A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

review

Podcast review: Overview

I’ve gotten into podcasts quite heavily as of late. 

Over the past several months as I’ve started walking more and trying to get the health under control, podcasts have been what I use. As much as I love music, sometimes the tunes aren’t enough for me. Insert podcasts, which I’ve always liked but I’ve always kept just a few. 

There’s one or two geocaching ones; a board games one; and a couple of professional wrestling ones. 

Some of them are just too long, though. As much as I like listening to them, I’m not into it taking me 3-4 days worth of walking to get through a podcast (and my walks, for the record, are usually in the 30-50 minute range). That made me search for others – ones that I could finish over the course of a day (I usually take two walks a day). 

Podcasts are definitely not everybody’s cup of tea, so to speak. Some people love them, some hate them. The big part is having to download them, or remember to. I don’t like everything on my phone, for example, so all of mine go to my iPod. 

This series is basically going to be my thoughts on podcasts I listen to. These reviews could be monthly, or a little more often, all depending. There won’t be any set days, so basically when I can sit down with my thoughts. I’ll give my positives, negatives, and anything else about the ones I’ve listened to, or tried to listen to. Most of them will be positive reviews, however, being if I am going to listen to something, I need to like it at least a little!

Currently, I’m deep into some true crime ones. I love true crime stories, especially when they are cases and such you might not know a lot about. There’s a few other “real life” ones I’ve been into as well, which have made my walks a bit more fun.

I also have been listening in the car to and from work, though once baseball season really takes over, that won’t happen as often. 

But with this, I’m interested in what some of you might listen to when it comes to podcasts. Despite not having a ton of extra time to add podcasts, I am interested in what might be out there that might draw me in. I’m not into the ones that are very current event-like, if not just for the fact that I tend to like to be able to get to them when I can. 

I’ve also learned a lot from these podcasts, which has been good as well. The world is a crazy place, as I’m sure most of us would agree. So, it’s nice that we can kind of see a different slice of it in other areas. 

I always wanted to start my own podcast. I thought it would be cool as I had friends who did them, but didn’t garner huge followings. I now realize, though, the amount of work podcasters put into these things. From the research to the recording, to editing and everything else, it’s crazy. There’s no way I would have the time or drive to do a podcast. Truthfully told, I likely wouldn’t have enough to say about one subject to get people interested in it anyway. 

Instead, I’ll keep listening. There are some great ones out there and I love the ones I’m subscribed to, and I can’t wait to find more that interest me. 

How about you? Do you listen to podcasts? And what are your favorites?

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!

2016 in review: Blogging

What a year it was for blogging. One thing is for sure — I learned a lot.

Such as posting every day doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have more views.

But I’ll get to all of that in a moment.

First, Jetpack/Wordpress, which usually sends out a yearly report with fun facts and such, decided not to do it this year. That’s quite disappointing as it’s always fun to see some of the things they show. Alas, they didn’t. So I am doing my best to do it by hand this year, finding those stats and all. Not everything will be covered, but I will do my best.

Blogging in 2016 has been interesting. I posted something each and every day, often coming close to missing. The plan was just to publish as often as possible, and that morphed into something much bigger. Once July and August came, there was no turning back.

So every day in 2016 had a blog post.

The last time I didn’t have a post was December 30, 2015, so I am a bit beyond a year as I haven’t missed yet this month, thanks in part to the 20 Days of Chill.

I am not sure how much longer it will last, but I’m going to try and not push or force things this year. It’s not worth it.

When you have a personal blog with a variety of topics, posting every day is hard. Some things aren’t good or just fill space. You also don’t end up having as much time as you once did to do other blogging things — such as visit and comment elsewhere.

My statistics showed the pain, too. Here’s my totals for 2016:

  • Posts: 366
  • Views: 23,915

In 2015, I had the highest amount of views ever on my blog at 30,026. I had a drop of more than 6,000 views and I’m going to bet some of that is the lack of interaction with other blogs. Unless you are some big-time blogger, you aren’t going to have a ton of visitors if you don’t go visit other blogs. That’s just reality.

This year, in fact, is the second-lowest amount of views I’ve had since having statistics in 2011 (my lowest year — and I started in March that year, I believe…).

I can’t hamper on things like this, though. Live and learn.

