Links to the Past

January was a long, trying month. So in lieu of a long post about my monthlong journey, I decided to post links to some of the stories I wrote in the past 31 days. There was tons traveling, a lot of good times and, unfortunately, much sadness as well. Overall, when I look back at January 2012, I will consider it a celebration of life.

I ended the college football season with stops at the Rose Bowl and BCS National Championship game in New Orleans. After the LSU-Bama game, I talked with Alabama RB Trent Richardson and found out he’d actually committed to the “goals” project we started at the beginning of the season. I felt like I’d won a national championship, myself! READ THE MAGAZINE PIECE HERE.

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Two Giant Leaps into 2012

“What are we going to do this New Year’s Eve, Brain?”

“Same thing we do every New Year’s Eve, Pinky. Try and take over the world!”**

The Rose Bowl post-game celebration down on the field. Ducks can party!

Okay, maybe not. But for the past several years, my New Years Eve weekends have been very much the same, and in so many ways absolutely unique. That’s thanks to a Red Bull/ESPN collaborative called “New Year. No Limits” and a little football game called the Rose Bowl.

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Team TGR

Over the past four days, I learned how to dig a snow pit, find and treat an avalanche victim, tie a butterfly knot and rig up a rope-and-pully system to rescue a person who’s fallen into a crevasse. But I’m leaving Teton Gravity Research‘s International Pro Riders Workshop with more than new skills–I’m leaving Snowbird with a new appreciation for the sport of backcountry skiing and snowboarding. The team sport of backcountry skiing and snowboarding, that is.

Team TGR at backcountry camp.

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TED amongst Friends

Thursday night, I attended my first FRED talks, a fun local event hosted by Santa Monica resident Steve Glenn. He modeled the monthly event after the TED talks, which he has attended for several years and participated in at the Long Beach TED talks in 2009. [If you aren't familiar with TED talks, you can check them out and watch a few HERE. You can watch Steve's talk HERE.]

What a great idea. Invite lots of smart, creative, interesting, do-goody folks from around the area into your (amazing pre-fab Living Homes) home for a potluck dinner, drinks and thought-provoking talks. Each month, anyone invited to the event can propose a talk subject and then entertain and inform the crowd for 8 minutes, with a 3-minute question-and-answer session, which follows.

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Women Like Football. It’s True!

A few weeks ago, Time magazine columnist Joel Stein spent his Sunday morning watching football with the members of the OMG Girls! fantasy football league at Barney’s Beanerie in Westwood (LA). I am a member of the OMG Girls, which was started by my friend and colleague Molly Knight. Most of the girls in the league are her friends from Stanford. Most are 30. Most like playing fantasy because they both love football and love competition. I was just excited to meet a group of girls to watch football with on Sundays and trade smack talk with on the days in between.

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Blue Friday

I started writing this blog three weeks ago, picked it up again several times, but was never able to finish it. I have so many thoughts, so many ever-changing thoughts on the subject, and solidifying them into one post seemed like an impossible task. But yesterday I realized I haven’t blogged in nearly a month, becuase I haven’t been able to move on to more lighthearted topics until I finally hit “post” on this one. So, today, I finally finished it.

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How They Train

This past week, I spent a few days at Nike HQ in Beaverton, Oregon. If you’ve never been to their campus, and have the opportunity, take it. After five minutes on their campus, it’s easy to see why they have an easier time recruiting new talent than a lot of D-1 football programs. Their campus is immaculate, they have restaurants and cafeterias and gyms galore. At lunch, there are young, creative, good-looking employees playing soccer and running on trails and taking workout classes alongside professional athletes who are doing much of the same. And it’s just outside of Portland, one of my favorite cities in the country.

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Stanford Fan For A Day

In a follow-up to 2009′s Chargers Fan For a Day (at a home playoff game, with my friend Mike) and January’s Wisconsin Fan For a Day (at the Rose Bowl, with my friend Stacey), I completed the trifecta and spent Saturday dressed up as a Stanford alum for 2011′s Stanford Fan For a Day (at the USC game, with my friend Molly).

The Stanford band. Yes, that's a mummy directing them. Yes, they're all drunk.

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It’s That Time of Year Again – Movember!

Those of you who read this site regularly, or have met me, know about my passion for a charity called Movember. This passion was generated by a few things:

1. The guys who run Movember have more passion for what they do, and for life, than most people I know. That’s contagious. (And it’s the only infectious thing they’re not trying to cure.)

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A Match Made in Heaven

I was on vacation when I read on Twitter that IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon had been killed in a race in Las Vegas a few hours earlier. Covering sports, and action sports specifically, I’ve grown accustomed to finding out about athlete deaths in this manner on an all-too frequent basis. Every time, reading the news affects me differently. It’s strange to read about someone’s death in 140 characters or less. This time, I found myself thinking about Dan’s wife and his family.

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