A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

blogging

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!

****

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?

****

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!

****

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.

****

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! 

 

Thank you for adding nothing to the conversation!

I often view comments on blogs as a place for conversation.

Sometimes it’s one-sided — the readers make their comments and move on. Sometimes, it’s more of a conversation where there is some dialogue. But in the end, it’s a place for someone to view their thoughts and/or opinions about what you have written.

There are other times where you just wonder what the heck is going on.

I know I’ve tackled this topic before and I think it’s time to re-visit it.

It’s all about the SPAM bots.

For those that don’t know what SPAM bots are, they are automated accounts that go around to blogs and message boards and other Internet sites and comment with bizarre things. There are instances where it really seems like a real person. They have profile photos and the whole nine yards. Until you see the links they leave as their website etc. Then it all comes together that they are SPAM bots.

And SPAM bots are downright annoying.

Still, the comments they leave can be rather humorous. It makes you wonder what kind of things they look for when they post to blogs. In the past several days, many have leaked through here and reached my e-mail. They were eventually flagged as SPAM and I didn’t have to see them in the comments filter, but the e-mails were funny enough.

That made me think this was a good time to share a few and the insanity that is SPAM bots.

The first doozy comes on a post about Peyton Manning. Our friendly reader says:

I do not even know the way I finished up here, but I assumed this publish used to be great. I do not recognize who you are however definitely you’re going to a well-known blogger if you aren’t already. Cheers!

It’s all good here because I don’t recognize who this person is, either!

A while back I wrote a post about wondering if I would do the college life again. Somebody appears to have found this post and here’s what the person had to say:

Hi there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it’s truly informative. I’m gonna watch out for brussels. I will be grateful if you continue this in future. A lot of people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!

I think I am going to watch out for brussels, too!

What in the world does that even mean??

Also a while back, I wrote a post about Jim Thome being one of the good ones in the game of baseball. Someone stumbled across this post and it appears they wanted to comment…

I’m now not sure where you are getting your information, however great topic. I needs to spend some time learning more or working out more. Thanks for magnificent info I used to be in search of this information for my mission.

An opinion piece… and wondering where my info came from?

You need to spend more time not being a SPAM bot!

On my post about needing some ideas, two people posted! And boy did they have some fantastic ideas!

Coach purse is a totally fashionable brand in a extraordinarily believable price.Good quality of products of the late-model tutor leather discharge leather-ku,mentor,and trainer outlets,specialty hoard brands and offers first-class transcribe at take price.Delivered in outspoken shipping.

And…

Tods Shoes UK Stockpile Take care of A Series Products of 100% Legitimate Tod’s Shoes For Mens & Womens Online,For twopence Tods Shoes On Exchange With the Most Favourable Honorarium 65%-79% Dippy, Most appropriate Worth and Set free Shipping Worldwide.

Well thank you very much!

I thank goodness for SPAM filters each day because it would be entirely too hard to delete every single one each day.

Keep in mind that I’ve had this site for a long time, but the stats of SPAM are simply amazing. Akismet — a plugin that snags known SPAM — has done its work on my site, capturing 160,907 SPAM comments. Yes, that number is right.

160,907!

Sheesh!

Currently there are 9,178 comments in the SPAM queue.

Not for long.

It’s a bit ridiculous how it all works, but it gives a small piece of entertainment every once in a while to see what kind of idiotic things these SPAM bots post.

Then it’s fun to rid the site of them fully.

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! 

It’s time to to rattle the chains

Just a quick note today as I’m working on a few things, from job applications to a new blog — which is my main thing here today.

Starting Monday, I’m adding a second blog to my life. This one is niche-based, however, and will be different than A ‘lil HooHaa.

It’s about disc golf.

Now I realize there are other disc golf communities out there — from forums to disc review to course review. There are club blogs and ones based on stores and such. There are places, like Yahoo! Sports where you can find some stories each week about tournaments, who won and the such. All that is great and are good sources for disc golf. There’s even an amazing Vlog (video blog) where the person interviews some of the top names in disc golf. That is a fun thing to watch.

