A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

blogging

Help a blogger out?

OK, I wasn’t initially going to use the blog itself for a shoutout to fellow bloggers, but I guess I will as things have been slow in coming back.

I have a short survey (10 questions) that shouldn’t take long for you to fill out. People have said it takes no more than 10 minutes.

What I am seeking is this:

  • Someone who blogs, on a regular or somewhat regular basis
  • Someone who reads other blogs on a regular or somewhat regular basis

So, basically, if you blog and you read other blogs, you are eligible. You don’t have to be a daily blogger. Once a week if fine. Four or five times a month. But please be somewhat active.

I am seeking a minimum of 30 bloggers (15 male/15 female), but will take more than that if I get more willing to fill out the questionnaire. The questions are tailored toward each gender, so if you are a female, you’ll get the female questions and vice versa.

I am working on a blog post about tendencies and things like that. Anything you send me in your answers could possibly be used and credited to you in this post. I’ll be using the reactions and results for the post.

I will, also, be linking each blogger who answered at the end of said post, so you’ll get a free link. And, hopefully, I’ll find several new blogs to add to my daily read, too!

Note this — it doesn’t matter what you blog about. I’m not worried about subject matter. It could be food, sports, your life, mommy blogs, daddy blogs, caving blogs and whatever else. Anything. In fact, as diverse as it can be makes it even better.

If you are interested in participating, please drop a comment below or e-mail me and let me know. I just need to know if I am sending a male or female question sheet.

Please, too, feel free to re-tweet this or re-post on Facebook if you know other bloggers who might be willing to help out. The more, the merrier. Thanks!

***

A quick note — I will be having a giveaway of sorts here within the next week or so. I will be giving something away (don’t want to give away what it is yet as I want the photos before I do). People will be able to get one entry per $5 you donate to my Relay for Life page.

As many of you know, I participate in the Relay For Life each year. Those of us on our small team relay for different reasons, but the end reason is because we all want to see a cure for cancer. And the best way we can help is to raise money toward that goal.

Our relay this year runs from 6 p.m. April 27 to 9 a.m. April 28.

Those who donate to me will be automatically entered into this contest with one entry per $5. So if you donate $10, you get two entries and so forth.

As soon as said prize is ready for this, I will have another more lengthy post about it so people can be reminded.

And, believe me, I realize how tough times are right now. I am in the middle of it myself. But in a time like this, see if you can give a few bucks. Anything toward this cause is a step closer to finding a cure for this crappy disease.

Plus, if you donate to my Relay page, you might even win a little something else!

It can be retroactive, too. So if you donate before, you’ll be entered. My page can be found here.

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!

My 1,000th blog post!

According to the statistics on my blog, this is my 1,000th published post.

That’s a lot of blog posts.

No matter how much ones blogs, that’s one significant milestone. I realize that people will get to this milestone a lot quicker than I did (some blogs do many posts in a single day, so it’s quicker that way!), but I’m still pretty stoked. I have had a few guest posts along the way, but each of them have to be edited, formatted and placed in the spot by me, so they obviously count!

This blog has had several stops before settling in here. The posts have always followed me, however, so I have a strong history of what I’ve done. From a blog on my former message board, to blogger to here, it’s grown in many ways.

I’ve had lulls where posts were few and far between. And I’ve gone times where I’m posting daily or more. But the past year has been the best with my blogging because writing is fun again. Despite my situation in the work world, I’ve realize the joy of putting words together and having them make sense again.

And not just talking about Johnny hitting a three-point basket to win a game.

It’s oh so joyful!

Sprinkled throughout this post on the right side will be a few graphics I created with some interesting statistics and numbers. Enjoy those!

HooHaa History

Allow me to first give you the history of HooHaa.

Though the “word” or “words” of HooHaa have been used in movies and other places, my use of it stems from softball. When I was a wee bit younger, some of the local players used to give a “HooHaa” during the games. It was catchy. I liked it.

As I started to get bigger in softball, I also used it. And it became a rally cry for us and, actually, we used it as a name for our team at tournaments. The HooHaa’s never won a tournament, but we did place fourth at one with some really big-time teams, so that was nice.

