New Years Eve

Happy New Year to everyone! For some that might be difficult...my heart goes out to everyone who was affected by the earthquake and tsunami which has claimed over 120,000 lives!

Rain On My Parade

It's still cloudy and cold outside but at least it's not raining. The bad news is that it might rain for new years which sucks for the Rose Parade.

Clear Blue Sky

It's been raining for a couple days now so I was real surprised to see it suddenly clear up. I took advantage of the time and went out to take pictures of the pretty flowers.

Killer Waves

It seems like every night the death toll doubles...it is now up to 44,000. What a catastrophe.

Giant Waves

The death toll is now up to 23,700 people lost from the results of a 9.0 earthquake and tidal waves in 9 countries. What a tragedy!

Tsunamis and Earthquakes

This is so sad! After a strong earthquake in Indonesia and several tidal waves over 13,000 people are dead! It's been so long since L.A. had an earthquake I'm starting to worry we might be the next city hit. Let's hope not.

Prettige Kerstdagen

Thanks to Skippy for this awesome Dutch Christmas card.... Prettige Kerstdagen en Gelukkig Nieuwjaar to you too!

Ugly Christmas Lights

Sometimes people get out of hand with their Christmas lights! To see more ugly Christmas decorating check out this site.

Sora

Another co-worker brought a doggie into work today. The doggie's name is Sora and belongs to my co-worker's friend. Sora will be moving to Japan soon with her mom so it was cool we got to see her before she left.

Mall Shopping

The mall was a madhouse today. Crazy man, Crazy! Too bad I waited this long to finish up my holiday shopping. It's cool though.

Office X-mas Party

We had an awesome little x-mas party at work today. Here's a picture of some pals at work. From left to right: WenShan, Thomas, Jason, Nishaat, Zach, and Irfan.

Colorful Sunset

Although it's been really windy lately, the sunsets have been very beautiful. I took this picture right outside our office door.

Tough Time

Today I had a real tough day a work...good thing the day is over. Now it's time to start fresh...
Yesterday was pretty cool. I took this picture yesterday on my way to work.

The Green Mile

Good, it's finally all over. Now the media can move on to their next victim.

Tova

Today was such a pretty day! A co-worker brought his puppy (Tova) to work and everyone totally fell in love with her. She's the cutest thing! Here's a picture of her and I. To view more pictures of Tova, click here.

Smelling the Roses

Life is so much nicer now that this semester is out of the way. Now I could stop and smell the pretty roses.

One Final Left

Tonight is my last final, I can't wait! This is going to be my toughest final so I'm still really stressed. The worst part is that I am going to be missing my brother's Birthday dinner because of that final. Happy Birthday to my bro who turns 25 today. =)

Think Happy Thoughts

Looking at this picture you wouldn’t know I was about to rip my hair out by the roots. Today I have a presentation to give, a paper to turn in, and a final to take…it’s all too much. Once that’s over with I can focus on my last final of the semester and then….home free!!
Anyway, this is a picture of my Sponge Bob pop I got one day when I was hagin’ out in the park.

Gambina Doll

I needed to post something that would cheer me up today. I'm so stressed with it being the weekend before finals. I can't wait 'til it's all over! Anyway, I got this dolly for my mom when I was in New Orleans earlier this year. It always makes me smile...she's just so cute!

Peek-a-Boo

Every morning Booshie (Princess) loves to lie at the window to catch some rays. But when she hears someone in the room she’ll play peek-a-boo behind the mini blinds. Silly Cat!

It was a Silk-Cotton Tree

Thanks to Thomas we now know that our Bread Fruit tree (See posting on Nov. 10, 2004"If not Bread Fruit then what?") is really the Kapok Tree or Silk-cotton tree. Turns out they use this tree for all kinds of cool things:
-the straight trunks are used to make dugout canoes
-the white, fluffy seed covering is used in pillows, mattresses, flotation devices and padding
-the seeds, leaves, bark and resin have been used to treat dysentery, fever, asthma, and kidney disease
Isn’t that awesome?! Anyway we picked one of the Silk-cotton pods and found all this cool stuff inside.

Pony Plush

Marco got me this little pony plush 3 years ago at Knott's Berry Farm. I love it!

Too Many Dead

This was an artistic representation on campus and symbolizes the soldiers who have lost their lives in the "Freedom" war our country is currently in. Enough said.

Bobby, Mom & Ralphie

I took this picture on Thanksgiving morning. Mom was introducing us to Ralphie (right) who is one of the newest members of our family. Ralphie (Raphael) was born 6 weeks ago at my parent's house. The other bird on the left is Bobby. Bobby has been a member of our family since 1994 (right after the Northridge earthquake).

Tubing Time

The boys got new float tubes (2 for the price of 1) on Black Friday so they're headed out to Castaic Lake to try them out.

Sponge Bob Square Pants Pop

Although it's cold outside, it's never too cold for ice cream! And never too old for the ice cream truck. The Sponge Bob Square Pants pop with gumball eyes was great!