But I want more.

I realize, too, that some pros have their own websites and blogs. But with their schedules, sometimes it’s hit-or-miss when those blogs are updated and what kind of topics they cover. I also don’t just want the voice of the blogger or the writer — I want to know about the personalities in this sport.

With my sports writing background, this seemed like a perfect fit. I wanted stories. I wanted information. I want to read something I enjoy, not just an extended tournament wrap.

Back in September, I did a post about my experiences at the Vibram Open.

A month or so later, I did some posts about the Happy Endings (TV show) “Frolf” episode.

I was amazed at the outpouring of views and comments about these. That led me to believe there was room for something in the disc golf community that has more of a journalistic feel.

So I thought a bit about it. Looked for a disc golf name — hence the “RattlingChains.com.”

Over the next several months, I used a few contacts to get in touch with some of the top names in disc golf. I’ve done hours worth of interviews and have been writing quite a bit to prepare for the launch. I’ve made other contacts with people about photos and all sorts of things and hope to have some cool content.

Ready or not, we launch Monday.

Though I don’t have as many stories in the “can” as I would like, I have a bunch to get me flowing. And I have a lot of ideas and many more stories to write. I’m hoping over time, disc golfers give me ideas to follow. Maybe something about some players in their area. I’m all about learning new things and telling stories. I don’t want this to be all New York based or pro-based. I want to tell any good disc golf story.

If all works out, maybe there’s even a few disc golfers out there who want to write a few stories for us!

There’s going to be giveaways, contests and all sorts of things. We’ll have weekly polls and I’m even in talks with a couple of pros about blogging periodically with us. I hope that latter part goes well, but only time will tell there.

Hopefully, it will be a whole heap of fun as we’ve put a lot of planning into this site.

I won’t be giving up here, though.

As I noted in yesterday’s blog post, I have all sorts of ideas and I don’t want to let this site go to waste. I love this blog and I love blogging overall. And that makes me want to test my luck with a niche blog. Maybe it’s something I can do to take the next step in life. It’s a hobby for now, but let’s see where it goes, right?

In the end, it will be a place I can get into “journalistic sports writing” again, as well as the normal blog fare. I’m excited about that. The pros and players I’ve talked to and interviewed for stories have made me really look forward to this.

For those of you who are disc golfers, I hope you’ll check out the blog and enjoy it. Monday will be a post showing what the plans are and then we’ll get right into it soon after. We’re aiming for 3-4 posts per week to start off and then grow once we have more ideas and things to do.

The site is up now so you can see what it looks like — click here.

You can also like our page on Facebook (which would be super awesome for you to do!) by clicking here.

And if you have Twitter, follow us by clicking here.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank a few others who have helped with the project and hopefully will continue to work with and help as we move forward. Darren has been amazingly big in coming up with some ideas and many things for our contests. Dave has helped with some ideas and hopefully, when time allows, he’ll be able to give us a few stories. And Dave’s brother, Ben, designed the super-awesome logos. So a special thanks to those three.

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: Feb. 29

I’ve been trying to organize life here at A ‘lil HooHaa lately.

See, there’s a new blog a few of us have been working on. If all goes well, it will launch this upcoming Monday. It’s a niche blog, so it will stick to one topic. I will have more information on this probably this weekend. I just want to make sure we have everything in order before saying anything as we had hoped to have launched already, but some real-life things got in the way. Such is the life of a non-commercial blog.

With that in mind, I wanted to make sure I organized my personal blog a bit more so that I can do both with no issues, especially once I become gainfully employed again.

So, I have some things I’m working on here.

I’ll still be covering a lot of the same things I do now and I’m working on a few more in-depth journalistic style pieces. But I’m going to be working on a few more “fun” and “quick” things, so if I feel I need filler for a day, I have it.

This might include some of those wacky quizzes you see people fill out or challenges.

