Because You Demanded It - RTOTD #793

Day 793

So I've decided to let my hair grow again. I'm kinda getting that itch to have long hair again. I know a number of you ladies are already squeeing "yay!" in anticipation. You've been asking me for like 2 years now when I was going to let it grow back. Now you have an answer.

Just figured I should let you know. Give you something to be excited for on an otherwise dreary day. Well, in another year or 2 when it's down past my shoulders again and you're always asking if you can play with it.

You're welcome.

But I think it's also time that the beard becomes less... fuzzy.

And yes, I'm still suffering some severe writers block/lack of motivation on pretty much any topic. Hence, you're being subjected to me rambling about changes to my personal grooming.

Oh... and thanks to those of you that came out for HATE Weekend. This might just have to become the new standard practice. With us turning it into a weekend-long event instead of just a simple party. I'm kinda loving the HATE theme, but we need to see more hate at HATE.

To be honest, I might want to consider doing something slightly even bigger with HATE next year, and I kinda want some opinions and input on it, as well as checking the interest level.

So here's kinda my basic "I just came up with this and haven't fleshed out a single detail  yet" outline for the future of HATE. I kinda want to make it into a thing. Not just a house play party. I'm thinking at a venue. I know a couple venue owners/managers that might be open to the idea, but I haven't approached them yet.

I also know and know of a handful of DJs and bands that might be interested as well. But again, I haven't talked to them.

I was thinking a 2-night thing with an option for something during the day. I don't know yet what the something should be though. The thing is, if it's an event at a place with things and entertainment, it might need to turn into a "pay for it" event instead of a "help me keep my liquor cabinet and beer fridge stocked so bring booze or snacks" event. And I don't know if that'll turn people off from it or not.

As for what to do during the day... that's where I'm really fucking stuck. Classes are... meh. Every event has classes to some degree, I guess. But unless they're limited to some niche serious-pain-inflicting thing, I think classes for a thing like HATE might be kinda fucking dumb. I also know that some of my ideas for other types of classes that are more like panel discussions and Q&A stuff for artists/musicians/artisans/etc doesn't fit the theme either. At all. That's something I want to do for some other kind of thing that's more geared towards a mix of Comic-Con meets Shibaricon, only on like 1/10 the scale. If even that.

Maybe just classes on how to go full-on psychological warfare mode on your play partner might be fitting for something like HATE? Or nothing but really sadistic shit? Topics that scream "I kinda might wanna kill you right now" because we all have that line between love/hate with our significant others and it could be an excuse to let out some of that pent up aggression.

I don't know. I'm just throwing shit at the wall right now and seeing if anything sticks. I don't even know how committed I am to even doing that. I guess that depends on response though.

My normal philosophy when it comes to throwing any sort of party is to just throw the party that I want to attend and fuck everyone elses opinions. And it's worked out pretty well so far, right? Other than idiots that somtimes hit other peoples cars. But that's only been twice and thankfully, nothing fucked up (that I know about) happened on Friday. But for some reason, with this one... I just can't quite figure out what it's missing. I know there's a missing element here, but I just don't know what it is. So that's my question for you...

What would a HATE theme event be in your head? What would it look like? What is missing that takes it into some next-level shit territory besides the obvious? What is something that you've seen at something else that just screams to you "hey, we should do this at a HATE party"?

So yeah... that's all I got today. Back to the word mines. I am making virtually zero progress on the 2nd book right now. I have the stories that I want to tell in it... well, most of them anyway... but I'm just not really getting in that zone for writing that makes the words flow and the jokes work just right.

Maybe I'm just lacking the ability to really engage my brain box entirely right now. It would explain why I can't figure out what the fuck the daytime portion of a HATE event would look like as well as my pseudo-writersblock all at once. Fuck it. I'm gonna go read a book or something. Or maybe even actually do work... at work.

Growing HATE - RTOTD #779

Day 779

Because I don't find a way to confuse you fuckers often enough, after some discussion with @CarmelizedGinger, I realized that HATE needed to grow.

For those of you that aren't local or are just readers that don't really know me, HATE is the annual UnValentine's Day party that I came up with last year and my roomies and I throw. I know it's kinda cliche to throw an anti-valentine's day party because fuck Hallmark, but it's still fun. And while I'm certainly a contrarian to the Nth degree, sometimes doing something cliche is just plain easier.

Long story short was that last year was the innaugural HATE party. It was killer. And we wanted to do it again. The problem was that the weekend before, there was already a birthday party scheduled that a number of my friends had already planned on going to. So I was left with the weekend after.

That's when it got complicated. I powered up the laptop and was about to get to making the event on Fet when I see that not 15 minutes prior, another birthday party had been scheduled. For the same night that I wanted to throw HATE. I was bummed.

After a little discussion, we decided that they could host HATE this year. We would combine the birthday party with the HATE party and hold them together at the same venue. A party within a party, if you will.

The problem was that we didn't anticipate the kind of interest that HATE had. Everyone that wasn't already going to Winter Fire in DC wanted to come. Ruh Roh! We were going to need to turn people away. And well, that's just generally not my style. When I throw a party, I want to go big. I always want to go big. Bigger than last time. Bigger than what other people do. Just. Plain. Big.

So while the idea of turning some people away and scaling back HATE was really the only option because of space requirements, I came up with a better solution. Make it BIGGER. Don't mess with the plans for Saturday night, but fuck it... we have a whole WEEKEND to spread and celebrated HATE.

So the solution was actually pretty simple. Make it into a whole weekend-long event. But split the venues up. One party Friday. One party Saturday. Keep the Saturday plans the same and limit how many people could come, but throw ANOTHER party on Friday to get the HATE started sooner. And my roomies & I would handle hosting duties for the Friday portion of the party.

Now, let's just see how many people can figure this shit out without getting it fucked up and going to the wrong place on the wrong night.

So let this be a lesson to you when you want to throw a party or event

There are no obstacles, only challenges.