horklog

The term “h0rk” has many meanings… I’ve heard the term used to describe clearing one’s throat of phlegm, eat something quickly, or the sound a cat makes when coughing up hairballs… but for the purposes of this discussion, let’s use the old high school slang for “grab” or “steal.” Because that’s pretty much what my version of link-blogging was all about. I would appropriate links (sometimes even attributing them to the source!!) and post them here for you to enjoy.

In the past, horklog wasn’t really about writing stuff. I created a lot of agitprop and funny remix photoshops, or added a pithy/snarky comment or introduction to various links… but that was about the extent of my creative output. h0rklog was mainly about aggregating other people’s creativity in one place. But that was the old h0rklog. I’m gonna be writing/creating more in the current version.

As for me, who I am, etc… well, I’m trying to be somewhat anonymous, because let’s face it… the intarweb is chock full o’ nutjobs (he says, without a trace of irony).

I found this out firsthand when I created firelavin.com, a website devoted to removing Steve Lavin, men’s basketball coach at UCLA back in the late ’90s. And anyone who visited the previous iteration of horklog (2004-2005) will remember that I was extremely critical of the Bush Administration, so-called “conservatives,” military-industrial types, closet authoritarians, etc., at a time when it wasn’t very popular to criticize those things.

In both cases, along with a lot of positive attention and kudos, I got a lot of downright scary negative attention. Insults, spam, DOS attacks, even death threats. Some people are just infuriated by web anonymity: the idea that some random person out there is holding an opinion they don’t agree with, and that person can’t be hunted down and punished.

So my identity remains a moderately guarded secret. It’s just less of a hassle that way.

SIDEBAR: after a huge firestorm of publicity — mentions in the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register, interviews on Southern California Sports Radio stations, and serving as the inspiration for hundreds of “me-too” fire-the-coach websites — I took firelavin.com down, mainly because I didn’t want to be remembered as a guy who got some other guy fired. A few years later, I let the domain name lapse and someone else bought it and re-started the site. Eventually Steve Lavin was fired (but don’t worry, he has a lucrative commentator gig).

What else? I used to be pretty cool. Back in my student days, I played guitar in bands, acted in a low-budget movie, was a disk jockey, and interviewed luminaries like Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan (God knows what kind of damage I could’ve done had there been an internet at the time).

Today? Not so much. I’m essentially a dried-up, faded old has-been… geezerhood hit me like a ton of bricks. What little creative juice I have left is piped directly into the bloodstream of a large construction firm in the DC Metro area. Every once in a while, though, I manage to make some noise.

Back in ought-five, I was sortofa superstar on tmbo, an invite-only group of nerds, techhies, writers, artists, musicians, photographers and photoshoppers internet junkies (halfhearted attempts to recapture that glory have failed miserably). Some of my agitprop creations are still making the rounds. I also created the most awesome Windows desktop image evar.

And let’s not forget, I coined the term Douchebag McFucktardâ„¢. That’s gotta count for something.