Views From the Back Row: April 2010

Thursday, April 29, 2010

April Showers HNT

Don't really have much to say. It's the end of April. I always like April. Spring springs in April. Lots of friends have birthdays in April. April was always music festival time in the school districts I taught in. Easter is generally in April. The Masters is always in April. The doldrums of winter seem to fade away in April. Even April snow storms don't seem as bad.

As the month comes to a close, the chance to take an April shower is quickly passing by, so here you go. I haven't done a shower picture in awhile. And it answers last week's question, too!

There's supposed to be an incredibly hot Mystery Guest here who is also celebrating her birthday today. The fact that you're reading this means that there was some sort of mix-up. She might get something to me late, so be sure to check back. I don't think you'll be disappointed, based on prior pictures from her!

This one's for the old-timers out there!

I usually get Mystery Guest pictures ahead of time so that I have a chance to go look for a song lyric or poem or quotation that's somehow appropriate for the picture or the MG or their blog. I don't have time to do that this week, since she was late getting it to me (that damned real life always screws things up). So, off the cuff, let me say this about our birthday girl--it's been a pleasure to be able to stay in touch with her for at least four years now. One of the benefits of being around HNT for its almost-five year existence is getting to "meet" literally hundreds of bloggers. A vast majority of them have gone on to other things--either dropping HNT or the entire blogging experience along the way. But every once in awhile, someone from the old days will pop in to be the MG, or they'll send something for OHNT. This MG is one of those. She's a fascinating woman, even though she's gained a reputation as being "the cat lady". During her heyday in the blogs, she wrote about horses and her hubby and sex and cars. She still is passionate about all four! I don't believe that more than a handful of you could possibly know who she is, but I'll reveal her later today (Thursday), along with a hint about where to find more of her! Happy Birthday to one of my all-time favorites! Don't be working too hard today!
This week's birthday girl/MG is the lovely Leela Lamore! Any of you remember her? You can find her over the previous three weeks of OHNT, too (look for the blades of grass)! And if you can't get enough, she was one of the HNTers featured during the HNT 3rd Anniversary Bash (find the button over there in the sidebar). She will probably be the last of the birthday MGs for awhile.

Be sure to check out "...the Other HNT" this week. A lot of submissions this week! As usual...NSFW!

I won't make an official theme alert until next week, but be aware that the 5th anniversary of HNT will be coming up in mid-May. Look for details about what's planned!

Be sure to ask me some questions in my formspring box over there in the sidebar. You can even ask anonymously if you'd like!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Recap, Boobquake, R.I.P., Spring and My Hip Mom

Well, I suppose an opera recap is due, since I've pretty much been away for the past 10 days or so...

All in all, the production came off swimmingly. But not without much tension and anxiety. Which is generally the norm. The only major glitch was with the subtitles (the English text was projected on a screen above the singers). We made a Powerpoint slideshow with over 1300 slides. About halfway through the second act, the woman who was running the slideshow must have slipped on a button or something, because instead of dialogue, we got the Powerpoint edit page. The woman was oblivious to this until another staff person came to help out. All in all, there was a five minute gap in the subtitles. It was all a bit Keystone Kops-ish. But those onstage continued on without knowing what had happened, and nothing important to the plot was missed, so all was good.

A long 10 days, and quite exhausting, but well worth the effort. Next year we'll do "Madame Butterfly"!

I was too busy to promote it, but I'm sure that most of you heard about "Boobquake" that happened yesterday. The first thing I'd heard about it was on Rush Limbaugh, of all places! Then it showed up amongst the Facebook crowd. If you're interested in finding out the results of the great experiment, you can find them here, from the woman who came up with the idea!

I just read that Sony will discontinue the production of the floppy disc. I'm sure that many of you have never had the enjoyment of having to sit at your computer, waiting to switch floppys just to load a little 3MB application. Or needing to use a handful of floppys to store your meager photo collection. Or using floppys as currency. R.I.P., oh mighty discs. Good thing I have a USB floppy drive!

Among the many things I missed over the past week and a half was the arrival of Spring in Montana. Many of the trees are blooming and most of the lawns are at least beginning to turn green. All just in time for the snow & rain that's expected tonight through the weekend...

