32.365 - The Ultimate Triumph

I've owned this ring for a long time, and I've worn it as long as I've had it. It reads "Le mo ghrása mise agus liomsa mo ghrá" which is Gaelic for "As I am my beloved's, so my beloved is also mine."

But the point of this photo is not the ring, rather it is a tool by which I achieve something else entirely. The book here is Triumph and Tragedy by Winston Churchill, the last of the series he wrote about the Second World War. Also, not the point of this photo.

The point is the symbolism of all of these things combined to create something much bigger. Both the ring and the book were given to me by people I have loved deeply. I love the ring for it's connection to my heritage and for the message it bears. I love this book for its argument, for it's prose and for the way it smells. It's an old book and I enjoyed reading it with an absolutism that has yet to be rivaled.

I love.

31.365 - Taren

Oh hai Blogger! This is Taren. I work with her, and she's awesome. Aside from the crazy hair and goofy disposition (which never really turns off, thank goodness) she's fun and awesomely gorgeous (even if she doesn't know it).

I was just playing with lighting in the store before we took some other photos and this little gem popped out.

Taren, you are awesome. Don't stop being so.

kaythxbai.

30.365 - Spring Has Sprung!

I took my friend Marcel some NyQuil today, as he is laid up sick at home and had not the energy to do it for himself. The blessing in disguise (aside from, of course, doing something nice for a friend) was finding these GORGEOUS trees on the street outside his house.

So, Spring has sprung, Fall has fell, Winter is here and it's colder than hell.

I'm so ready for Spring.

29.365 - Blossoms

I think I really...like REALLY...can't wait for the warmer weather to get here. I don't mind winter on the whole, but I miss warmth a lot.

27.365 - Looking Up

I'm not even going to pretend that I'm good at this 365 thing any more, and I'm not going to try and pretend that I'm going to get back to uploading one photo every day at any point. I would like to, and maybe I will. But, I want to finish out this 365 with 365 good photos. That may come one per day, or that my come every other day. We will see.

26.365 - Trek On!

On Friday Claire, Jess, Mike, Karen and I trekked up to Alum Rock (Rawk?) park to take photos. It was cold, but blessedly not rainy or muddy. It was full of sulfur water that is rumored to be safe to drink, but smells so absolutely disgusting that I can't imagine getting any closer to it, much less being forced to drink it as part of a elementary school field trip. All the same, we went, we smelled, and we photo-ed. It was awesome.

This is my pick for the 365 for several reasons.

First, I feel it sort of encapsulates the trip in some ways because when Claire mentioned that she wanted to go here, she attached a photo of one of these stone bridges in her message.

Secondly, it has stairs. You all have not yet been introduced to my obsession with staircases yet. I love staircases. When I took photo in college, I took hundreds upon hundreds of photos of staircases. I dragged my mother out for a staircase tour of San Francisco (which, incidentally, is a photo trip I would like to recreate, any takers?).

Third, I like it. And that is enough.

I have awesome friends. I think that they know this, but on the off chance that they do not...well, you guys rawk! :)

25.365 - Old Habits

I am notoriously bad at sticking to things. Any of you who have been following my 365 may have noticed this. At the same time, I am a creature of habit. This makes reforming my habits very difficult. I become very emotionally attached to the ritual of doing certain things, and this is (primarily) what makes quitting smoking very difficult.

I enjoy smoking. As a ritual. It is comforting in a weird, turn-about sort of way. I know it is awful for me. I say (time and time again) that I am under no delusion that smoking is good for me. In fact, I often cite, it is a rare smoker that pretends that smoking is--in any way--good for them. I am no different. I know it is horrible. It is a nasty, disgusting habit. I do not want to be a smoker for the rest of my life. That said, I attempted to quit smoking in 2009. We can see how well that went. For the most part, I was good. But, as is the case with most things, it is the exception, and not the rule, that matters. The fact that I smoked at all was not good. It meant that I had not truly quit. As is evidenced by this photo, I am still not quite over that compulsion.

