A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

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Topics and memories

I’m just going to ramble a little.

You see, I’ve been working my tush off to make sure I have a blog post each day. And before I’m I can miss a day — as I’ve been told a few other times — I know I can. However, I set a small goal of trying to blog as much as possible this year.

So I’m going forward with that.

The problem is, I don’t want to make this blog only about baseball or geocaching or something along those lines. I have a lot of ideas for each of those topics, too.

I also have a lot of ideas for other posts, but the biggest problem is that I forget.

And yes, I have notebooks and such I use for blogging. The biggest problem is most of the time when I come up with ideas is when I am driving. I start thinking and get something written in my head. The problem with that is I get things going and then … something else pops into my mind. When that happens, I’m shot.

There goes the idea.

Now, sure, I could stop, pull over and write it down. But that really isn’t the smartest thing if I am trying to get somewhere on time, or if I am on one of the roads in my area where there aren’t many places to pull over.

So what’s the next best thing?

I’m sure I can come up with some sort of app that is voice powered and could just speak a couple of things that would save. But even then, I’m not sure. I don’t, obviously, write down notes when I am driving, either.

It just seems I can’t store some of these things in my mind, which sucks as I do think I have some pretty good ideas that have been lost.

So I need to work to correct that. If I’m actually going to do a post each day of the week, I’ll need to make sure I can keep these ideas somewhere. If anybody has any thoughts about what I can do, I’m all ears.

Until then, who knows. It’ll only go as far as my memory holds.

What am I writing about here, anyway?

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

The SPAMbots return!

Every once in a while, as I empty out the thousands of SPAM comments that are captured before ever getting to the blog … I like to go through them and see what they are up to.

Some of them are quite hilarious.

And others make me shake my head.

I always wonder if it’s somebody sitting somewhere on a computer, getting paid like $1 per post they submit…

Anyway, on with the show!

From one of the posts for the February 2014 Photo Blogging Challenge:

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I’d like to know how they located my blog, as well as any funds. Can I get some of that loot?

This one was from my Atlantic City post from not too long ago:

I am definitely prompted along with your writing advantages when efficiently much like the style to the blog. Are these claims any paid for topic or maybe do you customize them by yourself? No matter what keep up the superb high quality publishing, it really is unusual to peer a fantastic site like this one today.

I efficiently much like the style to my blog, too. Thanks! (And, yes, I customize my posts).

This next one came from a post I did on a product review for sunglasses a few years ago:

You clean your eyeglasses regularly.You should wash your lenses with warm water and a mild soap. This will remove dirt, grime and oils. Then dry the lenses with a dedicated lens cloth or non-abrasive cloth, cotton works well. Avoid using paper towels or similar wipes as these can actually cause damage to the lens.

I sure do clean my glasses regularly. If I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t see well. Thanks for the tips.

This one came from a post several years ago — when we went to states for softball.

After I initially commented I seem to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I recieve 4 emails with the same comment. Perhaps there is an easy method you can remove me from that service? Thank you!

For the record, despite knowing this was SPAM, I checked. This person wasn’t subscribed. Go figure!

Remember my Summer of Baseball Tour this year? This one came from the trip to State College, Pa.

OFFICIALS of a central China city have defended its massive charity bid which has drawn sharp public criticism.

Thanks for the update. I’ll pass that along!

If you read my blog at all, you know every Saturday I post something called Snapshot Saturday, which is an old family/friend photo. This was from one of those:

Very good post. I will be facing some of these issues as well..

Does that mean you’ll be facing looking at old family photos, too?

Apparently that State College post was popular. Here’s another:

White Rabbit Creamy Candy is an iconic Chinese brand manufactured by Shanghai Guan Sheng Yuan Group. It suspended production after the national tainted milk scandal but resumed production in October 2008.

I’m very happy to hear this. It was sad when the milk became tainted.

