A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

blog challenge

30 Days of Writing: Roast or toast another blogger (24/30)

This post is written in conjunction with the 30 Days of Writing, a blog challenge devised by Nicky and Mike at “We Work For Cheese.” I’ll be participating throughout the month of June. If interested, you can see my post with the details of the challenge. 

Please note that some of these posts will be serious, some will be normal, and some will be an attempt at humor.

This actually was quite the tough topic.

It’s not that I don’t know any bloggers to toast or roast. It’s more that I don’t want to single anyone out. There are many bloggers I read on a normal or semi-normal basis. And there are some who I’ve found during this challenge that I will continue to read well beyond the end of this 30-day craze.

With the risk of missing some people, I’m just going to basically give a speech and try and include some of my favorites. If you’re not listed, it doesn’t mean I don’t read you… it just means that I probably forgot (after all, getting many blogs in this post will be tough!)

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I could start by noting about this damn challenge. A 30-day blogging challenge where one has to write about certain off-the-wall topics. Yes, it’s the brain trust of Nicky and Mike over at We Work for Cheese. It would be easy to roast them. From their devotion to cheese to being Canadian. Easy roasting, no? Alas, I have an affinity for cheese and for Canada, so not so easy, eh?

And Nicky, believe me, my next trip to Montreal, I’m cashing in on your offer of free poutine!

Alas, by stumbling upon this challenge, I also had the chance to find many new and intriguing bloggers. And it seems bloggers of all ages, too, which is excellent. On top of that, they are from all over.

Such as Babs, who is on the other side of the pond. She’s not the only blogger I read from the UK, either — a fellow geocacher, Sarah, is also from that side of the world. It’s probably good that I am reading their blogs as I’m sure they have accents! It’s always cool to think about what somebody would sound like when you only see them in the Blogging world.

This challenge has led me to blogs like Linda, Wendy, Barb, Linda M, Katherine, Lauren and Laughing Mom, who have all sown creativity and different styles of writing that I really have enjoyed. Whether tales of life, poems or whatever else, they have consistently made me look forward to visiting their blogs.

Shawn has made me laugh — more than once — during this challenge. And laughter is something I truly love, so it’s always a bonus.

And I can’t forget Nonameddufus, who may call himself a dufus, but has humor, excellent stories and a love of hot dogs (albeit microwaved, but still…) and is someone I truly look forward to reading each day.

There are others — not involved in this challenge — who I try to read as often as possible. From geocachers such as GeoKs, to “everyday life” bloggers such as Naked Girl in a Dress (get your mind out of the gutter…) and Christelle, to a former co-worker who now has a “foodie” blog as Scratch Made Wife, my blog roll is a dynamic mixture of tastes, styles and posting frequency. I am happy to be able to read so many excellent blogs.

And Michael leads the fight for peanut butter against Nutella, so he’s obviously a worthy read. Lady in Red has helped that fight. We just need to make sure she doesn’t stray off course in the quest to crush Rusty’s beloved Nutella.

I had to save the “best” for last, however. See, I couldn’t go the whole thing without a true roast.

Over the years, I’ve gotten to know other sports writers and such through the Internet. Mainly through a message board (of which I am no longer and active participant). It’s through there where I first met Jerry. (Note I’ve met him several times now at events such as the Hall of Fame Inductions and have since grown to call him a good friend … he even mentioned me in his acknowledgments at the end of his most recent book… cheap plug! Go look at it and buy it if you are a baseball fan. It’s a great read!)

But about the blogging part…

See, for a long time, I used to tell Jerry to read my blog. But he wasn’t the biggest of blogging people. He’d usually respond to me something along these lines:

Me: Hey man, I had an interesting post at my blog today. You should check it out.

Jerry: BLOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGS!!!

And that would be it.

A funny thing happened on the way to the blogging world…

See, Jerry became a blogger.

