today i experienced college baseball.

i've watched it on tv before, but never live. today was the dodgertown classic, a double-header of 2 college baseball games at dodger stadium. the first, vanderbilt vs. oklahoma state university, was at 10am and the second, usc vs. ucla, was at 2pm. tickets were only $5 and general admission seating!  we had awesome seats for the first game, which didn't have too many attendees, but was awesome because we got to see a couple guys with great talent. the ucla/usc game was nuts, it filled up and the rivalry between those schools is just ridiculous. we left at 5 because we were pretty exhausted (we'd been there since 10!) and it was only the 7th inning stretch as the game slowed down considerably in the 5th and 6th innings. still lots of fun though! and the weather was perfect.

today i saw sandy koufax!!!

joe torre did a fundraising event in downtown LA tonight, and it was basically interview him and sandy koufax. i was in the same room as sandy koufax!! he is such a distinguished, handsome old man, and at one point they brough clayton kershaw on stage, who is taller, and yet koufax's hands completely dwarfed his! the interview was just so interesting.. and the people in attendence included many old dodger greats (sweet lou johnson), other amazing people from baseball (don mattingly) and ron howard the director was even there. so awesome. i still can't believe i was in the same room! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

today i saw formosa betrayed.

it's a movie about taiwan in the 1980s, and while my parents have often told me about the horrors of the KMT, i didn't quite realize how bad it was, or that it was the time period in which my parents left taiwan for the US. it's a really informative movie, nicely told through an investigation narrative.

today i saw our new trailer for dragon!

i believe this is our final big theatrical trailer for how to train your dragon, and it is epic and amazing and just so darn good i just had to share. i'm so excited for this to come out (one month to go!!) i can't even explain it. i get chills just watching this trailer.

today i got yelled at by a biker.

while driving up in the foothills of glendale to meet cat for dinner, i apparently almost ran over a biker. i didn't see him at ALL. anyway, when i parked, he came up to my car and kept screaming at me "you didn't see me? if i hadn't braked you would have killed me" and i was very apologetic and felt awful about it, until he kept yelling at me saying that i have eye problems in his very poor english. then i looked at him and saw he was wearing black pants, a black jacket, and had no real visible lights or reflectors on his bike and it was a poorly lit street. so while i still feel really bad, i'm also pissed now that he ripped me a new one when he wasn't being particularly bike-safe either. gahhh! i hate people.

today i learned about the nautica malibu triathalon.

dreamworks has a triathalon team that does it every year, and today was the info meeting for this year's. it a half mile swim, eighteen mile bike and four mile run in malibu on september 12. i'm super interested, and it seems very doable, but the whole swimming-in-the-ocean thing scares me.. plus i'll be traveling for decent chunk of the summer, attending liz's wedding in september and want to be training for a half marathon during the same time. so i probably won't do it this year, but maybe next?

today i had panzanella.

dan and i went to burger+beer mondays at rustic canyon tonight. unfortunately for me, i'm not eating meat so i didn't get to enjoy either of the amazing burger offerings that night (dan got the breakfast burger - hash brown, two thick slabs of confit bacon and a fried egg atop their niman ranch beef patty!!). i did however have their winter vegetable panzanella (a sort of italian bread salad) and it was absolutely and amazingly delicious. loved it. the food there is just so damn good.

today i saw USA beat CANADA at men's hockey!

we joined the manzas and a few of their friends at busby's in santa monica to watch the olympic men's ice hockey game between usa and canada. it was a really awesome game, and it was pretty ridiculous to watch it with both canadians and americans who were really into it. and hurray, usa won!

today i wore a fanny pack.

technically, it's a timbuk2 handlebar bag for biking that i bought at REI last week, but it also doubles as a sweet "hip pack" (but really, it's a fanny pack) and i was totally rocking it all day (i did bike to my destinations though, so i kind of have an excuse). yea, i'm cool like that.

today i learned a little about the boxing world.

dan's friend brian is working on a documentary about an ex-boxer. he and liam, the actual guy in charge of the project, were in LA to interview freddie roach and others in the boxing world. i had dinner with them and chatted quite a bit with liam about what he's doing, how he got started on this project in the first place. really interesting stuff, though i am quite hazy on all the actual details. they supposedly met manny pacquiao too!

today i joined some runners at work.

last week i found out that a small group of people run a couple miles after work on tuesdays and thursdays, so i decided to join them. they're quite funny, and very encouraging with the whole cheer-everybody-on-at-the-end thing. should be fun as i get to know them better. plus, i've decided to run a half-marathon sometime this year (yea, crazy i know..), so this will be a good way of getting back into good running shape.

today i met an "action figure".

while at club good hurt to see the jasper dickson revue, i met a guy with the self-proclaimed occupation of action figure. from what i can gather, it's basically being a "professional extra" or something along those lines. it was strange. he also invited me to play dungeons&dragons..

