Year in Review: 2019

Hello! It's the end of 2019 and this is my ELEVENTH annual year-in-review post! (See also: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009.) This is a self-centric and navel-gazey exercise, but I keep it up because it helps me keep track of my goals, remember what happened each year, and take a moment to say "thank you" for the year.

2019 Accomplishments / Highlights:

• I did three big items from my bucket list this year: I made art pilgrimages to Monet and Frida's homes in Giverny and Coyoacán, and I presented a short film I directed ("Exchange Student") at Annecy! :D

• It was a great career year - my team finished Exchange Student, and I got to see it screen at El Capitan Theater with the other Short Circuit shorts. I learned that the shorts would be released on Disney Plus, and all of the Directors got to go to D-23 to screen them and talk about them. I spent most of 2019 working on something I can't talk about yet that I'm SO excited about! I was named one of Variety's "Top 10 Animators to Watch", and got to go to a swanky Hollywood party with my friend Michael Herrera to celebrate that and rub elbows with other animation folks. I gave a workshop at Gallery Nucleus that had SUCH a great audience, I went to Tennessee for the first time to give a talk and a storyboarding workshop to the passionate students of Tom Bancroft at Lipscomb University, I gave a solo Comic Book Commentary (who knew I could speak uninterrupted for 45 minutes?! I did not), Chris Oatley invited me onto his Visual Storytelling podcast, and I spoke with SyfyWire at Emerald City Comic-Con:

• I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation went back to print soon after its release! Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but that's the first time one of my GN's has gone back to print, so I was thrilled. The book was also nominated for a Ringo Award for Best Non-Fiction Comic Work.

• After book promo stuff died down, I was really good about holding the line and saying "no" to extracurricular commitments, interviews, and side-quests. I desperately needed the time and focus this year to move forward on my next projects.
• I got to go on a nice France trip in June for work as well as for personal travel. I gave a solo talk at the Annecy international animated film festival and that was so awesome!!! People told me they got in line 4 hours early just to get in, and they were so kind and enthusiastic! People were even willing to sit on the floor and wings and stairs to not be turned away! :0 I spoke on a WIA panel and was able to give portfolio reviews with Disney. I finally got to meet one of my Skype WIA mentees, Sarah Vettori, in person. I did a casual meet-up at Café des Arts that turned kind of crazy when more people than I expected showed up. Thank goodness for Jerry Huynh, who jumped right in and helped entertain and manage things. I saw Giverny, rode bikes to Monet's house, went into the Catacombs, and visited Le Fiancé's sweet sweet family in the countryside.

• I made it to Oregon 3 times this year! Le Fiancé and I went on a trip to Cannon Beach in March, plus Portland trips for Thanksgiving and for xmas. Got to see many members of my extended family in Bend as well. It's great to see my friends who still live in Portland; I really love them and I'm glad we've been able to stay close despite the distance.
• I also went to Mexico for the first time! Carrie Liao, Amelia Lorenz, and I spent a long weekend discovering Mexico City and we LOVED IT. I want to go back immediately. The pyramids! The food!! The canals! The crowds! Day of the Dead! Wow!

• Went to SDCC this year with my friend Kellye Perdue, and my brothers flew down to join me!
• Mom came to visit LA and I brought her as my +1 to the Frozen 2 wrap party.
• Le Fiancé's fall visit was great. He was here for Halloween, which is SO much fun with him, and he was here for Thanksgiving in Portland with my family. While he was in town we also finished his visa application, built him a custom wood desk, threw axes, hiked to Pittock Mansion and looked at wedding venues in the woods, went on a distillery tour and a triple winery tour, and visited the good folks at Helioscope Studio.

• I unfollowed everyone on Twitter, so I can still use it to post my art, but I don't have the compulsion to scroll through the feed. I spend much less time on it now, and I think it's helping me feel happier.
• I started streaming on Twitch and I'm having fun! 
• Got my blue "verified" badge on Instagram!

