Strategy

    Friday: Was a lazy day. I did laundry all day and cleaned the apartment. I then did homework in between. Studying for my art history quiz the next day. 

    Saturday: Had class, we took a quiz first thing and then had our lecture on the Baroque era. For the second part of class (the latter three hours of it) we met over at LACMA the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts. It was sooo good. I don't know how I feel about some of Jeff Koons stuff ...a lot of the contemporary I wasn't really a fan of but it was so cool to see Chagall and Picasso and a lot of the ancient asian and egyptian art.

    The latter part of the day I napped and then drove to Aroma for my favorite chai of course and then just went for a drive. Drove Sunset through beverly hills, brentwood and bel-air until it spit me out to PCH HWY1 and I drove around Malibu and Santa Monica. 

    Sunday: I had chosen to do a liberating day trip up to Manzanar the Japanese Internment Camp. It happens to be the internment camp that my grandfather was relocated to. It's in Independence, California which just so happens to also be the middle of no where haha. It was about a 3 and a half hour drive north of where I live in Los Angeles. 

    I wasn't prepared for how emotional the experience would be for me. Just thinking about my grandfather was put in there. I have yet to hear one complaint from his mouth about that place. The Japanese Americans were so ... calm through out the entire experience. Treated inhumanely, yet they had accepted it. Shikataganai was the phrase they had accepted. Which means along the lines of there's nothing we can do about it...forced into harsh circumstances they stood strong. I watched a 22 min film while in the museum and i teared up pretty badly. Especially when this one Japanese American guy born and raised in the Los Angeles area and then taken into the internment camp and then after his release his family moved to other states east of California and people would tell him "Go Home Jap" and he said he would think "oh boy how I wish I could." It's heart breaking. 

    I can't even explain the intense emotions that came over me. I honestly didn't think I'd be affected by it as badly as I was. A huge sense of pride for my heritage definitely came out. I can't even imagine suddenly being torn away from everything that I know and everything that I have just because of my race. Some they even sent back to Japan which is bull because some if not most of them were born in America and have absolutely no idea what to expect in Japan and I'm sure some may not even speak Japanese! This experience from the past obviously cannot be erased, but all that we can hope for is that we can learn from this experience. Just because we, as Japanese Americans, looked like the enemy doesn't mean we were. They said there was not a single case of espionage during the entire internment. Way to go United States, turn against your own citizens and your own Constitution. I'm sure those thousands and thousands of Japanese Americans were given their speedy trial by jury (Amendment 6)... ya right, and also their right to bear arms (Amendment 2)...ya right, the right to be secure in their house against unreasonable searches and seizures (Amendment 4)...ya right, the right that their shall be no law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws (amendment 14)...ya right. 

    The Japanese Americans were told that they were being contained for their own protection, but then upon their arrival into the camps they began to notice that the guards had their guns pointed at them and not towards the outskirts of the fences.

     Through experiences like this I would hope that America could finally stop being so racist and judgmental. Just accept that people are who they are and your ignorance is what's bringing the nation down. The stereotypes of races are outlandish. There is no race that is born "innately lazy" or "prone to stealing" its all due to the pressures of society and its classism within it. My biggest hope for this nation is that it'll grow up and have a more open mind. 

    Anyway, off of my pedestal haha. The rest of the day I drove back home and arrived into town around 7pm. Did some minor cleaning and then got ready for bed and watched American Pastime. I love that movie! And basically the entire Japanese Community of Salt Lake City is in it haha.