I find that physically, at least, quitting smoking is not difficult. Emotionally, however, was a whole different ball game. I enjoy smoking. It is a highly social activity that has brought many things to my life. At the end of the day, though, that is not enough of a reason to hold on to the habit. Earlier tonight, when I was hanging out at Barefoot Coffee Roasters, a good friend of mine, Melissa, confessed that she had quit. Her reasons were not purely altruistic in the end--it turns out that the expense was one of her chief concerns. So, now that I feel like I have a bit of camaraderie in this endeavor, I make another attempt and chucking this habit for good. I thought a photo was in order for the occasion.

For those of you who have been championing this decision, this is for you. For those on whom I have made this decision very difficult, I apologize. And for the rest of you I say this, "It really is never too late." Go out and do the things that you want to do. Do what you know is best. You will always have someone to support you in the decision.

----

All the commentary aside, I like this photo. It is not perfect, but I got what I wanted out of it. I had the perfect shot...before I realized that the card was not in the camera. So...this close second will have to do. :)

24.365 - Perspective

I have just regaled you all with the fact that I am terrified of self portraits. In truth, I'm really quite afraid of the camera lens in general. I know what I see, and I'm not so sure I want the rest of the world to see it too. If I point the camera at myself, I'm looking through a lens, at myself, and then posting it out into the world for everyone to see. All of those things that I am so terrified of are alarmingly obvious to me. What if they are to everyone else? What then?

All the same, here we are. I have pretty eyes. I like them a lot.

23.365 - Urges

This photo is from the 17th. It's two days late. I have no photo for yesterday. I'm really awful at this whole 365 thing, aren't I?

So...I've been completely terrible at this. And here's my attempt at explaining it.

First, I wanted to start branching out into self portraits. Only, there's a little hitch there. I'm TERRIFIED of self portraits. Absolutely terrified. Also, the whole self timer thing gets really old really quick. I REALLY ought to look into getting a remote shutter release.

Second, well...I've been lazy.

Third...there are no excuses. So, I'm back.

That said, I sometimes have an inexplicable urge to be upside down. Though I hadn't realized how difficult setting a self timer, running a few feet, and propping myself up into a bridge would be. You will notice that I didn't quite get the time to get my left hand back onto the floor back there. At least I was looking at the camera?

So...I meant to toss this into cs2 and edit it. But forgot. Then I uploaded it on accident...and by the time I realized what I had done, it had 10 views. Oops... Can't take it down now I guess. What's done is done.

22.365 - Vanity

Sometimes the real joy in doing a project like this (or, in truth, just having a blog) is the chance I am given to allow myself to be completely self-indulgent and flaunt it to the world. I had a shitty weekend, and I'm exhausted. Between being busy with family and friends and all of the work that entails by body went and decided it was going to get sick. By sick, of course, I don't mean just a cough or a sore throat. I mean full blown, laid up in bed, fever kind of sick. I was miserable. And still am. The really shitty thing about being sick like that is that I miss out on everything and whine and cry like a little baby.

So, now that I'm back to the world at large, here we go again. I debated attempting self portraits, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough for that yet. So, attempt number one. I ended today in great need of a hug. Luckily, I have a live-in-hugger. It's quite convenient you see. Any time I want a hug I can turn to Sean and say, "Hey, you! Hug me!" So, that's where I'm at today. Figured I'd toss in a bit of skin while I was at it. He's got pretty skin. :)

21.365 - Patti Smith

My Grandmother is quite the woman. She was delighted recently to have been called "fabulous". She truly is. I generally describe her as a "hoot", because...well...she IS. She's always so happy and likes to spread that joy with everyone around her. She tells stories as though everyone else in the world partakes of them like water. She loves coffee and the color red. She's also got a rather amusing obsession with cats and religions.

I love my Grandmother. She gives in the expectation that others will take and makes it nearly impossible to say no.

My Grandmother is sick. It makes me so sad to watch age take over her life one day at a time. She will be 85 this August. She was left outside the Salvation Army when she was just a baby and adopted by her aunt not long thereafter. She's lived quite the life and has stories to tell to anyone and everyone. It's difficult for anyone to dislike her. I love my Grandmother.

20.365 - Sean Jumps

I tend to avoid posting photos of Sean, even though I take so many of them. The reason is not because I think he's not photogenic, or that the photos are bad, but rather I feel like what I capture with the camera just isn't the Sean that I see. It just doesn't seems like the Sean that I know and love. It makes me a little bit sad, and maybe I'm looking for too much in the photos, but it is just a block I have.

