A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

Postcrossing

Notes from my Noodle: April 4 edition

As many of you know, I’ve been on Flickr for several years. I use it as a spot to share my photos and such. Flickr has this thing called “Explore.” Basically, it’s the top photos of the day as determined by Flickr’s secret algorithm. Nobody seems to know how it works. But there are some amazing photos on there, as well as many not-so-great ones.

One thing I’ve always notices is the people seem get out and comment a lot, driving traffic to their photos.

Though I try and search Flickr and comment as much as possible, it’s not a daily habit.

So color me shocked when I got a comment on one of my recent images from someone saying they had viewed the image on Explore. Score! I have wanted to get on Explore for a long time — and thought I had photos that would make it there before — but it was this one that did.

Waffle House!

It got to No. 358. But later when I checked, it had dropped off. Flickr giveth and Flickr taketh away. No biggie. I got to Explore. So that’s cool enough.

On a side note, I did tweet that I got on it and gave the ol’ @ to the Waffle House and the Waffle House twitter guy/gal re-tweeted me, so I have that going for me. Which is nice.

The algorithm on Flickr is pretty silly, anyway. But I got Explored. Can’t take it away, buddy!

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I’ve received a postcard through Postcrossing a while back. I just noticed it on the desk and that I hadn’t registered it.

I should probably do that, eh?

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This two blog thing is tough!

I love this blog, I really do. And I’ll never give it up. But it’s been tough to come up with ideas when I’ve been pushing myself to make sure the other blog (Rattling Chains) is really up and running.

We have several people now writing with us, including 2009 World Champion Avery Jenkins and two others with journalism backgrounds. We’re taking it seriously over there in hopes of making a daily destination for disc golfers.

We’ve worked to make it a really sweet site with great content and a solid look. I’m trying to get it on the Internet news sources, too, in hopes of driving some traffic.

If you’re a disc golfer — or are interested in the game — peek at it over there and see what you think!

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The fantasy baseball league I am in is drafting tonight.

An auction draft, online.

This should prove to be interesting. A lot of interesting names were left off keeper lists, so I imagine it should be pretty wild to see where people go with their teams.

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Baseball season opens tonight. Well, it kind of already did with the Mariners and Athletics playing a pair in Japan a week or so ago.

But tonight is the official opening night.

Marlins (blech) vs. Cardinals (double blech).

The Phils open tomorrow. That’s when I’ll get pumped. The good news is — baseball is back!

Fundraiser: I am, again, trying to raise money for the Relay For Life. If you donate to me — even a small amount — you will be entered to win a super-sweet quilted scarf. Click here for all the information!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook! 

 

Notes from my Noodle: August 30 edition

It’s good to be back and have no worried about hosting issues…

For that last line to make sense, let me go backwards and tell the whole story.

When I post something to my blog, I have an application that automatically posts it to my Facebook wall as well as the wall for this blog (please hit the like button on the right side of the page! Shameless plug, I know!) When I have posts written ahead of time, the application still works.

I had Sunday’s post ready to go at like noon and it never posted to my Facebook wall. That seemed odd to me. So, I thought I might have put the wrong time in and I went to check my blog out.

I was greeted with a mainly white screen and these words…

“Bandwidth Limit Exceeded” (in large, bold typeface).

“The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.”

As you can imagine, I was shocked. I had never reached the limit before. It was several days before the end of the month and I didn’t want to wait it out. I needed to figure something out and fast. One think I’ve thankfully seen is a small growth in the number of visitors who come to my site. When I started doing this on a more regular basis, I would celebrate 20 or 25 visits. I’ve since grown and have seen that number go up by quite a bit, which is nice.

So the last thing I wanted was new readers to come and see that.

Panic mode set in, but after a few deep breaths, away I went to figure this out.

I went to the live chat with my host and discussed possibilities.

Let me say this — I have been with this host company since it was in its infancy. My price plan was excellent because I had done many things back then to get some special perks — such as unlimited add on domains etc. That was their way of saying thank you for writing reviews and such. The company has been excellent to deal with for more than 10 years, so I figured we could work something out.

