2012

It's been a crazy year and while it's definitely not over, for me the year is virtually over, pretty much everything I'm doing is working towards 2013, so for now, it's probably been the most amazing year I've ever had from a personal achievement point of view.  I turned down an accounting career in 2011 and a pretty steady life in Perth, so I picked the rocky and risky road for 2012 although I'm glad to say that I can made it work out this year.

I guess my major goal at least for the start of the year was to pull of a national tour for Neko Nation and I must say that not only was it one epic achievement but it was an amazing adventure, I never really though Neko Nation was ever going to really explode into a nation-wide thing but it happened and so many amazing people along the way helped make it happen.

With that said, my favourite part of the tour was by touring, being able to fly around and meet so many awesome people, explore many new places and have fun bringing a unique show and experience unlike any other.  Sydney and Brisbane were awesome, especially pulling off those first shows and in particular I will admit Sydney grew a lot on me this year in terms of people, size and opportunities.  Perth was somewhere else that stood out since it's kind of crazy to see the response from fans and friends whenever I come back to Perth.  I may have thought Perth was a bit dull and boring when leaving but returning there made me realise how awesome and special the place was.

Two other awesome things to happen was working with AVCon to put on the AVCon show, I wouldn't say it was a massive amount of work to pull of the show, it was more or less being recognised for the work that I had done and feeling like I had done something significant.  Add on top of this being involved in Adelaide Chinatown Harajuku no Yoko, an absolutely amazing event that I know the Adelaide cosplay and lolita scene enjoy, plus I know of many jealous interstate people who want something similar in their own city!

Beyond Neko Nation, university was another thing I felt pretty proud with this year.  Taking the plunge into marketing and advertising, full time while working and doing Neko Nation was probably one of the trickiest challenges I've ever faced, especially since I had to go up against a pretty terrible unforgiving university because being able to have lectures, assignment details and due dates is easy-modo!  After being massively screwed around, to get a distinction average was pretty awesome and I wasn't many marks off a high distinction average too.

Relationship wise was a rather interesting year, it's been hard with me and Susannah, we're two people with a lot on our plate and despite having a lot in common we are complete opposites in so many ways.  Getting through this year with her was challenging but incredibly rewarding, I've had a few bad moments but honestly the fact we've gotten through so much and we're still together is looking like it's meant to be and when it's been working, it's been working incredibly well.  Despite a lot of things I've achieved and experienced, simply having Susannah is still the best thing for me, I will admit even almost two years into this relationship, I do sometimes flip out and feel a bit mindblown that I'm actually going out with a girl as amazing and as beautiful as her and somehow she picked me of all people.

I think last but not least was figuring out a lot about myself as I've learnt a lot myself this year.  I think figuring out a lot of my social anxiety and introversion was something I noticed way more this year, this wasn't a big deal say 5 years ago but when all of a sudden you're got all these sponsors, staff, fans and friends all over the country, it's nice but not something I've craved insanely, since I'm not the sort of person begging for likes, whoring for Tumblr followers or hashtagging all the instagram pics.  Despite that, I've discovered a lot more of my strengths as well too in regards to events and personal organisation, while my weaknesses thankfully have been balanced out a lot by Susannah.

All up, a massive and crazy 2012 and honestly it was a great year, probably the most intense year of my life (there's so much more I could go on about on here too) and I'm epicly excited about 2013.  Massive thanks to everyone who was a part and involved in my year, thanks for being in it.  ^^

Neko Sydney: November to Remember

Neko Nation Sydney on paper was the show that probably should have broke me, with so much stress, pressure and nerves before the show, I don't think I've been in a much worse state all year.  Yet, I came out by far in one of the best moods possible.  My trip to Sydney may have been one of the most important trips of my entire life.

The show was just incredible, it's always a blast since it's probably the least stressful show from our end that we've done all year probably, considering how stressed and panicked I have been throughout some shows that was a massive relief.  Sydney just has a venue unique and interesting atmosphere that I really enjoy, it's a lot more of a high energy rush and intense show compared to the other events.  I've got to send out a massive thanks to the venue, all our staff and of course all our fans, seriously you guys all made for an epic show.

I don't know what it was this time but Sydney just seems to be a place I'm connecting well and clicking well with, it's a city I see with a lot of potential and was looking into moving career-wise in the future for marketing and while it seemed a bit farfetched a few months back, it's looking a lot more likely after this trip. There just seems to be so much variety and it's a place I've enjoyed so much, it's a city that I seemed to like before my last trip but thanks to some awesome friends, Rachel, Mellie, Herbie, Dorian, Jadeabella, Ken, it was quite a special trip where I could actually relax and sort out a lot of my personal problems.

Oh and maybe, maybe it may have something to do with catgirls.  XD

Beating the System

So despite the majority of fighting with my lecturers, mostly about simply getting tossed into the deep end and generally being screwed around by a lack of lectures and a lack of knowledge how to complete the assignments (word limit, presentation, constantly changing due dates).  Somehow I got through in the end with pretty much most of my assignments with distinctions or high distinctions.

The freakish fact that the less help and more problems I was suffering the better I was doing.  There's the less arrogant theory that I was starting to understand the course and get back into uni near the end where the uni was really failing on their part.  Also I guess it's because I was more than happy to stray away from the textbook, too many people I meet in marketing and advertising see this course as a by the book commerce course, oh how wrong people are, considering advertising is often paired up with graphic design which is far more creative than a by the book subject.

Survival was my goal for the year in uni, considering I was pretty happy to walk out unscathed, to walk away with a whole bunch of exceptional assignment marks is a good start, I still don't know my final marks since well there's one more exam and my uni makes it so freaking hard to figure out my final official mark with the number of unit outlines I've received and the grade center giving out wrong scalings.

I managed to come up with ideas of how to sell brands such as Fosters and BlackBerry of all brands.  I think I deserve some credit with that.  Anyways overall, I feel like I've made the right choice to break away from accounting to an area where I feel I have some degree of domination, now it's just a matter of making my way into a comfortable career position but if next year goes to plan, I've got some very interesting directions I can go.

It's not over yet, there's still the case of the last exam on Thursday, Harajuku and The Pad on Friday and a Necro gig on Saturday.  However, reality is besides the exam it's far from work on the night and let's just say hopefully there should be plenty of alcohol and partying for once if my health lets up!

Neko 2013

While Neko Nation might be on a bit of a hiatus, there are rough plans going on in the background for 2013.  Which I'm incredibly excited about, yes, I might be on break from Neko but it's pretty much near impossible to tear me away from Neko Nation.

