A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

challenge

Secret Subject Swap: Choose your own adventure

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 “You’re the Australian Immigration Minister in charge of Novak Djokovic’s visa and thus participation in the Australian Open: how will you decide and why?” and it was submitted by Part-Time Working Hockey Mom.

Let me start by somewhat apologizing here as I’m sure this isn’t going to necessarily be what Tamara had possibly hoped for when she submitted this theme.

Alas, the one thing I’ve tried to do with my blog in the nearly 20 years I’ve had it is to try and stay away from most current events and/or controversial topics. That being said, I think I can answer this theme decently without going too crazy.

I titled this post “Choose your own adventure” as this is basically what the world has become with the pandemic. I’m willing to say 95 percent of people dealing with this have gone stir crazy and no matter if you agree with mandates or don’t, you are ready for this to be over and get back to something along the normal lines we had before March 2020.

I know I am.

Alas, the issue is between regular ol’ joes like myself, and government people, and rich people, and other countries, and extreme left and right people, and others who somehow have a say in all of this … can’t agree and can’t get along. What happens, of course, is people disagree, get all mad at one another, and this just triggers many more things.

It’s not a very nice cycle.

So, when a famous athlete arrives in a country for a sporting event and hasn’t done what is required; and then we find out his paperwork to forego said requirements was done wrong; and we also find out he hasn’t followed a lot of mandates and requirements in his own country — it’s hard to feel bad for him.

Let me preface this by saying it’s rare for me to feel bad for an athlete, especially somebody as top of the sport at the one we are speaking about. He’s rich and famous and probably has hundreds of people working for him — if not more.

The fact that paperwork was done wrong means maybe he needs better people in big spots. These are the types of “oopsie” moments that shouldn’t happen when you have that kind of power and money.

All that being said, I don’t feel bad for him.

If I was in the position of Australia, I would have done the same as they did. And I would have done it quite pissed off, too. And why pissed off? Because the tournament is better with him in it. It likely draws more money etc. People want to see the best. And because he was sloppy and careless, the country was forced to follow its own mandates.

Which is the right thing to do.

Again, no matter if you agree with or don’t agree with the mandates, they are out there. Each country is different. But if they are in place you need to follow them, or you could face repercussions. And if and when that happens, you deal with it — no matter if you are a top-level athlete or not.

What are your thoughts on celebs/entertainers and stories about them?

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

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!

BWF: Apples, apples, everywhere!

It’s a rough world right now. 

Between elections and pandemics and hate, it’s probably a bit more than many of us can handle. Stress levels are high, mental health issues are in the forefront, and it seems many people can’t get along. 

The one thing, however, we can usually *attempt* to control is ourselves. 

We can’t shield ourselves from everything, outside of going into the mountains and living off the land in a shack. That actually kind of sounds divine, doesn’t it? The news cycle is 24/7, so if you are around anything where news can be found, you’ll hear something. 

So what can you do to relax? To calm down? To find the inner zen?

Get outside, of course. 

This is something I haven’t done in a couple of years. And, to be honest, it’s probably silly that I haven’t. But if you want to escape from reality, find an apple orchard. 

Go pick apples. 

Take photos. 

Take some videos. 

When you go to apple orchards, you can really have a good time. Apples on the trees, on the ground, and all over. What’s nice is the color and the smells. 

And you are outside. 

It’s not just about picking some apples. Though, let’s be honest here, it’s a good part. All these varieties of apples gives you the chance to test so many different types. 

Rows and rows of apples. 

Proof that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!

This isn’t a perfect fix, of course. But it’s little things like this that can really make you take a step back in life a little and breathe. When you are out doing things like this, you have the ability to ignore things like social media, and your phone, and things like that. 

Maybe it’s only for an hour, but it’s not a bad thing, is it?

The one thing I’ve learned during this pandemic – especially over the past month or two – is there are a lot of things out there you can do to try and clear your head, all while staying safe. You just have to look. 

Depending where you are, apple season is still likely going on. Go find an orchard. Pick some apples. And clear your mind!

And always remember, an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! You’ll see that!

Blog With Friends: October 2020
Blog with Friends is a themed collaboration challenge where a group of bloggers get together and publish a project based on a theme. Please see the others who have taken part for this month’s theme carrots. Links to their posts can be found below the image!