I don't think I shared this on my birthday, but the following is the exact text (including the lack of capitalization) I received from my mom that morning:

happy bday luv u m n d

My mom is so hip...

I've gotten some interesting questions over there in the formspring box. Feel free to ask anything. Anonymously, even!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

What's Opera, Doc? HNT

Short and sweet...
No time to play this week.

Going along with the theme of the opera...but without the straight edged razor. The question remains...did he or didn't he?

Wish I could still drink like a fish.
Someone feel free to shoot me and put me out of my misery...

No bday MG this week (but Happy Birthday to ~~two~~ three of you out there!).

Happy Earth Day, too! Go plant a tree...

OHNT is up.

Ask me a question over there in the Formspring box.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

I'm at the barber...

Having just gone through the weekend's rehearsals for the opera, I can pretty much guarantee that you won't see much of me until after next weekend. Something will go up for HNT, but I'm not sure how I'm going to manage that... And it looks like I'll have to hand over the keys to OHNT to someone else, but hopefully you won't even notice a difference.

As for me, my title for this little opera (Barber of Seville) is production manager. However, insert any/all of the following, and you get a better idea of what I have to do:

Fireman - putting out fires before they get out of control. We've already had to deal with three.
Slave Driver - we're putting the singers through more rehearsals than they are used to, because we're putting it together in a week.
Supreme Court Justice - technically, all complaints/problems have to come to me, and I get to use my Solomon-like wisdom to make a decision. We'll see how well that goes.
Cat Herder - I have 7 guest artists, 12 chorus singers, about 46 orchestra members, 1 conductor and 5 production staff members to keep on task.
Security Guard - all visitors, press, and others not directly involved with the show have to check in with me. Unfortunately, I don't get to strap on a sidearm.
Timekeeper - I get to be the hardass to pull the plug when rehearsals hit their scheduled end time. Not everyone is going to like that.
Truck Driver - still get to drive the truck, but that's not so bad. Loading and unloading and making deliveries is still a pain in the butt.
Administrative Assistant - self-explanatory. Unfortunately, the administrator I'm assisting is myself. On the up side--I'll have my computer with me at all times, and there's a rumor that there's wifi I can pick up, so if there's any chance at all for me to get online, I will!

There's bound to be more job titles to be added as the week gets under way. I'm anticipating Diplomat, Gofer, and Janitor at the very least. I refuse to be Chauffeur though!

Hope you all have a good week! Click on the YouTube links a couple of posts below this one to listen to what I get to live and breathe for the next 8 days!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Old School HNTs HNT

I got a pile of pictures from my mom earlier this week. She must be cleaning things out of the credenza. Not just pictures of me, but going back to her parents as kids. And my sisters. And general 'back in the day' pictures.

I love going through old pictures. I always have. I spent countless Sunday afternoons pulling out old picture albums from that same credenza when I was growing up and getting utterly lost in them. Remembering the events of the pictures I was in, or imagining what it was like to be in a picture that had my grandparents as youngsters. I've always had a curiosity about things like that.

So as I went looking through this new collection of pics that she gave me (most of which I was quite familiar with), I started looking for half-nekkid ones, because I knew full well that I wouldn't have time to come up with a picture for this week. So here I am in my half-nekkid glory, all before 1965! Enjoy!

If you haven't noticed, the Mystery Guests since mid-March have all been birthday girls. This week isn't any different, and the trend should extend through April! This week's MG has gotten a much bigger birthday tribute from me in the past, and if it weren't for the lack of time to put something fresh and new together, she would have gotten one again this year. She's a much different person than she was at this time last year, and unrecognizable from the woman she was two years ago. Not physically, of course, but her personal growth. She's grabbed the bull by the horns and is beginning to live the life she deserves. Is everything peachy? Of course not. But she's able to face them in a much better manner than in years past. She's sort of been absent on the internets over the past few months, though she said she'd probably have something up tomorrow so you can leave birthday wishes, in case you know who this might be! If you don't, she'll be revealed on Thursday afternoon and you can do it then! Happy Birthday, babe! Wish I could have done more...

Not a big mystery for most of you. The Mystery Guest this week is my very favoritest birthday buddy M. She didn't get a post up for you to leave birthday wishes, but I imagine that most of you have found a way to do it anyway!