It grew from there.

I even, at one point, had vanity plates that said “HooHaa.” No kidding.

So when I first wanted a website, I purchased the domain hoohaa.com. That was in July 1998. I’ve owned that ever since (and if you go to that domain now, it will direct you to this site).

The HooHaa family of websites was born.

At that point, however, I had never thought about blogging. Heck, I probably had no clue what blogging was. It’s a shame, too, because a year later, I returned to college and I have a feeling it would have been an awesome time to be blogging!

Blog history

I honestly don’t know what originally got me into wanting to blog. Maybe it was the freedom. Maybe it was the ease of things. I don’t know. But I started one. And I didn’t expect much. I just wanted to have a blog.

It was on my former message board and several of us had them there.

I wasn’t quite the blogger yet, however.

Check out my first post by clicking here.

Stellar stuff, right?

That’s kind of like looking back to the first article I had published in a newspaper when I was in seventh or eighth grade. Awful!

My blogging in the early days was awful. I wasn’t afraid to cuss a little here and there (not that I’m afraid now, but it just doesn’t fit with what I like to do) and I just rambled on about silly things.

I was still trying to find my way in the blogging world, you see.

Eventually, I moved to blogger. That was June 2006, a year later. There, the blog started to take a little better shape. It was named “P.J.’s HooHaa,” so it’s getting closer to the eventual name of this blog. I was a little more regular there, but I was still trying to find my way in the blogging world.

That lasted until November 2006 when this version came around.

I bought this domain, figured out WordPress and the rest is history, as they say. I took the time to go back to get every post (and comment) I ever received on the other two blogs and put them on here. I wanted a permanent timeline and archive of everything I had done with this blog. I have a photo blog as well, but in regard to words, this blog has everything I’ve ever done.

And so it will be here through time.

I don’t intend on shutting this blog down. Will I continue to do this for the rest of my life? Who knows. Only time will tell. But it will always be a part of me and will remain online.

Growth of a blog

I’ve learned a lot through my years of blogging. I’ve done the silly short posts, I’ve done some in-depth posts, I’ve done series of stories and journalistic-style pieces.

And I like it that way.

Sure, I’d love for more followers. And more comments. But in the end, I enjoy writing and doing the blog, so that’s what really counts to me. It’s a place to document things in my life, as well as still have a place for me to work on other things that I enjoy writing.

By doing that, I’ve continued to learn and grow as a writer.

The idea of this blog, when I started, was for me to write different things. Being a full-time sports writer (at the time), all I wrote was sports. I wanted to branch out. Though I still write about sports on here, it’s not in the same context as one would write for media.

This has also given me a place to be able to talk about regular things in my life. Whether battling a cold, hitting a deer with my car, going on vacation or something else, it’s an avenue where I can post things about life. I’ve covered so many topics and I’ve enjoyed each of them. Having a wide variety of topics has really helped me with the blog.

As the blog has grown — and gone through a few makeovers — I’ve gone in different directions. I’ve enjoyed each one. The most recent, of course, is the past year and change where I’ve updated a lot more regular. I’ve tried, and for the most part succeeded,  in bringing something new on this blog each day. That’s a big difference from when I started in 2005 and over the first six months of having a blog only having 32 posts.

So I’ve grown as a blogger and as a blog.

I’ve never really done a lot of things with widgets and all until the past year, but I’ve added more things — such as the Twitter feed and the social networking buttons etc. One thing I’m glad I added was a counter, so I could see how many visitors I got. Now I’m sure this is just rough with numbers, but I would imagine it’s decent.

I added the stats bar sometime last February. It wasn’t the whole month though, so take a peek at last March when I got a total of 998 hits.

At that point, I was pumped.

But, I set myself a goal. I wanted to get to the point where I was averaging 2,000 hits per month. It was a slow crawl to that spot. I reached the 1,000-visit mark the next month and that held pretty steady until August, when I had 3,120 visitors.

Since that month, I haven’t been below 2,000 visitors.

And I thank all of you who have visited, even if just for a few posts that seem to grab your interest.

