I have a bunch of blog ideas bouncing around in my head, but no time to flesh them out or even write about them this week. While I love the Olympics, the event drains the life out of me at work. The sports section goes up by two pages to accommodate the extra Olympic coverage, and unfortunately, none of the other many sports going on (except the NHL) stop playing. So, it's the Olympics on top of everything else and guess who gets to keep track of it all.
Little ol' Night Owl.
AP
Right now I am writing this in a frenzy, trying to squeeze in a few basic life moments (lunch, bill paying, seeing what goodies sit in the mail box) before I hit the Olympic watch again. I have time for only a scattershot post.
Fortunately, gcrl gave me a little inspiration with his post today. It's about the nickname I chose for myself for this blog.
Everyone seems to like the "Night Owl" nickname. That's cool, because it fits me very well, as I explained way back when. But it took a little while to come up with it.
When I first started looking at card blogs back in June of '08, I noticed a lot of blog folks/commentators went by their real names. That didn't work for me. But I saw many others had nicknames/aliases that summed up their personality. I liked that a lot.
I struggled to find an appropriate name at first. In fact, I had another nickname, which I won't mention, that I used for a very short time. It's probably still there in some comments on a post or two of Ben Henry's Baseball Card Blog.
Then, somehow "Night Owl" sprung to life. It didn't have anything to do with this. In fact it's not spelled the same way. But it helped the nickname's appeal and I think it's cool that The Watchmen's Nite Owl is described as "an obsessive hobbyist."
Maybe the best part of the nickname is that it is accepted among my blog friends. That wasn't the case when I was in high school.
As a teenager, I was a big fan of Pedro Guerrero.
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I desperately wanted my friends to call me "Pedro." Isn't that pathetic? But high school kids like giving others nicknames, so it's not too wild of a request. Unfortunately, the nickname didn't stick.
I am pleased to say that unlike George Costanza, who wanted John Shelby's nickname of "T-bone," nobody started calling me "Coco." I just went without a nickname. (When I was in college, girls would call me "Greggy," but that's not a nickname, that's just nauseating. Unless you're the nickname recipient).
So, "Night Owl" fits. It's me. After all, I am typing posts at 3:30 in the morning. And I am an "obsessive hobbyist."
Speaking of which, here's my want list for 2010 Topps:
4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 18, 23, 31, 36, 39, 42, 43, 46, 47, 54, 56, 57, 58, 60, 71, 76, 85, 97, 101, 107, 108, 116, 120, 125, 130, 137, 139, 154, 156, 161, 166, 167, 168, 171, 173, 174, 180, 181, 183, 194, 195, 198, 204, 207, 211, 221, 226, 229, 235, 243, 244, 248, 254, 258, 259, 262, 274, 276, 281, 283, 285, 288, 297, 298, 304, 308, 309, 312, 314, 317, 318, 325
Tales of the Game: 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25
I'll move this to my want list page soon (EDIT: See want list as updated 2010 list is there).
I've already made special arrangements with Mike of JD's Wild Cardz to send him some of the inserts I don't like (Lineage, Peak Performance) for the Tales of the Game inserts I don't have. I'm also interested in the Cards Your Mom Threw Out (any back), and mildly interested in the Turkey Reds and History of the Game.
If you got some of these cards, let me know -- shoot me an email. I've traded with a bunch of you, so you know how I operate. Sometimes I'm a bit slow. I have a demanding job, a family, a house and a dog. And none of them take "no" for an answer. They don't even like "maybe." But I'll get there.
Maybe even before the Olympics end.
Comments
When I first ran into the card blog scene, I chose the moniker Roy-Z. There is no Z in my name, and had no real point, but two of my roommates in college thought it up.
Other abominations of my last named ended up as such "Drig", "R-Dub", "R-Dubbya" and so on.
My favorite of all was my final and favorite roommate from college calling me "Doc", not only for my love of the Daywalker God Roy Halladay, but for my pursuit of a Ph.D.
That is all, sorry for taking up your time.
I personally like your nickname... My nickname is and has been for a long time Bacon... I never thought the blog was going to last for more than a week otherwise it would have had a Bacon related name. My friend jimmy was going on tour with the band collective soul a while ago and was trying to convince me to come along. My reply was "the last thing I want to do is go on tour with collective troll." I didn't go, but he started calling me collective troll as a joke after that. It seemed like an appropriate name for a card collecting blog. If no one else offers, I have some of the 2010 cards you need... Sorry to write a book on your comments AGAIN.
my other nickname is sthscan - short for Southscanner, since I make a living logging audio/video services on communications satellites and for keeping up with the moves in the industry like new satellites, satellites retiring, satellites that failed, etc. Since the satellites are found in an arc to the south (southeast to south to southwest), i scan the south with my satellite dishes not only for work but for play like finding sports for free to watch when I want something to watch.