    Monday: Woke up and got ready for the day and then headed to the grocery store. After grocery shopping I then came back home and prepared to go into school to work on homework. This day was not my day to be productive with homework haha. I got to the school and then a fire alarm was going off. So had to stand outside for a while. When we were allowed to go back in I walked over to the studio and it was closed because they were shooting for this new reality series. Just my luck that studio would be closed when I'm ambitious to get homework done. So they told us to go upstairs and work in the upstairs lab but there was a Maya class going on in there and the lab technician that's usually there I guess had gone on break so had to wait for him to get back to get some equipment for me to work with. It was about a half hour and then he grabbed some the keyboard this other girl and I were gonna be working with. We started to pull up the programs that we needed to work with and of course Reason isn't on the upstairs computers only the downstairs studio. So I guess another day we shall try. It wasn't a completely wasted day though because I got to talk and get to know this kid Cody and this girl Zada a bit better just talking about our classes and everything so it's good getting to know people in the major better :) 

    The rest of the day just came home, did dishes, and hooked up my new speakers that my dad got for me and then watched Children of Men and part of Pursuit of Happyness (i've seen it before) but Children of Men was deep! The editing work was crazy!! 

    Tuesday: anyway as for today... I'm thinking homework most of the day YAY! haha fill you in later about it. I'm super excited though because Kelsey comes into town today!! WOOHOO

P.S. The picture is a picture I saw at the Manzanar museum. For more pictures check out my facebook account

Finding My Niche

    Wednesday. I had class in the morning 830 until about 11:15 came home and then had to hurry and drive the Uhaul van back up to Studio City. I cleaned the kitchen and then had a bite to eat before I headed up. Brandon helped me with everything (like picked me up from the Uhaul place and moving stuff) thank you very much! Afterwards we went back to Crystal and his old apartment to gather the last bit of stuff. Of course we had to talk about films for a little bit. I had to hurry and get back down to school though because I had to work on filming a montage for editing class. 

    I got home and walked over to school to meet up with Claudia so that we could help each other film our montages. We had to batch and capture our tapes...everything was going over quite well when for some reason the time code was off when we were trying to capture mine. (Not to mention they made it difficult to film any where because we got kicked out of the library for filming and we couldn't film out on the park...geez how obnoxious! How are we supposed to do our homework of "filming a montage at the school" if they don't let us! Luckily we finished. lol 

    For the remainder of the evening (it's not about 7pm) I just went home and worked on homework all night until about 2am. Thanks to Wesley for helping me out with a couple ideas on my logo for my after effects class!

    Thursday. My intense 9hours of school day. Had after effects class and luckily my logos went over decent...the hard part is figuring out how i want to animate them to come together in After Effects because all of my designs are pretty static. 

   After that class went to grab some quiznos with Valeria for lunch and then we headed up to Maya class. Didn't finish my textbook homework for the class sadly, but I did end up working on my toy modeling. Jung (our teacher) went around and helped us all out with our toy modeling and its actually coming together really well. I just need to finish the modeling and then add texture by next class. 

    Our next class was Editing. Because I wasn't able to batch and capture my footage (i had emailed the teacher before hand) he was understanding and helped me see where I was having the issues with the time code. SO annoying because we (Claudia and I) got it all down perfectly with hers! So this week I have to cut my montage along with this weeks homework of shooting one scene but concentrating on composition and lighting because we just barely went over lighting in class. Like I can say with most things in this industry, fricken intense! I had no idea how much goes into every little detail of everything in the animation, filming, designing and editing world. It's all taken for granted :(

    After class Claudia and I went over to ESPNzone at LA live for dinner. We had a good talk and got to know each other more and talked a lot about classes. Then two guys came up and asked if they could sit with us and if we let them they'd pay for our bill. (our bill ended up being $40 plus tip) so we agreed. haha We got their at perfect timing because it was right before the crowd rush and we had the perfect seat to watch the playoffs game of Lakers vs. Jazz we left before half time but Jazz were ahead and I later found out that the Jazz won!! WOOHOO haha (outside of ESPNzone they were filming for Iron Man 2) 

    We walked back to my apt because she parked there and then we parted our ways. I just ended up doing some reading for art history and then getting ready for bed and passing out early (11pm-ish) 

    Today should be fun. I'm gonna get ready and then Claudia and i are headed to costco to get some liquor and then tonight with Valeria I think we're going out dancing, but we'll see. haha 

