A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

blog hop

Secret Subject Swap: Matrix moments

This 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 “Have you ever had a glitch in the matrix moment? If so what was it?” and it was submitted by Climaxed.

I had to Google to see what this even means. But from my searching it seems it means “deja vu.”

So my short answer is, yes, I have experienced these moments. Several times. Thing is, once they happen, they leave my mind. I can’t think of an actual moment where it happened.

I know I’ve experienced it and I know it’s always a wild feeling. But outside of that, I have no memory of the actual moment. But that got me thinking about the word “matrix.”

Have you ever seen Ferris Bueller? The scene with the one teacher that has the slow words, and then speeds up a little?

“Anywaaaaaaaay…”

Yeah, when I was first in college at a two-year school, I had a sociology teacher that talked like that. It would put you to sleep. And most of the class wasn’t about sociology.

It was about the learning process. And I’m not kidding.

He had this thing he called a learning matrix. For the life of me, I can’t remember the whole thing behind it (we’re talking 25 or so years ago), but it was all … how to learn.

Every.

Class.

He would start by drawing something on the board and would go over the matrix for 3/4 of class. Then he’d do a quick lesson, assign homework and call it a day.

Rinse. Repeat.

And it was tough to stomach. Think about a whole college semester. A M/W/F class. About the learning matrix. I mean, I guess to a point it got drilled into me because I still remember it all these years later.

Though I don’t remember the actual matrix.

Maybe I’m experiencing a matrix moment every time I think about it? Knowing I’ve seen it before.

When all said and done, I think it was his way of trying to help us find a way to learn. I had another class with him that wasn’t a 101 and he barely even touched on it.

No matter what though, I always think of that when I hear “matrix” and it always brings me back.

Six 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 at A ‘lil HooHaa, and we’d love to have you join us! The Photo Blogging Challenge is one of our main ones and it runs monthly! We also have the Food Photo Challenge (current theme listed at end of post) 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!

Secret Subject Swap: Favorite holiday

This 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 “What is your favorite holiday and how do you celebrate it?” and it was submitted by Wandering Web Designer.

It seems odd to be talking about certain holidays in April. 

Alas, such is the world when you are in a secret subject swap. 

I’m sure I share this with a lot of people, but my favorite holiday is Christmas. And it’s not just Christmas day, it’s everything surrounding it. The festive look and feel. The music. The smiles. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I dislike the idea that stores start doing Christmas sales in like October or earlier now, but the overall feel is what I like. 

I love seeing the look on the faces of kids during that time, especially the innocence of what it is. 

To me, it’s the perfect time of year. 

Family time during that holiday season is usually pretty good. As I’ve grown older, I’ve tended to appreciate the whole season a lot more. It was always my father’s favorite holiday as well. And I think most of my family is usually in the spirit. 

Christmas candy and foods are always amazing as well. From my mother’s homemade caramels (family recipe) to cookies from friends and other things galore, you can’t go wrong with the season! 

I even enjoy a cup or two of store-bought eggnog each year. 

And though I know there are plenty of people who do not enjoy the Christmas holiday, it’s a season I find to be enjoyable and carefree. Innocence only goes so far these days, and I feel as though you can still capture it quite well during Christmas. 

And yes, I like snow during those holidays as well!

Five 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 at A ‘lil HooHaa, and we’d love to have you join us! The Photo Blogging Challenge is one of our main ones and it runs monthly! We also have the Food Photo Challenge (current theme listed at end of post) 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!

Secret Subject Swap: Life as a musical

This 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 “If your life was a musical, what genre of music would it be and what songs would be featured on the soundtrack?” and it was submitted by Southern Belle Charm.

This is a tough one. 

First, allow me to say, I’m a fan of musicals. Alas, I’m not sure there’s any musical I am a fan of that would allow me to say “that’s my life.” 

I’m a fan of more classic musicals – ones such as Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady, and Damn Yankees. It’s not that I don’t like more modern ones – I just haven’t seen many. 

So trying to put me in a classical musical might be hard. 

The same goes for genre. 

Much like a human personality, it’s hard to stick to one set track. I couldn’t, for example, say I’m all rock. My musical tastes and likes are a wide range – anything from a little classical to rock to country to modern pop to 80s anything and then some. 

It’s just how I am when it comes to music. 

So to have a soundtrack would be a wide range as well, and one I’m not sure I could fully come up with. 

Instead, my soundtrack would vary quite a bit. Keeping that in mind, I’ve opted to find a soundtrack of songs that either might be part of my world as an explanation of who I am, or songs that might have been important during a time in my life.

I’m not going to go too deep into what the songs mean to me and such, rather I’m just going to link up some YouTube videos and let you all (if you want) listen to the songs that have been important to me at one point or another during my life – and yes, songs I would thing would find a way to be on the soundtrack of my personal musical. 

1. Pachelbel’s Canon 

2. Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole 

3. Bittersweet – Big Head Todd and the Monsters (Live version)

4. Life is a Highway – Tom Cochrane 

This is just a short selection of songs that might be in a musical about my life. I’m sure I’ll think of more later in the day or this weekend and just be like “d’oh! That is one!” But this is a good clip on the start. 

