A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

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Food Photo Challenge (March 2020): Lunch

So this month has been a whirlwind of everything. And I’m sure most of you are feeling it as well. That being said, despite being later in the day, the challenges go on and I hope that it somehow helps you with the current situation throughout the world. 

Mmmm food. 

The first month was breakfast. And this much is lunch. I’m sure you can see the direction we are heading. If you are new to the Food Photo Challenge, check out this post, which explains everything. Also, the linkup for this month’s theme will stay live for about a week. 

Food Photo Challenge logo

Simply put, though, each month there will be a theme (announced at the end of this post) and on the 28th of each month, come back and link up.

Onward we go!

I’m sticking with my quest for using my iPhone more and learning different things about it. This photo was done with my iPhone 11 pro. I also again used a light box, which I think really helped. 

Let’s check out this month. 

Theme: Lunch

I do love lunch. The thing is, though, I am pretty zoned in with lunch. By that I mean I truly love sandwiches and subs. I would eat them most of the time if I could, but .. bread. That being said, most lunches I do have them. 

So a sandwich is a part of this photo, and I knew I needed a little more to it. 

What accompanies a sandwich? Well, often chips of some sort. And a pickle!

This was a fantastic lunch. A mixed-meat sandwich on rye. Some regular potato chips (I had thought about Doritos for color, or even veggie straws, but I went the traditional route), and a small pickle. I took a few different angles and distances, but this I thought captured it well. 

And it was tasty!

That’s my submission for the month and I am looking forward to seeing who else is taking part in this challenge and what they have to offer!

If you took part in the challenge, please make sure to link up below. Also, make sure you visit everybody else’s posts (and do come back to see who may have linked up after you!)! 

Let’s, too, try and grow this challenge. Tell others and invite them. And, as always, one can check out the Facebook group for this challenge and others as well. You can access the group here. 

The linkup is below, but how about March?

The theme for April is: Dinner. Come back on April 28 to link up!

Food Photo Challenge: March 2020

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!

The world as we know it …

Does anybody else feel like they are living in a reality movie?

This is like The Truman Show, times a million.

A few months ago, we all heard about this COVID-19 coronavirus. It was pretty spooky, but it was far away. Though it didn’t seem those in charge were too worried about what it could become.

But, now it’s here. And it’s downright scary.

Now, let me preface this by saying I think the widespread panic is a bit crazy. We’re in a panic stage, which is never good. If we all use extreme caution, don’t put ourselves in bad spots, and use common sense, I think we’ll be fine in the long run. We can’t go bonkers.

But you have to be smart.

Hoarding toilet paper or hand sanitizer, and then trying to mark it up to ridiculous amounts of money doesn’t help. Not one bit. People need to be able to get basic supplies. Stocking your freezer with enough meat to last two years doesn’t help anybody.

It honestly makes me wonder about society as a whole.

This is a crazy illness going around. Things are being shut down. Businesses are closing — and many likely can’t afford it. People are alarmed and in a panic — and that definitely doesn’t help. We’re in uncharted waters here.

I work in two school districts, handling PR. That includes maintaining social media and websites at each. Each are putting out information as fast as possible. Most people have been thankful and appreciate how much each district is attempting to do for their communities. Some are negative and it makes me wonder about things. This is new for the schools, as well. Usually, they aren’t told to shut down to students for this long — especially now in the day of social media.

Speaking of that, the media and social media are hard to watch and look at. A human’s mind can’t grasp everything that is going on and process it that well. It’s impossible. Rumors become “truth,” and and the truth and facts gets questioned by people because they don’t want to believe it.

We have to practice self care. For me, it’s trying to process things and remain calm through it all. That doesn’t always happen. I’m a human just like anybody else. Despite thinking this reaction could be way over, I understand it. And I have fears and caution just like anybody else. What we’re doing is being done for a reason. Yes, it will inconvenience people. Yes, people will suffer. But in the end, we will get through it.

One way or another.

So practice some self care. Go for a walk and try and avoid close contact with people. Get some sun. Show social distance. Try not to feed into the hysteria and breathe. Play a game. Video chat with an old friend.

And if looking to help small businesses, see if you can buy gift cards. Or go get some takeout.

We will get through this. It might be faster than they thing; or it might be longer. But we will get through it.

Most of all, be good to one another. Basic human kindness or a smile from six feet away can go a long way.

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!

Food Photo Challenge (February 2020): Breakfast

Welcome everybody to the first linkup of the Food Photo Challenge. This monthly challenge is to work on doing some food photography photos with blogging.

If you are new to seeing this and it’s something that might interest you, the whole aspect is explained in this post. Also, the linkup will stay live for about a week, so if you post in the next couple of days, come on back and link up!

Food Photo Challenge logo

Simply put, though, each month there will be a theme (announced at the end of this post) and on the 28th of each month, come back and link up.

So, on with the show!

I’ve wanted to get better with my food photos. I enjoy it, but I also want to try new things and angles and all that. I always take snaps when out and about, but I want to learn about the editing and everything else. This month, I already learned a lot, which I will explain later. The best part of this is that each theme will be a new way to challenge yourself with food photography.

Further, I’m starting to really push toward using my iPhone for a lot of my photography. I invested in some Moment lenses and, so far, I really love them. For this month’s theme, I used the moment 58 lens, as well as the Moment app on my phone. I have a lot to learn with that app, but so far… love it.