Earlier this evening, Sean wanted a "Spiderman" photo of himself. I believe Claire managed to get the shot Sean was looking for. I, on the other hand, took a slightly different vantage and came out with this little gem. It's so delightfully Sean. He's almost out of the frame by the time I got this shot, which speaks to me of his eagerness to always be on to the next thing. Honestly, that boy never stops moving. I love his shadow on the wall, and I adore that you can follow his line of movement.

I adore this shot in so many ways.

19.365 - Goddess of Chaos and Discord

My cat, Eris, is four and half years old and she's as cantankerous as the day I brought her home. I named her Eris after the Greek Goddess of Strife. I realized a little belatedly that I was tempting fate a bit too well with that name. Eris is an adorable little girl, but she grew into her name as time went along. As I was feeling a little less than motivated today I decided to take photos of my adorable little girl. She didn't like that very much. She was all but uncooperative. Seeing as she's been more than annoying most of the time in recent days I thought it was a bit rich of her to snub her nose at me. So, I did what any good mother would do...I bribed her with food. My rweard for that was to earn her all to sharp claw in my fingers. I love my cat.

18.365 - Ramen

There is nothing like the holiday season to up and crush any dreams I might have had for my 365. So, I plow along as though nothing ever happened. My holidays were good, thanks kindly for asking. I spent some time with the family and a scattering of hours with my friends and enjoyed it all immensely. There was the allotted amount of drama that always happens. All things considered, it was a good year.

Sean and I, thus exhausted from the holiday weekend, did what we do best in response to exhaustion and stress. We went out for Japanese food. Tonight's main course took the form of Kahoo Ramen's Shoyu Ramen. It was, as it ought to have been and always is...amazing. There's something about a bowl of ramen that always does the trick at the end of a long couple of days.

17.365 - Best Friends

Sometimes all one needs is a good coffee date with some old friends and all seems to right itself with the world.

16.365 - I <3 _______

I've been feeling a little bit down lately. Not for any particular reason really, but it's just sort of been there. It's almost as though I'm sick. Only, I know I'm not. There's no sore throat, no cough, nothing. My sleep patterns have been okay at best, and it's sort of getting to me. I've been taking far too much personally, and it all adds up to something of a grumpy Siobhán. I found this bush vine thing in front of my car and photographed it. Only after it got onto my computer did I realize that it looked like a heart.

There is something about the end of the year and the holiday season that always has me going on an emotional roller coaster of ups and downs. So, as I've been down I'm working on moving righ back up. If I have any power to change the things in my own life I hope that by executive decision I can move right on back up. Between this and the Cafe Brule shot I took the other day, I'm feeling a bit better.

15.365 - Mila

This is yesterdays photo. I was just too tired to upload it last night. So here it is today.

This is Mila, an adorable little 1 year old English Bulldog puppy. She weighed in around 45 pounds and was happy and peppy as any puppy I've ever met.

14.365 - Bay Area Rawk

Curious Quail (aka Mike) played a free show at Red Rock Coffee in Mountain View tonight. I always enjoy his shows, and it's a bonus to get coffee while I'm at it. I took a million photos while I was there, and got some good shots...and some bad ones. In the end, I REALLY REALLY wanted to post a photo I took of Mike's feet...but I felt it was a little anti-climactic. And, since a good deal of you might not even know who this guy is...I feel like I ought to give you a shot of his face. And, you know, maybe some kind of indication that he's a real musician and all. Check him out. He's awesome. Curious Quail. :)

13.365 - We Could All Be Gods

Alex is such an amazing guitarist and singer, and he's so fun to watch when he plays. I practically bounded from my scrabble game when he began playing and snapped a few quick photos of him. He was great and ignored me for the most part, which I hoped he would do.

12.365 - I <3 Yarn

Knitting is one of my most obsessive hobbies. I fall in and out of it more easily than I do anything else. Yarn stores are a haven of compulsive shopping and I generally have to stop myself from picking up each and every skein of yarn I see. The green yarn you see there will eventually form a few Christmas presents for a few people. The brown and white skein is awaiting its transformation into a sweater dress for myself. And the pink yarn is one I've been coveting for a good long while and is currently being knitted into a cabled scarf and matching hat. :) I <3 yarn hardcore...you don't even know.