A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

20 days of chill writing challenge

20 Days of Chill Challenge — coming soon!

In my neck of the woods, it’s been unseasonably warm recently.

But that’s OK — I know it won’t last forever!

That also makes me realize January will eventually be upon us, so it’s never too early to start thinking about the 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge, is it?

I hope not!

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We’re in November and January is right around the corner. Now, I do realize that we have two holidays to get through before, and that’s fine. But I still need to get planning and such, so this is the best way to do it.

For those who participated last year, I hope you will do so again. For those who might be looking at this for the first time, I hope you’ll consider joining us this time around.

The concept is simple enough – for 20 days during the month of January, we’ll have a different theme to write about. It’s a way to start the new year with some fun blog topics and themes.

So what is the 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge, you may ask? I’m glad you did – so please let me explain.

During the weekdays of January (not including Jan. 1), there will be a theme for the day. This theme could be anything possible (and I will be asking for ideas of themes).

Write a post for that theme – interpreting as you see fit – and post it to your blog. Then come back here on said day and link it up. After that, go visit, comment and see what others are up to.

The link will usually go live early in the morning (EST) and be live an extra day or two.

It’s that simple.

In December, I’ll have a post announcing the full schedule with themes. This helps because if you are a go-getter, you can write many of them ahead of time and schedule them. Then you just have to remember to come back to link up.

See? Simple!

So, at this point, I’m calling for theme ideas. Once I have ideas, I’ll put them all in a hat and draw them out. I have a bunch in there already from things I’ve been thinking and leftover from last year. I want to add more, though. I’ll try and avoid duplicates from last year (if you want to see last year’s themes, click here) [https://hoohaa.com/?p=8213]

Remember, too, you don’t have to do each day. Some people will only do a few days. Others will do them all. Which will you be?

On top of all this, I will be once again creating a t-shirt (through Teespring) and if people are interested in ordering, there will be a place and time to do it. Remember, though, if we don’t reach a certain number of sales, they don’t get printed.

Theme submission

If you want to submit a theme, do it in the comments below. Themes can be wacky, fun, serious, or anything else. Just please try and keep them clean.

Thanks for taking a peek and hope to see you participate!

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

Looking back at the 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge

The 20 Days of Chill — 2015 edition — is in the books.

With my first foray into running a writing challenge, I enjoyed it. I liked having the posts done and scheduled ahead of time, thus making it a little easier. There was only one or two times where I was finishing things before I went to bed the night before.

When I first started this, I had hopes of a fun little challenge to fill in some gaps of challenges that were no longer happening. Only a handful of people participated in this challenge, which kind of stinks but, at the same time, was OK as it was easy to keep up with people.

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Maybe it can grow next time.

I think one of the disappointing parts was that I had reached out one of the blogging groups I am active in, to no avail. Part of the issue there is I truly believe bloggers rest in certain categories. (I think I would have been better off reaching out to a different group, in hindsight). Unfortunately, the group I am in is heavily based on bloggers who are mommy bloggers and/or into giveaways and different types of linkups. Needless to say, taking some odd and offbeat themes and doing a post about them would be difficult to mix in with photos of junior, or outfits that are being worn this week.

Don’t get me wrong — I have no issues with those bloggers, but I thought there were a few who would get involved. Unfortunately, only a few posts from some in that group appeared.

Still, I thought it was a success.

What it made me do was focus on several aspects — of running it, of posting themes ahead of time, and of actually doing my post with the linkup.

That seems easy enough, but there were times that I just wasn’t into it.

By my count, there were four of us who completed the challenge in its entirety:

First, I tip my cap to those who got through the entire challenge without missing. It’s always fun to know others are completing the challenge.

Several others took part throughout the challenge and I’d like to totally thank them as well. The beauty of the challenge is that there aren’t rules of having to do it every day, rather just doing it when you can or when you liked the theme.

So what to do to make it better?

  • Recruit more people
  • Find a way to make it more interactive
  • Different themes (some easy/some harder/some crazy)

I learned a lot by doing this. I don’t have a massive blog following, so it’s not the easiest to host a challenge like this. Maybe challenge hosts have larger followings and people who would participate in said challenge. That makes it easy to recruit. Maybe that’s part of the challenge here — in growing this writing challenge, maybe I need to continue to attempt to grow my own blog.

A writing challenge is often about the writer. In other words, it’s about getting the challenge done and doing the themes to the best of your ability. There’s a sense of pride with it to know you completed it. The comments and other things? A total bonus.

So where can I go from here with the challenge?

Obviously I want it to grow, so I need to decide if it will be a yearly thing or if I want to do it twice a year (with a tweak of the name, most likely). Will people want to do it twice a year, or is it best left to holding it every January? I do the Photo Blogging Challenge each month already, so a writing challenge for two months out of the year might be hard.

But maybe it can help, too?

I truly liked only doing it during the weekdays. It allowed other days to catch up on other blog posts one might have wanted to do. It also gave a breather to some. Other challenges I have been in are every day and, though pretty fun, it can also be very hard to not have a “break” throughout it, especially if trying to do the whole thing.

One thing is for sure — I am glad I did this challenge and it really kind of amped me up to really keep pushing with my blog and do different things. I have a bunch of things with my Day Zero Project in conjunction with the blog, so this was a great start to 2015.

For those who took part, I hope you enjoyed. And should we just keep it yearly? Or … something else? For those who read, I hope you also liked it. And for other bloggers … I hope you join us with the next one!

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

20 Days of Chill Challenge: And then there was one (Day 20)

And then there was one.

As in one post left in the 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge.

