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2017 - What a year!
8 years ago
General
And yet another year has passed, so once again, time for my annual end-of-the-year review. Is this really the 5th one already? Holy fuck, time flies.
Anyway, let's get going. I'm gonna go through the year chronologically this time.
To be honest, the year had a slow start. January 2017 was a rather uneventful month for me. I guess the most notable thing that happened in January is that I started teaching piano, in addition to being a guitar teacher. My first piano student was my guitar student's younger sister, she's around 7. It definitely was a new challenge for me, especially since she has a rather short attention span, so it's not easy to keep her focused even for 15 or 20 minutes. It's getting better though. (Their mother started taking piano lessons from me as well, in September...and teaching her is obviously much easier.)
In late January, my brother and I bought a set of dumbbells. I started working out regularly in February, but unfortunately I ended up failing to stick to my routine when my new semester started again in April. I really need to get back to working out, I've gained quite a bit of weight again, and I'm eating way too much chocolate and junk food these days!
In early March, I purchased a vocal training programme, The Pro Singer's Vault by Phil Moufarrege. It was quite expensive, but turned out to be much better than any other vocal training system I've tried before. I actually got results, and my voice has improved a lot this year, after years of trying without significant success.
In late March, I went on a 4 day trip with several other music education students. And that of course means I took a guitar with me. I ended up already playing guitar on the train on the way there, and a few other students sang. It was really fun. On one of the days at the resort, we had an open mic night, and I played and sang my song "Show Me The Way". Together with several other students from my semester, we also played and sang "Follow Me" by Uncle Cracker. It pretty much became our signature song, and we even ended up singing it on the bus on the way back to the train station (for the train back home), but also on the train (with me playing guitar), and several other times at parties at uni.
In late April, I met up with a local ABDL/babyfur for the first time,
- who I literally had met (as in chatted with him for the first time) a few minutes after 2017 had begun. The first time we met, we just hung out, not padded or anything.
Later that same day, at judo training, I ended up getting my first ever commission for a composition! My judo trainer is also an artist, and wanted one of his works, an installation, to be accompanied by music. The whole thing was premiered in September.
About 4 weeks later, in mid/late-May, I finally managed to tell one of my best friends,
, that I had been crushing on him for quite a while. We ended up dating, I was incredibly happy. Unfortunately it didn't last long, we ended up breaking up after just about 4 weeks. It was much easier to deal with it this time though, compared to my previous breakups. I maintained a positive perspective, and the breakup inspired me to write my song A Glimpse of a Dream.
I turned 24 on 15th June. The present I got from my parents was going kart racing. I love motorsport, and karting is one of my biggest hobbies. We went to a kart track the next day, at Harsewinkel. It was my first time at an outdoor kart track, and it immediately became my favourite track. It's much faster than most other circuits I've been to, and according to their website, even the rental karts can reach a top speed of about 85 km/h (53 mph). A month later, we went to the same track again, this time my dad and my sister decided to drive as well. I was much faster than both of them though :P
I also went to a few indoor tracks throughout the year. In total, I went karting 5 or 6 times this year, more often than ever before. And it's always another reminder that I should get back to working out, I usually end up with sore shoulders the day after racing.
In August I ended up talking a lot to
again. We discovered a lot of new similarities about ourselves, which we hadn't even noticed back when we were dating. I can't believe it's been 4 years since I met him IRL...
On the first weekend of September, my commissioned composition had its premiere at an art exhibition. The experience was amazing. The feedback I got for the composition was 100% positive, and I even ended up making CDs for the second day. I sold 11 out of 15 CDs, so the exhibition even was a financial success for me (in addition to already being paid for composing). I also established quite a few contacts, and there's a possibility that I might get commissionsed again in the future.
In late September, I volunteered as an election helper in the German federal election. I enjoyed it, and when I counting ballots, I saw some pretty unique and funny combinations of votes... At the same time, I was quite shocked at how strong the far-right has gotten again. The AfD got ~13%, making it the 3rd strongest party in Germany now. I've generally been shocked by the rise of the far-right in several countries in recent years...
