» Happy Birthday!, September 15, 2010

happy second birthday to us!

Well, what can I say? It’s been two years, and although I have not been here for a full two years, I feel like it’s hasn’t been that long at all. From what I remember, this site had very humble beginnings. I never really did ask Cass, aka Bats—the creator and root admin of the site; I really didn’t think that she thought the site would last long. We had a good number of staff team, the first generation as I like to think of them. It’s such a long way, from back then to where we are now. I can’t believe that we have had so much members come and go, met many people that have both been good and bad for us—and to the members that stayed—I am really thankful for it all.

Really, I normally don’t speak for anyone, but as for the site, I feel like I can say we wouldn’t be here without you all. I truly feel like this site has been the most diverse, in terms of race, sexuality, age and whatever, all of the biggies. I also feel like our members have the most exciting, dynamic and innovative ideas, and I feel like that is what makes a site.

Hell, we’re just here to make sure you guys don’t post nudies. So, as we come to our second birthday, I honestly thought that I would have a lot more to say, god knows I’ve been with the site through two homes, three schools, two states and many men in between—but I got nothing to say, nothing other than thank you so much; thank you for making it worthwhile, for making me feel like I have a home away from home, for those long nights at work and the only thing I get a kick out of was looking at my phone and flipping the site on, for all the friends that I have made—for it all, the good times and the bad times, cause it made us stronger. I feel like we’re all on a level more than friends know, and that is something that I will always have with me. So I guess with every birthday comes a wish, right?

Now I know, I know… you don’t say what you wished for because it won’t come true, but I have a gut feeling that it will anyways. I would really wish that we are all still here for a third birthday, that we’ll still be as strong as ever, and that we’ll have more with us.

Really, I can’t say this enough, but from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much you guys.

Now, onto the business end of things, you may have realized that we have a new skin, as always credit goes to the very lovely Bats who has always showered us with her gifts and to the magnificent Dotty, who helped greatly with the coding and the tweaking of everything, as well as those lovely images right there on the left.

We have updated a majority of things, you guys. I hope you will read the newly revised rules; there are so many things that are in there, as well as the new things that we have implemented. I cannot stress this enough, please read the rules.

Secondly, and probably the most important update, is the new introduction of our application system. Yes, you heard correctly, we are no longer a freestyle, no word count site—but rather a choose your own app site. There is a traditional style app which has the basic information, history and personality, and there is also a questionnaire app where the handler will pick the question that the character will answer. Why do you ask? It’s about time that we hear in HTB get a bit more invested in our characters, to prevent lackluster apps to secure faces, and most important of all, to simply just make members put more effort into creating well rounded, more thought up characters. We hope you will enjoy these two new styles of apps, created by none other than your own Dotty.

Another thing that we would like to show you is our newly created town guide, which should let you know just a little bit more about our little old town, and is really a fun read—who knows, it might inspire a new thread?

The canon list has been updated also, check that out as we have some canons in there that might just fit into your liking, but as always please post in the thread if you intend to fill the request.

Last but not least, the winners of last month’s otm nominations have now been posted on the fourth tab on your left, please check those out, as well as the nominations for September, which can be found at the otm’s forum.

Once again, thank you so much guys, I really look forward to hearing your feedback and please feel free to reply to this message. As always, we welcome all questions, concerns, comments and suggestions.

-your HTB BAMF?! JUSTICE LEAGUE

I just wanted to say that How to Breath has been so good to me over these past couple of years that I've been a member. While I didn't join in the very beginnings like some people, I just really want to take the time out to express my feelings on what the site means to me and how I feel about it.

You know, I joined HTB in a sad, kind of depressed point in my life. I had just started working again, I was having troubles with paying for school out of my own pocket, and I was just a mess overall. I'd stopped writing I think a year and a half before joining and I didn't really have a want to get back into writing again, but one of my friends on another site that I'd been on had linked me to RPG-D and suggested I look at real life site advertisements on there. The first one I clicked on was this site -- it had this skin -- and I had thought it was the most beautiful, most amazing place I'd ever seen in my entire life looking at role playing forums. I joined as my first character, Jourdan Jones, w/ the Keke Palmer face claim and honestly didn't expect to be accepted so fast not only on the site, but with the other members as well. At the time, the site maybe wasn't as large as it is now, but it was still a welcoming family.