The person that I chatted said he or she understood my loyalty, but the hands were tied. They couldn’t do partial upgrades. The reality was, I only needed some extra bandwidth. I didn’t need full upgrades.

The bandwidth increase with their basic package would have been way more than I needed. But it took away a lot of what I had earned and apparently the company couldn’t do anything about that. This person kept insisting I needed to upgrade to the “Silver package,” but didn’t understand that I couldn’t afford that big of an upgrade (to be fair, the price isn’t bad… but I didn’t need everything it offered) and I didn’t think it was fair that I had to pay for things I had been rewarded in the past, just to get an upgrade of bandwidth.

After 30 minutes of this, I decided it was going no where, ended the conversation and took it to support.

Tech support was much better to deal with, as they always are. They sent me to billing and the person there understood what I was saying. This person apologized that the company had the policy and he couldn’t do anything about it. That still meant for me to keep everything I had already, I needed to go to the silver package.

Argh!

Alas, this got better as the person I was dealing with offered me a loyalty discount of 30 percent, which brought the price down to almost the basic package. I was also told that price would remain with me. In the end, I decided to accept that offer and my site was soon back online. It also gives my site the ability to really grow as the bandwidth allowed is incredibly more than I had before. Let’s say this, I was on a plan that allowed 3.5 gigs of bandwidth per month and for the first time ever, I went over that. This new plan now allows 15,000 gigs of bandwidth per month. Yeah.

In the end, this host came through again. I have another host that doesn’t have a lot of bandwidth on it with one of my other sites. Though I don’t update that much, it has gone over bandwidth the past couple of months (that one is even lower than the 3.5), so I think I will be canceling that account and bringing that site to this account with the added bandwidth I now have. In the end, I’ll be breaking even on the price for the most part.

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I'm going to miss covering football on nights like this.

Labor Day weekend is upon us.

In the past, that usually meant I was prepping for the high school football season. Previews needed to be written. Schedules and rosters typed in and proofed. Special sections needed to be done and then there’s the rush of the season. Friday night games with 30 minutes to write a story. Those things I will miss.

Since being laid off in February, this was the time of the year that I wondered how I’d feel. And it stinks. I always looked forward to high school football season and it was one of my favorite beats.

I still plan on going and shooting some photos. Maybe I can freelance for another paper or two. We’ll see. But it will be odd knowing I don’t have to go to a game. Or that I can just go to any game I feel like going to. That’s going to be one perk for sure. If I feel like watching this game over another, I can just head over and do so.

I will say this — I won’t miss the games where I’m standing under a downpour on a really cold Friday night. That’s what radios are for!

***

The waiting game in the job hunt is the worst.

I had a phone interview a few weeks ago for a job that I would love to have. It would be one of those where I think I could make it a career and be happy as can be. I’m not sure how the interview went. Unfortunately, though I thought I was very prepared, a couple of questions caught me off guard. I’m hoping I didn’t ramble too much or give bad answers as I think if I got an in-person interview, I could do really well.

I keep hoping and waiting, so we’ll see.

In the meantime, I keep the job search going and hope for the best. It’s a tough market out there and it keeps getting tougher. I am not sure what I need to do to secure good employment. So goes for that master’s degree really doing wonders for me.

I did send something else out today, so let’s see what happens. I’ll keep pushing along.

***

I’ve been having a good time with the blog as it’s been a way for me to keep writing and such. As it grows in size, however, I know I have to start doing some other things with it. I am working on some features and some journalistic-style things to have soon. I want to do a few series of stories on some things that I have been slowly trying to figure out. I have contacted a few people for each subject, so hopefully it will work out well in those parts. These series of stories, if done the way I have envisioned, will be posted in several installments over a few days.

I’m also working on making the HooHaa 9 stories a weekly thing until I fill the team (and likely keep going). But before I start releasing them, I want to have a couple written so I can be working ahead. Therefore, those probably won’t start until a week or two after Labor Day. There is, of course, the weekly Snapshot Saturday. I don’t want each day to have a “set item” as I do still like having the freedom to write about whatever. But I will be having two or three “set things” for a few days per week.

