The Zsa Zsa Zsu

Moving internet homes

2010-03-31T12:17:00.000-07:00

I've decided to jump on the tumbler train and start a tumblog. Mostly due to my laziness to keep up a regular blog. So instead of putting out monthly playlists, I'm just going to start posting single songs when I come across them, something supported much better on tumbler.

Come check out my new place:

http://funchasing.tumblr.com

December 2009 Playlist

2009-12-20T18:08:00.000-08:00

1. Valhalla - K-OS
2. I Go I Go I Go - Wave Machines
3. Ambling Alp - Yeasayer
4. Cousins - Vampire Weekend
5. Oh Maria - Sam Roberts
6. Baby Boomer - Monsters of Folk
7. Diamond Dave - Bird and the Bee
8. Audience of One - Cold War Kids
9. Horchata - Vampire Weekend
10. This New Technology - Midnight Juggernauts
11. Ghetto Love - Spinnerette
12. Slow Poison - The Bravery
13. 11th Dimension - Julian Casablancas
14. Life Magazine - Cold Cave
15. Pick Up the Phone - Dragonette
16. Written in Reverse - Spoon
17. Crown on the Ground - Sleigh Bells

October 2009 Playlist

2009-10-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

Pretty much the only things I'm blogging these days.... the new playlist! Enjoy!

1. One Night in October - Little Comets
2. She's Got Me Dancing - Tommy Sparks
3. Summerboy - Lady GaGa
4. Something We're Becoming - Time Machine & Maggie Horn
5. Plastic Jungle - Miike Snow
6. Hot Mess - Cobra Starship
7. Oh! Forever - brakesbrakesbrakes
8. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Vampire Weekend Cover) - Peter Gabriel & Hot Chip
9. Magic SHow - Electric Owls
10. The Photos on My Wal - Good Shoes
11. Pony Ride - The Crash
12. The Summer - Coconut Records
13. Nasty Girl - Nitty
14. The Future is Where We Belong - Hotpipes
15. Lust for Life - Girls
16. (If You're Wondering if I Want You to) I Want You To - Weezer
17. 15 to 20 - The Phenomenal Handclap Band
18. Bourgeois Shangri-La - Miss Li
19. Deceptacon - Le Tigre
20. Baby - Devendra Banhart
21. Blame it on the Girls - Mika

September 2009 Playlist

2009-09-11T14:20:00.000-07:00

Starting to get back on the ball. September's here and so is my new playlist!

1. Dominoes - The Big Pink
2. Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club
3. Orange Shirt - Discovery
4. Supernova feat. Kanye West
5. Warn Heart of Africa feat. Ezra Keonig - The Very Best
6. Gimme Sympathy - Metric
7. My Boys - Taken By Trees
8. There Goes the Fear - Doves
9. Small Town Girl - Good Shoes
10. Drumming Song - Florence and the Machine
11. Pretty Please (Love Me) - Estelle feat. CEe-Lo
12. Let's Go Surfing - The Drums
13. Canada - Themselves & WHY
14. Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap
15. True or False - Bishop Allen
16. Come Around - Tim & Jean
17. I Might Have Guessed - Birdmonster
18. Basic Space - The XX

August 2009 Playlist

2009-08-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

Ha ha, just kidding. There is no August 2009 playlist. The music this month just sucked. Well, my attempt at putting together a playlist sucked. The one I did make, made me want to grind rocks in my ears, so instead of subjecting you to that, I did you a nice little favor and put together a list of indies that I recently rediscovered on my iPod.

Most of these were given to me around the time that I moved to LA, so they hold a special place in my heart. Also, due to Apple's sneaky technology that makes it really hard work to get these off my iPod, it means that I haven't had them on eternal repeat in my car to allow me to get sick of them.

1. Rain - Bishop Allen
2. About Today - The National
3. Paris 2004 - Peter, Bjorn & John
4. Killamanjiro - Babyshambles
5. My Sword Hand's Anger - Apostle of Hustle
6. With You - Stars of Track and Field
7. You and I Are a Gang of Losers - The Dears
8. Gimme Some Motivation - Delta Spirit
9. Sexx Laws - Beck
10. Jenny Don't Be Hasty - Paolo Nutini
11. Take Me To the Riot - Stars
12. Sons and Daughters - The Decemberists
13. Ragoo - Kings of Leon
14. Hi - Psapp
15. Yours To Keep - Teddybears STHLM
16. Jane Fonda - Mickey Avalon
17. Look Good In Leather - Cody Chesnutt
18. The Police and the Private - Metric
19. Sky Starts Falling - The Doves
20. Flathead - Fratellis
21. Be Gentle With Me - The Boy Least Likely To
22. Montreal -40 - Malajube

July 2009

2009-08-25T20:13:00.001-07:00

We're going to pretend that no one notices that I'm posting my July playlist on August 25. Just go about your business.

