Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #120: Scam Alert, Too Many Bays, Chinless Fool, etc.

1. Sometimes my brain doesn’t get the message fast enough. I was responding to a local library about doing a speaking event later this summer. I then got a new email from another local museum. My first thought was that it was for another speaking event, which would be awesome. I opened it, and it had a link to an ecard. Thinking it was maybe an invite to some event at the museum, I clicked on it. As soon as it was done downloading, it asked to upload the software. I knew then it was a scam. I deleted the ecard and quickly changed my Google password and turned up my security in my banking app. I got so caught up in the potential of making money selling books that I didn’t spot an obvious scam until it was almost too late. I read that this is something new, where hackers send this type of invite from an email in your contacts, so it doesn’t look suspicious. Just beware.


2. They came late this year, but the allergies have arrived. I had a young client this week who was dragging when he came in. I asked him how he felt, and he said he had a slight sore throat and a stuffy head. I was naturally worried, but he said he thought it was allergies. I told his mother to keep us posted as to how he felt the next morning. She called and had to cancel his appointment because he didn’t feel well. I felt lethargic and a bit foggy the next day. Worried that it might be sickness and not allergies, I went online and checked the pollen reports for New England. Luckily, or not so for me, the pollen count is extremely high this week. I was never so happy to have a couple of clients cancel. It gave me time to stay glued to my chair. Hopefully, the rain coming later this week will knock down the pollen. 


3. Sometimes I don’t understand the way things are labeled on Google Maps. I was looking up a place in Plymouth, MA. When starting to zoom in, I noticed a little section of water in Plymouth Harbor was labeled as Cape Cod Bay. What? Then, further out to see the same water was labeled as Plymouth Bay. Ok? Oh, and in the same vicinity, there were also Kingston Bay and Duxbury Bay. Like, wait a minute, does every town there have a bay? Why isn’t all of it Plymouth Bay? How did Cape Cod Bay slip a little extra chunk of water in there? What is this foolishness? Maybe it’s because it was late and I was getting tired that this bothered me so much. I got a screen grab, so you all can feel the same chaos and panic as I did when I saw this.

Too many bays

4. I have had a pretty good-sized white goatee on and off for a few years. I tend to get rid of it in the summer, but the rest of the year, it looks like a bag of alfalfa sprouts on my chin. That came back to bite me this week. I was the guinea pig for a posture screen app for a new employee. You know, being a good coworker and helping out. She had to take 4 photos of my posture: front, back, and both sides. We did this in our gym. The walls of the gym are white. I didn’t think it would matter. When taking the photos, the AI automatically removes the background so that you can focus on the person. What happened was that in one of the side-facing photos, the AI mistook my white beard for the wall and proceeded to remove it. The end result was me looking like I had no chin. It literally went from mouth to neck. I couldn’t stop laughing. I joked I’d make it my social media profile pic. Or even better, use it on a dating site. Don’t worry, I got a photo of it so you can see this abomination.




5. Word travels fast. I had a really fun author event at the West Dennis Library last week. It was for my latest book, which is all about Cape Cod history. It was a rousing success. The event has paid even more dividends as people who were there have spread the word. In just a week or so since that event, I have added 3 more events to my calendar this upcoming summer. It is exciting because I love doing those events. Being involved in some sort of creative field has been the goal for decades. I try everything: podcasts, books, blogs, social media videos, filmmaking. Getting to do some sort of work in those fields makes me feel alive and fulfilled. I have also learned that when it comes to these events, I need to just say yes and figure things out later. I never want to give an establishment a reason to rescind their offer. Luckily, I have a day job that allows me to be very flexible with my schedule. It really is the best of both worlds. Who knows, these upcoming events may not be the only ones to come from that one at West Dennis Library. Also, the new ones I’ve scheduled could lead to many more. I want it to get to the point that I am so busy that I start needing to cut time from my day job.


6. I mention a lot that I am working hard, trying to pursue a career in something creative. Whether writing, podcasting, or film, anything that allows me to use my creative mind to make a living sets my soul alight. That being said, I also make sure to routinely take a step back and appreciate where I am in life. I am very fortunate to be where I am at this point in my life. I have easy access to many close family members. I still have several close friends nearby. I am, for all intents and purposes, in good health as I sadly hurdle toward 50. This allows me the ability to go out and take a long walk on a sunny spring morning on a beautifully scenic route right from my front door. As much as I am working hard and fighting for my future, I am also very appreciative of the life I have now. Things can and do change, so I have to stop and be present as much as possible while I can.



