A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

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Notes from my Noodle: Nov. 18 edition

Does anyone remember the old roller derby that used to be on television?

They had those high-banked tracks. It was hard-hitting action and pretty fun to watch. And when the train wrecks happened and there was a people pile up, it was fun.

Well, it’s back to an extent.

I didn’t realize roller derby still existed. Maybe not in the big way it used to be, but it’s around. When I was at a wrestling show a while back, I saw a sign for it. So I checked out the Central New York group and figured when the season started, I’d find a way to check it out.

Turns out one of the local towns has a team. And they open tonight.

So a couple of us are going over to check it out. I’m hoping to take some photos of the event, but I don’t know what the lighting is like. Either way, I’m looking forward to watching it live. They don’t used banked tracks — it’s all flat. But either way, it should hopefully prove to be entertaining!

I just hope there’s something that explains the rules!

***

I am fully sold on the iPhone 4s.

I loved it before because of the capabilities. The camera is very solid and the apps have been great. Call quality, too, is pretty strong.

But the past few days, I’ve messed with the video and I’ve found it shockingly good. The sound isn’t bad. The quality is solid. I could see doing a lot more with the phone in regard to video.

Below is a video I took yesterday. Darren tried to send a disc across Hodges Pond in Neahwa Park. Unfortunately, for him, he didn’t make it. The rest tells itself through video.

I will be testing out more later, but I like the video so far. It might drain my battery some, but ya know…

I just need to figure out if I can change settings and how to work with it a little as right now I just know how to turn it to video and record.

*** 

I’ve finally been starting to catch up on processing photos. So I’ve been uploading a bunch each day to my Flickr account. Feel free to go over and check the latest editions, which include more shots from my South Jersey trip, 2CW wrestling in Binghamton, my November 12 of 12, and some others. Upcoming things will include the rest of the Jersey photos, some flag football and more.

Click here to visit my Flickr.

*** 

I finally got some new sneaks for my car. One thing that is hard when you are unemployed is squirreling money away so you can get things you need (such as tires etc). But I went and got some on the car yesterday and I could see the difference.

Goodbye racing slicks!

I just have to stay on top of getting them balanced and rotated. I got them at Wal-Mart, so they have the lifetime free balance and rotation. I can dig that and I just have to get there and have it done every 5,000-6,000 miles.

Next up? The service the car needs.

***

A week or two back, we got a bit of a warm spell in my area.

So much so that I had the chance to get out and wear shorts. A pretty sweet deal without a doubt. I had been itching to throw a few discs, but I didn’t get anywhere to do it.

Still, disc golf was on my mind a bit.

Though I am not going to go into it too much, I’ve been working on a pretty cool disc golf project. The leg work for it got under way and I’ve had the chance to talk to a bunch of people in conjunction with it.

Once the timing is right, I’ll announce some things here, of course.

Needless to say, it’s something I’m extremely excited about. It’s been a good diversion from the real world at times. As I continue my job hunt, using this to take a break has been very good for the mind. And it’s given me something to get a bit pumped about.

I just hope that when it comes to fruition, it will have all been worth it!

Speaking of disc golf, I am hoping to get a round or two in over the next week as next Saturday (the one following Thanksgiving) is a doubles tournament. It’s a pretty neat looking thing. I’ve not played in one, so I am looking forward to it. Darren and I are teaming up, so hopefully we can do some damage!

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!

Long hikes and photos

OK, maybe not a super long hike, but a tough one.

I spent yesterday doing a loop of new geocaches outside of Cooperstown. It’s a trek of about 2.5-3 miles over varying terrains. Needless to say, when it was all said and done, I felt like I had gotten a good cardio workout.

I also ended up with 10 finds, which is nice.

It was a beautiful day, with temperatures in the 60s and a decent breeze at times. Alas, I still came out covered in sweat with going up and down the hills, wearing a sweatshirt and carrying the camera and such. I made my water last nearly the whole time, which is also good.

Anyway, the caches were quite good. A couple of the micros (in the woods!) were frustrating, but I eventually ended up finding all of them. Oddly enough, one of the caches actually was missing. After getting in contact with the owner, he ended up replacing it and I got the find at the end of the trail, which was very nice.

This was the cache that started it all:

It’s always nice to start with a normal-sized cache! This photo also served as my Project 365 photo for the day.

On Saturday, I went to Roxbury to watch a little vintage baseball. The weather was iffy (cool and on-off rain showers), but I decided to do a 1.5-mile roundtrip stroll to grab a geocache. Found that one and got caught in some rain on the way back to the car, but that just led to my next thing during the day.

I was heading to Oneonta to see the Balloon Festival (balloons were grounded because of wind and they didn’t even do the true glow because of weather). I’m glad I didn’t know things were canned, or I would have went home the back way. As I drove down Route 30, I saw a magnificent rainbow forming.

But, for those who know Route 30, there is NO place to pull over and park. So I was heading toward Grand Gorge and seeing this rainbow with no place to stop.

When I got to the village, I pulled behind the Key Bank and started snapping photos. As luck would have it, it was the perfect place to take the photos.

Perfect!

I snapped several shots, put the zoom lens on and took a couple of shots that way, then watched the rainbow slightly disappear before I got on the road again. I am stoked about this shot though and didn’t realize, until I got home, that it was a double rainbow to boot!

Flickr uploads

For those who don’t know, I’ve gotten into Flickr. I like the fact that I can upload many photos into sets and such and keep things slightly organized. I realize most people won’t look at all the images in a set (especially seeing as sometimes I’ll put 30-40 shots or more in a set), but it’s a place where I can have my stuff, which I like.

I have a bunch of things I want to work on processing and uploading over the next few weeks — some Road Rally racing from earlier this year, the motocross I was at, the rest of my Ireland trip, and some odds and ends.

I try and upload things every couple days or so and if you are interested, you can check things out at my Flickr account.

Blogging

I also, finally, started uploading to my photo blog again.

It’s something I had neglected for the better part of a few months and I wanted to get back into it. I love the photo blog and really like the people I met and viewed during the time I’ve done it. When I got into Flickr more, I concentrated on that instead.

But, I’ve changed that a bit.

Though I will concentrate on Flickr, I have set my blog up to basically auto-run. At this point, I have photos loaded on a daily basis through November. From there, I will continue to keep adding photos to the end. My hope is that things will continue to run smoothly and such and I won’t be skipping time again.

Teaching

The semester started last week and I’m back in classes. I’m teaching two this semester, so with the real job and the teaching, time can be tough. I’m still working to improve some other things and hoping a couple possible opportunities that might be available after the turn of the year will improve my standing in life as well as my outlook on the World and future.

I can hope, anyway.

And on that note, it’s time for work.

More later!

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