A ‘Note’ About the Future

Yes, another life story essay which you don’t have to read. It’s just for the stock holders anyway. :p

As many of you know, I’ve been applying to film graduate schools like USC and UCLA for the past few months since this is my last year at UC Irvine. Coupled with school, film projects, and finding an internship, I’ve been quite busy, as you have seen in the past few weeks with the lack of updates (though to be honest, there hasn’t been any major news worthy of posting immediately :p). Because I lack a great deal of film experience, I was vigorously trying to gain more experience points while still maintaining my GPA in school and this website; after all, no grad school is going to take someone who hasn’t shown initiative! To grow further, I was planning to take the next year off and get a film internship before applying to grad schools again. In the back of my mind, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to maintain this website if I got in to grad school, but I was going to try to no matter what. After all, I did say in my very first news post here back in 2003, “Just so you all know, I will never abandon this site like many Pokémon webmasters have done in the past, and have major plans for it in the future.” And I have kept my promise for almost eight years – since I was 14 and a freshman in high school.

On Saturday, word was out that USC was beginning to send out their acceptance letters. “Oh noz!” I thought to myself – I said in one of my supplemental materials that I update this website all the time, and I haven’t done so in two weeks! (That was the longest I haven’t updated the site it in a long time, by the way.) Since I actually turned in my application a few days late due to server issues on USC’s part, I figured they would be looking at my application soon, if not already. So only a minute after waking up, I began contacting all my sources, writing all the stories, collecting all my material, editing all the images, etc. (I didn’t even take a shower!) I was going to write all those stories anyway but this just made me spring to action quicker. And I was in such a fluster to post stories that I was unusually oblivious to everything going on around me. My youngest brother called me from home and said “Why didn’t you tell me UCLA rejected you?” (They had rejected me on Wednesday.) I thought it odd for him to call me about that so randomly, but since I was in a haste, I told him “I’m busy writing news! USC is sending out their letters today!” He asked me to come on Skype as he always does, but I dismissed him and continued to post. My mom also called me later and asked what I was doing, to which I gave her the same response: “Updating site – USC is beginning to send out their decisions today – have a film project and essay too – will call you tonight when I’m done.”

A few hours later, I see my brother peeking through my apartment window. “Ughhh! I don’t have time to entertain now!” He comes in with a “Congratulations” balloon and tells me they bought it because they felt sorry I didn’t get in to UCLA (“they were out of smiley face balloons”). When I stay at my apartment on the weekends, it’s usually because I’m packed, so my family only visits to bring food and help me clean if that’s the case. But because I was so busy, I couldn’t even talk, so I just went back to work posting the news stories. After some time, I decided to take a break, got up, and helped them out for about an hour. Eventually, as I’m about to go back to updating the site, my mom tells me “We got a present for you too!” They ask me to sit on the couch and open it. “But I have a lot of stories to post mom!” My brother pulls out my mom’s video camera and starts recording me. “Why are you recording me? I haven’t even showered!” I figured it was a magazine or Pokemon walkthrough since it was flat, thinking to myself, “Ugh, I thought we agreed to no more junk that’ll just get thrown around.” I oblige to their wishes and open the wrapping. It’s just a white envelope – is it a UPS envelope? I flip it over.

“Welcome to USC.”

Watching the video footage, I just sat there and stared at it for about 15 seconds with a blank look. I immediately went through logical denial in my head: “This can’t be real. Why would the best film school on the planet take me? They take less than 50 people and barely anybody directly from undergraduate. I haven’t even done anything. George Lucas did so much before getting accepted, and I’ve done practically nothing. This is a mistake. Did they send it to me by accident? This has to be a mistake.” In denial, I announce with a smile, “Are you ****ing me?” My mom comes up, kisses me, and tells me they already read the letter and that it’s real. I open it and surely enough my acceptance letter, name, and USC ID are there. I can’t even describe what it felt like now, but I did keep repeating, “I won’t believe it until I’m there.” After they turned off the camera, though, reality set-in and I became super excited in realizing they wouldn’t make this big of a mistake. And then I thought to myself, “Heh heh heh, one step closer to my live-action Pokemon movie…” :D

Now: The question becomes what will happen to this website. Unfortunately, the answer is unknown to me right now. I have maintained this website throughout high school and college, but I’ve never fully been focused on school as a result. If I’m going to (somehow) devote $85,000 to three years in USC’s Film Production program, I’m going to have to put my heart and soul into being successful and going somewhere; otherwise all that time, money, and dedication will go to waste. So if that means I have to close this website, then I’m going to have to do it if I cannot fully focus on USC. But we’ll see. USC starts at the end of August, around the time when there’s a lot of Pokemon news. That may be the best time to decide – I don’t know yet. I will do everything I can to keep this site running while devoting myself to USC; however, the latter will be more important. After all, we can’t let Hollywood continue to pump out shallow movies or bastardize an eventual live-action Pokemon or Evangelion movie! If anyone is going to touch those it’s going to be me!