Check out what the others did with carrots!

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!

BWF: Self improvement

Self improvement can go in many different ways.

And in this day and age, with all going on in our world, it’s a very important part of people’s life. Take for example, just the USA. Our unemployment rate is high, COVID-19 is still running rampant in many places, and the political scene is extremely volatile. Add to that social issues, which have taken center stage and put many people on edge.

Those don’t even include day-to-day life issues. Work, kids (if you have them), bills, appointments, etc.

If you put all of that together, it makes things extremely hard, at times to deal with. I haven’t seen many reports lately (as I am trying to not watch a lot of things for obvious reasons) but a few months ago it was reported how depression is on the rise. That doesn’t shock me at all as people are going to be prone to it if they are constantly being kicked down. Sometimes it’s hard to smile. I’m sure we all know that feeling.

How to cope?

Several months ago, for one of these challenges, I blogged about bullet journaling. It was something I had hoped I would do more of and kind of keep me a bit more in tune to things. So, I started it. And I rolled a bit for a month and then it faded.

Why?

Because it became stressful to create the spreads. The thing with a bullet journal is you a creating spreads each month, week, and day. You have to plot out pages you use. And it’s very time consuming. Even if you are doing minimalist style journaling as you are still making and doing spreads.

I realized after the first month, and then setting up another month’s monthly spreads that I just wasn’t going to have the time, patience, or enjoyment in setting up the spreads. But I still knew I needed to do something like this. I needed to be away from the screens so much, yet still be able to do something to keep track of things, such as habits, and reflect each day. Even just a little.

A friend of mine has been into Hobonichi, a Japanese company with these amazing little planners. The paper is Tomoe River, a smooth and thin paper that works well with fountain pens and many other pens. In January, I had purchased one of their “Weeks” books and didn’t use it a ton, but I pulled it back out and leafed through it. I then looked at some of their other products. I also looked at some other items on other stationary sites and started formulating a plan.

One thing I knew — going back to paper was important for me as it would force me to be away from the screen, but still allow me to plan. Also, it would allow me to continue forcing me to change my handwriting a little to make it way neater.

So, I give to you my plan. And what I’ve been doing for a few weeks now and I’ve already seen improvement.

My new desk calendar.

First, I purchased a very portable desk calendar from a spot online. It’s thin, yet still very efficient. I have a lot of room to write appointments, meetings, and tasks. I’m using this only for work. I’ve noticed how much more I get done. The issue with using things like Google Calendars is you get the reminder and then it goes away. If you are in the middle of something, you could forget certain tasks. I still, of course, use it for work, but this is an added layer as I have each day laid out and I add/subtract to it, all while using a version of BUJO style with tasks.

Second, I found some 2020 Hobonichi items on the secondary market that were priced down. Hobonichi isn’t the cheapest (it’s not the most expensive, either), but I didn’t want to fully invest in 2021 without looking at everything and seeing if I could formulate an ever-evolving style to help me get grounded and improve myself overall.

Here’s what I’ve come up with.

Most Hobonichi items are in Japanese, though English speakers won’t have any issues using them. One — the A6 planner — is in English, however. The Cousin is an A5 planner, so bigger. I thought long and hard about what to do, and this is my plan and what I’ve started to do already.

The Hobonichi Cousin with my current setup.

The A6 is going to be my work “planner.” It’s set up where it has daily pages, as well as monthly overviews in the beginning. I work in two districts, so it’s nice to have a place I can take notes, be it for projects or meetings. This one is very portable, too, which is even better. I use the vertical monthly spreads as an index. I don’t fill pages each day, which is fine as there are times I need more room and I can flip back one page etc. It’s worked out really well, so far.

The A5 cousin is being left at home. This has a lot more to it, so I am working on the final formula — but this is the important one when it comes to my self improvement. The daily spreads, so far, are where I am keeping my trackers, as well as my daily thoughts. This is important to me as I can reflect on the day and get something on paper. I plan on doing this every day, and if I sometimes have to catch up on a day or two, I will. So far, this has been a great thing for me.

