2018 Year in Review (1st Year In Los Angeles)

Well… what a year! I have been pretty inactive on social media and here on my blog but I can tell you that my life has been full of activity!

I moved a little over a year ago and I started 2018 in La La Land. It’s so big! Hollywood, Burbank, Santa Monica, Westwood, Studio City, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Koreatown, Mid-City, Downtown, Los Feliz, Pasadena, the Valley, Silver Lake, Glendale, South LA, Inglewood, Echo Park. There’s too many neighborhoods/cities to list but I’ve been lucky enough to explore them all. My days and nights as an Uber driver have led me down many narrow alleyways, beaches that go on for days, and stop-and-go traffic the likes you’d never wish on your worst enemy.

Here is, more-or-less, a list of all the places, people, and animals I've seen this year, through the art I created: 

I stopped in the King’s Head pub in Santa Monica and met Anthony Hopkins.

I saw the morning light from a beach near the Pacific Palisades.

I explored the streets of Glendale on foot.

I drank lots of coffee at lots of different coffee shops!

I met many kinds of people from all walks of life. Los Angeles natives can be a rare sighting and those from the valley can be strange...

… while business travellers from different countries lead to interesting conversations for me. Sometimes, I learnt more about myself than I did about them.

I designed characters for a video game.

I went to the zoo. A lot.

I discovered the little oasis that is the LA river and Griffith Park.

I took a Character Design and a Storyboarding class.

I went back East to see friends and family.

I went to Walt Disney Animation during their Open House program. It was actually the last "class" with Peter Paul! They showed us how they made Ralph Breaks the Internet. I saw their in-house iPad drawing app for storyboard artists, among many other ‘secrets’ they had, haha. Not exactly, secrets but certainly interesting stuff. It would be AMAZING to work at a place like that with people so passionate and skilled at storytelling. 

Also, they gave us stuff! I will cherish that Walt Disney Sharpie forever!!!    xD 

I’d be lying if I didn’t mention there were bad times. I’ve slowly realized I am now a little fish in a big pond. There is a lot of competition out here, and it scares me.

Also, I’ve seen some stuff driving with Uber. I ran over a kitten with passengers in the car. I couldn’t do anything to stop it from happening and it made me quite sad. Julia helped me through that though :)

I witnessed a hit-and-run. A lady crossing the street got hit by a car making a left turn in front of me. She was knocked to the ground and her leg/foot appeared to be run-over. Luckily she had a friend with her that grabbed her and probably saved her life.

​I had a drunk guy vomit in my car at 7:30pm on a Friday night. I got money for that. $150 to be exact. It could have been a lot worse, as most of it went out the window but the 30 minutes-plus of driving with vomit-stench was not very pleasant. In fact, it seemed to linger in my nose for days afterwards, haunting me like the ghost of vomits'-past.

But, all in all, it's been pretty great and I look forward to continuing my journey out here. I hope to share more with you, too! Thanks for all the likes, comments, emails, and support! 

Best wishes to all for 2019 :)