Wednesday, December 12, 2012

So Close, Yet So Far (but mostly close)

Another week, more miscellaneous adventures and that much closer to winter break!

I'm ashamed to call myself movie buff when I tell you that I saw Signing in the Rain and It's a Wonderful Life for the first time last week, but I'm a firm believer in both movies now seeing as they can actually turn a frown upside down. Literally.
I also made a return to The Grove on Friday where my friends and I celebrated the last day of classes with- what else?- FOOD. But this was special food, straight from the Fat Cow aka Gordon Ramsey's new restaurant. Best mac n cheese I've ever tasted, although I will have to pass on reading the nutrition facts of that bad boy.


We also happened to save someone's life on Saturday night... and as badass as that might sound, trust me it wasn't that great. The 'victim' will remain nameless, and without getting too deep into the less-than-savory details of the debacle, I will tell you that it involved a McDonald's, a missing shirt, and LOTS of napkins. 


On a lighter note, I was blessed by the Lord of the Rings gods and had the privilege, nay, the honor of seeing an advanced screening of The Hobbit in IMAX 3D last night. This experience felt like it was out of a fairytale (besides the 2 hours of public transportation required to make what should have been a 20 minute trip to the theater, but hey, who's complaining?), and we not only got into the movie for free, but also got free food and collectible movie posters. Granted, the movie wasn't as mind-bogglingly, life-changingly incredible as the trilogy, but cut it some slack it's a prequel for crying out loud. I thought it was amazing, and I will stand by it when I tell you that if you have $11.50 to your name you should go see this film... unless it's your last $11.50 in which case the money is  probably better spent elsewhere.    

The only other thing worth mentioning is finals week. Actually, I changed my mind, I don't want to talk about it...



And with that I leave you. Good luck with whatever you got goin on right now, and as usual any comments, questions, or concerns will be processed by a team of highly trained squirrels and responded to immediately!

-Chase

Monday, December 3, 2012

Let it be Winter


Rain in LA?! WOW. It really must be getting close to Christmas!

You know what that means: it's time to power through last-minute assignments, irrelevant work tasks, imminant looming finals, and an ever-so-stressful application to journalism school... yay.

But you know what, everyone is going through this crazy, pre-holiday meltdown phase too (hopefully), and if you're not then it's time to get out of that cardboard box and get a job.

In all seriousness though, it can be tough. If you're about ready to drop out of school and use your entire life savings to take a trip to Norway like I am, just try to remember these words of wisdom:

There is always time for you to try a new path in life.
 
And yes, that's from a fortune cookie, but that doesn't make it any less true. If you hate where you are then quit, change, leave, do something if there's a chance it will make you happy.
 
On that note I'd like to invite you to listen to one of my favorite songs at the moment in the hopes that it will give you that boost to keep on truckin'. Good luck and check back in next week if you haven't spontaneously combusted by then!
 
 
 
  

Monday, November 26, 2012

Back to Business

I'm back! 

Hope you had an absolutely extraordinary Thanksgiving and stuffed your face so full of stuffing and mashed potatoes that you couldn't breathe for 2 days! Because that's definitely what I did...

In all honesty it was fantastic to be home though. Work and class and homework and living in the ghetto of Los Angeles sure can get exhausting after a while, and sometimes it takes a good punch in the face from your brother or an awkward conversation with your Mom to make you realize how much you missed home. 



Thanksgiving at my house never fails to amuse either, and this year I watched my 19 year old friend and his 16 year old brother ride tandem on a baby toy down the biggest hill in my neighborhood! And my mom wonders why the neighbors don't like us...  


I also went on a hike, took my sister thrift store shopping, saw a movie with my dad, got to see all my old friends at a bonfire, and resolved things with my boyfriend. To top it off, there are only 3 more weeks left until I officially complete my first semester of college, giddyup!

And to each and every person who reads this:

You are special. If you're not happy with yourself, then change. There is no way that you can let yourself go through this world hating the person that you should love the most.  
  

So with that, I will tell you to have the best day you can and let the people who matter to you know that. 

As always, I would love to hear from you

-Chase   

Sunday, November 18, 2012

So after actually sleeping for the recommended amount of time for once last night (an unprecedented 10 hours!), I felt like going on an adventure this morning. My friends and I wanted to get off campus, and with such perfect weather we decided to go check out the beautiful Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art for the day. I had never been before, but was absolutely blown away with this place!