    I'm really excited for next week because Kelbie (Kelsey) comes into town. I fricken love this girl, she's like a little sister to me. We even have the same birthday...she's just three years younger. She won a state competition so she's coming out here with her school for nationals. I'm so proud of her!! I think on the 30th we're going to a Dodgers game which is really exciting because I've been wanting to go and then she invited me to go with them to Disneyland, but we'll see if I don't have class or homework to do on that day. Anyway...should be having some good times ahead of me :) 

    I'm also really happy because I feel like I'm finally finding my niche. I still miss my family and friends but I'm not hating this place so badly. I've been working on looking at everything out here in a more positive light then I had been the first few months of being out here. I've tried focusing on exploring and doing as much as I can to keep myself busy and it's been going over fairly well. Well i better get going have to get ready for today! 

    P.S. the picture above is of Iron Man 2 being filmed in LA Live. 

    

For the Love of... Korean Tacos?

     Monday was good. Very relaxed day. I just ended up going to the bank to deposit my loan money for the quarter and then head to the mall. I know sounds dangerous huh?! I was so proud of myself all I ended up doing was paying off my Express credit card and buying the minerals make up from Sephora @ 15% off, I don't NEED it yet, but it saved me about $3 or $4 so may as well get it to save money in the long run. I got a couple of cards because you know me, I'm obsessed! I tried to do Mother's Day shopping, but it was a failure, I've been questioning what to get FOREVER too bad my mom is so difficult to shop for...so damn content with everything! 

    Didn't end up doing too much for the remainder of the evening. I must be going through memory loss or something because I can't remember for the life of me what I did. Figured a good amount of stuff out about the Portland/Seattle/Vancouver trip. 

    Tuesday, today was very productive. I happened to get ready and then head over to Brandon and Crystal's old place to pick up the dining table and a bed. Got a Uhaul Van for 24hours and piled everything in. It all fit perfectly and the van was pretty fun to drive! It's so huge I feel like I rule the road or something lol. Brandon helped me load everything into the van and tomorrow when I drop the van off I should be grabbing the little odds and ends that i'm taking from their place too. I'll be getting the Wii back and now we get to use a deep fryer thats pretty exciting. Hopefully I can make won tons!! And some lamps etc but everything should fit into my car just fine. 

    When I arrived to my apartment Truong helped me unload everything and I built the bed back up and its very comfy! Thank you to Brandon and Crystal for EVERYTHING! I'm so excited to have a bed now lol. and it has drawers underneath it so i'm pretty excited for that... MORE STORAGE ROOM! Just what we need :) 

    When Alexis got out of class we drove up to Eagle Rock and ate Korean BBQ Tacos and Burritos, it was very different and pretty good! It's the Kogi Beef Truck I guess you need to find its location on twitter because it moves around all of the time. It's way good though...spicy! which i was surprised that i enjoyed it so much. I got Korean Short Rib Burrito and tried a bite of Truong's Korean Short Rib Taco and Alexis' Korean Spicy Pork Burrito I think I enjoyed the Pork the best. It was a very fun experience! 

    The Jazz vs. Lakers game is tonight at the Staples center...(Play offs game two) I really badly wish that I could have attended it! Not to mention Justin Timberlake is at the game! UGH! Definitely wishing i was there haha...oh well too much money. I was gonna go to the movie "Fighting" with Channing Tatum in it since I had free screening tickets for it, but I figured I should be more responsible and finish what I started and may as well get my bed done instead of leaving it laying around after I had moved it in.

    Tomorrow should be interesting. I have class from 8:30 until 11:45am and then I'll be driving up to Studio City to drop off the van which needs to be back by 1:45pm. So i'm hoping traffic isn't too bad. Then I'll be grabbing the rest of the odds and ends from Crystal and Brandon's place. Around 3pm I'm meeting with Claudia from class at the school to do some filming and then homework all night long :) YAY! Well just a short overview of whats been going on love you all xoxo gotta work on HW MUAH 

Sunday: My Day of Rest or Adventure

    Sunday, started out very plane and boring. Upon my awakening I immediately got online hoping to find something interesting to do for the day. Checking out San Diego and various museums or amusement parks etc. 

