Game of Thrones

I recently watched the series and have a few thoughts on it. 

Favorite Characters

5.  Bronn

4.  Melisandre

3.  Ygritte

2.  Jon Snow

Favorite:  Tyrion Lannister

Ned Stark was one of my favorite characters in Season One, but he wasn't in it long enough to make the final cut.  Cersei Lannister was one of my favorites through the first six seasons. 

Least Favorite Characters

5.  Arya Stark

4.  Brandon Stark

3.  Brienne of Tarth

2.  Joffrey Baratheon

Least Favorite:  Ramsay Bolton

Grey Worm made a run at the least five, but he wasn't important enough.  Ramsay over Joffrey for least favorite mainly due to being older.     

Recurring Elements 

White Walkers:  Not my cup of Lipton, but a major part of the story. 

Dragons:  Not my cup of Tazo, but a major part of the story.

Meet - Cutes:  Characters unexpectedly bumping into each other at random taverns, brothels, trees, rocks, etc.  No thank you.   

Magic:  Hit or miss.  Bran was annoying.  Melisandre was a bad ass.  The ravens needed more explaining.  Pyat Pree was entertaining.  So on and so forth.         

The Weekly Clean-Up

 

-  So I made a Time Travel trade with Matt, of Diamond Jesters:

   

       

The Langston and the Smith are rookie cards.

 http://diamond-jesters.blogspot.com

-  Dumped a lot of commons in the recycling bin.  I don't like wasting cards, but they were taking up too much space. 

-  Sent a card off to get signed hopefully.  But I'm an idiot so I didn't protect it properly for the return trip.    

-  Phil Spector died.  His legacy would have been better without the murder part.  

The Weekly Clean-Up

 

-  Got an order from Cardbarrel, which I'll talk about more in a future post.  But it filled a lot of gaps in my Cy Young and MVP projects.  

-  Got some cards from generous benefactors:

Several from Diamond King:

Rose and Torre for my MVP project.

Gibson for my Cy Young project.

Stargell and a couple others for my Diamond Kings subset builds. 

http://thediamondking.blogspot.com

Several from Fuji:

Plunkett for my Super Bowl MVP project.

Seaver for my Cy Young project.

A couple for my Diamond Kings subset builds, including this Ozzie.

A few attractive ladies, including Kimberly Southwick. 

http://sanjosefuji.blogspot.com

-  I've gotten through six seasons of Game of Thrones.  

-  I finished The Rum Diary and was mildly disappointed.  Only 3 of 5 stars.

    

-  All the images in this post are from TCDB, except for the Southwick, which is from ebid.net. 

 

College Football Championship

 

An easy contest for friends of the blog: 

- U.S. or Canada address

-  have commented on posts that weren't contest / give-away related or have sent me cards

Predict the winner and the final score of the title game - January 11, 2021.  

Closest gets a PWE of 12 of my better Leaf Draft cards.  

Tie Breaker: earliest entry

If multiple entrants guess both the winner and the exact score, I'll send a PWE of Leaf Draft cards to each one. 

Deadline:  Kick-Off   

The Weekly Clean-Up

 

So I got some more cards from m'lady in Michigan.  Tried to give other people a chance, but still ended up with seven.     

-  When you owe Steve Rogers money, but then the Brewers purchase your contract. 

-  4 NL batting average titles, 3-time All=Star

-  18-time All-Star, 7 AL batting average titles

-  A couple Bash and Burn inserts.  

-  I like the Hellish background, though there's debate over how guilty he was.

-  This is an indigo parallel - SN 250.  

(first five images from TCDB, the last two from zeprock.com and ebay) 

I watched American Pastoral on YouTube.  Not the bomb I expected, but it could have been better.  More Connelly perhaps. 

Been slogging through The Rum Diary  (Hunter S. Thompson). 

https://acrackedbat.blogspot.com

A Musical Interlude

Consider this my defense of country music.  Ha. 

Ten songs - no artist repeated.  Plus one more because one of the ten is Vevo.  Bah.  

 

Jolene - Dolly Parton

I Feel Lucky - Mary Chapin Carpenter

Pancho and Lefty - Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan (though more famous with Merle Haggard)

Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks

A Thousand Miles from Nowhere - Dwight Yoakam

I Can Still Make Cheyenne - George Strait

Jackson - Johnny and June Carter Cash

The Devil Went Down to Georgia - Charlie Daniels Band

Set You Free - Allison Moorer

El Paso - Marty Robbins

Screw You We're from Texas - Ray Wylie Hubbard

Cardbarrel Order

 

Chase Carter.  She was with Giancarlo Stanton, though I think she might be with a Dodger now.

Anyway, I got 23 cards - mostly MVPs, Cy Young Award winners, and Padres.  

 

-  1978 Topps Stargell -  1979 NL MVP

-  1978 OPC Carew -  1977 AL MVP

-  1981 Topps Ozzie - Padre 1978 - 1981

-  1980 OPC Winfield -  Padre 1973 - 1980 

-  1997 Fleer Pedro -  1997 NL Cy Young 

-  1972 Topps Freehan - 11-time All-Star, 5 Gold Gloves

The Freehan expert in the blogosphere:

http://johnsbigleaguebaseballblog.blogspot.com