A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

blogging challenge

Photo Blogging Challenge: April 2013

One month down. Infinity to go?

We’ll see about that.

Alas, the March version of the monthly Photo Blogging Challenge is in the books and as I look, we had four people take part. Well, three who knew about it. Then one who wasn’t told by Ziva. And, it was Ziva’s job to market.

Can we all just blame the Fins?

Still, four is better than just me. Hopefully we can grow. The link on the last post is still open for another 10-12 hours, so maybe some forgetful people will join along.

I think with a month-long challenge such as this, we either need to set up a reminder system or people need to utilize and online or phone calendar system that will send them alerts. Having 30 or so days in between finding out the theme and posting might lend to some people forgetting.

So, until I figure something better out, I have one idea. If you are participating and want a reminder, say, 10 days before the challenge is up, leave a note in the comments below. On that day, I’ll send an e-mail to everybody who might one. I’ll leave myself a calendar reminder, too — so I don’t forget!

Anyway, I really enjoyed those who participated this month and hopefully we can grow.

Before we hit up this month’s theme, for new people, allow me to refresh the rules a bit.

Here’s how it will work.

  • On the first of each month, I’ll have a blog post here with the theme for the month.
  • Over the course of the month, participants will take photos with their interpretation of the theme. On the last day of the month, participants should  publish their blog post, which will include five photos from the month. (please don’t recycle photos from the past … the idea is to hopefully challenge you to go out and take new photos to interpret the theme).
  • I’ll have a link-up thing at the end of my post so people can come and post the links to their posts so, hopefully, everybody can go go check out and comment on other posts.

There is no rule on equipment or anything. Use a cell phone. Use film. Use a point-and-shoot. Use a DSLR. It doesn’t matter. Just make sure you publish your blog post on the last day of each month, come here and link up.

It’s simple!

Your blog posts can be as simple or as in-depth as you want. I’ll likely talk a little about each photo. But if all you want to do is post photos, feel free. The idea of this is to give a small challenge and give everybody a chance to express themselves with photography, participate in a challenge and have something to blog about.

And that’s all there is to it!

I hope we see more people next month and this challenge continues to grow and grow.

For those still with me, this month’s theme is: Transportation.

This theme can definitely be interpreted in many ways. I look forward to seeing what everybody comes up with! Please make sure your blog post publishes April 30!

If you think you are going to take part in this, drop a comment below so we can see who all might be trying to tackle this challenge!

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@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Photo Blogging Challenge (March 2013): My World

I can’t believe March is pretty much over.

And so ends the first month of the monthly Photo Blogging Challenge. I’m kind of hoping I’m not the only one who did this for the month. It’s hard to have a month-long challenge because people might forget about it.

Alas, I’ve done what I could.

Let me remind people of the basic premise of this challenge. The idea is to take photos throughout the month and have a blog post with your five favorites. The post can be in-depth or pretty simple. But one needs just five photos.

This month’s theme was “My World.”

This theme definitely left some room for interpretation. The way I went about it was basically taking five photos from the month that showed something about me. At least I hope these shots did. They are in no particular order, but here are the five.

Anyway, without further adieu.

1. Old tennis ball

I find odd things to take photos of, which is part of my world. I see things differently. And I like that. It makes it kind of fun. That’s why as I was leaving a park earlier this month, this caught my eye. I spent probably 15-20 minutes shooting this. And I really like how this one came out. My world is quirky when I have a camera in hand.

Wintered tennis ball.

2. Meow

My cat isn’t always the brightest. She seems to thing cardboard is the best thing. But, Molson (yes, named after the beer) is quite the character. Good cat, too. Even though she can be annoying as sin. Here she is finding some cardboard.

Molson!

3. Geocaching

One of my favorite hobbies — and a major part of my world — is geocaching. It’s a great way to get outside. You get to find something, have fun and see what is out and about.

Geocaching!

4. Disc golf

I love disc golf. I run another blog which is all disc golf. So I knew I needed a shot for that. This one was via the iPhone, but I like it. The bottom disc is the site I own. The other is a wood disc we were trying for a future review. It’s a great game.

Out throwing.

