spiedie fest and balloon rally

Ahhh the world of social networking.

Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. StumbledUpon. Tumblr.

Hash tags. Trending topics.

There is so much out there to digest. And it’s crazy to try and figure it all out. Alas, I’ve taken a jump with the social media for the HooHaa Blog and created a “fan” page. It’s not so much a page for fans, rather a spot where I will post updates for this blog and my photo blog. It’s a nice little spot to keep track of things and all that. I don’t expect anything major out of it, but it’s nice to have.

If you want to like the blog on there, hit up the HooHaa Blog Facebook page.

And now, there’s Google +.

I have accounts at other spots and got an invite for the Google +, so I’m all signed up. I’ve messed around a little with it and am trying to figure it out. Not sure if it’s the next Facebook or what, but it’s interesting.

I’m pretty sure I covered this all in a post not too long ago, but I guess I’ve taken the latest plunges into the social networking world. Well, at least for the blog!

***

Softball season is winding down.

Though it’s always disappointing when softball ends, that means there won’t be the worry of playing every Tuesday and Thursday.

Still, we have at least two games in our Oneonta City League remaining, with the possibility of three.

The championship begins Thursday as we play Miller, the lone team to earn a victory over us this season. It should be a fun series and, of course, I am hoping that we win this series and earn our second straight championship.

We ousted the Fuzzy Dogs in the semifinals, dispatching of them Tuesday for a sweep. Third-seeded Miller swept the Copper Fox (who we beat in last year’s final) to reach the championship.

Currently, we’re 17-1 and hopefully we can win two more and finish with one heck of a wild season.

***

The job hunt is going slow.

I’ve sent out things for jobs, took a workshop on some other things and have been keeping my head up as much as possible. It’s a bit frustrating, however. I have a couple of irons in the fire, so to speak, and hope that one of them catch fire a bit as they are spots I’d really dig. I keep looking and keep applying, though at times it becomes tedious.

Funny story though and it makes me wonder about some other jobs I’ve employed to.

A couple of people pointed me to an interesting job. I saw it on the company website, looked a bit more and it seemed like something I could deal with. Another friend had looked into applying for it at one time and knew the pay scale and all seemed pretty solid.

I looked at what I needed to do and one part included a digital portfolio of sorts to send along to them.

I started looking for things to include and got a few things together. But before I went any further, I figured I should call the company to see to whom I should address a cover letter and if there was anything else I needed to send.

Turns out the job has been filled, but had not been taken off the website.

I’m glad I called ahead as that would have been quite annoying to work on all of that stuff and find out the job wasn’t available any longer.

The job listing is off the website now, though, so that’s a good thing at least.

***

Researching obscure baseball players has been fun.

The thing about some of these baseball players is that they are so obscure that there isn’t much on them. There’s statistics, but not much more.

One of the ball players who I’ve sponsored on Baseball-Reference is buried in nearby Johnson City.

After touching base with the cemetery and finding out where he is buried, we went on a search. Alas, we got to the spot and there’s one headstone for someone else in this family plot, but not the person we were looking for. There were two things that seemed like they could have been bases for former headstones, but there was nothing to show that this person was buried there, other than knowing where he was supposed to be. The one headstone is for someone listed on the cemetery card for this plot, alas wasn’t the person I was hoping to find info on. It’s a shame, too, because some of the dates of his birth and death differ in certain spots.

I’ll keep up the research and will eventually have a post on him.

***

As those of you who read this blog will know, I’m quite interested in reading about, learning and hearing stories about long-distance hiking. It’s fascinating to see people who go through all of this and then see how they react at the end.

I got an e-mail the other day from hiker Skywalker (I’ve read one of his two books and will be reading the second soon), who arrived back in the states after hiking in Spain. It seems he had quite the experience. I’m working on doing an interview with him soon about his experiences, hiking and other things along those lines. If you have any questions you’d like to ask a long-distance hiker, let me know and I’ll put them in that interview.

That made me realize I hadn’t checked the hikers I started reading about at Trail Journals several months ago. Though I knew several people had dropped out of their hike of the Appalachian Trail, I knew several were still at it. Those that I was reading included both genders and ages ranging from recent high-school graduates to senior citizens.

It was sad to see that several of them had dropped out. There were various reasons, but all were valid. Many of them got several hundred miles in, too. A few of them are close to finishing or have already finished. It’s really quite impressive to think that these people will have hiked more than 2,000 miles over varying terrain to finish the AT.

I’m still intrigued by the AT. I’m not saying I will do the hike one day and I’m not saying I won’t. The odds are against it, but it does still intrigue me. It’s a shame I wasn’t better off financially or in better shape as being laid off for all this time would have been the perfect time to try it. We’ll see though. Only time can tell.

To those of you who have done it or finished this year, awesome job and congrats. For those who try it in the future, good luck.

And if you want to ask someone who has done the AT and the Pacific Crest Trail, let me know and I’ll add it to my question sheet!

***

Every year, Binghamton hosts the Spiedie Fest and Balloon Rally. I’ve never gone and have always wanted to as it seems like it would be great photography.

Years ago, when working a summer job as a painter at a local college, a few of us used to listen to a Binghamt0n-area radio station. That year, Eddie Money was a headliner at the Spiedie Fest. Quite often during that summer, you’d hear Money’s song “Take Me Home Tonight” on the radio and them advertising for Spiedie Fest.

And every time the chorus part of the song came on, the announcer would — in a booming voice — say “EDDIE MONEY!”

Ever since then, it’s been a running joke between a few of us.

Eddie Money is back at Spiedie Fest this year. Two of us are going Friday to check out the festival, hopefully see some balloons launch and watch Eddie Money (hopefully) rock the stage. It should be quite fun.

And there better be some good spiedies as they are tasty as can be and will be something I am looking to snack on while down there!

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