A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

blog hop

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!

Interaction is key when it comes to personal blogs

Work with me here, people.

I’ve seen some things with blogging over the past few months. And not all of it is good. So this is my blogging rant for the day — and hopefully — for the long term. I don’t need to do this again.

I need to start with this — I realize there are several different blog platforms out there. I’ve been through many of them. But they all run differently. For example, I use WordPress. But it’s a self-hosted WordPress site, not one you do on the actually WordPress site. That gives me much more control over the site and how it looks, feels and runs. I also use the normal system for comments.

I’ve debated going to Disqus, and actually did it for a few days a while back, but I thought the WordPress comment system was fine. Name, e-mail (not shown) and website, if you have one. It’s worked fine, but I’ve been told that one person can’t leave comments. I have no idea why, but he’s tried many ways to access my site and can’t do it. That’s the only issue I’ve ever heard, though.

Blogger is a different story.

With Blogger’s comment system, it appears the site owner has the choice to decide how people can comment. Some elect to make it a little tighter — in other words using sign on stuff for other things (such as your own Blogger/Google account). The problem with this is there’s no way to link back to your blog. AND with no place for e-mail, there’s no way for the blog owner to contact you or check your site out. That’s one reason I sometimes decide not to comment on those sites. Choose the name/URL option so anyone can comment. It also seems silly for Blogger to not have a spot or option for somebody commenting to not be able to leave their e-mail.

Disqus is somewhat like that now, too.

I don’t like that people can’t leave their blog address on my blog when they comment. It’s easy for me to click on their name to go check their site out. Why make things harder than needed?

Some of this was brought to my attention recently through a group I am part of. Apparently, when I comment with my Google account, or even with my URL/name on a Blogger blog, there’s no way for the person to e-mail me a response. I don’t know Blogger one big, so I have no clue what that means.

But I saw last night when I commented somewhere that I can have a checkmark in place when I use my Google account to have my e-mail address used for responses. That’s fine. But I don’t see that when I use the URL/name. Um… hello, Blogger? Why make things so hard?

I realize it’s about brand setup and all that, but reality has it that not everybody will use Blogger. I don’t personally like the control or interface. And I am already established elsewhere. It’s time to make it easier for your blog owners. Work on that, Blogger.

Now then, that leads me to something else in blogging.

Visiting people’s blogs.

I do my best to make my rounds to several blogs each week. I try and hit them 2-3 times and read what I can, comment etc. But that’s just in a regular rotation.

I’ve recently found a couple of blog groups and have gotten involved some. They can be fun and there’s some interaction. Many of these groups also have “blog hops,” which is basically where people from the group post links to certain posts, social media sites or whatever. The idea is to get people seeing your things, commenting, following and, well, interacting.

That’s how I see it anyway.

Every blog hop I’ve been apart of I try and visit every person on it. I comment on most. The times I don’t comment are when the “rules” are not followed (ie: only post your blog address and not the link to the direct post, as requested) or if one has to go through leaps and bounds to comment.

I’ve hardly ever seen success in blog hops, though. And I’ve done them for quite a while, not just recently.

Sometimes people will stop by or whatever. Maybe a comment? But not usually. I realize my blog isn’t a cup of tea for everybody. And it’s true when I visit blogs, too. But if there are blogs specifically for a hop, they there should be some sort of interest, no? Instead, nothing.

It’s disappointing, too.

Not because of the commenting (which, I won’t lie, we all like to have comments on our blogs), but rather because people are missing out on the interaction. Blogs are about more than yourself. It’s about finding new people, interests or whatever. I also realize that most blogging groups I am in are female dominated. And many blogs out there have that tone. You want proof? Go to Google and type in “Mommy blog” and see how many results come up.

When it comes to personal blogs (such as this one), females are definitely at the forefront. In one group I am in, I want to say there are fewer than five male bloggers in there.

But no matter who is behind the blog, it’s about content and interacting. When I check out others in blog hops, I can appreciate things that aren’t in my norm. If somebody went to town and created a kid’s room (I don’t have kids, so it’s not something I would usually care about), I can appreciate the work and time put into it. And I can appreciate what somebody has done to it — so I comment.

The same goes with arts and crafts and things like that. Or whatever else. I can usually relate — somehow — to what somebody has written. After all, it’s meaningful to them.

I guess, in the end, what I’m trying to say is bloggers should utilize the hops and comments to expand thoughts and interests. There’s a lot of great people out there blogging. There are people I never would have gotten to know if I hadn’t stumbled across their blog, either accidentally, through blog hops or other challenges. Many of these blogs have become favorites and ones I visit as often as possible. You can build some great friendships and get to know people quite well.

Especially with personal blogs as, let’s be honest, major blogs or niche ones, are sometimes more about you visiting and expressing opinions and such. Many of those are big enough where it’s impossible for somebody to respond to each comment or visit your blog.

But with personal blogs, it’s a two-way street.

I won’t lie — if I am commenting and trying to interact and nothing really comes back, I start to lose interest. To me, personal blogs go beyond content. They are about interaction and getting to know somebody. And when it becomes a fully one-way street, people lose interest, me included.

I’ll keep doing things the way I believe is the best way to get to know people and learn about their blogs. It’s just a shame when I know it’s time to cut ties with some.

Such is the life of blogging.

Fundraiser: I am, again, trying to raise money for the Relay For Life. If you donate to me — a minimum of $5– you will be entered to win a super-sweet quilted lap quilt or pillow. Click here for all the information!

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