Great summer in the City of Angels!

My time in LA has come to an end but it was simply an amazing experience. The people at the Times were so welcoming and helped me anytime I had questions, well maybe not all the time Luisa.

I want to give a shout out to all the people at the Times who helped me there:
Jim, Barbara, Nina, Luisa, CLO, Cindy, Mantis, The Toe, Ralph, Nick, Lorie, Patrick, Jim F and everyone else there who supported me. So thank you guys so much because without you, my experience would not have been as amazing.

As a going away present from all these wonderful people, they bought me a nintendo Wii so we can connect via the internet and play some Wii games.

I will never forget my time in Los Angeles, I got to do some traveling, some sporting events, some DAMN earthquakes, and some great people who I have made life long friendships with.

I look forward to graduating in December and working in the great city of Duluth.

God Bless

X Games Sweet

Last Saturday Luisa and I got the hook up to say the least. My boss Barbara's best friend is the Vp of Marketing for Red Bull North America and got us tickets into the Red Bull executive suite at the Home Depot Center. This is where all the red bull sponsored athletes go when there not competing.

There was free food and an open bar, it was amazing. We got to see some Moto X races and Moto X freestyle.

When I walked in there were some people sitting in the suite already. I though I recognized one of them but I thought there was no way it was him. But Yep, Travis Pastrana was chillin in the suite before heading to one of his comps. I got a picture with him, I kinda felt like a dbag but it was still cool.

So its my second to last day at the Times. It has been a great learning experience and I have met some amazing people. I have no doubt that this helped prepare me for my career and I have made some life long friends here.

I want to thank all of you who have checked out my blog. I know I didn't update it as often as I should of but hey, its been pretty busy here at the Times.

Here we come MN.

God Bless

Why did the Chicken cross the road?

And the answer is...........

So I could eat its feet.

Yes that's right, I ate a chicken's foot today. Very weird. A bunch of us went to a Dim Sum restaurant today in Chinatown. The food was great, and then a strange bowl of food was placed on our table. Rico started eating one and they looked very interesting. So i picked it up and was informed that it was a chicken's foot, fried and marinated for our eating pleasure.

I can honestly say it was the strangest feeling thing that I have ever eaten. There is the little digit bones inside the skin and you have to suck the meat off the bones, yeah gross I know.

But hey, at least I tried them.

God Bless

Thank you Luisa!

So I went to the Dodger game last night, Dodger stadium is a great stadium. I bought a block of 10 tickets for the game, and to get rid of them I e-mailed my department. So i got people to buy them. But then, someone backed out right at the last second. So i was screwed out of $33 bucks. enter Luisa, she kindly bought the final three tickets and came with some of her friends.

So Nina, Barbara, CLo, Christina and I went to the Dodger game, where by the way beers are &10 bucks, that is ridiculous by the way. They were playing the Giants and won 2-0, slow game but still fun to be at Dodger Stadium.

So I would like to thank Luisa for bailing me out and buying the rest of those tickets.

God Bless

Damn Earthquake!

So, of course while the kid form Minnesota is in Los Angeles, the biggest earthquake in 15 years has to hit downtown. It was a 5.8 on the Richter scale, centered in Chino Hills which is east of Los Angeles. I was at our Off-site printing facility where we print the main newspaper, and it was pretty scary. Stuff started falling from the ceiling, and let me tell you, it is nothing like you will experience in your life. I am hoping we don't feel any after shocks, or the bad thing would be this is just the pre-cursor to the real quake, NO GOOD!

The LA Times building was evacuated along with the building I was in. When we were on our way back to the building, everyone was out in the streets on their cell phones. It was tough to get a phone call in because the towers were so backed up.

So on a lighter note, I get to go to the dodger game tonight with some people from work. I am hoping it doesn't get canceled cause of the quake so we'll see.

I will be back in MN in less then two weeks, good thing, no more earthquakes.

God Bless

Wii would like to Play!

The gang at the Standard Friday Night


This past weekend Maggie came to visit again and we packed a lot into our weekend. We went to Hollywood and the Chinese Theater. Then we took Mulholland Drive to Beverly Hills and tooled around there for awhile looking for houses of Maggie's favorite actress, Jean Harlow. From there we took Sunset boulevard to the Pacific Coast Highway up to Malibu where we had dinner by the beach. It was a long day but a great day.

On Sunday, we went to the Hollywood Bowl for a Feist concert, first of all the venue is amazing and the concert was awesome. The only bad thing is they have a noise curfew at around 10:30 so they have to cut the shows short which is no good. You can bring your own booze and food into the bowl which is great and you can save a lot of money that way.

So we have been saving up for a long time at work for a Wii, and finally on Monday Jim and I went to Best Buy and bought one and aerosmith Guitar Hero. A Wii is definitely my next big purchase because those things are the cat's ass. Wii tennis is my new favorite game and it is so much fun to play.

At work I am hard to work on the Vance Stickell application form and student brochure which I am the editor and designer of. It has been tough getting all of the information from the interns but we are very close o completing both pieces. It is the 20th anniversary of the internship next year so I thought it would be cool to do a piece on one of the first interns from 1989. To say the least, this guy is a baller and has worked for all the big agencies out east. He now owns his own agency, The Republik, and they have some pretty sweet clients like Smirnoff Ice and Nestea. Check out their website for more work, Therepublik.net.

I only have a few weeks left out here in LA so I am hoping to fit as much into these last weeks as I can. The X games are coming up and The Times has a suite at the Staples Center where they have the Moto X and vert ramp comps. I am trying to convince my boss to hook a brother up with some tickets which would be very nice.

I hope all is well back in MN and thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers.

God Bless

Shout Out!

I have to give a shout out to one of the senior art directors in the office, Jim. First off he has a cabin where I vacation every year in MN which is cool, also he kindly enough brought in a coffee maker so I dont have to buy Starbucks everyday. He has helped me out a lot with my Stickell Brochure project and has answered any questions I have. He also turned me on to Dry roasted Edamame, which is delicious, even though is soy beans, which makes TOFU which we all know is gross.

Jim is the kind of Art Director that if you were starting a business you would want him on your team because he has tons of experience and he knows hot to motivate his team.

Thanks Jim