Happy 1st Anniversary, AsperJosh

It's unbelievable seeing how a year has passed after having creating something crazy and brave, that more than 7500+ people have taken the time around the world to take a look at what one guy with so much in his head to share. Their were doubts about this at first and now I've been blown away by the responses, Facebook likes and views that have followed on within a year already.

What a year it's been for me:
- I took a leap of faith and created the blog.
- I passed my driving test and then shortly after bought my first car.
- I turned 21 and celebrated with excellent company *Que Final Fantasy VII Victory Fanfare Theme*.
- Went to my first Festival - Download 2014.
- Saw Eminem Live.
- Saw Stan Lee at London Film & Comic-Con (only got his signature, no picture sadly).
- Went Fishing in Greece with Dad and some very close mates.
- Adopted 2 bro Kittens.
- Survived Skydiving on Sept 17th and raised £1,080 (now raised £1,160 by December 2014). I also did the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge... twice.
- Watched Lee Evans Live.
- Met Jessica Nigri at MCM Comic-Con October 2014.
- Made a descent amount of progress at the Gym and am now seeing it in myself.
- Had a blast at the Evans Cycles Christmas Do 2014.
- And enjoyed another wonderful Christmas but sadly succumb to cold/ flu on New Years.
I hope you've all had a dynamite year like I did!

Looking at the stats on AsperJosh's all time history is really pleasing and I'm even surprised to see what posts have been most viewed dramatically (I didn't expect Tomb Raider to reign supreme?!) 5CPS, Guardians and Eminem are always neck and neck to be the last at the bottom of my most viewed posts ha ha.

January has been an excellent start to the year even that post I did about Sleeping really cleared my head and since then things have been getting way better.
This week I have surprisingly been feeling confident and cool about things, I'm guessing it's due to having been added by 2 ladies through the MCM Comic Con Facebook Group back on Friday last week and after commenting on a picture of them either doing Cosplay work progression or agreeing with a status, I have suddenly been added by them and have already been chatting to them all and realise just how lucky and maybe even cool I really am deep down (not meaning to toot my own horn). These 2 ladies (who will not be named) have been really polite and made me feel so special, the fact that I can just be myself and chat to them calmly and I think smoothly ha ha, one lady in particular and I are even talking about meeting up before/ at May's Comic-Con! And just to add, the 4th lady is Rosie whom I helped with her unique work on Autism that I got to be apart of. Another lady ended up adding me called Rosie, she's local and I may even go see her sometime.

My Exercise progress hit the roof last Saturday when I managed to jog 9.40km round Horsham Park instead of the usual 5.62km.

OH... YEAH! Managed to go the extra mile after staying on 5.62km (3.49miles) for the last few months with Richard. And today I chose to go for 5 laps instead of 4 and it was so worth it. 9.40km (5.84miles) and in 53mins27secs. A new record, another lap and feeling exhausted after not stopping on the last 2 laps.
My reward is Steak & Chips

So looks like I'm preparing well for this year's challenge, The Tough Mudder. Just gotta get used to getting muddy *duh* and just keep believing in myself like the others are, and I'll cross the finish line with my team like a hero.
Richard and I just gotta keep at it, push ourselves and believe that when everyone comes together, we'll conquer this mission as a team!

Monday, was a feel good session in the gym session, I did a couple new things which payed off and I saw a couple familiar faces and even talked about planning future catch-ups with these people sometime.

Then on Tuesday, I FINALLY got round to seeing The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies with 2 good people. Here's my status from Facebook last night -  

And so ends another breath-taking fantasy series that's been so beautiful, epic and sensation (despite the fact I had tried and failed when I was 8). And then only 4 years ago, took LOTR on again and loved em to bits. Today I saw the ending to a dynamite saga, full of drama, epic battles beyond belief with an emotional outcomes. Someday I'll share my thoughts with all 6 films on AsperJosh. For now, I say. The Hobbit is amazing (quite different from the book and I loved seeing Billy Connolly too in the film!) but I finally got round to watching this epic conclusion... and I wanna see it again!

I am also looking forward to the Extended version to help fill in some small gaps for me and close this saga correctly and completely!

As for today as I finish up writing this exciting post, Kurt and I were supposed to be heading to the cinema to see that film we meant to see back on Saturday, Ex_Machina but I'm writing this up and he's trying to acquire tickets to see Ariana Grande, lucky bug*er. So rain check on that for us two.

