Because I belong here

The sixth blog bat around topic question is about as simple as they come: why do you blog?

In a roundabout way, this is why:

I am not ancient by any definition (unless you're one of those punk 15-year-olds), but I have seen a variety of innovations and changes in my lifetime. Some examples:

We have something called "wireless Internet." I remember taking typing class on real typewriters when I was in high school.
We have something called "Wii Fit." I remember when one-piece velour jogging suits were the rage.
We have something called "texting." I remember when the phone guy came to our home to install our service and it took so long that he played the board game "Candyland" with my brother and I while he waited for confirmation that we had a phone connection.
We have something called "video games." Like I just said, the phone guy played "Candyland" with my brother and I.
We have something called "channel surfing." I remember watching a sewing show on a black-and-white TV because we had only 4 channels, no remote and the other channels were showing soap operas.
We have something called "TiVo." I remember buying my grandmother her first VCR. She was so confused by how it worked that I would have to program her shows for her.

From self-service gas stations to urgent care centers to podcasting, I have seen innovations that didn't exist when I was a young child.

And now we have "blogging." I have enjoyed almost all of the innovations that I have just mentioned, but not until I came across blogging, did I say "this is where I belong." If all of those other innovations disappeared, I would miss them, but I wouldn't feel as if a part of me had left, too. I can't say the same thing for blogging.

I have always enjoyed writing. When I was around 11 or 12 years old, I would set out to write novels. I would put together page after page of loose leaf paper and write more than 100 pages of whatever idea I had in my head at the time. Unfortunately, I was only 11 or 12, and I eventually gave up on doing that.

I was destined for a job in newspapers. I loved to write. I loved sports. I combed the baseball boxscores every single freakin' day. I still do. I'm blessed that I have the job that I do. But at the same time it gets tedious. I don't write as often as I want, and a lot of the topics do not interest me. Some sports are beyond my comprehension as to why anyone would like them (example 1: lacrosse). So it's hard to write about things where my interest wanes.

But with this blog, I get to write about what I want every time I write. You cannot beat that with Babe Ruth's 40-ounce bat. Which brings me to one of the other questions in this blog bat around: What made you choose sports cards as your topic of choice? Simply, it's what I am interested in right now, and thanks to Ben Henry of the retired Baseball Card Blog, I discovered that other people were actually interested in writing and reading about baseball cards.

So, that's what I will continue to do, for as long as I am interested, maybe long after everyone else has stopped being interested. For example, I will continue to write about cards like this:

There is so much going on in this card that it confused me for at least a year. The angle of the shot, with the fence in the distant background and the hill beyond that, makes me wonder where in the world Brian Jordan is on the field. I assume he's at first base. But that fence throws me off.

Then you have everything going on in the background. The hill, the trees, the people sitting on picnic benches, the American flag. It's a lot to absorb.

And I'll continue to write about photos like this one:

Robin, for heaven's sake, put your rookie card in a top loader and never, ever handle it with your fingers! The Beckett police will be at your door.

And I'll write about phenomenons like this:

Players who not only had their caps airbrushed, but their entire uniforms airbrushed. All three are very odd-looking. The funny thing is, we never gave it a thought as kids.

I'm glad you have shown an interest in my ramblings. I'm glad you've invited me into this community. Because, really, this is where I belong. This is me. I blog because I belong here. Can I say, "I blog, therefore I am"? I wouldn't go that far. But you're in the right ballpark.