Checkpoint 1

There isn't a better time to write a post unless it's 4:17AM and I'm absolutely exhausted.

I just want to stop for a moment and put down a flag, a checkpoint, where I contemplate my present state, and try to answer the question of the ages, "Who am I? Who am I becoming?"

This is what really stands out. It's been about 3 years since I left Russia after graduating. This would actually be the longest I've lived and stayed in one place for since 7th grade! There is an incredible amount of stability and identity in this sun shiny city of Los Angeles for me. Well, Of course, it took me three years to get to this point of comfortability.

I'm starting to be O.K. with the idea that I may call Los Angeles my home. I know for most people the 'home' concept doesn't mean what it means for me. For me its been the big question of life and the identity crisis since I was 7. How can I be a U.S. Citizen, ethnically Korean, grow up in New Jersey/New York, grow up in Russia, study in Germany, and then move to Los Angeles- how can I be all these things and at the same time and have a place I call home?

Now, I'm starting to allow myself to really leave my past and move on to clinging on to my present and future, what I was in the past makes me who I am, but so does the present.

However, there is a fear. In one year, I'll graduate and almost all the people I consider a part of my 'home' will disperse. My 'home' is congruent with college life, so how will that change my stability when I graduate? I fear this.

What I'm missing in my life is a home outside of the college life. Most people have parents and a house or local friends to go back to, that is what they find stability in and 'home'. So when I'm out of college, who knows what will happen?

I won't die, but I'm curious how that will effect me. Maybe that will be another "Checkpoint".

The Artist

In the late 18th century of the Romantic Period there was a subtle decline in the creativity based on the achievements of the past. It rather shifted toward the importance of the 'standard of personal vision'. "Art could owe nothing to tradition or the past because that debt qualified the power and originality of the individual creator." The artist expressed what he or she experienced, saw, and felt. This had to be original, because its basis did not rely on a genre or convention for popular familiarity. Pure inspiration and passion was all that was needed. The true artist would not sway to create something that was already tested by culture and time.

"The true artist was noncommercial, struggling on the fringes of human existence, with neither society nor companions( and hardly any publishers), alone with his indomitable self."

Don't be fooled. There is no such thing as absolute creativity. All art still has some relation to the past and its text. So, if we go back far enough, God is the Artist.

- LJ Kim

Sources: Film Theories and Criticism (Braudy), Screenwriting from the Soul (Krevolin)

"...in the story of one person, is the story of all people..."

The Adventures of Sky & Thumb

Clay + Animation = Claymation.

Some call it Stop- Motion. Because you have to stop and move the object and put it in motion. Stop, put it in motion, etc. 

You repeat this a million times manually, until you get what we see on playback as- Animation.

I personally like to call it, pain in the ass.

This is my first claymation, definitely not my last. 

Took me three long weeks, a monk's patience, and starvation.

To watch it, you must pay the small fee of a comment.

The Adventures of Sky & Thumb

created by LJ Kim

Who is this?

Some girl out there is feeling like a dumb ass, but...

Here's the scene:

I'm sitting in directing class and watching some kid doing his serious monologue. He's definitely getting too emotionally involved and my phone vibrates.

*BZZ.... *BZZ....

Reach. Slap. Pull. Slide. New Text Message

 [Read Now] *click

--------------------------------------|

From: 310-892-xxxx

Ok yeah u have those problems 

but what bout respecting ur 

fucking lady n dedicate time to 

her how come u have time 4 her 

but not 4 me. seriusly im not

gonna b beggin u to spend time

with me or give me a fucken

call. or having a man but i feel 

lonely n guess what he is giving

 time to someother girl. when

 u learn how to respect me u 

let me noe but by that time i 

won't be avail. 4 u. 

Feb 2, 3:05pm

-----------------------------------|

At this point, I start to laugh out loud while Mr. Monologue is trying to save the world with his 1 minute speech. The funny part is for two serious seconds, I'm thinking,"Am I going out with right now?! Oh shtake!"

Mr. Confused replies:

Who is this?

lj

Miss Brokenhearted poops:

What!!

Mr. Joker smiles:

No i really have no idea who u are

lj

Miss Pissed Off blurts:

whatever man.

Mr. Innocent offers:

No like dead serious i dont think u have 

the right number..... I'm Lj... 

See down there? I've never had a gf

lj

Miss Feeling-like-a-dumb-ass:

Im sorry. yeah i got the wrong num.

Mr. Nice Guy:

I hope ur feeling better though... Cuz now u get to reconsider what u texted. . 

Like a second chance

lj

Mr. Asshole:

You'll laugh about this years from now

lj

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Trailer: Good Morning

Now, if the possibility of blogging could truly enter into all stereotypes of de-masculinization, I'd totally be in the wrong of starting one. So the impossibility is not possible; therefore, here I go: 

My name is John Kim, but I go by Little John or LJ.

People tell me my life is like a movie.

           "You should write a book about your life!" 

My responses drip with false humble reaction. 

"I'm too young! Look, I'm only 20! Everybody has an interesting life."

              Shut up, LJ!

Here's some truth. I DO want to write a book or make a movie about my life. I'm actually in love with myself. Is this too much truth? It is not. I like to watch my life history on playback. This is how I learn about myself and who I am becoming, about why I react and think the way I do to situations and to people, like you. 

I fail to tell people who I really am. I've become a chameleon. And since my life is a movie, the only way to tell who I am is a full rewind and play. 

So here I am, about to hit the rewind button until it goes all the way back.