Goals for the year and rabbits in hats.

Everyone seems to be doing it, so why not me too right?

At the start of every year, people make new year's resolutions. Well, not me. I just set some goals for myself.

So I thought I'd write a blog talking about that. And maybe what I got up to for new years eve. After all, this is a blog about my life, so why not include life event things right? Who knows what might come out onto this page.. er.. file?.. Post! That's what they're called.

So new years eve.. I'm not much of a party guy these days. I don't like big crowds (with the exception of gigs), I really don't like being around a bunch of really drunk people (again, I can make exceptions at gigs), and I don't like clubs and the music that's played at them. Basically, to me going to a club is essentially me going somewhere full of people I have nothing in common with who I don't want to be around, doing things I don't like doing and listening to crap music. Not my idea of a good time.

So for the third year in a row I think, I went to my best friend's place. He was having a small party, which suits me much better.
Really there's not a lot to tell.. we had some food, told a lot of stories and jokes, ribbed each other, played some trivia, and had a great time.

Oh, actually, one highlight for me was performing a magic trick.

Now I know what this blog is going to be about. Goals, and magic.

I got really interested in learning magic a few months ago, after seeing this video (this is my first attempt at embedding something so if it doesn't work, i'll put the link at the end of the blog)

This is a magician called Shawn Farquhar on a show Penn and Teller did called Fool Us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ2ebs9F1ek

So after seeing that trick (and watching it probably 15 times), I found myself wanting to learn how to do card tricks. I've always liked magic...my mum tells me I used to do bad card tricks when I was a kid, and I vaguely remember getting a magic set at some point too. I love the performance side of it, and the technical skill involved especially interests me. And, if you watch that trick, it is just about flawless. Even a few months later, learning all that I've learned about sleight of hand, I have no idea how he does what he does. (Neither do Penn and Teller though, so I don't feel too bad)

So I decided to buy a couple of decks of cards. A couple quickly became a couple of dozen. It's become something of an addiction to me. I didn't realise at first that there were collectors of playing card decks, but I've quickly become one. I have around 40 decks at this point. The great thing about them is that even though they're not that readily available in Australia, the decks aren't too expensive. Sure, some can get up to $20 and above, but in general they range from about $5 to $15, so I've spent a little bit of money on them, but there are much worse things to spend money on.

My favourites in my collection at this point are the few black decks that I have. They're incredible looking. I also have a deck where the hearts and diamonds are coloured blue instead of red, which I love.

What I've found though, and this may sound like a strange comparison, is that learning sleight of hand and card magic, and cardistry, is a lot like learning how to play the guitar.

I know what you're thinking.. No it's not! Guitars have strings!

You're absolutely right. But, learning card sleights is all about muscle memory, exactly the same way that learning to play the guitar is. For example, I can remember when I first started learning guitar, changing chords was almost impossible to do fluently. In the same way, learning to riffle shuffle cards is all about muscle memory. When I first started trying to shuffle the cards like this (the way magicians do), I was fumbling all over the place and found it almost impossible.. and even thought about giving it up. But, I persevered, and mastered it. I've focused more on learning techniques to start with rather than just jumping into learning tricks, though I have a few simple tricks under my belt, including the one I performed for my friends at new year's... where I turned a red card blue.

This leads me into the other subject I wanted to talk about in this post, being my goals for the year.

1. Get better at card magic, and grow my collection of cards.

This one is pretty simple.. I'd like to be able to do more than one trick convincingly, and get much better at the sleight of hand stuff. And obviously buy more cards.

2. Confidence.

I have this weird lack of self confidence. I want to change that. It's mainly with people I don't know, my friends and family, and people that I'm comfortable with, I have no problem being confident and outgoing. But, as my single friends and readers will know, it's a very different story when it's someone you're meeting as a possible romantic prospect. I need to figure out a way for my confidence I have with my friends to come through when meeting new people.

3. Maintain my exercise and diet and lose more weight.

Another simple one. I want to lose at least another 10 kilos this year, and hopefully more like 20. If I stick fairly closely to my diet and keep walking every day, it's going to happen.

