Abram in Motion

Well, blog, here we are. I'm new to this whole blogging thing, so please bare with me.

The purpose of this blog is to keep my friends and family in the know on my whereabouts and whatabouts, as it can be difficult to keep in touch in the analog world.

Just to make sure we're all on the same page, lets make sure we're all up to speed on what has been going on:

After finishing animation school in 2004, I moved back to South Dakota and got a job working for Daktronics as an animator/motion graphics designer in the Keyframe department. After two years, I decided I was ready to leave South Dakota, so off to Europe I went for some backpacking with my sister. Upon return to my parent's in NY, I received a call from Daktronics to do some work on site in Macau. Awesome! Just what I was looking for! One thing led to the next and before I knew it I was living in Shanghai after a generous offer from the Daktronics Shanghai GM. My purpose was to set up a motion graphics/animation studio to support the Chinese market. Overall, I had an excellent experience. It's so hard to summarize my two years, but it's fair to say that I experienced so many new things and grew a ton in many different ways. Any foreigner in China has ups and downs, but in short: I loved living in Shanghai! The people were vivacious, the food was incredible, the culture was intriguing. The pace of life was faster than I could have ever anticipated or imagined. For those who want a visual idea of what Shanghai may look like, here is a short video of me riding my bike through downtown Shanghai this May:


Biking in downtown Shanghai from inMotion on Vimeo.

Having a taste of some excitement, and the idea of adventure, I bought a 750cc Chiang Jiang WW2 era sidecar motorcycle. The ultimate goal was to take an epic journey across China with this. This became my undoing...the beginning of the end, if you will. I had only had the sidecar for two weeks when I was pulled over and jailed for 7 nights for not having a popper shanghai motorcycle license. Upon release my visa was canceled and I was sent back to South Dakota. Again, here's some visuals of my last ride on the sidecar as I was taken to jail:


Escorted to jail in China in my sidecar motorcycle. from inMotion on Vimeo.

I even got a moment on Yahoo news: An American Jailed in China

I'm not sure if I'll be able to go back to China, but one thing is for certain, there is no way that I'll be able to go back before the Olympics are over.

I am now a man without a home and thirst for adventure. I'll be resigning my position at Keyframe as of 8/8/08 - iroinially the day the Olympics start in Beijing. My plan is simple: to bike from Sioux Falls, South Dakota to New York City. And when I say bike, this is what I mean. The journey will take my 1700 miles, though the farmland of the Midwest, across southern Canada through Toronto, and down to Niagara Falls in New York. Once there, I will hopefully be meeting my father to finish the trip with along the Erie Canal.


View Larger Map

Hopefully this trip goes well! Once I arrive in New York, I am now going to be keeping productive doing freelance design and animation. So feel free to contact me for all animation needs! I do plan on going back to Asia, if not China sooner rather than later. I'd love to spend some time in China studying the language more seriously as well. This winter, I hope to find myself somewhere trekking the ancient ruins and jungles of Cambodia or relaxing in southern Thailand.

That's all for now...please leave a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts and advice! :)