Overtime, HTB saw some changes, not only in skins, plots, members, characters, staff members, but in the way it worked as well. We've had a few setbacks that I know some of us wish we could all forget, but for the betterment of this place we've learned to move on and be this strong unit.

I know sometimes I come off as a bitch or kind of blunt over all, but I mean it with the bottom of my heart when I say that I love this place and you all here. Like a family, we all have our times when we might get on each other's nerves, but at the end of the day we're all here for fun and we're all here to write. I'm not sure how long I have in me to write or to role play, but I hope that like HTB we'll all have a long, healthy amount of time in us to write and everything.

How to Breathe is sassy. it is diverse, it's colorful, vibrant, lively, and I think most of all.. it's timeless.

Stay Fab Forever, guys
-Aubrey

i know that's right...


so, uh... 2 years!!!1!

i don't even like toddlers, but that's pretty fuckin' awesome, you guys. two years is like a gazillion in rp-site years.

i know i've only been here for like... 75% of that time, maybe? but it feels like so much longer 'cause of how comfortable i am with everyone. i never thought i'd find that in a site. i never even spoke in a cbox until i came to htb... now i can't gtfo of it. D:

htb has turned me into a veritable obnoxious asshole. D:

but i digress. in all seriousness, i've made a lot of great friends here. i feel like i have a support system online, which i could never appreciate until i actually had one. so thank you all for all of that, helping me through rough times and trusting me to help you through yours. i know we're all here to rp, but it's nice to see members supporting each other ooc, as well. gives me warm fuzzies.

let me copy aubrey for a second and tell you how i ended up here. i had max on another site, for a request, but that site died. shayne snagged the spot as his wife and we went to another site, which also died, and we found ourselves at a loss. so we're looking through sites over aim... or no, she was looking through sites, and i'm sitting there badmouthing everyone for shutting their sites down without notice... and she sends me the link to htb. and i clicked on it and i'll be honest, at first i was all, "this bright ass skin, grumble grumble, oh it's in california, how original, grumble grumble." but then i seen the online list and it was like... fifteen people on it. so i told her we had to join this one, and then we did, because i'm the boss of her and she does whatever i say. :)

but anyway, here i am. still got max, my favorite charrie of all time ever, and i owe that all to htb and its members. i knew from day one that this site had staying power and i'm so glad it proved me right. i wasn't so sure how well a character like max would fare onsite in terms of getting plots and threads, but y'all pulled through and restored my faith in rp-land and its acceptance toward obscure playbys and older characters, or "oldies" as we like to call them. to this day max remains my most active character and marwell remains my favorite ship in the history of ships. /braggity brag brag

so yeah, despite all the drama that's happened in the past, i'm really hoping we continue to beat the odds and stick around. we're one of the most accepting, diverse, active, and laid back sites around, and rp-land really needs those kinds of sites i think. 'cause real talk, fuck 2000 word counts, pretentious characters, and micromanaging people's plots. i'd like to think that we encourage creativity, not shit all over it. am i right or am i fuckin' right?? (answer: i'm fuckin' right)

..............

so. here's to another two years, yeah?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HTB WOO
next year we get strippers.
make that your incentive to keep htb alive, people.

<3 dootz

p.s. miggle worked hard on that town guide, so y'all better read it. there's gonna be a pop quiz next week.

p.p.s. ALSO, IF YOU DIDN'T SEE, HOW TO BREATHE IS ON TUMBLR NOW:
http://htbrp.tumblr.com/
GO FOLLOW IT!
please. :3

Wow. I've been sitting here for the past five minutes and there is so much I want to say but I don't think I'm goning to have enough space to pour out my feelings to everyone. Well... here goes nothing. First things first, I just want to say thank you. Thank you to everyone, veterans and new members alike, thank you for believing in this site, for sticking through with us during both the good, the bad and the ugly. I couldn't have asked for a better set of people to be a part of this amazing site, one that hope you'll look back on with fond memories day in and day out. Without us, this place never would have gone for as long as it has.