today i took a dance class.

it's the first class i've taken in at least two years so it's a big deal to me, even if it's not the first class i've ever taken. it was however, the first class i've ever taken at millenium, and the first time i took tucker barkley's class (i've worshiped him via youtube for years). i'm a bit out of shape (though all the running and biking lately helped i believe) and definitely not as good at picking up choreo as i used to be, but it was a lot of fun and amazingly and refreshingly exhausting. will definitely try to keep going to at least a couple classes a week.

today i realized i have a TOMS addiction.

before today, i had three pairs of TOMS shoes. before today, i knew i was obsessed. today, i was looking to buy my fourth pair, but while at LORIN in santa monica, i found two pairs i adored. so.. i bought both! this is officially an addiction. one is the regular single-color cut and style (above), the other are their fleece-lined botas (below), which will be perfect for the dance classes i plan on starting to take this week.

today i biked to the getty center.

it's 3.5 miles from my apartment to the getty center, so we decided to try it today. it was a tiring ride - slightly uphill the whole way - but totally worth it as it turned out they were turning away people in cars since the parking lots were completely full.

today i had yukikage sake.

recommended by m. kaner at silverlake wine as "the one" i bought a bottle of yukikage (direct translation: snow shadow) home for new year's eve dinner with the parents. even my dad liked it, and he doesn't like alcohol. it was quite tasty, and the bottle and label are very pretty too.

today i ate at josie restaurant.

dan and i went there for dineLA with the manzas. my dinnerwas really good, although the others didn't find their meals quite as satisfying.

today i went to downtown LA's artwalk.

it happens the second thursday of every month. i've never made it down, and wasn't planning on it for tonight as i didn't even remember it was happening. i was reminded of it via some blog though, and figured it'd be brilliant to go down there and walk around, check stuff out and people watch. i had a lot of fun, and would love to go back. i even bought a small print that an artist did of a nikon camera. love it!

today i saw a HTTYD supergraphic!

on hotel figueroa in downtown LA, there is a HUGE ad for how to train your dragon! this is the first public advertising i've seen for it (other than the awful standees in theatres). i managed to snap the above pic on my phone while stuck in traffic on the 110. being the first movie i've ever worked on, i'm SO excited - mark your calendars, it comes out march 26!!!

update: a much better photo!

today i got my blackbird,fly pictures developed!!

technically, the film itself developed already on saturday, but since i wanted to get the image all the way to the sprockets, bel air camera had to flat bed scan them all - which ended up costing a heck of a lot, so i need to just buy my own film-enabled flat bed scanner - so i didn't get them back until today. i LOVE them. it's such a great little plastic camera and i'm having so much fun with it. i threw in a new roll of black-and-white film so i'm super excited about that as well.

pelicans in oceanside.

double exposure at venice beach.

more pictures can be found here.

today i got my vacation approved!

it's the first time i've really asked for any sort of major vacation since i started working at dreamworks animation. basically, i will be taking three and a half weeks off in mid-may through early june to go to a wedding in mexico then do a nice travelcation to japan. the approval means we can seriously start planning, and even looking much more seriously at flights and hotels and whatnot. yay!

today i learned about rocky canyon farm.

rocky canyon farm is owned and run by greg nauta and his family up in atascadero, california. they have a stand at the sunday santa monica farmers market where i learned they have 40-50 animals (cows and pigs) on their 30 acre farm. i gave up eating meat three weeks ago after learning of the horrific and pervasive nature of factory farming, but with access to this form of sustainable animal husbandry, it might be a good alternative. plus, i miss pork.

today i saw a stereo holga.

3D images from a leaky plastic camera!?!? so ridiculous, yet so cool at the same time.

today i said "goodbye" to my brother.

it was his last day working at dreamworks animation, so i went to both his farewell lunch at gordon biersch and farewell dinner-and-drinks at alibi room. i wish him the best, though i will still see him all the time considering we're roomies.

today i started reading devil in the white city.

fourth book on the nook. weeee..!

today i heard vampire weekend's contra.

i love it and its sweet beats, and now i want to drink horchata even though i've never had it.

today i saw the kings win a game!

we've gone to see the LA Kings play a few times over the past couple seasons, and we've also watched them on TV a bunch, and they always freaking lose! we were watching them play the NY Rangers tonight and yaayyy they won!

today i found out the bake sale made $5400!

 

on sunday, no cookie left behind held a bake sale for haiti called cookies without borders - with all proceeds going to doctors without borders. dan and i took his parents, and we got a few things, but it looked like a great turnout - and the baked good were pretty tasty too. a fellow dreamworker is one of the organizers and when i spoke to her today, she told me they'd made over $5,400 in the four hours of the bake sale! very awesome.

more photos can be seen here.