Monday, April 29, 2013

Musical Monday

I really dig these guys.


Empire of the Sun - Alive

Friday, April 26, 2013

Links I Like

Some links I've liked lately.

  • I came across this again the other day and had a good laugh. Does anyone else remember this ridiculousness?
  • I've got Zero Dark Thirty at home right now, and a few months ago the National Security Archive put together a book with all of the available official documents about the pursuit and capture of Osama bin Laden.  
  • Do you want to see 10,000 iPhones fall over?  Yes, you do. Especially at the one-minute mark. 
  • Abraham Lincoln, Lady Gaga, Andy Warhol - what do they all have in common?  Business cards!
  • Ah, international blunders. Big problems from little mistakes!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

February Final

I went to Disneyland. I think it had been a stressful day? The park closed kinda early and I only got there a couple hours before closing.  Free parking! And a whole tram car to myself.

I hadn't been on the teacups since I was a kid, so Becca and I rode teacups.  Thankfully, I didn't throw up.


For some reason I got nostalgic about my old DC house and looked it up on Google Streetview. It's the blue one on the left. I'll be there 5 weeks, what what!  College reunion, and a trip down to North Carolina (no Duck Beach - pah-leeease) and then a few days in the Big Apple and then I'll come back to LA.  I'm excited.

Gold Fields came back around after working on their album for a year down in Oz. I saw them nearly a year ago, so I decided to check out their latest progress at their Troubadour show.

Same black hoodie, yep.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Musical Monday

Ah, James Blake...!

No LA shows since he's playing Coachella (except one that I'd have to win tickets to attend, and I don't think luck is in my favor), and though I'm really tempted to try and make the SLC show, I just don't think it's gonna happen.

This will have to suffice.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Other Stuff that Happened in February

I finally went to practice the organ. Maybe I'll start playing in church on a regular basis again. Maybe. I do kind of miss it, and after playing it for an Easter program, the secret's out.

I wanted to go for a hike near the beach one day, and the mountain was so foggy and even the beach was cold so I just went home.

After I took this photo. It was a gray, gray February day.

Whoops. Forgot about that in the freezer.

Mike M and I drove to LAX to watch some planes land. I finally got a semi-decent photo of those cool glowsticks.


Chinese New Year! I planned to meet some friends downtown and thought hmmmm, parking will suck, and the new Expo line is open from Culver City, maybe I should take the Metro/Subway/whatever they call it here!  After realizing that I'd have to change lines twice, with long waits in between, I drove. Call me an Angeleno.  Parking wasn't even that hard.



Happy Fourth of July! Oh wait....

*Hold up pinky.*...one...trillion dollars!

Finally, some Chinese stuff.



It must be hot in there.



Jami and I got some Hawaiian ice from the food trucks, and she told me I had to add li hing mui on top. Delicious (salty dried plum powder)! 


The next teen pop stars? I want to hire them for a party.

It was President's Day and I finally hiked up to the Hollywood sign.

I got one photo at the top and then my phone died.  Sad.

I ate a lot of hi-chews.

I got a surprise at my door one day - thanks, London boss! This was a nice treat.



I'd share, but I already ate it all. Sorry.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Musical Monday - Best of 2012 edition

I finally got around to making my "Best of" music mix that I've done for a few years now.

I've typically been very thorough in my assessment and presentation, but this year, time just slipped away from me and I just wanted to get something out the door (in April, pathetic).  Gone are the multiple volumes, carefully selected track orders, and extensive liner notes.  I also used to burn CDs for physical distribution, or shared files to download online.  Alas, times have changed. Thanks, Spotify!

Sorry if you're not on that train yet, but it's just so easy.  Sign up, subscribe to my playlist, and share some stuff with me.

I'm here on Spotify: laurenhoya
Or click on the embedded playlist to get going.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

February Phoenix

Funny, I'm writing about my last Phoenix trip while I'm in Phoenix. I headed over in February and took a new route, since I'd left my driver's license in someone's pocket while out dancing the night before. I drove east on the 210 and saw some pretty mountains. This is the route to Big Bear, where the whole LAPD cop killer case was going on. What a scary mess.


I drove on Super Bowl Sunday, heading straight to Kari's cause she saved me some of her famous ribs.   Yum, yum!

What else happened that week?  Leslie gave me a  belated Christmas gift and I love it! It's a handy pouch. That only people named Lauren could steal.

Kari made some signs for dog shaming - poor Einstein.

Though he did deserve some shaming, because he'd recently almost burned down her house. 

Desert views from the office.

Boss recently returned from Australia, and brought these back.  Yeah, I know we can buy them here now, but it's just nice getting the real stuff.

Postino run with Megs and Shannon, per usual.

Sunset from Grandma's house.

Katie had a birthday!

I'll always take some LGO Gladiator pizza.

I stopped by cousin Clint's house to see him, Alexis, and their new baby girl. Hello, tiny human!


And just that like, it was time to head home.


Tuesday, April 09, 2013

The Color Run - Dodger Stadium

Don't people just enter these events for cool Facebook photos? Yeah...maybe that was a bit of a motivator, but only a little.  The race was the first Saturday in February, so despite not liking to run much, I made myself a training schedule that kept my active during all those holiday feasts. I thought that was a pretty good plan.  This was only a 5k, surely I could handle it?

I got to Dodger Stadium early to pick up my race packet, since I wasn't going to drive to Burbank during the week to do that. Plenty of time to apply tattoos, find friends, and get pumped up.

Tara made all the arrangements for us to look like a team, starting with matching headbands (that I wear upside down) and tattoos. Purple People Eaters.  Yeah.

There's Jami and Tara.

There's Becca.


The starting line itself was about a mile long, it seemed. And when waves of people are spaced out every fifteen minutes or so, it took forever to get going.

More time for photos.


I thought my little fisheye lens was great for taking group self portraits, but Tara was serious - she brought her tripod pole to hold out and capture the group.  Just wait.

Finally at the front.

And there we go....pink color station! If you want to get colored a lot, you run on the edge of the color zone, so you get sprayed up close. Keep your mouth shut!

And we're done....


Colored elbow sweat.

At the stage, everyone gathers and throws their color packets in the air all at once. It's pretty.






Are you tired of photos yet?


Here's a nice before and after comparison.


Team Purple People Eaters.

The fun continued when I got home (after I attended a picnic with complete strangers, looking like a mess. Embarrassing? Only a little. And they were all foreigners, and it was a little hard to explain why I looked like I did. Oh well).


I won't show you what happened when I took my shirt off. Let's just say it was colorful.

A few more. Would I do it again? Nah. But was it fun for a day? You bet!


2023 Recap

Oh, hey there. It's been awhile. I disappeared for a bit. Everyone's doing their 2023 year in review today, and I figured I'd ju...

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