And finally, from a post several years old…

ones Lands’ avoid Girls’ Skylar Bootie blocks the can be purchased in candy bars rose, evening Stostone tart wood.

Stostone tart wood. Good stuff!

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

2013 in Review: Blogging

It would be almost silly to have a full look back on 2013 and not discuss blogging. Though my major 2013 in Review post will run in the days following this post, I wanted to work on a post to give you my ups and downs with blogging for 2013.

This year had its ups and downs when it came to blogging, that’s for sure.

In regard to ups, I’m happy with how things grew. I always have known I wasn’t going to be one of those super over-the-top bloggers. I’m not going to draw hundreds or thousands of readers per day because, honestly, with a personal blog, it can be hard to do so. Instead, I kind of gauge success with getting a decent number of page views and being able to have fun and be part of a community.

Still, I like the slight bump in people looking at the blog.

I started keeping track of statistics in early 2011, a year in which I ended with 20,669 page views. In 2012, the blog received 23,925 views, followed by 26,017 in 2013.

That’s something be be quite happy with.

The year also gave me my highest one-month total, when there were 3,810 views in October. In fact, in six of the 12 months, I drew the highest amount of readers in said month since starting statistics.

Not too shabby.

I’ve also tried to stay more up on people who visit and comment. In the past few weeks, I’ve been pretty lax because of the new job. But I need to get back into it. In September, I posted a blogging pledge that I wanted to live by. And though a bit slow at times, I’ve been doing my best to go with these items.

Those items included:

  • Responding to each comment on my blog.
  • Visit other blogs during linkup or blog hops
  • Visit blogs of those who comment on my blog.

I haven’t been perfect, by any means. But I’m getting better. I have a blogging planner for 2014, so here’s to hoping that helps me continue to try and grow with my pledge.

For those who do it, blogging isn’t easy by any means. Especially, if you want to have some sort of consistency. I like to try and have at least five posts per week, if not a full week. So I tried to keep through that. I have found, however, that doing it with certain work-related things, can be hard.

So I need a routine, one in which I am building now.

But during the summer, when I was working as a photographer at a baseball camp, the hours, along with other extra-curricular activities, really made me kind of aloof when it came to blogging.

From January through May — months in which my life was job searches and the like, I averaged about 28 posts per month. When I worked at the baseball park for three months — June-August, I averaged 12 posts per month, which included a year-low eight posts in July. After that job ended, I had 28 posts in each September and October, followed by 20 and 21 in November and December. I started this new job in mid-November, so it seems the blogging routine I’ve tried to create is better than that of the one I had during the summer months.

WordPress, the software I use for blogging, also puts out a yearly “report” for each user so they can see what their numbers did etc. Some of the interesting tidbits include:

  • The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 26,000times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 10 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
  • The busiest day was Oct. 17, when I received 844 views, with the top post that day being my one about the CZW House of Horrors match. I received some help, for sure, with several people with a lot of followers re-tweeting that post and sharing it on Facebook.
  • A ‘lil HooHaa was visited by people in 120 countries, with most coming from the United States. Canada and the United Kingdom were also top places where visitors visited from.

Shout outs 

The year-end report also includes the top-five people who left comments on the site. So, I’d like to give them specific shout outs, with links to their blogs. I can’t thank people enough for commenting as it makes it fun to blog. I also know I need to reach out and comment more on other blogs in 2014.

These are in order. I give extra thanks to these five!

  1. Phil at The Regular Guy NYC.
  2. Ziva at Ziva’s Inferno.
  3. Paul at A Photo a Day.
  4. John at Nonameddufus.
  5. Nicky at We Work for Cheese.

Thank you all for visiting. It’s much appreciated!

Favorite posts

Below are links to my favorite posts of 2013. Because the CZW House of Horrors match is linked above, I’m leaving that one out as it may have cracked my top 10.

The rest are linked below, in no particular order.

I especially enjoyed these posts this year, so hopefully you’ll have some time to look back and check things out.

