A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

blog challenges

Secret Subject Swap: The new position

The post is for the Secret Subject Swap, a monthly blog challenge. Information about the swap can be viewed at the end of this post, as well as links to all others taking part. Have a peek at some of the other bloggers and see what they had to come up with. If you are a blogger, consider joining up for future months!

My theme is “You get to bypass the job application process and start your new position with your favorite company, which is …” and it was submitted by Tamara over at https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/.

This is my first time taking part in the Secret Subject Swap. It’s an interesting concept for blogging and it really can make you think outside the box. 

Of course, my first theme is by a blogger I know, so a bit more interesting. And the theme is a bit longer than my headline … it is “You get to bypass the job application process and start your new position with your favorite company, which is …” 

Interesting, right?

This can go so many ways. Think about when you were a kid. What did you want to be when you grew up? What did you want to do? 

Did you want to be a fireman or a policeman? Go to the moon? My imagination as a kid likely had me doing different things every day. I know I wanted to do all the things most kids wanted to do and I wanted to drive a school bus or a garbage truck; I wanted at one point to be a teacher or a baker; there were so many things. Heck, being a professional wrestler was high on my list, so much so that I looked into training schools for it when I was a junior and senior in high school!

But I always wanted to be a baseball player. 

Keeping score… this would be my type of job!

My skills, of course, never matched up with that one. I was average – at best – in high school and when I graduated, I didn’t want to attempt to be a bench guy on the local two-year college team because they practiced at 6 a.m. 

No thanks!

It’s almost ironic now that as I get older, I find myself up at 5 am most days to go for a walk that ranges from 1.5 to 2 miles … 

Anyway, I digress. 

When I was younger, I found my talent somewhat was in writing and photography. Maybe that’s the imagination thing again. I loved newspapers and the whole news thing. My first story, along with a photo I took, appeared in a newspaper for the first time when I was in seventh grade. 

I always dreamed of being in public relations. A sports information director at a college was the ultimate goal. Note – I never reached it. But it was one of those things I aimed for. Believe me, over the years, I applied for these positions but they never panned out. 

Now, I like where I landed. It’s in PR and there are massive amounts of benefits that go along with where I am. 

That being said, if I could skip the interview process and such … 

I’d be heading to the Philadelphia Phillies. Baseball is my sport. The Phillies are my team. And that would be the place I’d consider my favorite company. The position? Could be in public relations, or it could be some sort of in-game announcing. But I’d truly love it to be the scorekeeper. That, to me, would be where it was at. I love the nuances of scoring and have done it for years and years. 

Especially if I could skip the process and start right up. 

Alas, we know it’s a dream world. So, I’ll have to stick to my amateur scorekeeping and carry my book along with me when I go to games. The dream never dies!

Eight others have taken part in this challenge, so go check out the other posts and have some fun reading their secret subjects!

Enjoy blogging challenges? We have several that happen here, and we’d love to have you join us! The Photo Blogging Challenge is one of our main ones and it runs monthly! Starting up is the Food Photo Challenge and the Can of Corn Challenge. We’d love to see you!

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!

Shaping things up

The first step of getting myself back into blogging is complete – a reinvention of the look and feel. I’ve branded the site to a point, changed the look fully and got it to the spot I think I want it to be.

I’m still debating whether to keep full posts on the main page or a “read more” link, but in the end, I don’t think it’s bad as it’s currently set up. We’ll see as I keep moving forward.

Now, it comes down to shaping things on the blog itself, which is mainly recurring features, “whatever” blog posts, and challenges.

My issue over the past couple of years has been pretty simple, in all honesty. I’ve been so backlogged with work that when I get home, I just don’t want to read and write. I may mess around on the computer at home, but it might be a goofy game, or social media, or things like that. Blogging at times has been tough.

But I’m going to change myself up a little (been working on it a little at a time). I recently purchased a Google Chromebook. For those who don’t know the Chromebooks, they operate the Google system and are great for internet etc, but not really to add more things. The one I got was cheaper (after some Dell discounts and such, I paid much less than $100), so it’s not like it’s some speed demon of a computer. It will, however, do exactly what I need it to do.

I have it set up so I can access all of my Google items offline, so I can take this to a park or some other place, access my files, and write. My hope is it will give me some inspiration to write and have fewer distractions. I mean, if you can be in a place where you don’t have the normal distractions, it would seem like some writing could be done.

