A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

A 'lil HooHaa

Looking to swap buttons or links with other bloggers

This post won’t be for the normal reader of this blog, unless you are a fellow blogger and are looking to swap buttons and/or links with me.

I’ve noticed, in recent years, small ads on the sidebars of other blogs. Digging further, through sponsor “links,” I see people sell these spots, or they trade spots with another blogger. They also only do a certain amount, and also on a limited time.

I’m OK with that. And if I had some extra scratch laying around, I’d probably sponsor a few blogs. Alas, I don’t.

I honestly don’t want to get into having paying ads on the blog. First, it’s a pain in the rear. There’s a cool site that will help with your ad sales, but it costs $9 per month. If I don’t make at lead $15-20 per month, then there’s no point in it.

And it’s not like I get a ton of hits where it’s worth paying me too much money.

Maybe I’m wrong. But for now, I’m going away from that.

So, here’s what I’m going to be doing — swaps.

I’m going to have a setup on my right sidebar called “Friends,” or “Friends of A ‘lil HooHaa.” Basically, whichever one fits best, I will use. I will take up to 10-12 buttons to put in that spot. The basis is going to be a trade. You feature mine, I feature yours.

What I need — a 100×100 ad (if you have it on Photobucket or elsewhere, that would be best — or if you already have an HTML setup with the link — even better). I’ll send you the link to mine on Photobucket (whatever size you use), and give you the link.

I’ll try and figure out how to do it so I can send you one code with all the info and hopefully it will be done before I get too many!

I do reserve the right to deny anybody on this. I won’t deny most, but any “adult” sites or blogs I think my readers may not like, I won’t use. Also, this is for personal blogs/networks only. I’m not set up for businesses as of now.

That being said, if you are a business and want me to review some stuff, I’m all for it. Just contact me as I would love to partner up with some cool things to review or write about.

The other thing I will do is a linkup. You can notice in my sidebar, I have a blogroll. From this point on, links will be put there on an exchange setup. You link me, I link you. I’ll still add links to other sites and my favorite blogs, but if I am going to do that, I’ll likely be doing a page elsewhere on the site — so it wouldn’t be on the main page.

Note 1: This is going to just be in the sidebar and I’m not going to place ads in posts or anything to disturb the normal aspect of the blog. But it’s also a way to hopefully allow others to find different blogs and maybe have some more fun things to read!

Note 2: To my readers — any time I am in a situation where I might have a sponsored post or reviewing something given to me for the reason of review, I will disclose it in the post. If you don’t see this disclosure on a review (say for books), it means I paid for it and I am reviewing on my own.

My contact info is below.

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

Summer softball is still a blast, despite fewer players, teams

It’s that time of the year.

What a difference a year makes.

The softball team I run is out to a 6-0 start, despite not always having 10 players on the field. I’m not sure what’s different between this year and last, but things are clicking a little bit better.

And I’m all for it.

We’ve scored a lot of runs, too. Everybody seems to be hitting, we’re playing decent defense and it appears the fun factor is back in the game. We’re still not without flaws, though, as we’ve yet to field consistent team and lineup. We have our core players who make every game, but outside of that, we’re filling in spots as we go along.

As the guy putting the lineup in the book, that can be maddening!

One thing I’ve realized in recent years is how softball — at least at the modified fast pitch level — in our area is really a dying sport. When I started playing softball more than 20 years ago, this area was a hotbed. There were no fewer than five solid leagues within a 50-mile radius or so. They were all pretty solid, too.

The local league was a consistent 10-12 teams. The one up the road had two divisions that held probably 10-12 teams in each, as well as a solid women’s league. The league I’m in now was also large and the others were solid in their own right.

I still love stepping on a softball field and giving all I can. It helps keep you young.

Back then, we didn’t even need to wear helmets!

In my “prime,” I played in three leagues. Basically, I played every night of the week — sometimes two games. It was so much fun and something I’m glad I had the chance to do.

Weekends were often filled with tournaments. That pretty much meant from May to late August, softball was life. And it was worth it.

During my top year or two, I approached the 100-game mark. I know some guys in our area still do that, but it’s with slow pitch and such. We did all modified pitch, which is as close to baseball as any other softball in my mind. It’s pitching, defense, hitting and strategy. Run and gun, bunt or bomb long homers.

Each year, we’d go to states or nationals, too. Talk about a heap of fun — it was at those tournaments.

Things have certainly changed.

People don’t, as often, bring their families and play softball. There’s golf leagues, and other things to do. Softball continues to die out. Though there are still some hardcore players (and it’s a shame they didn’t play in the earlier years when I did — they’d have loved it), there aren’t as many.

The game is changing, that’s for sure.

I still love playing. I go on game nights and want to win. I give it what I can for a couple of hours, grab a bite to eat and maybe a cold one and call it a night.

I once thought I’d play softball until I was well into my 50s and 60s. Now I’m not sure how far I’ll be playing once I hit my 40s. It might not be by choice, either.

Until all of that happens, I’ll continue this year. Hopefully we can keep playing well and maybe make a run in the playoffs when the time comes.

