Well it’s been one amazing year, meeting long lost family members for the first time (well technically IRL rather than via video call) conquering lingering tasks and tearing off bandaids. So here’s a Top 10 round up of the things, in no particular order, of the things I achieved/discovered and thankfully crossed off the bucket list in 2023.
Number 10: Making it to 40 years old. Yes, I am what’s considered an “older millennial” (or an X-Lennial) aka someone who reached majority at the beginning of the 2000’s. It’s one of those milestones that now makes me re-evaluate what the definition of old means, but also the list of “Normal Grown-up Achievements” does appear in more stark focus now more than ever. Particularly random people telling me how “good I looked for being 40” which was conclusive proof that people did just look way older back in the day… either that or I’m just lucky.
Number 9: Moving to my first bachelor pad, which is a fancy way of saying I spent 6 months of the early part of the year being mildly ripped-off for the rental of the downstairs living area of a much bigger (and significantly older) house. But this was something I promised myself before turning 40, kind of a rite of passage. Though living out of home was nothing new to me, a previous foray with a long term relationship in my 20’s, couch surfing and sleeping off the previous night’s partying and of course hotel stays while doing conventions basically prepped me for the sublime solitude of actually living by myself.
Number 8: Scoring my first merchandise contract. As mentioned in a previous post I began working with Geekdom Tees, an Australian based pop culture apparel company. There’s more on the way.
Number 7: Taking a hiatus from, but eventually returning to live streaming. I had initially dabbled with the platform known as Twitch during the tail end of the pandemic
Number 6: Being flown out to cover for another artist based in North Queensland.
Number 5: My First “viral” YouTube video. Well technically my second viral video, I had been trying to figure out the elusive “YouTube Algorithm” when I simply posted a random observation about the 2001 Planet of the Apes movie by Tim Burton that had been bugging me since I first saw it in theatres.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OQzeQCMOPXE
Number 4: Clearing out my storage locker.
Number 3: Returning to Perth Western Australia after the better part of a decade, and by extension completing the full Oz Comic Con Convention Tour (despite having missed Brisbane again)
Number 2: Finishing up my invisalign braces. My days of having an overbite that partially resembled the end result of smoking an exploding gag cigar (which looks extremely dangerous even in the old cartoons)
Number 1: Reconnecting with my family after so much time and such great distance. Proving once again, to quote Ian Malcolm as played by the legendary Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park “If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us, that life will not be contained. LIFE BREAKS FREE…” which is more or less what I plan to do in 2024.
Thanks for coming to my ED talk.