The main thing I really want to do in my time away from shows is to inject more new ideas into the show, I've done around 20 Neko Nation's and while I am looking for new ways to update and re-invent the show and Neko Nation getting some time off will really help ensure it's constantly evolving.  New ideas, venues, DJ's, catgirls, sponsors and more new features into the show.  Without the pressure of having to quickly work onto another show after Sydney, I've got time to see what more I can do.

Once I get back into shows, highest priority will be Brisbane, having been without a venue for a while, I think I've got a good lead and can finally bring back Neko Nation to Brisbane which I'm incredibly excited, Brisbane is the city I remember for giving me such an amazing welcome and I absolute miss the place.  For fans of J-Core, let's just say, you're going to be in for an epic treat when we come back!

I'm looking to bring Neko Nation into new places, not just in terms of clubs but beyond that.  2012 saw some interesting variety with the show having gone to Midian, Gilkisons and Adelaide Convention Centre, three venues with their very unique offerings.  Once again, looking beyond clubs, at conventions and there's a certain festival I'd like to get involved in if possible too.  I'm intending to make sure Neko goes beyond as a club event.

A bit off topic but I do plan to do more outside of Neko Nation as well too, I had my experimentation into the K-Pop scene this year with Hyper Dragon but in 2013 I'm looking at trying something different, I feel that I can do something different and not just be a one trick pony with Neko Nation.

Last but not least, I have spoken to a few Japanese acts, getting an international down for Neko is pretty much my main goal for 2013.  We just haven't seen Japanese acts coming down to Australia for a while and I'm determined to change this, I can ensure as much as I would love to bring down Dir En Grey, Maximum the Hormone or Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, it's way out of my budget for the time being.  However who know's what's possible in the future.  It's going to be exciting for everyone who can make it down (and a lot of stress and sleepless nights on my end getting this all set up!)

For now, I'm going to enjoy my break, I'm far from over Neko Nation, just resting up and trying to re-energise for even bigger things to come in 2013.

2012 Neko Finale

As I mentioned recently to people, I'm looking forward to taking time away from Neko Nation, while earlier in the year this would never have crossed my mind at all, I've had no choice recently as mentally I no longer feel I can devote enough love, time and dedication to the show as I normally have been.

I'm far from being over Neko Nation, it's a huge part of me and for a lot of people, it's pretty much what everyone associates me with.  While the job is rewarding not necessarily financially (I do have another job), it is personally mostly in how much people tell me they enjoy the event and the satisfaction knowing that I've pulled off an amazing event.  However this is also counterbalanced by the stress and time involved, a few interesting stats, each hour of the event has around a week's worth of work behind it, there's something like 30-50 people I need to deal with per event and then there's the matter of the huge and complex master spreadsheets and walk-throughs.  Despite all that, it's usually worth it.

At the moment, I feel that it's not and it's actually in no part due to my work in Neko Nation, it has been a stressful year on my end, having been caught up in a myriad of work and involvements with Tokyo Hardcore and uni.  There have been many personal problems involving others that have created problems but aren't worth talking about since the best way to deal with them is to move on and not resurrect any drama (which isn't really that exciting or interesting anyways).  I will say the timing of these problems have popped up in times when I truly needed a break.

I've looked back onto my year with Neko Nation and while it hasn't gone perfectly (the recent loss of NYE sticking out), I can be quite proud with what I've achieved this year.  I managed to pull off what was a pretty successful Australian tour and met so many wonderful people along the way, there was the incredible show with AVCon which was something I never pictured was happening anytime soon (in any convention) and our mega show in Perth where we not only proved we could stand up to a Wai-Con event on the same night but also smash attendance records.

So how did I celebrate all this?  The tour, I got involved in some of the worst personal drama I've ever had, AVCon I started uni and had lots of catching up to do and Perth I had two events on the next weekend, followed up by lots of assignments, hitting that final assignment, my body absolutely crashed physically and mentally.  While it could be just bad luck of catching something going around, regardless I'm seeing it more as huge sign of overworking.

While I can't drop my current commitments I can stop taking new ones from Neko Nation Sydney till the end of the year.  I have struggled to unwind and de-stress, so while I may be going a bit overboard with watching anime and gaming, I'm more or less making up for lost time here, heck my girlfriend bought me a PS3 at the start of the year I barely touched.

It's also a good time to actually reflect on what I've achieved so far this year and be proud of what I've done so far.  I've had a habit even after some amazing achievements to start writing notes on how things could have been done a lot better.  For once, I'm actually just going to focus on the positives and soak in some motivation and achievements and remember that if I can't make myself happy I sure as hell can't make others happy.  I've got some pretty exciting plans on the table for 2013 and this time off has allowed me some pretty awesome ideas to come to me, there's some pretty awesome new things I'm trying to involve into the show.

Don't expect to see me out too much over the next month or two, the irony of me working in a job like this is that I'm incredibly introverted and not a huge fan of places with lots of people!  I will be open to talking to people online and very small catch ups but I'm a lot happier being home since I've spent too much of my year being on my feet and dragged everywhere that I'll rarely be out much.

At the moment slowly starting to enjoy my semi-holiday off work, it's not all over yet, I've got involvement with Neko Domination, Chinatown Harajuku, Necromancy, an exam and Neko Sydney, although honestly with that on my plate that makes it the quietest period for me coming up!

For now, I'll see a lot of you later, for those playing LoL hopefully I'll see you on the battlefield soon!

Rise and Fall

I can finally say that I'm finally getting a month which actually isn't looking too crazy for month.  University is over and my god that's one nightmare I can finally put behind me.  Curtin University has proven to be a disaster, with lectures being missing, assignments that were incredibly inconsistent, assignments could be 4 weeks to complete 1,500 words and another one could be one week to write 4,000, final tests were incredibly pointless and easy (I don't see how a multiple choice test that's open book and internet is a test) and marks for completing marketing surveys.  I went to UniSA and unlike University of Adelaide or Curtin the details I needed to enrol took literally 2 minutes to find out, it took weeks or months with the other two.

Neko Nation has finally been put behind me for now, it's been an amazing last month, finally breaking the attendance record in Perth was absolutely a mind blowing achievement I'll never forget.  It was the one show where we feared the worst, having been forced up against the Wai-Con ball and with Perth attendances having been quite stable over the last year, it was insane to see so many people having so much fun, expanding to two rooms and getting gaming and an incredible lighting and staging setup was great.

