A 'lil HooHaa

Well, as Friday is here, I’m finally going to get around to setting up this new computer of mine and all. So hopefully, once that’s done, I can do some more stuff on HooHaa, such as fix the HooHaa Store mod and all that to make sure things are going well with that.

I’ll be updating several quizzes for everyone as well as the stock market.

Phat Matt, our new Public Relations director is currently undertaking a project to get several registered people to return to the forum as well as maybe recruiting some new ones. Hopefully we’ll get several new or old faces running around to make the forum a little more active on a daily basis, which would be nice.

We’ve made a pretty good push at making 100+ posts per day during the week. But I think it could be a little better if we got others more active and had some good topics.

As for other things in this crazy world.

With the new computer comes the ability to sit back and do some writing on my own. I know I do it for a living, but when I’m home, writing on the laptop isn’t as easy as sitting back with a desktop and writing.

I’m hoping to get back into writing screenplays a little more (I have one completed) and I also have an idea (well, it’s something I’ve written about before at my college paper) for a small book. I hope to actually publish it myself, create a small website for it and sell it myself. I don’t want to make millions off it, just enough to make it worth publishing and maybe a decent profit to help me pay off some debt!

Outside of that, things are OK, I think. Haven’t been too bad.

For those of you from this area, Delhi-Walton is Saturday in Delhi. Should be a good battle. I’m sure I’ll run into at least one of you there.

Everyone differs about noise, I know.

Some like loud-ass rap music.

Some like loud country.

Some like quiet background tunes, more of a classical nature.

That’s just for that. The same goes for television sound, outside sounds, etc. I mean, truth be told, sometimes people just like things to be loud or quiet. I’m the latter. For the most part, I like things quiet around me.

I don’t listen to my music that loud. Same with my television. The same can be said for most things, except when I’m drinking a bit and I get talking. Or playing softball. Then I’m loud. But that’s in different surroundings.

I’m talking more about when you’re at home, relaxing. I hate noise.

Dogs, music, kids. Doesn’t matter. Hate it.

The thing that really bothers me is when parents or animal owners don’t have control over their kids/dogs. It’s just plain ridiculous.

My current neighborhood is overrun by dogs, once where owners put them out in the morning and don’t bring them in all night. And hell, what do you think they do? Bark all day.

And the kids? Holy shit, people around here seem to reproduce just by thinking about sex. It’s nuts. And of course they all congregate in an area close to the house so they can all spread gossip on people like a bunch of old fucking hens.

Seriously, they all need to go out and get fucking jobs when their kids hit a certain age.

You want to know why some people still stereotype women as those who stay in the kitchen, cook pot pies and are always preggos? Because it still fucking happens.

And then they gossip.

And while all this is going on? The kids run around and scream and strew things around like a trailer park and the moms all gossip and giggle.

But that I can deal with.

The dogs, no. People wonder why I have a hatred for dogs. Ask others in this area about all the dogs. It’s not just one person, there are like 5-6 in this neighborhood along. And then 4-5 in close neighborhoods that bark so YOU can here them.

Yeah, great town we have here that actually checks shit out. Believe me, I’ve looked into what can be done about these dogs and nobody seems to care.

Finally? This is a college town. I understand that. However, there’s no reason that the whole town needs to be off-campus housing. That’s part of the problem. Streets that used to be good areas to live have been bought up by City fucks who turn the houses into student housing.

And with that, what happens? You got it. Loud music, loud cars, loud kids and disrespect. They don’t give a fuck. Being the home of a two-year school, most of the kids are fresh out of home, on their own and don’t care. They are loud at all hours, walk home from parties and are loud, leave beer cans and other party pieces all over the place and are just plain rude.

They need a good bat to the f’n head is what they need.

They aren’t all bad, I will say that. And a lot of the problem is this town and the “old guard” and the inability to draw anything here for the kids to do. Seriously, ask Phat Matt, there’s nothing in this town for the students to do besides go drinking. Nothing. No movie theatre, bowling alley, dance club, nothing.

Zer-f’n-o.

This town needs to open its eyes is what it needs to do.

And cut down on the f’n noise while they’re at it.

For some of you who know me a little better off the board, you know I’ve been pissed recently about a lot of things, mainly financial. The inability to find an apartment I can find on my paltry paycheck, still be able to pay my bills and at the same time actually be able to afford a beer or two.

That said, I’ve come to several different things that I’m going to do to ease the stress and hopefully it will work.