That’s the one issue with a potpourri blog. You’ll have the regulars who check you out, but you’ll also have people who will visit for a day or two and then come back to see something they might not be interested in and they’ll decide to move on and not return.

I just keep plugging away.

A great community

Bloggers are a great bunch of people, for the most part.

You can meet all sorts of people, too. Foodies, mommies, humorists, sports enthusiasts, outdoorsy people — there’s a wide range of people blogging.  And it can be teens to 20-somethings, to 30-somethings and above. There’s no age limit for bloggers.

Topics galore!

If there’s something you’re interested in, there’s bound to be some sort of blog on it. Who knows how regular it is, but there is likely something out there.

I love knowing that I’ve become part of that blogging community. I don’t make money on my blog (though I should probably look into some of those AdSense things people have on their sidebars, eh?) and I’ve tried to maintain it as simple as possible so I could blend in with the blogging community.

Though I don’t have a lot of links in my blogroll, those are some of the few I visit on a regular basis. (I should put a few more up there as there are others I visit regularly). I really enjoy the blogging community and the friends I’ve made through it. The most interesting part is that you may never meet these people. It might just be in the realm of the online world, but it’s almost as if you know them.

It’s a slice of life.

There are blogs that are only one topic. Though these are great blogs if it is of interest to you, it makes it so you might not see everything about the blogger. On potpourri blogs, many times you get a real feel of somebody’s life and what they are going through, whether good or bad.

Though there are aspects of my life I’ve shielded a bit on this blog, I’ve become more open in recent months. I share what I can about my life, because it’s good for me, too. And for the few comments I receive, I enjoy the feedback and thoughts.

The blogging community is a great place, for sure. It’s my hope that I can continue to grow in it and maybe, when things improve for me, get out to one of those blogger weekend things. I’ve seen several and all seem to be really wild.

Future

I’m not going anywhere.

One thing I’ve always made sure was to keep certain aspects of my personal life off of the blog — mainly about employers — because I don’t see the need of airing things. Though I’ve documented my battle of unemployment and such, I’ve stayed away from saying things that could be bad for me or an employer. The reason? This isn’t a place to air anything.

This is my blog and I like to separate certain aspects of life. You have personal, work, and the rest. That’s the way I always thought of things. So I plan to keep it that way. Whenever I land something, I’ll make note of it on here. I likely won’t even mention what the company is. I’ll mention it and move along. That’s all that needs to be said.

Because I want to keep blogging.

Never torch a bridge so bad that someone can’t trust you. If you do that, you’re burning more than a reputation.

This blog will likely remain the same. I do enjoy the occasional journalistic piece or series, but for the most part I like just being off the cuff and coming up with different things daily. I have a little red Moleskine notebook I have been using recently so I can write down ideas as they come to me. I have, in the past, come up with ideas and then let them slip away.

That always stinks!

So, now I am making sure I have a place to write them down. Several of them won’t come to fruition until I get stable again and on my feet elsewhere. It’s part of the time that I need to do the items. Some are for a series of stories. Some are for weekly/bi-weekly features. But I have ideas to keep going forward.

I know this, however. Since I’ve become more and more regular with my blog posts, I want to continue doing so. And I hope you’ll be along for the ride with me.

Final note

I’ve had a few people ask me about the little thing at the top of my blog. The quote. “Good blog, let’s go eat!”

No, I’m not a foodie blog.

And I’ve wondered if a few people might have thought that when they came here and left. I hope not.

So, in honor of my 1,000th post, allow me to explain.

This past summer, one of my favorite non-Phillies, Hunter Pence, was traded to the Phillies. After a game where they rallied to win, Pence was interviewed on field. One of the questions he got was what he was thinking as he rounded third.

Pence said: “Good game, let’s go eat.”

The phrase caught fire in Philly. It’s on shirts (yes, I need to get one) and it’s been used in many different ways. I got chatting online with a friend one night and the line “Good blog, let’s go eat” was said among other things.

To which I said, I should put that on my blog.

In response, said friend (also a former sports writer), agreed.