    As the afternoon rolled around and I looked at the clock and it said 1 o' clock my wanderlust spirit began to die down. I was running out of time to have a long adventure to somewhere like San Diego and decided I'd rather have it more planned out then a spontaneous thing. 

    Luckily, Nikki text me and asked if I wanted to go exploring with her. Just driving around and grab some coffee at Starbucks. We had plans for dinner at 5 so this was even better for me. Great minds think a like what can I say lol. 

    I drove up to her place which is about 17 miles north of where I live. I drove past the Getty Center on my way up. I arrived at her place and we walked over to Starbucks and then headed out on our grand adventure.

    We drove along Pacific Coast Highway (PCH aka HWY 1) and past Santa Monica beach and Malibu. It was such a gorgeous day out. In the valley it was about 100 degrees, by the beach 80 and by downtown in the 90's. We drove around Santa Monica and various other towns. She showed me UCLA and Pepperdine. We drove through Bel-Air and Brentwood. 

    It felt like a wonderful cleansing day almost lol. If that makes sense. It's just good to get some greenery in and not just cement and buildings like I do every other day of the week walking around down town :) 

    She took me to Carney's so I got to try Pink's competition! lol (Hot dogs) it was alright neither is that brag worthy I think. Then for dessert I took her to Yogurtland to try out the awesome-ness that they have haha. 

    As the day came to wrap she drove home and I got in my car and drove out to Rosemead to go to Walmart and get some cheap food. Then headed home had a wonderful ending by talking on the phone with Lindsay and then my mom. It definitely put the cherry on top of my day. The day was absolutely amazing! I'm excited for the future I'm hoping to be able to hit up San Diego soon. I'm glad I got to know Nikki a bit better because she's totally with me on the exploring everything that life has to offer. 

Busy Bee

    Friday (yesterday) was a very nice relaxing day. I basically turned full throttle into a movie junkie this day. It was awesome! SO LAZY! Okay okay, so I actually did get some stuff done. I did lounge around in sweats all day though. I had the lovely opportunity to get to clean the apartment again, that was lots of fun. Just did laundry, cleaned the mirrors, and cleaned the kitchen. 

    I watched the last half of Wall-E (i fell asleep watching it the other night), Made of Honor, Kung Fu Panda, Smart People, and Madagascar 2. I know I gotta get a life soon. Now my take on all of those? 

    Wall-E, really good movie. I liked it a lot. Very cute story! It's kind of scary to think how that's the direction that our society could take with things because we are so dependent on technology already and as American's are so damn lazy it's almost like its inevitable lol jk. But it really struck me, because it's like ya when these little kids are watching these animation movies they don't understand some of the relevance thats implied, but the animators/story tellers/director's are intelligent. They know that mommy and daddy are gonna be seeing the movies with the kids and that deeper meaning to the movies is not only implanted into the kids at a young age such as Go Green, but it strikes the adult audience as well. I just think it's very talented to incorporate such a wide demographic and send the same message for multiple levels to comprehend. 

    Made of Honor, I loved this movie. It's very very cute! Definitely one of those movies that I mark up as another one of my hopeless romantic movies that's a typical girls "i wish that would happen to me" kind of thing but in all actuality it never really will. Like the Notebook lol. What i don't understand though is that,...well i mean i guess "love conquers all", but I don't think I could possibly swallow the fact if the person I married was a huge hoe before we dated and slept around with half the people I know and then lots and lots more. I don't know...shoot me, I think sex is a very personal and emotional experience between two people and should remain sacred and used minimally. 

    Kung Fu panda, also very cute. The end message is belief in ones' self basically. I liked it a lot.