4. Get at least one tattoo.

I tweeted at Kevin Smith telling him I was going to get one of his quotes tattooed on me and he favourited the tweet, so I have to do that at some point. Oh.. and just so you don't think i'm getting a ton of words put on me, the quote is "Why not?" The full quote is in this picture:

5. Find a new drummer for my band.

This one is a "has to happen soon" goal, as we've got some gigs tentatively booked in the coming months. Pretty simple really.

6. Get my band to greater heights

We have some goals in our band, some of which we've already achieved, but we still have a lot left to do. This year we'll release our first cd, have our first merchandise available to buy, and play some shows interstate.

Some other goals I want us to achieve are to get played on the radio (if we can find a radio station that plays punk), get into some magazines or so some kind of interviews, and there are some bands we want to play with, and have hear our music somehow as well.


That's about it really, I mean there are things that are a little out of my control like start a new relationship, or make some money.. but those 6 are my main goals for the year.



Oh, one last thing, I'm thinking as I said in a previous post, of starting a video blog. Let me know if you like this idea, and I'll see what I can come up with.

That's it for this installment. Thanks for reading.

It's been quite a year

Well.. It's the last day of 2012, and I find myself reflecting back on the year I've had, as I'm sure many of you are doing. Or you're already drunk. Either way, fun times!

So, I thought I'd write a post talking about my year, and my goals for next year. Not resolutions as such.. just things I would like to achieve.

A lot happened for me this yeas, as I'm sure it did for you. It started with my ex-step-dad Dave (it's complicated I know) telling me he was planning to move to Queensland, which I took... not so well. He had, for a long time, been the main father figure in my life, and had always been 5 minutes away, if not in the same house, for the past 16 years. So needless to say, it wasn't an easy goodbye. We've stayed in touch.. but not as much as I'd like.

Skipping ahead while I'm on the Dad bit, in the middle of the year I got back in touch with my "real" Dad as it were, Kevin, who lives in New South Wales. I haven't seen him since my wedding back in 2009, and I hadn't talked to him for about a year and a half at the time I decided to get in touch with him again. I'm glad I did, because we've managed to re-kindle a friendship that we hadn't really had for a long time. I think he sees me as an adult now, which is good, and we have some health issues in common (he wears a caliper on one leg and has trouble walking and what not), so we have a common ground we can always talk about. Which is great. I had a lot of fun going to stay with my Dad when I was young, and I'm glad we've got past the issues we had.


So back to the beginning of the year. Only a few weeks after Dave left, my cat Sabbath got sick, and unfortuntately he had to be put down. That was just as hard, if not a little harder than Dave leaving, because.. well Dave is still alive!
As hard as it was, I know it was the right thing to do, rather than have him live in pain. Saying goodbye to him, and being in that room while the vet did what they had to do, was one of the hardest things I've ever done. But he got so many pats, and he was told he was a good boy, and the last thing he heard and saw was me. It's a hard thing when a pet dies. It makes me think of a Kevin Smith quote, when he was talking about losing one of his dogs early this year... "They spend basically their whole lives with you, but you can't spend your whole life with them".

I still miss him, but I have so many fond memories, that I usually am happy thinking about him. He would rear up on his back legs and rub his cheek on my leg, and he would get scared of his own tail and make himself jump... he was awesome.

It affected my other cat Rupert as well, he's become more attached to me, but he's also calmer these days. I think he was stressed out when Sabbath was sick, and it took a while for him to get past it. But he's much better now, and I think quietly loves being the only cat again.

In April, my mum and her husband Joe moved from Melbourne, up here to Ballarat. That was a big thing for me, especially after Dave leaving. My condition makes it such that having someone close by all the time who I can rely on in case I need help, or can't move, or pass out is a big stress reliever. Plus, it's nice to be able to have lunch at mum's once a week. Free food is the best food right?

May, was my birthday. Nothing much happened there.. just my birthday.

Oh, I know what happened in may. I began a relationship with someone. It only lasted two months unfortunately, but when things aren't right, they aren't right. She and I are still great friends, and even though things didn't work out, I wouldn't change anything. She's happy with her boyfriend, and I'm really happy to have her as a friend.

June.. well that's an easy one. The band got a name, and played it's first show. We ran through a bunch of names before coming up with The Savages... The Snowballs, The SavageRs, Bunch of Savages, and a few more.
Our first show wasn't the most amazing beginning. We supported a band that sounded nothing like us, and the crowd that was there weren't exactly there to see us. I distinctly remember saying the following: "So.. has anyone heard of Elvis Presley?" ... and there were crickets. Crickets! Oh, until one hipster idiot said in a stupid voice "Is he on australian idol?" ... ugh.. hipsters. We were also a four-piece for that show interestingly.