And listen. Of course.

Tracks:

1. Very Busy People - The Limousines
2. Relator - Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
3. All We Want Baby is Everything - Handsome Furs
4. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend - Discovery
5. Barcelona - The Plastiscines
6. When They Fight They Fight - Generationals
7. Be Ok - Ingrid Michaelson
8. Tigerlily - La Roux
9. Can You Tell? - Ra Ra Riot
10. Take Me to LA - Weekend Warriors
11. I'll Never Forget You - Noisettes
12. Talking Hotel Arbat Blues - Handsome Furs
13. Qui Est Cette Fille? - Yelle
14. In This City - Igly & Hartly
15. Age of Automatics - Pet Ghost Project
16. So Insane - Discovery
17. Animal - Miike Snow
18. Those Dancing Days - Those Dancing Days
19. Streetwalker - Delta Spirit
20. Twilight Galaxy - Metric

FitOrbit on FoxNews

2009-06-22T13:09:00.000-07:00

Nick and Jake talking about FitOrbit on Fox News this morning.

FitOrbit is Live!

2009-06-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

Check it out!

A Sense of Accomplishment

2009-06-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

The last 8 months have just flown by. Back in November I started a new job at a company called Global Fitness Media. At the time, I had been an associate product manager at ThisNext and made a huge jump to being the Director of Product Management at my new company. Though I had clearly never done this before, my new boss Nick had the confidence that I would be up to the task.

At the time, I was the 4th employee of the company, after the CEO, Nick, his assistant and a graphic designer. Being the only product manager, I started out listening to Nick and Jake (yes, that Jake) talk about what the general vision for the company would be.

Between brainstorming, researching the fitness industry and the target market, talking to potential partners and interviewing potential employees, it was insanely busy from the start. Having a hand in building the team was a great experience, especially when there were a few hiccups along the way. I've learned that you can get a general sense of how people will work and fit in from an interview, but you'll never really know until they're in the environment, slaving away with you for hours on end. Everyone has a different opinion about what "hard work" really means.

After deciding the initial feature set, I spent loooooooong hours over weeks and the first couple months defining the product, drawing interface wireframes, workflows, use cases and working with graphic designers, the development team, our copywriter and our CEO to come up with the ideal version 1.0.

One of the biggest challenges in being a product manager and what ends up taking most of my time are the questions and challenges. Weighing whether a certain feature should be implemented or not given the development complexity, user experience, and business and political requirements.

Through the weeks and months, we've built something that I'm truly proud of. Of course there are features that had to be sacrificed or delayed, but I think for the first version of our flagship product, we've done something really cool. With the help of the team, I have to say that this has been the biggest accomplishment of my professional career thus far.

Last minute things are quickly wrapping up over the weekend and the public launch of FitOrbit happens on Monday. Stay tuned!

Why I don't want to grow up

2009-06-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

Because I have friends that post stuff on facebook like this:

Items lost while partying over the last 2 months & recovered:
- 1 camera

Items still outstanding:
- 1 iPod Touch
- 1 Pair of Black Ray-Bans
- 1 Bottle of Belvedere (it was there when I left last weekend...Jackie?)
- 1 Pair of white-rimmed aviators
- 1 Pair of red-rimmed aviators
- 1 pair of white/purple Ray-Ban knock-offs
- 1 epic Christmas sweater
- 1 purple zegna pocket square
- 1 Soul

June 2009

2009-06-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

Summer's here! Hopefully this June Gloom will quickly change into Sun's out, Guns out. Enjoy the new list!

Full List:
1. Bulletproof - La Roux
2. Cappuccino - The Knux
3. No Sex for Ben - The Rapture
4. Bruises - Chairlift
5. Jigsaw - Lady Soverign
6. I've Seen Enough - Cold War Kids
7. Bang! Bang! - The Knux
8. Men's Needs - The Cribs
9. Give it Up - Datarock
10. Trash - The Whip
11. Homecoming - The Teenagers
12. Dying is Fine - Ra Ra Riot
13. Percussion Gun - White Rabbits
14. Paris is Burning - Ladyhawke
15. The Age of the Understatement
16. Grounds for Divorce - Elbow
17. Boom - Anjulie
18. Bright Side - Soft Pack
19. So Far We Are - French Kicks
20. Clap (See the Stars) - The Myrmidons

South Dakota loves GoodFoodNearYou!