7. Where were you during the great Instagram bot purge of 2026? This week, millions of bot accounts were deleted from the platform. It sent shockwaves through the social media community. Some big celebrities and influencers lost millions of fake followers. Me? I lost around 50. No, I’m not a big celebrity, but I was at least glad that the vast majority of my followers are real people. Now, granted, some of them might be inactive accounts that haven’t been used in a decade. I have no way to know. Honestly, the other major social media apps should follow suit and clear out the bots. I guarantee it would make the whole experience better without fake accounts that are only created to cause chaos and spread misinformation. I might never have deleted my Twitter (never calling it stupid X) account if it wasn’t overrun with bots, oh, and jackasses.


8. For 2026, I have come up with a couple of fun series of articles to write. One is looking back at 1996, the year in general. This is because it’s 30 years ago, and the year I graduated from high school. I look at music, friendships, relationships, and more. The other one branches off from the first. I call it ‘alternate life timelines.’ What does it mean? Basically, I look at seminal moments from my life where a change to what happened would have caused major ripples in my life. I explain reality and also try to guess where I would be in an alternate world. The first article in that series has to do with my choice to not go away to college right after high school. It ended up being a very deep topic that took 2,700 words to finish. I am excited about this series in particular. It’s sort of like getting to live out a fantasy life without leaving my desk. In reality, I believe that I am where I am in life for a reason. Although I might take a brief pit stop in the land of regret, I can’t stay there. A wise man (Kurt Cobain) once said: “Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.”

Coming soon...

9. Because I never feel like I have enough on my plate, I decided to start noodling with a pair of new ideas. One book, one television show. The book would be a children’s book about characters that are half animal and half food. They would get fused together with the food they are eating due to a freak lightning strike. Hey, it’s a children’s book; it doesn’t have to be based in reality. The idea came from my niece Sylvie, who said she found a frog and named it Pickles because its back looked like a pickle, green and bumpy. From there, my wacky imagination took over. The other idea is a comedy show based on my experiences in restaurants. I’d base it in the 1990s and use a lot of scenarios that really happened. I could always embellish some and naturally change names, but I think that would be funny. If I had more free time I’d really push these two ideas but for now I’ve got outlines and some sketches. Which would you want to see first?


10. Happy Mother’s Day this week to my mom, Laurie. She has always been my biggest fan, biggest supporter. I admit that a big part of my drive to succeed in creative fields is so that I can validate all of the support and sacrifice that she made for my siblings and me. She went to school full-time while working full-time, while also being the mother of five kids. I have always tried to show my appreciation for that. I believe that I didn’t as much as a kid, but now, as I get into my late 40s, I realize just what my mom did. Happy Mother’s Day to my mom, and thank you. To my sisters, aunts, cousins, and friends who are mothers, I hope the day was as good as it could be for you.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #68: Bonfire, Odd Cemeteries, Serial Killer Training, etc.

1. Every time I think I’ve seen everything something else wacky happens. I was sitting at the beach on a beautiful sunny afternoon. It was just a perfect day and I was listening to a podcast and enjoying the spring air. I thought at one point I noticed some smoke from an area straight ahead on the sand but there were people around and I was not paying that close of attention. That was until the fire department showed up. It was then that I noticed an old lady is a red sweater and plaid pajama pants waving them over and pointing to where I had seen the smoke. According to another bystander who was explaining it to a car parked near me the lady had called the fire department on a group of people with a small fire going. Not sure if it was for cooking or just relaxing next to but the firefighters chatted calmly with them and the fire was put out. I stayed a half hour longer and the old lady and the group of people were all still there so I don’t think there was a problem after but who know for sure.

2. I am a slacker when it comes to transcribing my podcasts. I know they help people find your show in searches and such but it can be tedious and you typically need to pay for sites to do it. Occasionally I find free trials to allow me to get an episode or two transcribed but that’s it. So when I found a site that has so far allowed me to transcribe nearly 30 shows for free you bet your ass I’m just shoving the files into that site assembly line style. I’m going to go until they either shut me down or I transcribe them all. If you’re interested the link is here: https://restream.io/tools/transcribe-audio-to-text

3. There is a cemetery located near where my friend Mike and I do our Monday Runday exercise. If we get tired of running around the school track we will sometimes go for a run through that cemetery. What makes this run unique is not the cemetery itself but how the cemetery is laid out. If you run all of the paved routes in and around the cemetery you get a surprise if you are recording your run on a fitness app. It turns out that the cemetery’s lay out is shaped like a hand extending its middle finger. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. Now it is a fun part of some runs because I can share the satellite image afterward and get some laughs.