Since then however, we've become a three piece (and at the moment, a two-piece) and played some amazing shows, mostly in Melbourne. We played once in Ballarat, and once in Geelong at The Nash, just before it closed down. We played one of the final gigs at the Barleycorn in Melbourne as well, which was a lot of fun.

But the biggest show that we played, was in fact our last show we've played as a full band at this point. It was also the hardest show to make happen.

Last year we saw a band called Batfoot!. This was the band that inspired Curt and I to start a pop/punk band. So when we saw that they were coming back to Victoria (they are from New South Wales) we wanted to play a show with them. So we got in touch with Craig, the Bass player/singer, and tried to get ourselves a slot on one of the shows.

Craig managed to get us a spot on their geelong show, but a few weeks later, we found out that The Nash, where the gig was meant to be, was closing down, and would be closed about 3 weeks before our show was scheduled.

So with very short notice, I emailed every single venue I'd played gigs at just about, and had no luck. The closest we got was an afternoon gig on the same day our original show was scheduled for. So it looked like we were going to have to cancel the show, which sucked. Then, this great little venue called IDGAFF had a cancellation for the night our show was meant to be, and they gave the night to us with about 8 days to spare!

So all went well, we played the show, and had the best time. We've got plans to go up to NSW next year some time and play some shows up there with Batfoot!, and just generally hang out and have a great time. I personally can't wait to do that, it'll be great to play shows up there, being that I lived up there until I was 10.


We also have plans to record our first EP/Album (depending on how many songs we get recorded) early next year, possibly even next month. Also, we'll be getting our first batch of Savages T-Shirts early next year so that's awesome too!

Also this year I applied for a Bachelor of Arts degree at University, and I got in. Unfortunately, after having a look at the campus, and how the classes worked, I basically figured out I physically couldn't handle that and the band. And being that the band was just getting on it's feet when the course was going to start, I decided to defer for now. I have until the end of january to decide if I want to start this semester, or defer it again, or just pass on the course altogether.


Some smaller things that happened... I bought/got 3 new guitars due to the Allans music store in ballarat closing. They had 3 Left-handed electric guitars left, and I got all three of them! Two squier strats, one being an affinity series, and the other a standard series, and one Schecter Omen. I absolutely love the Schecter, I only paid $315, reduced from $550. It plays like a much more expensive guitar, and is near perfect. I do wish I'd had the money to buy the next model up, which has coil-tapping (turning the humbucker pickups into single-coil pickups.. technical I know), but I'm so happy with the one I got.

I reached (and passed) walking every single day on my treadmill for a year. In fact now, I'm up to around 520 days. The next goal is 600, and obviously then 700, and finally 2 years. I'm thinking I may take a day off when I get to 1000... but I doubt it.

I finally got a gigging amp as well. Without it, playing in my band would almost not be possible. It's the loudest thing I've ever played through. Most of the time I have it on about 3 (out of 10) and get told it's too loud.

I got a laptop that lets me play minecraft without it overheating. As well as a lot of other things that it does well.

I also gave up alcohol completely, and stopped drinking caffeine.


Oh, and of course, I got a new car. My mum held a raffle through her social club, and they raised about $6000.. and I finally got a car that works, with air conditioning, a cd player, power windows... all standard things these days, but to me, having never had those things before, I finally feel like I have a modern car.

So that's my year basically.. ups and downs yes, but more ups than downs definitely, and especially in the second half of the year.

So thanks to all my friends and family for being awesome, especially my best mate Curt. And my Mum.

Also thanks to all the new friends I've met, you guys are all awesome and I'm so glad to have met you.

That's it really, I hope everyone enjoys their new year celebrations, stay safe, please be careful on the roads, don't drink too much, don't drink and drive.. don't sit on a firework as it's going off.. and most importantly have fun!

See you all in 2013!!

P.S If anyone lives on a state border where there's a time difference.. tonight you have the rare opportunity for time travel! Jump back and forth over the border.. and you'll be in 2012 on one side, and 2013 on the other! Spooky!!