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: 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!

A ‘lil HooHaa: State of the Blog

My fellow readers and bloggers, welcome to this year’s State of the Blog Address. I’d like to first thank everyone for stopping by, reading my words, commenting, linking, liking or tweeting. I’ve noticed an upswing in visits recently, and for that I am humbly thankful.

We here at HooHaa Nation strive to be a strong and viable blog. While we know that everything isn’t perfect and we don’t fit a certain niche, we feel this blog is carving its own spot in the blogosphere.

A ‘lil HooHaa started out no more than a small personal blog with a bunch of BS on it. It has grown a little and became more of a place for different items to be posted. In time, it’s grown to be a potpourri blog of all sorts of things — geocaching, sports, real life, current events, photography, hiking, disc golf etc.

That’s what makes this place “a ‘lil HooHaa.”

It’s unfortunate that I can’t find that one little niche to go forward in and make this blog something that a certain factor of people would follow all the time. Alas, with real life, it’s tough to focus on, say geocaching or disc golf or something along those lines all the time.

Plus, I’m not sure I’d have enough to say to cover those topics full time.

That being said, it’s nice to see when you hit a certain spot, you get the readers and such. For example, my post recently on the Vibram Open was my largest single-day count for visitors (since I started keeping those stats in February). It was magnificent!

Though it went down after that day, the reality is, this blog has grown to average more than 3,000 visitors per month and for that, I thank you the readers.

I hope this site continues to grow.

So what is in store for the coming year or so of the HooHaa Blog? A lot, I hope. A lot of growth. A lot of good content. And a lot of good ideas.

I hope, anyway.

***

To, hopefully, make the blog better, I have made some changes.

The biggest is probably the commenting system.

I switched to the disqus comment system. This is a plugin that eliminates the original WordPress comment system.

This system is much better (I’ve tested it on another “fake” blog I set up to check things out). The replies to people are much better, it allows people to comment by using social networking sign-ins (I won’t be having them all) and you can still just log as a guest with your name and website address. It’s extremely simple, so if there are any issues, drop me an e-mail and I’ll help you out.

If you are going to just post as a guest, type your comment and click in the “post as” box. In there, you’ll see many options to post. If going as normal, just put your e-mail address (required as was before), your name and, if you want to add your web address, click the link that says “Optional: Link to your website.”

I notice many websites are using this system, so I’m sure you’ve all used this already anyway! And, if for some reason I decide I don’t like it, I can go back to the old system without any issues. (All comments are still there, they are just transferring over to the new system. They should be done soon. If not, I’ll be going back to the old system very quickly).

Another change that has been done is adding social sharing icons at the bottom of each post. If you liked a post, like it on Facebook! Or tweet it. Or make note of it at StumbledUpon. Or give it a “+1” on Google Plus. All of those options are at the bottom each individual post. I thank you in advance for any of these things you do!

One other change — or addition — is contests. The first one is currently going on (see the quick note at the bottom of this post) and my hope and plan is to do a contest every few weeks. There are many things I am giving away (and have received some donations recently, too), so hopefully as the contests continue, more and more people will enter and win some good stuff.

If you have other ideas, hook me up with them! If you think you have something that might make a good blog post, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

***

Besides the changes that have been made, there’s more coming.

  • In-depth journalistic-type posts. I have been working on a few series of stories that I hope to share with my readers. As many of you know, I was a journalist for many years and I still like to dive into those types of things. Though these won’t be hard-hitting news stories, I am hoping that the feature-like approach will be an attraction. Some of the topics I have been working on are long-distance hiking, professional wrestling and disc golf. All have been compelling so far and I hope they will be when I am done with the projects. I am looking for more ideas, too.
  • Guest bloggers. I am hoping that I can work it out to get some good writers/bloggers to come aboard and do a guest post. I’d be more than willing to do ones for others, too. I won’t publish just anything, however. There needs to be a distinct topic being covered (can be pretty much anything) and be written well (in other words, no Internet shorthand, proper grammar, spelling etc.) IF you would like to be a guest blogger here, drop me a note so we can work it out! I have three or four people already interested and hope to add more to this list!
  • Photoblog integration. This is not a guarantee, but a hope. For those who don’t know, I have a daily photoblog. It’s something I’ve had for years, but I would love to be able to integrate it into this blog and have them work together. However, I don’t want to bring it all over here if things don’t transfer well.

***

I have had this blog since 2005 in different “lives.” Since February, I’ve done a lot to try and make it a place to come for some interesting reading. I hope that can continue. I’ve seen the page views raise on the blog and it’s starting to average upwards of 2,500 or more visitors per month. That’s a good thing and I hope that continues as it helps me continue to do this on a daily basis.

And for those of you just reading, thanks for coming. But feel free, too, to drop a comment or two at times. I love hearing from readers!

***

Reminder! Contest going on! I am holding my first (of hopefully many) contests this week. It runs from Sept. 11- to 12:01 a.m. Sept. 18. You can see all the details on the contest post. Enter for your chance to win!

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!