I have averaged, before this year, about 230-250 posts per year and I think that’s a good number. It gives people the chance to breathe. That’s probably what I will aim for in 2017.

Here’s my totals over the years:

  • 2016: 23,915
  • 2015: 30,026
  • 2014: 25,539
  • 2013: 26,017
  • 2012: 23,925
  • 2011: 20,669

Growth within a blog is good, but sometimes you need to take a step back to see what worked and what doesn’t. I have a few ideas for this year and I look forward to seeing if I can implement them. The real world takes precedence and sometimes I just don’t feel like working on in-depth things.

The other big news this year was my fight with my former webhost. My site was down often and I finally had to leave that host and move elsewhere. The move has been spectacular for me as down time has been virtually nothing, which is what you always hope for. I’m not sure what that other host has done to improve, but after 12 years I felt it was time for me to step away and get a fresh start and it’s worked out well for me.

Disappointing with no report

One thing I loved about the annual reports was all the little statistics one could get from it. They were just tidbits and such to make things fun to look at — such as where people visited from, who were the top commenters, and things like that. I messed around with the statistics I can access, and I don’t see the ability of doing that.

I’m not sure who commented the most on my blog, which is where I usually give my shoutouts. There’s a few other things the report used to give that made it a lot of fun.

Jetpack allowed the chance for people to give their opinion on this and I let them know it was highly disappointing they decided not to do it this year.

Stats I do have…

Peeking around the stats page via WordPress, some things are there.

Such as in 2016, my blog was visited by people from 77 countries (down from 122 in 2015). The United States, United Kingdom, and Canada remained the top visiting countries.

Seems some of my older posts are also still popular within searches.

Through 2016, I have a total of 2,348 posts on my blog over 11 years. Not too bad. It’ll take me a few more years, but I plan on reaching 3,000 and more!

My current streak is a long one … as of this writing, I’m at about 375 days (give or take) straight with a blog post. Who knows when it will end, but if I don’t feel it … the streak will be done!

Finally, I’d like to share some of my favorite posts from 2016. These aren’t in any particular order, besides by month.

If you haven’t read these and have the time, I hope you’ll take a peek at some of these posts. I had 366 posts this year, and these are the ones that stuck out to me.

Overall, it’s been a pretty good year for blogging and I can’t really complain. Here’s looking forward to another great year in 2017!

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!

2016 in Review: Looking back (Part 2)

In just a few days, we’ll flip the calendar and say goodbye to 2016.

Overall, it hasn’t been a bad year. As you saw from yesterday’s post, I didn’t accomplish every goal possible, but I did pretty well. Though I’m sure there were a few negative this year — there always is — I don’t really remember much. I have a few things in mind, but they seem petty in the overall scheme.

That is a sign of a decent year, I think.

While it hasn’t been perfect, I can look back on 2016 with a smile and know that it was pretty successful. There are always things to improve on for the upcoming year (time to lose weight in all honesty, get other health things under control, continue to get in better financial shape etc.), but when looking back I know the majority of things were positive.

I feel challenged professionally, which is always good. Personally, I feel in a good place. As I’ve noted in previous posts, I feel as though I’ve tilted toward being a little more introverted, but at the same time, that has helped me kind of get my footing and understand certain aspects of life.

Let’s take a closer look at the year that has passed by.

Summer of Baseball

2016 marked the third straight year of the Summer of Baseball, where I set out to watch many baseball games.

And there was definitely baseball.

The Summer of Baseball took me from one coast to another!

In total, I watched 75 games this year, spread all over the country. I watched all over New York, went down south as far as North Carolina, hit the Midwest with places such as Cincinnati and Louisville, and even put in a late-season trip to California to see three games.

The breakdown was as follows: 58 minor league games, 11 MLB games, 4 independent league games, 1 exhibition, and 1 college summer league game. Of those 75 games, 30 came at stadiums I have never visited before.

I also conquered several pre-season goals, such as hitting 1-3 new MLB stadiums, at least 5 new MiLB stadiums, and attend at least 25 MiLB games.

Though I didn’t get to all of my pre-season wishlist stadiums, I crossed several off the list, which is always cool. The one I didn’t get to on my MLB wishlist was Turner Field, and I’ll not have that chance again as the Braves are no longer playing there.

