Jen loves Clark!

Oh my, it's so good to be home again! I had a great time visiting relatives but it was wierd not having time for myself and being so out of touch with my flisties. I trust y'all are well and are totally psyched that 2010 is here.

If you haven't already checked it out, the Clexmas 2009 gift exchange produced some really awesome fic, plus a lovely set of images by the wondrous birthday girl ctbn60 . I'm now using my favorite of these as my banner. And my own contribution to Clexmas was a vid to the tune of Stand by Me, by Ben E. King. It's an AU take on Clark and Lex's epic friendship. (Note that since YouTube muted the audio, it can be downloaded here) (22 Meg). Many thanks to tallihensia for her help!

The Olympic Torch reached Toronto today and was scheduled to arrive at City Hall around 7 PM. With the evening's entertainment kicking off at 6, I decided to arrive early for a good view at 5. Then of course the Torch was nearly an hour late, so what started as a fun evening with friends eventually turned into a bit of a pushing and shoving match as thousands and thousands of people kept on arriving. So eventually my view got constricted to the tiniest sliver, but I still got a half decent shot considering how dark it was.
Brrrr - I've been home for nearly two hours now and I'm still cold. Haven't yet built up my resistance to winter weather.

( more pics under the cut )
Less than 2 months now to the opening ceremonies, which just so happen to fall on my sister's birthday. I'll be visiting her in Whistler and can't wait to soak up the Olympic atmosphere. This will be the 4th games I've attended: Montreal, Atlanta and Sydney being the others. Whistler's solution to the perennial transportation problem is to allow no cars past Squamish unless you're a local - that's why the Transportation Team I'm volunteering with is going to play such a crucial role in the games. Can't wait!

Sorry I've been largely silent lately. I've been in a funk and my sleep cycle is totally messed up. I was saying to my sister that it feels like I'm turning into a vampire, or perhaps a cat. Definitely nocturnal.

I've had a very slow summer. I lost my job a while back and took it easy thanks to a severance package, but am now finding it difficult to go through the job search routine - very depressing. Maybe that has something to do with the sleep cycle thing. At least I got some renovations done to my condo - walls repainted, bathroom redone. I want to change the carpets but with three cats I figure what's the point? They do shed a lot, and treat the carpet as one giant scratching post, not to mention the occasional hair ball. Oh well.

I have been on a few short trips, mostly for stargazing purposes. You have to drive at least an hour to get away from the light pollution of Toronto so I like to go north to Georgian Bay or Algonquin park. No pictures to share sorry - astrophotography is a complete crapshoot for me - I've only taken about five good photos in all my years of trying. I prefer to sketch actually - its a better representation of what you see with the naked eye.

I also took a brief trip to Saratoga for the Travers a couple of weeks back - I do love my horseracing almost as much as Smallville! Here's a snap of Summer Bird as he flies to victory - it was a great day even though it rained on and off throughout. If you want to see more photos, here's a link to my facebook album http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=108627&id=619487292&l=99df6bb5cb

Speaking of Smallville, I'm looking forward to its return even as I'm kinda sorta dreading it. Like so many of my friends, I felt burned by the last half of S8 and just have trouble trusting the showrunners to get it right this time. After all, PS are a very hit and miss writing team and don't seem to have any respect for continuity as witness Veritas and Eternal. But I have seen the trailers and the slowly emerging promo pics and I have to say its looking promising.

That's all I can think of for now. Take care y'all!

Look! See the gorgeous new icon made for me by ctbn60. I actually had to choose between three stunning versions. The other two were more overtly related to Smallville - one omitted the supernova explosion and instead had a last image of Krypton (the Planet) with the message 'Clark Kent was born here'. The other had a last slide after the supernova explosion saying Krypton: Gone but not forgotten. I love both, but settled on this one because I find the imagery so beautiful.

( For details, follow the cut )

Just back from a quick trip to California. The userpic I've chosen is of Zenyatta returning after her victory in the Ladies Classic.  That was the highlight of the trip for me but as far as photos go, the best is below the cut. I've done a fair bit of travel in my time and seen a lot of amazing places, but can't think off hand of any place that surpasses Seventeen Mile Drive in Carmel-by-the-Sea at sunset.
( California dreaming )