The downside is that the momentum has been trickling down to a halt, I only got the news about new years eve being cancelled early this month, even though this event was pretty much in production and had the go ahead from March this year, sadly it wasn't meant to be.  It's been frustrating as managing Neko Nation has been proven harder and harder thanks to uni commitments and my personal life.  So while there isn't much on the horizon, I'm glad things are slowing down a bit.

This month has proved to be a quiet one, unfortunately this has been in part to sickness but with that out of the way, I would have been taking it quite easy since I'm needed to catch up on actually chilling out and taking it easy, something which I've barely had any time over the past months due to all the drama and craziness.  At the moment, been investing a huge commitment of time into League of Legends, despite the ridiculousness of getting addicted to something that isn't exactly going to get me anywhere, the reality is the things that have gotten me somewhere have made me incredibly sick and it's the closest thing I somewhat have to a holiday at the moment.

Future Potential

After an attrocious experience with one unit in Curtin and a bit of research about the marketing industry, I'm having to re-evaluate all my career prospects for 2014 and have to make some serious changes in 2013.

First of all, after everything that has happened at Curtin, I'll be highly likely to switch universities, it's not a case of one problem, the unit appears to be making things up as I go along and not even giving a proper education.  Little things like giving the wrong unit outlines, wrong due dates or not knowing the due dates, unreasonable demands such as 4,000 word assignments in a week and marketing surveys for marks.  Without a doubt, I've had enough, this is not acceptable for a university.  It's likely I'll be moving to studying internally at Uni SA next semester.

I'm tossing up which route I'm looking to go down, I'm starting to realise that most of my passion is truly in event management, with 4 major projects currently in the works, it's one area I'm dangerously addicted too, despite the fact I should be calming down, organising and bringing people together is what I love best, so I'm leaning towards seeing if I can get a job professionally in this area once I graduate.  The person I originally helped with putting events on for almost a decade ago has ended up in this position and I'd love to follow in these footsteps.  Even if I don't go down this route, I still intend to keep putting on events.  <3

I looked into ad agencies, too competitive, definitely not my style, very interested in looking at working on the client side with some of the bigger corporate firms which I feel would heavily suit my style.  Going to a local uni I feel would probably enhance my contacts better for this as I've felt like I've received freedom in terms of classes, I haven't even received classes in some cases and with the lack of organisation it's likely that I can probably plan my time better around a university that proves to be more reliable.

While I'm unsure what the future hold, I've got plans to look into bigger and better things event wise for 2013, after going through a point where I thought AVCon was going to be my high point and nothing would beat it, I'm glad I've finally found some motivation to do things bigger and better than ever next year, far beyond the scope of what I could have ever achieved with Neko and also with other events I wish to work with.  Events are busy but I'm just too torn with my love for it that I want to create more and go bigger and better with my work in the future.  <3

Vs. Uni

I knew it was going to be a challenge heading back to uni but when you spend more time struggling against understanding the unit outlines and assignments rather than the actual content and courses, then there's a serious problem.  I've had the move, I've had Neko Nation AVCon and a month with no Neko Nation events and now it appears I've got the most busiest month of them all coming up.

University studies have proven to be so ridiculously inconsistant, with marks awarded for absolutely ludicrious reasons such as completing marketing surveys while some marks incredibly nigh-on impossible to get such as 4,000 word "tests" to be completed in a week filled with academic references.  I've studied at university before, I have had no problems with 5,000+ word essays and 20 minute presentations provided that you can plan your time and schedules which this course is far from giving us an option on doing.

As an end result, I've gotten sick, stress and tired, Neko Nation is likely to suffer with events being delayed which is a huge shame since even though a lot of work goes into these events, pulling off these events makes me incredibly happy.  If anything I look back on most of this year and I'm amazed at how much I've managed to achieve with the shows and involvement with Chinatown Harajuku no Yoko.  I'm looking forward to getting this uni work done since I've got a few new exciting challenges coming up which hopefully I can launch by the end of the month.

It's one month that has been hell but I'm hoping it will come to an end soon, the challenge of uni has proven to be a nasty one that I'm hoping to finally wrap up this weekend!

Neko Nation AVCon and beyond

It's finally been done, Neko Nation AVCon has come and gone and my god was it a huge epic massive show.  For those who went, massive thanks, there were a lot of you, from what I heard, we got 700 people there, so it was an absolutely amazing turnout!  This included interstate guests such as awesome J-Core producer, Noc.V, awesome Sydney, go-go dancers, Rachel and Mellie, plus plenty of awesome people who showed up, was absolutely amazing to see a whole bunch of new face as well as our regulars too.

On my end it was quite an interesting show, doing something at the convention was quite mindblowing due to the sheer size and opening up to the AVCon crowd.  We had a huge challenge setting up, believe it or not one of our biggest challenges was to just to find tables to put all the DJ gear on since we had so much and trying to get a table through the crowd was a nightmare but we sorted it all out and after that it all ran quite well.  It was probably one of the most tiring events ever, I was starting to fall asleep by 10pm, in comparison, our Melbourne show doesn't open doors till 10pm!

Neko Nation wasn't the only thing that happened and this year was my first year I got to fully check out AVCon and look bias of working for AVCon aside, it's by far the best con in Australia, it's slickly run, there's an overload of entertainment visually, stalls, cosplay, interactivity, gaming, panels, AVCon is a complex show and it's the only con I find myself kicking myself I didn't get to do everything I wanted to do, so mega kudos to AVCon.  I know the team work so hard and it's quite a fair bit ahead of all the other cons in Australia in terms of all the fun I had, although I'm hoping to check out SMASH since I heard it is up there in terms of the only major anime convention I'm yet to run.

I'm in a bizarre state of my life right now, I'm more or less coming down from an awesome convention, awesome friends leaving and getting back into all my uni stuff.  It's likely Neko Nation will be taking a bit of a back seat in my life for the rest of the year, things will pale in comparison to AVCon, since I think my biggest motivation is in terms of what I have achieved with Neko Nation and it's going to be hard to top AVCon but I feel like I could bring on some pretty exciting new shows and concepts, Perth has Maid Latte and Byte Nyte involved, Adelaide has Mischief the Cat playing and should be even more epic than ever this time around.

My new focus will be on uni, after weeks of dramu and being thrown into the deep end with my course, it's been tricky to stay above the surface after having moved house and thrown two Neko Nations this week.  To get through the end of this month, with the success that has happened is quite something, with that said, some pretty nasty shit has happened along the way and sacrifices have been made but nonetheless, I've survived it.