5. Homebrewing

This is new to my world, but an absolute blast. And I’m starting to learn more and more. Hopefully I can keep going with it. This is another iPhone photo, and it’s an Irish Stout I did.

 

Beer!

There’s my five and I look forward to seeing how others (if there are any) interpreted the theme.

Still, another theme will be posted tomorrow.

If you did this month’s, link up below! And go check the other blog posts!



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!

Photo Blogging Challenge: March 2013

I think people who read my blog know I like to take part in challenges.

I’ve hosted some through Flickr (and currently have one going), but I would like to do a blog challenge, too. But I think I’d want to mix it up.

In discussing photography with Ziva recently, I threw out the idea of a monthly challenge. This way, it wouldn’t require somebody to blog each day, rather once a month.

Here’s how it will work.

  • On the first of each month, I’ll have a blog post here with the theme for the month.
  • Over the course of the month, participants will take photos with their interpretation of the theme. On the last day of the month, participants should  publish their blog post, which will include five photos from the month. (please don’t recycle photos from the past … the idea is to hopefully challenge you to go out and take new photos to interpret the theme).
  • I’ll have a link-up thing at the end of my post so people can come and post the links to their posts so, hopefully, everybody can go go check out and comment on other posts.
  • I’m also working to set up a “newsletter” sort of thing so participants can subscribe and get a notification whenever something in regard to the challenge is posted here.

There is no rule on equipment or anything. Use a cell phone. Use film. Use a point-and-shoot. Use a DSLR. It doesn’t matter. Just make sure you publish your blog post on the last day of each month, come here and link up.

It’s simple!

Your blog posts can be as simple or as in-depth as you want. I’ll likely talk a little about each photo. But if all you want to do is post photos, feel free. The idea of this is to give a small challenge and give everybody a chance to express themselves with photography, participate in a challenge and have something to blog about.

If you are going to participate, please drop a note in the comments below. I’d like to subscribe to people’s blogs. Hopefully, I won’t be doing this challenge by myself!

Most of all, have fun with it.

Oh, I guess I should post the first theme, eh?

March’s theme will be simple and pretty easy for you to interpret — “My World.”

Take us through your world, in five shots. Maybe it’s the area in which you live. Maybe it’s you. A hobby. Family. Friends. Other things. Whatever. But as we get this challenge going — and hopefully keep it going for many months — let’s learn about the people who might take part!

Have fun with it!

If you think you are going to take part in this, drop a comment below so we can see who all might be trying to tackle this challenge!

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

30 Minus 2 Days of Writing: Is that all? (28/28)

Seriously?

Is that all?

Twenty-eight days ago, we started a wonderful challenge of writing a post per day. Now, mind you, I’ve done this before. And not even with a challenge! Just blogging for a full month (or more) in a row.

It’s true, however, that when you put some emphasis on some crazy themes, it gets harder. Alas, it’s a done deal. As of the moment I hit publish on this post, I’ll have completed this challenge. For the second time.

That’s what I’m talking about.

Though there were some off-the-wall prompts this time around (I think even more than the first time), I’ve once again enjoyed it. Truthfully, challenges like this get your mind working and make you think about things in a different way. For the most part, I try and stick with reality on the prompts. I try and come up with something in the real world (though I did use Earl once). I find that to be even more challenging.

When one challenge closes, there’s always another ready to snap away!

But enough about me. Hopefully you’ve been with me for the past 28 days and you’ve seen it all.

I’ve really enjoyed reading and commenting on all the other blogs. Outside of the ones posted later yesterday (I’ll be getting to them) and today, I’ve ready pretty much every post people have done in this challenge. I can’t say I have commented on every post, but if you’ll recall there’s always reasons for something like that.

And though they may readily deny it, I know Nicky and Mike like this challenge. And I’m sure there will be a third one. Though, to be fair, it may have to be done without my prodding. I’ll just wait in the wings for the next one. Patiently, this time. Kind of.

I have a whole heap of new blogs I’ve really enjoyed going to during this challenge. And I’ve loved that there are several from the first go-around still there and going at it. I’ll be updating my blog roll soon with a few more of the ones I truly enjoyed and got to know.

