Flotsam and Jetsam from the Massive Troll Ripathon

A package arrived in the mail from Collective Troll, the likes of which haven’t been seen in these parts since a few minutes earlier when I opened Grand Card’s package ;), and it contained a wide assortment of goodies. If you were like me, you were beginning to wonder if CT’s behemoth riparino was ever going to end, but we all know how life can get in the way of things, and eventually that day came when the fruits of his labor were scattered like debris upon the waves of the USPS.

^{the shipwreck washed ashore here — a slew of junk wax, some 2010 Heritage, a pack of ’89 Topps Mini League Leaders, 2004 Fleer National Trading Card Day, a couple Classic Best minor leaguers, some various newer stuff, and a nice little pile of 70s-80s O-Pee-Chee}

I hardly knew where to start. There are no Twins in the Fleer National Trading Day set (Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Nomar Garciaparra, Jose Reyes, Brett Favre, Marshall Faulk, Vince Carter, Carmelo Anthony, Yao Ming), so if anyone wants to trade for it, let’s talk. The rest have been organized into smaller piles, shuffled, sorted, and reminisced over.

^{clockwise, from top left: 1994 Topps Stadium Club Golden Rainbow #670 Scott Leius — say, did I ever tell you how on his birthday my youngest brother caught a Leius HR? Yeah, I thought so; 2007 Topps Opening Day Diamond Stars #DS13 Justin Morneau, boy that didn’t scan well; 1984 O-Pee-Chee #322 Ken Schrom; 2010 Topps Heritage #354 Twins Team}

Interesting that I picked up two missing 1994 Stadium Club Golden Rainbow cards from my wantlist from two separate trades on the same day. And although I (surprisingly) only needed two of the O-Pee-Chee cards, several were better centered than ones I already had. The junk wax will work their way here to build team sets.

Sir Troll, it was worth the wait. There’s a good chance some mail will find its way in your direction before too long as well…

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A Grand Giveaway

Holy crap — when Grand Cards has a giveaway, he means it! Sure, I sent him some Tigers cards in trade, but I got a massive buttload of Twins junk wax in return (with a few newer cards, and at least a couple in there that I needed, for sure) — no idea how many, but the stack is 4-1/8″ tall. I’m going to have a good time combining them with my own dupes and build some team sets out of them. I have a couple young nephews I can see getting them, and also bundling them in trades.

It had to have been cathartic to excise these Twins cards from the collection, huh?  It’s become a dark season for Tigers fans this past week.  No one wants to win a division against a team that way (although Ozzie isn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth).

^{piles o’ Twins; btw dude, you’re docked major points for He Who Must Not Be Named there on the top right}

Thanks again, and I’m pretty certain I have some more cards around here that’ll migrate back in your direction someday.

^{a couple I knew I needed, left to right: 1994 Topps Stadium Club Golden Rainbow #193 Lenny Webster; 1989 Kahn’s/Hillshire Farm Cooperstown Collection Harmon Killebrew}

Spookymilk Survivor Challenge #8: Warning Label

The instructions for the eighth week of Spookymilk’s WGOM writer’s challenge: write an unexpected warning label on a product of your choosing. State what the object with the warning label is, and limit the warning to 100 words or less.

This time around The Winner Group was not the winner group, but more importantly we were also not the loser group — results. So far we have all learned that it is unwise to use the name Nick Punto in vain.

Here’s what I came up with this week:

GB Leighton EP CD of “Twins Territory”

WARNING: This recording has been found to contain backward masking of Chicago White Sox propaganda, including Ken “Hawk” Harrelson repeating “He gone.”, the home run call from 2008 Game 163, and portions of A.J. Pierzynski interviews – LISTEN AT YOUR OWN RISK. (plus, it sucks)

This was one of my two initial Warning Label ideas. Thanks to Andrew for the “listen at your own risk” nudge. That was just the suggestion to make this worth tackling.

I was torn on whether to include the last line; it’s a little less “legit” but, doggone it, it just needed saying!

My other initial idea was for a stats website (baseball-reference, for example) to have a warning label suggesting that it was not wise to ignore the stats contained within when doling out multi-year contracts to low-K starting pitchers still under team control — a not-so-veiled jab at Bill Smith and the Nick Blackburn contract.

Soundtrack Friday Random 10

Another round of soundtrack music for today’s Friday Random 10…

1. “The Phasmid” – Richard Tognetti, Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World
2. “The Wildcard” – Clint Bajakian (LucasArts), Outlaws
3. “Titles” – Vangelis, Chariots of Fire
4. “Laurens, Iowa” – Angelo Badalamenti, the Straight story
5. “Schwarze Augen” – Klaus Doldinger, Das Boot (Director’s Cut)
6. “G’ole!” – Rick Wakeman, G’ole!
7. “KOS-MOS” – Yasunori Mitsuda, Xenosaga
8. “Rain After That” – Joe Hisaishi, Sonatine
9. “The Shoot” – Rick Wakeman, White Rock
10. “Extent of the Lie” – Pat Metheny, The Falcon and the Snowman

TGIF!

Spookymilk Survivor Challenge #7: Surprise Eulogy

Week seven of Spookymilk’s WGOM writer’s challenge: write a eulogy for a public figure that includes a surprising revelation. Must be a real person (past or present), and limit it to 600 words or less.

The Winner Group once more nailed down the high team average, continuing to live up to our name. We’re a juggernaut! Results

I’m not going to stir the pot this week. I had a little fun poking at last week’s challenge (well, it was a little lame) but our fine judges didn’t necessarily take it in the spirit of which it was meant. This week’s gets back to exercising the ol’ writer’s creative right-side brain cells. Here’s how I made a go at it:

Derek Jeter (1974-2027?)

