What’s This Blog For?

It’s been two months since I’ve posted anything here. Part of that has been due to the renewed busyness of life with a job once more, but mainly I just cannot get motivated to even bother to post right now. Now, don’t read this wrong: I’m not down in the dumps or anything. It just seems there’s a great deal of tedium involved in posting here, and by the time I’ve got my own time at the end of the day, I just don’t have it in me. I’m hoping that changes soon, because I do really like having this space.

I did spend a little time a few nights ago throwing up a page to a little long-running, low-key project of mine: my 1981 Fleer autographs. I haven’t committed to the full set yet, but I do love getting these signed. Head on over to the 1981 Fleer page and you’ll see a gorgeous gallery of over 70 signed cards from the set. There’s just something lovely about seeing them side-by-side, and while I can flip through my binder, you, dear reader, just can’t do that. So enjoy.

On the autographs note, I also managed to prep some drafts to cover the TTM returns from the past 8 months or so. Yes, I did do some of that. I even already have a nice haul from January. Maybe that posting spark will really come alive.

And speaking of projects, I do have some things in the works. Or, well, perpetually “in” the works, but perhaps never seeing any work. I’m trying to get better about that. A little of that is custom card related, but the grand majority of it is photography-related. So, here’s hoping that I can actually find some energy to fire up Lightroom and burn the midnight oil soon.

Outside of that, I want to spend some time cleaning up, well, this space. I tackled a big endeavor porting Remember The Astrodome over here in hopes of unifying where I post stuff and also diversifying what I post. Sure, it’s loads of fun to haul in Astros cards in trades and show them off, but I can only look at so many scans in folders before that tedium comes crawling back and I have no desire to post at all. I want this to be a space where I can feel good about posting, not dread the piles of unposted trades, etc.

But while we’re talking about trades, here’s a little haul from one I received in December from my TCDB pal Southfield Neal. We pulled off a few little swaps last year. I didn’t manage to find any Fire around these parts (thanks flippers!), so these were much appreciated. The George Springer Flame parallel (I think this is the Flame parallel, but who knows anymore?) is very nice in hand and features my favorite design from the 2020 set. It’s not 2019 Fire, but it’ll do. Hearing that George signed with Toronto last night was a bit of a gut-punch, and brought back unhappy memories of young me watching as the franchise traded away or failed to re-sign players like Ken Caminiti, Steve Finley, and Luis Gonzalez.

Neal had a couple of Update cards I needed as well. I hadn’t realized that Garneau signed with Detroit in the offseason until I went to Fangraphs to check the dismal outfield depth chart with Springer and Brantley both reported as heading north of the border. It sounds like the team managed to sign Brantley this afternoon, though, so that’s nice. Straw, Tucker, and Chas McCormick just ain’t gonna be quite the same, so I’m glad we kept Uncle Mike.

The Garneau isn’t any Update card either, it’s the Advanced Stat back, numbered 101/300. This stuff is fun, and I’d love to pick up some of these of the bigger stars on the team.

So yeah, I’m still here. And this blog is still for my enjoyment, but I hope you enjoy it too. I can feel that posting bug creeping back in already.

4 Replies to “What’s This Blog For?”

  1. Glad to hear the posting bug is getting to you… It’s been a while since it’s gotten me with any type of consistency.
    I love the advanced stats cards. I love it even more now that I’m starting know what is deemed “good” for certain stat lines.

  2. I owe you some 84s! I think about it every time I walk past the box. All the time I thought I’d have around the holidays never panned out. Glad to know you found another job. That must be a relief!

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