I joined this site sometime in October of 2010, just when HTB was just getting its feet off the ground ( & I was trying to find a way to ge through my first semester of college). I found this place on Caution 2.0 in there real life advertistments and honestly, this place blew me away. Granted it was alot smaller way back when but I was happy that I finally found a place where I could write freely again without too much hassle. I for one was amazed when the members had accepted me into their circle. My first ever character on this site a.k.a. Isabelle Madison was getting alot of attention (plotting wise + otm wise) which I didn't see coming at all. Everyone was so welcoming and ready to jump in to do anything it made me wanna cry with joy.


Yes, we've had our fair share of up's and downs, drama and letdowns but you know what? That means something. In the end, I think all of us are stronger because of it. What we've been through can only make us become better people as we get older. If there's one thing I'm allowed to take from being not only an avid member but a staff member on this site is that not everything lasts forever. You have to live in the moment to get through the future.

I hope we have been able to give everyone a chance to let their creativity come alive and explore new ideas they never would have thought of before.

On that note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HTB! <3
Thank you to everyone on this site for making this place possible, thank you to the most amazing staff I've ever had the privilege to work with (y'all know who you are) and a special thanks to bats, for without her, HTB would never have been born.


In the words of Ke$ha '' We are who we are.''
-- Amanda (AM)


P.S. Check out the beautiful town site Miggle created! It's worth the read and the view.

Also as Dotty mentioned we have a site tumblr so be sure to check that out for the latest updates and follow!

Hmm… [comes in here and takes a seat] Yes, admire the D.Rose picture up top, bitches, ‘cause that’s as good as it’s ever gon get up in this peace. Firstly, I will like to say that this has been one of my LONGGEST RPs I’ve ever really been on. I was really on the verge of giving up writing because I got tired of joining sites, getting deep into a plot, and then the summabitch ends up dying when the plot was just getting good. Don’t you just hate that? Yeah, I got tired of that. This site has been amazing. Despite all the problems, we’re still rockin’ together like a family! All thanks to you guys!

Now, let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we? I joined this board around… March-isshhh, I believe? (Too lazy to check Zay’s registration date). Honestly, I’ve saw this site before when my brother, who played Brandon Lamontagne (Hunter’s brother) at one point, was looking for a RP site to join, but I was like, “ehh… too many people. I don’t think I’mma sit too well with that shit. I’mma probably be that person no one realizes I’m there until my ass leaves.” So, time passes... I was sitting on my YIM and listening to them talk about finding a RP to join, and the name of the site came up again. So, I’m like, “okay. Now that I know some people I’m comfortable RPING with are joining, I might can join and do something with them.” That’s how Zayne Mendez came into the picture, with his baby mama Jaiden Pierre. After being here for a while I started to get a comfortable vibe with everyone to show off a more outgoing, playful side of me (‘cause tbh, I get shy with big sites I don’t know nothing about, yenno?). But yeah, I was that new kid that quite popular… hell, I’m still popular, idgaf what y’all gotta say about that.

(Mariah know she FINE, bwoy).

Naahh, but seriously, I give that thanks to those veterans that’s been here and made me feel welcomed to the site. I also wanna thank those that took the time out to roleplay with me and my laziness to create amazing plots. Yes lord. And hopefully, I can get the chance to RP with many more of you to create some interesting ish. I’ll write with damn near anyone on the site. So don't think I'll turn you down if you want to write with me..

Now that all of that rambling is done, let’s keep on doing what we been doing best since day one—being bamfs. Happy Birthday, HTB!! And like Dotty said, we gon’ get *female* strippers next time. They’re mine to fuck, so hands off the merchandise. You can look, but you can’t touch~.

SN: Follow the tumblr if you haven’t already. Show us some support and love! You can buy your “I love HTB" and "Migz farts on dick" shirt for 3.99 at Wal-MAWT. SO GET ON THAT! And also, check out the town guides, view the rules, and any new stuff we might have done. The admins have worked pretty hard on that, especially the town guides and the tumblr, so check those out and let’s keep doing what we do!

This has been brought to you by the greatness of all greats
- REG

Hey. How's it goes? I thought why not give this a try and basically say whatever came to mind when I thought about HTB. Sorry if I rambled.