Now, it’s one thing to start a blog. Whether it be about books, sports, real life or whatever. Maybe a niche. Well, Jerry has hit the niche. He blogs about Hofstra basketball. (His three readers will confirm it). Sometimes, when other sports at Hofstra are doing well, he’ll blog about them, too.

Despite his blogging of a school that many people scratch their head at and say “Who?” Jerry has become a blogger. The banter of “Sofstra” and “No football” are inside jokes that always make me chuckle.

In the end, though, Jerry truly runs a solid blog and is something that fans of alumni of Hofstra should be happy to have. I won’t lie that I don’t read it every day (I don’t have connection to Hofstra), but I check it out and there are, at times, posts that truly engage me. His style is excellent and the way he relates things is strong so even those who aren’t connected to the school can read it without thinking it’s been done by some fan boy.

I would encourage people who enjoy good writing to check his blog out. The only bit of advice I would give is if you don;t want millions of updates about Hofstra and CAA basketball, don’t follow him on Twitter (Hi, Jerry!)

For those I left out of this post, accept my apologies. I’ll still be reading!

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

30 Days of Writing/Life With Earl: Stiletto heels (23/30)

This post is written in conjunction with the 30 Days of Writing, a blog challenge devised by Nicky and Mike at “We Work For Cheese.” I’ll be participating throughout the month of June. If interested, you can see my post with the details of the challenge. 

Please note that some of these posts will be serious, some will be normal, and some will be an attempt at humor.

This post is humor. And if you haven’t read any of Earl before, go to the top of this page and select “Earl” to see previous editions.

It had been a while since we had heard from Earl.

So to get the call out of the blue on a rainy afternoon was a bit shocking, to say the least. Earl usually only gave us a buzz if it was sunny and he was looking for a ride somewhere.

However, I noticed his excitement right away.

“WHOOOOWEEEEE P.J., have you guys seen the ad in the paper?”

Leave it to Earl to be specific in everything he mentions.

“What ad, exactly, are you speaking about, Earl?”

“The one about the dancing girls,” he shouted! “Dancing girls! Some new club! Man oh man! It’s like heaven hitting town! We need to go check this out! I’ll call later!”

With that, Earl hung up.

I picked up the paper and started leafing through the pages, perusing the ads. Sure enough, in the back of the paper was an ad about a new adult establishment not too far from here.

And Earl was planning on going.

For those of you just reading about Earl for the first time, he’s an interesting character. He’s not the best when it comes to social situation and insert a few ladies and he goes ga-ga in a quick rate.

But, he’s Earl.

I phoned Jay and the Big Easy and let them know that Earl had spotted an ad for a new strip club. Though it might not be something we’d always be up for, taking Earl to an adult establishment had merits all on its own.

A few hours later, we’re picking up Earl. And oh was Earl ready.

He came out of his place wearing his best denim shorts and a shirt that says “I’d rather be fishin'” with his trucker-style hat tilted slightly to the right.

Oh, Earl.

He hops in the car and he’s beaming.

“Woooo weeee, boys… the experience of a lifetime, tonight!” he exclaimed. “I’ve been waiting this forever!”

He pulls out a wad of money and flips through it. There had to be at least 50 $1 bills.

We didn’t know Earl had that much money, let alone all in ones.

Soon enough, we pulled into the parking lot. We were barely stopped and Earl was dashing for the door.

“This is really happening, isn’t it?” Jay asked.

“Why am I here?” The Big Easy asked.

And soon, we followed Earl into the establishment. The lights were low. The music was just what you would expect and the announcers voice echoed through as he announced Milkshake was coming to the stage.

Yes, Milkshake.

And she shook. Oh did she shake. She swung on the pole. She pranced around in her stiletto heels. And Earl’s jaw was basically on the ground as he stared.

Milkshake slowly took off her clothes — what she was wearing, anyway — and Earl never moved. Never. She strolled by him and he still stayed firmly where he was.

I wondered if he had gone into shock.

“Earl? Um… Earl? EARL?” Jay screamed.

