Jewels from Jules

 [Me thinks that Julie's not gonna like this title]

I read an article semi-recently about some "doctor's" (his PhD was of the social sciences variety, hence the quote marks) latest studies on the nature of procrastination. Yeah, apparently people are still getting paid to 'research' such things. Anyway, it turned out to be a crap article, that basically just tried to further the modern narrative of procrastination being a mental illness, one that gives certain people yet another excuse not to have to work, thus allowing them to get paid with everyone else's tax dollars to sit home all day and procrastinate... really makes you want to pay more in taxes, doesn't it?

In my mind, procrastination is just a fancy word for laziness. 

As far as real-life stuff goes, I'm pretty good about not procrastinating. And I've certainly gotten better about not doing so with age. Probably because I now know that we as humans only have a finite amount of time to do things, which is something that I never thought about as a child, not that I think that a lot of other children do either, nor should they.

And I'm not talking about the stuff that I just don't have the time to do right now, we all have 'someday' stuff, no, I'm talking about the daily chores, or tasks, that need to be done. The not so exciting things that you do have the time for, but instead say "Uh, I'll do it tomorrow" or "I'll do it next week instead", those are the sort of phrases that you'll almost never hear come out of my mouth, at least not as an adult. 

When it comes to blog stuff however, procrastination has practically become my middle name -- Jon Procrastination Pennysleeves, or just JPP for short.

It'll probably come off as me making excuses, but a lot of blog laziness, especially this year's worth, has been due to lack of time, and/or just being too tired to jot down anything that I think's worth you reading. I mean I due often have the time to work on posts in the evening, but am usually so tired that I just don't feel like doing so. More often than not, after dinner, I just want to grab a book and spend the rest of the night reading, which is what I normally do these days (or rather, nights).

This has led me to fall way behind in publicly thanking people for all of the things that they've so graciously sent me. And even worse, in some cases it's been so long since I received certain things that have yet to be covered here, I can no longer remember why I received them.

The cards in today's post are perfect example of this, they come from a scan folder titled "Julie1" (there's also a "Julie2" and "Julie3"), and it's been so long since I received them, that I can no longer remember why, Julie, obviously she of A Cracked Bat (it's not like there's any other bloggers called Julie!), sent them.

Thankfully we don't do any formal trading, so there's really only two options here, A) They were sent just because, or B) They were sent in response to something that I sent. It doesn't seem like it should be that important, but knowing is half the battle -- seriously though, the point is that it shouldn't have taken me so long to get to them, and if I had gotten to them in a more timely manner, I'd probably remember more details about the shipment.

Another side effect from their images sitting in a scan folder, and their actual selves sitting in a binder, for so long now, I don't even recall getting some of these, it's like I'm seeing some of them for the first time again. I do recall the couple of Ichiro pairs above, but not this one...

[As an aside, I can only imagine how otherwordly it must've been for Ichiro to go from Japan to Arizona. For all intensive purposes, he may as well have gone to Mars.]

... or this one.

I do remember this card though, if only because Ichiro looked so old here, and seeing an old Ichiro makes me feel old. Plus too, I don't have a lot of Heritage cards, or at least I didn't, so this card really stands out when flipping through the Ichiro binder. Speaking of standing out...

It didn't scan very well, but this card sure was something. It's crazy shiny, and purple too. The digitally added background is the only thing that detracts from it, not being a fan of Heritage, I don't know why Topps just couldn't have a photographer or two on location, unless it was just because they didn't want their '69 tribute set to look too good. And yes, I know, the idea would've been bonkers, but I'm just sayin'.

Here's a weirdo puzzle card, which I'm very glad that I don't have to collect all of.

I have no idea how it's come to be, I've never mentioned wanting them, and have never gone out of way to acquire them, and yet somehow I find myself possessing 4 of the 8 1972 World Series subset cards. And I know what you're thinking "Big deal, as far as vintage Topps go, those are hardly rare". Which is true, but mine aren't of the Topps variety, no, I'm talking OPC, or as the back of this penny sleeve called them...

... 'French Backs'! Obviously I know where this one came from, and I know that I got one for like fifty cents at a show just because, but I'm at a loss as to how the other two found me. I have no plans to complete the set, which means that in 2.5 years I'll have completed the set.

I do remember these being in the envelope, if only because one doesn't expect basketball cards to be sent by Julie. I only have a couple of Gold Standard's, so these were a nice surprise. Plus both of these guys would be on my top 10 favorite players of all-time list too, which makes the cards just that much better.

If the last two cards were a surprise, then I don't know how to describe this one! SI Kids cards don't get me all tingly like they do for other folks, and I never read the magazine when I was younger, so I couldn't tell you what year it was from (although from the photo I'm guessing either '95 or '96), but I do like this particular well-loved card. It's a nice action shot, which is only enhanced by the cameos from Shaq and Horace Grant.

I may not remember why the envelope was sent, but many thanks go out to Julie for sending it nonetheless. Many boxes were ticked. I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more, spent a few minutes looking menacingly out the window, and this was all before I even opened the mailer :)

Seriously though, the cards were fun, and were greatly appreciated.

Next time on the blog, we'll be looking at scan folders Julie2, and Julie3, so that just might be worth coming back for.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.