Momtrip '07

Mom realized it had been almost a year since we'd seen each other and I threatened to move back to Tokyo so she jumped on a plane and came down for a lovely relaxed weekend of sightseeing and replenishing her body with the sun's valuable vitamin D.




We took a ferry out to Catalina Island and toured the town in a rented golf cart. Pretty beautiful, not much there though. It was a good use of 7 hours.





The fires had started in Malibu so the sunsets were incredible. Love that air pollution!



Mom has a digital SLR camera that takes amazing photos like this one, and now SHE has created a monster. Dammit, I need a thousand bucks!!

You better come down more Mom! We had a great time!

SO... lately..

Dave has been coming down to hang out once in a while from SF, too bad it rained the weekend we were supposed to go surfing...



The cats have made friends/arch enemies with the squirrel who lives in the tree just outside the studio window and is well aware the cats cant do shit from behind glass.




Ah.. corrupting the youth of America with brain rotting videogames... Its what I do best! Here is my latest prey.. hooked for life! Just like that!



Our dear friends Sam and Aya and little Luke from Honolulu came out for a visit, we had a fantastic time, we used to hang out all the time in Tokyo (this was before Lukesters time) and hadn't seen them since we all moved out of Tokyo in 2003. Then we got to stay with them in May this year for a visit and a few months later they were out here! Some friendships just stay perfectly in place no matter how much time goes by between visits, and we can't wait for next time.

NEW YORK

PICTURE DUMP TIME. I have a free hour and dammit I'm updating this blog enough to make up for the past few months.

We went to NYC to celebrate Sammy's bachelor party, and we had a blast. Dominick drove down from Montreal for the weekend cuz he's crazy like that and we had an awesome time.



Sams dog farts more and snores louder than me on a good day. Little piggy.



Our last night we had an amazing Lebanese dinner down the street from Sammy and Tammy's house. I love saying that.



View from the top of the Empire State Building, impressive.



Bright lights big city. Great photo ops everywhere.



My very first friend at Art Center Peter is now a product designer in Manhattan, he moved there the week we visited, it was good to hang out.



Dom, looking dazed and confused as usual. We're out in little Russia out in the far end of the Bronx, there are scenes in some of the GTA4 trailers from here, we recognized it in a heartbeat.



These ice creams covered in cherry coating went down hard and often.




Pay 5 bucks, shoot the freak with a paintball gun! Now thats entertainment.



I know this picture is begging to be painted. Great shapes and colors everywhere you look in NYC.

Drawrings

I wish I could share the stuff I am doing at work, I am having SO much fun designing sci-fi architecture and environments, big ass paintings, a couple a week. Hopefully I'll get clearance once the project ships. Here is a drawring for Joe.

Old friends

This is how you take an ice cream cone down like a MAN.


We had a great dinner with some old friends from Japan on Saturday night. They are all designers at Honda, and part of the crew that I did all my surfing and snowboarding with while I lived in Tokyo, they've since been transferred to work out here at Honda in Los Angeles. Kanchan was one of my first friends in Tokyo, we met just a month after I landed in Tokyo in 1999, I got to scare the bejesus out of his family up north in the countryside when I stayed with them for a weekend of snowboarding. I asked if I was the first white person they ever had contact with he said yes, jokingly except for his grandpa who probably saw them over the sights of his rifle back in the day!

Fujiwara san is leaving back to Japan next week, he spent 5 years here, living right down by the beach, one of the senior interior designers for Hondas. Such a nice guy, sorry to see him and his wife heading back so far away. I'll probably still get to see him at least once a year everytime I go back, its custom to go out for a night of drinking and revelry everytime I'm in Tokyo.



Jiro and Kyoko I met years ago as well but only really got to know them since we've all been in LA. Watching their son Mario grow up here in the states has been so much fun, he just turned 3 and doesnt speak Japanese! He understands it fine but speaks to everyone including his folks in English. SO CUTE. Jiro has been my main surfing teacher too, he is an incredible surfer and turned us on to our main weekend surf spot down in Manhattan Beach. This past week I caught some amazing waves! Some of the best yet! Such a trippy sport, there is so much you need to remember and organize mentally in a few split seconds when trying to catch a wave, its almost as if your brains perception of time alters so you can achieve everything you need to.. When I stand up in shallow water after riding a good wave, its as if I don't remember what just happened, I need to remind myself what I just did, absolutely unlike any other feeling I have ever had. Love it!

Halo 3

So, I finished Halo 3 tonight. Online, with 3 good friends. Two of them are here in LA but one is in Montreal. This weekend I will be playing with my best friend in Tokyo. Seamless voice chat, two player co-operative story based gameplay, teaming up to shoot lots and lots of aliens. The other night after a particularily brutal battle Hideto and I just chilled out and talked for like 45 minutes in a bunker with some wounded marines, the place was getting shelled way up above but the noise wasn't too loud down where we were. We had intended to quit playing and I was going to go to bed but the conversation just rolled on, the voice was clean and clear, and it was FREE. We just sat there and talked, it was so cool.

We live in the future. It was just like living back in Tokyo, playing Halo with my best friend, only now I am 3000 miles away and he is only virtually on my couch. And we both get full screen! And we're both at home so our wives aren't lonely even if we are a little cut off from them. Last week I played for hours with Darin, one of my oldest friends who still lives in Seattle. If it werent for Xbox I would get to hang out with him MAYBE a couple of hours a year. Now it can be whenever I want, and its more interesting than sitting around drinking beers, its like a huge crazy battle and we are making up strategies on the fly and generally having an awesome time. I love it. Although the story is a bit shit, the game itself is fully a worthy successor to what was until now, in my opinion, the best game of all time, HALO.

Gametime decision

I keep taking all these neat pictures for my blog and put off posting until they are all uploaded and organized and it just aint working out. Last night I made the decision to just update regularily and post pics when I can, even if they are old.

SO lately, switched teams at work, never been happier. I just paint and design all day, which is all I have ever wanted to do. It rained heavily last week and we waited a week, but when we did go down to the beach it was just like going to the dump, plastic bags and plastic cups and plastic straws EVERYWHERE. DId I ever mention how much I hate humanity? Everything in LA just goes straight into the ocean, the storm drains just roll right on in. Cuz you know, its the Ocean! Its Big! Its ok to dump all our shit in there directly, it just goes away!

I'm pretty sure humans are gonna take this planet DOWN, good possibility it will be in my lifetime. I could either be sane and depressed as hell about it, or think this is probably the most exciting time in history, I get to watch the end of the world!! LET IT BURN WOOOOOOOOO. People think I'm crazy when I say shit like this but what are you going to do, look reality in the eye and live in shame and fear of all the stupid decisions greedy oil companies and politicians have made? I can't do shit about it, I mean I try, I recycle like there IS no tomorrow, I avoid taking plastic bags at the store, but at some point you realize that change has to come from the top.

Someone BIG, like the President (not that asshole thats in office now, he can't tie his shoes without "assistance") But someone who realizes we are finite, and so our are resources. Make a law, say within 10 years all plastic packaging has to be biodegradeable. Its available now! There are all these farmers markets and festivals down here in Santa Monica where ALL the plastic plates cups and utensils are biodegradable. They just cost a few cents more each and people are cheap and greedy so the whole world sufffers. Speaking of the whole world, when we pass this law, we need to extend that to ALL things sold in the US. Meaning huge trading partners like CHINA and the rest of the world will be dragged kicking and screaming into a future we might actually be able to continue to exist in. Dammit I'm running, JAKE in 2008!!