There always seems to be a letdown after a "big" event for OHNT (like last week's anniversary celebration). While the numbers aren't as big, the quality is still great! Lots of comments left last week, too! Keep it up! I know that they appreciate it over there! As usual, NSFW!

Go check out the adventures of the OsShirt! The last sighting of OsShirt v2.0 is up now. OsShirt v3.0 should be making its appearance by the weekend over there. And you might be able to find it out amongst the HNTs today, too!

Got a question for me that you're just dying to ask? Go to that box over there in the side bar and ask anonymously! You might get a surprising answer!

'Tis the season. When 3 of the 4 major US sports leagues overlap their seasons. I cannot begin to express how completely apathetic I am to that. When does football start again?

OOH! Speaking of football, I just heard that former NFL QB Ryan Leaf (aka the biggest washout in the history of the NFL) was sentenced to 10 years probation and fined $20K as a plea agreement to a handful of drug charges in TX. I only mention this because he grew up playing high school football just an hour north of here in Great Falls. The Unabomber, the Freemen kooks, the U.S. Capitol shooter and now Mr. Leaf. Yes, the state of Montana is once again proud.

Oh, yeah. It's my birthday today, too.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

It's mid-April. How did that happen??

I think I'm going to keep my template like it is for now. I really like that background shot and don't want to clutter it. It's the view from the tee of the 16th hole at Augusta National. And the hole that so many championships have been decided on. (If your screen resolution doesn't allow you to see the full picture of the pond, do a "view background image". It's almost surreal!)

Rehearsals for the opera have started, and the tension is beginning to mount. We're over-budget, the full rehearsal schedule has not yet been determined, and I face 14-hour days at the theater for all of next week. But that's about par for the course. We're doing Rossini's "Barber of Seville". Much of the music would be familiar to most of you. Clips of the music (thanks to Warner Bros.) can be enjoyed below (at 4:54 in the second clip).

More opera stories to come later, assuming I can get to my computer at all...

April 13th, and it snowed ALL DAY. The really wet sort of snow, and temperatures that couldn't tell if it should be snow or a really cold rain. I'll bet things get really green around here this weekend!

I pulled an all-nighter Saturday night for no good reason. I got into doing some paperwork for symphony, then checked YouTube once or twice, and next thing you know, it was almost 4 AM. Decided at that point to just make a full night of it. Maintained fairly well on Sunday, but my ass was a-draggin' on Monday! Haven't pulled an all-nighter since driving non-stop to see Moose in Minnesota about 5 years ago! I'm too old for this anymore!

Anyone have a winning lottery ticket they'd like to give me?

Friday, April 09, 2010

Fra-jee-lay: A Major Award and other things, including bullets!

This is how busy it's been for me this week...I spaced out that the Masters is this week! So the quick thoughts on that:

Good for Tiger! With all the crap focused on him over the past few months, and the golf media's messianic coverage of his return, he showed that he is still the #1 guy on the course.
Still don't like him though.
Freddie Couples, Tom Watson and Phil Mickelson at the top of the leaderboard after Day 1? Priceless!
CBS rolled out it's first live 3D broadcast coverage for this weekend. Wish I could see what that's got to look like!
Check out the Masters website. Pretty impressive this year.

Thanks to all of those who participated over at "...the Other HNT" yesterday. We had 31 posts. Not the 40 I had hoped for, but pretty darned impressive! A wonderful mix of photos, and some great starts for some newbies. Four years--who'da thunk it?!?

I got an email yesterday afternoon that I was going to just ignore, but then I got chatting with a friend about it, who encouraged me to write about it. But that got me to thinking. Which is often a dangerous thing. So I'll write about the thinking part first.