    Madagascar 2, very family and friend based I really enjoyed that message. very cute.

    Smart People, I thought it was slow at first. It was an independent film that went through Sundance I think so I should have imagined it to be somewhat. I really enjoyed this movie because it's so-o completely true. You know those VERY intelligent people that you meet and they either have absolutely no common sense or they are entirely socially inept if not both? That's basically what this film is about. It's funny because I definitely have met a few of those people. When it comes down to it, smarts (book smarts) isn't everything in life. You can have the perfect SAT score, know EVERYTHING, and not be happy if you cut off ties from the "stupid people" in your life. Face it....you need us hehe... jk but really...gotta keep things interesting! And where's the fun in learning and exploring if you already know everything? haha I prefer constantly being curious.

    After all of my lovely films and cleaning had been finished around 8pm Alexis and I head out to Victorville just a bit west of San Bernardino I think. If not whatever direction we were...it was a little over 80 miles away. It was like a fun mini road trip. We drove out there because we were picking up her mom and her little sister so they can explore the LA town with her. 

    Saturday (Today) I had class from 830AM until 3PM It was Survey of Western Art 2. We covered the early, high, and northern Renaissance. Very interesting I'll give it that. The long class wasn't that bad actually. Granted I have like 4-5 textbook chapters to read by next Saturday, and a quiz even though that was my first day of class I'm actually really excited. I already love art history, but next Saturday when we meet up we're taking the quiz  and then we have lecture then the second half of class we're meeting over at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Arts) I'm really excited to be able to go there! I've been meaning to hit up all the museums and what better time? Also on our last class day (the 5th week) for the last half of class the teacher is thinking of having us meet at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Arts) also really close by! So i'm pretty stoked about all of that! 

    After class I headed over to the Getty Center. I arrived at about 430PM and left around 745PM I was sad that I didn't have the opportunity to attend everything that I wanted to (didn't make it to every room) I know they were open for another hour longer, but I was getting so so so tired that I knew enable to make the drive home safely I should probably leave. I knew that was going to happen because the night before I wasn't tired for some reason (probably the chai lol) so I didn't go to bed until a little after 2am and then having class early and watching slides in the dark for 6 hours didn't help boost that energy. Basically I guess I'm saying it's been a pretty lethargic  day all day. 

    After the museum I decided I'm not that huge of a fan of Rembrandt. I don't know... portraits and landscapes are like what he specializes in and they just don't hold my interest. He's a good artist, I just prefer more conflict and action. :) I tend to go towards biblical or mythological pieces. 

    Well I'm home now, I had a lot of fun at the Getty Center today and tomorrow we'll see what kind of crazy stuff I come up with haha just kidding we'll probably hit low-key again or focus energy on homework. Love you all xoxo - Britt

I have a good variety of pictures posted on Facebook so check them out :) 

Thursday Exhaustion

    So today was my regular fun and exhausting Thursday. Of course Wednesday night I stayed up pretty late until I could complete homework (3am-ish). I had to complete some logo concepts for my After Effects class and finish modeling a penguin from the movie "Surf's Up" by Sony Entertainment for Maya. 

    Amazingly this morning I wasn't too tired from the few hours of rest that I had acquired. I arrived to After Effects class right on time. Sadly my logo designs weren't as "up to par" as the teachers standard...too simple I guess, but that's exactly what I want to go for and that's what EVERYONE tells me about logos is to simplify. Meh oh well hopefully this week I can get it right. It was kind of preliminary rounds for everyone in the class so that's encouraging. 

    For lunch I went to grab some Carl's Jr. with this girl Valeria from class (we basically have the same schedule). She's pretty chill it was good getting to know someone from the major a bit better. 

    Maya was decent, this week's book lesson now I need to "texture" the penguin I modeled in the computer so in non-geek talk add color to it. Also, work on my midterm project and get most of the modeling completed on my toy I'm putting in the computer. (Yoshi from Mario Bros.)

