Ladies and Gentlemen, we are in a holding pattern

Three things:

First, I know there are a few folks that did not get their "Trick or Treats" yet.  I *hope* to get those out first thing next week.  My deepest apologies.

Second, BigD sent me a bubbleope of cards some time ago and I had hoped to have those posted by now.  Alas, I have not, but rest assured, BigD - I got them and I appreciate them VERY much!! Thank you!

Third, I've been neglected all my blogs lately for two reasons, one of which is personally-motivated and the other is well, flat-out selfish.  The first reason is because of the work I am putting into my novel for the www.nanowrimo.org contest.  I am writing at least 50,000 words by the end of November.  So far, I am more than halfway there!  The goal after that is to rewrite and edit and eventually shop it out for publication (and most likely subsequently self-publishing it via LuLu.com).  The other reason is my latest addiction to Plurking.  It's yet another social networking site, combining some features of facebook with those of twitter.  If you'd like to read more about that, you can check out my post here: http://www.poppedinmyhead.com/2009/11/do-you-hear-crickets-chirping.html

In the meantime, keep the Tribe on your mind!

Belcher dons a Tribe cap

No, not this one:

(as seen on Thorzul)

But, this one:

Tim Belcher greed to become the pitching coach for the Indians yesterday.  Well, he'll be doing it for the whole season, really, but he signed up yesterday.  The new head-chief-in-charge, Manny Acta, is taking his time in rebuilding the Indians after Wedge's unceremonious dumping.

I haven't talked any about Wedge's replacement.  Call it sour grapes, call it being preoccupied with other things in life, call it "David Being Michael."  To be honest, I hadn't given much thought to Acta until today.  I'm sure many of you knew that he was the head guy for Washington.  I didn't.  Some of you may have known that he, like the guy he replaced in Cleveland, was fired from his job.  Nice.  The Indians couldn't wait to hire someone, so they picked the guy who was fired from his last job.  Maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking that might not be the best method for picking potential employees - let alone the one who is supposed to be management material.  I guess we'll see how it goes.

Dave's not here, man....

I know, you're thinking, "Holy cow, man! Does this guy EVER post anymore!?"  Well, I have had the past few days off from blogging in order to become the "Fat King of Pop."  While this is not card related whatsoever, it is related to my (unlike the actual King of Pop) undying fandom of Michael Jackson:

You'd think I'd have this down by now... OY!

I know I should have all of your addresses, and probably do but don't have your blog names associated with your real names. So....


Here are the folks that I need your mailing address again, please:

AlbuqwirkE (unless you are aka Kris)

Rod (unless you are aka padrographs)

Collective Troll (how do i not have this!?)

Dave R

McCann Can Triple

FanofReds


Man, I feel like a retard (no offense to people with feelings or who may or may not be retarded or know someone who may or may not be).

As soon as you send me your addresses, I know the database will light up like a Christmas tree, er, a Jack-O-Lantern.

Please just send me your addy to davidinark@yahoo.com. Thanks!

Trick or Treat and Random Packs

Wow, I had no idea it has been nearly a whole week since I last posted.  Life has been keeping me pretty busy lately! Some bloggers out there will read this and say, "Well, if you had the passion to post, you wouldn't let that happen."  And to them I say, "pbtpbtpbt" in the vein of spitting raspberries. :-)

I am preparing the Trick-or-Treat packages to go out this week, and here is the list of victims for this year's endeavor:

1. Baseball Dad
2. Mark's Ephemera
3. gcrl
4. AlbuqwirkE
5. Duane
6. dayf
7. Erin
8. Rod
9. The Diamond King
10. White Sox Cards
11. Brian
12. night owl
13. Collective Troll
14. madding
15. AdamE
16. SpastikMooss
17. Bo
18. Dave R
19. TheJaw
20. JustinB521
21. TSHenson
22. PunkRockPaint
23. Thorzul
24. Don
25. WickedOrtega
26. McCann Can Triple
27. Flyinloco
28. FanofReds

I also owe a couple folks some random packs, and those will go out this week too.  My deepest apologies for not getting those this past Monday as I had said!

Breaking up is hard to do

I'm letting go... (sidenote - "Letting Go" is one of my all-time favorite Joe Cocker singles).

If you are reading this, and you are an Indians and/or Expos/Senators/Nationals fan, then you have been given the green light to take over my spot in I-Am-Joe-Collector's monthly box breaks.  The breaks have been fun and have netted me some very cool cards, but I am stepping out of the way for someone else to come in and take over.

I left a comment on Joe's blog, making it official, so those of you that want to step in and grab some Tribe cards, rush on over and tell Joe you want my spot(s)!