In the end, 2013 wasn’t a bad year for blogging on my end — especially with the personal blog. I have a lot of things I’d like to do in 2014 (a post will be coming up with week on that subject) to see what I can do to take this blog a little bit to the next level. I don’t need it to become some massive blog (though it would be cool), but to be able to find some more “blogging friends” or things like that would be awesome.

One thing that helped this year was becoming one of the New York representatives for the Northeast Bloggers Network. This has allowed me the chance to find some new blogs, get to know many more bloggers and be part of a really cool blogging community. The reality is there are a lot of bloggers out there and groups like this — as well as another I joined, Bloppy Bloggers — have been so good for me in 2013.

There were some highlights, too. It was the year I started the HooHaa Photo Blogging Challenge, a monthly photo challenge/linkup. It’s been a whole heap of fun, and hopefully it will continue to grow. I finished the writing challenge at We Work for Cheese for the second time. There were a few other challenges as well, so it was enjoyable.

Still, it’s time to turn the page on 2013 when it comes to blogging. It was a pretty solid year in blogging, so here’s to making the next year even better.

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

Attack of the crazy spambots!

It’s that time again.

It seems I get so many spam messages on a daily basis. And they never seem to amaze me with what they post. The even better part is they usually make no sense to the blog post they post to.

Go figure.

Let’s take a peek at a few for a Monday laugh. Remember, all I do is cut and paste these — I don’t edit or change. Therefore typos are all on the “person” commenting.

And we start with …

Portion of people pushed express that Obama’s more likely to stand for the he / she feels, with only 29% proclaiming that concerning Mitt romney.

This one was on a post about a geocaching event.

Say what? Apparently Obama and Mitt Romney were involved with the event?

Elsewhere, developments are proceeding more smoothly on the renewables front.

Is that so? I guess I am not supposed to know the full context of said comment?

warriors tend to be a result of abnormal condition of a thyroid problem or anterior pituitary gland, diabetes mellitus, tumors, gout pain, change of life or sometimes customized tablets.

This one attempted to be on a short post from 2007. The topic? Baseball playoffs. Yeah, seems like a legit comment.

Thanks ever so for your personal post. Continue writing.

No problem. I will continue writing. Thanks for your spam comment. Don’t continue that.

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I don’t even know where to start here…

Allow the marzipan to dry for 4-5 days at room temperature before applying the icing.

OK, I will take that into consideration. Thanks!

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of he is near to losing you for good. Be masculine while being tender about her thoughts and opinions.
My Life might be profitable because let’s all agree,
Brooke Shields is interesting.

Um… OK then.

Lorenzo de Orella y Ugalde, the commander in the Spanish-Filipino fleet, created a vow towards the Blessed Mother enshrined in the Sto. Domingo Church in Intramuros that inside the event they arise victorious, each of the crew would go barefoot to Sto. Domingo and spend homage to her in procession.

Makes sense to me, you?

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Good action, indeed!

OK, now these are making my head spin. I know it’s all somehow automated, and I’m fully thankful for a spam-catching plugin, but sheesh! The sad part is, these spam things get through on other people’s blogs and it messes the comments up as people don’t want to read through these things.

And yes, I know you want one more. Let me leave you with this beauty:

Setsuko Chiba was introduced to pachinko by her husband. When they split up, she continued to play regularly for 15 years, using it as supplementary income to support her family. “It was part of the same chain pachinko, cigarettes and cans of coffee,” explained Chiba. Trolleys laden with drinks and food for sale are continuously pushed around the parlours, encouraging people to stay longer. Like other pros, she targeted new machines — which are programmed to give out frequent winnings over the first few days to attract new customers — and her average win was around 70,000 yen on a good day. She also made large losses, and over the years her teeth and eyesight declined from neglect and hours spent at the machines. When her children complained of her long absences, it was a wake up call. She used her winnings to transition toward a more legitimate use of her gambling skills, becoming a self-employed stockbroker. She gave up smoking and pachinko at the same time, two taboos for Japanese women.

