Mr. Gibson's (elfstones) blog

As a Chicago Cubs baseball collector, I have decided to start blogging about this subset of my collection. Yes, I have blogged about Cubs baseball cards before, but this is a little different. I'm going to start with my 1960 cards and go all they way to 2017. With so many years and sets, this should keep me occupied for quite some time. I love collecting 60s baseball cards. There are good designs and bad ones, but *almost* all fun. The problem collecting these cards are the expense and quite a few less of them out there that are in great condition. 1960 Fleer Baseball Cards The 1960 Fleer Set of Baseball Greats has 80 baseball cards. Not a great looking set and not a horrible looking set either.  Maybe this is why this set was not overly popular at the time. The set showcases the great retired players from the first half of the 20th Century. This was Fleer's first baseball card set and the start of their "retro" sets. The cards in this set are normally a

Major League Baseball wants to implement new rules for 2018 to speed up the game: - 20-second pitch clock in all situations. [for both batters and pitchers] - 30 second pitch clock between batters - All Violations enforced with automatic balls and strikes will be called. - One warning per player, per game, before penalty issued - One mound visit from manager, coach, or player per inning. The MLB has already tested the pitch clock and other rules above.  These rules have been a part of the game at the Double-A and Triple-A levels since 2015. I'm really curious how some of the older players deal with this.

Kerry Wood, Carlos Zambrano and Sammy Sosa will not make it into the HoF.  At least not any time soon. All three have been dropped out of future voting. So probably never. Kerry Wood and Carlos Zambrano had great seasons with the Cubs, but the two pitchers did not impress the Baseball Writers' Association of America for other reasons... well all three candidates  are too controversial.  Sammy Sosa has *ALL* the numbers, hitting 609 home runs in 18 seasons. He posted three seasons with at least 60 home runs, and won the NL Most Valuable Player Award in 1998, when he belted 66 homers and drove in a league-leading 158 runs.   Unfortunately  for Sosa, he  will probably always be to controversial to make it. Corked bat, steroids allegations.  poor teammate, etc... In 2105 I predicted that Kerry Wood would not make it into the HoF, but discussed how good he was: http://mrgibson.com/viewcomments.php?post="380" Out of the three, I feel Kerry Wood is getting the raw deal.

There are 30 Days until Spring Training and these players still don't have a team: Pos Name `17 Team Age `17 WAR Career WAR + Accolades SP Jake Arrieta Cubs 31 1.9 21.7 CY/AS/SS CF Lorenzo Cain Royals 31 5.3 27.8 AS SP Yu Darvish Dodgers 31 3.8 19.4 ASx4 3B Todd Frazier Yankees 31 3.4 22.0 ASx2 CP Greg Holland Rockies 32 1.4 11.4 ASx3 1B Eric Hosmer Royals 27 4.0 14.1 GGx4/AS/SS C Johnathan Lucroy Rockies 31 0.6 20.2 ASx2 OF J.D. Martinez D-backs 30 4.1 13.7 AS/SS 3B Mike Moustakas Royals 29 1.8 11.4 ASx2 2B Neil Walker Brewers 32 1.5 20.4 SS CF Jarrod Dyson Mariners 33 2.6 15.4 --- OF Carlos Gonzalez Rockies 32 -0.2 24.0 ASx3/GGx3/SSx2 SP Lance Lynn Cards 30 2.8 14.1 AS Any bets on Jake Arrieta back as a Cub in 2018? If they can get a short term contract, I say go for it. What is the odds that Darvish actually signs with

I'm itching for baseball season to start again.  So here is my first Cubs post of the year and here are the players I believe will get the most playing time in 2018 for the Cubs.  I'll even take it a step farther. I predict how many HR each player will hit. C Willson Contreras 26 HRs 1B Anthony Rizzo 28 HRs 2B Addison Russell 16 HRs SS Javier Baez 12 HRs 3B Kris Bryant 32 HRs RF Jason Heyward 14 HRs CF Albert Almora Jr. 11 HRs LF Kyle Schwarber 30 HRs UF Ian Happ 27 HRs We will check back and see how close I came in October.  Maybe I'm over optimistic that everyone will play up to their potential. Honestly, this still looks like a 4-years-in-a-row-playoff team. I'm a little surprised that Ian Happ is still on the team. I thought he would have been traded for a pitching ace with all this offensive potential. Looking at that lineup, at least 4 players have HoF potential. Overall, It is still a good era to be a Cubs fan.

Marvel Comics has had many superhero groups.  Only two were used to high light superheros. Almost every major superhero that has been on one of these two Teams. The Avengers and The Defenders.  Not including guests, I decided to map the members of both and show the superheros that have been members of both. The Defenders: * (** founding member) The Avengers: + (++ founding member) Angel (Warren_Worthington_III) * Ant-Man / Giant-man / Yellowjacket (Hank Pym) * ++ Beast (Henry "Hank" McCoy) * + Black Knight  * + Black Panther + Black Widow (Natalia Romanova) + Captain America (Steve Rogers) + Captain Marvel (Carol Danver)  + Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) + Clea * Devil Slayer (Eric Simon Payne) * Doctor Druid + Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange) ** Falcon + Gargoyle (Isaac Christians) * Goliath  + Hawkeye (Clint Barton) * + Hell Cat (Patsy Walker) * + Hercules + Hulk (Bruce Banner) ** ++ Iceman (Robert Drake) * Iron Man (Tony Stark) ++ Mantis + Moon

I stained the metal plate and then drilled holes.  the stain was much darker and more red than I anticipated.  I drilled holes in the top of the box and then threaded the plate on the front of the box.  Now I just need to seal the surface.

