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 #78: Workaholic, Bag of Walnuts, Milk Bicep Curls, etc.

1. For the last 5 years, it feels like all I do is work. Even when I get caught up with my content work, I have trouble remembering how to relax. My mind typically goes to what other work I could do rather than allowing myself to slow down and rest. I also realize I need to get out more. I don’t go as many places as I used to pre-COVID. I know this by the fact that if I fill my gas tank, I can go 2-3 weeks before I have to fill it again. That was never the case before.


2. I can’t figure out which is worse, it taking me a few days to realize that a pre-stamped envelope can be mailed at any time, regardless of whether the post office is open. Or, going for a run, feeling pretty good about myself, and then throwing my back out bending over to look at sliced meats in the deli of the grocery store. These both happened within an hour of each other and, yeah, my brain and body are seemingly in a race to see which one will fail me the fastest.


3. We have an intern at my work. She’s going to school to be a chiropractor and is a lot of fun and very smart. She also unknowingly made me feel super old. She mentioned a friend who was a trainer at a gym where she was also working. Recognizing the last name, I asked if he had a sister, as a girl who was a year ahead of me in school had the same last name. She then crushed me by saying that the girl I thought I went to school with wasn’t this guy’s sister, no it was his aunt. I guess for a moment I had forgotten that the intern is 21 and I am 47, so most of her friends would be around that same age. My hair felt a little grayer for a while after that.


4. One of the funniest and most random events occurred at my day job. A new patient came in for their appointment. In their hands, they were carrying something odd. It turned out to be a dirty pair of white boxer shorts. They said that they found them outside and that even though they weren’t any of ours, they figured we didn’t want them to be seen by other patients. So this person picked up someone else’s dirty underwear with their bare hands and brought them into our office. To top it off, they then calmly placed them on the front desk next to our office manager. They didn’t even throw them away. They basically presented dirty underwear as a gift to signal their arrival in our office. Our office manager later said that she had to use another piece of trash from the can to sweep the underwear into the can. She then thoroughly sanitized the desk. The wild thing is that the new patient was really nice, and I truly think they believed they were doing something nice.

Like what was seen on the front desk at work, except those were dirty.

5. Continuing on the ‘throwing out my back’ story. I am lucky to work where I have access to chiropractic adjustments. With my back injured this week it was a perfect opportunity to take advantage of that fact. Typically, when my right hip gets adjusted, it sounds like a single knuckle crack or one walnut shell being cracked. This time, it sounded more like a bag of walnuts being stomped by an elephant. The relief came several hours later because at first it was painful. I guess that’s to be expected when you’ve got several joints and discs out of alignment, along with the muscles and ligaments that hold them being sore. The next day was spent relaxing, not because the adjustment didn’t work, but because I was worried I’d end up injuring something else immediately.

Pretty much how my back sounded

6. Oh, and for those of you keeping track. In the span of 7 weeks, I have injured my lower back twice. Once demonstrating a hex-bar deadlift, and the other, which I mentioned above. I have also sprained my left ankle playing basketball. And lastly, for now, I pancaked my right hand and almost broke it. I’d recommend anyone out there who is in the stock market to buy on bubble wrap because I’m likely going to need to start wrapping myself in it just to get by in my daily life.


7. It was a reunion more than 20 years in the making. I had so much fun getting to catch up with an old friend, Liam. We started our working lives together as prep boys in the restaurant industry in the early 1990s. Working in a restaurant was not exactly where I wanted to be, and I was lucky to have someone the same age to work side by side with. Literally, we are 6 days apart in age. We leaned on each other a lot to cope with the stresses of being teenagers working in what can be an unforgiving industry. He was on Cape Cod this week, visiting his family. I worried we might not be able to meet up, but on his last day here, we did. It was a lot of laughs about old times and catching up on where we’ve been since we last hung out over 20 years ago. These are the types of moments that mean so much the older I get.


8. I was out on a long walk on a morning with absolutely perfect weather. On my route, there is a now-abandoned road that connects a park to another road. It used to be the entrance long ago, but has since been blocked off. Anyway, the road is about 1,000 feet long and looks like something out of the apocalypse, all overgrown and such. On this walk, though, coming toward me was a man, 2 small dogs, and the cutest little girl who was probably 3. I noticed she was running toward me and waving her arms. I paused my music and took my headphones off. Her dad said she really wanted to meet me. It was every bit as cute as you’re thinking. I asked if she was going to play at the park, and she said yes. As with most small children, though, her attention span was short. She lost interest in me and wanted to keep going to the park. I told her it was nice to meet her and continued on my way.


9. One thing that was not cute and was a bit confusing happened during a trip to the supermarket. I was grabbing a few things quickly when I noticed a guy walking by me slowly. He looked to be early 20s. What made it confusing was that he was carrying a gallon of milk. Not just carrying it, but doing sets of bicep curls with it. I mean, it was not one or two, but full sets. He also then started doing what I could only describe as rows with the gallon of milk. I wasn’t sure if he was special needs or something, so I didn’t bother him. I guess as long as he actually buys the milk, he can do whatever he wants with it, but there is a gym at the other end of the same shopping center if he’s that hard up for exercise.