During all of these trips, I met a bunch of people, had cool talks with those who work at parks, ate a lot of terrific food, and had the chance to see baseball at all levels. I made trips solo and with friends/family, giving a different perspective all along the way. I kept book at just about every game (save for the college league game) and filled up my Baseball Passports with many stamps.

In the end, I do think 75 may have been a few too many games. I was always on the run and my weekends were pretty much baseball from top to bottom. I will continue my Summer of Baseball trips, but I believe my perfect number (until I retire or win the lottery, anyway) is probably around 50. If I was in an area where a professional team was 20 minutes away or so, I think I’d have season tickets and it would be easier. But with the travel and things like that, doing about 50 — including one big trip during the summer — is probably the best.

Geocaching

This hobby took a backseat, for sure. And the funny part is, with all the traveling for baseball, you’d think I’d add a bunch more.

The funny part of it all is that didn’t happen.

When I was on the baseball trips, I might sometimes find one or two, but for the most part, it was baseball. I always made sure to get at least one or two when in a new state (North Carolina, Kentucky, California), but outside of that, it’s taken a pause.

I continued to enjoy going to and hosting events, but for the most part, finding caches hasn’t been as fun. There’s not as many people to go with around here and, to be honest, finding too many unimaginative hides for the sake of finding things, just isn’t as fun.

I do still enjoy the hobby, but it’s not the same as when I started. I stopped listening to the podcasts I used to listen to as well as I just didn’t get into it. Maybe in the upcoming year things will change and I can get back into it a little more. But with how the game is growing and the wide range of people playing, it’s just not as fun as it used to be. I think I’ll always geocache in one shape or form, but it’s definitely secondary now.

Family

The one thing about getting older is a closer relationship and attraction to family. When I was younger and working in newspapers, I missed so many family things. And I did it without regret because I thought I had to do it.

Not any more.

It was great to see Nicole be part of a national championship team.

“Real life” as I like to refer to my world outside of the professional world, has to take a front seat to everything. Now don’t get me wrong — it’s not like I can up and walk away from work or something for certain things. But when there are important family things, I realize taking vacation or personal time isn’t a bad thing.

This year, I had the chance to obviously watch my nephew Cameron grow and I’ve seen him quite a bit, which has been wonderful. I also had the ability to watch many of my niece’s college soccer games, including her postseason run that ended in a national championship.

Social media has made being able to connect with family so much easier now, too.

There are things I truly cherish with family things and it’s nice to be able to connect on all aspects. I love seeing accomplishments across the board, but it’s even better to be there and experience it (such as with Nicole’s national championship).

A note to anybody else reading — make family a priority in life.

Softball

I was ready to stop playing softball after last summer.

We had won the league championship for the second straight year and it ended on a great note as we were actually the “underdogs.”

The league we played in took a little step backward and several of our players had other things on their plates, so we decided we’d take the next step — the over 35 league. This league was set for the older folks (ie: no bunting or stealing etc.) and we took a team over with several new people.

Champions once again! New league and still champs!

It seemed a lot was stacked against us this year. We were the new kids on the block and all. The rules weren’t written, so sometimes it seemed odd..

But I digress.

At the end of the season (which included canceling the last week of the regular year), there was a four-way tie for first. Somehow, we were the three seed. No worries. This is where we turned it up. We scored 70 runs over three games (including erasing a 15-1 deficit in the second game) to win the league championship. It was a nice way to end the summer. As we always say, winning doesn’t suck!

Each year I always wonder if it’s my last. We’ll see what the winter and early spring brings to see if I’ll be back doing it again.

Photography

This year, for the first time, I took my main camera to baseball games with me. It was nice to be able to do so and take images of the Summer of Baseball. There were a few games where I didn’t, but for the most part — I did. It was nice.

I also dived into doing different things, which is good.

The monthly Photo Blogging Challenge has been pretty good for me, too, as it’s usually forced me to think outside the box at times.

I enjoyed getting back out with the camera and hopefully in 2017, I push it even more. I want to do different things with the camera and get different photos. I have some ideas and maybe I can follow through. I do think I need a new tripod, though, and maybe that will help me with things.

This past year, though, was good because I had the chance to snap away at a lot of things, and I’ve found it’s still relaxing and enjoyable to get out and take photos — it just stinks sometimes after to process!

