Blog Bat Around 6 - (Not a) Last Minute Cram

Ok, I admit it. I flaked. I knew there was a Blog Bat Around coming, up, but I didn't check to see when the due date actually was. Well, not until about 15 minutes ago that is. So the post is now due in less than an hour and I've got a mostly blank page staring at me.

Hey man!

I can do this!

I'm a writer!

I got a college degree writing up papers at the last possible second.

Oh wait. Topic. I might need that.

All of the people who are participating in this have a blog, or at least something similar. For this question, I just want to know about the reasons you do what you do. Why do you blog? What made you choose Sports Cards as your topic of choice? What got you started? What has been your favorite post from your own work?

Got it. I can write this, no problem. Keyboard in front of me, beer inside of me and Smashing Pumpkins on the iTunes. Let's do this.

Why do I do what I do? Well, let's define what I do. I write on a blog. That's why it's called a Blog Bat Around. See this is easy! But why? Why do I blog? Let's back up first.

This is my first blog. It is called Fuuuuuuuture, give or take a U. The title is a reference to a Spongebob Squarepants cartoon where Squidward goes into the future to get away from Spongebob and winds up in a world full of robot Spongebobs. Upon realizing this, he has a nervous breakdown, curls up on the floor and chants "Fuuuuuture!!! Fuuuuuture!!!" over and over. I have felt like this many times, thus, the name. However... I changed the name only recently. It used to be called No Future, after the Sex Pistols song God Save the Queen. If you check the date of the first post, you'll get an insight into another reason I named it that. I'm not getting into that now though. Savvy readers know where I'm coming from, no need to antagonize people who didn't notice in the first place. The blurb under the title has changed several times but right now it is a reference to my favorite chartacter on my favorite television show. If you feel like checking the sidebar, it's a pretty good snapshot of what I was looking at in late 2005/early 2006.

Now some of you may feel compelled to go look through the archives. Go ahead, I'll wait for you. Finished? They're pretty much crap, aren't they? I never actually figured out what to do with the blog or the pent up frustration that prompted me to start it in the first place. It eventually turned into a place for me to post favorite songs, comics and general links that interested me enough to click on New Post. The readership is pretty much one, maybe two or three if a friend I sent the link to gets curious about an old bookmark in his favorites folder. That didn't bother me though, I had a blog and was reading other blogs which was enough. One of the blogs I read regularly was this one.

I'm guessing a lot of you are familiar with that one. I read through some of the archives, checked on it once a week or so and left comments and bought a couple of Ben's hand made card Magnets. Jerome Walton and a 1981 Donruss Yogi Berra. I requested a Brave for the series 3 magnets, but alas, that series was never released. Long story short, I liked collecting cards and I liked reading about cards online and hey, wait... Why don't I write about cards?

So in late 2006, I decided I would write about cards. I was going to start a new blog for that though. I didn't want to mix my suck blog with the card blog. I decided on a title. Cardboard Junkie. My inspirations were an anti-drug message on a vintage 1990's wrapper (that I am still looking for), a Saul Bass title for a Frank Sinatra movie and my own crippling addiction to baseball cards. So I had the blog and the title, now all I needed were some posts. I wanted to do it right though and add pictures of the cards. I pulled out my scanner and... it was busted. I tried the camers, but the pictures didn't come out well and the batttery dies on me to boot. Luckily I had gotten a Target gift card for Christmas and bought an Epson scanner/printer/turnip twaddler with it. So now I was scanning and writing and posting.

The first six months weren't very prolific. I had one post in may 2007. All you bloggers out there who feel like giving up because they havn't posted in a while check out those archives and think about what you see. In July the posts picked up signifigantly. Why? Two words: Allen. Ginter. You see, I really liked that product. And I learned thatI really liked writing about a product I liked. So the post counts went up. And up. And up. Dang there's a lot of posts. Plus all the ones on the side blogs I had. But, hey, I enjoyed blogging so I blogged.

Then this year hit and things have slowed down a bit. The two side blogs have been ignored in one case and all but abandoned in the other. Posting has slowed a bit here too. I have a few ideas I wat to work on but sometimes I have a tough time finding the time or the energy to work on them. I'll be straight with you, I'm somewhat burned out at the moment. The last 6 months of '08 were basically all caffiene and adrenaline. I've also had some nassty shocks recently that have sapped my energy and creativity. Oh well, them's the breaks. I'll get past it eventually and besides, since I've started there's been a ton of other people out there who had that same revelation I had. The energy may not be there, but the passion still is.

I like cards.

I like blogging.

And my favorite post?

That would be the next one I write.

Heh.

Five minutes to spare, I told you I could do it.

Note: the deadline is actually next Thursday, May 21st. I clicked on the topic post, saw "next Thursday", looked at my calendar and saw Thursday and figured that was the next one. However, If I would have known that the deadline was a week away I would have blown it off and done the exact same thing a week later. So remember the guide and Don't Panic.