WWJD: What Would Jen Do?

last night i had the great pleasure of seeing Jen Pollack Bianco, the amazing person behind My Life’s a Trip, speak at the San Francisco Apple store about travel and mobile technology (and tech in general). her travel blog has garnered all sorts of praise (including, of all places, the German press), but i was thinking during her talk what a great resource she has been in the short time i’ve known her online and in real life. i don’t know exactly when we met, but it was definitely via twitter (she’s @lax2nrt) during a weekly chat (i’m pretty sure it was #TNI).

in any case, it couldn’t have been more than a year ago, but since that time, she:

✈ was the main impetus behind my getting global entry (p.s. if you travel internationally more than twice a year, get it)

✈ recommended &beyond as the safari company of choice (and was not wrong — well worth splurge)

Waiting for afternoon tea at Kirkman's Kamp

✈ hooked me up with @clareappleyard, a great twitterer from south africa (and wonderful dinner companion and dodgy-neighborhood-driver-through-er)

✈ got me into #frifotos

✈ accompanied me to the Art in the Streets exhibit at the MOCA in LA (my first time meeting her) and a hipster wurst meal (at a different place; one that did not cause food poisoning)

A very Banksy part of Art in the Streets

✈ got me interested in iphoneography even when i didn’t have an iphone. (the second time i met her was also at the Apple store in SF for an iphoneography talk.)

BART escalator, iPhoneography-ized.

✈ suggested an itinerary for visiting the siem reap area of cambodia as well as the book Off the Rails in Phnom Penh (yes, a must-read before you ever go to Cambodia)

From the library, like most of my books! (that i don't read on Kindle)

…and maybe more that i’m just not remembering at the moment.

i guess what i’m saying is, you’d really be slighting yourself — and missing out on incredible first-hand knowledge — if you don’t follow her blog or at least follow her on twitter. do it. now. thinking about it, i’m not sure one person has influenced me more in 2011, and i can only hope it continues.