A few days after the election, I met up with
for a day, for the first time since our holiday together in Berlin back in August 2014. This time it was in the town where I live, he was on a road trip with his camper and there's a parking lot for campers in my town. Obviously we spent the day padded, he even changed me a few times :3
One of my favourite events of the year happened in early October, at my home village's annual village fair. The team Project 1 Motorsport from the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany was there, with a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 2015 model. I even got to sit in the driver's seat of the car a few times, at one point even strapped in with the racing seatbelts properly fastened. They're much tighter than normal seatbelts. I also talked to racing driver David Kolkmann quite a lot, got a lot of new and interesting insight into motorsport and racing.
I also found a new creative hobby/passion this year: stand-up comedy. My first set was at a music education party, as part of a concert by students from my semester, for the new first semester students. I was the only performer not doing music, but I enjoyed it. I've done four comedy performances so far, my most recent one was in mid-November, at a stand-up comedy show in Münster, where I go to uni. Generally, the show had a fixed/booked line-up, but they also allowed guests from the audience to go on stage for a few minutes if they wanted, and I took the chance. I was only on stage for about 3-4 minutes, but it was by far my best performance so far!
Also, in late October I met another local ABDL,
, through a Telegram group. We met up IRL for the first time 2 days later, and have met up a few times since then, haven't done any ABDL stuff together though.
In mid-November, one day after the stand-up comedy show I mentioned earlier, I met up with several other furries, including
and 
, from this region at a café/restaurant in a nearby town. I had met them on Furbase, a german furry website/forum, and we have a Telegram chat group. It was awesome, though the way back was quite a hassle, due to one of the trains I had to take being massively delayed (it ended up being cancelled). "Thank you for travelling with Deutsche Bahn...", or as we Germans like to say, "sänk ju for träwelling wis Deutsche Bahn" (same phrase, but with a ridiculously extreme German accent).
In late November, I met up with again, this time we even hung out padded, and watched an episode of Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears. Once again, it was really fun :3
And now we're in December. I went on a weekend holiday with a cover band I play in on the first weekend of the month, and it was enjoyable, but nothing special happened really. About two weeks ago, on 14th December, I had a judo exam, which I passed, and I now have a blue belt. Fits the colour of my fursona. I should draw a judo-themed picture :3
I also had a really nice Christmas. I got a Logitech G29 steering wheel, my first proper (and good) steering wheel for racing games. My love for motorsports also includes sim racing games, and having a good steering wheel setup really helps. The steering wheel has been mounted to my desk ever since I got it (late evening on Christmas Eve), and I'm reaching around it to type this.
Unfortunately, this month my grandfather's health rapidly declined. It's been getting worse for years, but earlier this month, he fell down the stairs (just a small set of stairs), and while he didn't sustain any significant injuries as a result, his overall health deteriorated massively within days. He's at a retirement home now, and just a shadow of his former self. He's very weak, and tends to be somewhat mentally absent. He only turned 81 recently, but it seems like he's aged 10 years within just 3 or 4 weeks...
There are still a few days of 2017 left, let's see what'll happen. If anything significant ends up happening, I'll update this journal.
To me, one of the most striking things about this year was how little I composed. I only wrote three new songs this year (one of which technically isn't a song, because it's an instrumental - my composition for the art exhibition). I did make a few revisions to other songs, and recorded a metal cover of Whip It by Devo for a contest, but didn't really write a lot of new music this year. I'll probably write a new song very soon though, I'm taking a class about songwriting this semester at uni, and we have to write a song for the class.
All in all, I loved 2017. It was an amazing year, probably even tied with 2013 as the best year of my life.
I've noticed that since 2013, the odd-numbered years were usually better for me than the even-numbered years. Hopefully I can break that cycle in 2018, and I'm optimistic. I'm definitely looking forward to 2018. Let's see what the future holds.
