three six five

Five hundred, twenty five thousand, six hundred minutes later, my little 365 project is finally over.

It's strange. This is one of those moments in your life that you know is approaching, yet it always seems perpetually far away from happening that you never stop to think twice about how soon it actually is coming up, not unlike graduation day, or the day of your wedding, or something. Once it's finally here, you're not sure what to think. The wait is over, it's happening, or it's happened, and after the fact suddenly you're left with one lingering question:

What the hell do I do now?

I have to say that this 365 project almost gave me a sense of purpose everyday. It gave me a reason to blog. It gave you a reason to check my blog. Since January 1st, 2010, I had wired myself to always be on the lookout for what would be an "awesome picture of the day for today." Now that it's over, I'm stuck wondering what I'm going to blog about now.

Well, to be honest, I've been planning for this day for awhile. While I shuddered at the thought of writing actual blogposts again (not that I don't enjoy it...it's just that if I have nothing of substance to say for 2 months, I won't), I realized that this project doesn't have to die. It can be reincarnated in another form.

As such, I want to continue taking pictures of the day because its just so damn fun to chronicle everything that (sometimes isn't) happening in my life. It gives me something to look back on and reminisce on. It gives me an incentive to look for some intriguing part of my day that I wouldn't have found if I hadn't been spending so much effort on making sure I have something to post. I don't think I'll hold myself to the strict have-to-take-a-picture everyday standard I've had for the past year (and it was hard to find a picture to take if I did nothing but sit at work all day) this time around. Instead, my picture a day blog will resemble something more along the lines of the work of Jamie Livingston, in which he took a picture everyday until the day he died tragically young at the age of 41. He did his best to have a picture everyday, but would have a "placeholder" non-picture on days he didn't. In other words, I'm continuing the 365 project, but with less pressure.

With all that said finally out of the way, I wanted to give you guys a sampling of the my 2010 with what I believe are best pictures of each month. Enjoy.

January
Day 10:
Honorable Mention:
Day 26:

February
Day 45:

Honorable Mention:
Day 51:

March
Day 86:
Honorable Mention:
Day 70:

April
Day 103:
Honorable Mention
Day 116:

May
Day 128:
Honorable Mention
Day 143:

June
Day 154:
Honorable Mention
Day 179:

July
Day 206:Honorable Mention
Day 209:

August
Day 234:
Honorable Mention
Day 240:

September
Day 247:
Honorable Mention
Day 252:

October
Day 283:
Honorable Mention:
Day 277:

November
Day 307:
Honorable Mention
Day 317:

December
Day 338:
Honorable Mention
Day 358:

Day 365: this is the end

How fitting it is that my very last picture of the 365 project is taken at the very last second before the day, nay, the year is completely over. There's alot that could be said about tonight and even more to reflect on (one thing being that this is the second year in a row that I have been more sober than drunk when the clock struck 12...something I haven't done since before college), but there will be more on that later.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Day 364: I still have too much time to think while at work

Just spotted and installed today: more unoffensive landscape art to add contrast to the bare white walls and sea of blue cubicles.

Day 363: I have too much time to think while at work

A nearby SAIC office happened to have closed down recently (not a good sign, actually), and as such, the excess office supplies/furniture/decor were ransacked and distributed amongst other surrounding SAIC offices like plunder from a pirate's buried treasure (sorry, I just watched the trailer for the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean movie). Some got the chairs, others got the staplers. What we got was the office art.

Upon careful observation, my coworkers and I have determined that any prints that are framed and hung in offices fall into two categories:

1) abstract art that consist of neutral or pastel colors and simple shapes that in no way can actually be interpreted as anything
2) landscapes

I suppose the purpose of these works of "art" are to add some much needed color (using the term very loosely here) to an otherwise rather drab and depressing environment of blue cubicle walls and cheap wholesale commercial carpet, while avoiding the risk of possibly offending or stimulating anyone in any way whatsoever.

God bless corporate America!

Day 362: I made a special cake for you to ruin

My sister made a realization that despite it being her birthday, we never had a cake or candles to celebrate. So here we are.

Day 361: little balls

Every year my family has a White Elephant gift exchange. I came away with a fancy schmancy foot massager type thing (considering my contribution was a Giants snuggie, I think I got a pretty good deal). While the thing still tickles the hell out of me, I'm sure I'll learn to appreciate the awesome power of little rotating balls on my health and well being.

Day 360: jubjub

I have relatives staying over my parents' place tonight, and they decided to bring their pet iguana or lizard or dragon or whatever to stay. Let me tell you, these things feel exactly like their rubber toy counterparts.

Day 359: no, this is the most wonderful time of the year

Just cause we have our Christmas party on the 24th doesn't mean we can't celebrate on the actual day as well.

It's funny, as the years go on, the Christmas gifts you get become more and more practical. I used to get fun things like Legos as a child. This year my sister got a cutting board and I got a Trader Joe's gift card (not that I'm complaining).

Merry Christmas everyone!

Day 358: the most wonderful time of the year

For reasons I don't recall and are now irrelevant, my family decided to have its Christmas celebration on December 24th as opposed to on the actual day. We all gathered in Watsonville, a small farming community where my grandma currently lives and where my mom and most of my aunts and uncles grew up.