I may piss some people off with this, but I haven't done that in awhile, and it seems that it's currently in vogue. It has to do with sexblogs. And sexbloggers. I'll just come right out and say it. A vast majority of you who think you're sexbloggers--you aren't. Regardless of how many people think that you are. There is a big difference between blogging about sex, and being a sexblogger. I find that I'm not alone in this view, though not many people would rock the boat over labels. So here, with a nod to Jeff Foxworthy, are my views:

If all you do is post naked pictures pulled from various sites off the internet--you are not a sexblogger.
If all you do is post naked pictures of yourself, particularly in some sort of weird fetish or kinky situation--you are not a sexblogger. (But they can be interesting.)
If most of your posts are about you having sex, whether real or fantasy or erotica--you are not a sexblogger.
If you occasionally write some sort of "review" for some sex toy you've received for free--you are not a sexblogger.
If your site only updates for your HNTs--you are not a sexblogger. (But we do appreciate the direct access to them.)
If your site mentions your sexual conquests of the weekend, whether it's with or without your spouse, and then you write about your kid getting an "A" on his/her spelling test in the next day's post--you are not a sexblogger.
If your site makes an incestuous "Top Sex Bloggers" list (which is more of a popularity contest) in which 90% of the sites listed fit in the above statements--you are not a sexblogger.

"So Os", you might ask. "What constitutes a 'sexblog' to you?" Glad you asked:

A good sexblog is much less personal (though not totally devoid of a personal touch).
A good sexblog is written with some research prior to writing.
A good sexblog presents current discussions about sex and sex-related topics.
A good sexblog is someplace I'd turn to if I were looking for discussion or answers.
A good sexblog will give many links to supporting and dissenting views and opinions.
A good sexblog will often link to advertisers, but rarely will review for those advertisers.
A good sexblog will often promote sex-friendly events on local and/or national levels. And many times with personal insights.
A good sexblog will often times be quite devoid of any sort of naked pictures.

"OK, Mr. High and Mighty. Who do you think among us is a sexblogger?" Well, I'm not so dumb as to actually list those who I think are and especially who aren't, but I would make special mention of Figleaf. For my money, the best sexblogger amongst "us". Edited to add Shay over at The S Spot. Great place to get questions answered. And contests! A couple of what I would call the New York sexbloggers would make the list. Two or three others, maybe, but that's about it. It's not to say that I don't enjoy reading everyone who thinks they're a sexblogger. Nor do I think those people should change what they do. But I just have to snicker when I see someone refer to themselves as a "sexblogger" just because they fuck a lot then write about it.

And what brought all this on? I received an email Thursday afternoon, excerpts of which are:

"I have some good news for you: your site Views from the Back Row has been chosen by Í´≈Ïø®µß.com Editors (not really their site's name) as a 2010 Best Pick! I'm the Editor-in-Chief of Í´≈Ïø®µß, which since 1998 has been one of the world's largest online adult communities."

"We began scouring the web for the best, finest, funniest, and most informative adult sites and blogs. I'm happy to inform you that your site Views from the Back Row was chosen by our Editors to represent the very Best the Web has to offer."

*Eye-blink*
*And again*

Have these people ever read my blog?? In almost 5 years of blogging, the closest I've come to discussing sex are the posts about my slut girlfriend bird fornicating with any bird that comes calling out on my balcony (more to write about there, too!). Unless talking about symphony moves, diabetes and whatever other drivel I type out here constitutes sex.

"You may claim a recognition badge for your site. Our badges are a mark of distinction..."

Uh-huh.

Apparently, if I put up their badge, I'll be recognized as having a Sexblog (an award winning one, too!). I'll be the place where tens of thousands of others will come to read my wisdom and such on such thought-provoking sex topics as Grizzly football, OsTour trips and my medical condition. Well, you know what? I don't want it! I am not a sexblogger. This is not a sexblog. I am fully aware of that. The friend I mentioned at the top made the comment that there's plenty of people out here that would kill for such recognition. Which is probably true. And which is what got me to thinking about "sexblogs". I figure there's plenty of you out there that think you have a real sexblog. At least as much so as mine is. So my badge is up for bid. It's a commodity I'm willing to sell to the highest bidder. Just be sure to send a nekkid picture with your bid.

If I want to reject my inclusion (which implies I'm already included), I'm supposed to email directly to the Editor-in-Chief. I think I'll just let them come by and read it here themselves.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Tired, Tired, Tired HNT

I've not been sleeping much recently. Like, over the past few months. Not insomnia, but because I just haven't been going to bed at a decent hour. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been to bed before midnight since the new year. And probably on two hands the number of times before 1:00AM. It seems like 1:30 is the time where I decide it's time to hit the sack. But deciding, and actually getting there are two different things. I've seen the digital clock hit 2:00 far more than I should.