Paige designed a dragon head that we both liked on her computer.  She saved it and we transferred the image to the main computer.  We then printed the image to a size small to put on the metal plate. Estimating the center of the metal plate, I firmly taped the paper around the plate. With a wood block underneath, I slowly punch down along the printed outline of the dragon head.  I tried to make each punch as close as possible. The metal plate is now ready to drill holes in and stain. I have painted the inside of the box with black spray paint. I also purchased clear paint to seal the exterior upon completion.  This was about $3.50 a can. Lastly tonight, I glued the corner plates on with gorilla glue.

In my previous blog posts I had not show the base color that I was using for the base paint.  I described it as a dark charcoal, but here is the exact palette. Since my last post, I have acquired my $5 dollars in supplies to continue my project.  In the center of the box, I plan on having a metal plate with a dragon punched into it.  The plate will also be bronzed.  Here I have a ruler near it to show it's actual size.  This is a old steel plate that came with some magnets I purchased some seven years ago. Paige made me some possible rough dragon sketches to uses on the plate on my box.  I doubt that any of these will be used though.  I will know the right one when I see it. The plate will be held on with some braided cord.  I picked this up for a couple bucks.  It should look good with brown and bronze. I marked where I will drill the holes to put the braided cord through. For a couple dollars, I also purchased some bronze

After I let the glue and napkin dry, I painted the napkin with a coat of dark charcoal latex.   This will be the under color that the browns and golds will be layered on (showing the dark in the cracks). After that dried over night, this is what the top looks like.  So I'm in a holding pattern till I get to the store to purchase the remainder of the items to complete this project.

I have started the process of making my new dice box.  I found a nice plastic craft/screw-nail container that work well for storing my dice. The box holds up to 20 sets of dice in a nice organized way. Because the box is smooth plastic, I doubt that I can adhere material to the surface well. To solve this problem I have decided to cover the top with duct tape. Now that the box is covered with duct tape. I'm applying glue to the surface of the tape. I shredded several napkins into small randomly torn pieces that will be applied to the glue. Now that I have the napkins applied to the glue, I'll let it dry before continuing.

The newest Thor movie, Thor: Ragnarok, had everyone pretty excited.  The movie appeared to be something new for Marvel with the particular paring of super heroes.  I must say I enjoyed the movie.  But the movie was not a completely original Marvel work of art. In reality, back in 1973, Marvel had Valkrie, Thor, Hulk, Dr Strange, and Loki all together then.  Yes, the story scenario is much different, but there are similarities. Starting Feb 1973, The Defenders vol 1 issue 4 - the super hero group, The Defenders consisted of Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk, and Valkyrie (This was her first appearance with Defenders, issue she joins the team.) I didn't read these early Defenders growing up.  I did not start reading The Defenders 'till issue 105. By then, these comics had become much more soap-opera like. Valkyrie of the old comics is not the same as the Valkyrie of the movies, The spirit of the Asgardian has possessed the body of an earth woman in the early Mar

Most people that know me know that I have many thousands of baseball cards.  I of course started collecting them as a child when I was in grade school.  My most significant collection is of the Cubs, followed by Cardinals, White Sox, and Red Sox.  What many people don't know about me is that I have hundreds of comic books.  I don't really consider myself a comic book collector.  I just have stuff that I like ;) My biggest collection is of the Defenders by Marvel comics.  I purchased 4 a kid on a whim and loved them.  I later just made sure I acquired the rest so I could have the whole story from beginning to end.  I also loved Thor, Hulk, and Captain Marvel.  I don't think most 'comic people' really know how big a part of the Marvel Universe had through the 60s, 70s, and 80s.  Also how intertwined they were with the Avengers.  Or even that the Hulk and Dr Strange were Defenders way before they ever were part of the Avengers.  Some characters would even go back and

I'm a little slow on the draw, but happy to learn that Linux Journal is NOT dead! https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/happy-new-year-linux-journal-alive as the article says, they have been purchased.  So useful information can still be shared through this resource. So we can still have cute, helpful little articles like this one: https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/slow-system-iotop-your-friend

Another great gaming site for those great DOS games you have not touched in years - - XTDOS.com Unlike the two sites I posted about yesterday, XTDOS specializes in DOS based games.  And there were some great ones. Today I played some more old favorites like Doom II http://www.xtdos.com/game.php?id=295 They even have my old classic favorites like Commander Keen http://www.xtdos.com/?s=commander+Keen And man I was a little rusty at WarCraft II http://www.xtdos.com/game.php?id=1619 I'm someone who literally owned all the Kings Quest games.  Unfortunately, all are not represented on the site.  The site only has I, II, and II: http://www.xtdos.com/?s=Kings+Quest Even has the DOS version of Golden Axe.  This was actually the first version I owned before I had it on cartridge for the Sega Genesis, 3 Sega Geneses retro consoles, and the Xbox 360. :) http://www.xtdos.com/golden-axe.  But just like the original, you need a copy of the manual to play.