    Editing was interesting. Definitely a new experience that I'm not interested in doing again lol. We had to come up with a story line that could be shot at the school. Then we were paired up into groups of 3 and shot the takes. I had to do some wonderful acting...not.. I hate being in front of the camera...that's why I'm in editing, I do the post-production lol. SOOO camera shy, but definitely an experience! It was cool being able to film some stuff as well. I loved the hand's on. 

    Now I'm home and completely exhausted from a long day of classes and so much thinking haha. Gonna try and keep it low key tonight. Maybe pop in Wall-E and observe the animation techniques. For some reason on my walk home I was so excited to get home and do something, but now that I'm here I realize I didn't really have anything planned. Ha what a loser, maybe I was excited to get home and rest. 

    OH and I guess there's this competition going on with the school. It's nation-wide judging and a lot of the stuff ends up being on youtube and if you enter the competition it's for a reality series (lame I know) something along the lines of a FIDM Life. BUT a Digital Media student and a Graphic Design student get paired up for this contest (i don't have all of the info on it because a lot of it is kept under wraps for now i guess) and each student can win a MacBook. I'm not so interested in the actual computer but the selling it and getting money part I am lol. I don't know though I wouldn't want it to distract from the homework I have with school so I guess we shall see I still have a week to sign up if I decide to do it. 

   Anyway, I'm gonna start my relaxing and get some early shut eye. Love you all xoxo

Boredom Rings

    Today was a bit colder of a day, high 50's to low 60's. I stayed in most of the day due to homework and researching for homework. I finally had to break out of the place finding any excuse that I could to get out and get some fresh air. It seemed like a good time to go get more ink for my printer! How exciting. lol. 

    In between doing my homework I've been planning out a bunch of travel plans. Las Vegas has been the big hit recently. It seems like a quaint group of us will be going...only five yes's we have going; Brandon, Jessica, Kristi, Me, and Crystal. Crystal is soOo amazing that her husband's grandmother is trying to get us comp'd rooms at South Point Casino, comp'd dinners at South Point steakhouse, and comp'd show tickets. How awesome! Thank you so much Crystal! 

    Next travel plans would be my "Great Northwest" trip I'm hoping to do as I discussed in my previous blog. I'm hoping to get a few fellow companions to join me on my trek ..::hint hint Wesley...hint hint Monique::.. hehe. 

    Sadly my plans for Friday fell through. Connie sounds like she has the same illness that I had so she had to cancel lunch. Get well soon! Saturday after class I'm hoping to go to the Getty Center to see "Genji Tales" a 1950's Japanese film. I'm excited for that. 

    Also, sad days that my north west trip isn't sooner. I found out about an independent film festival going on up in Seattle that I researched more into, but it happens to be May 21st to June 14th or something like that. What I would DO to be able to go to that UGH! A girl can dream right? Maybe next year. Same thing with maybe next year I can go to Chicago for the CAA 2010 Conference. I'm hopeful! 

    Today has been one of those days that I'm people sick again. I've really been longing for the people back home. Not necessarily that I want to visit Utah, but I want people to visit me...sounds selfish I know I know, but there's sooo much stuff to do and explore out here I just want to share it with those that I love. I've been trying to "hint" not so subtly to my parents that they should come out and come to some museums with me etc. I'm definitely missing Crystal a lot. 

    Luckily I got movie screening tickets for the movie "Fighting" with Channing Tatum up in Hollywood at the Arclight theater next Tuesday. I'm really excited for that, it should be fun! 

   Well I guess I better get back to focusing on logo designing and modeling. YAY! Lots of love xoxo -Britt

A Beauty

    Today was a beautiful day! The temperature was in the high 60's with a little breeze. The sun beating down warming your skin and then the breeze hits and sends chills over your body only to be warmed up again by the radiating sun. Perfect! 