2009-05-14T13:45:00.000-07:00

May 2009

2009-05-11T19:23:00.000-07:00

1. New In Town - Little Boots
2. Say Hey (I Love You) - Michael Franti & Spearhead
3. I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked - Ida Maria
4. Aint No Rest For the Wicked - Cage the Elephant
5. Heroes - TV on the Radio
6. Radio Christiane - The Virgins
7. Lalita -The Love Language
8. Around the Bend - Asteroids Galaxy Tour
9. Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
10. Lucky Today - Cloud Cult
11. Don't Trust Me - 3Oh!3
12. Little Secret - Passion Put
13. Valerie Plame - The Decemberists
14. Bang Bang - K'naan feat. Adam Levine
15. Fake Palindromes - Andrew Bird
16. Still Take You Home - Arctic Monkeys
17. Raindrops - Basement Jaxx
18. Gold Guns Girls - Metric

The contents of your fridge reflect your life

2009-04-24T15:39:00.000-07:00

Bottle of wine. Brie. Smoked Salmon. Perrier.

Vodka. Ice.

I think this means my life is empty, but fabulous.

What's in your fridge?

March 2009

2009-04-24T11:43:00.001-07:00

Better late than never.

1. I'm in LA Bitch - LMFAO
2. Happy Up Here - Royskopp
3. A song About California - Hey Ocean
4. Stuck to You - Nikka Costa
5. It's a New Day - will.i.am
6. Love Letter to Japan - Bird and the Bee
7. Over the World - French Kicks
8. The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade - The Joy Formidable
9. Alleyways - Hey Ocean
10. Always Like This - Bombay Bicycle Club
11. Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh - Say Hi
12. No You Girls - Franz Ferdinand
13. 1901 - Pheonix
14. Never Gonna Happen - Lily Allen
15. Lisztomania - Phoenix
16. The Golden Age - The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
17. Knock You Down (feat. KanyeWest & Ne-Yo) - Keri Hilson
18. Pop Song - Starfucker
19. Machine In the Ghost - The Faint

We make videos

2009-04-02T17:15:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot I haven't posted this here, but one of the kids I work with came up with the brilliant idea to shoot a video to promote our latest product. It's so awesome.

Despite the fact that we all work late hours, there were still some troopers who went out to shoot at a McDonald's drive thru at 11pm.

Have a look:

Take a Breather

2009-03-25T19:28:00.000-07:00

I've been working non-stop for the past few weeks. This new company moves very very fast and I've got a lot of responsibility, which ends up translating to some seriously long hours.

For the first time I actually feel as though I'm being pushed and challenged in what I do. I tend to always want to take things to the extreme and see just how far I can go. I think I'm learning where the line needs to be between work and life.

Working 12-14 hours 7 days a week and trying to get the amount of sleep I need and having enough time to do trivial things like get my car washed and pick up my drycleaning becomes very taxing after a while. I've discovered that every once in a while, an hour here and there to breathe and reset works wonders.

This morning I got up early and met a friend at the beach to go surfing. It was such a beautiful start to the day. I saw dolphins swimming up right next to us, watched the sun come up and caught some good waves. Totally made the rest of my day go smoothly and much less stressful.

Who knew?

Hey Ocean!

2009-03-07T15:27:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon Hey Ocean! when I found their "Song About California" and of course died for the fact that they're Canadian. And singing about where I live. Pretty much a one-two-punch combination right there.

There's something about Canadian bands that always seem to make you feel as though you could totally be best friends with them. It might have to do with the lack of that layer of hollywood polish that gets put on a band's image when they become famous in the US, but look at these kids....I totally want to hang out in their kitchen and jam with them.

I found this video absolutely adorable...

Hey Ocean "Alleyways"
by heyoceanfan1

Check out their myspace to hear more music

Lack of blogging

2009-02-23T11:28:00.000-08:00

I've been incredibly busy with work. Work, Sleep, Eat, Work, Sleep, Eat. It's pretty much my life these days. I actually spent Saturday night of this past weekend staying in and working, rather than plying myself with vodka. Big changes.

I'll blog something of substance at some point soon. I swear. Right after I take a nap.

I think someone should buy this for me

2009-02-17T13:28:00.000-08:00

Somewhere around soon to now.

February 2009 Playlist

2009-02-09T18:50:00.000-08:00

A short list this month, didn't fill up an entire CD, but I've been distracted a slight bit with all the car drama and work being super busy.

Though, I have to say, this playlist sounds FANTASTIC on the sound system in my new car :)

Text list:
1. Heartbeats - The Knife
2. My Love - The Bird and the Bee
3. Nothing to Worry About - Peter, Bjorn & John
4. All the Same to Me - Anya Marina
5. Ulysses - Franz Ferdinand
6. Drivin' Me Wild - Common Feat. Lily Allen
7. Passing the Hat - Cold War Kids
8. People C'Mon - Delta Spirit
9. My Girls - Animal Collective
10. 22 - Lily Allen
11. Use Somebody - Kings of Leon
12. Straight to Hell - Lily Allen
13. Knotty Pine - Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
14. Move You - Anya Marina

My new wheels

2009-02-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

The car crash saga came to a close this weekend with the purchase of my new car. I drove up to the Mercedes dealership in Valencia and took home this bad boy....

