January - March 08

Well now atleast I'm in the current year. So 2008 has so far been a completely crazy year for me and it all started in January, like most years do. So I rounded out last year by taking a couple weeks off between jobs. Visited family in the states, gave a second speech at my old school (Full Sail), and got to see friends and family that I haven't seen in a long time. All somewhat normal for me, but then came the craziness. So here's all the major things I remember from then.

January --

1. First time out of the country. Until like November of last year, I didn't even have a passport. So the 24 hours of travel to get to Wellington, New Zealand was a bit crazy. I flew from Nashville to Dallas to LA to Auckland to Wellington. So 24 hours and 21 hour jump ahead in time. I lost two days traveling. Hooray. But I was here. I was in New Zealand, the home of my dream job.

2. Started work for Weta Digital. It was a goal for about 5 years. Even before ever going to school for Computer Animation. I remember watching Fellowship of the Rings at my home in Kentucky and thinking about how amazing it would be to work here. Seeing Gandalf fight the Balrog still makes me smile, and now I'm in a position to work on something that will inspire people to do what I'm doing now. That's an amazing feeling. It's something that I can tell my Grandkids about (assuming I ever have kids and they have kids), and how many people can say that.

"Hey sonny, see this old movie that you think is pretty cheesy cause computers have advanced exponentially since my day?"
"Yeah? What about it?"
"I used the money from working on that to buy a jetski. "
"I love you grandad!"

3. Saw a good deal of the area around Wellington. Explored the Mount Victoria area a bit and generally just kinda got used to the area.

February --

4. Not completely sure what all happened that month but I think this is when I actually moved into my new apartment. I love the place because it's everything I've wanted from a place. Great view of the city from the interior and plenty of space to have friends over and whatnot.

5. Actually started working on Avatar (movie I'm here to work on, next James Cameron flick). So far I'm doing mainly cloth/hair setup and simulation but it's a really sweet project. Definitely something I can mention later in life, jetski or no.

March --

6. My major thing for March was joing couchsurfing becuase that continues to let me do new things all the time. If you've never heard of couchsurfing then i'll quickly explain what it's all about. Pretty much it's an international group of travelers and "travel enthusiasts" that meet with each other wherever they are and offer their home to fellow "surfers" if they have the space. So it gives you a chance to meet new people in a new area and have experiences with people that you would have never met otherwise. Truly a great idea and something that I'm consistantly happy about. So far I've hosted like 10 people or so, but more on that later.

At first with couchsurfing I thought it was a bit umm...."stupid" for lack of a better word to let people into your home that you don't know, but after meeting everyone in the Wellington group for lunch one day at Fidel's then I've been hooked to the community and to Fidel's.

My Profile.

7. Fidel's. If you're in Welly ever, go eat here. It's at the top of Cuba street and the only place in Welly I've been to that can make a decent milkshake. BOOYAH!!!!

Cheers,
Malcolm.