Diary

Jake's coaching helped our friend, Jill, clock a personal best at the OC Half Marathon. I hope to benefit from Jake's know-how and flash a smile as big as Jill's when I complete the L.A. Marathon later this year. Yet when I read Jake's email directing me to keep a runner's log, my eyes glazed over. "If you start with 25 miles a week, increase by 10% with a drop back every four weeks. In 20 weeks you are running 125 miles a week ... count running miles only, no walks or hikes.

Editor's note: Costa Mesa High sophomore Sammy Swanson, a decorated snowboarder, is in Colorado to compete in the 2014 USA Snowboarding Assn. nationals in boardercross. This is his first-person diary of the trip: I've been snowboarding since I was 4 1/2 years old, after I got a snowboard from Santa. My parents have been taking me to Big Bear every weekend since. This long road to nationals has been fun and frustrating at the same time. From winning qualifier competitions, to breaking bones, this journey has been time well spent.

Editor's note: Costa Mesa High sophomore Sammy Swanson, a decorated snowboarder, was in Colorado to compete in the 2014 USA Snowboarding Assn. nationals, where he placed sixth in boardercross on Sunday. This is his first-person diary of his experience: I'm there laying in my very warm, but uncomfortable bed, preparing to get up and step into the cold living room to get ready for the big day. I run through everything I have to do to get prepared and take a deep breath.

Often, but even more so since my Daily Pilot commentaries began appearing, a friend will open a conversation with, "You're a runner ... " I tell myself, "OK, for the sake of this chat, I'll pretend I'm a runner. " The friend probably visualizes me running like the L.A. Marathon winner, with long graceful strides as she breaks the ribbon at the end of 26.2, doing five-minute miles. However, running down Bayside, I look more like a short-stepping elf, tripping along the bike lane.

Tom Titus No single element of the Holocaust has affixed itself to the heart more firmly than the story of Anne Frank, the Dutch teenage girl whose diary of her family's years in hiding and eventual capture gained international renown on stage and screen. When Paul Beidler's drama class at Trabuco Hills High School wanted to stage "The Diary of Anne Frank" two years ago, they couldn't obtain the rights because of a new Broadway revival. So Beidler wrote his own version, "Hidden: The Story of Anne Frank," which the class performed.

Three weeks ago Hedy and I took a train into Amsterdam's main station, then walked 20 minutes to Prinsengracht 263, a nondescript address next to a canal in the Dutch capital. Entering the building, we slipped behind a bookcase and into a secret world. It's a place I've known about most of my life, but experiencing it first-hand was revealing. Once inside, we were transported nearly seven decades into the past. I sensed the vulnerability of the people who'd lived there.

I bought a used book recently -- volume one of "The Diary of Anais Nin." It cost $8.50, has a bent cover and some underlined parts. Inside the cover, there is writing. Notes, it looks like, from the previous owner, who I'm guessing was female because the handwriting is loopy and feminine, if you can gender-ize handwriting. o7 "Pebble collection,"f7 it sayso7 . "Sadness in handshaker. I whip the wind, circle roller, run over boulders." f7 I was intrigued.

Teenagers who overeat and smoke may feel compelled to do so because of anxiety, a UC Irvine study concludes. The study, which appeared in the June issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, is one of the first to use hand-held computer diaries. It found teen rates of anxiety to be unexpectedly high and led to more frequent episodes of anger, sadness and fatigue. The findings, part of a long-term study, may also provide insight into teen perceptions and moods that may have changed after the Sept.

Tom Titus Most theatergoers are quite familiar with "The Diary of Anne Frank," the true-life account of a teenage Jewish girl hiding with her family from the Nazis in 1942 Amsterdam. But the story unfolding at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse this weekend is not the one you're accustomed to seeing. The title's the same, but the presentation is a recently adapted version performed on Broadway with Natalie Portman and Linda Lavin. And it has moved New York critics to superlatives such as "undeniably moving" (New York Times)

This week, I'd like to solicit opinions from our readers on a couple items. The first two have to do with some different things we've done here at the Daily Pilot this week, starting with the diary-style column we are running from Guy Hebert. Let me tell you all the genesis of that. We were approached by the Mighty Ducks organization with the idea of having Hebert, a Newport Beach resident, write a diary during the playoffs. Hebert is a former goalie and was an active member of the team the last time the Ducks made the playoffs.