My Grandma's house is literally in between a ditch and a strawberry field, so this is the closest to having an "over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go" experience.

Day 357: is this real life?

So correct me if I'm reading this incorrectly, but did a former tenant of my apartment run a fake business here? And that you need a permit to run a fake (fictitious) business in San Francisco?

Day 356: come for the freak, stay for the food

I love the holiday season. There's never a shortage of free food in the break room at work, no matter what job I'm working.

Day 355: veinte

Happy 20th birthday to my sister!

Part of my birthday present to her was to offer my apartment as the site of her NorCal birthday party (she apparently already had a party in SoCal the week before). Surprisingly enough, I think this is the most beer I've had in my apartment (not pictured: the 3 other cases of beer) at one point since I was 20.

Lest we forget.

Seeing all these tweens slowly fill my apartment tonight and somehow convert my small round dining table into something you can play beer pong on reminded me of those days when I was just as much into "raging" (as the kids call it nowadays) as they are now. It also made me appreciate the fact that my sister wasn't around to see me on my 20th birthday party.

Day 354: blue moon

Did any of you catch the lunar eclipse tonight? I got the first 10 minutes of it, before the rainclouds/signature San Francisco fog rolled in naturally and ruined this once in a 500 year phenomena for me.

Day 353: cruise control, my man

Another long drive down to Southern California, another long drive back home to the Bay Area, another lonely desolate landscape shot somewhere in the middle of nowhere off of highway 5.

Day 352: no one goes there

In celebration of my friend's birthday, we made a quick semi-impromptu drive down to Southern California. We take birthdays pretty damn seriously in my circle of friends, and we always make an adventure (or a bbq, ya know, whatever) out of the anniversary of the day of our originations.

This year, the birthday girl desired to go to Pharaohs Adventure Park in Redlands. It's basically an Egypt-themed Chuck-E-Cheese, complete with arcade, ball pit, roller coasters, go-karts, and crappy pizza buffet. She had claimed she was supposed to visit this park when she was 9, but was late when the vans at her school took off and was therefore never able to enjoy the park as a child (cue single tear down my cheek). Well it's 16 years later, and this being her 25th birthday, we had to make up for lost time:


My friend was right when we told him we were visiting this park ("what the hell? why are you guys going there? no one goes there"). It probably didn't help that since it was raining, all the roller coasters were closed and the go-karts were deemed unsafe due to the slippery surface on the track. But oh it looked like it would seem so fun to enjoy the crappy pizza buffet and the cheesy faux-pyramid decor in a B-movie kinda way (so bad, it's actually kinda good).

I guess the saddest part is that even at 25, my friend still hasn't had the chance to enjoy the Pharaohs Adventure Park, no matter how hard she tried (we unsuccessfully tried to convince the maintenance guys at the go-kart track to let us drive our car on the track). But someday, we'll find a way to get her there. Someday.

Day 351: leopard print bean bags

...are surprisingly comfortable as something to sleep on, especially after a long 7 hour drive down south in the wee hours of the night, in the dark, in the rain.

Day 350: salvia

To add to my growing list of pictures of plants this past week, my coworker decided to bring in yet another flower to decorate our otherwise drab looking office.

Me: Ooh, what kind of flower is that?

Him: It's a type of salvia plant.

Me: Isn't that the stuff that Miley Cyrus got high off the other day?

Him: Who?



He then went on to explain that this is salvia wagneriana or something like that. The type of salvia kids get high off of nowadays is salvia divinorum.

Upon closer inspection however, I told him that this actually does look like something you can smoke:

Day 349: some variation of an x-mas themed title

It's a bit dark, but if you look closely, you can see my tiny 3 foot tall fiberglass Xmas tree, complete with plastic ornaments and a rotating rainbow of colors.

Makes for good mood lighting.

Day 348: jimmy and warren

To celebrate our boss's departure for vacation last week and subsequently an unsupervised next 3 weeks, we decided to take an extra long lunch at the Chinese buffet down the street.

Money being tight nowadays, I never get to eat that well or even much anymore. The best part about today's celebration however was that it was all paid for. By my coworkers, that is.

Two months ago we had new-hire join our team (read: another minion for me) and my current minions and I made a bet on how long she would last here, given the boring, soul-sucking nature of our job. I had the most faith in her and having stayed past the two month mark, I won the bet. Woo. Hoo.

Day 347: fruity computer

I've always been a staunch proponent of Team Microsoft when it came to the I'm a PC/I'm a Mac wars, so it pained me to learn that the industry-standard software in the world of video editing could only be run on computers that are made by a company whose mascot is a fruit.I figured if I wanted to make any headway in this industry, it was necessary to invest in this machine (most internships require that you are running a Mac), and make the ungodly switch over. Luckily one of my instructors knew the plight I was in and was able to hook me up with a fairly good deal (and threw in a free copy of Final Cut Pro to boot).

I feel so dirty. Yet hip.

But worry not, my natural repulsion to anything Apple related (with the exception of ipods...they're an evil company but they did the mp3 player right) will prevent me from ever becoming one of those irritating Mac fanboys who swear by the 'flawlessness' of anything Steve Jobs pulls out of his ass.