A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

blogging

20 Days of Chill 2024: Hello … (Day 7)

In dog, “Woof” is proper for hello. Or a lick to the face. Give or take.

First, Harper says hello. 

How can I have a post about “hello” if Harper doesn’t say it. 

Alas, from that photo … I change directions a little. Hello is such a simple word. Over the past several months, I’ve made it a point to say hi or hello to somebody as I walk by them. Usually it’s when I’m out walking Harper. So many people, me included, have stopped doing this in life. 

Yet, it’s such a simple act of friendliness. 

I have found that many people won’t say it back. They keep their heads down and keep moving. That’s fine and totally their prerogative. 

I like doing it, though, as maybe it makes somebody smile or puts them into a situation to take a deep breath and know people do notice you. 

But maybe you want to throw a wrench into things. If that’s the case, maybe say hello to somebody in a different language. 

Here are some options: 

  • English: Hello 
  • Dutch: Hallo
  • Danish: Hej
  • Finnish: Hei 
  • French: Bonjour 
  • German: Hallo 
  • Hawaiian: Aloha
  • Icelandic: Halló
  • Irish (Gaelic): Dia dhuit
  • Italian: Ciao
  • Japanese: Pronounced “konnichiwa” 
  • Marshallese: Yokwe
  • Mongolian: Pronounced “sain baina uu”
  • Nepali: Pronounced “namaste”
  • Norwegian: Hei
  • Polish: Cze??
  • Portuguese: Olá
  • Punjabi: Pronounced “sat sri akaal”
  • Spanish: Hola
  • Swedish: Hej 
  • Vietnamese: Xin chào

No matter how you do it – say hello to somebody today and every day!

Linkup for Day 7:

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

20 Days of Chill 2024: If I had a million dollars … (Day 6)

If you know me, you know I’m a bit of a daydreamer. 

I love the “If I won the lottery…” sort of dreams or talks. They are fun. And yes, I do play the lotto. The app Jackpocket makes it so much easier, too. I put some money in my account and when I feel like playing, I do. 

OK, quick shill and side note here. If you play the lotto and are like me and forget to get tickets when the pot is big, that’s why I started using Jackpocket. I will admit it’s a little too easy, at times, to buy other tickets. But if you want the ease of it and your state allows it, sign up. BUT, use my referral link (https://jackpocket.com/referrals/3n3gao)! We’ll each get a few extra bucks in our account!

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled blog post! 

So if you had a million dollars… would you be like the Barenaked Ladies and get a K-car? Or would you do something else? 

Unfortunately, a cool million wouldn’t allow me to retire. But it could make life a lot better, right? When I was younger, this post would have been full of a lot of things to just have materialistic goods. And while I can’t say I wouldn’t want to splurge a little, my priorities have changed. 

Back to the question at hand – if I had a million dollars … 

  • Pay off my house 
  • Do necessary work to my house
  • Pay off my car
  • Pay off other bills
  • Spoil the hell out of Harper …

As you can see, none of these would be shockers. I’d be completely out of debt, and would be able to do what I would like to the house/yard etc. I’d likely take a trip or two. And maybe create/produce another geocoin or two. 

And, of course, put some of it in my retirement accounts. Because, hey – it has to help with retirement, no?

I also think I’d probably invest in my dream car, which has always been a 1909 (ish) Ford Model T. That would be fun around town in the warmer months. Or maybe I’d splurge on some uber expensive fountain pen, just because. But outside of that, I hope I’d make sure to take care of everything I could now, and then put some away for the future. 

It’s a totally different feeling as to what I would have done when I was 25. Those days probably would have been filled with flashier items – new cars and all sorts of things like that. Now I would get excited about actually maybe being able to build a little workshop somewhere instead of worrying about a trip to Europe. 

Life creeps up on you as you get older, that’s for sure. Your priorities change and you want to make sure you set yourself up for the future. 

How about all of you? What would you do … if you had a million dollars?

Linkup for Day 6:

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

20 Days of Chill 2024: Streaming and more streaming (Day 5)

Is streaming getting out of control? Or is it just the future of things? 

One thing is for sure, with the plethora of streaming options, it makes life easier in one part, but more difficult in others. 

Let me explain. 

As of right now, I subscribe to way too many streaming services. From Netflix and Disney +, to Peacock and Paramount and beyond. The issue is I like aspects of each one that I subscribe to, but in the end, financially, it’s probably too much. 

So the costs add up. But each one of them has so many great options that it makes it hard to get rid of one. There will come a time, however, when some hard decisions have to be made. Sometimes, you just can’t keep every service. Are there things you want to watch? Sure. But there are only so many hours in the day. 

Just some of the things I want to watch in 2024.

Recently, I started going through each service. My plan is to look and jot down the things I want to watch. From movies to series to everything in between, there are so many great things out there. 

I will keep a few, at all times, no matter what. 

I have a premium subscription to YouTube to avoid commercials and such while watching videos. Considering how much I watch YouTube, that will stay. Peacock is affordable and has a lot of good things, including all of the WWE stuff, so that will stay. Netflix likely is on this list, too. 

Paramount, for example, probably doesn’t have to be all the time. It might be worth binging for a few months and canceling, and then go back to it and repeat. My Disney+ is a bundle with ESPN+ and Hulu. With those prices going up, there has to be some thinking there. ESPN I use so I can watch Quinnipiac hockey when they are on it; Hulu is hit or miss, and I do like Disney + for various things. But do I need the bundle? 

