A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

humor

A spooky e-mail…

I shouldn’t look where?

I received a cryptic e-mail earlier this week from somebody named Tess. I don’t know Tess, but it seemed like she knew something about me.

Or at least what I shouldn’t do.

The e-mail only said one thing – “Don’t look under your bed”

Yikes!

Apparently, Tess has information that I needed to know, despite it being kind of hard to look under my bed (box spring on floor…), but either way, she was onto something.

Like… being careful.

So I got worried. What was I to do? Would I be safe? Would I make it through the next night? What would happen?

Heck, for that matter, would I make it to bed? See, I got this at 10:45 p.m., so I wasn’t even in bed yet.

Oh the humanity!

And then my fears got real.

Just one minute later, I received another e-mail from Tess. It appears she wasn’t playing around here – she was really letting me know what was going on.

I was shaking. My nerves were jumping. And I slowly clicked the e-mail to open it and this is what it said:

“Hahaha sorry wrong person it was a joke for someone else”

A joke to a wrong e-mail.

My life was almost over in the span of a minute. I was petrified out of my mind and Tess just waves it off as if that one minute didn’t totally alter somebody’s life.

Nothing.

Just a Hahaha and move on.

And now … I am left to wonder … was it really a joke? Or …

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook!

April Fools’ Day can still be a lot of fun if you play along

In 1985, Sports Illustrated came out on April 1.

Well, it was dated April 1. The magazine actually came out in late March.

With no internet or things like that yet available, Sports Illustrated took an April Fools’ Day joke to an extreme. It came as “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch,” a wonderfully written piece by George Plimpton.

The basic premise of the story is as follows: Finch, a fictional player, was the subject of the story. Basically, he was raised in an orphanage, lived in Tibet and could throw a fastball nearly 170 miles an hour. And he was found by the Mets.

Again, remember the year this came out.

Sports Illustrated was flooded with responses. News organizations questioned the Mets as to how SI got the scoop. There were photos and all sorts of different things.

His storied career was much shorter, though. On April 2, he announced his retirement. The following week (April 8), Sports Illustrated — in a smaller article — wrote about the retirement. Then, the next week, on April 15, SI announced the hoax.

Good times.

Why do I bring this up?

Mainly to discuss April Fools. See, anymore, the idea isn’t so much about fooling somebody. Sure, you might get one or two people. But for the most part, people get it. It comes down to whether or not they play along.

With the Internet and everything else, it’s pretty hard to pull them off. So many people do them now. Even big companies — such as Google each year. Red Box did one this year where you could get food out of them. Geocaching.com did one about a tiny cache. Munzee did one about scratch-and-sniff Munzees.

Disc golf companies do them each year.

Heck, the other blog I run (Rattling Chains) did a real funny one, somewhat in the spirit of Sidd Finch. I’d highly encourage you to check it out. It’s quite funny.

For the most part, these things are quite outlandish. Most people won’t fall for them. And for those who do, it’s usually short lived. I’ve fallen for them before and I always laugh when I do. It makes it more fun.

But it seems like, these days, too many people want to break the hoax.

Why?

It’s a guarantee that if you look at places that run these jokes — if there’s a public forum with them, there will be people telling you to check the date, or that it’s a joke or whatever.

And what comes out of that?

Nothing.

The reality is, a good April Fools’ Day joke can really work if people play along. Especially in the comments. Work with it. Make it more fun. It’s not about believing. It’s about having fun with it.

Basically, if you are one who likes to make sure people realize it’s a joke, stop being a buzz kill. Would you yell out at a magician if you knew the trick?

In the end, people will be people. And we may never see another Sidd Finch joke go that well. But I can hope people will realize much of the fun is being part of it and believing enough to get into it and have some fun.

Fundraiser: I am, again, trying to raise money for the Relay For Life. If you donate to me — a minimum of $5– you will be entered to win a super-sweet quilted lap quilt or pillow. Click here for all the information!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

A siesta at the Dunk

It’s the little things in life that mean the most.

No, no, no… I’m not going to quote the Zak Brown Band. I’m talking about the things that make you smile and know that doing something for a day was well worth it.

Let me backtrack a little here.

A few weeks ago, two of us ventured to Albany on an extremely cold and brisk Saturday evening. The goal was to capture some night photography for a 52-week challenge we both take part in. And, to be fair, Albany really is one of the best places for night photos in regard to places close to us. With the Empire State Plaza as a starting point, it’s a great area.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29760317@N08/8482022225/in/photostream

Catching a couple o’ zzzzs at the Dunk.

I did mention it was cold, right?

The temperature seemed to be about 15-20 degrees, which isn’t that bad. But add in the wind and it was brutal at times.

So after a little more than an hour of snapping photos outside in this weather, it was decided it was time for a quick bite to eat. Alas, I obviously wasn’t up to spending a ton of money. A quick check on the phone showed a Dunkin’ Donuts being close by. Off we went.

As we started in, I saw this one gentleman. He looked like he was praying before eating. That’s nothing out of the blue, I’ve seen it times before. He had a newspaper, a cup of coffee and seemed content. But I saw every once in a while, he’d peer at somebody.

We ordered our food and sat across from this gentleman. He had looked at us once or twice. As we were eating, I heard it.

A loud snore.

Now I’ve been know to snag a siesta in odd sports, so I can’t blame the guy. When you’re tired, you’re tired. And, well, sometimes you just close the eyes for a moment or two and you’re out.

It still doesn’t take away from the humor.

Needless to say, we got a few laughs out of it. Especially when we heard a few more snores. Using the hashtag #dunkinsnore seemed appropriate.

A few moments later, one of the workers came out and checking to see how people were doing. She had a louder voice, so we were like “don’t wake the guy up.”

He must be a regular. She laughed and went over and said “Hey David, wake up!” And the guy, groggy and all, looked up. Must be a heck of a good place for a nap, then.

When we left, his head was back down.

Like I said, if you’re tired, you’re tired.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

30 Minus 2 Days of Writing: The Mayor (10/28)

This theme has been really messing with me since I first saw it.

No idea, seriously.

I mean, I’ve dealt with some idiot mayors and ones I’d love to talk about how inept and stupid they were. That and how they were sneaky and gutless weasels who teamed up with others to do bad things.

But karma will hopefully eventually get them, if it hasn’t already. Karma loves spineless people.

Alas, I was looking for something more. I didn’t know any “mayor” songs or anything like that.

I could have researched the history of mayors, but that seems like a time-consuming project  that might bore me to tears.

So I went searching and what I came up with was this really excellent video made by a mayoral candidate in Florida.

This was in 2011.

Sadly, this gent didn’t win. Alas, his official website has this at the top:

We got an impressive 30% of the vote on election day! Thank you to everyone who supported me. We will build on our momentum and run again in 2013!

Maybe his chance will truly come in 2013.

Below are some of his election videos. Very clever. Using some pop culture and things to maybe aim toward a younger population. I’d have been interested to see more about his stand, if I was in his area.

Take a peek at the videos. Pretty good and an interesting way to go with the campaign.

If I ever run for mayor anywhere, I hope I could be this clever. It’s no wonder he got 30 percent of the vote. I’ll be interested to see how his 2013 campaign goes!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!