Back on January 6th, I had a well deserved catch up with my best mate and bro, Lewis and we got talking about many things because we have so much to share (bromance stuff ha ha) and just chat random sh*t (as you do). He was telling me all about his new gf Lucy (whom I met back in December) and I think she's great and really perfect for him.

We even got round to finally swapping Christmas Presents that I had been waiting on since his birthday back on 22nd Dec. He got me a Gorillaz T-shirt from ThisIsPulp.com and I had already given him his presents - a Build Your Own Tech Deck for Christmas and for his Birthday, a PopPunk Isn't Dead T-shirt and small "Issues" album cover triangle sticker.
I also had some things I wanted to shout out to somebody (particularly him) after reading up some deep stuff on a subject that every body's bound to have watched and played at least once in their lives, Pokemon (YES, I still like Pokemon! :) It made me feel relieved and better that I got to tell someone who listens to me as badly as I listen to him (no, that wasn't sarcasm) and how just by admitting things in your head can help put your mind at ease again. He even recommended to maybe joining one of those Forums online where people chat about subjects, their may even be a food Pokemon one up there somewhere. Speaking of Pokemon, I aim to sometime this year write up either some reviews on the Anime/ Manga/ Games and possibly the films (I dunno) cause I have so much Pokenerd Knowledge swirling around in my head and have no one to share it with (don't you have maybe a personal subject matter that's classed as "childish" or something and you can only talk to some people about it?!). I'm glad that Lewis pays attention (thanks to his ADHD) like he did back on the 6th, it helped me relax again after having shared some spoilers (though he ain't into the series and films as much as me, but he does share my passion for the games and manga) and just by admitting some thoughts then it helps in that small way that actually means a great deal.

I actually wanna write up more Anime reviews throughout this year like I did with 5CPS such as one of my all time favourite romance and deep slice-of life Animes, Clannad + Clannad After Story, the internet cyber hack Summer Wars, the intense mecha apocalypse Neon Genesis Evangelion and the epic fight for humanities survival in Attack On Titan. I also wanna talk about some important films and games on my bookshelf that have meant a lot to me as well. This year, I'm also gonna share more personal stories such as my 4 school lives, some topics that I often think deeply about and what it was like the day I was diagnosed!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. What makes the Anniversary even more special is that today, I just received over 7500+ total views since the Blog began on this day a year ago, can you believe that?!

So what's next for me? So far, the only big thing next is my 5th Concert - Crown The Empire on February 5th with Rebecca (sis), Katie, Caleb and hopefully Dakota. There will be plenty of vids and lots to tell when that time comes, for now, I'll leave you with my 4 favorite songs that got me hooked onto the band, beware they are Metalcore!
Plus this year, I'm gonna knuckle down and plan more things rather that waiting for them to come to me such as considering the Macbook Pro to help me with ICT web design skills and get back into the routine to start learning from all my college notes again so that I can work towards a new goal and someday have a career in ICT (just gotta get that expensive piece of equipment first and chat to some friends who can recommend good software). Plus I'm gonna give a shot at online dating and see if that gets me anywhere and maybe I'll even get to see what love is and hopefully have a girlfriend this year too. And of course, continue the trainig for the Tough Mudder with the guys and once that's done things will deffinitely be less stressful than they seem sometimes. Most of all the sleeping will help the emotions and confidence build back up and help make me think more straight instead of worrying over things and making myself ill.

Machines was the first song (from their 2nd album) I discovered them by while watching Hands Like Houses - Introduced Species back in the beginning of September.

This was the second song I heard by them from their 1st album.

Bloodline is one of my favourite songs and the video came out back on Halloween.

Initiation is probably my favourite song by them and the song I'm most looking forward to seeing live!

So before I go, I just want to say thank you to every single one of you for taking the time in your lives to pop on (even if by accident) and take a read at what I feel like talking about. All of you, give yourselves a round of applause, fistpump or just a smile in knowing you made someone feel awesome and special and you all are awesome for helping me reach just under 3/4 of 10,000 and even by the Anniversary.
Have a good night, everyone and let's make 2015 another dynamite memory for the scrap books and enjoy every moment no matter how big or small. I know I am.