 2009

Australia – The Wrap Up

Because I was having to much fun to take the time to blog here is a quick and dirty wrap up of our final two weeks down under.

When we got back from Adelaide we went for a nice (but ridiculously overpriced) lunch at The Boat with Janne and Glen. As always, Mindarie provided a beautiful location for a drink and some food.

In an attempt to have a “nice meal”, Charlie, Lindsay, Sarah and I thought we would try Hippo Creek down at Hillarys. Unfortunately the wait was over an hour so we went to The Grill instead. We should have waited for Hippo Creek. The food was terrible and took forever to arrive. At CinCin prices I expected better. We still managed to have a fun time though and made up for the lacklustre dinner  with yummy Cold Rock ice cream for dessert.

Finally in our second week we made it to the beach! It was a beautiful hot morning and the sea breeze hadn’t really come in yet. The water was warm and calm and I got to try out my new waterproof Fuji which was awesome.

After the beach we went by and got a wicked kebab at Peter’s By The Sea. Then we drove to South Perth and had a lovely visit with Nanny Irene. The new place she is living is really nice and has lovely gardens you can go and sit in and relax. 

With the intent of going to Bar 120, we met Callum and Erin down at Hillarys. We started out with a few games of pool at Pot Black which was fun but I was reminded of how terrible I really am at pool. After a couple of drinks there we made our way to the line up for Bar 120. This is when Sarah, Lindsay and I discovered that we are too old for clubs. We were officially those old people in the line who everyone was looking at and laughing at. I thought that we would be fine despite this, even though Sarah pointed out that we were almost old enough to be parents to some of them and that it would be believable if we went to the doorman and said we just needed to pop in for a moment as we were looking for our son.

What did it for me was when the hundredth absolutely wasted girl stumbled towards us in a dress half off and heels that were an ankle injury waiting to happen and I had to fight the urge to pick her up put her in a taxi and send her home. That was when we said goodbye to Erin and Callum and drove our old asses home.

I finally got to go to Perth Zoo. Though there weren’t heaps of animals around for viewing all was forgiven when I saw this guy. I officially love Wombats now and want one as a pet. Lindsay has said no. I am working on it. 

Friday night we went for a BBQ at Casey and Bruce’s house. It was so much fun and I miss them so much!!

One of the best meals we had in Perth was with two of my favourite people. Nadia and Sean suggested this new place called The Naked Fig. The setting alone made it an immediate favourite but the food was really good too. I feel I would be a regular there if we ever moved back.

We went for dinner in Leederville with Janelle and Gilly and then to this funky cafe. I loved the atmosphere and it really felt like it could easily be in Mount Pleasant.

Monday evening Lindsay was in Cervantes and Sarah and I met Nathan for a couple at The Queens. After way to many laughs and a jug of water to sober me up we said a sad goodbye to Nath.

We didn’t feel like taking the drive down to Margaret River this trip so we went out to the Swan Valley instead. We found this great little brewery called Mash. I tried a great cider there (not quite as good as Pipsqueak) and had some tasty nibbles. 

Our final night we had one more going away party at the Sovereign Arms in Joondalup. It was a great night with lots of good friends.

Down Under – Week One

I can’t believe we are already a week into our holiday. It seems to be going so fast. We flew out on Christmas Eve on our round about journey to Perth. First stop – Los Angeles. What a shit hole. LAX has never been my favourite airport but the section that we were in was terrible. Thankfully we only had two hours there and then we were off to Auckland.

Thirteen hours after we left LA we arrived in sunny Auckland, New Zealand. We had around a 6 hour stop over in Auckland so we decided to get a hotel room near the airport so we could eat, sleep and shower before our next and final leg. We stayed at the Holiday Inn which all seemed very nice. That is until it was time to leave and my stomach began to gurgle. We had eaten toasted ham and cheese sandwiched when we arrived with chips. I had sour cream with my chips. Not a great idea. By the time we got to the airport I couldn’t stop throwing up. We boarded the plane and by the time we were taking off the vomit bags were in full use. As soon as I could, I made my way to the toilets, where I stayed for the first two hours of our seven hour flight. Then  the crew found me. They gave me 3 seats to lay down on close to the washrooms. The food poisoning lasted for the entire flight and I even had to be taken off the plane and out of the airport in a wheelchair. Very embarrassing but kind of good since we got to skip all the line ups at customs and quarantine and go out with the crew. The food poisoning lasted for another day in Perth but then I was feeling better.

On Monday night Caz and Birdie had us over for a BBQ. It was great to catch up with them. Birdie made a lovely lamb dish that was amazing after not really eating anything for two days.

Tuesday we met Nathan for lunch at Little Creatures in Fremantle. The place was packed (what else is new) but we managed to find a table on the back patio. Despite the muggy and humid heat that day we had a nice lunch and drinks.

Wednesday morning we flew out to Adelaide to spend New Years with Carney, Davina and the kids. Gibbo and Louise were also there so with our wolf pack of four (Charlie, Sarah, Lindsay and Me) it was quite the full house. We had two days of 40 while in Adelaide and it was scorching. Of course the usual shenanigans occurred once everyone had a few drinks down them which led to some interesting photos and videos. ;) 

We flew out Saturday morning back to Perth. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30am so we had to be up around 4am. Fun! We got out to the airport with plenty of time only to learn that there was something wrong with our plane and we had to wait for a part to come in from Sydney. A 2 hour delay!! Not happy! We finally made it back to Perth and after a quick Rooster Roll (yummy as always) we all went back to bed.

I am happy that we won’t have to get on another plane for a couple of weeks.