A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

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Notes from my Noodle: January 6 edition

Hello blog readers and welcome to the first edition of Notes from my Noodle in 2012. I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s and holiday season as this world gets back into full gear.

Alas, another weekend is upon us. There is good weather in the forecast in my part of the Northeast, so I’m looking to go out and geocache/letterbox/photograph for a while Saturday. Why not take advantage of it?

My January 4 choice for my 366 Project.

With this year being a leap year, I’ve opted to do the Project 3656 again. I was successful in 2010 with it, so I thought with the extra day, it would be cool to do it again.

Now I just have to make sure to get a photo each day!

I’ve been good with it so far. And I plan on heading out today to find a photo. As I peer outside right now, there are blue skies, the sun is shining and the temps are in the upper 40s.

Score!

There has to be something out there to snap photos of, I would think.

And though I have the iPhone, which has an excellent camera, I am hoping to do the bulk of the 366 this year with my Canon 7D. I love the use of the iPhone — I really do — but for this project, I’d like to challenge myself artistically a but more with my DSLR. Plus, I got a really cook bokeh kit for my lenses for Christmas and I’m looking forward to trying that out for sure.

If any of you have some cool and fun ideas for photos I should look into taking for my 366 project, post them in the comments section. I want to keep a small notebook of ideas, in case I get in a pinch!

I know a few others doing the 366 this year. One of them is fellow Flickr/Twitter user and fellow geocacher Mike, who has been doing the 365 since 2010. That means, unless he somehow skipped a day this year and hasn’t said anything yet, he has been taking a photo a day for 736 straight days (or more)! (For readers of this blog, Mike was a guest poster in November).

That’s insane!

Keep it up Mike. By the end of this one, you’ll have reached nearly 1,000 days, which is no small feat!

 ***

I wish I had more to report on the job hunt. Applications are still being sent out. But, for the next batch, I’m taking a different approach.

Being that the first approach hasn’t worked too well, outside of the few interviews and such I’ve had, I’m going to change the tone of my cover letters. At this point, what’s it going to hurt? I think I am going to attempt to make them a little more edgy, a little more cocky. I imagine that it will, at worse, get somebody’s attention. Maybe it will get me a few more interviews. And maybe (gasp!) an offer.

Something has to change.

I want to try and re-work my resume a little, too. I don’t think it’s awful, but a tweak or two probably wouldn’t hurt.

My big thing is trying to make it so my block of not working doesn’t stand out so much. I have to work on that as well and hope something comes along soon.

This has, by far, been one of the most trying things, professionally, I’ve ever dealt with in my life. I’m just hoping the light at the end of the tunnel gets big soon!

***

This past Sunday, I went and played a round of disc golf. On January 1, in the Albany area in New York, it was in the high 40s. Me, my niece Nicole, Darren and his wife Jodi played 18 holes at Schenectady Central Park.

My niece sizes up a putt.

What a day.

I played a round of disc golf last Jan. 1 as well, but it was not nearly as warm as this!

But it was a perfect day to go out for a nice little walk and play a round. We only came across people a couple of times, but no major issues. We stopped for a couple of letterboxes and pretty much took our time.

Without a doubt, though, it was great just to be out walking around and moving.

I haven’t played in a while (I think my last round had been on Thanksgiving), so I didn’t throw as well as I would have liked. Still, it wasn’t bad. I had some decent shots and hopefully my game will improve as this year moves on. My niece has only been a few times, but I think she’s starting to get the hang of things and hopefully she can keep improving and liking the game as well. Starting at a younger age will only make her better as she continues to age and play. It’s also a great game to be able to just get out and play.

Now if we can get a course in our local area…

Speaking of disc golf, I continue to work on a certain disc golf project I have going on. I am hoping within the next two weeks to be able to announce something here about it. I’m extremely excited about it and hope it works out for the best!

Until then, keep clanging the metal and rattling those chains when you are out on the disc golf course!

***

I’m sneaking out of the area this weekend to do a little day trip. I’m not going far, but I’m meeting up with a friend to do a day of geocaching/letterboxing and catch up on some things.

Here’s something I’ve figured — it’s not as easy planning a trip to involve letterboxing as it is geocaching.

See, with geocaching, you have a map you can open up and see where everything is. That way, you can plan a route that is somewhat economical and such.

With letterboxing, you can bring up a google map — for each box. Then you have to figure what’s close etc., and try and keep them somewhat in a route to make it worthwhile.

Hopefully by the end of tomorrow, we’ll have piled up a bunch of finds for both. And I also hope to have had several cool photos taken before the end of the day.