---

Now before anyone starts up the rumor mill, let me say that the reason I am bowing out is because the seasonal giveaways are coming up and I want to use my card funds for fun and games in sharing and spreading the wealth of card collecting!  Sure, I could forego "12 Days" this year, but, um, well, no I can't. I enjoy it way too much!

Tribe Cards from Westgate-on-Sea!

Do you know Jack?  How about John?

Most of you know him as JackPlumstead on The Pursuit of 80's(ness), and I usually refer to him as "John from across the pond."  No matter how you look at it, when a package of cards comes from Westgate-on-Sea, I know there will be cool stuff and that I am trading cards with a guy in England (and NOT England, Arkansas either)!!  I realize this is a bit of a digression here, but take a moment to stop and think about that - trading baseball cards with people all over the world.

When I was a kid, I had a group of friends (my brother, Mike, David (not myself, of course, another one), Anthony, a few others) that loved to trade cards.  We were young and naive then, so we liked to glue the cards into sprial notebooks.  Then, when it was time to trade, we would rip the cards off the pages and trade them.  We never cared what the BACKS looked like, it was all  about the fronts and who was on them.  We even made insane trades for checklists if the right person's name was on the thing.

Fast forward to today.  My circle of trading friends has grown immensely, and now it is more than the folks I see on a regular basis (or on any basis).  Thanks to Internet in general and "the web" & blogging specifically, I am trading cards with people from all over the US (one of which lives about 35 miles South or so) to other countries!  Perhaps I am being a bit dramatic to some of you, but I am young enough to se the world as flat as it has become, but I am also old enough to appreciate exactly what that means.

Whether you are a country music fan or not, Brad Paisley sings a song now in which one of the lyrics goes like this: 

"My grandpa was in World War II, He fought against the Japanese.  He wrote a hundred letters to my grandma; Mailed em from his base in the Philippines.  I wish they could see this now, Where they say this change can go.  Cause I was on a video chat this morning, With a company in Tokyo."

Web pages, online checklists, blogging, audio podcasts, online video box breaks, trading cards with far away lands.  We live in some pretty amazing times.

And speaking of amazing things, THANK YOU, JackPlumstead, for some VERY cool cards!  I am a huge fan of the thick Fleer eX and Flair cards!  I also like the Topps Attax cards. I know a lot of folks don't but, I am a big kid at heart, so anything that is 'gamish' appeals to me!  The Sizemore StarQuest foil card is a great example of how companies should use foil on cards - just enough for a WOW! factor, but not so much you can't read the bloomin' thing!  I like the blackout 2009 Topps cards, too.  They're different. 

I also appreciate the Joel Skinner card.  I think he got the royal shaft when he was cut from the team during the de-Wedging of the Tribe.  Skinner was not the greatest Triber to play for the team, but I believe he is one of biggest FANS of the team.  I don't know how many players feel about such things, but if I had played for a team and then was working on the team in ANY capacity after my career was over, I'd call that pretty fulfilling. 

I loved getting these! Again, thanks a bunch!!

very quick update

I am presently "borrowing" internt access from my mother-in-law, who lives across the yard from us.  We got a TON of rain over the past few days, and evidently our DSL runs in the open and dies when added to water.

I have card packages from John across the pond and my cards from the I Am Joe Collector Goodwin Champions break.  I think I might have another package, too, but I'm not looking at them to know for sure.

I will be posting the pics and packages once things are back to semi-normalcy (things are never normal for me, just ask my wife).

Going all Technorati on me...

So, I've decided to try my hand at Technorati, and they want me to do this: sfy56i74rg
Good luck to me, right?

Coincidence? Decide for yourself...

I was out of town for the past several days, though I had created a few scheduled posts so things wouldn't lie dormant for too long.  I have to admit, I like scheduled posting.  This is not one of those.

After I returned home, I had a package from BaseballDad.  When I opened it, I found a white insert-holder with the following written on it:

I wasn't in the blogosphere last year at halloween so I hadn't thought of blogger "tricks."  This pack was made up BEFORE your "Trick-or-Treat" post.  As Ripley says, "Believe it or not" Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!! (yes, verbatim!)

And then I began to reveal the cards.  It did not long to detect a pattern.  See if you can make it out (click on the photo to enlarge it):

So, did you see it?  I was "Alomared" in BaseballDad's own special way.  Every other card was a Steelers card!  How cool is that!? 

Oh, what?  You mean that WASN'T the "coincidental trick??"  Are you telling me that the trick WASN'T a stack full of Steelers card to an Indians/Steelers fan? 

What do you mean?  Are you saying that not only did he send every other card as a Kenny Lofton, but it was the SAME Kenny Lofton card? 

I just want to know if dayf put him up to that!?

As an aside, there are some very cool Steelers cards in there!  This was something of a trick AND treat!  THANK YOU very much, Baseball Dad!!  This was a lot of fun!  My wife laughed when I started showing her the pile of cards.  Well done.