Friday July 16th, 2010 - A few days ago we got hit with a big typhoon. The power was out for nearly two days. The internet was out for two more days after that. All that time away from computers and the internet, where one can get lost in forums, chat and other meaningless pursuits, allows one a lot of time to simply reflect and think. It also allows one to get back to simplicity. With no power, I actually pulled out a pen and a pad a drew a comic on paper, something I haven't done since I was kid, I think. I also, however, thought a lot about this adventure. I thought about where I have been, what I have done and what I still really want to do. That brought me back to this site, and to the memories contained in my photo galleries, both here and in my personal library. I remembered the big dreams and goals. I remembered why I wanted to keep the adventure alive and why I did this site in the first pace. Not having posted since March of 2010, I thought it high time for a little update, and an explanation of what is to come.

TWO YEARS! THE JOURNEY SO FAR

Yes, it has been two whole years since I stepped off American soil, leaving sunny California, the 9 to 5 life, and went out into the world searching for something more. I began in a tiny hole in the wall apartment, built in 1954, and it looked it, across the street from the famous Warner Bros. Studio lot. I was in walking distance from Disney, Nickelodeon, DIC, NBC and not all that far from Universal Studios. I worked in the dwindling movie business, doing CGI special effects, drove my convertible Mustang around, and generally watched life pass me by while getting no closer to my life goals. One day, I decided, before I get too old, or before it is too late, because I am financially unable, I'm going to get out. So I sold or gave away just about everything I owned, got a plane ticket and took to the airways.

One thing I have never discussed at any great length in this blog, was how I funded this continuing journey. I think, however, that is a very important topic, and I will get into it, to some degree here, and even more when BOOK III comes around. I arrived in the Philippines two years ago with a plan to simplify. Life was slower and a whole life cheaper there. One could survive on next to nothing. Before I left, I had read the powerful story of a young man who had dreams to chase. He also sold everything he owned which amounted to about $2000 USD and he took off for the Philippines. His plan was to support himself with online writing. Being a fairly prolific online content writer myself, having written over a thousand articles, and being a published author, I figured this would work well for me too. Still, I also had other online works brining in a bit of income. It was, perhaps, not enough to keep surviving in L.A., but I figured it would do well in the Philippines.

Here I will briefly outline some of the methods I was using at the time. Before I left, I had put into play a few different online products and services that were bringing in a bit of income for me. None of these were raking in huge amounts, a few hundred bucks here and there, but that would go a long way in the Philippines. At the time, $200 USD translated into 10000 Philippine pesos, which is double what most workers made in a month there. To give an idea, you can eat a good meal out for 100 to 200 pesos.

Of the methods I put into place, the most promising was drawing comics and animation, in Japanese, for selling in the Japanese online content market. These were usually adult in nature, and the market there was such that a single comic of 24-30 pages could sell for 1000 yen, which is about $10 USD. Original art still has a high value in that market, unlike in the U.S. where everything online is expected to be free. A comic like that might take but a week to draw, but if it sells even a paltry 50 copies, that's not a bad income, especially in South East Asia. I also drew what I like to call "Anime Portraits". Basically, someone sends me their photo and I draw it in an anime style and send it back to them. It cost about $20 which translates into 1000 pesos. Very good for a work that maybe took me half an hour to an hour. I also had a couple of "How to Make Animation" videos and an online marketing course which I sold on my websites. I was now going to supplement all this with a steady influx of freelance writing and graphic design jobs from popular freelancing auction sites.

So I arrived in the Philippines and immediately got a gig writing articles for an anime site. As a huge fan, this was right up my alley and I didn't even need to do an ounce of research for the articles. Money was coming in and I spent my days basically exploring a new land and writing. That lasted for about three weeks before I got caught up in the night life, and, of course, the girls. Suddenly, it seemed like more was going out than coming in. Luckily, every time I was about to get into a crisis, a good chunk of money would come in from the Japanese site to bail me out. Finally I decided to change my phone number, move to another place, and cut ties with the nightlife world.

I had a girlfriend who went with me to the new place, a nice high rise condo with an amazing view of the city. Life was able to get back to simplicity again. A couple of animated commercials for a trucking company, where I did the music, voiceover and everything, allowed me to pay for it all. Things weren't always perfect, of course. There were many ups and downs. There were times when I had money, and times where I had none at all. But for the most part, life was slow and easy and I never really lacked anything. In that time I wrote a book about animation and did more comics for sale in Japan. Because I was inconsistent, sales on the Japanese dwindled, and I eventually stopped. The sales of my book were strong, and I was still getting a few freelance writing and graphic gigs.