Though the temperatures are supposed to be slightly cooler tomorrow (not too bad, though), it is still supposed to be sunny and nice out. So I look forward to a day of finding stamps, caches and photo opportunities.

***

I have finally gotten back into reading books on the Kindle again. I’m reading one of Jodi Picoult’s latest books, “Sing Me Home.” So far, so good. I’m a big fan of Picoult and always enjoy what she brings to the table with her books. Well-written and well-researched make things a good and smooth read.

I have a couple of other books lined up as well.

Anyone get a Kindle Fire over the holidays? I’m curious to see what people think. I have a 3rd or 4th Generation Kindle and I like it. But down the line, I might look to upgrade, though if I really want a tablet, the iPad seems like the way I might lean. I like my reader to be just that — a reader.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

A different take on disc golf…

I have been working on a disc golf project recently (more about that as it gets closer to fruition). But one of the things I wanted to do as part of it was to learn how well my Canon 7D works with video and disc golf.

I have to learn to use it more like a sports camera with the video aspect, but a few of us went out for a few hours and shot some urban disc golf, as well as doing a few shots at the one local course.

On this nice and lazy Sunday, I hope many of you are out enjoying the weather (or, might be hunkered down with some football!). Alas, I wanted to share a few videos I tool Saturday.

The first I am going to show you is an urban disc golf setup. That was the main focus Saturday. For this one, we set the disc up at a bus stop. This was a trial run. I like how it came out. It got us (and the lady in the bus stop) to chuckle a bit. We have better ideas for this shot and are hoping to do it soon, as well as some other disc golf things.

Take a peek…

As I said, I like how it came out. But I want to work on a few things and expand this a little. It could be pretty funny.

The second shot is at the course. Though I was pressed for time and was looking to get rolling, Chuck and Dave went out for a round. They played the white (shorter) tees at Schenectady’s Central Park course.

I was messing with the zoom lens (you’ll see in the video) to see about following shots and such. Being I’m new to trying to film full shots, this is what happens (I still need to learn about settings etc.)

Anyway, Chuck’s drive to the first hole almost turned in to something magical. Take a look…

Hope you enjoyed those clips. As this project gets closer, I’ll blog a bit about it. There will be some more videos as well as other things. Now get outside and enjoy the day!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

The latest winner…

Ahhh, those games as nights during our childhood.

Hide-and-seek.

I had never heard of Sardines, the game Erika told us about. Quite interesting.

Then there was Flashlight tag from Sparticus.

UU Jester gave us an interesting  game at night — playing keep away with a dog named midnight. Seems like that’s fitting, eh?

I do wish I could give everyone a prize for entering as I loved all of the games. Alas, there can only be one winner. Also, I decided that even though there were only a few people that entered for a total of eight entries, I’d give both the first and second places.

I used random.com again, though I wanted to actually draw out of a hat and video it. Alas, I was on the road this weekend and will be gone for a few more days, so to hit my deadline for this contest, I had to use random.org.

Whenever I do my next contest, I will do the video draw!

Anyway, let’s get to the winners!

First, the winner of the Nite Ize LED Flash Flight is Erika. Congrats!

The winner of the runner-up light is Mike. Congrats, as well.

You two, shoot me an e-mail where to send your goods and I will send them out later this week when I get home!

The results.

Now, for future contests…

I am not going to do them on a set schedule. I originally wanted to two per month, but the first two haven’t had the draw I had hoped, despite me putting things out there a bit more on them. Especially when I wasn’t asking for the world. I am not going to stop the contests, however. I have some other good things to give away. Rather, I am going to be a little more strategic and pair them with future posts and such when I have something to go along with things etc.

The contests will remain and I hope all of you will enter when they run. Note that when I do run them, they will be the same days/time frame etc.

Thanks to everyone for entering!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Frolf? It’s not worth getting upset over!

It's not Frolf, but until disc golf goes mainstream, take publicity it as it comes.

As someone who plays disc golf, I would like to see the sport continue to grow and hopefully, one day, get into the mainstream.

It’s a fun sport, but it needs work to be sure. It’s not perfect and it has a lot of growing to do.

Still, it has grown leaps and bounds from its start several decades ago.

And, with the disc golf community watching, the Professional Disc Golf Association trumpeted disc golf being featured in a prime-time sitcom this past Wednesday.

In a release on it’s website, the PDGA said:

Disc Golf Hits Prime Time TV

The PDGA was contacted by Paramount Studios in early August to submit PDGA branded items for use as product placement on the ABC television show, “Happy Endings”. The sitcom places a fresh and comedic spin on modern friendship, focusing on six lifelong Chicago-based friends in their 20’s and early 30’s navigating various stages of work, relationships, marriage, and dating. The disc golf themed episode is currently set to air on Wednesday, September 28th following “Modern Family”.