The entire area that the museum is in is great to start with (the Grove and Farmer's Market are right up the street and there are tons of cool cafes and shops around), and the building itself is gorgeous. Then there's the adorable park and street lamp area outside (fun enough for a day trip by themselves!). Throw in cheap tickets ($10 for students), awesome exhibits (ranging from surrealist drawings to French ceramics and American swim suits), and good food (C+M is AMAZING) and I'm completely sold.















 
We all had a blast and will definitely be going back. It was so relaxing to be able to just wander around and see beautiful works of art everywhere you turned, and I hope that everyone gets the chance to visit some time or another because it really is an amazing place.
 
Any questions, comments, or concerns are greatly appreciated :)


- Chase

Saturday, November 17, 2012

What I Do at Work

So my receptionist job is pretty boring. Don't get me wrong, I love the people I work with and my boss is the best... it's just that the actual tasks I deal with are so mundane and sporadic that most of the time, I find myself wandering around the web looking at all kinds of nonsense. The great thing is that I actually end up stumbling upon amazing stuff though, and a lot of it has inspired me in some way or another. Here are some of my favorite finds so far, I hope that you enjoy them as much as I did!


 
 
 
 
 
 
I'm always interested in what you guys think about this blog, posts, or life in general so leave me a comment :)
 
Have a lovely Saturday night and see you tomorrow!
 
 
 
 
 
 

An A-Typical Friday

Hey all,

I don't know about you, but it has been a looooong week here at USC! A midterm, friend and relationship drama, and of course the perpetual school and work related tensions definitely took their toll, but how was your week? Any exciting weekend plans? I took tonight as an opportunity to destress and see a beautiful panorama of LA from way up high. This is my pitiful attempt at capturing the view with my phone


In good news though I wanted to take a moment to talk about Dreamwork's Rise of the Guardians which I saw today. This movie was adorable, and perfect for the holiday season! Featuring a great voice cast (Chris Pine as Jack Frost, Isla Fisher as the Tooth Fairy, Hugh Jackman as the Easter Bunny, and let's not forget Alec Baldwin as a badass tattooed Russian Santa) and incredible 3D animation, it was very cute and entertaining. Granted, it's not the best that Dreamworks has done, but I would still recommend seeing it if you get the chance for some feel-good moments and holiday cheer :)



Also, for some reason I found myself really attracted to staircases today. Don't know what that means exactly but it was really relaxing being up above all the action for a little while, and unless you're afraid of heights you should give it a try if you ever need to escape for a second or two.   

 Other than  that, get a good night's sleep tonight and do something fun tomorrow because you deserve it!

Also feel free to leave any comments or questions you have for me below :)

See you tomorrow!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Perks of Being a Trojan

Howdy!

I hope everyone made it through this rather long feeling Thursday alright, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's ready for the weekend!

So after a somewhat stressful day of classes and receptionist-ing I was lucky enough to have a concert at my school to look forward to, known as CONQUEST (in honor of the football match-up between my beloved Trojans and the UCLA Bruins), and let me tell you: it pays (figuratively speaking that is) to go to a private university sometimes. CHILDISH GAMBINO headlined, and don't worry if you've never heard of him because I hadn't either until today



It's always a special day when it rains in LA though, and the weather made the event that much more special. Not gonna lie, my best friend and I ran through the crowd like madmen and snuck onto the roof of a parking structure to get an exclusive vantage point just for the sake of feeling free but hey, that's part of the fun in life, right?

 


We got some great views and some even better memories and while the music isn't my favorite, it was definitely a concert to remember.

Tomorrow I will be seeing an advanced screening of "Rise of the Guardians" so stay tuned for an amateur review and some more fun schtuff this weekend!

Also please feel free to leave any questions, comments, stories, or words of wisdom for me, I'd love to hear from you!


Keep calm and fight on :)









 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Beginning

Welcome to The Hipster Diaries!

You probably made it to this blog by mistake but that's ok, I'm glad to have you anyways!

In honor of the inagural post, I wanted to share with you one of my all-time favorite movies:


THE BROOKLYN BROTHERS BEAT THE BEST

The trailer isn't enough incentive for you to see the movie? Well this bad boy is also an independent film for all you hipsters out there, so if you watch it you can tell everyone how great it is even though they "probably haven't seen it yet" :)

And without further adieu, here it is. Enjoy!