I have some other ideas for contests and such that I want to start running, so as soon as I get those figured out, I will post them as well.

If you have any good ideas for some topics I can blog about, or a series of stories I could work on, please let me know. Drop a comment or send an e-mail. I’m not looking to break news, rather I’m looking to show a different slice of life.

***

I made a booboo with Postcrossing.

I have wondered why none of the 10 or so postcards I sent recently had arrived at their locations. Well, it turns out I had forgot to send them. Ugh! They have been sitting here on my computer desk, covered by a few other papers and notebooks. I will be getting these out ASAP so they can get to where they need to be!

I have a good pile of postcards here, too. I need to start scanning them and doing some blog posts about them. There are some really wild looking cards and some nice stamps, too.

For those of you who haven’t heard of or have never tried Postcrossing, I highly encourage it.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Happy birthday, Postcrossing!

Postcrossing turns 6 today!

Though it was actually still July 13 on this side of the pond when the anniversary hit, Postcrossing turns six today (July 14, officially when it turned the 14th in Portugal).

As an active Postcrosser, this is a really cool anniversary to see happen.

For those who don’t know what Postcrossing is, here’s a clip from the website’s “about” page:

The goal of this project is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, almost free. The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you will receive at least one back from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world.

Basically, the idea is that you send one postcard to someone random and you get the same in response. The odds of getting a card from someone you sent one to is extremely rare. You could send a card to Finland, to get one in return from Taiwan.

It’s really quite wild.

How it works is simple. Sign up for the website. Request up to five addresses (each has a unique ID number that you need to place on the card somewhere). Fill out the cards and send them. (Some people make cards, some buy them… so the cost of the hobby is the cards and the stamps. In the US, to send inside the country is 44 cents (though I am checking on the US Postal Service’s website and it shows 29 cents for postcards, but I don’t send inside the country, so I’m not sure), to Canada or Mexico is 80 cents and to the rest of the world is 98 cents). I keep cards and stamps handy, so when I can send cards, I do it when I feel like filling out a card etc.

Once the person receives the card, he or she then logs it on the website using the unique ID. When that happens, you will get a notice that the card arrived and you’ll then be able to send another card.

You’ll also, at that point, be put in the list to be given your name and address to some random user. Soon after, you should also receive a card from someone in the world.

Now, that being said, it’s not always that fast. I’ve requested addresses, filled out the address and all on the card and then forgot to send for a week or two. It happens, unfortunately. So it could happen to you. If you are a regular user of the website, you’ll find that you’ll get cards regularly.

I found out about this hobby a couple years ago via Erika Jean’s blog. As a writer and a fan of snail mail still, it was intriguing. So I signed up and sent out five cards and waited anxiously for the cards to arrive back. It was a blast and I continued.

Now, I’m a casual member. There are times I am into it more than others, but it’s always a blast to do. Sometimes, I just don’t feel like writing postcards, which slows me down. Eventually I get back into it and get rolling again.

According to the website, I’ve been a member (as of today) for 818 days.

I’ve sent (well, of those logged as received) 106 cards and I’ve received 104. I currently have 10 traveling, however. And one is expired (which means it hasn’t been logged or never arrived). I recently re-sent that card in hopes that it will make it this time. If not, I’m giving up as I’ll believe that the person just isn’t logging it.

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So where did Postcrossing come from?

According to Postcrossing’s website, the project was started by Portugal’s Paulo Magalhães. It was a project he did as a student. From the history part of the website:

Paulo loves to receive mail and postcards in particular; from friends, family or from anywhere in the globe. The more random the place and person, the better. He knew more people shared the same interest, but there was no good way yet to connect them across the planet.

So, Magalhães got the idea to set up an online presence for the hobby with the goal of connecting random people from throughout the world. After much work, the project was launched July 14, 2005.

The history page on Postcrossing’s website notes that many users signed up within days. The site has continued to grow and has been shown in the media throughout the world.