Health

Not everything is perfect. I haven’t done as well with my weight and diabetes. Though not full-blown out of control, the numbers and such aren’t where they should be. I let things get a little crazy and I need to make sure that changes.

This is a lifelong battle, for sure. So it’s something I have to get back under control. I had been doing really well and then got lazy with things — so it will be fixed again.

Pro wrestling

I had to throw this in here because I have the past year or two. The one local company we followed, 2CW closed, at the end of 2015. In the early part of this year, I attended several independent shows, but it just wasn’t the same.

Part was because of seeing so much unnecessary drama. Other parts were because things weren’t as good in many ways. It just … got old. So I went on a boycott. I did see a show the other night, mainly to see a couple of matches and just to get out again. I went in without my camera this time, got a general admission ticket (we usually sit front) and just watched.

I’m sure I might his a card or two in 2017, but I’m definitely going to be selective as I’ve been. It’s not uber expensive and cheap entertainment, but it’s still time and such. I am glad to see people I know who are successful in this crazy world. It’s not easy being a professional wrestler, so it’s nice to see them doing well.

Final thoughts

As I’ve noted, 2016 wasn’t bad. It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t bad. The year went a little faster, it seems, but I think that is part of getting older.

I learned a lot during this year, I think. One thing is to stop and smell the roses a bit. I’ve eaten some amazing food. I’ve seen some incredible sights. I’ve had the chance to make connections new and old. I’ve discovered more about myself.

I think whenever you can move forward some in life, you’ve done well. This year was a tough year for some, be it personal, professional, or too much dealing with politics. But when you get to your personal world, sometimes you can take that deep breath and know life could always be worse.

Here’s to the end of 2016 and looking forward to 2017.

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!

2016 in Review: Looking back (Part 1)

And like a flash, 2016 will soon be in the books.

It’s been a strange year, it seems. I can’t complain personally as, for the most part, it was pretty good. I had the opportunity to do a lot of different things, which is always nice. I saw many different things, and traveled a bit. I took photos and met people.

I’m breaking up the posts a little differently this year as I haven’t received the blogging report from Jetpack yet. Hopefully that isn’t discontinued as I always like that. So today will be the first part of looking back at 2016.

There was a lot of baseball and travel in 2016, that’s for sure!

Just like it’s been in recent years, though, the year seemed to fly by. I can almost remember the calendar turning to 2016, and here we are knocking on the door of 2017. I try more than ever to not wish for things to come faster as it’s nice to see things come slower and build up. If you wish too hard for things to come fast, then they do and everything passes you by.

Personally, it was a pretty good year. I find myself in better financial shape than I was at the beginning and I’ve paid off a few smaller credit cards and bills. I had the ability to travel some and got to visit places I’ve never been. I traded in my car for a new one and it’s been nice to have switched to automatic. I haven’t been sick (knock on wood) for a prolonged period and, for the most part, I feel fulfilled professionally.

There was, of course, baseball and a lot of it. I tried to maintain other hobbies as well, though some took a backseat to others. I’ve seen Cameron as much as I can, and family remains near and dear to me. Hopefully we can all get closer and closer.

My 2016 wasn’t bad. And in this post and the next one, I will talk about the different parts of it. First, though, it’s time to look back at the goals I set and see how I did. The goals were from a post (https://hoohaa.com/?p=9869) from January 2016.

Let’s see how I did. Were there successes? Failures? A push? Let’s take a look.

Geocaching (pretty much a push)

Remember, when I say fail — it’s not necessarily a fail, rather I didn’t reach the level I was aiming for. I think as long as you do something toward a goal, it’s a work in progress. My goals, too, are pretty open-ended, so it allows me some wiggle room.

I have not had many caching adventures this year.

Such as with geocaching.

This goal had several tiers, so let’s see if I got to any of the levels. Part of this was an epic fail, but there were good things, too.

  • Average a cache per day — Not even close. I’ve found 138 caches this year, which is by far the fewest in a year since I started in 2008.
  • Add another state (or more) to my list — I added North Carolina, Kentucky, and California to my totals.
  • Place 10 new caches (not including events) — Close. I have six caches in my name, and I placed three others for a geocaching challenge. So I’ll count that as nine. I definitely would like to place more and I think once the spring comes, I’ll work on fixing some of my current ones and placing a few new ones.
  • Host at least 5 events — Though I had plans of doing one each month in my head, that didn’t happen. Still, I hosted eight events, including a CITO event. It was an overall good year for events!

