kbobam

Thanks! He made me work for it, which is to say that I had to make my jittery nervous self sit motionless for half an hour before he wasn't on 'alert' anymore. Well I like to think he was posing for me. The only good shots I have of him were taken on Sundays. The entire area is completely deserted, and without all the activity and noise that's here the rest of the week, we get a good one-on-one thing going. ( :

Thought you'd be a fan of the nice soft O-rings, after reading about your practice of handing people marbles one at a time to avoid the 'clink'. The slight modification of the golf ball case's intended use sounds brilliant. I'll bet it looks great!

Got a nice 'prance' out of my big bird this weekend. Wish the water didn't look so yucky.

Absolutely. The O-rings are the only way to go if you want the maximum minimalist look. And if you're a nervous sort like me, their soft 'shock-absorber' feel is reassuring.

It's an interesting fact. I think my brain is having a hard time not thinking of a group of 1/2 marbles as 'averaging' 1/2. No reason they should, I guess. But it's difficult to think of size designations as 'maximums'. Unlike you, there's absolutely no doubt that I'm clueless. Thanks for the info. ( :

Well I suppose the whole 'peewee' concept really comes down to semantics. As do all debates and disagreements. (Every single one of them! Since the beginning of time! Heavy duty stuff if you think about it.) The way I'm looking at this is that a manufacturer making a run of any given size marble, let's use 5/8 as a standard example, isn't going to throw away every mib that measures 41/64. Especially if a large percentage of them come out that way, and even more so if we're dealing with a huge volume production. Bat-Cat!

So many great marbles! Does anyone remember the post (and author) where it was suggested that some peewees could be allowed to weigh-in slightly above half an inch? It included data about manufacturers' size-tolerance figures, and argued that if a marble maker is in good faith attempting to produce peewee-size marbles, then those marbles which are larger but also within allowable manufacturing tolerances can still technically bear the "peewee" designation. It was brilliant. ( :

I don't actually know what's going on in the real baseball world right now. But I'm hoping adding this photo will be okay. ( :

A local cat I've always been fond of, who I haven't seen in months, appeared outside of one of my ground-level windows recently. Was tempted to open it and let her in. Darn marbles.

Both Jeeperman marbles are super nice. I don't know what the first one is, but if it needed a name I'd call it an 'Earth, Wind, and Fire'. That aqua or whatever color it is in the Carnival is one of those rare things you could have a movie about where artists are killing each other trying to steal the formula. ( :

Terrific cullet and marbles shot! We don't get to see those too often!

Whoa! Just clicked on your auction! Nice 10,000-fold increase on the opening offer! ( :

Alternate title - 'You Want Fries With That?' For the first time in four or five years I just 'swapped out' the marbles I have staring back at me from my monitor stand all day long. As you can see from this rather harsh-looking snapshot, nothing major has taken place. (Although the JABO oxblood and aventurine marbles are a noteworthy run in my humble opinion.) This change got me thinking. I was very comfortable with the 'old' marbles. I liked having them there. But I'm enjoying the new ones too. Huh! A 'can't lose' situation! How many of those do you get? Maybe this is part of the overall 'power' of marbles. I'm beginning to think that maybe all the different approaches different marble people have are 'all good'. The marbles themselves create our reactions to them, so there are no worries. The strategies of online bidding are intriguing. The 'man vs. nature' challenge of digging is deeply ingrained. If you think marbles are meant to be played with, that's what you should do. If you enjoy admiring a piece of marble perfection in a hermetically-sealed case, that's great too! And there're a million other things to do in the middle! How cool is that? P.S. I'm in a rare good, almost giddy, mood. Please do not respond to this post in any sort of a negative way or I will turn back into my normal crotchety old fart 'the world is going to hell' self.

This was really cool, so I looked at a couple more. Got me wondering about what I'd call the 'track'. Is this flexible stuff the 'standard' for marble-runs these days?

Thanks, Ric. Had to look up 'bot', but it's all starting to make sense now. Guessing that if the searcher you mentioned gets here, it's probably because a bot had already put us in the search engine. So both your scenarios would make sense, but in one the 'reader' might be Google 'overall' and in the other an individual who got here from there. Geesh. That bot thing opens up lots of legal cans of worms, doesn't it!

Lots of good stuff here lately. Forgive me for not commenting in more detail (Trust us, Bob, that's okay! ) but the words aren't coming out right. Here's a new 'Fallish' photo. P.S. What's it mean when the # user(s) are reading this topic section shows names like Bing (1) and Google (2)?

Edna, while admiring these again today I noticed the marble right in the center of picture #1. (3rd. marble in 4th. row) It could easily be the hood emblem on an extremely colorful Dodge pick up truck, which lead me to wonder if it's one of the 'ram's head' designs.

Well it's been a good 24 hrs. since I posted this new shot at JABOLand, so I've shown our friends there proper 'first crack' respect since it's an 'all JABO' photo. I think these are Ultras. ( :

Thanks, Edna! I'm in terrible spiritual shape today, and all of these actually made me smile and do an out-loud "Oh wow!" What a terrific run!

Okay, I know some of you just aren't 'tripod people'. But hear me out on this one and I'll make it quick. Check this guy out! This is a 'mini' or 'table' tripod. Only about six or seven inches tall. And only about six or seven dollars at a store near you! Really makes life easier when shooting marbles. And just in case anyone's interested in full-size tripods, I'll really recommend you find one with a center column that can be inserted upside-down. Gives you a lot more close-up possibilities. ( :

Glad you see the marble lingo in the same positive way I do! Never heard this one before either.

Mike (Mike and Molly) was left hurt and stunned by something someone said to him, and described it this way.

An Asian market around the corner. I'm not even going to tell you just how jealous I am. Never heard of the yu choy either. How does the yu compare to the bok? ( :