I Have No Idea What This Post Will Be About…

… Until I start writing it.  I’m barely mentally coherent and can’t quite think of anything specific to say (I for one blame this ridiculous heat and dis brokeass recliner hurting my back for my total lack of posting energy), but I feel the need to say SOMETHING.  So, here goes whatever.

Nothing has happened as yet with my Black Diamond Die-Cut on the topps Diamond Giveaway site.  Haven’t even gotten many offers on it.  I’ve picked up three regulars via trading though.

I had to let my ’75 Bill Madlock go earlier today when someone offered a Yovani Gallardo for it.  Just couldn’t refuse that.  I also scored a Ricky Romero a few days ago from haphazardly offering up my ’67 Dick Schofield, ’74 Walt Williams, and ’91 Luis Rivera for just about any Diamond Die-Cut I had even marginal interest in and/or could easily trade once I have it in-hand if I can’t get one of my needs on the site.  I sent out a mess of only slightly more focused trade offers for each when the sun was going down.

Before that, doing the same incoherent-but-effective trade offering with a ’73 Johnny Briggs and ’69 Chuck Cottier landed me a Billy Butler which over the course of a single day became a Carlos Santana which finally turned into my first definite keeper in Vlad Guerrero.  Very nice.  I’d like to land another Santana for myself at some point, but I’m not counting on it.

(EDIT: Just checked.  I’ve landed another Carlos Santana.  Got it for Gallardo.  Lulz.)

Aside from that, I’ve picked up four packs of this year’s A&G.  The first two (from Walmart) were weak.  No inserts, plain ol’ regular back minis (one was a Cub, but I’ve never been a fan of Dempster), and a shortprint of stinkin’ Cardinal.  Only saving grace was Cheryl Burke hawtness.

The second two (from Target) were outstanding, however.  A code version of an SP, a Jason Heyward mini SP, a Most Mysterious Man in the Iron Mask, and an Ascent of Man, which I can confirm are as awesome as advertised.  Plus more cool random people base cards in Kristi Yamaguchi and  Stan freakin’ Lee!  I’ll be keeping Kristi, Stan, and maybe the Ascent of Man (for now at least), but the others are available.  I’m interested in Minds that Made the Future, Highlight Sketches, and Portraits in Penultimacy in return.

I also picked up a few things the on COMC the other day, much of it trade bait.  Flying Spaghetti Monster only knows when I’ll have money to get any of it out though, especially if the government turds out.  Seriously, fuck the GOP.  Right in the ear.  Because God forbid the rich and big businesses start paying their fair share of taxes, amirite?

Anyway, if you like BJ Upton, Jose Reyes (2B?), Victor Martinez, Garrett Atkins, or… Joseph Addai (eh, why not?), or the teams they play/played for, you might be in luck.  Also Carlos Lee and Andy Pettitte.

Also slowly gathering specific things for specific people.  Got at least one thing I owe Ray now.  I’ll set about getting ahold of the rest pending government bullshittery.

Finally, for the love of Tommy Oliver, my email is on my blogger profile which is linked on my sidebar!  Ahem… Sorry, but it’s there.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of a thing (via my first trade with Cards on Cards that I never posted because I don’t know what became of most of the scans :():

The original Shawon-O-Meter?

Seriously though, I have no idea what this is and have been too lazy and/or unfocused to look it up as of yet.  It’s kinda cool though.

Guess that’s all for this post.  Needs more pictures, but it turned out better than the post I had originally planned.  Baseball cards are much more enjoyable than b*tching about government incompetence, DC Comics incompetence, and… “Unicorns”.  It would’ve been… weird.

It’s too hot for pants…

Back in the Saddle (Kinda)

Inspections and cleaning and all that junk are finally done! And I passed it all without parental help with the cleaning for the first time (mom’s out 4-6 weeks with a bad knee). So, I’m feeling pretty good about myself just now. Which means maybe I can get a few things sent in the near future.  On that note, I need an address for Cardboard Collections, and the cards Cards from the Quarry asked for are all his if he still wants them.

That’s it for this one, I’ll post again once I get some scan editing done.  It turns out that the new computer’s photo editing capabilities are even crappier than the old one’s (once it became updated enough to any).  Whodda thunk?  Anyway, I’m outta here for now.  Seeya.

Until our next…

 

Trying

Trying trying trying… and always failing.  No matter what I do it seems I just can’t keep up with trades.  So I’m just here to apologize once again and thank you for the continued saintlike patience most of you have found it necessary to show.  It has been a lil busier than normal of late, but really pathetically slow compared to the lives most of you lead, so there is no excuse for it.  I’m not even that broke at the moment. All I can say is I haven’t forgotten anyone and I’ll try to get some things sent out soon.

😦

 

At the Movies #2- Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes

Welcome back to the theatre!  Today we’re gonna take a look at Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes.  I wasn’t expecting much from this, but I was blown away.  Just a standard-ish review this time, so significantly less spoilers ahoy.

The first thing you will notice is this movie is pretty.  The animation is in the classic style, and it is awesome.  All it takes to see this is the badass opening scene, robbery performed by three cats with freakin’ jet packs.

In this movie, Jerry is cast as Sherlock Holmes’ little apparently super genius mouse buddy that performs dangerous experiments in his hole in the wall and who he trusts enough to go get his paper, although if it always goes so poorly (the only bit of paper he makes it back with is the main plot point of the film), one has to wonder why.  Being chased by Tom didn’t help though.  Speaking of Tom, he is cast as a maitre d’ (I guess) of the low class club Red sings and dances at (wolf cameos FTW!).  He was actually on his way to see Holmes when , sent by Red.  Droopy, Butch, Spike & Tyke, and Tuffy all play supporting roles of various import, the latter being the most.  There are several other cameos of old characters too.