In the end, it means I should find more caches. But I am not a fan of caching solo as it takes away some of the social aspect. So we’ll see how 2016 goes.

Home brewing (fail)

It seems each year this is a goal and each year, it’s a fail.

I just don’t dedicate enough time to this hobby and I really do have fun with it.

My goal was at least three beers. I didn’t get there. I need to sit down and do a few smaller batches, test, and see what happens.

I still have several ideas — I just need to follow through on them.

Blogging (success)

This has to be a success. There’s no way around it, even if it was a struggle at times.

Like geocaching, this was a tiered goal. Let’s take a look.

  • Write a new “about” page — I tweaked it a little, but didn’t write or design a new one.
  • Post at least 250 times — I’ll have done every day by the end of the year, so yes.
  • Have a minimum of 12 posts every month — Done.
  • Take part in a few other challenges, to keep things fresh: I might have, but honestly… I don’t recall. I know there were some I was looking to take part in.

Blogging is a lot of fun and I’ll dial it back a bit in 2017 as the everyday aspect was tough, but I will continue blogging and enjoy it. It’s been a part of my life for a long time and I don’t see any reason to stop!

Board games (fail)

This is a hobby I’ve done for a few years and I will be setting goals with it again for 2017, but this year was a little up and down. I didn’t go to my regular game group as much (baseball played a major part in this) and didn’t go to the local game store as much

I haven’t played as many games as I’d like, so hopefully that will change in 2017!

Hopefully, that can change in 2017.

The board game hobby, especially the more “Euro” or strategy style games are booming. My personal collection is quite large and there’s a lot there I need to and want to play. Again, this was a tiered goal, so let’s look:

  • Play 225 times — I was at about 120 this year, so not so much the goal.
  • Play 100 different games — I played a lot of different games, but not near the 100.
  • Go to a game convention — I went to ConnCon in March.

I will continue to play games and I have a lot of games that have a solo variant. That’s a hint of how the goal for 2017 will be somewhat shaped. I will go to at least ConnCon again this year and I have my eye on maybe another convention to add to it in the summer. Games really are a lot of fun — especially when you get away from the mass produced ones like Monopoly.

We’ll see how the goals for next year go, but this one I would call a fail for 2016.

Day Zero Project (fail)

This is a fail as I know I didn’t cross off 25 other things this year, even though it should have been easy to do so.

I have a ton of the options that are blog-based that I could have posted this year, but I just never sat down to do it. It’s a shame, too, as it likely would have made the blog post a day thing a lot easier.

This version of my Day Zero ends in 2017, so it will soon enough be a thing of the past.

Travel (success)

This is definitely a success. I had the chance to see many places. Mainly this was during baseball trips, but there were a lot of side things. I visited ballparks and places I’ve never been. I traveled solo and with friends. I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time

That being said, I didn’t get to the minimum of five New York State parks, I didn’t get to Montreal this year, but I’m looking at it in 2017. I think the travel parts of my year went very well and something I am grateful to have been able to do.

Overall

I guess with my goals, I did some and didn’t get to others. The beauty of goals like this are ones I set for myself with the idea of knowing I’d probably do parts and maybe not others. I like to do a lot of things, that’s for sure, and a lot of times I will be in a situation where I don’t remember full goals — just some.

Part 2 of my looking back post will follow and I’ll go a little more in-depth with the year.

How did your goals/resolutions for 2016 go?

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!

2016 in Review: Photography

As many of you know, I’m a bit into photography.

Whether it’s through my DSLR, or phone or other means, I love photography. For the past several years, I’ve done a video with many of my photos from the year.

This year was a little tougher considering the video program I usually use doesn’t work on Windows 10, so I had to get a new one and splurged on an Adobe one, which I like so far. Hopefully you agree.

As I watched the video myself, I really smiled considering the memories the video brought on. There were good times to remember. From travel to baseball to family to friends to great food and baseball. So much baseball. New friends and old. Family functions and watching the younger ones grow.

I know many people hated 2016, but overall, personally, it wasn’t a bad year. Hopefully 2017 is a good one, too.

Enjoy the video!

Music in the video is by http://www.bensound.com.

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!