This truly is a worldwide project. So much so that two Postcrossers — an Australian man and a Finnish woman — met through the hobby and eventually were married.

The website and hobby has continued to grow. It reached 1,000,000 exchanged postcards in April 2008. Since then, the milestones piled up. The 2 million mark was reached in February 2009, 3 million in September 2009, 4 million in March 2010 and 5 million in August of 2010.

***

The project can be for more than fun, however.

It can be educational.

As many of my readers know, I worked as an adjunct instructor in English at a local state college. For a few semesters, I brought Postcrossing into the classroom, using it as a tool to show that one can write a lot in a small space. The younger generation (at least in the States) is so versed in technology that many of them have never written a letter or a postcard.

True story — a friend told me recently that he had to explain to someone of the younger generation how to address an envelope and where the stamp goes. That’s how connected to technology a lot of people are now.

So as someone teaching Freshman Composition, I wanted to find more fun ways to engage the students into realizing that writing is important. That using things like “U” “R” and other Internet shortcuts are not things that people should use, outside of maybe a text message or instant message.

The students had to sign up for the site, get five addresses, write the cards and have them all set. In the end, they needed to write a casual paper about their experiences and what they thought of the project.

As is with any group of students, some took it seriously, some didn’t take it seriously and some didn’t do it. Unfortunately, some didn’t log received cards, either, which screws up the other end of things. But, there were several who continued with the hobby. Some of the papers really showed that they understood the project and learned a lot of new things. Some just didn’t get it and took it as a joke. But that’s to be expected as not all students give their all for everything. That’s an unfortunate, but real, situation.

Should I ever do it again in a classroom, I’ll do a few things differently, such as keeping an eye on their accounts better to know they log things. I’ll grade all portions of the project to make sure they do each step well.

It’s my hope that those who gave it their all, however, learned something from it. Not just from a writing standpoint, but from what they received in return. About someone else’s home, country and life.

***

As with any hobby, there are goods and bads.

What I really love about the hobby is all the different things you can receive.

I’ve received so many types of postcards — from different shapes and sizes, to ad cards (which are kind of stinky), to multi views and many different things. Some people fill the back with so many words about their life, who they are, what they do and what they like. Some people just write “Happy Postcrossing” and sign their name.

Some people send the card in an envelope (which I personally dislike as I like to see the stamps on the card, the postmarks, the writing etc).

But it’s all different.

There are Postcrossing meetups. It seems that during these meetups, people do all sorts of different things, which includes actually filling out postcards. Then everyone signs the cards and they split them up. People then send them along, which is pretty cool. I recently received one of those and thought it was quite neat.

My only true complaint is the over abundance of getting postcards from dominant countries. I can choose not to send or receive from the US (which I chose to avoid sending/receiving from because I want to see stuff from the world), but you can’t do that with other countries. And while I understand that the countries that have more people participating are, of course, going to have more addresses, it still doesn’t mask the frustration that sometimes comes from getting so many or having to send so many to places like Finland or Germany.

For example, of the 106 I’ve sent that have been received, 16 have gone to Finland, 13 to Germany and 11 to the Netherlands. That’s 40 cards (38 percent) of the cards I’ve send to three countries. Add in China (8) and Taiwan (6) and that’s 50 percent to five countries within my top five sent cards. In the receiving end, Germany (15), Finland (14) and the Netherlands (12) again top my list. So of my 104 received, 41 (39 percent) are from three countries.

It can get annoying to see another card from one of these countries. I’d like to see it spread out a bit more, but not sure how it can be done. Either way, it’s still a fun project.

As like many hobbies, it’s done to each person’s ways of doing things.

My cards, for the most parts, are photos I’ve taken. I get those photos made into postcards through the Moo website. I recently have checked out another company as I’d like to see if I could get some of my cards sold, so I might mass-produce a few cards and keep some to send out.

I’ve had good feedback on my cards, so I’ll likely continue doing it (for as long as I can afford them)!

***

The Postcrossing website also celebrated its birthday. For today only, all current members can send six more cards — that’s on top of your allotted number! So, of course, I requested an extra six.