Moments later, it was on my blog and there to stay.

That’s the story. And I’m sticking to it.

Thanks for reading and thanks for following!

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!

I’d like to thank the academy…

My first blogging award!

Oh to be showered with awards.

During my professional career, I’ve won several awards. And though those are fantastic for the resume and career, this one may take the cake. You see, I’ve received this fantastic blog award. And not only does it come to grace and be on my blog, but from another blogger.

Ahhh, the price of being famous.

Crap. You caught me. Maybe it’s not the top blogging award, but it’s something!

I don’t know if many of you know, but as with any other medium, there are many blogger awards out there. Some are more famous than others. That being said, the majority of blogs will never win these awards (and reap the benefits of a bump in readers). So many bloggers award each other these awards.

Personally, I think that’s cool as can be.

It’s nice to know you are appreciated and/or liked among your readers/friends/co-bloggers.

The above award was given to me by Jonna over at Tattooed Mommie. She’s got a really interesting take on this world and is worth the read.

Alas, having these awards has a price. So allow me to follow the rules a bit!

Thank the person that nominated you, and give them a shout out on your blog with a link to theirs.

I have linked Jonna above and without a doubt thank her for thinking of my blog with this award. I’ve known Jonna in the online realm for a couple of years and have enjoyed reading her blog(s). She was also a participant in the inaugural HooHaa TB Race (geocaching).

Share 7 random facts about yourself.

  1. I don’t like sharing random things about myself on the internet
  2. I once had the chance to become a photographer at a newspaper, but stayed as a writer because I didn’t want my love of photography to go away.
  3. I collect baseball cards.
  4. Sports photography is my favorite type of photography, followed by waterfalls, covered bridges and people.
  5. He’s been gone for four and a half years and not a day goes by that something doesn’t remind me of my father.
  6. Rattling the chains on a 20-plus foot putt might be the coolest sound in all of sports (disc golf).
  7. Watching baseball live is one of my greatest pleasures.

Send on the award to 15 other bloggers whose blog you love and appreciate and then let them know they won the award.

To be fair, though I probably easily read more than 15 bloggers during the course of a week, I’m not sure I have 15 bloggers who fit the versatile portion of this. If I read the idea of the award, it means that the blogs are more wide-ranged etc. So, I’m going to nominate a few people here and let them know, though I might be stretching the versatile thing a bit…

In regard to versatile bloggers, that’s all I have right now. I hope I’m not forgetting somebody! Feel free to follow suit and blog about this (or don’t, up to you!), but these are some of my favorites!

Thanks again to Jonna. This made for a fun blog post today! And now to make sure the others know all about their award…

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!

Notes from my Noodle: January 23 edition

It seems that every time I think I have seen it all when it comes to being politically correct, something else makes me shake my head in wonderment.

This time, it’s in Utah.

The Cougar is not a good nickname for one Utah school, for an odd reason. (Photo by Mike Fisher via Flickr commons)

See, though I may not agree with everything that has to be politically correct out there, I understand it. I can see why schools change their team names from something like Warriors or Chiefs or Braves because of being sensitive. I really can.

There’s many more I understand.

Not this time.

See, it seems that there’s this new school in Utah — Corner Canyon High School. And, well, the school ran a contest to let future students decide on its future mascot. The school, according to a USA Today story, is slated to open in 2013.

The board, however, rejected the winning mascot from the contest. And what mascot put the board up in arms?

Cougars.

Raise your hand if you see where this is going.

It turns out the board though calling their mascot the Cougars would be offensive. To whom? To middle-age women who like to chase younger men. Because the term “cougar” is becoming synonymous with that act.

I can’t make this stuff up.

It’s to note, also, that three other schools in Utah, as well as Brigham Young University, all use the nickname Cougars, according to KSTU Fox 13.

The school had decided, instead, to call itself the Chargers.

But being the school doesn’t open until 2013, I’m sure the board will have a chance to re-visit this and see if it offends anyone else by then.

—

Legendary football coach Joe Paterno died Sunday at age 85.