I’ve saved for quite a bit to get a new desktop. I built one at Dell, going to try and sweet talk them into giving me a discount and then I’m going to order today. Hopefully it’ll be here and set up by next Wednesday or so.

The one thing that used to help me ease some stress was writing. But not the same writing I do for my job — that’s just a bit stressful at times. And really doesn’t ever ease stress, deadlines and all.

No, instead, I want to get back into writing things I enjoy and can keep my attention hopefully.

I’ve had a fictional book idea based on a character I used for a column in college I’d like to write. The idea would be to publish myself and just basically run 400-500 copies of the book, hope to sell it to friends, family and maybe people out there who know who I am and such. I’ll make a website for it and hope I can sell out.

I also want to get back into screenwriting. It’s something that’s facinated me and I’m really hoping one day to be able to see one of my creations on the big screen. I have one actually finished which I wrote about five years ago I’d like to go over, fix up and see what else I have to do with it to maybe attempt to sell it.

Just seems like I would be able to get some stress-relief working on that and trying to get some other little hobbies to occupy my time. Maybe try and work on hoohaa.com a little more or maybe my portfolio website, which I’ve been trying to fix up for 6-7 months now. The new desktop will help so I don’t always have to do it on the laptop, which gets annoying.

I also have looked into journal writing a little, but never did it. Heard it helps with stress some because you can vent basically to yourself and get it all out. I actually found a decent software online I might get the trial version and see what it’s all about.

Either way, I’m sick of always being stressed. I have some goals and such I want to accomplish over the next six months or so and hopefully things will go well enough to allow me to do those. I’m a big fan of karma and keeping positive, so I’m going to try and keep it all on the positive.

Maybe I’ll even check out the yoga place in the city where I work.

Anyhoo, that’s my latest. My only other hope is people on here will start using their blogs and the gallery a little more. But that’s just a webmasters hope!

Whooooo! Still the man.

So it be told, to be the man, you gotta beat the man. Whooooo!

And Ric Flair is STILL the man.

I got done early from work tonight, got home and realized the RAW pay-per-view was tonight. I don’t get many PPVs anymore, but I do watch RAW, so I figured if I was home, I’d debate getting the replay. So after reading that Flair actually won, I didn’t read anything else and currently have the PPV playing and it’s not bad so far.

Flair led off, beat Carlito and won the Intercontinental Championship. He did all his moves, except he actually hit a move from the top. Good times. He chatted quickly after, grabbed four girls and went to ride Space Mountain.

And why is he still the man?

At 56 he still wrestles a decent match (albeit not in the shape he used to be in), gets the crowd wound up and is still funny as hell. They got him after with the girls going to “celebrate” and getting into the limo. And where did it get funny?

When he put the chicks in the limo, he told them to hold on, shut the door and pulled a bottle of what I think was Viagra out. He took a couple, looked back in the limo, counted, shut the door and took another. Way too friggin funny.

Flair is a throw back. It’s a shame he’s getting older, but man he can still go. Still gives the chops, struts and whoooos! Awesome. That was worth my money alone.

Some people call it fate, some people just think things happen. I think it’s a little of both, to be honest. I don’t really believe we’re on a path and we can’t choose our own way, but at the same time I think things can and do happen for a reason.

But if I didn’t take those hints, I may very well be typing this message from North Platte, Nebraska at this point instead of upstate New York. Scary thought actually.

I was out of grad school, with a Master’s degree in hand, and couldn’t seem to find a job. I was freelancing at the shop I’m at now, but that was it. I had over 60 applications floating around the United States and was rarely even getting a bite. I had a couple phone interviews, but nothing came out of it.

Then I got a call one night from the sports editor at the North Platte paper. We talked a couple of times and he asked me what I thought. So I said basically it depended on if the job was offered. He then offered it to me.

A couple thoughts right away. I was thinking, I need this job. I did some financial things and it was going to be tough. I would be going out there blind, no apartment, no nothing. I figured I couldn’t go blind, so I opted to drop $500 of my own money, fly out there, drive into North Platte, check things out and fly back out.

Smart move.

So I bought a ticket, flew out of Albany the next day (by the way, it was my first time on a plane) and landed in Detroit a bit later. Soon, I was then off to Omaha. Now, my first impressions of Nebraska were…

Holy shit, this place is flat! My thoughts changed quickly, however.