And it was a bit of a present to me, too.

The countries I got were China (repeated a bunch), Lithuania (which I’ve sent to a few times) and some new ones in Nicaragua, Brazil, and Singapore. I also got an address from Turkey. Very cool that I can send a few more, even if just for today. So I now have 16 out there traveling. I’ll look forward to getting more cards — hopefully from a few places I haven’t seen them from!

***

In a world where e-mail and electronic communications are steadily overtaking snail mail, Postcrossing is a refreshing change. It’s sixth birthday is a wonderful note to show that people will and still like to communicate in an old-fashioned way. One gets to learn a lot of things or see places they might not visit.

And you get to see so many words from different people from around the world. A slice of their life. A piece of their world.

There are so many people in this world and it’s all chance who you’ll see, meet or learn about. This just makes it a bit more interesting. For anyone who can sit down for a few moments and fill out a postcard, I’d highly encourage you to test out this hobby. It’s fun, educational and entertaining. And it’s not too expensive, which in this day and age, is a big plus.

***

Before I let this go, allow me to share a few of my favorites that I’ve received over the years.

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Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

Notes from my noodle: June 23 edition

One week!

A week from today/tonight, I’ll be heading out to Western New York and Pennsylvania to attend my first GeoWoodstock. I’ve been looking forward to this since it was announced last year that it would be so close. The weekend is shaping up to be a good one, so hopefully, Mother Nature will cooperate! But who can tell with the weather as the Northeast has had threats of thunderstorms for a lot of the warmer days. It will likely be hit or miss, so we’ll see.

I’m also going to work on a story for the blog and for a geocaching magazine while down there, so that will be fun.

For those of you who aren’t geocachers, GeoWoodstock is the biggest event of the year — the crowning jewel for many. There are more than 3,000 people expected at this event, which is a one-day affair at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Pennsylvania.

This is the ninth straight year GeoWoodstock has been held.

On top of the main event, there are several other smaller ones. Three of them are on Friday and two on Saturday (three total with the big event) and one Sunday. I’m hoping to hit all seven events, so we’ll see how that goes.

Of course there will be some geocaching, though I’m not sure how much will get done Saturday!

It should be a hoot, though, and I’m looking forward to getting away and thinking about geocaching for a weekend. I can’t wait to meet a lot of people and such, so it should be a blast.

And for readers of the blog — if you are going to be there, drop me a note! I am hoping to meet as many people as possible down there.

***

I don’t know what’s going on, but three of the last six or seven postcards I have received through Postcrossing have come in an envelope.

That stinks.

I’m one who like to receive the postcards with a stamp and postmark on it. I save all of these cards and just having one that is written on and put in an envelope kind of stinks. I even have it in my profile that I would rather not receive cards in an envelope. I know some people like that. Some people like the card untouched in an envelope. That’s their right, I guess, but I can guarantee I’ll never send a postcard in an envelope for this hobby. It seems to take away from what this whole thing is!

To each their own, I guess, but when I start scanning them in for an eventual personal book I am going to make, it will stink to have them not have stamps etc.

As of writing this, I’ve sent 97 postcards (that have been received), have nine more traveling and have one expired (which means it either did not arrive there or has not been logged in the 60-day span given before Postcrossing “releases” it. On the other end, I’ve received 92 cards so far.

***

I don’t usually write about a lot of current event/newsy/political things on this blog, but I saw something the other day on Twitter that blew my mind.

Someone, posting in regard to the death of Jackass star Ryan Dunn, said, “Does it matter if Ryan Dunn was drunk? The outcome isn’t going to change.”

Really?

That has to be one of the most idiotic things I’ve ever seen written.

It turns out that Dunn was more than two-times the legal limit in regard to his BAC levels. Also, it’s reported he was driving in upward of 140 miles per hour.

With another person in his car.

So yes, dear Twitter user, it DOES matter. He killed himself and another person because he was extremely irresponsible.

And you, ma’am, are an idiot for thinking, on a social network like Twitter, that it didn’t matter that he was drunk and driving.