I'm looking forward to seeing what I can achieve with marketing and advertising, I absolutely hate how I must prove my skills, since I believe that success in the working world comes from applying experience and practical examples rather than trying to quote academic journals but I'm happy to take on the challenge and see how things go.  If all goes well, then I'm hoping to get two brand new non-Neko Nation events announced and worked on for later in the year!  ^^

Downhill in July

Heading into July I should usually be quite excited and over the moon, I've got two absolutely epic shows, one being the unofficial after party for SMASH, the other being Neko Nation AVCon.  It's been insanely hard to get motivation due to external factors in my life.

I've been slowly growing my paranoia about my work and feeling stress financially, a combination of less hours, bills and a centrelink application that is taking it's time.  This coupled with the fact that my uni application was sent two weeks ago and I'm still waiting for an official reply.  Keep in mind that this is to re-enrol and I've qualified on the basis of being a past student.

On the plus side, I've had some fun DJing at both Proscenium and Necromancy over the past month.  My experience with Proscenium was a nice practice and laidback in smaller environment.  Necromancy was a blast but sadly I was feeling very ill and my brain was clustering up a lot and while I've DJed on the back of feeling quite tired, it was obvious something was feeling right.  Besides that, it was definitely fun and I was quite amused that me and Scarlett had very similar DJing tastes as well, despite us only really finding out about our preferred music on the night definitely did make for some fun.  Definitely keen to give it another shot in the future, since I had a bit of a blast with going back to my industrial roots even if I was a bit rusty.

I've had a few new recent projects that I'm working on in the background, Nekobook is a bit of an interesting new one which I can't really say more about but basically it's basically about finally being able to give back.  I'm looking to get involved in setting up a new industrial event in Adelaide, I did a post to my blogger last night about this and I'm just immensely impressed at how behind this event everyone is.

Been trying to battle a bitch of a fever, just hoping I can muster up some motivation to actually get a few good events up this month, it has been tricky with how sick I've been feeling plus the Sydney event is a tricky one, since ticket sales are always going to be slow for an after party con, (people would rather wait till the after the con to head down).  Really just want to get back to university or find another job to really get myself back on track.  With that said uni is a bit frustrating that I can't really size myself against others but I know that when it comes to marketing but if I can get HD's it will all work out.

It's frustrating, I've got the ultimate catgirl and events working perfectly but it's all counterbalanced by work and study issues, if I can seriously get this all sorted my life will finally be perfect, if I was in Perth the latter problems would be fixed but realistically the problems would just be reversed.  Really hoping for finances to be fixed soon due to the ridiculous amounts of stress it's causing and the massive plans I have for 2013 as well too....

Adelaide Cyber Event 2012

There was a Facebook post today posted up about how there needs to be an pure industrial event in Adelaide.  While most people including myself were quick to argue that this wasn't a viable idea it didn't take long for the Adelaide Industrial Fans group to spring up and already attract 100 members, quite a decent amount all active and ready to go ahead and pretty much create an event.  This is one of the things I love about Adelaide, it's seems across the scenes you get such a great variety of people who are really supportive at trying to make things happen that doesn't really happen in other cities to this extent (Brisbane comes close), I seriously love the fact that Adelaide truly is a city which is focused more on the idea of an event itself.

Anyways, I decided to write this post as a bit of my view in regards to how I'd like to see this event go about and a few pieces of food for thought in regards to how to see this event go quite a successful way.

The biggest problem has been the popularity of the industrial genre, we've seen big booms over the past few years thanks to the rise and proliferation of the likes of Combichrist and Angelspit and continued it's boom with aggrotech thanks to the likes of Nachtmahr, Eisenfunk, X-RX, Psyclon Nine and Aesthetic Perfection are a few that stuck out but all booms must bust and this is one that has been going a bit downhill and one alone that can't be completely relied on for an event.

The event needs to go forward and adapt and evolve and I think another genre that has gone down a similar route has been Drum and Bass, this genre has boomed through the last decade thanks to the help of the likes of Pendulum in particular, especially for someone who grew up in the Perth rave scene!  This has been a genre that has declined due to the boom of dubstep, which while has stolen interest from many other genres, Drum n Bass has seen quite a decline and had to adapt by merging with dubstep events to get out there.  Pendulum even moved onto their new Knife Party project to ensure their survival.

I shouldn't say that this means the end of industrial or the need to sell out but it's simply a case of evolution, remember that at one point that goth scene evolved by choosing to take on industrial, a style of music that even today still has a few purists debating whether or not is should have a place in goth clubs.  So for industrial events here in Australia to move on and progress it needs to take on new genres to really give it more of an appeal, variety and interest.

Let's not forget that industrial isn't a unique genre on it's own, X-RX are heavily influenced by hardstyle, Angels on Acid are heavily influenced by psytrance, Eisenfunk's Pong was heavily influenced by chiptunes and so on and so forth.  We've also seen the likes of Cyberia in Melbourne embrace the growing popularity of electro and dubstep into their event which has seen amazing results for them.  So without a doubt branching on the growing popularity of EDM music would be a must for this event.  With that said, even Adelaide's EDM and rave scene is small and definitely not going to be the saviour to make this event truly work.

I think the key has to be in Adelaide's unique community aspect, I think I'd like to see an interesting variety of guest DJ's in, whether it's from the geek or rave scenes, just to try to slowly get some new crowds interested into the event.  I'd like to even consider getting those new to DJing into it regularly who are passionate about music, the industrial and goth scenes aren't exactly too fussed about top notch beat and key matching so spicing it up with some interesting new music and variety would also be a fun thing for these new people to brag about to bring more people down.  At the same time if possible getting a live act every now and then to make sure that the professionalism is there will highly help too.  Plus all this will ensure a great amount of variety too which I believe is one of the reasons why there has been so much interest in here too.

I would like to see it done irregularly and if possible to be insanely different everytime, I feel complacency would be the biggest threat to any sort of niche breakaway event, especially with the amount of excitement to pull of the industrial only event, constantly mixing things up a bit is important to ensure that it's not stale and that there is a curiousity factor for every event.  Whether it's through new DJ's and more importantly the variety of styles of music from the DJ's, the use of theming in particular the decoration, drinks and design of the venue and the event rather than relying on the attendees to dress up and involving some interesting and unique sponsors for prize giveaways as well.

