ROCKSTAR HNT

Let us consider the life of a ROCKSTAR. From the very beginning. From the first time our ROCKSTAR pokes its toes into the water of life. It's a shy creature. Insecure. Not knowing that soon it will, indeed, become a ROCKSTAR. The ROCKSTAR makes some friends early on, with similar insecurities, but all developing their skills. No one really knowing how they're going to turn out. But as all creatures do, these ROCKSTARs show incredible growth spurts. As time goes on, and the ROCKSTAR becomes more self-assured, there's some rebellion, but the ROCKSTAR finally hits the big time!

At this time the ROCKSTAR is now making friends with all sorts of other ROCKSTARs, many of whom had never been heard from before. All of a sudden, there's lots of ROCKSTARs! Of course, not everyone likes what the ROCKSTARs are doing, so they critique and ridicule, and basically act badly. Fortunately for all, the ROCKSTAR lets it all slide, as it's just words and part of the game. The whole "any press is good press" thought. And after all, much of the press is quite good.

By now, our ROCKSTAR is at the top of their game. The ROCKSTAR has matured into a solid cultural phenomenon, and not just a passing fancy. Various ROCKSTAR copycats and wannabes pop up. While a couple of them have a decent shelf life, none of them can really compare to the life of our ROCKSTAR. The ROCKSTAR lines up some tours, and there's some collaborations with other ROCKSTARs. The ROCKSTAR is getting invitations to appear all over. Life is going well, but not without mid-life crises. The ROCKSTAR realizes that, in spite of its popularity, it's not necessarily the greatest ROCKSTAR around. There are others that can, and regularly, outperform the ROCKSTAR. But they take it in stride. For as many groupies our ROCKSTAR has, they are groupies themselves. There's an inherent appreciation amongst all for each other's work.

As the ROCKSTAR gets older, they continue to produce, but notice that many friends have departed. Many have gotten out of it. Many have gone on to other things. And some have even died. The ROCKSTAR, however, continues to be popular to continuing new generations. And while other ROCKSTARs have come and gone, ours is still plugging along, and enjoying life to the fullest.

But at some point, our ROCKSTAR decides that it's time to hang things up and call it quits. While they're still somewhat popular. Retirement will give the ROCKSTAR time to reflect, to start new projects, and to bask in the glow of a life lived well. No reunions or special appearances. The ROCKSTAR is done.

An odd story for HNT? Perhaps. But now go back and plug in the letters 'H-N-T' for the word ROCKSTAR. If you haven't figured it out before this point--HNT is going into retirement. Permanently. This is a decision that I haven't taken lightly. In fact, it was about nine months ago when I first thought about announcing it on the 6th anniversary. You can read my thoughts about it on that particular post. Frankly, I think I knew back in May that even if we kept going, there would be no HNT in 2012. There's just no compelling reason to keep it going.

The official last HNT will be the last Thursday of 2011, on December 29th. That gives you six weeks to work on those last few ideas that you might have swimming around in your heads. We will still have the Christmas themes (see below), but on the 29th, that's your last shot for HNT. It's official. I won't be changing my mind. But you can pretty much guarantee that I'll be waxing poetic about some things during that time! Announce it on your own sites if you like. Lord knows there are plenty of people who don't check in here anymore, yet still post HNTs.

I prefer to think of this as a celebration. A retirement. On to bigger and better things. Osbasso isn't going anywhere! And to each of you ROCKSTARS, congrats!!

And GO GRIZ!!!

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"Up with Montana, boys, down with the foe,
Good ol' Grizzlies out for a victory;
We'll shoot our backs 'round the foeman's line;
Hot time is coming now, oh, brother mine.
Up with Montana, boys, down with the foe,
Good old Grizzlies triumph today;
And the squeal of the pig will float on the air;
From the tummy of the Grizzly Bear."

Not that this week's Mystery Guest is that much of a mystery, but come back Thursday afternoon to be sure!

GO GRIZ!

Of course, this week's MG is the lovely Gucci! The lyrics above are to the Grizzly fight song. Something I'm sure she'll be hearing over and over on Saturday as the Griz crush the Cats!

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Lots of nekkidness over at "...the Other HNT", some of it quite NSFW. Be sure that if you stop by, you leave some comments, OK?

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Ashly Star is still taking donations for U.S. Marine Corps Reserve's Toys for Tots program. You've read in my previous posts all about this. If you haven't clicked on the button here or the link to help her out, then you should do it now!

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A different sort of pimping here... Some of you will remember Evalee from the old days. Since quitting HNT, she's gotten herself hitched, had a baby, and is enjoying the "quiet" life in the plains of Alberta. She and her husband decided to try for a sibling for their baby Maggie, which failed at week 16. Several months later, as it was difficult to get pregnant, she found out that she has Premature Ovarian Failure at the age of 31. Basically, her plumbing is on the fritz. After weeks of options and discussions, they have decided to try in vitro fertilization. Unfortunately, Canadian health care will pay for this option, so they are in the process of of raising money. A friend of theirs raised some money by putting their plea out on a website, so they figured they should give it a shot.

Their website is "When the Second Time Is Harder Than the First", and you can read about their plight and progress here. Time is running out due to her condition, so please at least check out the site and decide if you can/want to help. I haven't heard if the top donor gets naming rights for their child, but I sort of doubt it. If you want to help, there's a button on their site to make it easy too. It's that time of year when we should be helping others. Can you help here?

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Theme Alert! - As mentioned above, we'll still do the Christmas themes next month as follows:

• Dec. 15th - Christmas Tree HNT
• Dec. 22nd - Three Christmas Wishes HNT
• Dec. 29th - Final HNT

I'll post details by next week, or you can check out the archives to see what we've done in the past! GO GRIZ!