• I was proactive with friends this year, and I especially enjoyed a Halloween double-feature movie night I hosted (The Craft, Lost Boys) with home-mulled wine and spiced cider.
• I found time to read several new (to me) books this year: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Bulle de suif, Save the Cat, Pride & Prejudice, The Bluest Eye, Au Bonheur des ogres, Morphology of the Folktale, and Screenwriting: the Sequence Approach

• I've kept my expenses low even though my salary has increased over the past few years (roommates, wink!). This year, I lived off of 30% of my post-tax income and put the rest in savings! :0 That feels good. I would like to own a house and/or retire someday.
• I was way over-taxed in 2018 and I got a big tax refund HAYYY
• The first Lightbox Expo was great! That promises to be a strong new tentpole event in the LA animation industry. I sold out of books and walked around for half of Sunday just admiring the other tables.
• After 4 years of freezing every day at work (in LOS ANGELES! In the SUMMER!), I finally procured time with the mystical, elusive AC man and convinced him to shut off the AC valve in my office. VICTORY!

2019 Shortcomings / Lowlights:

• They moved me to a new office a couple of months later. Booooo.
• Waiting on visas suuuuuuuucks. We have a good lawyer, but it's a ton of paperwork and money and uncertainty. We just want to get on with our lives, TOGETHER.
• I'm house-crazy and I can't afford anything. I don't know when/if I'll be able to afford something in a city where I can work in animation.
• I still have TMJ, but now I have braces, too. Ha ha. They come off in January, looking forward to that.
• I still have back pain off and on. :-/
• One of my roommates moved out and I miss him!

What Did We Learn?

• So...presenting a short at Annecy has been on my bucket list since 2014, and it was INCREDIBLE to have the privilege of doing that this year! But...I thought it would feel better than it did? I saw so many objectively better shorts than mine that week, and I saw how incredibly niche our little world is. Even in this tiny world of animation, so many people had no idea what we were up to at Disney. Most people had lovely things to say about Exchange Student, but I also got critical feedback on the short, some of it legitimate and some of it just dumb lobs aimed at Disney in general. I think it was just a good reminder for me not to let myself be ruled by external validation. I wrote on the back of my office door in big sharpie letters: "Don't chase gold stars from other people. Make stuff YOU think is good."

• At home over the holidays, my parents pulled out family videos that I had never seen before - them as young parents with baby-me! HONESTLY, this made me understand a lot more why people would want to have kids??? I've been ambivilant about it, leaning towards not having them, but this tipped the scales a bit the other direction. Mom and Dad just looked so happy (and hey, it was very nice seeing how much they loved me), not like the poop-covered, underslept, bickering trainwreck that I imagine parenthood being. It was fascinating how quickly babies grow and learn! :0 I was shocked how much just watching those old family videos with my parents changed my perspective on parenthood.
• I got some very practical convention-life advice from another exhibitor at Lightbox, and I think I agree with her philosophy. She believes that merchandise has a 2-year shelf-life. If it sells out before 2 years, you can go ahead and order some more (still aiming to sell out at the 2-year mark). If it sells out around 2 years, congratulations, you ordered the perfect amount and you don't need to buy more. If it doesn't sell out after 2 years, don't mark down the price. Just take it off your table and make room for more recent art that better represents you NOW. You can liquidate the old merch online, give it to friends, etc., but don't keep straggler merch on your table.
• I really miss having animals in the house and spending time around animal-friends. :,( 

• I found Natalie Lue's Baggage Reclaim podcast episode on "Jealousy & Envy in Friendships" EXTREMELY helpful. I've posted before about professional jealousy. Envy is absolutely the deadly sin that I relate to the most. I liked Natalie Lue's reframing of envy as a teacher, which tips us off to things that we didn't know we wanted, or things we think deep down we are supposed to have by this point in our lives. I have absolutely been envious of people for things that I don't even want, just because they seem so happy knowing what they want. Anyway, I felt like 2 hours of listening to this podcast untangled a LOT for me.
• That meet-up I organized at Cafe des Arts in Annecy this year was a learning experience. I organized identical meet-ups in 2014 and 2016, and 3-5 people showed up, so I was expecting maybe 10 this time? Well, we had 40 or 50 people show up! It was a BLESSING and I loved meeting everybody, but we really confused/crowded the restaurant and it was hard to talk to everybody. I felt bad for the restaurant and I felt responsible for people having a good time. I believe that when someone organizes an event, or manages a website or a fandom or whatever, it's their responsibility to keep things safe and respectful for the group, and I could have done better with this event. In the future, if I don't know how many people are coming, I'll probably do it somewhere more suitable like a picnic on the lakeside lawn.