I’m not sure how, but they manage to fit classic Tom and Jerry shenanigans and characters into an otherwise pretty serious plot by (UNSPOILER) Moriarty (Really, an animated Sherlock Holmes adaptation intended for a younger crowd and you were expecting someone other than his arch-foe?  Child please…).  It all works though.  Tom and Jerry are not bestest buddies as they usually seem to be in most of their movies.  Holmes explicity tells them they must learn to coexist if they are to help Red, but they really don’t work together well at all until things get serious.  The cat-and-mouse games are still there, and much like the old cartoons, Jerry doesn’t take the worst of it, but does get knocked around some.  That was always why I preferred Tom and Jerry of Looney Tunes, where no matter how much of a douchenozzle Bugs Bunny (or that heinous little bastard Tweety, just as egregiously) would be, he never got any comeuppance at all.  Ever.  So it was great to see things not being one-sided.  And Jerry really took a beating here, even in not getting the worst of it by a long shot.

Like I said, even with the characters involved (and the steampunkishness of the scheme), the story is played pretty straight. Unexpectedly to Holmes though, most of the work unexpectedly falls upon Tom, Jerry, Red, and later Tuffy (as a mouse of faith-contact of Jerry’s who offers to hide them in the church and gets caught up in the action) as they have to avoid the po-po (mainly Droopy and Butch when Red is implicated as the mastermind behind the jetpack cat heists.  Holmes and Watson end up on a literal wild goose chase and only come back into the main story just in time for the excellent climax, which of course leaves the bulk of the time for Tom and Jerry to work their misadventurous magic.  The movie just cuts to Holmes and Watson doing actual dull detective work occasionally while the stars of the show have all the excitement happen to them for the bulk of the movie, which makes the pacing fast and fun as it should be.  It never really drags at any point throughout.

The Good: The voice acting, OMG!  Michael York and John Rhys-Davies play Holmes and Watson, respectively, and Malcolm McDowell is Moriarty.  And they are all f***ing awesome!

The animation is stellar, as noted.  The pacing is good.  Spike and Tyke’s small parts are probably the funniest bits in the entire movie.  Good plot, great villainous scheme by Moriarty, fun climax.  Also good is there is no ugly to speak of here.

The Bad: Butch and Droopy.  I guess there was nothing wrong with them, I’ve just never have cared for them.  The very end of the movie annoyed me for some reason.  Everyone reverting back to form kinda bummed me out.

Fun Facts:

Several cameos by characters from classic shorts, mainly in the bar scene.

A few references to stars of fondly remembered Holmes portrayals.

Holy Hand Grenade sighting!  Presumably it’s supposed to be the Sovereign’s Orb, being the crown jewels & all, but it looked more like the Holy Hand Grenade to me.  Tom even double-takes at it when he has it in his hands briefly, if I recall correctly.

Final Score: I give it a 4/5.  Just a fantastic movie.  It’s a worthwhile entry as both a Holmes story and a Tom and Jerry tale, which is just mind-boggling.  If you are a fan of either or both, or just animation in general, SEE IT.

That’s all for this one, folks.  On the movie front, I may review Cop Out in the near future and also begin taking a look at the Father’s Day/Birthday present I picked up for my dad (if I’m feeling brave enough, because oh boy…), that being the 1943 Batman Serial!  On the card front, pictures of the cheese from my latest (and last for the foreseeable future) packs of cards, and maybe some scans of trades and group breaks and COMC orders and stuff if my lazy arse gets around to editing them.  Aside from all that, I also have Topless Robot contest winnins from a couple weeks ago to share, and more(i)art(y), of course.  Yaharr, that was a bad pun…

Until our next…

Black Diamond Get!

It took more than 20 tries, but it finally happened, on my fourth and final Diamond Giveaway Code from today (and most likely for the foreseeable future).  I hit paydirt!  Feast your eyes…

It's Gaby Time!

Not bad eh?  Not just a Diamond Die-Cut, note the darkness of the diamond.  Yes, daddy got a BLACK Diamond!  I may possibly be the last card blogger actually playing the Diamond Giveaway game to unlock, or at least successfully trade, for a Diamond Die-Cut, but I guess some things are worth the wait.  Now, I’m not here to gloat.  I’m just wondering what I should do with it.  I have a couple trade offers for regular versions (Carlos Gonzalez + 1954 Arnie Portocarrero RC and Evan Longoria + 1962 Bob Lillis), but I dunno ’bout that.  Any suggestions on what I should do with this gem (heh)?

Amusingly, I didn’t even realize this was a Black Diamond for awhile (I suppose the two trade offers above coming within 5 minutes of the card being unlocked should’ve told me something was up).  I hadn’t ever really noticed the difference between the regular and Black Diamond version.  I’d seen them before, but the difference apparently never clicked with my brain.  So it took a random forum post and a stop at Check Out My Cards before it hit me and even then I still had to see the regular version to be sure.  I guess it didn’t seem that dark before I compared it with the regular.

Anyway, I suppose I should get some screen grab technology or something for the new computer when I get a chance, so I can start posting trade offers as they were meant to be seen.  Any suggestions on what free screen grabber I should pick up?

Guess that’s about all for tonight.  Gotta rest up for a busy (well, what qualifies as such for me) and stupidly annoying week.

Until our next…