By challenges, I mean the ones that seem to pop up all over the place every day. They come in 7-day, 10-day and 30-day challenges. Some are even longer. Some shorter.

The idea is to do something for that amount of time each day.

For example, it could be a photo challenge. So for 30 days, they give you themes and you have to fill it. It can be about a movie. It can be about you. About friends. Family. Health. Whatever. There are so many of them.

Go check out this Tumblr page if you want some ideas. So many of them.

My plan won’t be to actually do the challenge as planned — I’m going to do them HooHaa style, baby! That means I’ll be doing full challenges in one blog post. Offline it might take me some time to do them, but when I bring it to you here, it will be in one post with all the answers.

I’m also going to be doing some fun things such as a joke/riddle of the week (most likely both) in one post. I’m going to bring back those “What’s going on this week” things. And I’m going to branch out to do some baseball card scans and such.

Again, I’m not changing anything else. If things are going on, I’ll do the normal thing. Heck, that might mean more than one post a day. But I want to have a few more fun things, too. Just to make it a little easier on me when needed.

I have a lot of cool thinks cooking here at A ‘lil HooHaa. It won’t be going anywhere. I just want to tweak a little.

***

Today is February 29.

If you are on FourSquare, make sure you mention Leap Day to get the sweet badge for this special day!

I know, nothing special. Or is it?

Of course it is! It’s Leap Day! Sweet!

This fine day only happens once every four years (usually). There are rare times it doesn’t happen, but it’s all how the world works.

Anyway, so this is a great day.

See, first of all, 29 is my favorite number, so it’s sweet to see February get this day. Second, there’s always cool little things with this day.

Take FourSquare, for example. The social game is giving a special badge out today, so make sure you get it!

For you geocachers out there, you can get a special souvenir by finding a cache today!

Welcome to the game, February!

There are many events, too. I was planning on heading out to one later, but it turns out Mother Nature is making this area a bit bad today with snow (during the winter? Who knew?), followed by sleet and freezing rain. Add all that together and a trip to Albany for a geocaching event doesn’t sound so fun.

Or necessary.

So if you’re a cacher, hopefully you get the chance to find a cache or hit up an event!

For me, it’s an extra day in the year and is the reason behind me doing the 366 challenge.

I’m hoping to find something good to shoot. I already have taken a few photos, but maybe I can find some other things. I’m a little stuck, however, as I don’t want to leave town with this weather, so I’m kind of looking around here. Something will come along, I’m sure.

***

A quick add on here as I just saw the news that Davy Jones died at the age of 66 today.

I still remember (re-runs, anyway) the Monkees show. I really enjoyed it. I actually have a bunch of their music, too. I was always a fan of that group and Davy Jones was always fun to see in television shows and wherever else.

It’s a sad day for music. Though The Monkees were a made-for-TV group, they really went past that and became part of a culture and a time period.  Remember, Marcia from the Brady Bunch really thought Davy was “dreamy” and “groovy.”

Davy Jones was heading into the Northeast sometime in May for a tour and I had actually debated going and seeing him. It’s a shame that chance will never come for me and for many others who probably would have loved to see him perform.

Here are a couple of YouTube videos:

The Monkees theme song:

Daydream Believer (probably my favorite Monkees song):

***

I have only been summoned for jury duty once in my life. I was stoked, too. Two days before, however, it got canceled and I was done. Since then, I’ve never been called back.

I always thought it would be something to serve on a jury. It’s a duty not to be taken lightly and it’s one people should embrace because they are being part of the judicial process.

Apparently, one dude thought he had an out.

See, turns out this maroon was serving his duty as a juror in an auto negligence case, according to the Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Fla. The defendant, a young woman, must have caught the eye of this guy because he started to look around, apparently, for her.

And he found her on Facebook.

He ended up sending her a friend request on Facebook, which is obviously a no-no as jurors should not be contacting the people involved in the case. See, this guy apparently thought the gal looked familiar and with more than 1,300 Facebook pals, he wasn’t sure if she was a friend or not. When he found her on Facebook (via his phone), he claims he tried to press the “mutual friends” button, but actually hit the “friend request” button, according to the newspaper report.