***

I need to get out and take some photos. I haven’t been out with the camera in a while and I’m really missing it. I need some inspiration.

On that note, I’ve started the wheels in motion to get the second year of the HooHaa 52 rolling. The idea of the 52 is a 52-week challenge. Each participant takes a photo a week for a full year. Each week, a new theme is posted and a different member posts it. This way, the people participating have a lot of control over this challenge.

I’m hoping to start it up in a couple of weeks and have reached out to many people who participated and finished last year. If this sounds of interest to you, let me know. I am only allowing a certain number of people into the group so that it stays small and participants get more than one week to name a theme.

If interested, a couple of things to note. Be sure you’ll stick it out with us. We had too many people drop out last year (we had a lot of people, though), which made it so I had to come up with random themes too often and that got me a little burnt out at the end. The other is, you’ll need to be on Flickr (you can have a free account) as the group is on there.

Leave a comment or e-mail me if interested and I’ll let you know how many slots we have left etc.

***

And to close this edition of Notes from my Noodle, I give you my Twitter entry of the week, which comes from former WWE superstar “Stone Cold Steve Austin.

“Locked my keys in the truck @ super wal mart today in town. What an idiot. Thanks to Pursch Motors for the help. Gonna go kick my own ass.”

He did follow that up by posting a photo of the guy trying to unlock his truck and said:

“Guy trying to unlock my truck…just gave myself a Stunner….time for a cold one…cheers.”

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

Early thoughts on the Kindle (and some randoms)

I’ll have a more in-depth review on the Kindle down the line, after I get through a few more books. But I wanted to share my early experiences with it.

First, it’s awesome. It’s light, easy on the eyes and very easy to use. There are some curves to learn and get used to, but once you get through a few of the things, you’re moving right along.

Let me note that I purchased the non-3G version as I don’t plan on purchasing books on the run most of the time. I have the wireless off and download any I buy to the computer, then sync things.

I’ll worry about the technical things when I do a full review, but here’s one major reason I love this thing — the books I never would have found without it.

There are many authors who have Kindle-only books. After reading reviews and plots, I’ve put several on the wish list so when I get through the four I’ve already purchased, I’ll get more. I used to be someone who purchased basically sports books or real-life. In recent years, I’ve become a fiction guy, but never know who to look for etc. I have a waide variety of book tastes.

Now, I have a chance to read authors many have never heard of and who have published these books in this format, but not in print. I look forward to checking many out.

In a couple of weeks, I will give a full Kindle review.

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I was coming home from the New York State Associated Press Awards the other night. It was almost 10 p.m. and I wanted to listen to some baseball. Knowing the Yankees and Rays had a long rain delay, I figured I could find them somewhere on the AM dial.

Nope.

I’m in Albany and there has to be someone who carries Yankees games. I couldn’t find it though.

What did I find?

I got WGN out of Chicago and heard some Cubs talk. I listened to the end of the Reds game. Of course I heard WFAN out of New York, but that station is the Mets. Other stations included a political show out of Missouri and a country radio station in French and out of Quebec.

But no Yankees.

AM is quite wild, no?

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I got my Guinness pathtags for the Beer Cap club today. I’ll be shipping them out to people with whom I’ve traded later this week.

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I haven’t had the chance to geocache much lately, but I’m now in the process of planning my trip to Maine, so hopefully I’ll be able to get a bunch up there, mixed in with a lot of photographs.

Speaking of photographs, I’ve reached Day 268 of the Project 365. I’m now in the home stretch. Looking forward to finishing this one as it’s been a fulfilling, albeit frustrating at times, challenge. Not sure I’ll do it again, but I will be happy when I finish this one.

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Went to an independent pro wrestling show the other night with a friend. We were looking to have a few laughs and I was interested in finding something cool to take photos of — and this paid off.

The end of the night featured someone being powerbombed through a table that had been set on fire. It also turned out to be just feet from us. As I scrambled to get the smaller lens on the camera before it happened, I basically had one shot at this.

I’ll leave you this day with my shot:

More later!