Wednesday, January 04, 2012

2011 Year in Review / 2012 Goal Checklist

First of all, apologies up front to Tim Connolly and Joe Van Ginkel for stealing their ideas for a year-end post, but they're both so good, I'm combining them into my personal story of the past 365 days.

2011: Year In Review
Battling through partial unemployment
When I started working at Universal Studios Hollywood in December 2010, the Grinchmas holiday season was just getting started, so work was consistent.  By the time we hit January, my hours hit rock bottom.  To say the least, it was difficult.  I had several interviews with places I wasn't too crazy about, none moreso than my interview with Luminance Marketing.  That was an adventure.  I blogged about it back in February...cehck it out.

From there, I managed to snag a part-time job at Madame Tussaud's Hollywood as part of their "Street Team." My duties? Meander Hollywood Boulevard handing out flyers to passers-by enticing them to visit the museum, saving $5 on admission.  Every coupon turned in would get me an additional $1 in commission.  I worked there for five days, ended up dumping a lot of my flyers with the tour guides along Hollywood Boulevard just to get rid of them.

It was during one particular shift that I received a call from another place I was interviewing with: Andrew Christian, Inc.  For those of you unfamiliar with the organization (and by my money, that's probably damn near everyone who's going to be reading it), ACI is a fashion house specializing in men's swimwear, sportswear, and underwear.  The upside?  The office was 30 blocks from my apartment here in Glendale, so a quicker commute.  I ended up getting the 40-hour, Amazon Data Entry position, ankling Madame Tussaud's in the process, and reducing my full 7-day availability at Universal to weekends only.  I only lasted there 8 weeks, before becoming super-stressed, and leaving in a blaze of glory.

Once I left ACI, I asked my manager at the park if I changed my availability back to 7 days, would I get at least 5 days through the summer.  In no uncertain terms, he informed me I would.  My unemployment woes would be over.  Averaging 35 hours a week through the summer, and close to 40 hours a week over Halloween Horror Nights helped me cement my position at USH, and even got me promoted to Shift Leader before this past Grinchmas season.  With Transformers coming in the Spring, and Harry Potter down the road in a few years, it doesn't look like I'll be going anywhere soon.

Becoming "Enterprizing"
When I came out to California in 2010, I was informed that we should bring our game show stuff to a gaming convention over Labor Day Weekend.  Plans progressively fell through over the course of those few weeks, and I decided to hold off until the next one, which would be over Presidents' Day weekend.  After learning everything I could about this "Strategicon" thing, I put together an 8-game lineup and we went on our merry way.  Little did I or any of us truly realize how big Strategicon events were.

We set up our equipment in one of the meeting rooms (Salons, as the Sheraton calls them...our Studio, as we call it), and proceeded to perform all weekend, treating it like any other Game Show Congress tournament.  The difference was that we had to explain the games that we were playing to the people playing them.

The first con went off very well, with the only hiccup being my projector failing in the middle of a game.  We decided then and there to come back to each Strategicon event (OrcCon for Presidents' Day, Gamex for Memorial Day, Gateway for Labor Day), and do more than just our game shows.  We filled a three-day schedule for Gamex with 8 more games in our Studio and about 30 board games for the Main gaming room.  We went from sideshow attraction to convention fixture by the end of Gateway, and had achieved a small fan base.

The first convention assisted us in getting our business, Home Game Enterprizes, off the ground.  We were invited by a convention regular to perform at a corporate conference for Oracle Development Tools User Group.  The plan was to set up like we usually do for a night of Family Feud, and a game we hadn't tried yet, Minute to Win It.  The conference planners couldn't have been nicer to us and our three-person team.  We had full access to the opening meeting (where we had to perform MTWI), including catered dinner, and early access to the room where we to perform Feud.  They also comped our hotel room in Long Beach, and paid us $1000 for our work!  Once Feud was over, they already invited us to their 2012 conference...in SAN ANTONIO!

The NEW love of my life
In January, my roommates and I were trying to get tickets to "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" to see the new "Doctor Who", Matt Smith.  I even went so far as to purchase a t-shirt from Woot! with a DeLorean crashing into the TARDIS (titled, "It Just Came Out Of Nowhere").  Before I moved out here in 2010, I even created a "Doctor Who" themed version of the card game, Fluxx.  As you probably can tell, my fandom of the BBC sci-fi series is big.

At the con in February, we finally had a break in our Studio action to visit the main gaming room.  My roommate Ben walked over to the volunteer table to chat with the con crew, then came walking back over to me and another roommate, Adam, to say, "There's a girl over here with your shirt."  My reply? "What are you talking about?" Apparently, there was a girl at this con who was a bigger "Who" fan than I was, even having the same t-shirt as me.  I met this "Amber" girl, introduced myself, told her about my Fluxx variant, and invited her to play.  About a half-hour later, she came over to our table, and played two games with us.  After the gaming was over, I pitched an index card across the table and asked for her information.  We proceeded to game for the rest of the night, and into the next day, leaving as newfound friends.

A day or so later, she posted on her Facebook wall that she wanted to either see "Rango" or the new Nicolas Cage movie.  I posted moments later that I had discounted AMC tickets from work, and would be willing to go with.  Plans proceeded to change over the course of the week, and we ended up going to Ben's improv show that Friday night.  At 2:27 that morning, we decided to become official (by updating our Facebook statuses).

Amber and I have now been dating for over 10 months.  Every day we're together, I best my own record.  Three failed relationships in the past, and many more unrequited crushes are now history.

So, all in all, 2011 has been an up-and-down year, but overall, I'd give it a 7 out of 10.  Good things came out of it, even if it did have a rocky start.

2012: My Goals Checklist
I'm not big in making New Year's Resolutions.  Instead, I have decided to set a list of goals to meet in 2012.  I'll use this blog as my online diary, tracking my progress in meeting said goals.  They are, in no particular order:
  • Have $5000 in my Savings account
  • Be 100 lbs. lighter
  • Have my credit card debt paid down or off, or be expunged in Bankruptcy
  • Have my student loan debt paid on, or be expunged in Bankruptcy
  • Get my Ohio University class ring
  • Get 2 more corporate clients for Home Game Enterprizes
  • Sell 1 Ineligible Productions game show concept
  • GO BACK HOME FOR A FEW DAYS!!
  • Get a cheap car (probably Tim's Mazda)
  • Get on another game show (hopefully one that I can actually win money)
This post goes out to everyone who helped me through 2011, and will be with me through 2012.  You know who you are, and you're too many to mention here.