2013: The Year All the Things Happened

[originally posted on tumblr]

I don't think i've ever done a year-end post before, but 2013 truly was the year that all the things happened, so what better time to start. My mom sends out a year-in-the-life letter with her Christmas cards every year, and while i don't send out Christmas cards, i do tumbl, so here's a tumblr post instead.

Last year i started a regular YouTube show called Wisconscene, which featured quick and dirty edits of footage i was shooting at local rock shows with my fleet of Flip video cameras interspersed with me reading stuff off of the bands' Facebook pages. This year i wanted to make that better, so in March i found myself a studio and a crew and brought the bands to me, where i interviewed them also. We filmed our first band (The Hussy) on March 6th, and our first full episode with Baristacide and The Type on March 13, and released it to the public on March 23. The public's reaction has been largely positive and the show continues to spiral into popularity.

In April, i got paid to go to a gaming convention for industry types (ie, not open to the public). It was like a second GenCon to me! Except i was filming instead of playing games. But i got to attend exclusive panels by Looney Labs, Privateer Press, and more, and at the end i got to ransack the warehouse of the largest game distributor in the midwest. Amazing times!

On May 6, i lost my best friend, my cat Alex. He was assumed to be 19 or 20 years old, the last 16 of those he spent with me. More than half of my life, almost all of his. Even now, seven months later, i can't say that i'm the same without him. I had the old man cremated, and the box containing his ashes now sits in a prominent perch on the Mobyfort, on top of his cat bed, where he can still watch over me while i work.

Later in May, i headed down to beautiful Fort Wayne, Indiana, to film Spring Roll, a large roller derby tournament. This was my second Spring Roll, and once again a long weekend of hard work and good times! And free PBR.

And then June happened. Amanda + i jetted off to Europe, where we saw 14 different countries in 17 days. A complete accounting of all of that tomfoolery can be found in one of my other tumblrs, Amanda + Trevor's Europalooza! [changed to Blogspot] It's all amazing, read the whole thing!

In July, two of our closest friends went ahead and married each other. Congratulations again, Julia +
Anthony! Or, as we like to call them, The Yoders.

August was, of course, the GenConTimes. We spent over a week with the family that we chose, The Indianians, and Drew poisoned me with 100 proof Captain Morgan during a drinking game involving the movie The Mummy, which i had never seen before and can now only say i don't remember. GenCon itself brought us many new treasures, as always, including new favorites Flashpoint, Channel A, Say Anything, Wits & Wagers, and The Resistance. But of course, the most important part of GenCon was that right as the big cheer went up at the end of the fourth day, i did that thing where you get on your one knee and ask the woman you've been seeing for almost ten years to give you the rest of her years. And she said yes! Then we went to Boogie Burger.

The intervening weeks between that, August 15, and our tenth anniversary, September 13th, were the most hectic of all time, as we planned an entire wedding in less than a month. I mean, hell, we planned a three week trip to New Zealand in about two months, and a two and a half week trip to Europe in about a month, i figured, how could a wedding be any harder?

For the record, it is. Mostly because other people. Lots and lots of other people.

We were married in a lovely outdoor ceremony on an island in the town of Burke, Wisconsin, on September 13th, ten years to the day after a bunch of us friends gathered in Amanda's parents' basement to watch Fellowship of the Ring and Anna was all like, "So are you two dating now or what?" and we looked at each other, then back at her and were all like, "Yep."

Also in September, Wisconscene moved to a larger studio, the Sun Prairie Media Center, which has been very good for us. By this point, the show is being aired on three TV stations: WYOU in Madison, KSUN in Sun Prairie, and WMCF in McFarland.

Continuing its crusade to be the most important month of our lives, September 27, 2013 also saw Amanda get drafted to the Reservoir Dolls, Madison's most awesome roller derby team! A truly life-changing event!

And at the end of September, i started my own LLC, Duckworks Media Forge, and left my job, plunging into uncertainty and freedom. It's been an interesting ride so far, and i'm really optimistic about what next year will bring on that front.

In October, we headed down to Chicago once again to see the mighty Biffy Clyro, the most popular rock band in Europe, play at a small club full of Americans who don't know who they are. It's really great to be an American in that aspect, i mean...can you imagine seeing Green Day or Pearl Jam play at a venue the size of the High Noon? It's a good time to be a Biffy fan on this side of the pond. They're trying so hard to conquer America and it's just not working. Meanwhile in Europe they consistently sell out the Wembley Arena.

November was, as usual, consumed by my birthday party. This was the last party of my 20s, so we had to send my youth off with a bang. The party itself ended up being more low-key than usual, kind of just a large game night that included Indianians, but the damidol show the next day was absolutely epic. damidol opening for Skintones and My God The Heat? To me, that's as good as opening for AC/DC and Nirvana...maybe better actually. Maybe not as cool as opening for PJ Harvey would be, but i'm not going to fill this up with fantasies.

In December, we experimented with a new way of filming Wisconscene, and it felt like a huge success! We'll find out for sure in January...

Amanda played her first official bout as a member of the Mad Rollin' Dolls on December 7th, when the Reservoir Dolls took on the Vaudeville Vixens and soundly destroyed them! Her next home bout is on February 1st, so come out and watch her team kick some more ass!

We had a pretty good Christmas, too.

And now it's New Year's Eve. We're going to the Mad Rollin' Dolls NYE party, so that ought to be a pretty good time.

Well, 2013's been a pretty good time, possibly the best year out of the last dozen or so. Here's to an awesome 2014!