   For a majority of the day time I stayed in, but the afternoon I head out to grab chai, which I have been craving for weeks, from my favorite coffee shop, Aroma. It's up in Studio City just within walking distance of Crystal's old apartment off Moorpark and Tujunga Avenue in Tujunga Village. As I was driving up and finding parking I suddenly became really sad. The urge to call or text Crystal and ask her to join me was so powerful, but I couldn't...because she isn't here anymore. As this realization was hitting me tears began to fill my eyes and my heart longed for my best friend as I tried to distract myself as I was walking up to the little shop. 

    Aroma, this little coffee shop is by far my favorite of any I've been to so far. It's situated in what looks like a small one story house. The inside is small and quaint the service is always friendly. I placed my order and received what I like to call "the best chai ever." I walked outside and around to the back and sat there just thinking. I smiled at how beautiful this place was. This is a kind of shop you definitely wouldn't find in downtown Los Angeles. The back has a brick walkway with many tables and chairs scattered about with umbrellas to block the sun, but plenty of seating to accommodate those who enjoy the rays. A variety of small fountains and beautiful greenery sprouted everywhere. This little coffee shop is my little getaway from busy LA. 

    For lunch I drove over to City Wok which is also in Studio City I decided to go here because my friends Crystal and Brandon had recommended it to me just a week ago. I ordered take out of a half order of orange chicken and head over to blockbuster while they prepared my meal. I gave into a huge temptation while at blockbuster and indulged in a variety of used movies they had on sale. Many of them animation movies that I could study or "study" lighting, texture, and shading techniques. (ie: Wall-E, Madagascar 2, and Kung Fu Panda). I also got a good variety of action, comedy, and romance movies. I had a horrible gut feeling after this good purchase I made, but I tried to remind myself how good i'd been at cutting back on buying make-up, clothes, and going out to movies so I could reward myself a little bit as long as I kept up the trend of cutting back. 

    On the drive home I hit traffic, traffic never seems to bother me out here for some reason. I'm not sure if it's because I just always expect it or if I'm never in a rush to get anywhere since I've been here. Because we we're moving so slowly on the freeway I rolled my windows down to get the fresh air flowing through my car to fully appreciate the beautiful day.

    Upon my arrival at home from wonderland, the place has been a disaster zone since I got home last week and has been driving me nuts. I feel like I just cleaned the place a couple of days ago and it gets messy so quickly. I did a good deep cleaning job of what I could do. 

    It's almost time now for the Jazz vs. Lakers game that I've been wanting to go to ever since November of last year. I tried looking up tickets, but sadly sold out. Not to mention, no one who would be interested in going to the game with me. A few other random things I want to go to but try and distract myself from are the Britney Spears concert on Thursday and Friday. Things like the Jazz game and the Britney concert it's kind of hard to distract myself from since the Staples Center is literally right down the street from me with a parking lot right outside the balcony of my apartment. Also, it would be just glamorous if I could go to the Jeff Dunham comedy show in Bakersfield this Sunday. Too bad it costs so much and no one to really take that adventure with. 

    I was discussing with Alexis today about taking a weekend trip up to San Francisco sometime soon. I hope it doesn't end up just being talk and we actually follow through with it. I miss the bay area, especially Monterey. 

    There's just so much to do out here in California and not enough time to do it all! I wanna see everything and do everything! Just have to find the means to accomplish it all. I think this coming week I want to try and go to a museum. Maybe I'll try the Getty Center on Monday since I'm holding off on doing the Getty Villa again for whenever my parents come visit me because I'm sure my father will love that museum, it's gorgeous.

    Well I have homework and taxes to tend to. Have a wonderful, brilliant and beautiful day just as I have had. Loves xoxo - Britt

Welcome

    It is my third quarter attending FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising) in Los Angeles, California. Although it is my third quarter I will frequently refer to things as if I'm only in my second quarter because it is the second quarter that I am in my designated major. (The first quarter was basics, mostly generals and a base knowledge of Photoshop and Illustrator).

