In the last two weeks I've been asked about the work in progress on a "book"--I'll call it that for lack of a better term--about ice hockey in the SF Bay Area.
I've spent the better part of the past 3 years at either Cal State Hayward or SJSU's library, going through newspapers from 1912 to 1968, gathering material on "organized" ice hockey. I have a frightening amount of research material in my office, compiled according to the year and the source. And I've used a bit of it, for example, sharing the information of women's hockey being played in SF in *1916* with the local Women's USA Hockey people.
Other than that, and boring/frightening people with my vast knowledge of trivia, I haven't done bupkis with the stuff.
Why? I could use the excuse of life getting in the way, but I've spent time on other items, that's for sure.
And after researching the WWII years , I had to walk away for awhile. There was too much "Remember him? legs blown off. And him? The one who won all the those awards? Dead--shot while trying to take a hill in Italy." at once to handle. Believe me, when you read about 1939-1945 in three newspapers over eight weeks, it starts to get pretty heavy. The brain just says "enough".
And I can throw a bit of blame at SJSU, who shut down their library this past summer, and then merged with the city library, making it almost unusable. If I keep coming in and finding that *none* of the twelve microfilm machines are working--again--when it used to be that SJSU had six that they kept in working order, I just stop coming back.
But yeah, mostly it's me, being a laze.
So, when I was asked about the work twice in a short time, and a dear friend gave me a "small book for big ideas" (and I hope he forgives me for using it to non-computer ends), it was the goddess of sychronicity giving me a big slap along the side of the head, and telling me to get my act together.
So, watch this space--I don't think this will happen in chronological order, but something will start showing up here. I hope that it's good....
Posted by lsefton at November 28, 2003 04:23 PM