2008 Year In LT

Time to reflect back on the past year of my life!

Albums (in no particular order)
MGMT, Oracular Spectacular
TV On The Radio, Dear Science
Kings of Leon, Only By The Night
Snow Patrol, A Hundred Million Suns
City and Colour, Bring Out Your Love
Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
Rise Against, Appeal To Reason
Hot Chip, Made In The Dark
My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges
Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Songs
Coldplay, "Viva La Vida" - I was OBSESSED with this song when it came out. I used to blast it from my computer at work and all my coworkers would get so annoyed with me. But damn, good song. And the iPod commercial that went along with it was superb.
Black Kids, "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Girlfriend How To Dance With You"
Cut Copy, "Lights and Music"
The Presets, "This Boy's In Love" - When I play this song really loud, it reminds me of being entranced in the 80's. They also remind me of Depeche Mode. Thanks to Chris Zachos for introducing them to me!
Thrice, "Moving Mountains" - What can I say, Thrice is great.
Weezer, "Heart Songs" - Listen to this song.
The Hold Steady, "Constructive Summer" - Cruising down PCH

Best Song Intro
Death Cab for Cutie, "I Will Possess Your Heart"

Best Song Outro
T.I., "Whatever You Like"

Movies
The Dark Knight

Books
The Last Lecture - My friend Jon gave me this book for my birthday. It really left a mark with me and there were many takeaways from it on ways I want to make sure I live my life while I'm still alive and well. I highly recommend it. And thanks Jon for the awesome bday gift!

Live Shows
Weezer @ The Forum
Radiohead @ Hollywood Bowl
Oasis @ Staples Center
TV on the Radio @ Wiltern
T.I. @ Key Club
The Kooks@The Wiltern
Offspring @ Chain Reaction
Thrice @ Avalon

Websites
MySpace Music! myspace.com/music
Twitter

TV
LOST - I don't watch much TV, but I became obsessed with Lost this year. I watched a couple episodes with Michelle in San Diego and I was hooked. I rented the entire season 1 and watched it in 3 days. Then I watched seasons 2 and 3 until I was finally caught up with season 4.
Heroes - Once I had watched all of Lost, I dug into Heroes season 1. Then I heard season two was bad and I never got around to paying to this season on TV. Anyone recommend I get back into it?

Trips
This year my goal was to take one international trip, and I ended up taking two!
Aruba - My cousin won an all expense paid trip to Aruba through her work. Her husband couldn't go, so she took me. It ruled.

Costa Rica - One of the many places I've always wanted to go, but had never been. I went with a group of 10 friends (mainly from UCSD) over Thanksgiving. Pura Vida!

Mt Whitney - A lifelong goal of mine has been to hike to the top of Mt Whitney, the highest peak in the 48 states. This year, I finally did it. It may have snowed 4 feet the week before and I needed to wear crampons and use an ice axe to get to the summit, but I did it. It was one of the hardest 3 day journeys I've ever taken, but I'm so glad I did it. Check us out here at the top of the world:



I look at my life from three different perspectives that I always try to keep in alignment at any given time- my career, my personal life, and my health. This year, all three couldn't have been better. I've been working at MySpace for over 2 years now, moved to MySpace Music full-time, and it's still as exciting as ever.

And this year I truly followed my motto of working hard, but playing harder. Every other weekend this winter was spent in Mammoth. Who knew you could work a full-time job and still manage to ride between 20 and 30 days a year? Once summer hit, it was all about the beach. I spent nearly every weekend hanging out at the beach and surfing with friends. And I met a cute surfer boy :)

Another One of my goals this year had been to improve my overall health and fitness. I stopped running last year after a spree of ankle injuries and went on a hiatus for a while. And this year I got back into it. I ran numerous 5 and 10k's and completed the Nike women's half marathon this past October. I used to not have enough workout clothes, and now my drawer is overflowing with shirts I've gotten from all the runs I did this past year. I must say, it feels pretty good.



I know I've been lucky in life, and I'm very thankful for it. This year I decided to give back and get involved in the LA community by volunteering. Surfing is something that changed my life, so when thinking of how I could give back this was an obvious place to start. I spent every other Sunday this past summer volunteering for Boarding House Mentors. It's a program that teaches inner city kids how to surf. And it's amazing. I went there to help others learn, but I ended up learning a great deal myself. Funny how that works. I can't wait until the Boarding House Mentors snowboard season begins.



Overall, 2008 was a year of major personal development and goal setting for me. Between Mt Whitney, half marathons, international travel, weight loss and career goals, I set the bar high for myself and am proud to have accomplished what I set out to do this past year.

2008 - you have rounded out to be one amazing year. Now I toast to an even better and more amazing 2009. Pura vida!

LT

P.S. If you search through my blogs on MySpace, you can seen my year in reviews from 2006 and 2007 if you are interested :)

Storm Watch 2008

Living in LA can be a pain in the ass (aka traffic), but it can also be hilarious. Today's weather is a perfect example.

All it takes is a little sprinkle of precipitation in the air for the news channels to host special 10-15 minute segments on "Stormwatch 2008" as they track it's progress. I've lived in Southern California for the majority of my life and I still find this absolutely ridiculous. We get an inch of rain and all of a sudden there's mudslides, floodings, and people are lamenting to the news anchors about how they just can't wait for the storm to pass. It's just water, people! We get like 4 hours of rain a year! Enjoy it!

The other thing that is crazy to me about the rain is how all of a sudden people cannot drive. I mean, seriously, there is water on the ground and you are a bit more cautious. There is NO NEED to drop your speed from 35mph to 10mph.

When I was a kid and it rained, I used to love rainy day recess. I remember playing chinese jumprope under the overhangs next to my classroom and listen to the rain drop on the roof. But I don't have tons of rainy days memories because California is a desert! I love the rain because I don't experience it often. I also love it because rain in LA means snow in Mammoth. But I can almost guarantee you that if I lived in a rainy climate like Seattle, all it would take is a few days in a row of rain and I'd get depressed and want to move back to Ca. Either that or I'd move to the snow.