Nothing.

As Milkshake picked up her dollar bills and left the stage, Earl came to — for the moment.

“HOLY CRAP!” Earl said, wiping some sweat off his forehead. “That was amazing!”

He ordered a Coke and stayed staring.

This is where things got a little crazy. I realized that we likely weren’t going to be in here for long, knowing Earl, but I wasn’t sure how it would happen.

Jay, the troublemaker, put the ball in motion.

“Earl, you know you can go private with these girls, right?”

“Say what?”

“Private,” Jay explained. “You pay ’em like 25 or 30 bucks and you get a dance in the back. It’s private and quite hot. You might even score.”

“Seriously?” Earl asked. “What am I allowed to do?”

“For 25 or 30 bucks, basically whatever you want,” Jay explained. “Let your hands explore, man, let ’em explore.”

“Yeah, explore, Earl, explore,” The Big Easy echoed.

I just stared down at the floor.

“And how do I get this dance,” Earl asked, almost doubting us.

“The girls will come out and give you a little shimmy out here,” I said. “Then they’ll ask if you want a dance. You say yes, they take you to the back, you pay them, and the fun begins.”

Earl stared. It’s as if he was contemplating.

At that moment, the announcer interrupted the music.

“Hey there guys, look on the stage, it’s Babycake…” he said. “And for your pleasure, Milkshake is coming out to see if you’d like some dances…”

And that’s all it took.

Moments later, Milkshake came out. And we were sitting close to the door, so our table was first. We gave our customary tip and just pointed to Earl, who was in awe. Milkshake sat on his lap and whispered something to him… a dance request no doubt. Earl hopped up, almost knocking Milkshake to the floor. They were off to the back.

“We should probably finish our drinks quickly,” The Big Easy said.

“Yeah, maybe even meet him in the parking lot?” Jay asked.

So, we started walking out of the place. See, we know Earl. And it wasn’t going to take long.

As we were walking down the hallway, we heard a screech from the back rooms. Milkshake, no doubt.

That screech was followed by: “What do you think you’re doing, you dirtbag??”

Moments later, two large guys threw — yes, threw — Earl out of the place. His smile couldn’t have been any bigger.

“That was awesome!” he yelled as he ran over to the car.

We didn’t ask. We didn’t want to know where his roaming hands went. We just let Earl tell us about how Milkshake was totally into him and he knows one day he’ll go back to claim his lady.

As we pulled out of the parking lot, I looked over at Jay.

“You know this is your fault, right?”

“Worth every penny,” he said.

I knew Jay was right. But I didn’t want to admit it. I also knew this wouldn’t be the last time Earl found a way to get into a crazy situation. I was hoping it would be, but I knew better.

To read other stories about Earl, click here.

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

30 Days of Writing: Like there’s no tomorrow (23/30)

This post is written in conjunction with the 30 Days of Writing, a blog challenge devised by Nicky and Mike at “We Work For Cheese.” I’ll be participating throughout the month of June. If interested, you can see my post with the details of the challenge. 

Please note that some of these posts will be serious, some will be normal, and some will be an attempt at humor.

If you think of the grand look of this world and existence, a life is a little more than a speck.

Through this life everybody makes many decisions. Some good. Some bad. But every action has a reaction. Again, it can be good or bad.

Life also has moments.

Not to be repetitive, but some are good and some are bad.

Graduations. Births of children. Marriage. Trips. Jobs. These are all moments. Some can be small — a championship in an adult sports league. Some can be large — your first car.

But these moments can help shape you and make you look at life in different ways.

In my current situation — unemployment that is — I’ve learned to live like there’s no tomorrow. Well, maybe not fully, but to an extent. It’s not hard to do this when the basis of life is job applications, interviews and anything else to go with the job hunt.

But — it makes you look at things differently. It really does.

It makes you look at your surroundings closer. It makes you enjoy small things more. It makes you react to things different.