I hope, anyway.

I really do miss the blogging community. Not just the writing aspect, but also reading and commenting on other blogs; seeing different styles and items; and just being part of the community as a whole. Since I’ve reworked the look and feel here, I’ve also been working “behind the scenes” to change other aspects and “brand” things a bit more.

Let me share what types of items are going to be new to the site, still staying around, or even making a return. Keep in mind that some of these items (more specifically the features) are not scheduled, per say, rather are some items I will be doing when it fits.

CHALLENGES

I’ve found, in the past, challenges have been good for me. But that’s only when I really put my mind to it.

I’m sure many of us can say the same thing.

What I mean is, when I have blog challenges to work on, I usually find a way to write. And that’s a good thing. I haven’t been as diligent every month visiting others with the Photo Blogging Challenge (I am working, slowly, to catch up), but I miss the confines of some other ones in the past.

So I am going to be starting a few other smaller and easier ones in the hopes people might enjoy them, as well as keep the ones I’ve had. And, hopefully, it will get me to go out and visit blogs.

Maybe this, mixed in with a few challenges, can give me what I need to get into it.

You can also join the HooHaa Challenges page on Facebook to keep up to date as well.

So, what is already set and what’s coming up?

+ Photo Blogging Challenge (ongoing)

This will continue. Despite all the linkup issues we’ve seemed to have recently, the challenge will go on!

I intend on this continuing for years to come and hoping that I will get a lot more traction myself.

I keep trying and hoping to get more ambition to use my main camera and not just my phone, but it’s so easy to just use the phone, especially when you are up against the clock toward the end of the month!

This challenge is monthly. Themes are (usually) posted on the first of the month, with the linkup scheduled for the last day of the month. Sometimes those deadlines aren’t hit, but if that happens, I will get things up as quickly as possible.

You can follow this link to see more on the history of the challenge, as well as past linkups to see the themes we have done and what people have done with those themes!

+ 20 Days of Chill Challenge (each January)

Sometime in December, I have a post with themes for 20 days in January – all weekdays. The themes are loose and open for interpretation. You participate in as many or as few challenges as you would like.

This has been a fun challenge in the past, but has been rather quiet the past few years. I want to try and get the word out a bit more this year in the hopes that things will be a bit more active and fun. Themes can be all over the place and, usually, give other bloggers several different ways to go with it.

The days you participate, come to the blog, link up, and hopefully visit the others. Often times participants will check out the linkup on the following day with the hopes that everybody has already linked. The linkup is usually only live for a couple of days.

+ Food Photo Challenge (not started yet)

The idea will be simple – one photo per month food-related.

I haven’t decided yet if I want to have a theme each month, or make it random or something else. I just know I’d love to do more food photography, so this seemed fun to attempt.

If I do themes, it will be very broad, such as “dinner” or “candy” or something along those lines. I want to see how people take photos of food, as I think it could be fun.

It will be like the others — we’ll have a date when the post is created, and then people can come link up to it. Hopefully, it will be pretty simple.

More details when they are ready.

+ Also … 

If I can get fully back to where I want and plan to be, I might bring back a few other challenges. These are the ones I might consider, so let me know thoughts. Would you join if any of these were back?

  • 10 Days of Heat Challenge: Similar to 20 Days of Chill, but held during a summer month and only 10 days. 
  • Story Cube Challenge: Utilizing story cubes, I roll nine and you make a story out of what comes up on the dice. This would likely be a monthly challenge. 
  • Can of Corn Challenge: A baseball-based challenge, covering nine months of the year (February-October) with one baseball topic each month to write about.

FEATURES

Features are something important to most blogs. Look around the internet and you’ll find every blog has some sort of weekly or monthly features they do. It might be something silly, or something more serious. But it’s a great way to keep content on your blog, as well as give your readers certain things to watch out for.

Below are some of the features I will be doing on the blog. Some of them have been done before or are ongoing, and some are ones I am planning to do moving forward.

+ Living with Diabetes (ongoing)

Part of the hard part of not blogging was not doing this feature. This was always something that helped keep me in check, which is needed.

I have battled Type 2 Diabetes for several years and some A1C tests are better than others. Recently, I’ve started to really kick it into gear again and I know that having this feature will help me stay on task.