    Spring Break is over and I got back from a wonderful trip to Seattle visiting my cousins Stefani and Sean Sugihara whom I haven't seen in about 5 years. The trip was so much fun and thank you to Stefani, Greg, Sean, and Eric for making it such a memorable experience. 

    I then head over to Salt Lake City, Utah to visit back home to see my family and friends whom I miss ever so much. Every time I go back to Salt Lake I'm surprised by how small the city is and how few things there are to do there, but I miss my family and my friends a lot. Thank you to everyone back home who made this trip just as amazing as the others.

    I arrived in Los Angeles on April 7th with school starting back up on the 8th. Thus far I have attended 4 of my 5 classes. (the fifth class is an art history class I take on Saturday's for 6 hours, but it's only the first 5 weeks of the quarter, I haven't been to it yet because the campus was closed due to Easter). All of my classes this quarter are the same as last quarter, just a little bit more advanced. Wednesdays at 8:30am I have my Sound Design 2 class where I will be working with the programs Pro Tools and Reason. Thursday I have class all day from 8:30 until 6pm. The first class is Digital Composition 2 which I will be working with the program After Effects. The second class is 3d Modeling and Animation 2 which I will be working with the program Maya and the third class of the day is Editing 2 which I will be working with the program Final Cut Pro. 

    I am very excited for all of my classes. I'm sure that I will go through the same motions of wanting to throw my laptop out the window and over the balcony when I get entirely frustrated, but I guess that's just part of it. I'm proud of what I had accomplished last quarter I just hope to continue through. 

    For my After Effects class I need to design a logo to represent me. Then I need to animate it for 5-10 seconds. Really short, sounds simple and easy, but I have lots of research to do. I want it to be elegant and professional, yet have a fun and technology look to it because it's something that I will use to kind of "stamp" onto my demo reel when I'm done with school. VERY EXCITING! 

    For my Maya class we need to model two toys into the computer and then animate them. I chose Yoshi from Mario bros. and Hello Kitty from Sanrio. That should be interesting. 

    For my Editing class we begin filming next week. We're gonna film a short. Any ideas? Because I'm empty lol. I guess we'll see the turn out! 

    As for a social life, it's been slim since I got back to L.A. I've been sick so most of the time when I'm not doing school I'm trying to get over this illness. Nights are the worst. I feel like I haven't had a good nights sleep in over a week now. How depressing, to wake up tired haha. 

    My best friend Crystal lived in Studio City, CA about a 20-40 minute drive (traffic pending) from downtown LA, where I live. She moved to Moab, Utah with her kids Hayden and Atticus. I am very sad over this and try not to think about it. She was the one person I could turn to no matter what and I could have a nice long conversation with about anything. She understands me, she was there for me, she helped me when I was homesick. Now I'm scared. I have no one out here. I can't wait for her return in 6 months. 

    I think that's basically everything that has been going on out here. The new apartment has its quirks and slowly it's looking like a home.

    This weekend I should be going to lunch with Connie, she used to be my Sunday school teacher at church back home (both her and her husband) when I was little. They moved to the LA area a while back and they have kids now. 

    I'm excited for the future months. In May, a bunch of friends and I are planning on going to Las Vegas over Memorial weekend. I've been keeping busy with trying to plan that and also my break after this quarter is June 19-July 8 I'm hoping to hit up Salt Lake City, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver during this break. I need to plan everything out transportation wise. This is just a rough draft, but I'm thinking of driving to Salt Lake, flying to Portland, going to Seattle by Train, and going to Vancouver by boat. It's just a dream. lol For right now it's a pretty big dream, but I think it sounds like so much fun, it's almost like backpacking! We'll see how things turn out because I wanna be back in Salt Lake for Obon practice and Auntie Yoshi's July 3rd celebrations. 

    Now that I have exhausted everything that has been going on with me, hope to keep in touch with many of you and hopefully I have a lot of new experiences while I'm out here. (Gotta get it in before the homework gets too dense!) Love you all so much and miss you lots too. 

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