When I was at Anime Expo in Long Beach last month, I went to a panel about manga/anime drawing being taught by a teacher from the Montecito Fine Arts College of Design in Arcadia, CA. I filled out the requisite form to enter the drawing for a full-tuition scholarship and enjoyed the seminar.

Later on, I got the requisite phone call from their salespeople, and went down to have a look and then signed up for a free demo class—which happened today.

Now, I’ve never done anything artistic in years. I did take some brief oil painting lessons when I was a kid (did 2 canvases) and did the usual kid stuff. But nothing in years. The class I attended was sort of the “Ground Zero” for new students: Drawing 101. I was given a set of artist’s pencils and told to do some shading bars, which was a lot harder than it sounds. Then, I was to sketch and shade a lighted sphere—way more difficult than it sounds. I ended up being fairly pleased with my efforts, too. It actually got my interest up to learn how to draw, though I don’t think I could afford to at their prices…

I also met the same anime/manga Sensei that taught the someinar and chatted with her—she even gave me a set of her handouts. I think I might start practicing on my own a bit and maybe take some more lessons down the road. I’m also keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll win the contest for free tuition!

Later, mom & dad came over for Sunday dinner, and I made a fairly convincing Japanese meal for them—they were quite impressed. We finished by watching yet another amazing episode of Planet Earth on my BluRay player—this series alone made it worth upgrading all my AV equipment.

This is always problematic: what in the world should I say for my first entry?
Again, the biggest thing that happened to me in the past few months was buying my first condo and moving to Valencia, California. I really love it here too! It’s a wonderful area to live in and I’m right smack in the middle of town within walking distance to everything I’d need.

Of course, my commute to work is now nearly 100 miles roundtrip each day, but I think its’ worth it. Luckily, I seem to have found the correct morning and evening routes that usually take me under an hour each way and relatively traffic-free; I don’t mind driving, it’s just that I can’t stand traffic!

The large picture on the right is out my bedroom window. The first row of small ones are just some shots around the area—the first two are on the Santa Clara River trail which is part of the 28 miles of trails available in the city for walking and bike riding (that I’m keen to start taking real advantage of) and the third one is right across the street going into the mall. Everything’s so convenient!

The bottom photos were of my first invitation to the annual “Anti-Super Bowl Party” that my friends Mike and Matt throw. We went a played a round of golf at El Cariso in Sylmar—it was nice and empty since everyone else was home watching the game! It was a gorgeous day and I didn’t feel too bad about how I played, considering I had not even picked up my clubs in I’m not sure how many years. I think I’m going to have to start getting into it again!

Finally, I’m undecided as to whether I should leave my old blog just the way it is in my old software or convert everything over here. I’ll probably be lazy and leave well enough alone. If you want to see older stuff, click the link from my Journal main page.
See you down the road…

Boy did I have FUN today!

I finally got to participate in the Voice Acting Boot Camp I’d found out about at Anime Vegas and signed up for in September. Taught by veteran voice actors and anime stars Lex Lang (Sanosuke Sagara in Rurouni Kenshin, among many others) and Sandy Fox (the voice of many young girl characters including my favorite Marie in Hare + Guu), it was a ton of fun and extremely interesting. It was held at Bang Zoom Studios’ place in Burbank for a full day’s worth of microphone time.

It started off a bit rough—when we were all going around the room introducing ourselves, one guy had a seizure and ended up being carted off in an ambulance—but quickly got rolling as a fairly comprehensive overview into the world of voice acting and voiceover work. We talked about a lot of basics, from vocal warmups and terminology, to studio etiquette and SAG rates. We each got to try our hands at a mock audition, reading three different scripts in the studio. Being my first VA experience, i didn’t know exactly what to expect other than to read something and talk into a microphone. Lex did the auditions and played the part of the director, and I was shocked at myself for how much I was able to change and improve my performance as he directed me. One of my parts was a commercial for an auto insurance company where I had to play two sides of a character: the nerdy, practical side and the suave, Italian-sports-car-driving, ladies’ man. The first reading was OK, I guess, but with his direction it almost didn’t sound like me anymore. Woo hoo! I felt like a real voice actor.

My other parts were some kind of wizard/advisor to the king (which I did with a pretty good English accent, if I do say so myself) and some jaded spaceship pilot from a video game or anime. Later on, we got to do the reading for an original animation (I played a fairly convincing anchorman), did some “Walla” (that’s the sort of background audio for a movie—we did a crowd in the stands of a football game: Go possums—moo). The “final exam” was when we did about a 2 minute scene from the anime Fafner, voicing about 8 different characters. I somehow got picked to be the Commander and had twice as many lines as anyone else. I only wish I could have a copy of the finished product, because it was awesome watching an anime with my own voice talking from the screen. I’ll also tell you something I learned: doing anime voice work is really hard! It was tons of fun, and I’m thinking very seriously about continuing on, getting more experience, and breaking into this world. I also learned some things readily adaptable to the e-learning voiceover work I do at my job (which is why my company is reimbursing my fee for the class—lucky).

Lex and Sandy are WONDERFUL teachers and coaches, and I’m looking forward to them offering an advanced class next year!

Well, today I finally went and did it: I once again entered the real estate market!

It was one of those things that I should have done long ago and now that prices are a little bit in the Buyers’ favor, I found a really awesome condominium in Valencia that will be perfect for me. It’s a beautiful building, I’ll have a great view of the Santa Clarita Valley, it’s right across the street from a hotspot of shopping and nightlife and theoretically affordable. Keep your eyes peeled to this weblog for further updates as I go through this harrowing adventure—all to end up chained to a 30-year mortgage.

I suppose this also means that I’ve made my choice as to my future—looks like I won’t be cashing in and moving to Japan to teach English anytime soon (if ever). It’s gonna be interesting…

Well, after 5 long and happy years driving my Audi A4 the lease was about to come due. I was trying to drive off some of the nearly 7,000 miles I had left, but decided to just go ahead and get on with it. What did I buy?

Why, a brand-new White Scion xB! It was really something I’d pretty much decided on a while back–and I’m really pleased. It’s fun to drive, looks cool and I’l be saving money in lots of ways:
– It gets 30 MPG, a savings of 50% over the A4
– Insurance is around $500.00 less per year
– The payment is over $200 less per month
– It cost $20,000 less than the A4 was 5 years ago

It did take about 4 hours at the dealership, but they seem really good and friendly otherwise. So stay tuned for lots of stories about my ‘white box adventures’.

–dpk