When I do this feature – which is usually monthly – it allows me to keep myself in check and see trends and patterns I might be able to catch. It keeps me accountable for what I eat and how I take care of myself.

+ Notes from my Noodle (ongoing)

This is something I used to enjoy doing.

Basically, it’s when I see some crazy news and such out there and I have a mish-mash of things to just write randomly about. So if I see a bunch of different and funny things on the Internet that gets my juices flowing, that’s when this will show up.

There are no set times for this – just when I feel like being really random. Could be weekly, monthly or some other random time.

+ Put it on Repeat (coming soon)

Since I’ve really pushed myself more lately to try and get myself into better shape, I’ve also started to (finally) utilize my iPod.

This, combined with my Apple Watch and not having it hooked up to cellular service, allows me to unplug a bit while out walking. It allows me to not have a phone with me, which I like.

Sometimes I listen to podcasts, other times I play music.

This feature is going to cover music that I might be listening to, so maybe I will talk about the lyrics and things like that. Basically, it’s music that I might want to repeat a few times.

Hopefully, this is something I can work on every 3-4 weeks.

+ Podcast Review (coming soon)

As above, my iPod is becoming part of me a lot more, and I’m listening to more podcasts.

The odds are my tastes in podcast don’t match some others, but that’s fine. I enjoy listening to podcasts while out walking, so every once in a while I will work on a review of a podcast, giving it the goods and bads and an overall rating.

From my eyes, of course.

No set time on this one, just when I feel I have time to give a good and honest review.

+ Snapshot Saturday (ongoing)

I haven’t done this in a good while, but it’s something I always enjoyed doing.

And, honestly, it could be planned out a year or so in advance, so there’s no real reason to not do this.

Basically, it’s a weekly snapshot from the family and friends photo album. It’s always a lot of fun and family and friends have always enjoyed. It’s a little more personal in nature, too, which is never a bad thing.

I am going to be having a lot of photos scanned, and once I get them back, I will start scheduling these quite a bit in advance so it’s always publishing on Saturdays. I hope to start this back up in the next couple of months.

+ One Meeple

One Meeple is a feature I’ve only done a few times, but it is one I want to start doing more.

I own quite a few board games and many of them are able to be played solo. I enjoy the solo aspect of board gaming, so this is a spot where I can talk about those adventures.

I’ll talk about the game, have some photos, and any other thoughts. In a perfect world, I’d like to do this every 3-4 weeks.

+ On the Trail 

The idea of this is to allow me a spot to blog about things I’m exploring, be it a park, or a rail trail, or something else. It might have to do with geocaching, or something else with getting out.

But this isn’t just walking on a street, rather getting out into nature and seeing different places and such. This feature might also include going out for a paddle or a bike ride. It will encompass things, though, more in nature or “on the trail.”

There’s a lot of places in my area, and within a couple of hours, so it’s time to start exploring and seeing what’s out there. There will be no set timetable for this one, rather it will be just when I have some place I’ve explored!

I really want to make sure there’s a lot of photos to go with this as well.

+ Walking with a Purpose

A simple idea, actually. This is more about me and, again, a health kick. The thought process is to talk about things with walking.

I try and walk as much as I can, so I’ll cover topics from a random person’s eyes about walking.

It could be about times to walk, items I use (sneakers, trackers etc.), and different ways of staying motivated. There is a whole range of topics. I might even throw in some stories about seeing others out walking etc., or just random observations from my own walks. I assure you I see a lot with the times I tend to go out!

It’s just another way for me to take control of things and hold myself accountable.

+ DayZero Project

I am attempting the DayZero Project for the third time.

The basis is to complete 101 goals in 1001 days. I haven’t completed the past two attempts (though I made a good dent), so I decided to give it a go one more time.

So far, I am doing OK, but I need to push myself to check in on it more, set goals, and get things finished.

There is no guarantee how often this feature will be done, being it is based on when I actually cross off a goal.

+ Also …

I am still debating a few other features. Some could include baseball stadium reviews, photo of the week, some travel things etc. I first want to see how all of these do, and then I’ll eventually reevaluate features and if they need to be shaped up or not.

