A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

a 'lil hoohaa

Time for a giveaway!

In conjunction with my new look and logos and such, I’m going to do a little giveaway, too.

And though this might interest geocachers – I think the item is cool enough for non-geocachers, too. Especially if you like collecting little knick-knacks and such.

Late last year, I had a pathtag designed to show my blog. The idea of the tag was to show a lot of my interests, and also have something I can give away through the blog or social media. That’s the thing about this tag – it will only be available this way. I won’t be trading it and such. I mean, if somebody else does with one they win – that’s up to them. But from me, it’s win it or nothing.

It took almost 13 weeks to get here after I submitted. But it came out really nice!

For those who don’t know what a Pathtag is, it’s basically a colored, collectible coin. It’s about the size of a quarter, or a touch bigger. This one is in a custom shape.

And I only had 50 made. I will give one away for up to 10 entries; two away for up to 25 entries; and three away for more than 25 entries.

This contest will run until sometime after 9 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12. So about a week or so. You can gain multiple entries to the contest.

Ways to enter:

  • Comment on this post and let me know if you collect Pathtags, or just like this and want to win
  • Use the Rafflecopter system below to gain more entries by following on several social media platforms (liking the blogs Facebook page, following on Instagram and Twitter).
  • You can also gain an additional entry by going to the Instagram post for the contest and doing what that says.
  • Another way to enter is Tweeting it out. You can do this once daily (on entry per tweet), but please make sure the tweet is done as it shows so I can keep things in order.

One note with these: Some of you might already follow me on these platforms. If so, it should allow you to enter those still. Just make sure you fill out the items it needs in certain spots.

Whoever the winner(s) is/are, I will be checking to make sure the entries qualify.

I will be giving these out at random times for different things, too. So make sure to follow along with me on the blog.

Entries can be done via the Rafflecopter widget below! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

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!

My 1,000th blog post!

According to the statistics on my blog, this is my 1,000th published post.

That’s a lot of blog posts.

No matter how much ones blogs, that’s one significant milestone. I realize that people will get to this milestone a lot quicker than I did (some blogs do many posts in a single day, so it’s quicker that way!), but I’m still pretty stoked. I have had a few guest posts along the way, but each of them have to be edited, formatted and placed in the spot by me, so they obviously count!

This blog has had several stops before settling in here. The posts have always followed me, however, so I have a strong history of what I’ve done. From a blog on my former message board, to blogger to here, it’s grown in many ways.

I’ve had lulls where posts were few and far between. And I’ve gone times where I’m posting daily or more. But the past year has been the best with my blogging because writing is fun again. Despite my situation in the work world, I’ve realize the joy of putting words together and having them make sense again.

And not just talking about Johnny hitting a three-point basket to win a game.

It’s oh so joyful!

Sprinkled throughout this post on the right side will be a few graphics I created with some interesting statistics and numbers. Enjoy those!

HooHaa History

Allow me to first give you the history of HooHaa.

Though the “word” or “words” of HooHaa have been used in movies and other places, my use of it stems from softball. When I was a wee bit younger, some of the local players used to give a “HooHaa” during the games. It was catchy. I liked it.

As I started to get bigger in softball, I also used it. And it became a rally cry for us and, actually, we used it as a name for our team at tournaments. The HooHaa’s never won a tournament, but we did place fourth at one with some really big-time teams, so that was nice.

It grew from there.

I even, at one point, had vanity plates that said “HooHaa.” No kidding.

So when I first wanted a website, I purchased the domain hoohaa.com. That was in July 1998. I’ve owned that ever since (and if you go to that domain now, it will direct you to this site).

The HooHaa family of websites was born.

At that point, however, I had never thought about blogging. Heck, I probably had no clue what blogging was. It’s a shame, too, because a year later, I returned to college and I have a feeling it would have been an awesome time to be blogging!

Blog history

I honestly don’t know what originally got me into wanting to blog. Maybe it was the freedom. Maybe it was the ease of things. I don’t know. But I started one. And I didn’t expect much. I just wanted to have a blog.

It was on my former message board and several of us had them there.

I wasn’t quite the blogger yet, however.

Check out my first post by clicking here.

Stellar stuff, right?

That’s kind of like looking back to the first article I had published in a newspaper when I was in seventh or eighth grade. Awful!

My blogging in the early days was awful. I wasn’t afraid to cuss a little here and there (not that I’m afraid now, but it just doesn’t fit with what I like to do) and I just rambled on about silly things.

I was still trying to find my way in the blogging world, you see.

Eventually, I moved to blogger. That was June 2006, a year later. There, the blog started to take a little better shape. It was named “P.J.’s HooHaa,” so it’s getting closer to the eventual name of this blog. I was a little more regular there, but I was still trying to find my way in the blogging world.

That lasted until November 2006 when this version came around.

I bought this domain, figured out WordPress and the rest is history, as they say. I took the time to go back to get every post (and comment) I ever received on the other two blogs and put them on here. I wanted a permanent timeline and archive of everything I had done with this blog. I have a photo blog as well, but in regard to words, this blog has everything I’ve ever done.

And so it will be here through time.

I don’t intend on shutting this blog down. Will I continue to do this for the rest of my life? Who knows. Only time will tell. But it will always be a part of me and will remain online.

Growth of a blog

I’ve learned a lot through my years of blogging. I’ve done the silly short posts, I’ve done some in-depth posts, I’ve done series of stories and journalistic-style pieces.

And I like it that way.

Sure, I’d love for more followers. And more comments. But in the end, I enjoy writing and doing the blog, so that’s what really counts to me. It’s a place to document things in my life, as well as still have a place for me to work on other things that I enjoy writing.

By doing that, I’ve continued to learn and grow as a writer.