So what's keeping me up? Not really sure, but I do know that many of you are up at that time of night too. Which is worse for you, as most of you are in an earlier time zone! Sometimes I'll get a chat or two in with you which will keep me up. Sometimes it's that "one more round" of favorite blogs/sites, or one last check of email. Because, Lord knows, it can't possibly wait until the morning!

I'm not sure how some of you do it. In my case, I get to sleep in later than most, as I don't need to be at work until 10:30-ish. But since my hospital adventure, I'm up before 8 so that I can take my meds and eat breakfast. A necessary evil that I have to keep on track. Fortunately, I no longer have to worry about hangovers to interfere with my mornings! I also have the opportunity to sneak in a nap before dinner, but not always. So I put it back on you guys...how do you last day after day on so little sleep?

I have to do something about it, I know. I had one of my sisters, her mother-in-law, and my mom each separately make a comment over Easter that I looked tired. Apparently, it's showing. Our last concert of the season is in a couple of weeks. We're doing a full opera. I'm the production manager, meaning I'm "the" guy. I have to keep schedules on track, find props, coordinate everything, and be the guy to take the blame when something goes south. A role I do and will enjoy, but I'm going to have to buckle down and get my sleep in the next 10 days, because I won't be able to function without it.

So here I am, in all my tired glory, and in the place where it's most notable. I'd take a nap right now, but I have OHNTs to get posted...

April 7th

Posh Spice - b. 1975
Jack Black - b. 1969
Russell Crowe - b. 1964
David Frost - b. 1939
Ravi Shankar - b. 1920
Billie Holiday - b. 1915
Kurt Cobain - d. 1994
Henry Ford - d. 1947
P. T. Barnum - d. 1891
Farm Aid IV concert - 1990
Willem Klein mentally extracts 13th root of a 100-digit # in 29 sec - 1981
Today's MG born - 1972
Supreme Court strikes down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material - 1969
Oklahoma ends prohibition, after 51 years - 1959
Mussolini's Irish wife breaks his nose - 1926
Nebraska introduces 8 hr. work day - 1891
France declares war on Venice - 1509
Attila's Hun's plunder Metz - 451

As you can see, April 7th has been an important day in history, but none moreso than in 1972! Come back on Thursday to find out who/why!
This week's birthday girl/MG is the lovely Carnalis! Her bday was actually yesterday, but she's still taking bday wishes. And you can see more of her knickers!

Four years ago this week, eight ladies took a plunge and sent in the very first pictures for "...the Other HNT". My, what a far way we've come! Of those original 8, only one still does HNT (and is doing OHNT this week!), and that's only occasionally. One has presumably died, a couple do Facebook now, and one or two still blog to some degree. It's an evolution in both HNT and OHNT. People drop out, others take their place.

Those first ones took a huge leap at the time. HNT was still fairly tame, though some had ventured into exposing a breast or a bare behind. OHNT was started because, as people had outtakes from their regular HNT pictures, they had some more risqué ones that had no place to go. Today, the reasons that people do OHNT have changed. Some look at it as a place to do a series of pictures from their regular pictures. Others take an extra "naughty" picture just for OHNT. Yet others will submit only once in their life, sending in something so "unlike" themselves that no one could possibly believe they would do it. But I think the majority of them do it because it's fun, safe, and anonymous. Is it for everybody? Certainly not. But it's an outlet that is available.

Some numbers/facts:
-Prior to tonight's posting, there have been 2,o23 OHNT posts.
-The most hits in one day: 12,000+ (20,000+ if you include the next day).
-Most individual OHNT posts: can't say for sure, but it's either the young lady who sent one in every week of 2008 as her New Year's resolution, or the other one (what? you expected names?).
-Number of photos I've censored: 2 (see the 'no fluids' rule down below).

Have there been problems? Of course. There were some particularly nasty comments awhile back. There are still guys who send in some gross shots who don't even know what HNT is, but happened to run across the site somehow and decide they needed to display themselves (Polt--I might send them all to you for a bday present someday...). I eventually had to institute the "no fluids" rule. I think that one speaks for itself. And of course, the over-the-top comments from a few. But in general, people have been pretty respectful over there.