That’s not good, right?

Though he said he knew the request would be sent to the defendant, he didn’t say anything during the jury selection. And, he ended up on the seven-member jury.

The guy, whose last name is Jock, said he hoped she’d forget about it and thought it wasn’t that big of a deal because it was a mistake.

The defendant obviously saw the request, told here lawyer, who told the judge. That got this guy removed from the jury.

Oh, but the story doesn’t end there.

This Einstein then bragged about getting dismissed to his legion of pals on Facebook.

Score … I got dismissed!! apparently they frown upon sending a friend request to the defendant … haha.

Really?

The end result?

Three days in the lock up on a criminal contempt of court misdemeanor. The newspaper reported he was handcuffed and taken out of the courtroom as his girlfriend cried.

Said the judge, after a two-hour hearing:

I cannot think of a more insidious threat to the erosion of democracy than citizens who do not care.

Fully agreed there.

A bit of advice to future people on a jury — take it serious. You are doing a part that in an important process in our country. It’s not a joke and shouldn’t be taken as such.

***

I’m shocked at the amount of people looking to meet me recently.

It’s like I’m a celebrity.

I’m not sure how to react to all of this, so I’m taking my time sifting through all the e-mails and such. See, it seems like there are people from all over the world who want to meet me. Want to see a couple of these awesome e-mails?

i’m Alice

!There are many good moments in a life…You certainly will be happy. Let’s meet?

write to me please.

Kiss.

Alesia

We’ll have to get rid of Alesia. I don’t like bad grammar and not capitalizing things. I could send an autograph, I imagine, if that’s what she would like.

I’m Alisa
Being with a man, makes me feel happiness.
Let’s communicate?
Waiting on your turn.

I wonder if this is the same person and changing the spelling of her name? Sheesh! But waiting on my turn? Are we playing a board game or something? I’ll communicate — lose my e-mail address!

Salute! I’m Lesechka. I’m 22.I saw your photos in brother’s account and decided write to you.

Some time ago I break with my boyfriend and now I am single. So if you want to chat with me please… write me something interesting about you.

Something interesting…

OK, I got it.

I don’t know you. You didn’t see me in your brother’s account. You’re a Spam Bot. Go away.

Sometimes, however, you just have to e-mail these people back. For kicks. Something has to return, right? I mean they are all looking for love and romance, after all.

Here’s an exchange I had with one person.

The initial letter:

So I’m  happy that I have  meet with reliable man.
My name is Irina, doing gymnastics since childhood and I love swimming.
I’m blonde with blue eyes.

Hope get more information about you.

I liked your snapshot, and I wanna meet you.

Hope read you soon

Sounds like Irina is quite the keeper, eh? Not sure where she saw my snapshot, though. So, I was curious. Let’s see if she knows me. (Note that this e-mail is for an account I have set up for junk mail signups and all, so it has no personal stuff at all).

Me:

I bet you can get into some great positions with that gymnastics background, huh?

Let’s get it on!

Where did you see my snapshot though? I don’t put that online. You stalking me?

I figured that response would get her attention, eh? Internet love with some chick overseas… I’m in!

Her response:

Hey! Hi!

I recently registered on the website (clipped… looked like a site heading to Russia), and uploaded my photo. Write me PM, cuz I hate email.
If you are interested, you can see my pictures.

compose me your minds.

That was the end of that chat. It’s unfortunate, too. It had such a good beginning. I’ll have to compose her my mind one day to see if she eventually found happiness in this cruel world.

***

Time for a riddle.

I will post the answer to this in the comments later tonight sometime. But until I do, feel free to answer away in the comments section.

A black dog stands in the middle of an intersection in a town painted black.

None of the street lights are working because of a power failure cause by a recent storm.

A car with two broken headlights drives toward the dog but turns in time to avoid hitting the pooch.

How could the drive have seen the dog to turn away in time?