Good for drinking, or getting swole.

10. Each year, during the third week of July, we have a huge fundraising event on Cape Cod called Big Nick’s Ride For the Fallen. It includes hundreds of motorcycles riding a route in honor of a local man who was killed in action in Afghanistan. The event has grown each year since its beginning in 2017. The wild thing about this event is that the seemingly never-ending stream of motorcycles goes right by where I live. This means that we get to see all of the people participating. For the 2nd year in a row, I decided to gauge how big the event was by setting a stopwatch. I began it when I could see the first motorcycles coming down the road, and stopped it when the last one went by the house. How big was this year’s event? All I can say is that from beginning to end, it was a little over 10 straight minutes of bikes passing by. Amazing.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog: #58 - Hackers, Silverware Mining, 'Free' Money, etc.

1. I woke up one morning this week with an email from 4:30am sending me the authentication code I had requested for my Microsoft account. Too bad I was asleep and didn’t recommend it. So basically some suck bag was trying to get into my account. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t realize I had the two-factor sign-in. I usually find that process annoying. I mean who wants to sign in twice to get into an account. Now? Well, it’s still irritating, but haha stupid hacking scum you’re not getting my 5,000 Microsoft Rewards points!

2. From where I live, within 5 miles of me, there are 6 CVS and 7 Dunkin’ Donuts. I don’t live in a busy city. I’d say it’s a bit excessive. Oh, and there are also 5 dollar stores of varying chains within 5 miles. Just a series of random facts I felt like sharing. Not sure what it says about my little section of Cape Cod.

Everywhere I go there they are.

3. I went for a long walk, over 5 miles. Before I even went to shower I drove to the store. I figured I’d get things done in one fell swoop. I ended up talking on the phone with a friend for 90 minutes while in my car. That meant that by the time I got out of the car to go into the store, my legs had severely stiffened up. My walking was not graceful. Unfortunately, I got out of my car at the same time as an older man who also had trouble walking. I had to step it up and walk through the pain just so I wouldn’t make him think I was making fun of him. Good times.

4. I have always had a problem being a people pleaser. I tend to want everyone to like me. This can manifest itself as me not knowing how to set proper boundaries. I’ve been getting better in 2025. This includes no longer doing author speaking events unless they are paying (yes I would do events for free as a favor to local establishments). Another is knowing when to not give an inch for someone to then take a mile. Free time is your time, not availability time. Being a people pleaser is rough when you’re creating content because the more views or interactions you get the more likely it is that you get people who don’t like your work or are just jerks. It’s still a work in progress.

5. It’s always a fun time when you get a letter from the Treasury Department. Deep breath though as it was actually a check reimbursing me for a tax return in 2018. It wasn’t a big check unfortunately but free money (hopefully) is always a good thing. Thanks, it at least bought me dinner and a slipcover for my easy chair. Yay, adulting!

6. Speaking of that slipcover I went to Job Lot to get it since it was pretty cheap. While I was wandering around the store looking for it, since I am a guy and won’t ask for help, I noticed an old lady rifling through the bins of loose silverware. I must have done 3 laps around the store and each time I came back to where she was she was arm deep in spoons and forks jingling them around. No idea if she found what she was looking for in those bins but I got the slip cover.

Not sure if this was her plan for the silverware.

7. At the grocery store I had a moment where I was glad my mind usually is three steps ahead. I got finished at self-checkout and was heading to the exit. My eyes spotted a familiar face. It was a man I had briefly worked with several years ago. My first instinct was to go and say hi to him. Within an instant, I remembered how he loved to talk. My mind went to getting stuck in a 20-minute conversation with a guy I hardly knew inside this supermarket. In the end I didn’t make eye contact and I headed for the exit with no conversation. I think I made the right choice.

8. I can tell that I have been in hibernation mode over the last several months. That is because I can fill up my car’s gas tank and not have to fill it again for 2-3 weeks. Granted that’s helping to preserve the life of my car which is at 150K miles, but I can’t wait for spring so I can do way more traveling.

9. I’m not anti-social but I won’t lie, I do prefer not speaking to strangers rather than speaking to them. I’ll smile and nod or say hello as I pass but I am not one to strike up a conversation. A funny thing has happened the last 4-5 times I’ve gone to a local Seasons(Shell). They have 1 self-checkout next to the register. Totally by coincidence, I’ve gotten in line with someone in front of me and no one at self-checkout. Naturally, I go to that. I have been able to get in and out without uttering a word which is all good by me.

10. Saving money is always good. This is the first week of March. I can say it’s the first month in probably 7 years I haven’t had a credit card payment. It’s also the first month of my new car insurance policy where I will save nearly $500 annually. It’s not major stuff but saving every little bit counts so yeah I’m happy.

It's not like this, but still saving money is great.