I personally sense a strong challenge here, let's face it, it's the third goth event in a city where even two goth events feels a bit overcrowded in a subculture where the numbers are dying but there is a strong passionate team behind it who have seen a lot and have some interesting ideas, experience and strengths.  I don't know if it can be a regular thing or if it can be a big event but I think it will end up being a fun one if it goes ahead.

Adelaide cybergoths, it's time to shine soon, or is that glow?  XP

Neko Nation =/= Rape Culture

There have been people wishing to boycott Tokyo Hardcore because of their recent decision to stock Tentacle Grape.  This technically applies to Neko Nation, since it was actually my idea to bring in Tentacle Grape.  I'm absolutely mindblown that people feel the need to boycott us on what is such a trivial matter in my opinion, and this isn't the first time since we've had someone get upset over the Pedobear picture as well pictured below too.

First of all, I do understand the whole idea behind rape culture, it is a serious and important social issue that is relevant and I'm all for the ideas behind it to a reasonable extent.  Rape is a serious issue but so are the likes of torture and murder.  Saw has been a successful series that has spanned off 7 movies due to it's shocking, gory and disturbing torture sequences, the best selling games of last year were Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3, games that encourage and glorify death on a bloody war torn battlefield. Like rape, we often see torture and murder are trivialised, glorified and joked about.

The reasons why the like of gruesome torture movies and violent video games exist is due to the context.  We need to remember that these situations are highly unrealistic, to allow these scenarios to happen in real life would be highly sickening to all.  We also need to remember that these situations are highly unrealistic and while the likes of serial killers exist and are a serious and disturbing issue, you'll be hard pressed to find someone that claims that Saw would highly trivialise serial killers and in real war, there aren't any respawns.

This is why the whole boycott against Tentacle Grape is ridiculous, people are boycotting what is a highly unrealistic situation that would not relate to relate to real life.  The name is a play on "Tentacle Rape" a ridiculous scenario where a monster with tentacles will usually attempt to tie up a girl with their tentacles and then proceed to rape.  People are amused by that it is an unusual scenario and are buying into the product because of it.  Tentacle Grape is generally sold to anime fans that get this reference, so this is not a product stocked on regular supermarket shelves.  This is not bought by people who think that rape is amusing or silly, it is bought by people are amused by the whole idea of tentacles.

The product is targeted and being sold to a small niche market and I'm utterly confused that they feel they've done the right thing by boycotting businesses that trivialise rape via Facebook.  This is a highly weak strategy of trying to "support" a cause especially by targetting the small businesses at the bottom of the food chain.  Do you see PETA trying to protest against the local butcher?  Do you see gay rights rallies being protested at your local town hall?  No, they go for the bigger targets because it's the more effective targets.  There's a huge difference between actually trying to make a difference and being seen to try to make a difference, one only has to look at Kony2012, the most "supported" movement of 2012 with many millions behind the cause which made no difference.

The point I'm getting at is that if you are really going to do something for your cause actually, go do something that will actually effect or send a message to the top of the food chain.  You can protest, share and like all you want on Facebook but Kony wasn't exactly shaking in his boots on April 20th.  People need to actually donate your time, money, effort and talents into a cause to make some sort of serious impact which is not done by the keyboard warriors.

The reasons why this product is being sold is because people find the idea of tentacle rape an amusing one thanks to hentai released from Japanese anime companies, then there is also the fact that there are certain hentais in Australia that are legal which have tentacle rape in them.  This is what needs to be aimed for, I just see this whole campaign as protesting against one hentai joke rather than the actual root of where this all stems from a case of knee jerk reaction in trying to be seen to do something rather than actually doing something.

People need to realise that Neko Nation is not some major multinational wholesome corporate company.  Neko Nation is a small business that operates in a niche market that provides a party environment for those 18 and older.  This means that Neko Nation will try and connect with it's demographic (anime fans who like to party) by making communications with an approach that involves anime and is not necessarily family friendly and/or politically correct.  Neko Nation does not take the conservative route with it's messages and therefore might cause a select few individuals to be offended and misunderstand our messages but if you're not able to properly understand our messages and also view things light heartedly, then Neko Nation isn't for you.

Neko Nation does not take the conservative road try to play it safe to be inclusive of everyone.  We are here to do something different by including those who have felt excluded down this conservative path, think about how many clubs and bars will let you in with full cosplay and are willing to play music that is not RnB or house in Australia.

We are maintaining our decision to stock Tentacle Grape as for the select few who think that we are being offensive by possibly trivialising rape (and are highly unlikely to go to our shows anyways) is completely counteracted by the fact that most of our fans would realise that this is a novelty (tasty) harmless product (ignoring the sugar content!) that just a pokes a bit of light hearted fun at anime culture.

End Of Financial Year 2012

So it looks like I get next Friday off and can make it down to Chinatown Harajuku no Yoko, normally this would be quite awesome, sadly this also marks the first time I've been asked not to come into my work.  Getting a night of on end of financial year is a sign that my hours are really starting to trickle down at my work (in Perth it's been a bit of all hands on deck in past years), it's been a while coming but it's slowly starting to hit.  Heading back to uni was by far the right decision here. On and on the note of end of financial year, doing both me and Susannah's tax this year will be my hardest tax challenge yet.

It's been an interesting last week, having been catgirl-less (Susannah in Melbourne), I've had a pretty rough week, lacking motivation with my usual life but managing to chill out more and watching more anime for once, Asobi Ni Iku Yo being such an amazing anime that I enjoyed incredibly and definitely one of my recent favourites, in what's been a week I've been sleeping in lots, not getting much work and feeling pretty depressed.

It's getting to an interesting and nervous time since two of my big events are coming up, Neko Sydney will be interesting, it's a bit nerve wracking since afterparties are definitely a bit nervewrecking with how the last one went in terms of their unpredictability but I'm expecting it to be a really amazing show.

The big one is Neko Nation AVCon, I have to admit I don't think I ever imagined I'd see the day we'd be able to pull anything like this and of all the cons to be with, AVCon, by far the best anime convention in Australia (seriously, having been to a fair few around Australia, it blows the rest out of the water).  It's a big new challenge and I'm looking forward to getting this event all sorted out soon, the feeling of pulling this one off will be amazing.

Beyond that, I'm curious to see what the future brings, I've got a significant charity project I'm looking to launch next month to actually give back towards and work on possibly another new event but on a pretty small scale this time.