His death ends the life of the winningest coach in major college history and also one of someone who stayed in Happy Valley for more than half of his life. His donations to and his love of Penn State is known my pretty much anyone who has heard JoePa’s name.

Paterno in November 2010 (photo by Jeremy Kahn via Flickr's creative commons license)

Though his final months were doused in controversy because of the alleged dirty doings of a former assistant coach, I personally don’t think his legacy is tarnished. He still did much for that University.

One could argue that he should have done more with the Jerry Sandusky situation. That’s a fair argument. Morally, should he have done more? Probably so. But, legally, he did what he was supposed to do. I understand both sides of the argument and I’m not going to get into one here. Everyone is entitled to believe what they want.

I still think Paterno got railroaded at the end, which is a shame — especially looking at how his final months unfolded. But he had tremendous support as was evident.

I went to college at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, which is about a 20-minute ride to State College. Needless to say, during my years at The Haven, I knew all about Penn State and its athletics.

JoePa was loved indeed.

Though I never attended a football game at PSU (probably a silly move, eh?) I did venture to State College a bit. I explored the campus once or twice, saw a few other athletic contests and did have the chance to see the stadium.

And, I saw JoePa.

It only happened once. I had gone to this restaurant a few times and had been told it was one of Paterno’s favorite spots. I didn’t think I’d ever see him as it was apparently his “breakfast choice.”

Alas, one night a few of us went to State College and ate at the place. Soon after we arrived, JoePa and his wife came in. They ate not far from us, so we got to see the legendary coach. People said hi as they walked by and he greeted them the same. But nobody bothered him. No autographs. Nothing. They let the man be.

That’s the way it should be.

It was quite cool to see this legendary figure as a member of this small community. Embedded in it.

He was an amazing football coach and one of the best things to ever happen to Penn State. He’ll be missed by many, in football and in life. Rest in Peace, JoePa.

—

When owning a blog, you really see some interesting comments.

Though spam is awful for your e-mail inboxes, sometimes blog spam comments can be quite funny. (Photo Eddie Awad via Flickr commons)

Many comments are spam and need to just be deleted. But I like to read some of them before I delete them. Why? Because they are quite interesting and funny.

Usually, however, they make no sense.

It’s pretty simple to figure out the spam because you get random comments on posts where the comment makes no sense or on posts that are several years old.

A post of mine from the Day Zero Project — about traveling to five new cities — recently got a comment. It made NO sense whatsoever.

I realize that it might have picked up on some key words or something or maybe it’s because the post was about some travel of sorts, but it still didn’t make full sense as to why this comment would just show up, outside the fact that its spam.

One day while driving, I came to a stop at a red light. I looked both ways and made sure no one was coming, then proceeded to make a left turn. A few seconds later it hits me — you can only make a right on red. I felt like such an idiot.

I will admit it made me laugh.

Though I try to make sure these spam messages don’t make it through, I do give credit that at least some of them can be a bit funny!

—

You’ll remember that I had my personal stand with the legislation PIPA and SOPA last week?

I thought I’d give a quick update.

Apparently the Internet blackout work as both pieces of legislation have been pulled for now. That’s not to say they won’t come back at some point. I’m sure those who worked on these two will want to find a way to get them back, albeit with some workings.

I looked at many of the people in Congress who switched over on these bills and like that they did. They seemed to see the light — if even just in saying it. The reality is this — America talked and Congress finally listened. Things can happen when done in ways like this.

Protests don’t always have to be taking over public parks and making them slum palaces. There doesn’t always need to be a march, or people getting together in places all over the country.

Sometimes it can be quick, clean and effective. You just need to have a definite agenda, a hope for a resolution and an actual plan for what to do. This one-day blackout worked effectively and was way more successful than some other protests that have been going on for months with seemingly no true direction.

I applaud the country for getting this done, especially some of the Internet’s biggest sites who showed that getting people together in something like this can work wonders.

Again, these bills could slip back soon enough, so we — as  country — need to make sure we can stand for what we believe in. And I’m a firm believe that piracy needs to be stopped, somehow. Just in a different way than these two bills were showing.

Stay proud, America. The Internet is safe, for now.