As of this writing, I don't think I'll hit the 40 submissions I had hoped to get for the 4th anniversary. But that's OK. What we miss out on in quantity has been made up for with quality. A number of people notched things up a level for this OHNT. And a couple of newbies stepped to the plate for the first time. I won't be adding captions for most of them this week, as there's still quite a few of them, and I've got no time to be witty today. Be sure to stop by and support and thank your fellow HNTers! They'll appreciate it! Hopefully we'll get to do this again in a year!

Oh, yeah...it's NSFW!

The latest adventure of the OsShirt is posted. Almost to the end of the adventures of OsShirt v2.0. Look for OsShirt v3.0 to be coming soon! NOTE: The OsShirt just got back from a vacation in Vegas and Hollywood! Check out the pics here!

And make use of that Formspring box over there in the sidebar. Ask me anything! Anonymously even!

Monday, April 05, 2010

Weak post today...

Gee... NCAA championship, WWE Raw, or TNA Impact! So many choices tonight! I doubt I'll watch any TV last night. I will make my official prediction that Butler doesn't stand a chance against Duke, though it will be a surprisingly close game. Duke will win by at least 10 points, though. Remember--you heard it here first!

Did the family thing for Easter. That was nice. Hope you all had a nice weekend too!

Found myself possibly involved in a pissing match with someone online. No one that any of you know. I didn't want to do it, but I got a FB message from this person, and it just couldn't be ignored. Hopefully it's over, but I have a feeling that I might have opened up a can of worms...

I hope you enjoyed my April Fool's post! It was interesting to see what the reverse translation was when I moved it back to English! Many thanks to those of you who commmented in a different language!

One of the things you might have missed was the PROGRAMMING ALERT! This week marks the 4th anniversary of OHNT (are you KIDDING me??). Last year, for the third anniversary, we had 30 people submit something. I'd love to get it to 40 this year! So if you've ever thought about it, this week would be a great time to do so!

Go leave me a question over there in the white box in the sidebar.

New adventure of the OsShirt goes up tonight. Be sure to check it out!

Thursday, April 01, 2010

April Fool's HNT!

It is time for this April Fool to do what he can on April Fool's Day ... learn from the best! Hopefully none of you gets pranked too hard!

"There are moments to indulge and enjoy, but I always know when it's time to go home and wash my knickers."
--Kate Winslet

"I have loads of underwear, but only wear the bras because I never wear knickers."
--Katie Price

"I'm always the girl at the party who, within five minutes, has taken my heels off, hitched up my dress in my knickers, and probably spilt drink down my cleavage."
--Sadie Frost

"A little of this. A little of that. It usually ends up with something about my knickers.... A sometimes cheery, sometimes cranky, sometimes amusing, sometimes absurd, sometimes clever, sometimes dramatic, sometimes intense, sometimes bitchy, but always Sassy kinda gal."
--Mystery Guest, 03/30/10

Look for the reveal of this week's MG on Thursday! She celebrated her birthday (which seems to be the new trend for MGs at the moment) on Tuesday. If you know her, stop by and wish her a belated Happy Birthday!
This week's MG/Birthday Girl is Sassy, over at "Knick-Knacks and Knickers". Stop by and wish her a belated Happy Birthday! And tell her how good she looks in the OsShirt!

Some great pictures at the "... Other HNT", despite the fact that it's smack dab in the middle of several spring breaks and just before Easter. PROGRAMMING NOTE ... - Next week will be the 4th anniversary of OHNT! If you've always thought about sending something a little more risque over there, or it has been awhile since you have, feel free to do it! Last year there were over 30 participants to celebrate the 3 year anniversary. Let's try for 40 next week! As always, it's NSFW!

New post on the continuing adventures of the OsShirt. I'm almost caught up, up to disappearance of OsShirt v2.0. Mid-May is my target date for getting everything . Be sure to check it out!

See white box over there in the sidebar? Use it to ask me anything! Anonymously, if you want! There's been some good questions so far ... keep them coming!

For those of you who celebrate... have a Happy Easter!

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