Editor's note: Costa Mesa High sophomore Sammy Swanson, a decorated snowboarder, was in Colorado to compete in the 2014 USA Snowboarding Assn. nationals, where he placed sixth in boardercross on Sunday. This is his first-person diary of his experience: I'm there laying in my very warm, but uncomfortable bed, preparing to get up and step into the cold living room to get ready for the big day. I run through everything I have to do to get prepared and take a deep breath.

Editor's note: Costa Mesa High sophomore Sammy Swanson, a decorated snowboarder, is in Colorado to compete in the 2014 USA Snowboarding Assn. nationals in boardercross. This is his first-person diary of the trip: I've been snowboarding since I was 4 1/2 years old, after I got a snowboard from Santa. My parents have been taking me to Big Bear every weekend since. This long road to nationals has been fun and frustrating at the same time. From winning qualifier competitions, to breaking bones, this journey has been time well spent.

Jake's coaching helped our friend, Jill, clock a personal best at the OC Half Marathon. I hope to benefit from Jake's know-how and flash a smile as big as Jill's when I complete the L.A. Marathon later this year. Yet when I read Jake's email directing me to keep a runner's log, my eyes glazed over. "If you start with 25 miles a week, increase by 10% with a drop back every four weeks. In 20 weeks you are running 125 miles a week ... count running miles only, no walks or hikes.

Often, but even more so since my Daily Pilot commentaries began appearing, a friend will open a conversation with, "You're a runner ... " I tell myself, "OK, for the sake of this chat, I'll pretend I'm a runner. " The friend probably visualizes me running like the L.A. Marathon winner, with long graceful strides as she breaks the ribbon at the end of 26.2, doing five-minute miles. However, running down Bayside, I look more like a short-stepping elf, tripping along the bike lane.

From the team that produced"Paranormal Activity"comes another scary film that takes the well-worn path of horror movie clichés. "Chernobyl Diaries"follows a group of young adults seeking a serious adventure vacation. They get much more than they bargained for on this trip to Russia. They hire an underground guide who takes them to a radioactive ghost town near the site of the Chernobyl disaster. Once they arrive, menacing forests, deserted buildings and growling beasts provide the predictable background.

Three weeks ago Hedy and I took a train into Amsterdam's main station, then walked 20 minutes to Prinsengracht 263, a nondescript address next to a canal in the Dutch capital. Entering the building, we slipped behind a bookcase and into a secret world. It's a place I've known about most of my life, but experiencing it first-hand was revealing. Once inside, we were transported nearly seven decades into the past. I sensed the vulnerability of the people who'd lived there.

A new film from young Orange County surf star Timmy Turner will screen at the Newport Beach Film Festival on Tuesday, but not as part of the festival's action-sports series. Turner's film, co-directed with Kristian McCue, has less to do with surfing and more to do with good works. "Tsunami Diaries" documents a trip to Indonesia to give aid to villagers whose homes were destroyed by 2004's massive tsunami there. The "Tsunami Diaries" tells the story of Turner and his friend as they head to Indonesia on a relief mission six days after a tsunami devastated the country.

Here's a day in the life of an intrepid community news reporter turned loose in the state capital. A tip for anyone visiting Sacramento -- not the place to break in a new pair of shoes. 8 a.m.: Arrive breathless and eager at state Capitol building to get media credentials to attend Assembly session; realize no one here officially starts the day until at least 9 a.m. Get coffee. 9 a.m.: Begin the "journey of 1,000 stairways" and frequently become lost in the maze-like Capitol, which has two separate wings.

Tom Titus When Anne Frank chronicled the hardships she and her family endured while hiding from the Nazis in a cramped Amsterdam loft during World War II, she hardly could have known the effect her observances would have, and continue to have, on the world through the mediums of literature, cinema and theater. This Jewish Dutch girl, by her own admission a bit of a brat and a chatterbox, cast the horrors of the Holocaust in a personal perspective as she recorded how her family -- in vain, except for one member -- bonded with four strangers, living in near starvation to survive.

Tom Titus Most theatergoers are quite familiar with "The Diary of Anne Frank," the true-life account of a teenage Jewish girl hiding with her family from the Nazis in 1942 Amsterdam. But the story unfolding at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse this weekend is not the one you're accustomed to seeing. The title's the same, but the presentation is a recently adapted version performed on Broadway with Natalie Portman and Linda Lavin. And it has moved New York critics to superlatives such as "undeniably moving" (New York Times)