We're all just a bunch of pontificators

This post may ramble on a bit and sound long winded, but bear with me, hopefully I'll get my point across.

I've discovered over the past 6 years that I love to learn.  To explain this, I have to go back a little bit in my life.

In my early 20's, there was one thing I knew.  That was how to drink.  To say for a period of 3 years that I was a professional elbow bender would be an understatement.  Needless to say, college back then became pretty much of an afterthought.

Fast forward 15 years, and I'm doing well where I work, and I'm looking to advance.  Sadly, I'm told I need a college degree in order to take the next step.  I find myself going back to college in my late 30's while working full time in order to advance.  Lucky for me I find an online college that tailors their program to my hours.  I thrive in this environment and three years later I earn my bachelors degree, and enjoy every minute of my time in "college" the 2nd time around.

My writing skills improved, my analytical skills improved, and my thirst for knowledge was reborn.

Fast forward another few years, and my love/passion for sports cards is rekindled, and on or about August 1, 2011, the habit is born.

Now, my wife has gotten used to seeing me sit in front of the computer over the past few years, previously writing papers for school, and now while blogging she'll ask me this question...

"So, what are you pontificating about today??"  All along, I would just say things like "oh, got a trade in from so and so..." or "I got some cards from eBay today" and life would go on.  All the while, the word 'pontificating' sat in the back of my mind.  Last week, I decided to look it up on dictionary.com. 

One definition, naturally, is to administer the office of a pontiff.  Since I'm no Pope, I know that doesn't apply to me.  But the 2nd definition struck me as being right on the money.  " To express opinions or judgments in a dogmatic way" and naturally I had to look up dogmatic, and it meant opinionated.

(I'm getting to the cards part...I promise)

Opinionated?  Me being the worry wart, I think to myself, do I come off as opinionated?  The answer then becomes clear, which is that I hope that I do come across as being somewhat opinionated when it comes to cards.  Why?  Because I think that's what a lot of people are looking for when they read blogs.  

Opinions.  Advice.  Commentary.  Humor.

That's what I love about all the blogs I read, they all offer their own form of opinions, advice, commentary and humor to keep me entertained.  They may all pontificate on topics that they prefer, but that's what is cool about blogging, you get to write what you want (a wise man told me this once, and that mantra has stuck to this day).

Now you may be tired of me pontificating over my love of the '64 Topps set, of which you see 6 of the 12 cards I pulled in today from an eBay win, including a Jim Wynn RC and a completely unmarked checklist (!), but what's great is I can still have fun collecting and writing about a vintage set that I love.

That's my right as a blogger.

So the next time your better half asks you what you're doing in front of the computer, tell them you're pontificating. 

Hopefully they won't think you're looking at a porn site..

Thanks for reading, Robert