While increasing interest and popularity of this sport is evident in the worldwide participation and growing membership of Disc golfers, portrayal of this sport in the media is imperative for prosperity and awareness on a global level. Television is a monumental step in securing our place in sports history.

So Disc Golfers and “Frisbeeterians”, spread the word and Tune in to ABC on September 28th. If not for the sake of the sport, then to ensure that you will never have to explain the definition of Disc Golf again.

Then the show came on.

First things first. If one is going to get upset about the way a sport is portrayed in a sitcom, then one must really look in the mirror. For starters, outside of having Elisha Cuthbert to look at, I thought Happy Endings was quite stupid. I’m sure it has a following, but I didn’t like it.

With that out of the way.

Disc golf — well, Frolf (Frisbee golf) was mentioned several times through the show. It wasn’t in the most endearing ways, but it’s not like they took a pile of discs and the PDGA logo, put them outside, took a leak on them and set them on fire.

No, they called it Frolf.

And, at the end, one of the gals noted that “Frolf” isn’t a sport.

And people were up in arms.

Seriously.

OK, before I get into all the things I found on Twitter and message boards, allow me to share with you what happened in this show.

First, it was shown early when Cuthbert’s character and her ex, Dave, were starting to be honest with one another. This was at the pressure of another gal pal.

Cuthbert: “You know your friend Glazier? He didn’t actually steal my bra and sell it on Craig’s List. I just couldn’t spend another Sunday watching you two play Frolf.”

Other gal pal: “Frolf?”

Cuthbert and Dave together: “Frisbee golf.”

At the end of that argument, it was mentioned again when the gal pal noted they can do the things they each like now and to Dave…

“You can do your things … like play frolf…”

So far, I’m not peeved. If anyone fully believed that a stupid sitcom was going to portray disc golf like some amazing sport, they were nuts. Seriously. It’s a dumb comedy.

I’d also like to note that they made fun of Vibram’s Five Fingers shoes, calling them “running socks” or something like that. When showing a couple of close ups of them, if you know the Vibram logo, it was easily noticeable.

I haven’t heard an uproar from Vibram Five Finger people. Of course, it’s probably because they realize no matter what, these shoes were shown and even if they were taking jabs at them, well, people might get interested in the shoes.

Anyway, later in the show, Dave comes in and chats with Cuthbert and another dude. He puts his feet on a table — showing off those Five Fingers — and this chat happened:

Dave: “I am going for a run with Jane. Oh, and I called Glaze earlier. Good convo. Tough. Yes there were tears because of your lies. But I am going to play some Frolf with him later to make him feel better.”

Cuthbert: “I wish I could go watch you nerds, but I’ve got to make more jambalaya because people are going crazy for it at the store.” (he made fun of her Jambalaya in the first confrontation).

The next scene showed some actual disc golf as Dave, Glaze and the gal pal were in the park. She was going over her day (and was highly frazzled) and says to her, maybe husband:

“Morning started with Frolf. Dave, Glaze and myself…”

As she said that, one of the dudes throws a disc — which looked like a lid (larger, Frisbee-like or Ultimate Frisbee-like disc) — and clanked the gal in the head. I have to be honest, it absolutely cracked me up.

To note, there was an Innova portable basket in the scene.

Later, at a party, one more confrontation when Dave said to Cuthbert:

“… Things have been going pretty awesome for me, too. I’ve been frolfing and jamming. … “

The gal pal, who had encouraged Dave to record a bad song, finally came clean and went off on these two for being so damn honest with one another (which was her idea!)

That left for this final dialogue that included Frolf:

Gal Pal: “OK, I love you but that song is really bad. Those running socks are hideous and Frolf is not a sport.”

Glaze: “Hey, we have a newsletter.”

Gal Pal: Shut up, Glaze.”

And that was it.

People got all upset over this. Seriously.

Here’s some things I found today on Twitter:

“Oh dear. She said frolf. Oh dear. The other one said frolf. This isn’t good.”

***

“frolf sounds like your mouth is taking a dump. plus I don’t associate with frolf players. Bros play frolf”

***

I don’t mind the word frolf, but when @PDGA says ‘this will be a monumental step for #discgolf’, I expected more. Another #PDGA letdown..

So I checked out a couple of disc golf message boards. It seemed like a mix bag of reactions. Some were very peeved. Others were in the middle. Others didn’t care.