Goals for 2020: 

• Get le Fiancé over the the US! Plan a wedding! :0
• Do a big roadtrip around the American southwest
• Do a good job at work on (exciting thing I can't talk about yet)
• Thanksgiving - maybe travel with Le Fiancé? Japan? Mexico? National Park? Think ahead of holidays, try to book trips earlier this year.
• Keep studying film theory, watching classic movies and movies from lots of different cultures / perspectives, hosting movie nights and making it more fun/social
• Go to the gym after work, or swimming before work, at least 2x/week
• Stretch every day
• Write something every day
• Start fostering kittens
• Schedule all the medical checkups I need, plan ahead (I haven't been to the eye doctor in 5 years. Adulting is hard!)
• Find a new counselor / therapist who specializes in career counseling, stress, & anxiety. Preferably one who doesn't believe in crystals (or god, tbh).
• Self-Care Sundays: I won't make plans or commit to anything on Sundays. I will get my chores done on Saturdays, save Sundays for myself, and do whatever I feel like when Sunday rolls around.
• Schedule more lunches with friends / people I want to know better in animation
• Finish the first draft of my next GN (!)
• Do Inktober again! Break the rules, pick a theme that's fun for me, draw 30 finished colored pieces (5x7") and frame them to sell at the Disney holiday craft fair in December

Notable Media:
Films: Do the Right Thing, Parasite, Knives Out, Trainspotting, The Favorite, Cleo from 5-7, Us, About Time, Virgin Spring, My Fair Lady, Peau d'Ane, The Taste of Tea, Moonlight, Jojo Rabbit, J'ai perdu mon corps, Raising Arizona (somehow I'd never seen it before!), Cyrano de Bergerac with Depardieu

TV shows: Killing Eve, His Dark Materials, Fleabag season 2, the end of Broad City, Russian Doll, Derry Girls, Mrs. Maisel season 3, One Day at a Time, Salt Fat Acid Heat, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, The Good Place, the Matt Smith Doctor Who episodes, Love Death and Robots, Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Shorts: Kitbull, Perl, Inocente, Acid Rain, Fille dans le Couloir, Je sors acheter des cigarettes, La chanson de l'elephant, Memorable, Mimi, Nuit cherie, Per aspera Ad Astra, Symbiosis, Toomas dans la vallee des loups sauvages

Favorite Memes / Jokes / Whatever :
The #1 most quoted piece of media in our household this year: "It's an EMU"
kn0nker: Lion King animation
Jack Bensinger: "took a picture of myself every day for 10 years"
Ayla Kirstine: running like a horse
Lewis Vaughan Jones: Drone runs out of battery over a lake
al.nesta: "you're not weird for liking anime as a kid"
Whoever mashed the headbanging dog video with "Jump Around"
zachrecker: squirrel TikTok
Pretty much every Gritty meme
McVaporwave: "Ash minding his own business"
thechrispycream: "JEANS"
TikTok has just been giving me life this year. Thank you, TikTok.

 

Year in Review: 2018

Hello! It's the end of 2018 and this is my TENTH annual year-in-review post! (See also: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009.) This is a self-centric and navel-gazey exercise, but I keep it up because it helps me keep track of my goals and remember what happened each year.

2018 Accomplishments / Highlights:

• I asked le Boyfriend to marry me, and he said "yes"!!!  
• We went to Portland together for the holidays and I got to introduce him to my mom's side of the family, including my maternal grandparents. ♡

• I pitched "I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation" to BOOM! Studios, and they helped me create a whole new chapter with interviews from 8 other animation pros, tune up some of the art and lettering, and package it nicely for the book market! It's distributed by Simon & Schuster, and I think it's more widely available than any other comic I've drawn (except maybe Deadpool). If you'd like to buy it from a comic shop, you can use Comic Shop Locator to find the nearest one. Digital copies are available to purchase on digital book marketplaces, including ComiXology, iBooks, Google Books, and the BOOM! Studios app.

