My Year 2015

In 2015, I started a full-time Spring semester: Film Lighting, Small Business Accounting, Payroll, and Taxation. I was still working part-time in La Jolla.

In January, I got 97%+ on IRS advanced tax preparer exam. Till April, I volunteered to file taxes for low-income people every Saturday, driving far inland to small towns of San Diego County.

In May, I finished a film lighting college course in downtown campus with an awesome professor of art directing who worked in the industry his whole life. One guy from our group became a rock-star in LA, another transferred to Berkley, one Girl went to a film school in New York, another moved to Arizona, and one became homeless, as I learned later.

Then, I quit the exhausting international customer service job.

By the end of May, I moved from the North Park in San Diego to Huntington Beach, Orange County, California, Adams street area. The beaches were gigantic, and the traffic was awful. People warned me about conservative Orange County, but at first, it seemed cool and promising.

In nearby Costa Mesa, I studied history of cinema for the Summer semester in the well-equipped local college. The professor was a cinematographer who worked with big action- movie makers.

I started making art on the floor of my living room, with teens skating right in front of my open door. I made a couple illustrations, and had long-term corporate German students, and a few travelers and college kids.

During that Summer, I produced and finished editing tree short documentary films, two of which got minor prizes on film festivals. I was also gathering footage for a feature film.

In September, I started more filmmaking and studio-drawing courses, but I was not getting what I wanted, it did not justify my time investment. Life started to feel shorter.