Some made a valid point about the only part that really was stupid was that they (the show) actually contacted the PDGA and made it sound like they were going to do things a little better. That, of course, allowed the PDGA to get the word out.

Then disc golfers got this pie in the face.

The PDGA posted this on its Facebook on Thursday:

I think we can all agree the “frolf” episode of Happy Endings on ABC last night was not what we were hoping it would be. We were told by ABC that the episode was centered around disc golf, and they even asked us to send them some PDGA stuff to use on the set. We’re sorry if we built it up without knowing exactly what the episode would entail, but the idea of disc golf on prime time television definitely had us excited, understandably.

Bad press is sometimes better than no press, but in this case no one benefited. Our biggest hope for the episode was that if someone watching didn’t know what disc golf was, they would at least have an idea after. Unfortunately for all parties involved, that was not the case.

When I was a wee-bit student in journalism classes and public relations classes, we were told there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

It’s true.

The benefits here are that, no matter what, I guarantee there are a few people out there who are interested in “Frolf.” It’s my hope that they’ll stumble upon someone who can tell them that it’s disc golf and explain things.

Look, would I have rather seen the show glow a little more about disc golf? And not call it Frolf?

Absolutely.

But it’s a two-bit sitcom that made fun of it as well as Vibram Five Fingers.

In my shoes, I’d be more worried for ABC knowing that they possibly lost a lot of potential viewers than I am about what it did to the disc golf.

Disc golf will survive just fine.

As for that stupid show, well, let’s just say that I’m pretty sure that disc golf will survive loner than the lifespan of that show.

***

Speaking of disc golf, Frolf, Frisbee… whatever you want to call it. I have a contest going on! At stake is a LED flying disc! The contest runs from Sept. 25- to 12:01 a.m. Oct. 2. You can see all the details on the contest post. Enter for your chance to win!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

 

What a … long … weekend

The putting basket with all the Relay For Life luminaries growing in the background.

It started Friday.

And the weekend went forever, it seemed. But I guess that happens when there’s a lack of sleep involved, eh?

The Relay For Life opened Friday night in Delhi. Our team (small one this year) had to worry about setting things up in a bit of rain and then had to deal with many more things during the night as Mother Nature wasn’t nice to the Relay this year.

To start things off, Darren went down early to set up our disc golf course. As a fund raiser, Darren had gotten custom discs to sell the night of the Relay. Those at the event then had the chance to come over and play the six-hole course three times around (so, 18 total holes) and compete for spirit points and some disc golf prizes.

We were also lucky enough to have Bob, a pro out of New Jersey come and join us. I think that was a super bonus, too, as he really seemed to get a lot of people involved and excited about the game. The course wasn’t too bad, but with the rain, the grounds were wet and the lighting wasn’t the best. That being said, it wasn’t a bad overall experience as we sold probably about 20-25 discs for the night, which is a great thing. However, the weather probably hurt us as well because the track became smaller to avoid too much mud and our tent was set back further than originally expected.

Which is too bad as I think it could have been a lot more fun with great weather. I really do think more people might have investigated with better weather. Too, there were fewer people hanging out than normal.

But, on the bright side of things, we learned some things and found that people really seemed to enjoy the idea. So, we might consider it again next year, though we were talking about doing an actual tournament next year as a fundraiser and maybe having the night one as a smaller event at the actual Relay. We also learned that we’ll need to light things a little different, but Darren seems to have some ideas and that could make things better.

As a team, we raised nearly $1,500 for the event, which raised more than $122,000 total.

We broke it down when all was said and done and I didn’t get home until about 3 a.m. or a little later. It took a little bit to get to sleep and the alarm going off at 5:10 a.m. wasn’t easy to answer. I figured I got about 1 1/2 hours of sleep. A quick shower and I was out the door to head off to meet Darren and Bob to hit up a disc golf tournament.

It was a beautiful day, but after 36 holes of disc golf, I was whipped. My feet hurt. My back was OK, but a little sore. Needless to say, I was ready to head home and catch some sleep… finally.

I enjoyed the tournament. It’s at one of the best courses in this area and despite all the rain New York got recently, it was in excellent shape. I shot better than I’ve ever shot at this course, but it still wasn’t that good. I need to get some confidence in my putting and I bet I could have shaved a good 5 strokes off my score in each round.

Darren, however, placed in our division, so that was cool.

Darren placed fourth at the tournament

All in all, it was a good weekend. A sleepless one, but a good one.

A lot of money was raised for cancer research and it was perfect weather for a disc golf tournament (despite the fact that I finished last in my division).

You can see more photos from the Relay For Life on my Flickr stream.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.