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!

Will the blackout be enough to help stop SOPA and PIPA?

Wikipedia went dark for 24 hours to protest SOPA and PIPA.

As most regular readers know, I’m not a political person.

I don’t bring politics on this blog because I find that it’s one of the most explosive and one-sided topics out there. By one-sided, I mean this: The person making the argument is going to be right. His or her opponents are going to be right. Why is everyone right? Because the majority of the time, there’s not going to be any bending. People have their beliefs and usually they won’t be swayed.

So I avoid it.

But the blackout that happened with some Internet sites yesterday — Wikipedia had a full blackout of its English language site — to oppose legislation being considered in the U.S. Congress was an admirable gesture.

Did it work?

Google blacked out its logo and linked to a page so people could sign a petition to oppose the legislation.

Only time will tell. What is being opposed are two pieces of legislation that could censor parts of the Internet. It’s being backed by the entertainment industry, which is screaming for this as a way to stop online piracy.

Wikipedia did post some startling statistics and notes from the day of the blackout. It’s worth a read. Check it out here. (There’s a ton of interesting things there, but one thing that stood out to me? More than 162 million saw the Wikipedia blackout page, according to Wikipedia).

The two bills — and maybe you’ve heard of them or seen these being talked about online — are SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act). Wikipedia also gives you two links where you can track the progress of the bills through GovTrack — SOPA and PIPA.

I can’t even begin to say I could explain these whole acts. Click the links above and they will take you to the Wikipedia page explaining each act. I’ve read a lot and don’t know if I can grasp it all, but I know this much — we should try and see what’s going on here because the future of the Internet as we know it could be on the line.

Look, I don’t agree with online piracy. I realize it needs to stop. But to have these pieces of legislation pass through — with vague writing and everything else — could possibly give too much power to people in the government and elsewhere. The normal Joe — Joe Plumber — could go to jail or be sued for something extremely small.

It could, essentially, be crippling.

I’ve spent a lot of time looking at all of this. I’m not sure I even fully understand it. But there are some great things out there for people to read to try and get a grasp on what this legislation is actually about.

Do you realize that parts of these bills could mean if you sing an artist’s song, record it and put it on YouTube that you could go to jail?

Seriously.

I’m not a fan of Justin Bieber. But he got his start doing this very thing. Find out more info about the bills and hear Bieber’s response to all of this at the website freebieber.org.

One thing is for sure — I don’t need the people in Washington deciding how I use the Internet. Or how I get information. Or if  I want to put a family video up with a song playing in the background. I’m not trying to make money off it. Leave it be.

As a journalist, I am a firm believer in the constitution and what it stands for. It seems those in Washington who support this bill might not believe in it so much. This is the reality — there are a bunch of an older generation in Washington getting ready to vote on a bill that could hamper the growth of technology and the Internet for future generations. I don’t think that should happen, personally.

That small group will decide this.

One group.

Speak up, America.

Here’s a very good video about these bills and what it could mean to all of us, from fightforthefuture.org:

If you follow the link to their website, you can also write congress directly from there and voice your opinion about these bills.

All I ask is that you see what these bills are all about. Speak your mind. Tell your congress people what you think. This is our future. The future of the upcoming generations.

Remember that genius comes from the craziest places. There are some phenomenal internet-based companies that could be shut down or sued because of these bills. Blogs could come under fire for sharing content. Sites people love — YouTube, Facebook etc. — could all get into trouble for having things that are protected. Users could get in trouble.

The Internet as we know it could be done.

Please read some stuff about it. Get educated. Sign the petition if you are against it. But make sure your voice is heard.

The future of the Internet could be in danger, so get your say in while you have the chance.

Google has a lot of information about these bills. This could be a good place to start (and there’s even a place to sign a petition there): End Piracy, Not Liberty.

My final plea is to take a stand against censorship. Do your part. This goes beyond politics. This goes beyond partisan thinking. This is life. Life as we know it. Don’t let the future be dictated by the few people in Washington who are more worried about the bigwigs in the Entertainment industry and their lobbyists.

Speak up before it’s too late.

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!