(Riddles.com)

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!

What in the blog is being said? Is this a crossover post?

What the heck is going on in the blog world?

Seriously.

Every once in a while, I do a google search for blog ideas. My thought is that I can get a few things to jot down in my little red moleskine (where I store all my secret blog ideas!) and later think a little bit more to see if I can turn something into a good and entertaining post.

Everywhere I look, however, it seems these other blogs are giving people great ideas.

But they don’t do them.

Say what?

There are so many blogs out there right now that seem to be designed to help you market your blog, or make your blog better, or give you topics YOU should write about. They talk about advertising and how to aim toward your niche.

Apparently, they are experts.

But as you surf their sites, there’s nothing about these topics. All it is is more “blah blah blah” on how they can help improve your blog. The funny part is, they have advertising and such. And I think I have it figured.

It’s all about Internet searches.

See, people (me included) are searching for ideas. And these people claim to have them.

Allow me to show an example. Below is a small group of a list on the blog “I Help You Blog.” (Note: the last blog entry to said site is from 2009). This blog has a list of 101 great posting ideas that will make your blog sizzle.

Here’s a small sample of what I found (a random 10 items were grabbed):

  1. Make a post about how things have changed from the past.
  2. Make a post that expands on someone else’s post.
  3. Create a post that incorporates the words, “desperate” and “futile”.
  4. Make a post alleging a conspiracy (e.g., Is there a Digg Bury Brigade?).
  5. Make a post that encourages visitors to subscribe by offering a reward.
  6. Make a post that involves New York City, London, San Francisco or Sydney.  For example, review a local business.
  7. Make a post that incorporates in the title the word “crossover”.
  8. Create a post that utilizes a bar chart or pie chart.
  9. Create a post that has a cliff hanger to be answered in a later post.
  10. Make a post about pitfalls in your niche.

Any time I see something with “someone else’s post” I cringe. And what in the world is using words desperate and futile going to do to a personal blog such as mine?

Here’s the conspiracy post — people thinking they are blog experts and making a list of junk!

I did No. 7, just because I thought it was fitting to do something this person said, eh?

In reality, a blog is what one makes of it. Sure, I can go elsewhere and get ideas, but in the end, I have to make it my own. So when looking for inspiration, people usually need more than being told to create a post with a bar chart or pie chart?

Why do I need that in a post?

Well, let’s see…

As you can see, those coming to A ‘lil HooHaa enjoy the awesome reading. It’s the leader in the clubhouse on this scientific bar chart, as you’ll see by the longer (and thicker) bar. The fun factor is also high. However, researching blog topics is lower than the other two. Work, of course, is fourth on the line seeing as there is not currently a lot of work at A ‘lil HooHaa.

Tell me something, oh faithful readers, does this add anything to this post, outside the humor aspect?

I thought not.

I guess I could make a post about pitfalls in my niche. However, my niche is the world as I see it. And I’m not sure that would help my cause in the end.

“The pitfalls in this niche is me, because I am the writer of this blog. However, I don’t see this as a pitfall at this moment, because I am on an upward jaunt to the sky of blogging. You see, with this fantastic advice, I am going to live long, prosper and blog.”

Done.

I do realize that a lot of these “blog helpers” are aimed more toward companies and the such. Places looking to make a buck. But still, wouldn’t it make sense to show some inspiration?

Don’t get me wrong, there are some good spots out there to find some inspiration. Other bloggers, lists, quizzes and whatnot. There are things out there, you just need to find them. It’s not easy to do a daily blog, even if it’s personal in nature. Sometimes you just get the blank.

But it’s all good.

Just don’t fall victim to silly topics or ideas. Unless, of course, you have a way to make it a little fun!

As for more on this topic, is this the end? Or will there be more? Oh my… I’m giving you that cliff hanger! You’ll have to come back to see if I continue this some other time!

The top image is, of course, a parody of sorts to Ralph Wiggum and his English situation on The Simpsons. I’ll leave you on this President’s Day Monday with that clip…

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!