No matter what, that’s the best part about this challenge — meeting other bloggers from all over with different tastes and styles. It’s made it fun and I look forward to continuing to reading some of their blogs in the coming weeks, months and more. So for that, I thank Nicky and Mike for taking this on again and I will look forward to a third — if and when it happens. This time next year, perhaps?

Still, I won’t lie.

I like challenges. It keeps me fresh with blogging things and forces me to sometimes think outside the box a little. I know Ziva, another participant in this challenge, does a 30 days of photography one sometimes. I like that idea because I’m a photographer. I just have a hard time posting 30 straight days of photos on this blog. So it got me thinking a bit. What could we do to intertwine photography and blogging?

Then the ideas instantly came — a monthly photo blogging challenge.

I initially ran the idea by Ziva to see what she thought of it because she’s done the photo challenges. She told me she was on board with it and would lend her “challenge” expertise if needed.

So here’s the deal.

On the first of every month, I’ll have a blog post about the theme for the month. Each participant will have the full month to take five photos to cover the month’s theme. Interpret it as you see fit. On the final day of the month, do a blog post about the photos for the theme and post it. Come back over here and I’ll have a link thing setup, much like Nicky/Mike and Ziva do for their challenges.

The beauty of this challenge is it’s one post, but it still gives you a challenge. And it challenges you with photos as well as words.

My post here tomorrow will explain the challenge in-depth and have the first theme.

This challenge will go on for however long. There will be no direct end date. As long as people seem interested and want to continue along with it, they are most certainly welcome. Who knows? Maybe it’ll just be Ziva and I doing it. Or just me. Or three or four. I have no idea.

So, in the end, I guess that’s not all for now.

Maybe for the current challenge. But there will always be challenges, whether blogging or in real life, that one will do or overcome.

I’ve enjoyed this challenge and look forward to the next. And for that, I’m thankful.

Hope to see some or many of you hopping into the monthly photo challenge!

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

30 Minus 2 Days of Writing: Absurd (23/28)

As absurd as it sounds, I’m going to come clean.

I feel I need to do this. To get this weight off my shoulder. To realize that I can’t blame Nicky and Mike for this challenge any longer. I just can’t do it.

I can do a lot of things, such as wonder why Mike still hasn’t found the geocache across the street from his home.

Across. The. Street.

But I can’t blame him (or Nicky) for this challenge anymore.

Working for cheese may be absurd, but it’s not as absurd as trying to get through to the media giant!

Well, yes I can. But I also need to come clean about the fact that I was an active pusher of having this challenge return.

I just hope I’m not the only one. See, I truly enjoyed the challenge last year. It was refreshing. It gave me some excitement to blog again. Sure, the topics were odd, but it seemed cool.

I can’t even remember where I stumbled upon the site, but it was only a few days before starting.

It was Nov. 16 when I first e-mailed Nicky, asking her about the next challenge. She basically shooed me off like a buzzing fly around her head. She did say she wouldn’t mind doing another one (so, I think the idea was always there!), but it would have to wait. Ya know, with holidays and such coming.

Talk about absurdity!

In December, I inquired again. Maybe January?

Shooed away, again.

I even offered to help, but I couldn’t take on this challenge. After all, I don’t get as many hits per day as a media giant such as We Work For Cheese gets.

So I made my last plea in January. I figured at this point, I was being pushed aside by the corporate big wigs at WWFC and they wondered what they would have to to shut me up.

I mentioned February was a shorter month. And, well, I offered up some flattering and complimentary things. Who knew the big cheese enjoyed that? I thought it was all about the money that flows into that site.

From there, I didn’t hear much. It seemed the teams went to work figuring things out and getting it all ready for a go. This is when the communications crew of WWFC figured out how to make this a truly absurd challenge.

The truly absurd part? As February approached, I honestly didn’t want to participate. (I will duck as a full plate of poutine gets sent flying at my head). All of a sudden, real life had taken hold of me and I wondered if I could get creative enough for the challenge.

In the end, I really am glad this happened — again. I’ve had the chance to find some new blogs to read and get chatty with other people. I hope those “blog” friendships continue after the challenge.

I’m about to get more absurd — I’ve actually enjoyed it and am really appreciative that Nicky and Mike did this again. That being said, when I e-mail again in 6-7 months, feel free to tell me right where I should go if I’m asking when you are running another challenge!

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