Biking & Hiking in LA

Hey Kids,
I just got back from my bike ride. I recently cashed in my tax refund money for a new bicycle. I love it! I went to bike shop in Granada Hills that my friend Crystal recommended, called Bicycle Den. They are a family owned shop and were extremely helpful.

I really wanted a bike to ride since I live close to the Chandler Bikeway and also take it to the beach to ride along The Strand as well. Today I rode all the way to the end of Chandler and back to my apartment which is a little over 7 miles. It's a great path to run, walk, roller blade, pretty much any type of transportation other than a car or motorcycle. There are always tons of people walking and riding bikes on the path with their kids. So I definitely feel safe riding it alone during the day, but I can't say I wouldn't like some friends to join me. =)

The stretch that I ride along goes from North Hollywood to Burbank. I take the path when I ride to my friend Natalie's apartment which is close to the Warner Brother's studio lot in the Burbank/Toluca Lake area. The other side of Chandler actually goes from North Hollywood all the way to where I work in Van Nuys. A bus line has its own street where only buses and police cars can drive along. The bike path runs along beside it.

The stretch in Burbank was one a rail road. Los Angeles decided to turn it into a pedestrian bike path in 1991. The Chandler Bikeway officially opened to the public on August 20, 2004.

 

I definitely plan on making bike riding a hobby and will be checking out other bike paths in Los Angeles.  The city is good about having websites dedicated to biking, hiking and other recreational activities.  Yelp is always a good source as well!

http://chandlerbikewayburbank.com/index.html

http://www.labikepaths.com/

http://www.thishikingtrail.com/ 

http://discoverlosangeles.com/play/activities-and-recreation/outdoors-and-sports/hiking-in-los-angeles-la-s-best-hiking-trails.html 

http://www.modernhiker.com/la-hiking/ 

Happy riding [and hiking]! =)

Digitizer's Job

Happy Easter!

First I want to congratulate all my friends who participated in Campus Movie Fest this year at Indiana University. I've been watching all your films and they always blow me away. I wish I could have been there to see them all on the big screen, as well as seeing my best friend Kathryn Begle host the show! All of you are so creative and talented, I know you will go on to do big things.

I love hearing about people landing internships here in LA for the summer! Congratulations to you all as well. I look forward to seeing more Hoosiers in Hollywood!! =)

As for you students graduating in less than a month, (AHHH! I know right? Crazy.) don't think you need to have everything figured out before that graduation date. YOU DON'T! Yes it is scary. Yes it is stressful, but what makes you think you'll have life figured out by the age of 22? Breath. It'll all work out. I've been talking to people about the transition from graduating to moving out here. I won't say it is easy, because it is not. It is very scary and stressful, but if I can do it...you can too. I promise.

I've also been dealing with my own stresses at work lately. As a digitizer, I work on all the shows of the entire company. If we have 5 shows in production, then I get shipments of XDCAM discs for 5 different shows. Recently I have been the ONLY digitizer for the company, which is a lot of work for only one person. One day my boss sent me home in the morning when I was sick. I think that's when it hit people, that I'm the only person that knows how to do my job, and without me they don't have anything to work on. One co-worker was rushing out of my work room then stopped and said, "You know you are the heart of this company, right? Without you the company stands still." Lots of pressure for one person, but I like it at the same time.

So, in order to stay on top of things I've been working 6 days a week. Let me give you a perspective of what I dealt with this past week. Before Wednesday I got 15 boxes of tapes (XDCAM discs, we still call them tapes). One box of tapes holds around 50 tapes. So after doing the math I got around 750 tapes just this week. I was swimming in tapes, literally.

A received my first compliment recently from an Editor who was being an Assistant Editor for The Real World for a few weeks. He told me, "Ashley, you are good at what you do. Very soon an AE will move up to Editor and then you will be bumped up to being an Assistant Editor. You can quickly see the people you can count on and put the pressure on. So keep up the good work." It made my day. You aren't given many compliments in this industry. Usually silence is golden. If you hear nothing back, you must have done your job right. When I first started being a digitizer I was not good. I made many mistakes and didn't understand how to do many things. So in the past 5 months I've been trying to prove myself. I think I'm finally getting there.

Keep your goals high and your head higher.

DIY IKEA Side Table Makeover

Haven't really had much to blog about the past few months. Just recently, work has become very busy once shows have gone into production. My friend Kevin Marco was just promoted from digitizer to an assistant editor which bumped me up to working his day shift. I now work 9am-6pm! I HAVE FRIDAY NIGHTS AGAIN! (First time since before September 2011). I'm still trying to get use to the different sleeping pattern. It's been a exhausting couple of weeks.

Some of you (probably girls) have heard of the website called, Pinterest. Some people, especially guys, do not understand the point of it. So! Let me explain. The website is dedicated to 'pinning' your interests. Get it? Pinterest! (So clever, right?) It is a website full of pictures put into categories from food, apparel, to photography, to home decor. EVERYTHING! I have recently become obsessed with this site because it really inspires me. I find inspiration for outfits, decorating, to baking delicious treats! Without Pinterest I would have never thought of baking my Rudolph cookies during Christmas or my peanut butter dove heart cookies for Valentines Day.

The home decor section gives me really great ideas when decorating or renovating furniture. (You can also see another one of my Pinterest inspired projects in the background that involved melting crayons onto a canvas to create a cool effect). I recently bought a side table from IKEA and decided to make it my own. I went to Lowes and matched a pretty blue color to the picture hanging above my bed. I had to buy sand paper, primer, paint, paint brushes/rollers, a drop cloth and finisher spray. It was a long process, but it turned out great! I knew I needed a cool lamp to put on my table so I started searching online. I went to every store I could think of and came to the conclusion: lamps are wicked expensive. Seriously! Luckily, I went to Pier 1 Imports and found an awesome lamp on sale for like $30. I love it. Pier 1 became my new favorite store that day. (Sorry IKEA). They had so many pretty things. I ended up buying 2 pillows along with my lamp. Their entire pillow section is amazing. I want them all.

I finally finished the table yesterday when I went to Anthropologie and bought cute nobs for the drawers. They had so many cute ones to choose from! It's an expensive store, but they have really pretty cups and bowls for decoration, kitchen ware, and for the bathroom. I wanted everything!

So, I highly recommend Pinterest. I promise you'll be inspired and motivated to create something awesome. Be sure to find me and follow my pins!