I can’t say I’ve fully changed. In fact, this situation has made me a bit more jaded in some aspects. But in others, I’m different. I’m starting to see it that way, too.

Allow me this one quick story. I’m on a pretty competitive softball team. We have fun, but we play to win. However, we’re usually fine after a loss. For some reason, it’s been tense lately. I’ve been part of that group, too. Well, until recently.

See, a few games ago, one of our outfielders dropped a routine fly ball. It happens. But, people get irritated. In the big scheme of things, however, who cares?

As he came in when the inning ended, he smiled and says to me “I was all ready to throw the ball home and get the guy running. Then I remembered I had to catch the ball first.”

How can’t you laugh?

It’s puts it into perspective.

There are many people who can’t go out, run around and compete and do what we do. To be able to do that, I am thankful.

There are people who are sick around the world. There are wars and terrorists. People disappear each day and there are murders. Life isn’t easy and it isn’t always safe.Places throughout the world live in poverty, don’t have modern technology or have problems living day to day.

So how my life is going is miniscule, compared to what others have to deal with.

It sometimes takes major happenings to look at things differently. My major happening has been what I have been dealing with in the job world.

I know, eventually, when I get back into the work force and am back to the grind, I may switch up my looking at the world. But I’m hoping that this time will give me that bump to realize that life is short and sometimes you just need to smile, even when things might not be the better.

With the way things are, you never know if there will be a tomorrow.

So live it that way. Or at least try.

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

30 Days of Writing: Hanging out in the cemetery (16/30)

Cemeteries — especially old ones — can be amazing places for research, photography or other reasons. And all the while, you can pay respects to those who went before us.

This post is written in conjunction with the 30 Days of Writing, a blog challenge devised by Nicky and Mike at “We Work For Cheese.” I’ll be participating throughout the month of June. If interested, you can see my post with the details of the challenge. 

Please note that some of these posts will be serious, some will be normal, and some will be an attempt at humor. This one is a little of everything! 

Cemeteries.

Many look at cemeteries as a sad place. One where many people who have passed through life are buried.

Did you know, back when, cemeteries were places of celebration? People would picnic in cemeteries and town events would be held there. And it’s how it should be. When you go to a cemetery, you can celebrate those who have already left us. Sure, it can be sad. But it can also be a good place — one where you remember the good times.

I was brought to this old cemetery through geocaching. It was an overgrown cemetery with some historical people and I never would have found it without the game.

But man cemeteries seemed to be long forgotten. The ones that aren’t active anymore and have the old and amazing tombstones. Hundreds of years have passed for some of these cemeteries and, unless they were famous, there are many people buried throughout the world who likely have nobody who visits their graves anymore.

I have a lot of hobbies in which I participate. One of them is based around cemeteries, the other sometimes involves cemeteries.

The first is with the website Find A Grave.

Many people use this site to help with research about family or whatever else. The site has a large database of cemeteries and photos. What I do, is when local cemeteries get requests for photos of graves, I like to try and get out and go get them for the people seeking the photos. It’s actually been a little while since I’ve done it as my other hobbies have distracted from this one.

But, I love this one because when you’re searching for the headstones, you can learn about things. You can see the stones and different aspects of the burial grounds.

My other hobby in which cemeteries sometimes appear is geocaching.

For those who don’t know, geocaching is a technology-based treasure hunt, using a GPS.

From Geocaching.com:

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.

Geocachers will hide caches all over. In fact, there are nearly 1,800,000 active caches placed around the world. And there are more than 5 million geocachers playing the game.

But, back to cemeteries.

Cachers like to find old cemeteries and hide caches near them. Often, geocachers will do research about these long-forgotten cemeteries and take you there for a certain reason. Maybe because there’s people buried there who fought in the Revolutionary War. Or a famous athlete is buried there. Or someone else. I’ve learned a lot in cemeteries through geocaching and for that, I’m thankful.

Arlington National Cemetery is a place where you can lose yourself in the history and be moved by everything this cemetery stands for.