• Took my two younger brothers to NYC! It was so cool seeing them see the city for the first time. I love them, and I loved spending that special just-siblings time with them. We were there during the "bomb cyclone" last January, so although our flights were delayed horribly and we nearly froze just walking around outside, we had some special experiences like getting seated right away at Momofuku and seeing the Brooklyn Bridge empty. Highlight: my high school friend Carlton Moe was, and still is, playing Piangi in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway - he got us PRIME seats to a show, showed us around backstage, and went with us to a cafe to catch up between his shows! 
• Visited my brother Nick and his gf Sierra in Seattle and went to Emerald City Comic Con. It's one of my favorite shows; I always get to see a lot of my favorite comics people there. I got to meet Claire Wendling this year, found the nerve to talk with her in French, and we had a nice conversation about how I started studying French because I wanted to read Theo!

• Went to Yosemite for the first time with le Fiancé! GOSH that place is beautiful. I had this really nice realization on the porch of Yosemite's Half Dome Village, sitting in rocking chairs, reading our books side-by-side, sipping wine and watching the sun set and all the people and dogs come and go from the hiking trails...it was magical!

• We have lots of fun new people at work, and I feel like I made some good new friends this year! One of them is Carrie Liao, who is thoughtful and a really fun person to be around, and who loves to organize things for her friends like trips and gourmet food experiences. Another is Sam Vilfort, who is hands-down THE most positive-vibes person I have ever met, super funny and humble even though she has insane art-skills (and growing all the time...it's unbelievable). I got to travel with them in Big Bear, Havasupai, and Egypt this year! :D 

 

• Egypt was AMAZING. The history, art, temples, cities were...jaw-dropping. There's so much history still around that you can just walk up and touch from thousands of years of continuous civilization, and it's still incredibly well preserved in the low humidity of the desert! Le Fiancé also has family in Cairo, and they were SO sweet and generous welcoming us, letting us stay with them, AND planning our whole 2-week trip to Hurghada, Luxor, Edfu, Kom Ombo, and Aswan. I was really happy to meet and travel with them. Our trip would NOT have been the same without our amazing guide Iman, le Fiancé's sister in law. Iman was born in Egypt, majored in Egyptology, speaks 5 languages, and worked for years in the tourism industry. She knew the sites like the back of her hand and handled all of the arrangements and haggling that went with getting around Egypt. When we wanted to buy things, Iman helped us haggle and managed to get us good prices AND be friends with the merchants at the end of the conversation.

• Went to Kauai with my family to celebrate my youngest brother Neil graduating from university! Time with family is really special; I don't get enough of it since leaving Oregon, so I savored this! And of course Kauai was incredible; I'd never been before and I looooooved how green and natural it was. We saw sea turtles every day. Spent time talking with my mom and dad in the hammock. Listened to Dad play ukulele on the deck. Heaven!
• I mentored 3 amazing women story artists this year. I volunteered for Women In Animation's inaugural mentorship program, and I got to work with great artists Charis JB and Sarah Vettori this year. They were both delightful to get to know over Skype sessions, very hard-working, with lots to say in their work, and both juggling lots of life stuff while still managing to work on their portfolios for TV/feature storyboarding. At Disney I volunteered to be a mentor for our summer Story Internship, and got to work with Anchi Shen, who is so funny and smart, with a delightfully twisted sense of humor. Her CalArts junior film Barry is in the 2018 Animation Show of Shows, and it had the theater rolling with laughter. I really love her film Sisters, too. All three of these artists are going to be huge; I just hope they remember me when they're big-shot directors/showrunners and I need a job!