A musical, of course, isn’t just about the music though. I’m not sure I’d want to attack the other parts of a musical if it was about my life – that would be a hard thing to make sense of!

Six 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 at A ‘lil HooHaa, and we’d love to have you join us! The Photo Blogging Challenge is one of our main ones and it runs monthly! We also have the Food Photo Challenge (current theme listed at end of post) 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!

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!

Ten Things of Thankful: Life is pretty decent right now

Sometimes, in life, you have to stop, take a deep breath and realize there are things to truly be thankful for.

So, when offered the chance to get involved with this, I thought it was a good idea. I realize some bloggers will do this every week, but if I do posts like this, I look at it a couple of ways, besides having the chance to find some other good blogs to read:

  • I want it to be meaningful and from the heart.
  • It has to be things I’m truly thankful for.

Therefore, I thought I’d throw my hat in the ring. Maybe I’ll try and do this every couple of weeks and try and rotate it with my Soundless Sunday posts to have a little diversity. Or maybe I’ll do one of these every three weeks or so. Who knows. Basically, if I can find 10 certain things I’m thankful for at the time, I’ll do it up.

Anyhoo, without further ado, let’s check what kind of things I have to be thankful for at this moment in time, in no particular order.

1. Living 

This may seem like a cheesy way to start things off, but it’s true. Though my life isn’t going in the direction I’d truly like it to go right now, the reality is it could be much worth. So this encompasses many things — like realizing even though things aren’t great for me right now, I could be in much more dire need.

2. Family

Take a look at the news any day and you’ll find reports of dysfunctional families. Maybe it’s someone harming a parent or a child or siblings doing something bad. Though my family is far from perfect (and I’m sure we’d all admit it!), we get along, we stay pretty close and appreciate what we all can do. We support and we do what we can to help one another. And I’m not talking just immediate family, either. My extended family of cousins, aunts, uncles etc., are also quite close. That’s something I’ll always treasure and, as I get older, I appreciate it more and more.

3. Photography

I do like to spend time by myself and photography has always been a big part of times like that. There’s still nothing like going out with my camera, going for a walk and finding things to snap photos of, at least in my mind. I see things differently when I have my camera. I’m not sure what I would be like without having that in my life as it’s, at times, been a bit of a life-saver when it comes to me dwelling on things too much or going out and doing something.

Fall and photograph mix well together.

4. The fall

You know, there are parts of the country — and the world — where they don’t get to experience the four seasons. Living in the Northeast of the United States really gives me the chance to see all four — spring, summer, winter and fall. That also gives the chance to be able to go out and capture some great colors and such with the camera. As much as I’d love to move somewhere to experience life differently, this area affords the four seasons so well and I would truly miss it if I went elsewhere.

5. Good friends

There is no way I’d have been able to get through the past few years without good friends. While family is always a help, the reality is friends always play an important part in your life. For my closest friends, I consider them extensions of my family, anyway. So whether it’s going out for a beer, sitting down to shoot the shit for a few hours, going to a game or something else, I have a group of friends who have been absolutely amazing. They also know when or when not to ask about my job situation as it can become quite a drag to talk about. Friends are worth their weight and gold (though I’m not sure I could cash in? I kid, of course!)

6. Geocaching

Since becoming a major hobby in my life in 2008, this game has been so good to me. I’ve met some great people I call friends now, I’ve had some wild adventures and it’s allowed me to get outside, walk, hike and try and stay somewhat healthy. The reality is this game has been such a great thing. From the social aspect to being able to explore places I may have never seen without it, I’m highly thankful for it.

Geocaching has been good for my mind and body, so that’s something to be thankful for.

7. Health

I may not be the healthiest person in the world with some things, but for the most part, I’m doing pretty well. I can still get up, work, play, hike, bike, run, walk, play softball or whatever else. I may have to take a few meds, but I think most of the country has to! That being said, I know I have to work on some things (losing weight, just trying to be healthier overall) and I’m thankful I have the health to be able to work on it and try and improve things.

8. Blogging

Writing has always been something I’ve done. I’ve said it on this blog before, but I had my first newspaper story published when I was in seventh or eighth grade.  Though I’ve blogged since 2005, I really got into it and the whole aspect of it when I got laid off from the newspaper job in 2011. Now, it’s a secondary part of who I am and I love it. The community is amazing. The people I follow and read are ones I’m truly glad I found. And for those I’ve created more of a friendship with, it’s even better. I love the reality that there are people I consider pretty solid friends who I met through blogging.

9. Wrestling

OK, some may look at this and say … what the? But I have to put this here. Why? Because like other things, I’ve made some pretty good friends through it. And during a time when I needed it, it gave me a cheap form of entertainment and one where I had the chance to mix my love of photography. The independent world of pro wrestling has made it so I have something to look forward to seeing every month or three. And it truly is some fun entertainment.

10. Brewing beer

I end with this one. When I started doing it earlier this year, I didn’t know what to think. Now I know of more things I can do while brewing. Whether it’s ingredients, or hops or anything else — I have a better appreciation for beer. And I also like knowing I made something that doesn’t suck. Is it the best beer made? Nah. But I’ve made some pretty tasty ones and I look forward to making many more.

Ten Things of Thankful

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