University is something I'm a bit nervous to be back in but hopefully I should do fine, I'm making the switch to Advertising and Marketing, it's something I'm a bit nervous about since, I've been feeling a bit weak compared to seeing some of the stuff the pros pull off but all I need to do is beat the people in my uni to get a job.  Last experience with marketing in university, I got 91% in my exam, plus I've been getting a lot of practical experience with the new direction I've been taking Neko Nation this year, so once I get into the rhythm of university I should be fine.

This month is proving to be a struggle against myself, battling depression and trying to make the most short bursts of positive and hyperactive energy to get through the days.  With that said, I just need a few smaller things sorted out and a few little victories to really get through the rest of this month and things will start to pick up.

Oh and last but not least, awesome fan art created by Khat too, mainly for my DJing page, especially since I've got Kawaii Loli Attack this week and Necromancy next, should be fun and something to look forward too!  ^^

Neko Tour v1.0

Doing the Neko Nation tour has been one of the most unique, intense and interesting experiences I've had in my life.  There's been a lot of hard work, tough times and even a relationship breakdown but it's been rewarding, meeting many new friends and visiting lots of amazing places.

Travelling around Australia has been great, I've enjoyed travelling to all the cities.  Being back in Perth was probably the most special moment though, since it had really felt like a bit of a homecoming and it seriously had changed so much in the time I had left, plus it was very chilled out being with old friends, watching Eurovision and taking it easy after what was a crazy tour.

My personal life suffered dramatically on the tour as me and Susannah had to deal with a lot more than we usually would thanks to lots of frustrating things that just haven't gone our way on the tour which has really tested us, in the end, as soon as we spent more than a day apart it was pretty safe to say that on my end I missed her and couldn't live without her.


The other thing I pretty much noticed on the tour was the whole Melbourne vs. Sydney thing.  I've had a lot of people tell me bad things about Sydney and lots of amazing things about Melbourne when to be honest I found the complete opposite about both cities.  I found Sydney to be a lovely city filled with lots of interesting and fun activities, it felt alive, there was a lot to do, even during the night and was definitely a fun highlight of the show.

Melbourne wasn't too bad this time but honestly that place still irks me, there were good people there but honestly with the exception of two people I would have no reason to ever return back to Melbourne both personally.  I've found putting on events in Melbourne to be more of a "glorified party scene" with a huge focus on attracting popular people than trying to attract people to your event by making it good and was honestly the last straw in terms of ever wanting to go back to Melbourne.

I found myself enjoying the company of lots of random people and new friends on the tour, especially Brisbane always throws up lots of new fun interesting people who love meeting us, they had this unique way of welcoming us and it's this interesting tightly knit community that love coming down and seeing our show.  MOS Burger and just something about Brisbane I feel like I could move or live here in the future, the weather is a bit extreme but I'm from Singapore and could easily adjust to it.

Perth I had a blast, it's a tightly knit community since we don't change our staff members much here since we've got a lovely community of people that I work and deal with at this place.  In particular I had a blast catching up with Tara, who was pretty much going through what I went through last year in terms of her long distance relationship and it was great to party with her as well.  Overall I had lots of fun and honestly Perth is an amazing show, we've got lots of video games, cheeseburger sushi, the biggest venue with the best lighting, DJ Equipment and it's a pretty much was one of my original goals when  was a lot younger to hold an event in Gilkisons and I'm glad we've become a regular there.

Just finished Hyper Dragon last night and it was a good event, low on numbers but launching a new event in Winter is tough due to sickness and cold weather, Hindley Street was quite abandonned.  With that said I enjoyed the new challenge of putting on a new event and the new DJ set I had to come up with was an interesting challenge as I've switched back from my 180bpm stuff, back to 128-145bpm range due to finding amazing J-Core DJ's on this tour.

Anyways, rushing to get all the Supanova promo done in time but for now, taking a nice day off, catgirl animes, Formula 1 and more blogging.

Adventure Time

It's been an interesting past few months.  After kick starting off the Neko Nation tour in Adelaide things have not slowed down a single bit in my life. With shows all around Australia including Brisbane last weekend and only Perth to go.  There's been no weekends off with Chinatown Harajuku no Yoko kicking getting launched last month and working at Kodomo no Hi Festival.

These last 2 months have taught me a lot and that I'm basically pushing my limits incredibly hard to the edge, I'm a workaholic and have no problems admitting that as my social life is an absolute wreck at the moment on having no time to see people and those times that I do I'm either too sick or working at social occasions.

This tour has been a blast and I've learnt a lot from it, it far from feels like repeating the same show 5 times over, each show is quite different, there's so many different people on board, different venues and different crowds, it's absolutely crazy, fun and amazing to travel around and do this.  While I'm glad I have the chance to do this, I'm proving that I'm not doing well to cope with all this.  Not only does the show involve a lot of work but that's on top of the store, my day job plus my new projects.

I'm now seriously looking at my future plans for the year and looking at dropping out of Tokyo Hardcore soon.  There's so much stress coming from here that it makes sense to start dropping my commitment out of here soon, especially with the number of hours going into it and myself not getting really much out of it in terms of personal satisfaction.

As such I'm looking to really need to make a move onto continuing my studies since my transfer didn't work out originally I'd like to give it another shot since I would like to start to get a proper career going.  Neko Nation and Tokyo Hardcore doesn't exactly pay the bills and the job that does isn't likely to last much longer, unless you all decide to throw away your Internet banking and embrace cheques again!

I'm leaning towards finishing off my commerce degree although looking at switching from accounting to marketing.  I think lots of people laughed and joked that I couldn't be an accountant and the path I'm going down is proving less and less likely to suit an accounting role.  In general, marketing has been the one subject I seem to be very highly obsessed with, I seem to be analysing so many marketing campaigns just for the fun of it, that I probably should actually consider doing this for a living.  I only studied marketing once and I got over 90% in my final exam and pretty much virtually dominated the class in terms of work and participation on all the optional work as well.  I'm pretty keen to go back to university and prove myself since while I don't miss assignments and exams I wouldn't mind giving it another crack.

I have intentions to finish off this year quite hugely and with a bang although for now, it's time to figure out how to get through this hectic month and let things quieten down soon as I work my way to recovery.

Neko Nation Brisbane - May 2012

Flying to Brisbane is always a fun experience, I was very excited for the Brisbane show, Brisbane produced our most successful city launch and this time we had a few more tricks up our sleeve with the likes of S3RL, Triex, more catgirls, sushi, lighting and sound, so it was going to be a very exciting show to put on.