The idea of this blog, when I started, was for me to write different things. Being a full-time sports writer (at the time), all I wrote was sports. I wanted to branch out. Though I still write about sports on here, it’s not in the same context as one would write for media.

This has also given me a place to be able to talk about regular things in my life. Whether battling a cold, hitting a deer with my car, going on vacation or something else, it’s an avenue where I can post things about life. I’ve covered so many topics and I’ve enjoyed each of them. Having a wide variety of topics has really helped me with the blog.

As the blog has grown — and gone through a few makeovers — I’ve gone in different directions. I’ve enjoyed each one. The most recent, of course, is the past year and change where I’ve updated a lot more regular. I’ve tried, and for the most part succeeded,  in bringing something new on this blog each day. That’s a big difference from when I started in 2005 and over the first six months of having a blog only having 32 posts.

So I’ve grown as a blogger and as a blog.

I’ve never really done a lot of things with widgets and all until the past year, but I’ve added more things — such as the Twitter feed and the social networking buttons etc. One thing I’m glad I added was a counter, so I could see how many visitors I got. Now I’m sure this is just rough with numbers, but I would imagine it’s decent.

I added the stats bar sometime last February. It wasn’t the whole month though, so take a peek at last March when I got a total of 998 hits.

At that point, I was pumped.

But, I set myself a goal. I wanted to get to the point where I was averaging 2,000 hits per month. It was a slow crawl to that spot. I reached the 1,000-visit mark the next month and that held pretty steady until August, when I had 3,120 visitors.

Since that month, I haven’t been below 2,000 visitors.

And I thank all of you who have visited, even if just for a few posts that seem to grab your interest.

That’s the one issue with a potpourri blog. You’ll have the regulars who check you out, but you’ll also have people who will visit for a day or two and then come back to see something they might not be interested in and they’ll decide to move on and not return.

I just keep plugging away.

A great community

Bloggers are a great bunch of people, for the most part.

You can meet all sorts of people, too. Foodies, mommies, humorists, sports enthusiasts, outdoorsy people — there’s a wide range of people blogging.  And it can be teens to 20-somethings, to 30-somethings and above. There’s no age limit for bloggers.

Topics galore!

If there’s something you’re interested in, there’s bound to be some sort of blog on it. Who knows how regular it is, but there is likely something out there.

I love knowing that I’ve become part of that blogging community. I don’t make money on my blog (though I should probably look into some of those AdSense things people have on their sidebars, eh?) and I’ve tried to maintain it as simple as possible so I could blend in with the blogging community.

Though I don’t have a lot of links in my blogroll, those are some of the few I visit on a regular basis. (I should put a few more up there as there are others I visit regularly). I really enjoy the blogging community and the friends I’ve made through it. The most interesting part is that you may never meet these people. It might just be in the realm of the online world, but it’s almost as if you know them.

It’s a slice of life.

There are blogs that are only one topic. Though these are great blogs if it is of interest to you, it makes it so you might not see everything about the blogger. On potpourri blogs, many times you get a real feel of somebody’s life and what they are going through, whether good or bad.

Though there are aspects of my life I’ve shielded a bit on this blog, I’ve become more open in recent months. I share what I can about my life, because it’s good for me, too. And for the few comments I receive, I enjoy the feedback and thoughts.

The blogging community is a great place, for sure. It’s my hope that I can continue to grow in it and maybe, when things improve for me, get out to one of those blogger weekend things. I’ve seen several and all seem to be really wild.

Future

I’m not going anywhere.

One thing I’ve always made sure was to keep certain aspects of my personal life off of the blog — mainly about employers — because I don’t see the need of airing things. Though I’ve documented my battle of unemployment and such, I’ve stayed away from saying things that could be bad for me or an employer. The reason? This isn’t a place to air anything.

This is my blog and I like to separate certain aspects of life. You have personal, work, and the rest. That’s the way I always thought of things. So I plan to keep it that way. Whenever I land something, I’ll make note of it on here. I likely won’t even mention what the company is. I’ll mention it and move along. That’s all that needs to be said.

Because I want to keep blogging.

Never torch a bridge so bad that someone can’t trust you. If you do that, you’re burning more than a reputation.

This blog will likely remain the same. I do enjoy the occasional journalistic piece or series, but for the most part I like just being off the cuff and coming up with different things daily. I have a little red Moleskine notebook I have been using recently so I can write down ideas as they come to me. I have, in the past, come up with ideas and then let them slip away.

That always stinks!

So, now I am making sure I have a place to write them down. Several of them won’t come to fruition until I get stable again and on my feet elsewhere. It’s part of the time that I need to do the items. Some are for a series of stories. Some are for weekly/bi-weekly features. But I have ideas to keep going forward.

I know this, however. Since I’ve become more and more regular with my blog posts, I want to continue doing so. And I hope you’ll be along for the ride with me.

Final note

I’ve had a few people ask me about the little thing at the top of my blog. The quote. “Good blog, let’s go eat!”

No, I’m not a foodie blog.

And I’ve wondered if a few people might have thought that when they came here and left. I hope not.

So, in honor of my 1,000th post, allow me to explain.

This past summer, one of my favorite non-Phillies, Hunter Pence, was traded to the Phillies. After a game where they rallied to win, Pence was interviewed on field. One of the questions he got was what he was thinking as he rounded third.

Pence said: “Good game, let’s go eat.”

The phrase caught fire in Philly. It’s on shirts (yes, I need to get one) and it’s been used in many different ways. I got chatting online with a friend one night and the line “Good blog, let’s go eat” was said among other things.

To which I said, I should put that on my blog.

In response, said friend (also a former sports writer), agreed.

Moments later, it was on my blog and there to stay.

That’s the story. And I’m sticking to it.

Thanks for reading and thanks for following!

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!