Finally, the Weeks. I plan on getting another of these as they are very portable and smaller. My goal? Planning out my blog a bit better. Posts. Visiting others. When to write. Ideas. I also want to use it for social media postings, such as Instagram and YouTube (which I would like to do a lot more with in the coming year), giving me a place for ideas and planning.

I think, as a society, we’ve become too connected to the digital world. I am as guilty as that as anybody else. So I’m hoping this will get me to be a little more in tune to things without a screen — at least some. And I also hope this setup will help me self improve so there is more smiling and less worrying.

How about all of you?

Blog With Friends: September 2020
Blog with Friends is a themed collaboration challenge where a group of bloggers get together and publish a project based on a theme. Please see the others who have taken part for this month’s theme carrots. Links to their posts can be found below the image!

Check out what the others did with carrots!

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!

BWF: Youthful comfort

Comfort foods.

What does it mean for you? What is that item you can turn to on a cold winter day? Or a rainy spring day? Or in a time when we’re all shuttered up, at least to an extent?

What’s that one item?

In situations like this, or times like this … it’s easy for me. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And why? Because it can bring me back to childhood. A time when things seemed easier and more innocent. The cares in the world weren’t as bad. You didn’t worry about much and this was often the lunch of choice.

That’s the way to be.

Since this whole thing started a few months ago, I’ve had several PB&Js. And I’ve enjoyed each one.

Believe me — there’s a lot I could eat on a day where it’s eat what you want Pizza. Bacon. Steak. Potatoes. Maybe breakfast.

So much.

But I feel if this is something in a time we’re at … this is the way to go. Good preserves. Usually creamy peanut butter. On white bread.

Need some help? Allow me to give you my recipe!

  • Two slices of white bread
  • Creamy peanut butter
  • Strawberry or blueberry preserves
  • A butter knife

Put the two pieces of bread out. Take the knife and load it up with peanut butter. Put that on one slide of bread. Clean off knife on other side of bread. Put the preserves on the other slice of bread. When done, lick the knife clean. Seriously … you don’t do that? Put the two pieces of bread together and take a big bite.

Serve with a cold glass of milk to really make it perfect.

How about any of you? Meal of the day if you can have anything for one day? Any reason?

Blog With Friends: May 2020
Blog with Friends is a themed collaboration challenge where a group of bloggers get together and publish a project based on a theme. Please see the others who have taken part for this month’s theme carrots. Links to their posts can be found below the image!

Check out what the others did with carrots!

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!

BWF: Carrots from the eyes of a mischievous youngster

When I was a kid, we lived in a small neighborhood. The summers were spend playing with friends — baseball, football, riding bikes, exploring the woods, and jumping around in streams.

This was before the internet age, so … we had to actually find things to do outside.

We’d leave in the morning. Then we’d all go home around noon (we knew when that was as the fire whistle went off) for lunch, and then back we went for the second half of the day. That would be much the same, and sometimes a trip to the village pool on the best days.

To say we were mischievous would be an understatement. Though we never did anything really criminal (my father was the chief of police … I was a bit too scared to do anything bad), we still definitely caused trouble.

That included carrots.

How, you may ask, could you create trouble with carrots?

Simple, I say. You visit people’s gardens for an afternoon snack.

Now, we didn’t do this often. But there were times when we were hungry and there were some neighborhood gardens that weren’t so hard to sneak to and snag a carrot. (Others grabbed peas or whatever else… but I stuck to carrots).

We’d get things cleaned off and would have a healthy snack to get you through the rest of the day.

Not bad.

But yes, totally mischievous.

I still like carrots. But mine pretty much all come from a store, rather than yanking them from a garden. It’s something that does always make me chuckle though, when I think back more probably like 35 or so years ago.

Here’s some DYI, though.

Cleaning garden veggies from a mischievous kid:

  • Sneak into a garden
  • Find the veggie you will eat (remember not to waste)!
  • Find the closest creek
  • Wash off your veggie
  • Have your snack
  • Get a drink from the creek
  • Go back to your daily activities

How about any of you? You ever do anything like this as a kid?

Blog With Friends: April 2020
Blog with Friends is a themed collaboration challenge where a group of bloggers get together and publish a project based on a theme. Please see the others who have taken part for this month’s theme carrots. Links to their posts can be found below the image!

Check out what the others did with carrots!

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!