The event turned out to be an absolutely amazing night.  It was a huge achievement to do things a lot bigger and better.  I've heard good feedback about the event which is good since I was a bit nervous it wasn't the case as this was probably the most stressful show on the tour due to constantly being needed all over the place, so I didn't really get to enjoy the event as much as I would have liked compared to other shows, however it does happen from time to time.

I stayed at a famous geek/party house in Brisbane and got to spend some time in the city checking out MOS Burger which served some nice burgers with amazing Japanese style service.  Benjamin did an epic job as a host for our time in Brisbane and I had an absolute blast.  Sadly it got cut short when I fell pretty ill the next day, the one downside about this touring is the glamour, travel, fun and adventure is also plagued with lots of hard work, stress and emotions, which has really caught up to me again, so I'm going to have to take it easy despite a crazy schedule ahead.

I had a blast in Brisbane, S3RL, Triex and Lacehunter in particular pulled off some incredible sets (while I struggled to pull off a set as well as I'd like too.  The massive conga lines and the absolutely epic dancing and crazy crowd that makes the Brisbane show so unique and impressive.  Now to get better and get ready for the next show in Perth!

March-April 2012 Updates

It's been a very interesting past month, I'm not heavily into the swing of things in terms of event promoting with lot been happening over the last month and the next month.

I guess the big things have been all happening in Adelaide here where I'm starting to really feel like a well known part of the anime/cosplay scene now with my work.  Neko Nation came and went last month and my god that was such an amazing night.  From my end, pulling off the December show to me was about bring true justice to pull off the concept in a huge new exciting way that was a bit more than a party that would be seen as a significant event, I felt like that I almost pulled this off in December but walked away thinking that there were just a fair few touches that needed to be done and I think the event in March was probably one of the first events I've walked away with very little I wanted to change, we hit 300 (which I now need to get a Boku tattoo for according to Susannah) and everyone told me they had a fantastic time, it was a great way to kick off the tour!

It was very odd at the end of it since usually the big push and drive comes from making everything better although on the plus side it did make me feel confident that I know that this is what I'm good at doing.  It continued in Sydney which was a really fun show, it was a new city, a tricky new place but the show went good and it was lots of fun.  Sydney had a very unique atmosphere due to the venue which we could never get at another show, it was also great to have fly over guests from Adelaide with Shyen, Jadeabella and Lemphek to have some nice familiar faces around.  It was a good show for them to come too since from our point of view we had a lot of fun putting on what was a much more raw and underground event than usual that really took me back to some of the events I attended when I was younger!

Sydney was seriously a massive weight off our backs, it took us a long time to come here since just getting the support and interest has always been tricky but Rachel and Herbie really helped support us this year and also James did last year too, the wait was worth it.  I also really enjoyed taking time off in Sydney, it's a really lovely place, nice huge city to explore, lots to do in terms of exploring and wandering around.

I had an interesting opportunity to do something quite different with Chinatown to help put on and promote the Chinatown Harajuku no Yoko, while I admit it was a bit tricky at first to get it organised due to delays with our busy schedules we finally all got the ball rolling, with Chinatown and the Adelaide City Council doing a massively epic job to promote the event on newspapers, radio and local and national TV!  I was really happy with the night since it's a bit tricky doing something a bit different and new but it was really nice to help out and do something great with the community which I hope to work more with these people and the general anime, cosplay and lolita community.  It's also just great to see Adelaide getting behind really great initiatives like this.  I often hear many judge Adelaide as boring with very little to do but the reality is when there is something to do, Adelaide does support it and I'm really glad to be in such an amazing and supportive city as Adelaide.

This weekend was Neko Domination and by far my trickiest challenge since Melbourne is a city I've always had personal problems with, everything always goes against me and the cosplay scene refuses to go to Neko Nation no matter how hard we try to get them to come along.  It honestly feels like My Little Pony in the sense where the main audience isn't who we think it is but at the end of the day, if the goth/alt crowd want to support it, then why not!  They usually do in our other cities but are generally out numbered by the cosplayers and anime fans but in Melbourne it's the opposite.

Interestingly enough Melbourne worked out well for us, we got a much better turnout than we expected and the venue was quite happy.  I struggled to DJ up there due to playing for 200 minutes and going all over the place but somehow I did it in the end.  I also have to give a massive thanks to Noc.V for simply just pulling off possibly the best Neko Nation set we've heard all year.

Overall life has been interesting, life has been tiring and looking to try to get some time off soon but I feel like I'm starting to really get somewhere doing something I really enjoy and quite confident I'm good at.  ^^

Inspirations and Demotivations

Work, work and work, what else is new?

Anyways, this week has been a horrendous struggle, trying to manage Tokyo Hardcore is proving to be such a huge challenge, it's time consuming, emotional and I'm getting insanely run down for little reward.  Basically I've hit pretty much breaking point with the business, since I'm feeling too powerless and less motivated with the business.  My understanding of fashion and the lolita community is never going to be anywhere near that of Susannah's and while both me and Susannah are in this together, the reality is I'm more or less going to go by her expertise and as such I'm losing motivation as I'm honestly feeling more and more out of control.  As such to remove myself from all the dramu and stress I'm probably going to play a day or twos role in support at most now with accounts, graphics and business analysis in terms of the stuff I do best.

In exchange, I'm focusing and moving all my work towards Neko Nation.  I'm aiming to put on a show a month at least, heck in May and July it's likely I'll be doing two shows in both those months depending on how all my plans go, with that said, June I'm taking a break plus around May, I'm expecting ANZ to start cutting my hours back significantly.

I've got an insanely busy month up ahead since I'm starting on the next massive project, the Neko Nation store.  If you've been into Tokyo Hardcore or saw our table at Neko Nation Brisbane you would have a bit of an idea what this involves.  However, this should be quite exciting since we're expanding massively and getting in lots of awesome stuff which I'm very excited about.

I've got a fair few other projects I'm working on as well although these are my main ones.

I'm hoping to work more with the Japanese community and try to actually give back where I can, I'm pretty happy I'm now in a position where I've had people asking me to help out and now that I'm intending to step back more from Tokyo Hardcore I will have time for this, the next one I've got lined up is the really fun Harajuku night happening in Chinatown hopefully this month.  Should be one epic night, I thought it was awesome enough that Adelaide had two crepe places and has an epic amount of cosplayers, geeks and anime fans per capita.

