The fall has always been a traditionally busy time for me. Weddings and photo shoots ramp back up now that the weather is turning cooler here in Texas. My day job switches into Q4/End of Year hurry-up mode, when all the business development folks lose their minds and want all sorts of crazy things (graphics, brochures, etc) to try and close a deal. Church picks up it’s “social activities”, again because the weather is turning nicer. Everything from politics, to baseball, to holiday shopping, everything just seems to get busier.

So, rest assured, not posting daily is a product of my own over-scheduling, and not some lack of literary ambition. As I implied, I’ve been busy.

The last two weekends I’ve been on photoshoots. First is was the Susan G Komen “Race for the Cure” marathon, which was unlike anything I had ever seen. 30,000 people, on a street, moving like cattle, and me standing on a guard rail, in the median, trying to get some photos. It was insane. It didn’t help we arrived down there at 5am, the butt-crack of dawn. Just this last weekend, I was helping on a corporate “employee day” shoot at the zoo. Massive crowds that day too, but that was more manageable. There was face painting, animal exhibits, snow cones, all sorts of goodies. We were just there to cover the event. The next two weekends are similar. Basically, I don’t have a free Saturday for all of October. Busy is good right?

During the week its the usual 9-5, but we’ve been particularly busy with re-branding one of our identities. It basically involves coming up with a new logo, and then replacing it on every scrap of paper we’ve ever put out, which is insane. Everything from the websites to individual business cards needs to get updated.

When I do have a chance to take a break, I’ve been sinking my time into the awesome sauce that is XCOM: Enemy Unknown. It’s a new take on the classic X-COM, one of the original brilliant turn-based games. The new game is absolutely fantastic and if you’re a fan of the genre (Chip, Jason), you’re going to want to check it out. I was also surprised how well it runs on a variety of systems as well. It runs just as well on my MacBook, running Bootcamp as it does at home on my gaming rig.

Lest we forget about baseball cards for a moment, I did manage to complete my base set for Topps Update. It was only 8 cards, so that’s now exactly a spectacular accomplishment. However, I am missing several of the Red Sox inserts and the minis. If anyone runs across those, please let me now, I’d love to work out a trade. I also picked up several gold, blue and black bordered refractors from Topps Chrome, all for a buck a pop, from the same seller. I’ll show off the rainbow at some point. I also got the cards from a group break Ryan was having, and Sam’s group break cards are on their way. I’m sure I’ll do some scanning in the near future.

Several people have asked me what I think about the Red Sox and their current news. It’s all surprisingly simple to sum up. Valentine was a mistake to hire in the first place, so I’m certainly not crying that he’s gone. I’m certainly not in the camp of “he’s a terrible manager, he sucked”, but he wasn’t right for the Red Sox last year, he just wasn’t. He was the temporary solution because the list of other available coaches was fairly limited. He was a stop-gap. I never perceived him as anything different. I’m not going to hold it against him, I don’t think he did anything agregiously wrong. He was just the wrong manager at the wrong time. It never felt right.

Also, Papi wants $25mil, GIVE IT TO HIM. Let him retire with a “B” on his hat, retire his number, end of story. This shouldn’t even be a discussion. You know why?

• 2 World Series rings
• 8-time All-Star
• 5-time Silver Slugger
• Red Sox single-season home-run leader
• First player in Sox history to hit 40+ home runs in three consecutive seasons
• 85+ extra-base hits for four consecutive years (passing Lou Gehrig)
• MLB’s all time DH home run leader
• MLB’s all time DH RBI leader

Also, 25mil is LESS than we spent to have Lackey sitting on the bench this year. So, yeah, there’s some perspective. He’s arguably the best pure DH in the game, and he’s asking for less than we paid several worthless bums who, career wise, are just mediocre. Just start writing the check. End of discussion.

Anyway, that’s about it for stuff going on around here. It’s back to the grind for me, working 29 out of the 31 days this month. Hopefully that will lead to some extra cash on hand. I’ve got an anniversary coming up, and we were planning on visiting New England for the holidays. Maybe there will be a couple ducats left over for some cards too. Take it easy everybody.

Matt out.