I went to the car rental desk to et my car. The two girls working there were phenomenal looking. Midwestern girls… whooooo. Talk about smoking! Anyway, they didn’t have the car I reserved, so they upgraded me for free to a brand new Chevy Tahoe. That thing rocked. I had that bouncing down I-80 at 85 and was getting passed like I was standing still. Ouch!

Anyway, after a four-hour ride to North Platte, I pull in at dark. I find my motel ($27 bucks per night!) and check in. I was starting to see how things could become hard for me out there.

Me = Northeastern person.
Them = Midwesterners.

That equals impatience, if you don’t already know.

It wasn’t too bad at the motel, but I got my first real dose at an Arby’s down the street. All I wanted was something quick to eat, go back to the motel and go to bed. I was jet-lagged and tired and had a full day ahead of me. So I get to the Arby’s and there’s one family in front of me. One. Not more than one. One.

Holy shit, you would have thought I was behind 15 people.

It took them, I swear, 15 minutes to place their order and get it. And, of course, there’s no reason for them to take my order until the other one is fully finished. It took me damn near 25 minutes to get out of there with my food. So needless to say, I wasn’t happy.

I was so tired I didn’t even go look for a bar, which I should have done. I could have probably used a beer or two. Instead, I went back to the motel, ate, watched some TV and got myself about 10 hours of sleep to get ready for the next day.

The next day comes, I get cleaned up and all and go get some quick breakfast at the Dunkin Donuts there. I also had a chance to read the local paper, of which my job offer was from.

Now look, I understand small papers. I know what they are supposed to do. But this one was a little different. The best I can describe it is a community weekly dressed as a daily. For those in the business, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I go meet the SE. Now, a couple quick things. He has no formal training as a journalist. He’s a preacher. But man, he’s a super guy. I think he would have been a blast to work with/for. Problem is, I want to learn, I want to be in a different environment.

He takes me on a tour of the town, the office and all that. My decision is pretty much made, but at the same time, I’m sick of being unemployed. So I don’t know. Some of the questions I asked, I didn’t like the answers to (such as who covers what beats and why, vacations, freedom to do certain things etc.), but I told him I needed a couple days to think it over.

Like I said, super guy and I think he would have been fun to work with. But there were a bunch of negatives to go with the positives. And remember, this is my first offer in 10 friggin months.

So I drive back to Omaha and stay in Iowa (2 minutes from the airport). I’m scheduled to fly out the next day. This is where “fate” came into play and probably what this long-winded story was heading to from the beginning.

As I’m sitting in the Omaha airport waiting to be able to board, I see this fantastic looking blond gal. She’s beautiful, probably around my age, maybe a year or two younger. Just reading. Well, unfortunately, she boards a plane before me.

Ten minutes later, she comes off because they have engine problems. Interesting. I get some more staring time.

Well, our plane boards and I see she’s now on my flight. Interesting again.

So I get on. I have the front row, aisle seat. I get there and this larger guy is sitting in my seat talking to this tiny chick. They are chatting away. And I’m like “Excuse me, but you’re in my seat.” He was like “Do you mind if we switch, me and (so-and-so) are having a nice conversation.” And I was like “Well, all depends where your seat is.” He said “right there,” which was the aisle seat on the other side. I had no problem with it because it was still front-row and on the aisle, which is what I wanted.

As the plane is nearing the end of boarding, who comes on? The blond. And where does she sit? You guessed it, right next to me.

Jackpot!

Within the first 10 minutes I have picked up a conversation with her. We’re chatting away and such and I find out some depressing things. She’s married and all, she’s heading to Baltimore for work, so I guess I can count the mile-high club out.

However, we get into why I’m in Nebraska, my hemming and hawing about the job and all that. So she says:

“My sister always says if you have to think too much about a decision, you’ve made the decision already.”

Powerful and true words.

We landed in Detroit and went our separate ways. Shook hands, wished each other luck and that was it. I can’t even remember her name, but her words rang in my ears all the way into Albany.

Two day later I called out to North Platte and turned down the job. Never had a regret about it, either. In fact, when I told them no, I felt a weight off my shoulder.

A couple months after that, I went part-time where I am now. A couple more months and I was full time. I made the right choice.

But those words still ring in my ear as being so true. Whenever I get into large decisions, I think that.

I guess the point of this story, outside of sharing my trip to Nebraska, is saying that you never know when something can come up to help you along in life. Always keep your eyes and ears open and take nothing for granted!

The other thing I found out is this: no matter how bad you need something (ie: job), don’t ever settle just because. Something better will show up.