I really can't believe that I've been on this site for over a year now. I never thought I would really see this day coming at all. The reason for that is because, I've never been on a site as long as this one before. Whenever I've been on a site, it only lasts like several months and just go offline. I seriously was thinking about giving up on roleplaying because of that. And like Reg said above, you get like a really good plot started and you don't ever get to finish it. You never have that chance to actually see a plot to bloom and to keep moving forward with it.

So when I first came across HTB, it was on ATF. I was little skeptical about it at first. I didn't know how long it's been around, I didn't know how long it was going to last. When I saw a few friends from the RP world on here, I jumped on the bandwagon and tagged along. Everyone was actually welcoming except for a few, but it seemed perfect. I've been through a lot with this site. At first, I wasn't plotting with a lot of people. I was basically sticking with the circle I was used to. To me, it wasn't all that great because my charries weren't as active and I felt like they were sitting around. I blame that on myself, but things actually started to look up for me. After a fallout on the site. It was pretty sad that I actually have to wait for that certain person to go for me to actually get myself out there and start to plot with other people. I guess you could say, I was in a bit of a bad place.

I think this year was sort of a fresh start for me, cause I've been plotting with mostly everyone and I haven't left. I really don't have a desire to leave until the curtain closes on this place. To me, this place is somewhere I can go to from the real world. It's almost like when you were a little kid and you had you're imaginary world. That's what HTB is like to me. Where all my ideas and thoughts can come through from a post. HTB and the people I've met on here is like family. One big, DYSFUNCTIONAL family, but family nonetheless. It's amazing how far this site has come and I really don't see it slowing down at all. I think it's just gonna keep getting better for this rest of the year and the year to come. I love like you guys.

xx Channy

I was an asshole before HTB D:

It took me a few days to figure out what I actually wanted to say on here. Like quite a few other members, I too have been here over a year (June of 2011 baby, HOLY FUCK), and I too have had some ups and downs on the site. I know I haven't been everyone's favorite person at all times, but this place is a home away from home for me.

Listen: I operate in a RL world and a school environment where people call me "Tats", and it isn't out of affection. I spend all day working my ass off and getting judged, and then I get to come home to my real life home, and log on to my online home. There's a support system here. There's acceptance here that I really don't have at school right now, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I feel like I can be ME here. I haven't really been able to be myself anywhere else, at least not lately. I can put a crazy plot idea out there, and most people won't scoff at it - but if I raise my hand in class, I get laughed at and talked about.

That's dramatic and mushy and shit, but whatever.

I'd like to stick around until the last call. I'm glad that this site, however cheesy this may sound, provides me with a place where I feel safe expressing myself and my ideas. A place where characters over the age of 30 get plotted (-GASP-) and where nobody laughs when I say I want to use Al Barr as a playby.

Keep on keepin' on, kids. This place is lovely. I'm gonna keep this from getting too long, since I got class, but you guys are stellar. Keep it up<3

<3caseyy

I was an asshole before HTB D:

It took me a few days to figure out what I actually wanted to say on here. Like quite a few other members, I too have been here over a year (June of 2011 baby, HOLY FUCK), and I too have had some ups and downs on the site. I know I haven't been everyone's favorite person at all times, but this place is a home away from home for me.

Listen: I operate in a RL world and a school environment where people call me "Tats", and it isn't out of affection. I spend all day working my ass off and getting judged, and then I get to come home to my real life home, and log on to my online home. There's a support system here. There's acceptance here that I really don't have at school right now, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I feel like I can be ME here. I haven't really been able to be myself anywhere else, at least not lately. I can put a crazy plot idea out there, and most people won't scoff at it - but if I raise my hand in class, I get laughed at and talked about.

That's dramatic and mushy and shit, but whatever.

I'd like to stick around until the last call. I'm glad that this site, however cheesy this may sound, provides me with a place where I feel safe expressing myself and my ideas. A place where characters over the age of 30 get plotted (-GASP-) and where nobody laughs when I say I want to use Al Barr as a playby.

Keep on keepin' on, kids. This place is lovely. I'm gonna keep this from getting too long, since I got class, but you guys are stellar. Keep it up<3

<3caseyy