On top of that, I opted to go with a mini light box, which, in the end, was probably good. However, I learned a bit about the light box and the lighting of it, and in the future, hopefully I can utilize this better. The light box is pretty small, so I might have to use a bigger one for this challenge.

For now, though, let’s get on with this month’s post.

Theme: Breakfast

I love breakfast. I mean, truly love it. I have certain things I always get when traveling, but when home, I’m quite consistent on the things I eat.

A lot of that is because of having diabetes and knowing what things do to me etc. I’ve had to cut back on a lot of things I love for breakfast, though I do still indulge in things on occasion. 

Still, a plate with eggs or something along those lines didn’t work for me with this one. Instead, I wanted to do cereal. Espcially being I had some fruit loops around.

Now, I don’t eat a lot of cereal anymore. With the carbs and the milk and everything else, it tends to be too much for me in the morning and my blood sugars go up a bit too high. 

But colors!

Looking back, I kind of wish I had used a different background color, or a different color bowl. The colors here are just a bit too powerful. But I do like the overall look and feel of this photo. 

And yes, for the record, I did eat this when done … 

That’s my submission for the month and I am looking forward to seeing who else is taking part in this challenge and what they have to offer!

If you took part in the challenge, please make sure to link up below. Also, make sure you visit everybody else’s posts (and do come back to see who may have linked up after you!)! 

Let’s, too, try and grow this challenge. Tell others and invite them. And, as always, one can check out the Facebook group for this challenge and others as well. You can access the group here. 

The linkup is below, but how about March?

The theme for March is: Lunch. Come back on March 28 to link up!

Food Photo Challenge: February 2020

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!

Podcast review: Overview

I’ve gotten into podcasts quite heavily as of late. 

Over the past several months as I’ve started walking more and trying to get the health under control, podcasts have been what I use. As much as I love music, sometimes the tunes aren’t enough for me. Insert podcasts, which I’ve always liked but I’ve always kept just a few. 

There’s one or two geocaching ones; a board games one; and a couple of professional wrestling ones. 

Some of them are just too long, though. As much as I like listening to them, I’m not into it taking me 3-4 days worth of walking to get through a podcast (and my walks, for the record, are usually in the 30-50 minute range). That made me search for others – ones that I could finish over the course of a day (I usually take two walks a day). 

Podcasts are definitely not everybody’s cup of tea, so to speak. Some people love them, some hate them. The big part is having to download them, or remember to. I don’t like everything on my phone, for example, so all of mine go to my iPod. 

This series is basically going to be my thoughts on podcasts I listen to. These reviews could be monthly, or a little more often, all depending. There won’t be any set days, so basically when I can sit down with my thoughts. I’ll give my positives, negatives, and anything else about the ones I’ve listened to, or tried to listen to. Most of them will be positive reviews, however, being if I am going to listen to something, I need to like it at least a little!

Currently, I’m deep into some true crime ones. I love true crime stories, especially when they are cases and such you might not know a lot about. There’s a few other “real life” ones I’ve been into as well, which have made my walks a bit more fun.

I also have been listening in the car to and from work, though once baseball season really takes over, that won’t happen as often. 

But with this, I’m interested in what some of you might listen to when it comes to podcasts. Despite not having a ton of extra time to add podcasts, I am interested in what might be out there that might draw me in. I’m not into the ones that are very current event-like, if not just for the fact that I tend to like to be able to get to them when I can. 

I’ve also learned a lot from these podcasts, which has been good as well. The world is a crazy place, as I’m sure most of us would agree. So, it’s nice that we can kind of see a different slice of it in other areas. 

I always wanted to start my own podcast. I thought it would be cool as I had friends who did them, but didn’t garner huge followings. I now realize, though, the amount of work podcasters put into these things. From the research to the recording, to editing and everything else, it’s crazy. There’s no way I would have the time or drive to do a podcast. Truthfully told, I likely wouldn’t have enough to say about one subject to get people interested in it anyway. 

Instead, I’ll keep listening. There are some great ones out there and I love the ones I’m subscribed to, and I can’t wait to find more that interest me. 

How about you? Do you listen to podcasts? And what are your favorites?

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!

Announcing the Food Photo Challenge

I know, I know … just what we need. 

Another challenge. 

But this is one I’ve been thinking about for a long while. It’s one that I think could be a fun addition to the challenge circle and it will be monthly. 

The rules, much like other challenges I run, will be simple. 

Food Photo Challenge logo

There will be a theme. Snap off one photo that fits within the theme, write up a little about said photo and then come back and link up. 

This will be the only time we do an announcement sort of thing with this. From here on out, the idea will be to put the theme at the end of the linkup post (originally, I was going to do it like the Photo Blogging Challenge, but it seems like it’s better to announce the theme when we link up being only one photo is required. 

So, let’s put it out there again for the “rules:” 

  • Get the theme
  • One photo that works with that theme
  • A small write-up about the photo
  • Come back and link up here (on the 28th of each month)
  • Get the new theme and do it again (theme available in linkup post)

I enjoy food photography and really like seeing how others approach it. It doesn’t have to be anything out of this world, just have fun with it, Use any camera you want and showcase what you like or have made. 

The theme for the first month is: Breakfast. Remember to come back and link up on February 28! Hope you will join up!

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!