I love doing these year-end recap blogs. I think everyone should do it since it really helps you look back on all of your accomplishments and kinda kicks you in the ass to do something even better next year. I haven't realized how much shit happened to me in 2017 until I wrote this article, so let's dive into this past 12 months of adventures and madness!
I rang in the new year all the way from the United Arab Emirates and got to watch probably the coolest looking fireworks show in downtown Dubai from my friend, Sam’s, rooftop.
New Years In Dubai.
I FINALLY went skiing for the first time ever. It was indoors in the middle of the 90˚ dessert in Dubai, but I still did it!
First time on skis, ready to go!
I ended up for an extended layover in Amsterdam where I saw this silly looking vehicle:
I broke up the cold winter in New York by going on a small skate trip with some friends to Arizona. We managed to play see-saw with a brand new C Class Mercedes but we also made an epic "salt bae" spinoff video entitled "Wheel Bae".
What did we do to deserve this???
Wheel Bae:
I got a little lucky on this crane game at Dave And Busters. I then turned into Santa Clause and handed out 30 stuffed animals to kids all over the store. I actually couldn't even find enough kids to hand them out to, so I ended up giving the remainder to the girls at the front desk on the way out.
Have you ever seen me so happy?
Air Asia wouldn't let me on their flight unless I wore one of their hats:
Looking fresh!
I did not crash my drone...my DJI Mavic Pro went into auto pilot mode and flew itself into a tree on our 2nd or 3rd day in Thailand. Once my buddy, Efrain, and I hiked to retrieve it from some billionaires house on the beach with armed guards, I sent it into DJI who refused to take the blame for crashing my drone. $400 and almost 2 months later, I got it back fixed.
Stupid DJI
I tried to eat a Sony A7SII. It didn't taste very good. Ill stick with chocolate cake.
Don't try this at home.
I was humbled to be named TIME Magazine's Man Of The Year:
I went to South Carolina to witness one of the most amazing things I have ever seen...the total solar eclipse. It was a truly unforgettable experience and I can't wait for the next one in North America in 2022.
Totality from the 2017 solar eclipse.
I had one of the most hectic weeks of my life covering the Life Is Beautiful Festival in Downtown Las Vegas with FlyNYON. I'm grateful to be around after this since a crazed gunman killed over 50 people the weekend after this at another music festival in Vegas. You can check out more photos and details about this trip here.
I briefly became Robo Camera Op Austin:
No lie, this mini Segway is soooo much fun.
I built this hybrid drum set for my apartment with a Ludwig Breakbeats kit and Roland cymbals and module. This is a huge improvement over my previous Yamaha electric kit and I feel like it helped improve my drumming a lot. Next year, I'm hoping to also have some sort of practice space for a full on acoustic kit in addition to this setup. I wrote an article on building this hybrid kit here.
Drumming...one of my lesser known hobbies that I love just as much as all the rest.
I haven't shot Super 8 film in years, but I was asked to document a wedding using nothing but film. It was tough and a little different than what I'm used to but I got it done!
A friend and I killed this 5 pound bag of chicken in 2 days:
Brought my blades with me 1,500ft above NYC!
Last year, I would've never guessed 90% of these things were to come in 2017. I love how random and spontaneous life can be and I'm looking forward to more of it in 2018. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
The year isn't over yet, and I feel like there's still more madness to come!