Back in December, I was completely frustrated with my employment situation. As a freelancer, you are so at the mercy of the work coming to town, but the winter saw absolutely no work coming. It almost came down to the point where I almost quit the business so that I wouldn't starve.
Today, I am glad that I didn't quit. Work eventually came and it looks like there's a lot more coming. I've been somewhat busy since February, I got on multiple projects and it looks like I'm going to be considered for future upcoming projects, which I'm crossing my fingers for.
I am good at what I do and I stand by my work and work ethic, but I haven't always gotten any recognition working in such a small and often ignored department as location. This past couple month was different. I have been getting a lot of praise, especially after switching from location to production. It feels very good to be acknowledge for your good and hard work. One of the best memorable event to happen to me was when at the end of the shoot, the line producer and production supervisor pulled me aside and told me that I was going to be name the "Key P.A." in the credit because of my excellent work throughout the shoot. They loved my work so much, that they basically told me that I should move to L.A. immediately. The production coordinator basically told me that if I ever moved to L.A. that I would have a job waiting for me.
I went from almost quitting the business to heavily considering moving to L.A. for it in three month. I considered it for a very long time, over a month. I talked to a few friend that I know who have moved out there, I even looked at apartment out there. At the end, however, I decided that I didn't need to move to L.A. just yet to do what I want to do in this business, which is to direct. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but what really tipped it to one side as oppose to the other is the same reason I haven't moved out to L.A. in the past. There are things here on the east coast that I don't know if I could go without. I know it sounds weak but that's the way I feel. To get to where I want to be in the future, I will need to make some more movies and to get recognize from them, just as I've been recognize as a good production assistant. I'm sure the consideration move to L.A. will come up again.
That's work. It's going well so far and has put some money in my pocket so that I don't starve.
Most of the time work takes me away from my friends and family for long period of time, which I really don't mind to much. But once work is over, I want to catch up on what I've missed. So when I'm not working, I'll basically try to catch up with friends that I haven't seen in a long time. That keeps me pretty busy, as I try to catch up with everyone.
My going out has changed dramatically in the past few month.
I've been spending a lot of time with my female friends as of late. For one reason or another, I find that it is just easier to hang out with them as oppose to my regular guy friends, which I find less and less in common with, the truth is I don't think we had that much in common in the first place, I'm just now finding that out. I also find the whole competitive and possessive mentality, especially against me for some odd reason (it makes more sense if you actually know me, no it's not a gay thing), a bit off putting, as well as other more annoying mentality that I wont get into on here.
I've also been hanging out more with friends that I rarely hang out with in the past, new friends that I've made in the past couple month, as well as my sisters and their friends. Now that I can afford gas for my car, I find that I can go home and hang out with my sisters more often.
I don't just go to bars either, which gets boring after awhile. But I've been doing a lot of cool activities, things that I actually would rather do more of. I went rock climbing, which was awesome, I climbed a 5.8. I need to lose some weight, get more flexible, and strengthen my forearm if i want to go any higher, but I'm looking forward to trying. I went to the batting cage for the first time since middle school. I am pretty sure that had I played little league, I would be in the pros right now. It took a short time for me to pick up the speed of the ball, but once I picked it up, I was cracking the ball. I went to the driving range for the first time this year, I think I fixed my slice, time will tell. I went broom balling, which is played on an ice rink without skate. It was really really fun. I was really surprise that after the initial tiredness I played right through it and lasted the whole hour. I guess I'm not as out of shape as I had imagine. I've also been going line dancing on a regular basis, yes that's right, line dancing. It's different and it's something to do, and believe it or not, it does become fun if you know the steps. Maybe, I'll try salsa dancing someday.
That is just a few of the things I did. I was suppose to go hike Great Falls Park, but the trip got rained out. I'm looking forward to this summer as a lot more activity is in the work. The big one right now is going to the keys to get scuba certified. But there are a few other activities in the works. We have more hiking trips plan, as well as some camping trip. Plans are in the work to go white water rafting, atv'ing, paintballing, golfing, gun ranging, touristing, amusement parking, as well as other cool activities that I can't even remember.
Oh! I completely forgot. I finally went to New York City for the first time in my life. It was awesome, freezing cold, but awesome. Plans to go in the summer are in the works. We went to Rockefeller center and the NBC store. We went to MOMA, which I really didn't think was that impressive, but we saw Robert Downey Jr. there. We went to Trump Towers to kinda get out of the cold for a second. It was very...interesting. We went to FOA Schwartz, that was really cool. I think the toys are completely over priced, but it was a pretty cool store nonetheless. We did time square at night which looked very bright. Lot of things to see, lots of people to watch out for. and we finished off the night in Soho at Lombardi's, the first pizzary in NY and also where they shot Goodfellas. Across the street from Lombardi's was a boutique rice pudding store called Rice To Riches, so we tried that for dessert. It was good, but I had rice pudding before, it really isn't anything new for us Asian. It was a very eventful day, which is why we are planning on another trip. Hopefully we'll get to see other monuments and attraction. But it's not cheap.I've been hanging out with a lot of different people these past couple month, which is a good thing. But there is a major flaw to that. I feel like I don't have a best friend anymore. Someone I can completely relate to, someone that wont judge me when I tell them something. Someone that will help me with any problem that I have. Someone that I can hang out with whenever I call. I have a couple people I can talk to, but really don't have anyone I can call a best friend. I miss that. People I would consider to be best friends are all far away.
Another thing that I miss, is guy camaraderie, I know I hang out with a lot of girls, but it's not like the guys I hang out with will change anything. No offense to the guy friends that I know and hang out with. But I miss playing sports and talking sports with guys that have played sports and know sports with their own opinions and not that of ESPN. I miss the bond that guys have, and I don't feel like I have enough in common with some of the guys that I hang out with to have any type of bond, except for a history bond. I think what I really miss may be related to the above paragraph. I miss having someone that I have a lot of things in common with.
Ok, I think that's it for now. My situation now is a lot better than it was 5 month ago, but like always, there are other things bouncing around in my head that I don't want to get into. Work is good but not great. Social is ok but not good. Future looks promising both work wise and socially.
Oh! I am also kinda sorta talking to someone. I'm taking it extremely slow, which probably will ruin the whole thing. I'm just not entirely sure what her intentions are and that kinda keeps me very guarded. We'll see.
edit: I forgot to add something and I didn't want to start another entry just for it.
Thanks to one of my sister, I have finally switched wireless plan. I'm now on verizon instead of sprint. With that change came a blackberry. I had been avoiding getting a smart phone for the longest time. All I wanted was a simple flip phone with maybe a camera. All I wanted was a phone where I could call and text people with. Instead, I got a blackberry and now I don't know if I can live without it. Crackberry is right. I get all my email, facebook, and twitter updated straight to my phone. I find less and less reason to be on my aging computer now. My sister also gave me her old ipod, which has a bigger hard drive than my aging computer.
After getting the blackberry and ipod, i finally realize how far behind in technology I was. Don't get me wrong, I love gadgets, especially electronic gadgets, just as much as the other guy, but they aren't cheap. I think once I get a new computer (macbook pro) and an HDTV, I might finally be back up to speed with today's technology, then i'll have to get a blueray player, surround sound, a new generation gaming system, DSLR (Nikon D300) or (D80 for the video), new point and shoot camera, etc.... the list goes on.
Yeah, I'm also on twitter now. Not really impress at all with it, but I have friends on there, and I have it setup so that it automatically updates my facebook status, so I'll stay with it for now.
Ok, now I think that's it. I'll try to update more often, but I you never know.