• Ralph Breaks the Internet came out! I was on this movie for 2.5 years, and it's my first film credit! I feel like I learned how to be a story artist by working on this movie. I'm so grateful the team kept me the whole time, from the first to the last screening, and basically taught me how to storyboard, pitch, and participate in the story room. :-)

• I got to do press stuff for Ralph, which meant getting more comfortable with public speaking and giving interviews. I also got to work with an amazing makeup artist at Disney who did my hair & makeup many times this year - she made me feel so confident and showed me how to do several tricks myself at home. That kind of thing can change your life; I was not feeling great about the way I looked for a while there, and she really turned that around. I drew her a thank-you portrait and just felt like it was a really special thing to meet someone like that.
• I got to do something really exciting at work that I can't talk about yet...!  But I can say that I got to work with several VisDev artists I look up to, learn from them, and draw a lot of 2D illustrations myself. I worked with a ton of new people, learned a lot about the animation pipeline, and improved my social/management skills. I felt like it was a good, challenging experience I got a lot out of.

art by Luis Logam

• I exhibited at CTNx and CALA for the first time ever! GREAT shows. Lots of people came up who had read "I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation", and they said some of the sweetest things to me I have ever heard in regards to my work. Some people said they had given up on animation jobs, then read the book and started applying again, and now they work in animation. *cries* If I can help anybody like that, that's the highest achievement I can hope for.
• Hosted my buds Sib & Manu during their epic US road trip.
• I cooked a lot of new things in 2018 - mochi, daifuku, king oyster mushrooms, bok choy, pad thai, dan dan noodles, etc. 
• I also entertained more in 2018. I even hosted Thanksgiving for the first time! We had a big Werewolf night and lots of movie nights. ^_^
• Read the Count of Monte Cristo and Cyrano de Bergerac in French this year!
• Paid off my car this year! No more monthly car payments, it's amazing.
• I uninstalled Facebook from my phone and I spend a lot less time on it now. Yay!
• My doctor prescribed me Spironolactone for my acne, and it made a big difference. Hallelujah. 
• Had some fun with the Next Five exercise on social!

2018 Shortcomings / Lowlights:

• I only visited Portland once this year...! That's not enough...! I love my family and that was definitely not enough time with them...!
• I have had TMJ for 2 years straight. My jaw has been locked into a narrow range of motion so I can't even eat a dang sandwich. It's been 2 years of soft foods and small bites. I am always the last person to finish lunch by A LOT. I've seen TMJ specialists and tried lots of (expensive) things that have not worked. I just started Invisalign because all the doctors said it was the next logical thing to try. I am not stoked about it and we're not even sure this will fix things. Fingers crossed?
• I had a mystery medical problem causing me a lot of pain and a lot of doctor visits this year, BUT I think we finally solved it and it is not a big deal, PHEW.
• Somebody smashed into my car while it was parked outside of my house overnight, then...drove away. That sucked a lot. I had to file a police report, pay a $500 deductible, and go without a car for a couple of weeks. Thanks, asshole. (Yes yes yes, it could have been worse. I'm glad nobody got hurt.)
• Again, I did not get my will / durable power of attorney / letter of instruction in order...maybe this year...? I really don't want to put my loved ones in a bad position by not having these done if something happens to me.

What Did We Learn?

• Life is too short to spend any more time answering the same questions over and over again on social media. I made shortcuts in my keyboard to answer the same 5 questions I get over and over again.
• When I have a new book or project coming out, give it to my friends for free a little bit ahead of the release, and ask them to signal boost on the release day. That made my latest book reach so many more people than previous books!
• Splitting housework: assigning different tasks to different people works better than trying to split every task 50/50 (e.g. if one person cooks, the other does the dishes).
• Say "women", not "female" (why?).
• 5 days is enough for a family trip...! And it's going to be OK if I move further away someday (like France).
• BUT I really want to visit my family more OFTEN, and be with my family on actual Christmas next year. 
• Cooking dinner at night is a nice transitional activity to turn off my workbrain when I come home. Bonus: I get to eat at the end of it! The key for me is to have an idea of what I want to cook before I get home, AND have a few back-up recipes where I always know I have the ingredients (for me that's been pad thai, spicy peanut soba, seitan/mustard/cream/rice/parmesan, and...ramen with an egg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

Goals for 2019: 