The building where I stayed has an English language school on the bottom four levels. As a result, half the occupants in that building were Korean students. It is there I met three of my best friends in life, Victor, Sally and Jerry, with whom I would eventually go to Korea. We hung out pretty much 24/7 while in the Philippines. I showed the places I knew and they showed me the place they knew. We just clicked like I have never clicked with anyone before. It seemed like we have known each other forever. I knew absolutely nothing about Korea before I met them and upon hearing more and more about it everyday. I had to go and see. So I did.

I arrived in Korea with a plan to join a language academy, which would provide me with housing and a work permit to stay there. Unfortunately, to get that requires a lot of originals, not copies, of personal documents I certainly didn't have with me, and, in some cases, had no idea how to get. I was staying with Sally, Jerry and their family. Sales from my book were still good, and I saw an amazing rise in Anime Portrait orders, even though I did nothing special to warrant it. I never had any real money problems in Korea. In fact, things got better. Even though I couldn't get into an academy, I met quite a few people who were willing to pay a lot of money for what they call "free talking". They are basically paying for time spent in casual English conversation, as opposed to book study. I got as much as $50 USD per hour for this, while being taken out and treated to some of the best restaurants and travel around Korea. I made more great friends and learned more than I ever imagined about this new land.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Victor and Sally soon left for Australia, and Jerry was planning to follow them. I had no desire to visit a western country, and without them, my desire to remain in Korea greatly lessened. To this day, I don't know if it was the best of choices, but I decided to return to the Philippines, this time to the capital city of Manila. There I met up with a long time American friend who had been living in the Philippines nearly three years. He was also one of those who convinced me to try it there. He was married and lived in a house in what looked no different than a subdivision in the U.S. I stayed with him for some time. For a while I floundered, not sure what to do. Eventually I started drawing again, and it didn't take long before I began building an audience and making good money. The falling dollar made a strong case for getting any money in Japanese yen possible. That comic that sold for about $10 USD was worth about $13 now. After about three months, things were starting to soar. I honestly believe that, had I continued from that point, I would built up my following and be swimming in riches by now. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked.

I did a short animation job for a friend in China, who I worked with when I first visited there in 2002. After that he got me a full license of a popular 3D graphics software called modo, with a plan to get into doing video training on the software. Video training seemed to be a highly profitable niche online, and people who knew what I was about to embark on, in the modo world, were clamoring after knowledge and I was slammed with requests. At first it seemed like a great idea and easy money. A training video was done in realtime, as opposed to animation which could take weeks on months. With a few hours of effort and a good topic I could make as much or more than with the comics or animation. There was only problem, though. I didn't really enjoy it, and I stopped animating and probably lost my audience.

The money from training was good though and my financial problems seemed a thing of days long gone. I rolled well through the end of 2009 and into the new year. I had a new girlfriend and we easily had enough to get our own place, which we did. I was making as much as I did in my 9 to 5 in L.A., which is not small by any means. Unfortunately, lack of enjoyment for the work, and lack of ideas for continuing to bring out interesting training, meant it couldn't continue forever. My income soon dropped to less than half of that great peak period. It was still more than I was making with any other method, but I was very unhappy, and life seemed little better than what it was working in studios in California. What happened to the adventure? Looking back, I felt I was better off taking risks, trying new things and running around with an adventurous spirit than sitting down doing work I hated, regardless of how much money it brought in.

There was one big difference I noticed between that and the comics and animation work. The training videos never snowballed! The animation always snowballed, each product bringing a larger audience who bought into all previous products. There was growth. The training videos just seem steady, and you have to keep doing it, and keep doing it, and keep doing it. With the training videos, life is certainly easy, if not completely enjoyable. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. The time requirement is small and I spend many days going to the mall, watching movies and having fun. Still, there is no growth. I am getting antsy again. I am feeling like I felt back in L.A.

In a world of adventure, though, there is change around every corner. The possibility has arisen that I may go to China next month. Part of the work will be to teach animation at a noted school there, but mainly to work on a new animation project with the guy I did the short film for last year. I would have all the equipment I could want, and we may even get real funding. Whether that happens or not, I decided to get back to animation. That was my dream. I came out here to be closer to Japan, which was my eventual goal. That is still my goal. Not to get there and settle down, or anything, but to get there and make a big splash in the animation world there and let it be the launching point for an entirely new adventure!