Hopefully y'all also had a good year. Here's to a happy new year 2018!
Anyway, let's get going. I'm gonna go through the year chronologically this time.
To be honest, the year had a slow start. January 2017 was a rather uneventful month for me. I guess the most notable thing that happened in January is that I started teaching piano, in addition to being a guitar teacher. My first piano student was my guitar student's younger sister, she's around 7. It definitely was a new challenge for me, especially since she has a rather short attention span, so it's not easy to keep her focused even for 15 or 20 minutes. It's getting better though. (Their mother started taking piano lessons from me as well, in September...and teaching her is obviously much easier.)
In late January, my brother and I bought a set of dumbbells. I started working out regularly in February, but unfortunately I ended up failing to stick to my routine when my new semester started again in April. I really need to get back to working out, I've gained quite a bit of weight again, and I'm eating way too much chocolate and junk food these days!
In early March, I purchased a vocal training programme, The Pro Singer's Vault by Phil Moufarrege. It was quite expensive, but turned out to be much better than any other vocal training system I've tried before. I actually got results, and my voice has improved a lot this year, after years of trying without significant success.
In late March, I went on a 4 day trip with several other music education students. And that of course means I took a guitar with me. I ended up already playing guitar on the train on the way there, and a few other students sang. It was really fun. On one of the days at the resort, we had an open mic night, and I played and sang my song "Show Me The Way". Together with several other students from my semester, we also played and sang "Follow Me" by Uncle Cracker. It pretty much became our signature song, and we even ended up singing it on the bus on the way back to the train station (for the train back home), but also on the train (with me playing guitar), and several other times at parties at uni.
In late April, I met up with a local ABDL/babyfur for the first time,
- who I literally had met (as in chatted with him for the first time) a few minutes after 2017 had begun. The first time we met, we just hung out, not padded or anything.Later that same day, at judo training, I ended up getting my first ever commission for a composition! My judo trainer is also an artist, and wanted one of his works, an installation, to be accompanied by music. The whole thing was premiered in September.
About 4 weeks later, in mid/late-May, I finally managed to tell one of my best friends,
, that I had been crushing on him for quite a while. We ended up dating, I was incredibly happy. Unfortunately it didn't last long, we ended up breaking up after just about 4 weeks. It was much easier to deal with it this time though, compared to my previous breakups. I maintained a positive perspective, and the breakup inspired me to write my song A Glimpse of a Dream.I turned 24 on 15th June. The present I got from my parents was going kart racing. I love motorsport, and karting is one of my biggest hobbies. We went to a kart track the next day, at Harsewinkel. It was my first time at an outdoor kart track, and it immediately became my favourite track. It's much faster than most other circuits I've been to, and according to their website, even the rental karts can reach a top speed of about 85 km/h (53 mph). A month later, we went to the same track again, this time my dad and my sister decided to drive as well. I was much faster than both of them though :P
I also went to a few indoor tracks throughout the year. In total, I went karting 5 or 6 times this year, more often than ever before. And it's always another reminder that I should get back to working out, I usually end up with sore shoulders the day after racing.
In August I ended up talking a lot to
again. We discovered a lot of new similarities about ourselves, which we hadn't even noticed back when we were dating. I can't believe it's been 4 years since I met him IRL...On the first weekend of September, my commissioned composition had its premiere at an art exhibition. The experience was amazing. The feedback I got for the composition was 100% positive, and I even ended up making CDs for the second day. I sold 11 out of 15 CDs, so the exhibition even was a financial success for me (in addition to already being paid for composing). I also established quite a few contacts, and there's a possibility that I might get commissionsed again in the future.
In late September, I volunteered as an election helper in the German federal election. I enjoyed it, and when I counting ballots, I saw some pretty unique and funny combinations of votes... At the same time, I was quite shocked at how strong the far-right has gotten again. The AfD got ~13%, making it the 3rd strongest party in Germany now. I've generally been shocked by the rise of the far-right in several countries in recent years...
