Followers

Right before going to bed on Thursday night an interesting event happened that put this crazy idea into my head. This wasn't just a one time event though as the concept for this post unknowingly to me revealed itself on Wednesday. That is the day the great blogger Night Owl ran a post about getting his four hundred follower. A feat that is mind-boggling, and honestly well deserved for a blogger that consistently puts out great stuff.

Thursday came, and a moment that was just wild in its timing. Just finished with the writing, and the posting of the Rockies artelopes posting. I started to do another quick run through blogs for any brand new posts of interest. Afterwards I realized that one of those blogs was not on my blog list, and should be. Fixing that oversight I went about adding another blog which is when this post was born. Seconds after adding that blog I was hit with an e-mail from the blogger asking if I could put him on my reading list. The timing just blew me away as like I said it was immediately after adding the blog. What all this did was get me to thinking about my blog reading habits.

The follower is one of those things that I am still kind of in the dark about. While I know how it works, and the purpose of the follower. The follower is a tool I used only a few times when I first started to blog. Just as fast I stopped following blogs as I don't use the tool. My means of reading blogs is done by a habit that I honestly need to work on.

Using the favorites list I go directly to the Sports Card Blogroll. From there I go down the list of most recent blog posts. Any post that interests me I go to, and continue working my way down the list. By doing this I get to enjoy the blogs who are on the list, and show up. What happens though is I am missing out on some equally great blogs that either don't show up when they post or aren't on the list at all. These blogs are why I need to change my habits.

After doing the blogroll thing I move here to The Prowling Cat, and read the blogs on my list. This is where the biggest change in my reading habits needs to happen. Going down the blogs on my reading list should be where I start not end. Adding the blogs I enjoy the most, and then going to the blogroll after reading these blogs.

Hopefully I can get everything in order, and change my habit. I'd love to make the great stuff I'm missing less frequent.

If you have a blog that needs to be added here please let me know, and I will make it happen.

Rockies Style Artelopes

Trying to keep up with trades, and returns from the artelopes has been quite an adventure. Normally it wouldn't be, but as I've said many a time recently. We have still been doing the home improvement with the daughter helping me paint part of the dining room on Wednesday. With that out of the way I have a busy weekend coming with more painting, and getting the dining room finished up. Despite all this I have been getting back even more of the artelopes.

With the Rockies as my number one team in baseball. One of the things I try for each year is collect all the schedules from the Rockies, and their affiliates. Wanting to get an early start I sent out two Rockies related artelopes, and have already gotten the returns.

Not in a very creative mood, but wanting to get the Rockies before they started dropping in the usual variations that all MLB teams do. I sent out this fairly simple envelope, and got a decent return from the team.

Three hot off the presses March edition schedules. These were a little bit of a surprise as preliminary schedules from late last year were the only known schedules from the Rockies before I got these. What this means though is now I will need to find another collector to trade with for a preliminary schedule. No complaints though as it shouldn't be to hard.

My second return is a team I always look forward to writing.

The Drillers have been affiliated with Colorado since 2003. Starting my collection of their schedules that same year I have since added older schedules from their affiliation with the Rangers. Always good to me, and thus one of my favorites when baseball comes. Tulsa didn't disappoint as they did something that is very rare in my returns.

They dropped two different covers on me. Nothing is better than getting not just one schedule than you didn't know about, but two new schedules. Tulsa has a tendency to do a minimum two or three covers, and three sponsors per cover each season. With it being this early, and two covers already out I expect another one or two covers, and the usual sponsor stuff. These two have me excited about seeing all this when it starts to happen.

I have more returns coming in the next couple days, and a PWE from another blogger. Hopefully I can start coming up with some ideas after those as the whole house stuff has been frying my brain.

Stuffed

In a trend that I have become quite fond of since starting this blog. Duff who runs the blog Bleedin' Brown and Gold dropped another surprise on me. This surprise came in the form of a PWE, but not just any PWE. This thing was stuffed with all sorts of goodies that I honestly haven't even opened. I wanted to share the pure awesomeness of this thing as I got it.

Now that is an impressive sight. Contained within that blue painters tape are four hard card sleeves. While part of me wants to start with the hard case that you are looking at. Baseball season started on Monday, and so in honor of that we start with the baseball.

Not a bad way to start off a PWE if you ask me.  A nice looking schedule showing off two players that are either still with the team or was there last season.

Now that is a good looking schedule. For those that don't know I am a fan of arena football, and am pretty excited that Portland now has a team. While I'm not sure if I will get to hit any games this season it's still pretty cool. Originally I wanted to hit one or two games this year, but two things have now put that in jeopardy. A possible change in vacation plans that if it happens will change the sports funds by a ton. The second is right now I'm pretty excited about baseball season, and if it comes down to choosing odds are baseball will win. Throw in that I can do three baseball games minimum for what one arena football game would cost. When you look at it that way its almost a no-brainer on which one I should do.

As I go through this PWE I'm starting to get a little jealous of Duff. I'm seeing a trend here of all these sports going on that has to be brutal in trying to figure out what you want to watch. Throw in some basketball, and things could really get interesting. Wait....

I just remembered reading a post or two by Duff talking about going to an Energy game a few months back. While my memory gets the best of me sometimes I recall reading that he won some shorts at the game. I also remember him saying that it was in one word boooooriiiing. So I guess the Energy aren't much of a threat to take a chunk out of his sports watching budget. What I am thankful for is that he thought of me, and picked up a business card for my collection. The Energy were one of many NBADL team I was missing a card for.

Thank you so much for all the goodies Duff. Nothing is cooler to me than getting a potpourri of stuff like the PWE you dropped on me. Its things like this that makes blogging, fellow bloggers, and readers so cool. Be it baseball cards, business cards, pocket schedules, or whatever else you collect. To realize that while either at a sporting event, card show, or while running around town . A person thought about you when they saw those items, and picked them up especially for you is an awesome feeling.

Some Fast Artelopes

For the last week or so I have been talking about how I sent out tons of artelopes over a two week time frame. In the mood to do something different I wanted to send some out specifically for business cards. So I picked out two of the tracks that holds NASCAR races, and sent out requests.

The first of the two sent, and the first returned. Doing some research after the return it came to my attention that I sent it to the GPS address not their mailing address. Can anyone other than me hear Homer Simpson letting out a huge D'oh. Guess this means that in the near future I'll have to replicate this envelope or do a brand new design.

My second request was much better, and is why I do these.

Based a little off one of the logos used by the track. This is only the third artelope I have done where the only area not colored is the address. Whoever said the third time's the charm was talking about this very return.

Looking at the bottom card reminds me of why I contact places like racetracks for business cards. Whoever came up with the idea for that card was a genius in promoting. The idea for a business card is to promote your business, and this card does that better than anything I've seen in awhile. I'd like to think that by going the extra mile with the artelope it helped in getting both card designs.

On a side note I would like to congratulate Phoenix International Raceway on their 50th anniversary.