You know the old saying for Lay’s, right? You can’t eat just one.

Apparently, you can’t just have one blog post, either.

It’s pretty hard to believe that this is the final day of the 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge. It seems like yesterday I was hoping to run this and give myself and others a chance to do a challenge like this once again.

That is the unfortunate part of being used to a challenge that isn’t going to continue – hoping to have it continue in a different form.

I’ll do a wrap of the challenge on Tuesday (I’ve actually already started working on it) to talk about how it went, my thoughts, and the future of this challenge and others.

I’ve learned a lot from this one, actually. And I’ve also remembered and realized how much I love the community involved with challenges.

One.

This was the first 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge.

One.

The age of my nephew and godson.

One.

The anniversary I celebrated at my current job this past November.

One.

The amount of days I look ahead in life now. Live it one at a time.

One.

As in a dollar and a dream.

One. Only one. Just one.

Thankfully there was more than one participant in this challenge. But this post… this is it. At least for this year. One final post. The last one. We got through the challenge.

Back to normal, now, right?

Right?

And then there was one.

Or none.

This post is part of the 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge hosted by A ‘lil HooHaa. Please check out the link if you’d like to see others or join in. You don’t have to do every theme if you don’t want! And for those participating, take a moment and check out the other participants!

T-SHIRT ALERT: We did not reach the minimum for shirts, so they will not be printed. 

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

20 Days of Chill Challenge: Steamed (19/20)

Confession time.

For many years of my life, I had a pretty good temper. I’d get all sorts of steamed over things pretty easily. Maybe it was a person. Or something at work. Or during college. Or high school. Or driving. Oh my… during driving.

Though I am still competitive as can be in softball, my temper there isn’t even remotely close to what it once was.

It comes to a point in life where getting steamed just isn’t worth it.

Look, I can’t say I never get upset. I do. I’m human after all.

But after having an extended “vacation” because of a newspaper layoff, I started to realize that getting mad over silly things is just, well, silly. So I try and keep that in mind. I smile more and try and take deep breaths.

Life is short.

In this life, people will do many different things. Some will travel extensively. Some will never leave their home area, even for a vacation. Some will have many kids, some will have none. Some will battle illness throughout their lives; some will be as healthy as possible.

We’re all different.

That’s something, unfortunately, that isn’t always a good thing. In 2015, there’s still racism. There’s stull bullying. There’s still murder, crime and war. A lot of this comes from people being different from one another.

There’s rich and poor. Sometimes, the poor people work way harder than the rich people. But it doesn’t always work out that the hard worker is rewarded.

Why do I bring all this up, though? To keep things in perspective.

Control the things you can in life. Work to better yourself. Do the things you need to do to get ahead and move forward with your life.

That doesn’t always mean it will work out.

Maybe, that will give you a reason to get truly mad. But try not to take it out on anybody.

But getting mad at the little things? It’s time to try and squish those. As I noted, I still get that way sometimes. And it happens. But I’m working on it. And I think I’ve mad massive steps in that personal goal. I’ll not always be able to hide it, but there are times I can take a deep breath and get through it.

I put it in perspective.

Life is hard. It’s never going to be easy. But if you smile and get through things, you’ll get less steamed.

Then, if you are lucky, you can get the steamed where they really matter – clams!

This post is part of the 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge hosted by A ‘lil HooHaa. Please check out the link if you’d like to see others or join in. You don’t have to do every theme if you don’t want! And for those participating, take a moment and check out the other participants!

T-SHIRT ALERT: We did not reach the minimum for shirts, so they will not be printed. 

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

20 Days of Chill Challenge: Imagine that … (Day 18)

Do you ever imagine what would have happened had you made different choices in life?

Or imagine where you might have been if you chose a different career path? Or a college?

Imagine if you had overslept or did something different the day you met your significant other (if you have one). Would you have had that chance again?

Can you imagine what life would be like without all this technology we hold near and dear? I am sure many of us remember a day without all of this stuff … but can you imagine life without it now?

What about trying to imagine all the items John Lennon talked about in his famous song? A lot of the things he sings about would make this world a whole heap better, that’s for sure.

Could you ever imagine what it would be like to be homeless or truly down on your luck. Can you even do it?

Try and imagine what might have happened if you hadn’t ever been born. What might have happened. Do you imagine your soul would have gone somewhere else?

When you look back at your childhood, could you ever have imagined you are where you are in life? If you had the chance, what do you imagine you would say to your 10-year-old self?

Imagine there weren’t any blogs?

Sheesh. That’s scary.

Imagine a day where newspapers, phone booths, magazines, film cameras, CDs and other items like that no longer exist. Some of them are already on their way out.

Imagine, if you will, a day when kids will not know the feeling of a newspaper, understand what it meant to deposit 25 cents for two more minutes, flip through Time, or record a CD. Heck, we’re getting to the point already where the younger generation has no idea what a mixed tape is.

It’s all happening so fast.

Time flies by, technology grows and the things many have known and loved starts to disappear. Americana, in some eyes, changes. The corner store. The five and dime. Mom-and-pop gas stations. Baseball card packs with crappy gum. Penny candy.

It all disappears.

Poof.

And everything continues to move onward, steamrolling a path along the way.

The changes happen fast and so many things get forgotten.

Imagine that.

This post is part of the 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge hosted by A ‘lil HooHaa. Please check out the link if you’d like to see others or join in. You don’t have to do every theme if you don’t want! And for those participating, take a moment and check out the other participants!

T-SHIRT ALERT: We did not reach the minimum for shirts, so they will not be printed. 

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