# Matt + 40 = Bloganuary - Link: https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/ - Published: 2024-01-11T08:00:00-06:00 - Author: jeffpaul Earlier this year (I know, AGES ago right?) [Matt Mullenweg](https://ma.tt/) shared that as part of his 40th birthday he wanted [more folks blogging](https://ma.tt/2024/01/birthday-gift/). None of my 27 draft posts felt worthwhile and then realized the [Bloganuary](https://bloganuary.wordpress.com/) prompts might be a good place to go. So here we go with today’s prompt: [Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?](https://bloganuary.wordpress.com/2024/01/10/describe-an-item-you-were-incredibly-attached-to-as-a-youth-what-became-of-it/) The first thing that came to mind was baseball cards. Going to baseball card shows with my dad, collecting and trading with friends, being obsessed with box scores in the local paper and attempting to create a fantasy baseball league all based on printed stats all while flipping baseball cards against a wall, and the worst offender of all was putting baseball cards in the spokes of our bike tires because“ it made a cool sound”. That all faded away probably about the same time the original Nintendo Entertainment System came into my life, but that’s a post for another day. A couple years ago my parents moved out of my childhood home and in that move came across large caches of baseball cards; unfortunately they were not the retirement fund a 10yo version of myself had dreamed of. However, a couple storage bins made their way back home with me and during 2020 became a good way to spend time at night sorting through to see faces and names that I hadn’t seen in decades. Some ended up actually being worth something and has become a bit of a small side hobby of pairing down my childhood collection to a truly valuable few and some others that I otherwise enjoy. I’ve even got some of my kids into modern day trading card collecting, or at least enjoying time opening packs together like I did with my dad almost 40 years ago. ![Pack Breaks with Calan](https://i0.wp.com/i.ytimg.com/vi/hn1FbAcdoeE/maxresdefault. jpg?ssl=1) YouTube [Pack Breaks with Calan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1FbAcdoeE) 2022 Topps Baseball Series 1, 2022 Topps Heritage, 2022 Bowman, 2021 Topps Baseball Series 2, and Topps 2021 Allen & Ginter And I’ve even gotten back, albeit a little, into collecting modern day cards. > [Topps PLL pulls during the PLL Championship Series (including a Chris Gray 1/1!)](https://jeffpaul.com/2023/02/topps-pll-pulls-during-the-pll-championship-series-including-a-chris-gray-1-1/) --- And in a bit of a “burying the lede” let’s get back to wishing Matt a happy birthday, shall we? ;) > _Shoutout to [Aaron Jorbin](https://aaron.jorb.in/birthday) and [Jonathan Desrosiers](https://jonathandesrosiers.com/2024/01/happy/) > who joined me in funding this video. Click on their name, they both shared this > video with their own birthday greeting. It’s like an old-school blog-ring. If > you send me a pingback with this video on your site, I’ll add you to this post._ ### Share this: * [ Bluesky ](https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/?share=bluesky) * [ Mastodon ](https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/?share=mastodon) * [ LinkedIn ](https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/?share=linkedin) * [ Print ](https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/#print?share=print) * [ Email ](https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Matt%20%2B%2040%20%3D%20Bloganuary&body=https%3A%2F%2Fjeffpaul.com%2F2024%2F01%2Fmatt%2F&share=email) * [More](https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/#) * [ Facebook ](https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/?share=facebook) * [ Nextdoor ](https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/?share=nextdoor) * [ Pinterest ](https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/?share=pinterest) * [ Reddit ](https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/?share=reddit) * [ Telegram ](https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/?share=telegram) * [ Tumblr ](https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/?share=tumblr) * [ WhatsApp ](https://jeffpaul.com/2024/01/matt/?share=jetpack-whatsapp) ### Like this: Like Loading…