A few days after the election, I met up with
for a day, for the first time since our holiday together in Berlin back in August 2014. This time it was in the town where I live, he was on a road trip with his camper and there's a parking lot for campers in my town. Obviously we spent the day padded, he even changed me a few times :3One of my favourite events of the year happened in early October, at my home village's annual village fair. The team Project 1 Motorsport from the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany was there, with a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 2015 model. I even got to sit in the driver's seat of the car a few times, at one point even strapped in with the racing seatbelts properly fastened. They're much tighter than normal seatbelts. I also talked to racing driver David Kolkmann quite a lot, got a lot of new and interesting insight into motorsport and racing.
I also found a new creative hobby/passion this year: stand-up comedy. My first set was at a music education party, as part of a concert by students from my semester, for the new first semester students. I was the only performer not doing music, but I enjoyed it. I've done four comedy performances so far, my most recent one was in mid-November, at a stand-up comedy show in Münster, where I go to uni. Generally, the show had a fixed/booked line-up, but they also allowed guests from the audience to go on stage for a few minutes if they wanted, and I took the chance. I was only on stage for about 3-4 minutes, but it was by far my best performance so far!
Also, in late October I met another local ABDL,
, through a Telegram group. We met up IRL for the first time 2 days later, and have met up a few times since then, haven't done any ABDL stuff together though.In mid-November, one day after the stand-up comedy show I mentioned earlier, I met up with several other furries, including
and 
, from this region at a café/restaurant in a nearby town. I had met them on Furbase, a german furry website/forum, and we have a Telegram chat group. It was awesome, though the way back was quite a hassle, due to one of the trains I had to take being massively delayed (it ended up being cancelled). "Thank you for travelling with Deutsche Bahn...", or as we Germans like to say, "sänk ju for träwelling wis Deutsche Bahn" (same phrase, but with a ridiculously extreme German accent).In late November, I met up with
again, this time we even hung out padded, and watched an episode of Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears. Once again, it was really fun :3And now we're in December. I went on a weekend holiday with a cover band I play in on the first weekend of the month, and it was enjoyable, but nothing special happened really. About two weeks ago, on 14th December, I had a judo exam, which I passed, and I now have a blue belt. Fits the colour of my fursona. I should draw a judo-themed picture :3
I also had a really nice Christmas. I got a Logitech G29 steering wheel, my first proper (and good) steering wheel for racing games. My love for motorsports also includes sim racing games, and having a good steering wheel setup really helps. The steering wheel has been mounted to my desk ever since I got it (late evening on Christmas Eve), and I'm reaching around it to type this.
Unfortunately, this month my grandfather's health rapidly declined. It's been getting worse for years, but earlier this month, he fell down the stairs (just a small set of stairs), and while he didn't sustain any significant injuries as a result, his overall health deteriorated massively within days. He's at a retirement home now, and just a shadow of his former self. He's very weak, and tends to be somewhat mentally absent. He only turned 81 recently, but it seems like he's aged 10 years within just 3 or 4 weeks...
There are still a few days of 2017 left, let's see what'll happen. If anything significant ends up happening, I'll update this journal.
To me, one of the most striking things about this year was how little I composed. I only wrote three new songs this year (one of which technically isn't a song, because it's an instrumental - my composition for the art exhibition). I did make a few revisions to other songs, and recorded a metal cover of Whip It by Devo for a contest, but didn't really write a lot of new music this year. I'll probably write a new song very soon though, I'm taking a class about songwriting this semester at uni, and we have to write a song for the class.
All in all, I loved 2017. It was an amazing year, probably even tied with 2013 as the best year of my life.
I've noticed that since 2013, the odd-numbered years were usually better for me than the even-numbered years. Hopefully I can break that cycle in 2018, and I'm optimistic. I'm definitely looking forward to 2018. Let's see what the future holds.
Hopefully y'all also had a good year. Here's to a happy new year 2018!