(not my actual car, but damn close)

Of course, being Canadian didn't make anything easy with the finance department, I was very lucky to have a some-what nervous cosigner help me out. He also happened to have an old family friend working at the dealership, who hooked me up with a sweeeeet deal.

And I love my new car. Love it. I want to give it hugs all day long. And stare at it. But mostly I want to drive it. I'm going to try not to get speeding tickets in it, but man, this car just wants to go fast.

I Heart Progressive

2009-02-06T13:16:00.000-08:00

Just warning you, this is totally going to sound like a commercial for Progressive Insurance, but I've had such a fantastic experience with them that I totally wanted to share.

Being the total internet nerd that I am, I spent a long time researching insurance rates when I first got my car and progressive was by far the lowest. I was a little worried that with a rate that low, the service that came along with it would totally suck, but of course, you never really want to think about that day that you might get into an accident and need to talk to a claims rep.

The day after my accident, I started the claims process. They assigned me to an agent in West LA who totally took care of me. She knew who I was when I called, I didn't even have to give a claim number or say what kind of car I had. She processed everything super fast and was incredibly nice about listening to me rambling on the phone about every possible thing I was nervous about.

I had the car towed to a friend's house because there were no body shops open when the accident happened. My claims agent listened to the damage I described and sent out another rep to take a look at the car to see if it was even worth taking it to a body shop or just straight to the scrap lot. Of course the car was totaled. Both Elizabeth and Tim were super nice. They explained everything I could possibly want to know and were incredibly helpful.

They even managed to get me an insane discount on a rental. The agent at Enterprise couldn't believe the rate I got.

As soon as I reported the accident, I got an email saying that my claim was now on my account online. Amazing. I could see the status of my claim and all of the steps before my claim could be completed. I had access to all of the docs that I possibly could have wanted to see. Within a couple of days, they had a cheque ready for me pick up for the value of my car.

Everyone warned me that the insurance company would lowball me with the amount and their first offer wouldn't be their best offer. Their first offer was $2K more than what I paid for the car. Not exactly lowballing.

Apparently the guy who hit me decided that he wasn't going to give a statement about the accident. To anyone. So my claims agent called him every day, twice a day to try to get any kind of info since the guy wasn't even talking to his own insurance company.

Just checked my account online this morning and lo and behold, fault has been determined and I'm in the clear. Just have to go pick up another cheque to get my deductible back.

I so love Progressive. Getting in an accident is a horrible experience and they made it totally easy.

Update: Just heard from my rep and apparently the other guy didn't have valid coverage. Wow. Sucks to be him. They're now going after him personally for the damage.

Total Loss

2009-02-04T09:52:00.000-08:00

Heard from the insurance company yesterday and the car's totalled.

Time to start looking for new cars.

Suggestions?

I now hate driving

2009-02-02T20:26:00.001-08:00

As I was driving up the 405 to a superbowl party at a friend's house yesterday, I was thinking that with the amount of time that I spend in a car now that I live in LA, there must be a higher probability that I'm going to get into an accident.

And it happened yesterday.

I was on my way back from my friend's house, heading to catch the last little bit of the game at another place, driving along minding my own business, doing the speed limit, driving through a green light when all of a sudden someone made a left turn right into my car. Yup. Let me tell you, it's not a thing you soon forget.

They were coming from the opposite direction, waiting to make a left turn through the intersection and turned right into my driver's side door. I'm pretty sure I screamed when I got hit. Ok, I know I did. I screamed like a little girl.

I managed to pull my car off to the side of the road and climbed out the passenger side door while trying not to cry because the driver's side door wouldn't open. Two girls came running up to my car and another guy (who turned out to be the driver) kept telling me to move it and I told him that I couldn't, so he took my keys and moved the car for me while I stood there shaking.

What happened after that was the amazing part. So turns out I was in a not-so-great area of LA. The SUV was full of a family that screamed at me and told me I ran a red light, refused to give me their insurance information, told me that if I just paid for their damages we could both just go and told me that I was trying to FLEE THE SCENE because I drove up past 3 parked cars so I could safely pull over.

Amazing, right?

Did I mention that the light was green and they hit the SIDE of my car? Not the front of my car and I didn't hit them either. I was fully in the intersection and they turned right into the driver's side. It really could have been a lot worse.

Eventually we had to call the police because it's pretty much illegal not to give someone your insurance information in an accident. The police didn't even make a report, they just got all of the guy's information and gave it to me. My car had to be towed because they hit me pretty badly. I have to wait to see what the insurance guy says when he comes to take a look at it tomorrow, but there's a pretty good chance that it's a total loss.

I guess I'm a real Angeleno now.