Yeah, absorb that one.

Time to delete. Done. I’m sure there will be plenty more soon enough.

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

The comments keep getting better and better …

The comments seem to be getting better.

With that in mind, I think I’m going to likely make this a monthly feature. I’ll go through and get some of the best “spam comments” that arrive on the blog and share them with you.

I have to be honest, though. Wherever this spam is coming from, it’s getting more creative. And, at times, they almost make sense. Almost.

Oh, and for the record, since the last time I ran a comments post, I have more than 9,000 messages in the spam folder. Soon, that will be zero. At least for a little while.

So, without further ado, let’s continue with some of the best spam comments I’ve recently had.

This one is a doozy. This comment appears on a post where I talk about the importance of triple-checking coordinates when placing a geocache.

Hello There. I discovered the site employing live messenger. This is a well authored write-up. I will always book mark that in addition to return to examine added of this techniques. Thanks for the particular submit. Let me surely return.

I’m trying to figure out why he needs my permission to return?

This next one came from a post I titled “Get me re-write,” originally posted in 2011 and talking about me needing to re-write my resume.

You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but I
find this topic to be really something which I think I would never
understand. It seems too complicated and extremely broad for me.

I am looking forward for your next post, I will try to get
the hang of it!

Your comment is written in a way that I don’t think I’d ever understand!

In this next one, I believe I found a fan! This came on a post that tackled whether or not it would be fun to go back to college.

Thanks for sharing superb informations. Your site is very cool. I am impressed by the details that you have on this site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this web page, will come back for extra articles. You, my pal, ROCK! I found simply the info I already searched all over the place and just couldn’t come across. What a perfect website.

I will continue to share good “informations” and I do appreciate you thinking I ROCK! (For the record, I do.)

The flattering comments keep coming, too! This one came from a post about a disc golf Ace Race tournament, which originally was featured on my other blog.

Youre so cool! I dont suppose Ive read anything like this before. So nice to uncover somebody with some original thoughts on this subject. realy thank you for beginning this up. this web page is something that is necessary on the internet, a person having a little originality. useful job for bringing something new to the world wide web!

I’m telling you, if I keep getting all these comments, I don’t know what I’ll do with myself!

Speaking of my other blog, I saved one from there as I knew I needed to share it. One of the other writers on the site is working on a book and, occasionally, he shares an excerpt. This comment came from one of those posts.

Greetings! I’ve been following your blog for a while now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Huffman Texas! Just wanted to tell you keep up the good work!

Who knew it took some bravery to post a comment on a blog?

This one came on one of my completed Day Zero Project posts. Seems fitting. Or not.

888, a London, UK-listed practitioner of online casino, bingo and poker games, today announced that it has gained a approve to be adapted to in the Coordinated States.

The online gaming living abortion, which is headquartered in and regulated at after all perfectly little short of the Sweep of Gibraltar, says the Nevada Gaming Commission has approved the licensing of 888 as an ‘Interactive Gaming Case Provider’ at a designation held in Las Vegas, and in jerk therewith the licensing of its ilk executives and controlling shareholders.

Reuters reported the sully on the escutcheon this morning, noting that it isn’t much of a shocker as the Nevada utter gaming in limit billet voted to disclose inviting condone earlier this month.

Well… word choice is always important when posting online.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this one. It comes from a post from the daily writing challenge I was in during the month of February. The theme for the day? Abraham Lincoln. My post was a couple of photos and a few words about seeing the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. So, yeah, this comment fits…

The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my selection to read, but I essentially thought youd have something intriguing to say. All I hear is actually a bunch of whining about some thing that you simply could fix when you werent too busy looking for attention.

Yep, totally nailed it!

And now? Time to empty the spam folder. I’m sure I’ll be back with more in a month or so.

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