The Rise of the HFA
Has it really been a year? It seems difficult to believe that much time has passed since one of the most difficult and exhausting yet strangly satisfying weeks I have had in a long time. I feel like I have known all of you for so much longer, and I guess in a way I have.
So pour yourself a drink my lovely Stinquers, sit around the campfire and let General Homofascist spin you a yarn about the spark that ignited the explosion that hurled us travelers into this little corner of teh internets.
It all started on a Friday. I was bored at work (sidenote: what the fuck happened to having slow times at work?) and decided to hit Megan up on Google chat. We had exchanged emails a couple of times but had never spoken/chatted, so I figured I would check in and at least let her know how much I enjoyed her writing. But we got into a good conversation and soon she was letting me know that all was not well at Brand W. And it was during this chat that I received the following message at 4:19 CST:
Megan: i just got fired from wonkette
And with that, it all began. I posted on Brand W for people to write me, and over the course of the weekend I had 75 email address. I was seeing the real names of people I had known from comments, which at first was a bit surreal. After that I went and played with Blogger, and Homofascist’s Army was born. I spent the next 7 days doing nothing else, nearly ruined my relationship with Mr. HF, probably would have gotten fired had my boss not been on vacation that week. I was bringing my laptop to work because I created HFA using my homofascist1 account name (I didn’t know a lot about how integrated the Googles were) and needed to be able to be logged into both accounts at once. Well, and you may remember I posted some rather racy pictures, and I didn’t really want those on my work computer!
When Megan, Greg and Hunter decided to start Cynic’s Party, and invited me to contribute, I was very honored. And it was fun for a while. I guess in hindsight I should have known that I would not be a very prolific blogger. It was SO MUCH WORK. I couldn’t just whip up a few funny lines and post a picture. I didn’t really know what I was doing, and frankly I am not the best writer, and it took me a lot of time to do posts (you should have heard poor Greg trying to walk me through HTML). Once the outrage had settled from Megan’s firing, the words just didn’t flow the same way. That is the Aries in me – when the passion wanes, so does the interest. But when that passion is there, it is hard to find a better shit starter, and at the beginning the words just poured out. It has been fun to go back and read those old posts. Part of me wishes I could maintain that level of, if I do say so myself, kickass writing. But part of me is glad that I can’t, as I would do nothing else and end up killing myself from exhaustion.
Before I leave for Washington to watch what happens when teh Hope and teh Crazy collide (and have many drinks with Mellbell and SanFranLefty), I must thank everyone for their friendship and support and for putting up with my unnecessary punctuation in this past year. And apologize that I won’t be around much this week to share this with you all. I love where this has ended up, and could not be happier to have been a part of it in whatever small way. I have enjoyed getting to know so many of you, and if you are ever around The Windy City, I can promise you that the Chicago Stinque Crew can show you a good time. And to Nojo, thank you for stepping up and keeping this group together. You truly are Yoda, and I for one appreciate the amazing amount of work you do make this so much fun.
I was also hoping to get together with Megan in DC, but alas she is not returning my emails, so I guess that ship has passed. It makes me a little sad, but it is what it is. I think we are all in a better place now.
We few, we happy few, we band of Snarkers;
For he today that shares their snark with me
Shall be my
Wonketteer/Cynic Party-er/ Stinquer.