The cemetery layout I couldn't make up.

4. The vast vast majority of people who come into my day job are great people, like 99%. It is an easy task to work with so many good people who are looking for help getting healthy. That fact makes the bad ones stand out far more. There is one guy I hope is just a memory soon. He’s vaguely racist, vaguely homophobic, and definitely creepy. He looks like a lobotomized Art Carney, with big bulging eyes and a voice that gets really quiet when he wants to say something disturbing. The best part of seeing him is the sight of the door closing behind him as he leaves.

5. A few months ago I wrote about how my recommended videos on Facebook were all hydraulic presses crushing stuff and super hot metal balls being placed on or in different things. It was an odd combo but one that was a self-fulfilling prophecy since I’d keep clicking these videos when they popped up. Well I have an update now. I don’t know how these topics first got suggested to me but currently my Facebook Reels feed is filled with people removing beehives and videos of old super dirty and gross cars getting power-washed. I also have just found out there is apparently a game called PowerWash Simulator where you play as someone who runs a power washing business. I cannot promise you I won’t go watch videos of people playing it.

Yes this is a real game

6. This week we had to move some unused gym equipment into storage at my day job. It had to be hauled outside and put into the back of my boss’ van. I am one that I have always had a sarcastic sense of humor. My Nana used to say we were ‘sharp’ on that side of the family. I try to be quick with witty and funny quips. I might have crossed a line this week though. As I walked through the lobby at work carrying a 100 pound punching bag over my shoulder I remarked to the people who were watching that I was practicing to be a serial killer, I’d already gotten the carrying of the body down. I think(hope) they knew I was joking but if I get a cop knocking on my door asking about unsolved murders I’ll know someone in that lobby took me seriously.

7. I was excited this week to see that Buzzsprout, the site that hosts my podcast, was allowing you to have a transcript of your episodes for free, at least temporarily. As I mentioned earlier, I’m a slacker when it comes to transcripts so I’m taking full advantage. The funny part of this entry is that when you get the transcript, you can go in and edit it naturally. It can divide the transcript up by different speakers which is a cool feature. That being said I host my show by myself so theoretically the AI shouldn’t be detecting any other speakers. All of my transcripts have at least 2 speakers detected with one show having 11. Eleven speakers?! I mean I can do some different voices but really. I had to go into each episode and discard the different speakers feature, but otherwise, it’s been a huge help for me.

8. This is the time of year where I am torn. Not about anything important but about getting my car washed. I have a white car and where I park it gets caked in pollen and other various debris during the spring. I always need to wash it but the issue is spending money at the car wash only to have it covered in filth again by the next morning. I don’t know what a good ratio is. Do I wash it once a week, every other week? Or do I never wash it and let the rain do the job? That’s bad news when we have a dry spell, my car looks like it’s been abandoned in a field for years.

9. I was hanging at the beach one afternoon this week. It was cloudy but you could tell the weather was shifting and the sun was on its way. Once it came out I took a nice walk by the water, soaking in the scenery. Rather than going back to my car I sat at a table near the snack bar area. It’s not open yet and neither are the bathrooms. A few minutes later, a man drove into the parking lot in a Mustang. Not a new one but an early 2000s one that looked beat to hell, including a torn-up and taped sunroof. He parked way far away and walked all the way over just to find out the bathrooms were closed. I was surfing my phone so I hadn’t paid attention until I heard him pull on the door. He then started talking to me about nearby construction and I tried to be polite but really didn’t care. I just wonder why he parked 200 feet away when there were open spots next to the bathrooms, quicker road to disappointment.

10. According to my mother, I have been on a hot streak with my gifts for special occasions over the last few years. For Mother’s Day I had to keep my streak. Months ago my mom mentioned how much she missed her butterfly bush that had been outside of the living room window for years. I filed that away specifically for Mother’s Day. Unfortunately, I have little knowledge of plants. Luckily I went to a local place, Hart Farm in Dennis, where my mom took us kids for years especially to get corn. They directed me to the exact butterfly bush I needed. My gift streak is alive and well.

The butterfly bush I got my mom for mother's day

11. Speaking of Mother’s Day I have been fortunate to have many strong female presences in my life who are mothers. My Nina and Nana, my sisters Kate and Lindsay, my Aunts Kelly, Susan, and Emma. There are also loads of friends. However, nobody can hold a candle to my mother. She has always been my biggest supporter. I feel a lot of the time that I am working hard on chasing my dreams to validate her support. She dealt with a few less-than-stellar men in her life, unfortunately, one is my father. She also went to school full-time at night to become a nurse while also working full-time and raising 5 kids between 8-15 years old. There are many times that I sit and wish I could do more for her but until that time I figure that being a decent responsible person is a fair enough tribute.

