Blog Update. Final Post?

It's been a long time. Too long. I haven't blogged since I can remember (Blogger tells me it was late May), and haven't been meaningfully writing for longer than that. Why not?


A couple of reasons. A good one would be that I've been working. About a year ago now, I wrote about wanting to pursue journalism as a career. I had just returned from Harvard, and was planning to apply to Princeton in the fall. Now, having been accepted to Princeton and hoping to study journalism and history, I am interning at my local paper, the Cullman Times. I've had the opportunity to do a lot of writing here, and that's a big reason why blogging has dropped off.

Side note: I've come to realize that blogging is almost more of a job than a hobby. The time it takes to make it really good is time I've never been able or willing enough to give. (Lessons learned for my future projects.)

Among other reasons why I haven't been working? Listia and laziness, most likely. That doesn't mean I haven't been keeping up with cards, though. I popped my a thrift store the other day and spent about 20 minutes going through loose commons. I ended up purchasing a bunch of old Huntsville Stars promotional minor league cards, some picturing Jose Canseco lurking in front of an old Burger King logo.

I've also been following the season. I wrote an article about Craig Kimbrel's alma mater days before going to Turner Field for my first-ever game, in which Kimbrel pitched a scoreless inning as the Braves beat the Philadelphia Failies 6-4.

So I guess the question remains, what's next for the blog?

View from the seats

Like Andy from Toy Story, I'm now headed off to college, career, etc. I'm supposed to shut down the blog, box up the cards, forget about it and them, and enjoy the rest of life. And I probably will.

But I don't plan to stop writing. I don't plan to stop blogging. Though I may choose to write about topics other than printed cardboard squares, I still enjoy pounding out words in a post.

And unlike all the kids who had to pack up their cards before me, I will remember the many, many others who came back to the hobby and are part of the card blogosphere. I can email many of them and mail them cards when I want. I've struck up friendships, met up with some writers, and had a pretty darn good time.

So don't consider this the wrap-up post. Consider it the transition post. Once I get a new project started - and ensure I budget time properly to do it well - I'll be sure to post it up here.

Thanks so much!

-James
"Chunter"

**Edit**: If you are still interested in swapping cards with me, I'll be able to trade until about August 15th. If you have traded with me before, my address will be the exact same. Thanks!

I Don't Usually Do Personal Posts...

...But when I do, I make them interesting!

Hi guys. Wanted to give a quick blog update and talk about what I've been out doing the week of my blog contest. As to the state of the blog, I'm still backed up on trade posts and scanning, and the traffic jam doesn't seem to be clearing up. So if you're waiting for me to post what I got in a trade with you before you do the same, you might just want to go ahead. I'm still working on a couple of trades, and need to mail out the contest winners' winnings soon. I know I'm not Amazon.com, but that's no excuse!

Regarding the interesting, I was out the week of my blog contest at a super-cool camp called the Multicultural Journalism Workshop, held on the campus of the University of Alabama. All the students accepted into the selective program have worked in high school student media, and the students I worked with and media professionals I worked with were top-notch. We collaborated on a website, including an article by yours truly, and were featured on a local news channel one evening. I even learned a thing or two about, you guessed it, blogging.
As a soon-to-be college-bound student, journalism is one of the top career choices I'm interested in. I have a ton of respect for fellow bloggers get paid to be journalists, from the fantastic Night Owl to the hilarious Mike Kenny to prolific blogger Greg Zakwin at Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle, the latter of whom has a blog name giving the shout-out to sportswriter Bill Plaschke. I have to say, blogging has given me a bit of an audience that I wouldn't have had writing for just my school, and I've loved it. Props to the blogging community there.

Not sure how to conclude this post, so let me just say thanks-because without you all, all my pageviews would be from myself and spambots.

Thank you guys!