The basis for the way I am doing things now is to somewhat “brand.” Even though I may never profit financially off the blog, I do like things having their own look and feel. It sometimes makes it easier to not only write about certain things, but also always have an image associated with the feature.

REGULAR CONTENT

This is the randomness that is a personal blog.

I’ve always said it’s hard to build a following based on my own personal wanderings of life as I am not sure I am that exciting to want to read about. So mixing in some features as well as some of my own adventures seems like as good of a mix as any. 

I’ll still have things like this within the blog, but I’m going to try and shape and find a path and get myself back into blogging on a semi-regular basis, and not just when I have the Photo Blogging Challenge.

Some of these things will take some time. Others I’ll break out sooner rather than later. We shall see how it goes!

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 fade

I’d like to call it my post-challenge fade.

It seems that whenever I take part in a writing challenge on the blog, the following month or so, I fade a bit. It makes sense, if you think about it, because I am using themes to write each day. So the 20 Days of Chill Challenge in January made me have a slower February, which is fine. With work and everything else, having time to blog hasn’t necessarily been easy to do.

That being said, I have a lot of things to blog about. I’ve completed a bunch of Day Zero items and have a blog planner where my “idea” pages from January and February are full. Now I just need to get writing some.

I also have finally caught up on comments and responded to each. I need to now get out and start reading blogs again. My sluggish run recently is starting to break some. I am ready to dive back into it.

It’s kind of funny, if you think about it. You would think the winter would be the perfect time to blog, get things ready and maybe even push ahead. But it always seems to be the time where I don’t have as much of an urge to blog.

And let’s be honest, this winter has been rather depressing in my area.

Cold.

Snow.

Repeat.

This is one of the coldest – or coldest, depending where you are – winter on record in my area. The average temperature in February in a couple of places was like 9.7 degrees per day.

That means single digits as an average.

SINGLE DIGITS!

So I didn’t go out much, that’s for sure. And I’d be on the computer. But I just didn’t have the urge to write. And I had topics, but it’s hard to push ahead with it when I look outside and it’s snowy and cold for so many days in a row.

But, that’s slowly changing. The spring seems to be poking its head out. Now, it’s true that we could get more snow. March isn’t over and we’ve had storms later in the month. But the 10-day forecast looks promising, so maybe some of the current snow will at least go away.

And we’ve seen some sun. And blue skies. That makes me smile more. And it makes me want to write a bit more. That means it’s time to dust off the blogging planner and see what I can come up with. I need to visit some blogs and see what people have been up to. And I need some things to get me going.

Anybody else get like this during the winter? Or if you are a blogger, do you get more done in the winter months? And how are you after doing challenges?

I just need to get back to organizing myself and I’ll be with it.

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

30 Days of Writing: Roadblock (2/30)

Roadblock to keep people off a road that tends to flood with heavy rains.

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 on the serious side. 

For many years, there is a road in our area that has been known for flooding.

It’s a back road that runs pretty much parallel to a state highway. As the two run close to one another just outside of our village, there’s a beautiful covered bridge. It’s an historic covered bridge and a wonderful spot for photography.

On the county road — the backside of the river — the road dips awful low for a bit and then zig-zags away from the river a bit.

It’s that dipping part that has always been something to watch when heavy rains comes. Unfortunately, it can also result in tragedy. Let’s go back in time to revisit something that this area will likely always remember. At the time, it was one of my biggest freelance “breaks” in my professional career, but if it could erase what happened, I’d gladly give back the opportunity that I received because of it.

****

‘Twas early evening on a cool and rainy Fall day in late October 2003. I was semi-employed at the time as I searched for work after completing my Master’s degree in May. I had covered a game for the local daily paper and had dropped off a roll of film for them and was heading home.

I got a call from a friend who was working for said daily and he noted the New York Daily News needed a freelancer to help with a story that was happening in my town.

And, being the News pays well, I had a hard time saying no.

The way things happen with a paper like that is the person upstate doesn’t really write. My job was to call around to people, get some quotes, comments and whatever else to help the writer back in New York. They paint a picture that way. They make calls as well and then weave everything together in the way a daily tabloid can.

So, I did what they needed.

But the story itself was tragic.

There had been a lot of rain the previous few days and there was a bit of flooding. A lady, driving home from work, went via the back road. In her car, buckled into their child seats, were here 10-month old twins.