• Get le Fiancé over the the US!
• Visit Portland / family more often in 2019! Make it home for real Christmas!
• Take my brothers to SDCC this year!!
• Go to Annecy and visit Le Fiancé's family in France! ^_^
• Do a good job at work on (very exciting thing I can't talk about yet)
• Thanksgiving - maybe travel with Le Fiancé? Japan? Mexico? National Park?
• Keep studying film theory, watching classic movies and movies from lots of different cultures / perspectives
• Gym at least 2x/week after work (stretch even if I'm not up to running)
• Print a sketchbook this year for Lightbox Expo...?
• Make a writing habit - keep my iPad on me, make sure I'm still building my own IP and working on stories that I own. Get out to cafes, doodle and write, have fun.
• Do a good job at my first storyboarding workshop and book signing at Gallery Nucleus on January 5!
• Re-release my Europe sketchbooks on Gumroad
• Make some tutorials for storyboarding?
• Do not take on freelance work! I don't need it right now and it really stresses me out! Don't get pressured into it, be strong!

Notable Media:
Books: The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris
TV shows: Hilda, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Aggretsuko, Big Mouth, End of the Fucking World, Fleabag, Mortified Guide, The Good Place
Shorts: Futon no Naka Kara Detakunai, NYT's Conception season 1 and season 2, Bao, Weekends, the Only Slightly Exaggerated Travel Oregon ad
Comics: Spinning by Tillie Walden, The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang, The Hidden Witch by Molly Ostertag, Take A Step Back by Kellye Perdue, Anna Walker Farris's Madagascar travel comic, My Boyfriend is a Bear by Pamela Ribon and Cat Farris, Dead Weight by Terry Blas, Molly Muldoon, and Matthew Seely, Rat et les Animaux Moches by Sibylline, Jérôme D'Aviau, and Capucine
Stand-up: Hannah Gadsby's Nannette, John Mulaney's Kid Gorgeous at Radio City
Podcasts: Heaven's Gate by Glynn Washington
Films: Black Panther, Won't You Be My Neighbor, Bad Genius, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Isle of Dogs, The Breadwinner
Music: Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe, Expectations by Hayley Kiyoko. And here's My Spotify Top 100 playlist



And some older stuff I saw/read for the first time: Adventures of Prince Ahmed, Rusalochka, Secret of Kells, Kirikou, The Count of Monte Cristo, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Godfather 1&2, Surf's Up, Silence of the Lambs, Bladerunner, Dr. Strangelove, Stagecoach, the Peanuts movie, Alexandre le Bien Hereux, Lawrence of Arabia, Citizen Kane, Singin' in the Rain, Chinatown, Some Like it Hot

Year in Review: 2017

Hello! It's the end of 2017 and this is my annual year-in-review post.  (See also: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009.)  This is a self-centric and navel-gazey exercise, but I keep it up because it helps me keep track of my goals and remember what happened each year.

2017 Accomplishments / Highlights:

• I've been at Disney for more than two years, and I've gone from an "apprentice" to a "story assistant" to, finally, a "story artist"!  That's a goal I've had for a LONG time, stretching back to 2009, when I was making Between Gears and felt like I had missed my chance to become a storyboard artist because I chose a general education at a state school over going to an art school.  It's still hard to believe and I don't take it for granted!

• Took a big, exciting trip to meet my friend Mary in Berlin, then stay with my sorority sister Weronika in Prague, then meet my boyfriend's family in France (gulp!), then travel to Iceland and back to LA with le boyfriend.  We saw the Northern Lights and visited the Blue Lagoon!!!  And I spoke all in French with my boyfriend's parents for two days! ^_^

• Made a 70-page autobio comic about moving to LA and starting in animation and found a publisher for it!  It was a project that I cared deeply about and just wanted to make for my own peace of mind and on my own terms, but for whatever reason things turned out well, and I'm incredibly grateful for it.

