What would we see that's "you" in your house?

[WriteThinking]

Also: "I've heard of Here I Stand" is one of the most surprising things I've ever read on this site.

Yeah, I have an eclectic -- some would say weird -- collection of random knowledge. Conversely, I can also surprise, sometimes, with the things that I don't know, or haven't had exposure or experience in. I happen to have heard of Here I Stand, though, from someone else I know who also likes it.

Thank you for all the tidbits on the Great Campaigns games. I can see how you'd like it, and how it could be really engaging -- much more so than even all my family's classic-game interests, particularly if you're living in or are familiar with the areas involved. I'll be looking into it further.

 

[lakefront]

Some cans, but mostly glassware, coasters, tin tackers, etc.


Sort of, but it's part of the job. I left sports writing to start a business publication that covers the craft beer industry (BrewerMag.com). I used to travel for my cover stories (now doing Zoom for now) so there is always a lot of "swag" thrown my way. My kid gets to play with a lot of branded things (he has a bandana from Melvin Brewing in Wyoming & a Boston Celtics/Jack's Abby sweatband along with Earnest Brew Works sunglasses to name a few) and probably knows way too much about beer for being 8. LOL
But even before I started this gig back in 2013, I was collecting bottles and such, so about 20 years now. And my dad is a garage sale person, so he always finds me tap handles and things as well. I also homebrew and have a six-tap "keezer" (freezer converted into a kegerator) in the garage with loads of brewing equipment.

I have a few cans I would have sent you, not worth anything and a nipple sipper. I wanted to get rid of them before I moved but never got around to it.

 

[WriteThinking]

Stratego has soooo many good memories for me; even got kids to play with me.

Golf clubs all around and books. Dog toys everywhere.

I've never gotten into golf. But then, I was horrible the couple times I tried to play, so I'm sure that explains it. I also only covered it a couple times as a sports writer, so I never got much exposure or appreciation for it that way. (Unlike with many other of the so-called "minor" sports. I love horse racing, volleyball, tennis, water polo, swimming, gymnastics and the like, and have better than average knowledge on them). I have another brother -- a lefty -- who likes to golf, though, and he taught both his kids to play, too, so I can understand your interest.

Do you have favorite breed of dog? (I love border collies, Labs, and the Rhodesian Ridgeback, American Eskimo and whippet breeds. I like Pit Bulls a lot but wouldn't own one, much as I often think I'd like to do so. With their poor reputation and many known attacks, even on those they know, I just don't think I'd take a chance on being responsible for one).

 

[lakefront]

Oscar, I don't know what to do with my magazines. I want to part with them but I don't. I'd rather throw out other shirt before the magazines.

Try craigs list. Someone took our Nat Geos for an art project.

 

[lakefront]

Good thread topic.

Besides the books/CDs/crates of LPs (although my wife makes me keep the latter in my bedroom closet), anyone who enters through the garage would notice my license plate collection. I have gradually been picking them up at yard sales, antique shops, etc., and have 42 out of 50 states, arranged from west to east, left to right. Still missing the Carolinas, Virginia and West Virginia and a few New England states.

Do you need Connecticut?

 

[Octave]

Lakefront, many of these are game programs.

I could entertain myself for hours with a pile of National Geographics.

I'm a book nerd, those get tossed when I get tossed.

 

[TrooperBari]

That is so interesting to hear about from someone who has seen/experienced any of it first-hand. It's hard to imagine, but for me, not out of the realm of possibility. I'm a pretty minimalist person, anyway, just by nature, and I and my family sometimes say we could see me living in the recent trendy thing here: a tiny house. But I don't know that I'd want it to be coffin-sized. Maybe 400 square feet... (I've had an 810 square-foot place for a long time now).

Every apartment I had in Tokyo was smaller than my current place. The lack of insulation and counter space for cooking were bigger bothers for me than the overall cramped quarters, but admittedly I'm something of an edge case. The big difference is that people in Tokyo can look for bigger living spaces by fleeing to the suburbs (Kanagawa, Saitama, Chibaraki) and joining the multitudes commuting into the 23 wards each morning. Here, you have the ocean on three sides and Guangdong province across the border, which make paying above the odds and/or accepting substandard living conditions unfortunately essential sometimes.

My sister is pushing me to join the tiny house trend. I can see the appeal and might go that route if/when I return to the US, but at the same time I've been a leaf on the wind for so long that even that feels extravagant. I've spent the past 20 years packing up and moving house every other year, so staying in one place long enough to make owning a home feasible feels utterly alien to me.

 

[qtlaw]

I've never gotten into golf. But then, I was horrible the couple times I tried to play, so I'm sure that explains it. I also only covered it a couple times as a sports writer, so I never got much exposure or appreciation for it that way. (Unlike with many other of the so-called "minor" sports. I love horse racing, volleyball, tennis, water polo, swimming, gymnastics and the like, and have better than average knowledge on them). I have another brother -- a lefty -- who likes to golf, though, and he taught both his kids to play, too, so I can understand your interest.

Do you have favorite breed of dog? (I love border collies, Labs, and the Rhodesian Ridgeback, American Eskimo and whippet breeds. I like Pit Bulls a lot but wouldn't own one, much as I often think I'd like to do so. With their poor reputation and many known attacks, even on those they know, I just don't think I'd take a chance on being responsible for one).

We have an Australian Shepherd and a Lab. Both great loyal dogs who love being with the family. Left front door open once for several hours and wife came home with them still inside. Next door is a great. Pit bull. We all love her and. Have no hesitation with her. It's always the owner NOT the dog.

 

[outofplace]

With the exception of the office, this place looks more like my wife's than mine, especially with the pictures everywhere. As long as the couch, the bed, and the chairs at the kitchen table are comfortable, I'm good.

The office is all me. That means organized chaos and clutter, a Steelers banner on one wall, and my autographed Mario Lemieux jersey on the other.

 

[Songbird]

A few things that adorned many an apartment:

-- the L7 poster I bought at a record store on Main Street in Bennington in 1995

-- Goddard Rockets mini-helmet from the 2002 team that made it to the New Mexico state title game

I don't have either of these things anymore, which is a bummer. Both of them had immense personal value.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Books. Lotsa books. Bias toward fantasy and science fiction, but I'm an omnivorous grazer. I inherited my dad's collection of Civil War and WWII books as well. Autographed prints of some of Larry Elmore's Dragon Magazine covers. My wife has crafting stuff all over the place.

And cat hair.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Just a small chunk of a Great Campaigns map. I grew up in the top right of this picture, and I live now in the Fredericksburg hex. Telegraph Road (thick black road running North to South) is today's Route 1. Orange Turnpike headed west out of Fredericksburg is today's traffic nightmare known as Route 3.


View attachment 10656

Ever read Col G.F.R. Henderson's bio of Stonewall Jackson? He was an English cavalry officer who rode with him as an observer, and it meticulously documents Jackson's campaigns, including about fifteen maps so you can follow them. It makes the Valley campaign more comprehensible. Ditto Douglas Southall Freeman's "Lee's Lieutenants", a three volume set that extensively follows all the commanders under R.E. Lee via their after action reports at the time, excerpts from their books and speeches after the war, and their letters both during and after the war. They are fascinating reads, as they reveal all the various slants - the inner workings of decision making, the infighting and backstabbing, the strutting and bragging, the credit given to deserving subordinates and the stealing of credit from them, the ass-covering and blame shifting. The language used is also fascinating, as that era produced classically educated and God-fearing men who expressed themselves in ways that are no longer a common sort of discourse.