A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

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HooHaa Photo blog returns Monday!

I know I’ve said it before — my photo blog is coming back.

As some of you may know, I have had a photo blog for a long time. I used to update it daily. I also spent a bunch of time going to other people’s photo blogs (which I still do at times as I really like the work of a lot of fellow photo bloggers).

Then I got into Flickr.

Doing Flickr, my photo blog and my regular blog became to be tedious. I don’t make money off any of them, so I had to choose. Flickr was the winner, with this blog getting as much attention as I could give it.

It’s remained that way, but every once in a while I get a new comment on the photo blog. And it made me realize that I love that blog, if not for the reason that it’s one photo per day.

So, what I’ve done recently is go through photos I’ve taken over the past six or seven months. Most have been on Flickr, but a lot of people don’t check out my Flickr stream, so it will be new to most. I’ve found more than 100 photos and I’ve started uploading them to my blog. That will give me more than 100 straight days of new photos on the blog.

Yes, I know I’ve done this before. And I know when those photos have run out, I’ve let the blog kind of get stagnant again.

My goal is not to let that happen again.

See, I always tried to make the photo blog timely. You know, get photos up soon after I took them. I’m not so worried about that anymore. The reason is because it’s a photo blog, not a current events blog.

What does that mean for the blog?

It’s simple.

You might see snowshoeing photos in July. Or you might see s pool photo in January. There’s not really going to be rhyme nor reason to when things are posted. I’m going to also keep things split up. So if I have four or five wrestling photos, I’m not going to put them back-to-back-to-back-to-back. I am going to get other things in there so the same subject isn’t always featured.

From there, my goal will to be keep adding on photos at the end of the list. Hopefully that will make it so I won’t have any lapses or have the blog go stagnant.

The first photo I put on that blog came on April 29, 2006. I don’t want to let that blog go to rest without a fight. And I take enough photos where it should be easy enough to maintain it.

I won’t be turning my back on Flickr or this blog. I’m just finding a way to do all three as I like having all of them.

What can you expect?

One photo per day. I am going to make it so the new photo publishes at about 1 a.m. each day. There won’t be a lot of explanation in the photo description. Maybe a who, what, when, where, why sort of thing, but more than likely it will be a who/what and that’s about it.

I’ve been uploading images for a few days and will continue to do so this weekend. Once 1 a.m. August 1 hits, the first of many new images will show up on the blog. I hope you’ll visit daily and enjoy the photos.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

 

R u 4 real?

Ugh.

When I was an adjunct instructor at a local college, I detested when students used textspeak.

U. u’re. U R kewl. Y? Y r u 2 kewl?4 real!

Get the picture?

I got so annoyed with it that I gave something at the beginning of the semester for them to see how silly it can look when written.

There is something like 100 errors in this little “story,” that I wrote. But that also includes bad spacing, punctuation, spelling and capitalization as well as silly grammar mistakes.

I submit this wonder to you now:

So, r u ready to rite this semester?

this class will require alot of writing, so u need 2 come 2 class and pay attenshun.

Details r things u need 2 work on. remember that u r graded 4 every thing u hand in. this is u’re work and what u will be graded on.

so when i wuz reading the cyllabus i was so like u have got 2 be kiddin me. but i kno that i have 2 write in i will do it my way.

but OMG, remember that u have 2 write in english !

that means proper puncuation , spelling; n nething else. so nvm the crazy txt talk or IM with my freinds. That iz SO lame. but thats what I have 2 do i guess. lol.

btw, it wouldnt b good 2 put this off 4 2nite as if u hand this in i  b all like wtf n u will fail it 2moro. 🙂

See how silly that is?

The amazing part was how many items were picked out by the students. Even the smallest errors were figured out by someone. I loved it! I then, always, followed that up with noting that if these items were in a paper, it would be an automatic F. I wouldn’t tolerate it because it’s not an acceptable way of writing, especially in a college paper.

After we did a day or two of grammar, I gave a quiz. One of the questions is as follows:

What will happen if a student uses the following “words” in a story: u, r, 2, u’re, etc.

  1. points deducted
  2. Given a star for good work
  3. Fail the paper
  4. A high five

People actually got it wrong. Seriously.

Considering I didn’t teach a class this past semester, why do I bring this up now?

Because I’ve seen it more and more in posts on Facebook. On Twitter. On blogs.

Everywhere.

It’s ridiculous. Some of the people I’ve seen do it on Facebook are educated people. I don’t use these things anywhere. Not texting. Not on Twitter. Not on Facebook. I’ll use a “hahaha” or a smiley in an instant message, but it’s hard to convey how you feel or if you are laughing in other ways.

It’s lazy and it looks stupid.

Facebook is the worst offender. To a point, I can understand on Twitter with it being 144 or fewer characters. But even then… do more than one Tweet! Texts just make me scream. There are some reporters for big papers I follow who do it in Tweets, however, and it drives me nuts.

So, I’ll end with this — srsly ppl, think b4 u rite silly things n look all stoopid. That wuld b gr8. K thanx bye.

OK, I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

 

 

What’s next with the pen and paper?

Since getting laid off back in February, I’ve really embraced my blog. I’ve made an effort to write something every day with the idea that I want to keep writing — to keep sharp and to be able to have ideas flow.

At times (such as today), it’s been tough.

Though I have a list of ideas I keep and check in on at times, there are just times I don’t feel like writing. Or I start and can’t flow (again, such as today. I wiped three posts out earlier as it didn’t work for me).

But one of the main reasons I’ve been doing this is to force myself to write everyday to try and get myself ready for a bigger project — writing a book.

I don’t plan on having the next New York Times best seller by any chance. But I’ve always wanted to write a book. I have the idea and I’ve written down a rough copy of an outline. I’m going to tweak that some and soon start on the big project.

But…

When writing a book, everything I have read points to making sure you write every day. It make sense, too. You don’t want to get flowing for a couple of days and then have a block and put it aside only to have that continue. Forcing yourself to write every day makes sure you get something down on paper, even if you decide to get rid of parts as you continue to write.

That being said, I’ve had a harder time with the outline and the basis of the story. I know the beginning. I know the characters. I know the ending. It’s the middle that’s screwing with me. I have ideas, but I just can’t seem to get things right in my head on shaping the story. I think it will come, however. I don’t really want to start the project until I know what direction I can go with it.

I do know I can handle this project. Several years ago, I wrote a full screenplay (still hidden away, re-written twice and one day possibly an attempt to sell it…). In the end, I want to self-publish my book and probably submit it to Amazon to be used on the Kindle. I don’t expect to make a lot, if any, of money on this book, but I want to do this as it’s something I’ve wanted to do.

That’s my next step.

But for now, I need to keep finding ideas for this blog. It’s giving me my daily writing, which is much needed!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.