2009 Annual

Archive for the ‘2009 Annual’ Category

Writing the Book (17 Nov 08)

Monday, November 17, 2008
by Geoff Young

Some friends of ours lent us their Wii, so we've been playing Guitar Hero in the evenings. I'd heard about it for years but never tried it, and I have to say, I'm impressed. Although it's not the same as playing an actual guitar, many of the same skills -- ability to keep rhythm, anticipate the next note while focusing on the current one, etc. -- are required. I can't see myself ever getting hooked on the game, because after a while it starts to feel like rehearsal, but it is a surprsingly good simulation. I also did a lot of walking this weekend. Four miles to Teri Cafe and back (with a long rest ...

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Writing the Book (10 Nov 08)

Monday, November 10, 2008
by Geoff Young

On Saturday I finished the first draft of the chapter on the 1969 Padres and sent it out for review. It's 30 pages long (that's 10,073 if you're curious... or not). I'd planned to work on the Farm Report chapter on Sunday, but a few other projects needed my attention, so I bailed. We're also making good progress on the cover. The basic concept is in place, so now it's a matter of nailing down the details. And finding a name to stick in the "Foreword by" space. ;-) My top priority over the next three weeks is the Farm Report chapter. We'll see how motivated I am once I get to Hawai'i. Then again, I usually just sit around and do crosswords when I'm over there, ...

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Padres tickets Chargers tickets Sports tickets

Writing the Book (3 Nov 08)

Monday, November 3, 2008
by Geoff Young

Wanderlust strikes again. I'm plotting my 2009 baseball trip... something to do with Tucson, San Antonio, Austin, Albuquerque (I am determined to see a game there after missing twice on the way to Cooperstown and back in '07), and a return trip to the Grand Canyon. I'm thinking some time around Memorial Day, but we'll see. Meanwhile, I picked up some travel books the other day at my favorite book store. They have nothing to do with any of the places I intend to visit, and I'd only heard of one of the authors, but I figured at $1 a pop, my worst case had me down about a gallon of gas. Best case, I might find something reasonably ...

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Writing the Book (27 Oct 08)

Monday, October 27, 2008
by Geoff Young

I had two revelations this past week: Working full time and doing physical therapy (I'm re-learning how to walk, which apparently is a skill one is supposed to have mastered by age 40) is exhausting. It's not realistic to assume that I'll be able to make significant progress on the book during the week. That's a lame excuse. What the heck do you think weekends are for, doofus? In that spirit, I put in 9 hours on Saturday and 9 more on Sunday. It is what I have, so it is what I will use. Anyway, I've pretty much finished the Player Dashboards chapter. I still have to check everything, of course, but the raw data is all in place. We're looking at about 70 pages. Last year's chapter ...

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Writing the Book (20 Oct 08)

Monday, October 20, 2008
by Geoff Young

Life happened this week; the book, not so much. I did make up some ground over the weekend -- put in about 10 hours on Saturday and another 4-5 on Sunday. It's not as much as I'd have liked, but it's better than nothing. In addition to the actual writing, I'm playing a lot with design elements. People have been telling me for years that I suck at design, so I'm trying to make that less true. I've been studying fonts and settled on a couple that should be a huge improvement over the uninspired Arial/Times New Roman combination that I employed in the first two books. (For those who care about such things, I'm going with Gill Sans MT/Palatino ...

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Writing the Book (13 Oct 08)

Monday, October 13, 2008
by Geoff Young

I'm still making good progress on the Ducksnorts 2009 Baseball Annual. This week I worked on player profiles and dashboards. My goal was to complete eight of 'em, but I ended up doing 13. Next up: a few more full profiles to write, plus several shorter pieces on guys who didn't contribute as much; I should finish those later this week. I've also started piecing together a quasi-philosophical essay on the challenges that lay ahead for the Padres as they try to gain the trust of a fan base and media that show little interest in trusting them. I started thinking about this back when support was waning even as the team won 88 and 89 games in '06 and '07, but more recently I've been ...

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Writing the Book (6 Oct 08)

Monday, October 6, 2008
by Geoff Young

I'm happy to report that the first week of serious work on the Ducksnorts 2009 Baseball Annual went well. I made progress on several fronts: I had some good discussions with my editorial advisory board, which is just a fancy name for folks who are helping guide me as we move forward with the project. I have a fairly solid idea of the outline, although I'm keeping it a bit fluid at this stage -- just in case something unexpected comes my way. Like what? Well, if I knew that, it wouldn't be unexpected, would it? ;-) On Thursday, I sat down and talked with a graphic designer about ideas for a cover. We're in the pre-Cambrian stages of development, but I'm very glad to have this ...

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