The Final HNT

Every Thursday for the past six years I have been posting half nekkid pictures of myself as part of a world-wide blogger phenomenon. No, the pictures weren't always risque nor did they always involve some sort of half-naked state; but the posts were often about revealing myself in some way shape or form even when no additional skin was being revealed.

That has been part of the wonder of HNT. People participating in it have continued to interpret the HN in HNT in various ways.

For me, it has been a great thing to be forced to post a single themed blog post each week. Even on "blog dry" weeks where I wasn't able to chisel out some time to toss some thoughts into the blogosphere, I always found time to HNT.

I'll miss it. I'll miss the people. Yes, part of the weekly ritual was visiting as many other HNTers as you could to see what they were revealing. In that manner it was an incredible community building experience. Through HNT, I developed many friendships that continue to last, and I've even had the great fortune of meeting some folks I met through HNT in person. I'm pretty sure that, as time passes, I'll meet more friends that I originally connected with through HNT.

Why?

Because, it might have started between a small handful of blogger friends back in May 2005, but Osbasso has created a truly remarkable phenomenon that will last well beyond this "Final HNT" post.

Osbasso collected together a special "Farewell HNT" in which he asked a group of us, many of whom have been in HNT from the early days, to either come out of retirement for one last horrah, or to offer up a pre-scripted HNT post.  They all appear at HNT Finale for history's sake.

My final HNT post, the official one, appears there.

For that post, I used one of my favourite HNT pictures (the ad hoc "unmasking of Darth Tater" that turned into an entire series of a goofy adventure in which my son and I battled Darth Tater and his Clone army) - In the last year, I returned to a "re-write" of the original tale, and it was almost as much fun the second time around -- though, admittedly, I was in "edit" mode, trying to fix some of the previous storyline and make improvements on my prose and some of the bad attempts at humour.

You can read the whole zany storyline by starting here. Or if you prefer unrevised history, it was originally posted on Jan 12, 2006.

I also included my very first HNT post - a shot of my "Spooky Eyes" boxers. This was originally posted on October 27, 2005. In it, yes, I flash a bit of skin, but I also do something I'm rather fond of doing (and have done shamelessly on this blog for years) - I mention a forthcoming book signing - yes, it's often about the self-promotion for me, isn't it?

But I'll tell you the reason I went with these old classics is that I had trouble trying to picture what my LAST HNT picture would be.

Maybe because I wasn't quite ready for HNT to end . . . maybe because I didn't want it to end.

And, being the constant rule-breaker that I have been, I'm not entirely sure this will be my last HNT post.

Who knows.  We'll see.

To all the friends I have made, to the entire community of HNTers, I wish you one last fond Happy Half-Nekkid Thursday. Hope to see you around the blogoshere and elsewhere.