Welcome to Black Friday

Wow, I’ve never seen the Camarillo Outlets so crazy. People were waiting outside the major stores since they had reached their capacity. This picture was taken just outside of the Banana Republic where the wait was at least an hour long! That’s just plain nuts!

Preparing to Shop

Thanksgiving is all about preparing for the sales that follow the next day. This is a picture of my bro and his girlfriend looking through the sale ads.

Golfing 101

Today I swung a golf club for the first time. It was so much fun.
A bunch of us from work decided to go….It was amazing. This
picture was real funny because Nishaat missed the ball and ended
up doing a 360. She’s so cute! Here are some more pictures.

Red Flowers/White Wall

I love this plan. I pass it every day on my way to work and had to take a picture. Because it was noon the lighting was not the best so I think I'll have to take this picture again another day.

Hangin' Out

Here are some of my graduate school buddies hanging out before class in one of our research labs. Most of these students will be graduating from the HF master's program in 6 months. Yeay!

Little Flash Games

I found this real cute site (Orisinal) with all kinds of cool games.
Check out the site here.

Uranus-Self Anal Massage for M @ Target.com

Ok, what's wrong with this ad? and what the hell is it doing on Target's website under the entertainment section? hahahaha. This ad seems to be a hot topic of discussion on
many websites including FatWallet and TechBargains.

Here's another interesting item you could buy @ target.com.

Star Wars Gangsta Rap

This video circulated the office today...it's so funny!

Vanna @ Work

I love the people I work with! They're all as goofy as me...it's great! Here are a few co-workers showing off the paper stand they put together.....it only fell apart 4 times after that. So the only downfall to this paper stand is that the user has to keep it from collapsing by holding it while they type. hahaha.

Suicidal Tendencies

Sometimes I think my kitty is suicidal.

The Ultimate

After 2 days of work and several hundred dollars later the boys finished working the "Ultimate" computer. .... Crazy Boys!

Filmore Orange Stand

Today after several hours of shopping with my sister-in-law we stopped at one of the filmore orange stands and bought a couple of bags of fresh oranges.

Plants

Here are the first pictures I've posted on Flickr. So far, I'm loving that site.

Another Place for my Photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aibakker/
http://www.flickr.com/people/aibakker/
Got myself another place to keep my photos. I'll be posting this link again once I actually have photos to share.

It's About Time!

Sensitive Light

Sinsitive Light is one of my favorite photography websites. This British guy has the most amazing pictures up….one day I hope to have a website that looks as good as his. Anyway, here are a few other favorites:
http://pump.poorlydone.com/dieselphotography
http://www.bagladies.nl/ (A picture of my (Ana's) Bag is found on this site under "The Bags 3")
http://www.shadowandlight.net/

For my Funtography© Friend

Hey girl, here’s that tree you loved so much….came out awesome thanks to your funtography© tips.

Rejected Cow

Ok so the weirdest thing happened to me today. A blood donation bus came to our school so I thought I'd do my part and donate. After half an hour of signing papers and waiting, I was told I could not donate. I was so confused. It turns out they could not take my blood because I lived in Western Europe (The Netherlands) for more than 3 months a couple of years ago. They said I may have been exposed to Mad Cow.....What the f$#@*..... that's the stupidest thing I ever heard! Anyway, apparently even if you were a vegetarian living in Europe they still can't accept your blood. So I walked away disappointed and ticked off......... dude that really sucked! And to top it all off the girl wrote "Exposed to Mad Cow" in huge letters on my application. Hahahaha.....

If not Bread Fruit then what?

I don’t know what it is with me and plants all of the sudden. Yesterday I saw this funky looking tree on campus that’s got spikes on the trunk and funny looking fruit type stuff hanging off of it. A friend said it might be bread fruit so I looked it up but it turns out it’s not. So now I’m real curious….what type of tree is this?

Pretty Flower

Campus seems to be filled with pretty flowers this time of year. I didn't really noticed them until I got this awesome new camera...all of the sudden I'm noticing all kinds of cool stuff.

One Step Closer

Today I finally started my pilot studies for my thesis....you know what that means...a step closer to graduation.
Not sure who the guy in the picture is. I saw him sitting there on my way to class and thought it was a great representation of university life.

Rain Clouds

Out of nowhere the sky was filled with heavy grey
clouds and it began to rain...it was so pretty.

Sunday Afternoon

It's almost Monday again...Blaaahh! Wish I would of done more this
weekend but I had so much school work to finish up. Grad school is such
a drag. Can't wait to graduate next May!

Sunny California

Another great day in Sunny Southern California.

Happy Friday

It's Friday! Yeay!

Election Results

Ok, so the results are in and I've only got one thing to say....
God Help Us!

I Voted!

I voted today and I'm feeling pretty good about it.

New Camera

This weekend I got a new camera and had to take a picture of the pretty fall colors around campus.