The 2018 New brew you. With fangs.

Happy new year and I bid you welcome to 2018. Here's hoping that this new set of 365 days is full of beer brewing, murderous rampaging vampires and crowds of people who gasp when you take off your shirt.

Cos that's how I plan to spend this new year...

Yes rather than give myself another 10 commandments of dubious achievementability to follow again (of which seven I'd forget within the first few days) to kick off this new gathering of the next 12 months, I've settled on three.

One I have no idea what I'm doing.
One I have a vague idea what I'm doing.
And one I've been doing on and off for a while but never taken that seriously.

So in order:

I've never done this before - Brewing my own beer 

DONE! READ BELOW

I've been a fan of the beer drinking stuff for as long as I've been legal to drink it (and lets be honest, a couple of years before that too) and last year I got back into the swing of having it in the fridge to enjoy and loved it so much, I kicked off another blog all about the foamy malty hoppy stuff. After a stonking 55+ brews reviewed. I figure it's high time to try my hand at making one or two of my own. (And if that goes well, many more after that.) Come crazy success or exploding setup failure, I'm sure I'll have plenty to write and blog about.

I envisage my setup will look even cheaper than this one.

It will be on a tight budget to start (I don't really wanted to spend massive amounts attempting to craft the perfect pale ale just yet) but already I'm investigating the bare bones setup that I'll need. I've got a big pot for the boiling already, now it's finding something to ferment it in and a cool place to stick it while my beer whips itself into something tasty. Currently it's summer in Queensland so some investigations into the coldest spot in the house are well and truly in order. And of course we'll need some bottles, so I better drink some more beers while I plan this attack.
Luckily here in Australia there's plenty of sites I can buy gear from and plenty of people on Gumtree selling up their setups. Operation brew you glorious bastard should be a lot of fun no matter what happens.

April Edit: I have finally brewed my very first beer over the Easter long weekend! Sure I made a few mistakes across the way (like not using a big enough pot for starters...) but it's brewed and currently fermenting, so we can cross this one off the list!
(See the brew day in all it's glory right here: A brew day dawning)

I have a vague idea what I'm doing - writing my next book

After the resounding success my previous books have had (enough to keep me in radio full time for the next million years..) I'm currently working on book number four. Completely different to my usual slap dash adventures and woeful attempts at DIY, this one will be horror based and feature 12 vampires so ungodly and vile that you just couldn't wait to impale them with the nearest stake looking object within reach.

By the end of it, you too will want to murder them all.

I really enjoyed writing and have no plans to stop now, even with my book sales going stagnant. I tried a sci fi one but couldn't get it to flow. This one seems to be tracking along nicely which is good, considering I've set myself a new personal best of at least 100,000 words. So I'm 5% on the way now of crafting a story featuring 12 vampires you couldn't help but run over with a combine harvester given half a chance. Around June would be nice to have it polished enough for release but we'll see how we go.

And finally, I have been doing this for a while but never taking it that seriously - getting into shape. 

I have a set of weights. I make very sporadic appearances on the fitness scoring app/service Fitocracy (you can following me if you like - I'm Almigo_V2). I gave away my old bench to save space on the removal truck but I plan on finding a new cheapie soon. I bought another kettlebell so my solo one could now have a friend. I loved the way I looked/felt/moved when I was working out with Secret Men's Business and I'd like to return to similar if not better form. I'm not expecting to look like a WWE Superstar at the end of 2018 (it would be nice) but in noticeable better condition than I started the year in would be a bonus. 

Something like this would be nice..

So it's a case of less pies, more deadlifts. Feel the burn baby!

And in a bit of housekeeping: 

I've installed/embedded a altcoin (cryptocurrency) miner as an additional revenue raiser for this page and all my stupid adventures. Basically it does nothing more than use a bit of your processor power while you peruse this site - so no credit card detail stealing, it won't boost your car, infect your computer with boobs or run off with your kids or anything crazy like that. You'll see what I'm talking about with the little green pop up that appears at the bottom of the screen when you visit this site. If you're fine with letting it run so I can earn some JSEcoins, thank you for the support. If you want to opt out, by all means. If you're a publisher/blogger yourself and want to try it on for size - you can find out more at jsecoin.com.

So, how's your 2018 been so far?