Oh man, we found one. It’s gorgeous, the area is AMAZING, few blocks from the beach, ocean on three sides of the peninsula, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, office, family room, large kitchen, long driveway, big screen TV (not HD…yet), two refrigerators, most necessary furniture included, great neighborhood….we’re so lucky. Roads are CRAZY though. Remember those roads that were the stereotype of S.F.? Well we got em haha. People driving are nuts too, passing in opposing traffic on these tiny roads that go straight up and straight down and their driving huge F-150 trucks. Scares he crap out of me but at the same time it’s fun haha. On the highways anyway. People actually….GO! They move, it’s amazing, people don’t move out Easy, they can barely talk on phones at the same time. Lots to get used to though, driving, people, night life, things to do, it’s like starting over. I kinda needed that. One of those cliche “finding myself” kinda deals I guess haha. I’ll post pictures of the house when we get moved in and situated, but for now here’s some pics of the area and some fallen trees from the storm that happened during the fires I’m sure you’ve heard about. The trees are outside where I work right now. 90mph winds destroyed the landscape, it was crazy, started happening while I was at work and we didn’t leave. Trees landing on buildings, in the parking lot, no cars hit though. Drove home in it, dust everywhere, a real mess. As for the fires, I took a picture of the sky while they were going on about 100 miles from LA, closest they got were about 10 miles from here in Hemet, CA. Well that’s about all for now, got stuff I need to do, feel free to comment, you’re allowed to haha. Later! 
Well it sure has been a while. It’s been so hectic I don’t know where to start and don’t even remember what happened for most of it. First we stopped over at the St. Louis Arch. It was so big! We actually went into the top of it and took a lot of pictures, I’ll try to remember to put the link at the end of this for them. The view was spectacular of the city, it’s a shame that it was been ranked the number one city for crime. After that we headed out toward Mount Rushmore. It was cool to finally see it, but it’s much small than all the pictures make you think. The mountains were beautiful though around it. Aside from that S. Dakota was one of the worst states we were in, so many things went wrong haha. Fuel leak in my car, Jason almost ran over a dog, I smacked my car straight into a 6″ deep pot hole, but it’s fine, and we got split up somehow, I’m pretty sure it was Danny’s fault though 
hehe. After that we headed out to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful……which according to a little girl erupted right before we got there and it was way too cold to wait. Yellowstone was gorgeous, but for 25 bucks I would’ve liked to see a lot more than snow and rain. Lots of animals though, and a bear cub! :). Anyway, from there we headed straight down to Sioux Falls, and on to the Grand Canyon which Jason Ray and I didn’t get to see…lets not get into that. We did get to see the Hoover Dam though and drove through Las Vegas. I think I’m going to take a mini road trip myself out there to see the stuff over again, the right way. One of the nights we even went camping. Never found a site so we ended up camping in a future housing development, no one found out though lol. Make a little campfire and everything, the wind wasn’t on our side, but we did it quite well I say. The whole trip was a true adventure. I wish we had more time, but most of it was getting a little rushed so we could get out to Cali to work. That’s where I am now. My job put us up in a hotel, all single rooms, some with a jacuzzi, but I was moved into this room now which doesn’t have one, I knew I should’ve taken advantage of it. I do have a couch now though, that’s kinda cool. I’ve only worked three days and it’s been exhausting. 10AM to 10PM, 5-7 days a week. The work hasn’t been bad so far, but next week is going to be really hectic. I did get a new iPhone though new number too. If you want it just send me an email and I’ll be glad to give it to you. I’m not advertising this one. I still have my other number though if you need to get a hold of me by text. It doesn’t receive calls though, just voice mails, so I’m sorry if i don’t answer. Well that’s all for now. If you want to know more just leave a comment or email!!
http://picasaweb.google.com/pianimator/CrossCountry
So graduation turned out to be a blast, and I got the Best Portfolio Award! Yay! Didn’t do much special. Went to dinner, packed up my stuff and moved out (because the dorms made us move out on graduation day by 8pm…losers). Only down side was I had been sick all that week, and the week after. Turned out to be bronchitis. I’m just now over it and I have a few days to get my stuff together, see some friends, and I’m on my way out to California! Making a few stops on the way. St. Louis Arch, Largest Ball of Twine, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and last stop is the place my friends and I will be living, eating, and working at for the next two months. Golden Era Productions. The film studio of the Scientologists. It should be a real experience and the money will go to good use for when we find a place to live on the coast. Good times ahead, good times. I’ll be sure to update what I can on here, but probably nothing until I’m done working at Golden Era around the end of November, possibly mid December, not sure how I’m working that one just yet. Well that’s about all for now, check out my site on occasion if you don’t visit much, trying to update my work when I can.
FLIGHT HOME FROM SAN DIEGO - SIGGRAPH
It started with 6 of us in San Diego that did not want to leave in the first place, but the school arranged our transportation since we won the contest. So we leave for a stop over in Las Vegas, where I lost all 2 dollars of my money in the airline gate to a stupid Wheel of Fortune slot machine. When we got there we found out our flight was canceled and were put on 3 different (and separate) flights, one to West Palm Beach, one to Minneapolis, and one to Charlotte, which was later transfered to Phoenix because of a security breach. While we were waiting for our flights we had races with our wind up toys from Pixar’s SIGGRAPH booth, I’ll show the videos sometime after they get edited together lol…we got crazy looks from people because we were betting on them too. Anyway, the flight to West Palm Beach went fine and they got to Philly, the guy on the Phoenix flight got there around 3..and 3 of us were stuck in Minneapolis. After we got there we were running all over the place looking for gate F2 just to find the flight to Philly from there was a different airline and time, so we tried F4, same thing different flight ha ha. After a while I told the other 2 guys to stop and that the gate number was cut off…we were supposed to go to E2, not F so we ran there with 5 minutes to spare and saw that our flight was listed with a CXL where the gate number should be. Read more
These have been the most AMAZING couple days ever. Being a winner of the HP/Saytek Team Animation contest has really gotten our team’s names out there. I worked on the short with my two close friends Danny Garnett and Manuel Sierra. Our school, The Art Institute of Philadelphia, has been doing a great job of introducing us to many people already in the industry.
Day 1 (Monday): Lay of the Land
After being in San Diego for a bit and checking into our amazing hotel (Hilton Gaslamp Quarters…conveniently accross the street from the convention haha), we headed out for some food. Stopped by “The Field” near fifth and market. We all decided to get boxties since we have never heard of them before. They were delicious, pretty much a potato pancake wrapped around bacon, cheese, and covered in a white wine sauce. Now onto the convention itself.
One of our school administrators gave us a quick run down of the convention. Computer Animation Theater, Job Fair, Exhibitors floor, Classes, Presentations, Electronic Theater, Emerging Technologies, interactive classes and demonstrations, open computer labs, everything you could ever want.
I pretty much used this first day to get a feel for what was where and how I wanted to go about doing things the next day…this turned out to be of no use because of all the overwhelming things haha.
As a little unwinding and entertainment at the end of the day we all went to a club that was holding the SIGGRAPH Student Chapters party. So much fun, definitely a night to remember. The parties are a great way to let your mind rebuild itself after turning into putty from all the information at the convention.
Created a new blog to post my experiences after getting out of college. Don’t plan to start posting until…you know, I graduate haha. Keep an eye on my website for updates on my work. Talk to me online for updates on my life. Haha, enjoy.