Finally, cemeteries can be some of the most powerful places to visit.

Take for example Arlington National Cemetery.

I don’t know how many of you have visited there, but during a trip to visit friends in Washington D.C. last year, I spent a combined six or so hours in Arlington National spaced out over two days. From the changing of the guard to staring at all the headstones, it was one of the moving things I’ve ever seen. To know how many of these people have given their life for the United States is something that, for those of us who are Americans, should be thankful for.

Cemeteries, though places where people are buried when life on Earth ends, are not places to be afraid of, rather places to remember and honor those who have gone.

Take a walk through a local old cemetery and look at the headstones. Even if it’s people you might not know, be related to or know anything about, you can still pay respects or at least look around and know that you might be one of the only people to see these names over a given time.

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

Foto Friday/30 Days of Writing: First place (15/30)

This post is written in conjunction with the 30 Days of Writing, a blog challenge devised by Nicky and Mike at “We Work For Cheese.” I’ll be participating throughout the month of June. If interested, you can see my post with the details of the challenge. 

Please note that some of these posts will be serious, some will be normal, and some will be an attempt at humor. This one is a little of everything! 

First place.

For those who compete, whether it be in sports or something else, first place is obviously the ultimate goal.

I’m a softball nut. I’ve been playing for nearly two decades and have run a team that entire time. I was still in high school when we started things, so needless to say, we weren’t the best.

Our first Oneonta championship -- 2010.

See, softball and baseball are two different worlds and it sometimes takes time to learn the difference. The swing, the ball and everything else.

We had some tough years early. Soon, however, we became a more powerful team. A contender each year. Our first title should have come in the mid-1990s, but we found a way to give it away each year.

Finally, we won the coveted Brookside championship in 2001. The Brookside title was our local league, one many of us had grown up around. The championship trophy was wood-based with a removable pewter bowl — much like the idea of the Stanley Cup.

That league, unfortunately, soon folded.

We moved to another area league and stayed strong. We made the final several times, but fell each time. We broke through in 2010 and won our first title there. We repeated in 2011.

First place is a great thing. That is for sure.

But the journey getting there and seeing what you can do is so much more of the game.

During my lifetime, I haven’t been on many winning teams. In little league, I won the first year I played and the last year I played. But our “little league” wasn’t a sanctioned league. It was basically pee-wee baseball. I still have those championship plaques though. (My father was one of the coaches on the first one — kind of funny as even he would have told you that he didn’t know much about baseball to coach it!)

In high school, I played soccer and baseball. Neither team was that good. Though the baseball team didn’t suck, we were just in a league full of awesome teams. Soccer was a new sport to our school when I played, so it was the learning experience.

Then there was softball.

Championships are often taken for granted. So when we have good teams, I like to try and do some photos with them throughout the year. Action shots, candids — whatever. The idea is that if we do win a championship, it’s nice to have some other shots from the season.

Though we strive to win, the reality is this game goes beyond wins and losses. We’re all friends who love to play and love to compete. And, in the end, we don’t get paid for it. We play it because we love to. And, on another note, it’s a good way to get out and get some exercise.

A couple of images from our 2010 championship season:

The big guy pitching.

Big swing.

End of an inning.

 

Ready to go!

To the victor go the spoils -- one of our player's wives made these for the team party. Yum!

In 2011, I didn’t take as many photos. It’s not always easy to worry about photos when you are playing and such. Even when I am playing as the designated hitter, I don’t always think to take the camera out (despite, often, me bringing it to the bench).

Our season this year has started off slow. We’re definitely getting a little older and it shows. The younger teams are starting to have their feel of things. Right now, we’re mid-pack.

Will we win the coveted third straight championship this year? Who knows. We have a lot of work to do if so. But, if we don’t, we’ll have a good run, either way. We usually play well come playoffs.

First place, after all, is the ultimate goal. Only time will tell if we keep up our run.

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