Derek Jeter was a man of outstanding ability and extraordinary charisma, loved by all. He was excelled in sports and later in politics — always thinking of his fellow man and over time becoming the world’s most adored human being. As an ambassador of the United States, his role in finally engineering a lasting peace accord in the Middle East was an enduring legacy, and his unprecedented progress in bringing together Christian and Moslem cultures was interrupted by his untimely death. His premature demise, initially diagnosed as only a simple concussion, left the world shocked and then supremely saddened. In hindsight, people of learning should have realized…but as was forewarned, we did not — we COULD not — have any suspicion. Looking at all the signs now though, as head of the Harvard Divinity School and Professor of Religion and End-Time Prophecies, I can most definitively assert that Jeter is the Antichrist as recorded by John the Revelator over two millennia ago. Expect his imminent “healing” to be announced in the near future, and not long after his return from “death” we will find ourselves in the midst of the Great Tribulation. No longer will the world media fuel our devotion to Jeter, but Jeter himself will be demanding the worship of the remainder of humanity’s survivors. The Four Horsemen are in the wings. It is no longer a curiosity that in 2018 Jeter was selected for the Baseball Hall of Fame on 666 ballots. God help us all.

Took me a while to come up with a public figure, but once I did, the surprise was much easier to decide on. My end-times knowledge was a little rusty, so I did a bit of research to remember the chronology, etc. Some of the eulogy accolades in the first paragraph used similar terminology used to describe AC in the writings. The concussion throw-in was a nod to a recent discussion on WGOM on the topic.

Instead of a eulogy relying on someone “in the know” revealing the surprise, I chose to use someone with extensive research to reveal their surprising conclusion — my apologies to whomever is the head of Harvard Divinity School in the year 2029.

I wanted to include my frustration over seeing Derek Freakin’ Jeter’s face in every single sports commercial and baseball-related coverage, so I made sure to mention how AC would require everyone’s worship, and previously how the media was the one fueling it. The last two lines were a nice throwaway wrap-up. God help us all…literally.

And for the heck of it, what does I Write Like think?

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Pandora Friday Random 10

Been a while; time to get on the Friday Random 10 treadmill again…

1. “Shine on You Crazy Diamond (live)” – Pink Floyd, Delicate Sound of Thunder
2. “When Did Your Heart Go Missing?” – Rooney, Calling the World
3. “Leaving Me Now” – Level 42, World Machine
4. “Show Me Mary” – Catherine Wheel, Chrome
5. “Endless Sacrifice” – Dream Theater, Train of Thought
6. “Portrait” – Kansas, Point of Know Return
7. “Omegaman” – The Police, Ghost in the Machine
8. “Far West” – Kraan, Flyday
9. “Only You Understand” – George Duke, Cool
10. “Chopsticks” – Jeff Lorber, Narada Jazz: The Singles

Love those Hypgnosis album covers.

Spookymilk Survivor Challenge #6: Create a Challenge

Okay, I had some problems with this week’s Spookymilk’s WGOM writer’s challenge. I might get a little overly critical here about this particular challenge, but I can do so knowing that our judges don’t read anything said at ol’ “é rayhahn, rayhahn” at all. The challenge: create a challenge for later in the game. Yep, that’s it.

The Winner Group once more nailed down the high team average, continuing to live up to our name. Results

Okay, the problem I have with this challenge is that it really isn’t a writing challenge. What it is is doing the job of our lazy judges. This isn’t a challenge, it’s a discussion among people with drinks sitting around a hotel bar table. It’s a Facebook IM. It’s a conversation to pass the time on a long road trip.

Well anyway, here is what I submitted:

Challenge #___: So, Do You Like It, Or Don’t You? This week’s challenge is to write a short positive review of a book (of your own creation), followed by a short negative review of that same book. 10 points are awarded: 2 points for the book idea and title, 4 points for the positive review, and 4 points for the negative review.

I was a little terse with my submission, but I just wasn’t getting into the spirit of it. I have a great idea for a book (don’t get me started on that; it’s already been stolen) that I’d love to used, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves here. Hopefully tomorrow’s challenge announcement will require some good imagination and, you know, some actual writing maybe? B^P

“How I Spent My Summer Vacation”

Okay, it’s not one of those papers written for school, but I’m due to post a note about our family trip up to The Homeland and all our activities there — boring to some, even more boring to others.  Well, here goes…

The 14hr 2min drive up nort’ went about as smoothly as it could, and we arrived with most of the clan already there. The first couple days were spent visiting with family and friends, checking out the Polk County Fair, and getting over the “jet lag”. I swung a trade with a baseball card booth in one of the display buildings, and picked up grab bag goodies for the young nephews. Staying just ½ block from the fairgrounds is pretty darn convenient, and a nice location to watch the fireworks, too. And since we apparently brought our St. Louis weather north with us (we had a couple days of 90°F+/high humidity) the shorter walks were appreciated as well.

Friday night the four brothers and their wives had a nice supper at Joe Dimaggio’s Pizza & Grill. (My first car was a 1977 Honda Civic hatchback previously owned by Joe, and I got to tell him that it served me well. And yes, that is his name.)

We had a pleasant surprise when Max (our foreign exchange student from Germany back in the 80’s) dropped by in the middle of his business trip in the US. We were two Texans and a serviceman in Iraq away from the entire shebang.

Saturday morning started with a 5-K walk/run, and many of the clan were among the 140+ that participated.

^{Polk County Fair 5-K Walk/Run (K on the far right)}