Prime comes with my normal Prime subscription, so that’s a keeper. Apple TV has good things, but I don’t always watch it. 

Some of these I’d be better off being able to subscribe for a year at a time, rather than monthly. If I can do that for some and get a slight discount, I’ll probably be more apt to do it – though I’ll want to try and do them at different times of the year so as not to stack them in one month. 

There are other premium services – such as Starz – that have a lot of great things that I want to see, and I’d be interested to do a short-term thing with them to do some binging. 

There are good things about all of this, though. With all the options there are out there, it’s coming to a point where you don’t necessarily need cable anymore. High-speed internet? Of course. But the ability to watch what you want and where is amazing. And past TV shows are available. Sure, there are some local options that might not be there, but overall, streaming is changing the dynamic of TV entertainment. 

So how about all of you? How do you manage what streaming services you have, or don’t you have them at all? 

Linkup for Day 5:

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

20 Days of Chill 2024: It’s all about the click (Day 4)

Let me start off by saying that I like the internet. 

I like being attached to the rest of the world. Whether it’s social media, or researching, or whatever else, I do enjoy it. It’s nice that we can have maps at the tips of our fingers; that we can contact friends and family in an instant; that we can watch family and friends throughout their life via posts and the such. 

Alas, there are times I long for my youth, before computers and the Internet got so big. 

I know, I know …. Get off my porch! Get off my lawn! You damn kids!

Life was so much more simple. You actually got the news from TV or newspapers. Things weren’t so slanted. You didn’t find angry people screaming because your opinion was different. And if you did, it didn’t last long. These days, you can’t even read comments to posts anymore because no matter what the issue is, there will be people who go absolutely crazy. 

It can be about sports, politics, everyday life, or whatever else – somebody will tell you how you should do things and if you don’t agree, you are flat out wrong. 

Just go look at some of the groups about things like what to feed dogs and you’ll see. 

My favorite is “I heard … “ 

You didn’t hear. You read it on some other post and decided it is fully correct, so you now heard it. 

But anyway …. 

The worst is click bait. You know what I am talking about – the posts where they draw you in with a story and then you have to click through pages and pages to maybe find the story you were interested in. Sometimes, it’s not even there. Thank goodness for people in comments who tell you ahead of time. 

It’s the same with sports or political things. The punchy headline to draw you in and then you realize the “news” they want to report is a bunch of BS. 

And how about this? 

BREAKING: 

Yeah, everything now is breaking news. It could be that a cat walked across the street. It is somehow breaking news. Just because there is something you want to give an opinion on does not make it breaking. Also, breaking isn’t something that is days old. It’s breaking news … as in then and now. 

Of course we are now into 2024. That means, at some point, the click bait is going to get worse. It’s going to be all about the presidential and congressional races. Fact or fiction – it won’t matter. We’re going to see so much BS and “BREAKING” news that it may make us explode.

So yes, I do long to head back to the early to mid-80s as a kid. Playing Atari or Nintendo. Playing baseball on a dirt lot, or some Matchbox cars. Life was so much more simple back then. 

Maybe there’s some click bait I can follow that will bring me back to those times. 

Linkup for Day 4:

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

20 Days of Chill 2024: My feet hurt (Day 3)

It’s time for some new sneakers. 

Mine aren’t in the best shape anymore, and when they get to that level, you know it’s time for new ones else your feet can really hurt. 

And my feet haven’t always been the best. Also, it seems, I need to take care of these feet. Being a diabetic, the feet are an important part to make sure the diabetes is somewhat under control. 

So let’s wind back a little with my foot history. Way back in 2013, before I got my current job, I was working some odd jobs. One of them, I stepped off a ladder and onto a nail. Right through my boot and all. After medicines and podiatrists, and all sorts of other things, it was discovered I needed surgery. A small bone had been shattered. And once the one foot doctor realized I was diabetic, she wanted it done right away. 

Thankfully insurance covered this one!

Anyway, it took a little longer to get the surgery as we had to deal with other non-foot things, but in the end, it was done. 

Then there was the time I started getting pain while walking. My primary said I had plantar fasciitis. 

My foot after surgery in 2014… a walking cast for 4-6 weeks.

Lovely. 

So I tried some inserts, which didn’t do well. Then I found Brooks sneakers, which have been great. Asics are also, usually, decent. Under Armour has also been a nice find. Brooks, while more expensive, are actually the best for me. 

But here’s the main issue: sneaker/shoe companies always seem to want to make things better. In recent years, the style I get hasn’t been as good as in the past. And the color choices stink as well. Especially when you have wide feet, like I do. 

Brooks, though, made my foot pain go away. They were comfy. They gave enough support. Asics and Under Armour did OK in those categories, but Brooks was really a step above the others. Then they seemed to have to fix things too much. The changes made the sneakers not as good and also they kind of feel cheaper. And when paying a premium price for sneakers, I want premium quality. 

Now I am at a crossroads. I need new sneakers. The two pairs I have been using are wearing out, so it’s time to really decide. Do I want to grab a pair of Under Armour and maybe Asics? One Brooks? Brooks and one other? I’m very torn at this time, that’s for sure. 

No matter what, I need my feet to feel better. I do a lot of walking with Harper, and having pain in my feet is not fun. 

Do any of you deal with foot pain? What do you do? And what brand of sneaks do you use?

Linkup for Day 3:

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