• (I got selected for a very exciting career opportunity I can't talk about yet...!!!)
• My book with Le Lombard came out in April! (link)

• I volunteered with Young Storytellers and went to the LA Children's Hospital with Disney to draw with sick kids
• Volunteered at the Disney booth at CTNX, got to meet lots of awesome artists and students

• Made it home to Oregon 4 times
• Made it to a big family reunion we had for my mom's parents' 90th birthdays

• Managed a weekend getaway to San Francisco and a trip to the Muir Woods
• Organized a friend-vacation with some Portland ex-studio mates I don't get to see often enough

• Went to Joshua Tree and Palm Springs for the first time
• Got to go to Pixar with work and actually be in a story meeting with some of the people I look up to there...!

• Kept studying film-making!

• Moved into a great, big rental house with 2 friends. It even has an art studio in the back yard!

• Used said big house to host 5 friends who visited LA this year!
• Was a guest at Library Comic Con in Boise and gave my first-ever storyboarding workshop!
• Went to SDCC, and for the first time ever, I actually took a day to get away from the show.  Cat Farris and I went to the zoo, then bummed around the pool all afternoon with drinks and sketchbooks.  Aaaaabsolutely recommend a non-Comic-Con day in the middle of Comic Con.

• I gave up caffeine and meat this year, which I thought I could never do
• Went to see a counselor for the first time in my life, learned some really helpful new tools for thinking about and processing feelings in a healthy way, and I'm feeling better more of the time now
• Had fun with hair color~

• I was pretty good about exercise this year!  It's easier now that I have access to a free gym in the basement at work. Also went on new hikes around LA.

• Read a bunch of books!  Read the first two Discworld books, the third Passe-miroir book, and Madame freaking Bovary in French!

• Started automatic payroll deductions to my 401k account
• Started an automatic, weekly transfer from my checking to my savings account. That shit sure adds up quickly.

• Took free watercolor classes, improv classes, and gesture drawing classes at work

• Took a friend's recommendation and saw a new dentist - WORLD of difference

(at the old dentist's office)

• Attended the Women's March in LA
• I've managed not to kill a large number of my houseplants 
• My roommates and I were thinking of adopting a cat, but I am SO glad we watched a friend's cats first, and realized it wouldn't be a good fit for us right now.

• Started drawing with the iPad pro 2 (work gave me one for free) and I really enjoy it

• Drove a moving van for the first time, didn't hit anyone
• Drove a big stick-shift 4x4 all over the Icelandic countryside!
• Made these Beauty & the Beast gender-swap comics, which people seem to like
• Helped my friend Jamie go pick up little Huckleberry

• Held an Academy Award for the first time! (Thanks, Zootopia!!)

•  Met BB-8 (the robotic unit used in the films!).  And I actually got kind of shy in front of it???

2017 Shortcomings: 

• I did not volunteer with Meals on Wheels
• I didn't make it to a single local town hall / city council meeting
• I missed a flight for the first time ever, felt like an idiot (I just had the flight time wrong and showed up too late)
• I didn't make it to the Grand Canyon
• I don't walk to the grocery store :-/ It's uphill on the way back...

• Didn't find the time to try using Twitch for live-drawing
• Didn't make a new minicomic in time for CALA (I actually got a last-minute table from being on the wait list, but had to turn it down)
• Didn't take a French class

Goals for 2018: 

• Help le boyfriend get a visa to come over to the US!
  
  
• Collaborate with a publisher to make a print version of my LA Animation comic!
• Spend less time on my phone (charge it across the room from my bed at night so I have to get out of bed to use it?)
• 10 minutes of stretching and core exercises at home every day
• Cook more, get more comfortable in the kitchen, cook my own lunches for work a couple times / week
• Get my will / durable power of attorney / letter of instruction in order
• I got the rights back to my Europe sketchbooks, and I want to re-release them on Gumroad this year
• Look for opportunities to democratize breaking into animation...I want to make some free tutorials to put online if I think I can do a good job of it.

Notable Media:

• My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness 

• Stupid Piece of Sh*t (episode of Bojack Horseman season 3)

• Scavengers by Joseph Bennett

• The end of Octopus Pie
• Woman World by Aminder Dhaliwal
• Get Out
• Ladybird
• The  Shape of Water
• The Bick Sick
• American Gods
• GLOW
• Wonder Woman
• Pixar's Coco
• My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea
• This Atlas Obscura article on Seitō