The other one is a bit of an interesting one, basically looking to trying to help out with the industrial scene.  I had an absolute blast last time I went out to an industrial night this year.  I actually miss the industrial scene a lot and there's always lots of awesome people I can really relate too and just have fun stomping the night away.  It's also an interesting thing because I would like to get to the point where I'm helping out by DJing but I don't really have the intention to put on events.  I miss being involved with events and helping out in a way that doesn't involve me having to manage a night.  Far from the end of Neko Nation, personally I would love to get out and expand into other areas and enter back an old familiar scene with new faces in a new city.  With that said, I wouldn't completely rule out ever putting on an industrial event.

Also looking forward to the getting the Neko Nation shop out there, since eventually down the line I get to fill another one of my projects I've wanted to do for a while.  ^^

Things are frustrating right now, very but things will eventually be healing up soon.  The latter half of the month has lots of good stuff happening to make up for it though.  ^^

Promoters - The False gods

I had a event promoter tell me that putting on events made them feel like a god, you got to make your own special creation that people worship.  They get excited about your event, they encourage others to get excited about it and hell they're willing to pay to attend your event.  Basically you're paid to throw parties, you get paid for it, you get popular and people love you, what's not to love!

It all gets to peoples heads at times in some sort of crazy god like syndrome which I've honestly seen many get too many promoters get carried away with, even the more famous and experienced promoters get too caught up into it at times.

After a while you can get into a position where you throw successful events and you think that every event you throw will demand worship and attendance but the reality is if you can't provide people won't be interested.  The Big Day Out was a perfect example of this, to pull of 20 years of festivals is an epic achievement and the recent line-up was considered sub-par and the worst seen in quite sometime.

Big Day Out made a huge mistake, in an age of social media where they had instant feedback from fans, saying that they weren't too happy with the direction they were going.  Big Day Out's response was that our line up was amazing and that people didn't give them enough credit for their line up choice in particular Kayne West, which they copped a lot of flack for.

This is one of the biggest problems I see in event promoting that people need reasons to go, that's why they're called promoters and they didn't give people good enough reasons to go and the picture on the right shows the end result in terms of the latest Big Day Out.  This is something that happens often with smaller event promoters, events need to be unique and different and need to get people excited about going to them, which I feel people seem to get a bit lazy with it worked last time.  Having a good name or track record definitely helps but at the end of the day people won't go to a bad event.

The other thing I've noticed is a need to be seen as invincible and that a show with few numbers is the worst thing in the world, ok, financially it is but promoters need to remember that it's better to put on a good show that few people attended, because at least they can tell their friends and grow the event, while the last thing I'd want to do is throw an event with lots of people which turns out to be really bad.  They think it's an insult to their promoting skills and their popularity, sometimes these things happen and it's good if you have a few hardcore fans out of an event, events don't need to be made for the masses but for massive enjoyment, if you're not doing this you shouldn't be putting on your own events.

I've noticed that people feel a need to cancel shows if the numbers are bad and to make up all sorts of excuses for their failures, that saying a "lack of numbers" is a sign of weakness or a bad event.  I honestly go against conventional wisdom and am happy to admit an event has poor numbers, an event has poor numbers and if I can't get a decent number of people I will lose money and can't afford to put that event on again.  By being honest with my crowd, people actually respect honesty and if it's a good idea people will encourage more of their friends to support the idea, they will actually tell me if I did something wrong or why people aren't interested, by being honest to my people, my people are honest to me, I can learn, improve and make bigger and better events in the future.

In comparison, I've seen all too often that promoters feel the need to make us excuses and my god it happens so much and they end up being such see through blatant lies.  This is not how you do things.  Promoters feel the need to cover up bad numbers and make up a reason to get out of putting on an event, it's horrible and disrespectful to the punters.  By giving people a reason, you've essentially telling people that your event is not worth going to because of a given reason, people lose respect for you to think that your event was all about one detail or factor, people won't tell you what went wrong, you won't learn how to improve.  Plus lets not forget, you're lying to your fans, you want people to trust that you're putting on a good event, how are people going to trust you if you've lied to them?

Overall these things need to stop, this is 2012, we are all connected through our Facebook's and event promoters have more tools than ever to get feedback for their events.  Promoters need to learn to see this as an advantage and treat this with respect and understand that people have their needs.  Feeling the need to feed to your god like worship is one thing but please remember, put you fans first, don't treat them like idiots and actually listen to them and give them what they want.

Onwards and Upwards

It's been a dramatic past few weeks but it looks like things are back on track, there's lots of ups and downs in business, my god the highs have been high and the lows have been low.  We've gone from the best month for Neko Nation with our most epic debut Neko Nation show which was our biggest one yet, to lots of stock problems which have been plaguing Tokyo Hardcore and giving us huge headaches.  Although to make up for the lack of stock, my god is the stock piling into Tokyo Hardcore over the next month.

It's been a case of how dangerous mixing business and pleasure can be, running a business with your partner in troubled times has put a strain onto us and has really tested us but we've survived and things are only looking up for now.

Both myself and Susannah have been planning out big plans across the next few months, which is exciting even though we've got some busy times ahead.  With Susannah scoring work with Pimp Pad, AV-Con and Luna Magazine all in the last month, she's going to be busy as hell, while on my end ANZ is demanding I'm in 5 nights in a row now, despite all the news in the media about job cuts.

It's a worrying time as I've been struggling to cope with my schedule, money has been very tight despite money coming in, I'm not really getting much in return.  I've been getting a chance to hang out and party more, it's not often and it's a tight squeeze but at least it's happening for once, in particular it was a lot of fun to hang out with the AV-Con people, it's nice to hang out with lots of busy people who kind of understand the sort of lives that we lead.

I'm also starting to realise how awesome a lot of people in my life are.  A lot of people have been supporting what both myself and Susannah have been doing, it's great to see that people are continuing to support something very different and unique in Adelaide and all of Australia.  I've met a lot of awesome people who have helped out with our shows and taken an interest in our clothes and our work has lead to meet so many people I've looked up to for a while and also lots of really awesome new people.

More importantly, I probably seriously never stress how much Susannah actually does for me, we rely on each other so much to get through life.  We work long days and nights, rarely get breaks, get very little reward for our work and the only thing that really gets us through the tough times and in our best times we have such amazing times and fun together.  I'm looking back at all the crazy adventures over the past year and it's just nuts to think we're working in our own store and throwing parties all around the country and having lots of fun in the process.  I still can't get over how pretty she is and how amazing she has made my life, I honestly never thought I would ever meet anyone like her and anyone that came close would have no interest in me but I'm glad that I'm still with someone well beyond my dreams and now that we've survived some terrible times together I'm looking forward to lots of amazing times together soon.  ^^