Weekend 4 - INDEPENDENCE DAY


Firstly, to anybody in America reading this post.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Today's gonna be a busy day, can't wait to check out 3rd street promenade and the pier later, sure there's gonna be lots of activities there!

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On Saturday we headed over to Steven's (I have to stop addressing him with a mr in front anymore, he doesn't like it >.<) place to grill some awesome meat we bought.

Grilled beef, pork, lamb, fish and salad. Mmmmm...

Followed by ice cream, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. Mmmmmmmmmm!

We ended up in a discussion of life, passion and ambition.

Just two and a half years ago, I still remember like it was yesterday, I was just an arrogant naive 16 year old kid who had only one dream and ambition, to be a director.

Thus I applied for a diploma in Digital Visual Effects in Nanyang Polytechnic.
I was extremely thankful, getting the course as first choice.

Months go by and we were taught 2d and 3d softwares by our lecturers. Studied, played, crammed our brains for studio projects. Relationships, heh, somehow things start getting thrown at me and I changed I guess.

It's pretty safe to say I've become more matured compared to before but not matured enough. I know I still have much to learn as long as I live.

Soon enough we picked up Houdini software.

Never did I expect to get involved with Lighthouse Studio, with Mr Douglas as our 'mentor'. More ironically though, a couple of months before that I dropped by lighthouse church and told myself one day I'd meet the guy who did all those awesome cg work for the church, who happened to be Mr Douglas himself.

Never did I expect to work for Mr Douglas, having him as a client, Mr Michael and Mr Ron the profwiz as our mentor, to get involved with such deep knowledge of houdini and maya by now.

So now here I am in Los Angeles, involved in an industrial attachment program in SideEffects Software, the company that created Houdini software that has served many visual effects companies well.
Visiting studios that have and are working on feature films.
Meeting many interns and staff who are very experienced in softwares and working in the film industry.
Making many wonderful friends along the way.

Here I am, having dinner with Steven, the guy who gave a talk about the making of Iron Man 2 representing Lucasfilm a few months ago back in Singapore.

Have I realised how lucky I am? Yeah pretty much.

All the more I'm gonna make sure I make full use of my time here, work hard and play hard likewise.