Initial Impressions 2.0 #17: Never Ending Pumpkin, Nut Job Idiot Day, Coyote Conga Line, etc.

1. Mother’s Day was this past week. It was a great time as I got my mother a nice comfy office chair to help her with her many hours she spends making quilts for friends and family. It was made even better by the fact that I put the chair together on my own. Staples offered to put it together for me for the tidy sum of $60. Ha. Jokes on them, it took me 10 minutes to do. I do think they tried to sabotage me though as I was one screw short in the box.

2. Perhaps the wildest thing that has gone virtually unnoticed by me is the fact that my Halloween pumpkin is still alive and kicking. Yes, you heard right. The mini pumpkin I bought a few weeks before Halloween is still thriving now as we’ve passed Mother’s Day. Part of me wants to take it outside and smash it for a fun video. Another part of me wants to wait and see just how long this thing will last before it gets all rotten.

Still alive and well for now.

3. I guess I was feeling like connecting back to my childhood. Getting ready for the gym I put my shorts on backward. Then after fixing those I promptly put my shirt on backward. All I needed was to play ‘Jump’ and my Kriss Kross cosplay would have been complete.

4. It’s kind of funny how if you’re an adult and you turn on a kids’ show you are kind of like blah it’s baby stuff. However, if you turn on a kids’ show from when you were growing up you’re immediately engrossed in the highly important content it is sharing. I can watch 3-2-1 Contact from the 80s and feel like I’m learning but if I see Blues Clues & You and am like ‘man this is dumb.’

5. I watched a video on how to operate a new piece of technology we have at my work. At one point the man on the video said to sanitize some of the equipment you needed to submerge it in a diluted Hibiclens solution. I’d never heard of it. I actually thought he said ‘Hippie Cleanse.’ And yes I Googled it to see what it was. I thought I heard Google laughing at me once I hit ‘search.’

Not As Seen On TV

6. During the Halloween season I was always excited to see this one house on my way to work that had a 10-foot-tall skeleton in the front yard as part of the decorations. How did this person follow up that great scene? How about by writing some conspiracy theory garbage on his garage doors in black tape. I guess he’s celebrating a new holiday Nut Job Idiot Day.

7. Where I live there is a chunk of conservation land across the street. I tend to see a fair amount of wildlife like deer, turkeys, foxes, and owls. There are also a few coyotes. The other night while brushing my teeth I was looking out the window at dusk. I was sure I saw something walking up the driveway. Sure enough under the window passed a coyote. It was quickly followed by 3 more. They didn’t just pass through though, they were making tons of noise scurrying around in the leaves and bushes. Hopefully, no neighbors had pets outside. It’s like ringing the dinner bell.

Dramatization, the coyotes did not conga line through the yard.

8. A pet peeve I’ve had for a long time is when people grab some sort of food, whether a bag of chips in a sub shop, or like I saw today a bag of mini muffins, and begin to eat them before paying. Are you really lacking self-control so badly that you can’t even wait to pay for what you grabbed? You know there are people like that who eat some of what they grabbed and then don’t pay for it.

9. What would be worse? Talking to someone like they don’t understand what you’re saying? Or talking to someone like they should understand what you’re saying? I go back and forth when it comes to either speaking how I normally would or dumbing things down. I don’t want to over-explain something and make someone feel like I think they’re stupid, but I also don’t want to under-explain something and then make them feel bad if they don’t understand. It’s actually something I think about a lot when explaining technical health and fitness things to people.

10. I’ve had my car for 10 years. It’s been paid off for 3 ½ years. I’m hoping to have it for at least another 5 years to get to over 250K miles. I think it’s finally time to step up my bumper sticker game with it. I’m not saying I want 100 covering every inch of the back, but a couple dozen might be on the way. Nothing says class like tons of bumper stickers!

11. A beach near where I work has a bit of pavement that runs from the parking lot to the start of the beach. It makes the walk to the sand a little easier. On a fence post is a sign that tells you no vehicles are allowed on this 40-ish foot-long paved area. Because of course, some people are so stupid that they would see that and think it’s just another road. These are the same people who would do the stunts you see in commercials so advertisers have to put ‘do not attempt’ on the screen to avoid being sued by morons.

Because yes, people are that stupid.