As she rounded one of the corners and hit one of the dips in the road, her car was swept up by flood waters and taken into the fast-moving river.

According to reports, she said she attempted to escape by rolling down a window and tried to release the child seats. But she basically was sucked out of the vehicle, which then kept heading down river. After gettingShe ran as fast as she could to find help. Nobody was home in a nearby house and after flagging a motorist, she was taken to the hospital.

Search crews went to work as fast as possible. And the search went throughout the night.

The following day, the bodies of the twins were pulled from the water. It was a story that attracted local and national attention. In the end, two children lost their lives before they ever got to have them going.

One area media reported that a county worker was en route to close the road as this tragedy happened. Reports of water on the road had come in shortly before and he was being sent to close the road.

But, it was too late.

****

Those twins would be nine-years-old now. They’d be in school and looking forward to turning 10 on New Year’s Eve. But Mother Nature and a bit of nasty fate took that away.

And that’s sad.

The only glimmer of hope from this is that something good would hopefully come out of it.

Since that day, whenever heavy rains come and there’s a chance of water creeping up too high, the county closes that section of the road as fast as possible. No waiting. Roadblocks go up until the water comes down and it’s safe to pass through that area.

I often drive that section of the road. It’s scenic. There are wonderful photo opportunities. But each time, I pass by the makeshift memorial that has been built for the twins and it makes me remember that fateful night.

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: Cheese (1/30)

Mmmm... cheese!

Cheese.

It’s a milk-based product to die for.

It also happens to be the first day of the 30 Days of Writing Challenge. So I needed to find a way to mix this glorious food into my normal weekly edition of Foto Friday.

So, I’m going to share some cheese photos to go with both posts and mix them into one.

I love me some cheese.

First, some cheese stuff.

Cheese is one of the few foods I would have a hard time living without. There are not many cheeses that I don’t like, at least in one form or another. With things such a bleu cheese, I don’t like it by itself, but mixed with some garlic and melted as a steak topping? Awesome.

Cheddar, of course, is the bomb.

Gouda. Swiss. Irish cheese. Smoked. Brie. So many types of cheese, so little time. I even think there’s a place for sandwich cheese (ie: pasteurized and individually packaged…) and spreads.

I try and check out cheese sections wherever I go. And I like to try new stuff whenever I can. In fact, I think I am willing to try cheeses more than I am certain other things.

One thing that’s outstanding about cheese is all the wonderful foods you can eat cheese with, and all the drinks you can enjoy with cheese.

For example, I realize many people love wine with cheese.

Not me.

I love trying new cheeses, like this smoked bacon. Awesome.

See, I’m not a wine guy. I couldn’t tell you the difference between a red and a white (besides color) or between a Chardonnay, a Merlot or a pinot noir.

Beer goes well with cheese, especially a good beer, such as a Guinness or a strong ale. Drinking something like Coors Light wouldn’t work well with cheese, I don’t think.

For me, I enjoy water with cheese as I feel like the water won’t take away from the taste of the cheese. I’m sure wine and such accent the cheese, but I’m more of a naturalist with the cheese.

Then there’s what you eat with cheese.

Pretzels and cheddar... awesome!

Personally, eating cheese by itself works for me. Yet, I still find myself trying other things.

Pretzels, for example, go well with cheddar cheese. Triscuits and Wheat Thins seem to go well with anything. Ritz crackers? The same. There are so many varieties of crackers out there, that I’m sure you’ll be able to easily find something to go with the cheese you’ve chosen.

I’m a fan of spreads, too. Anything from things like swiss almond to something like Laughing Cow, which is a wedged cheese with seven different varieties, go well with normal crackers.

Nothing like a little spread for Triscuits!

Cheese is also something that is very photographic. This is, after all, a Foto Friday post. Getting zoomed in and playing with the focal points is a nice way to do things. Also, mixing in different things — such as crackers, pretzels, knives etc. — will make things a bit better, too.

There’s a cheese factory near me and I am hoping to stop there sometime this summer. I think it would make for some pretty wild photos. Especially if I could shoot the process of the cheese being made.

But even if I can just see full cheese wheels and other cheese things — still good photos.

In the end, if you are taking photos of cheese… what’s the best part?

Eating all the cheese you use as props!

Yum!

Cheese!

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