1. The big new show to come out this week is Crystal Lake. It is the prequel/origin story of the Friday the 13th movie franchise. I am very excited to watch it, but watching it in and of itself has become an issue. The show is on Peacock. I have the free tier because I am not looking to rack up mad bills when it comes to streaming. My mom has the premium Peacock, but I want to watch from the comfort of my own easy chair. I thought I had found a workaround when I found a Peacock promo code. It was $3.99 a month for 3 months. That sounded like a great deal. I’d get 3 months for $12 and be able to watch Crystal Lake before canceling. So I got that subscription; it was all good, right? Wrong. It turns out the joke was on me. The promo code was for the basic package. This meant that I could watch some live TV but NOT any original shows on Peacock. Yes, that means Crystal Lake. So in the end I got a subscription for cheap but it didn’t even allow me to be able to watch the one show I got the damn subscription for. Congratulations, Peacock, you got my $3.99. I immediately canceled the subscription. So I do have a month of Peacock, which I am sure I will use like never.
2. October in New England is the truest definition of mood swings when it comes to the weather. In the last week, we had a day with highs in the upper 70s and another morning with a low of 34. I would not be at all surprised if a few snowflakes fall before the month ends. I love fall. My favorite time of year is from Labor Day through the end of the year. That being said, that first dip in temperatures from summer to fall takes some getting used to. Going from shorts and a T-shirt on Monday Runday to long pants and a sweatshirt is not a fun transition. Oh well, when it comes to Monday Runday, we are in the season finale phase. Since stupid Daylight Saving ends November 1st, that means Monday Runday ends with the month of October. Even this week, the sun set before we finished our miles. Again, October is the mood swing month. The sunset time was 6:22pm on October 1st. On Halloween it will be 5:36pm, and even worse, my birthday is two days later, and the sunset will be 4:34pm. Yay. I still stand by this being my favorite time of year due to the holidays and my birthday, of course. October is like getting into a cold swimming pool; the first moments take some getting used to, but after a few minutes it feels all right.
3. Speaking of Monday Runday, there was an interesting side note for this week. It was 55 degrees by the time I got to the track after work. I had to dress in a long sleeve, which is typical for mid-October on Cape Cod. I had no desire to run, so I just started walking. When Mike and his wife Beth arrived, they also began walking. According to my Fitbit, my heart rate was hovering somewhere in the low 90s. This is to be expected when you’re walking but not running. What was interesting was that Mike, who was walking literally right beside me, said that his Garmin watch was reading his heart rate in the low 160s. At first we were a bit concerned, but he seemed to be fine. We decided to put it to the test by swapping fitness trackers. The wild thing was that his read my heart rate in the low 160s while mine read his heart rate in the mid 80s. So we figured out it wasn’t Mike’s heart; it was his tracker. Of course, even though I knew the device was faulty when I read a heart rate of 165 while walking, I did immediately put my hand on my heart. I don’t know why. It’s not like the Garmin could force my heart to beat faster just so it wouldn’t look bad. We ended up doing 3 miles and finishing up just after sunset. Like I mentioned above, the Monday Runday Season 3 finale is next week.
4. It’s funny to me how the older generations all pound their chests and scream to the heavens that they work hard so their kids can have better lives. Then when their kids have better lives, that have been made easier because of that hard work, these same older generations get pissed at the kids for having it too easy. I mean, how ass-backward ridiculous is that type of logic? You got what you wanted, and you’re still mad? Why don’t these people just be honest and say they wanted to make their kids' lives easier so that they have something to complain about for the rest of eternity? I see and hear it all the time, not just from Boomers but even my GenX generation. I, for one, actually do want each proceeding generation to have it a little better. Isn’t that the whole point? To advance as a society and make it better for those up next? I mean, I wouldn’t know since I only had one functioning parent that was trying to make things better for me, but that’s beside the point.
5. In my life, I have been one who stays where I shouldn’t for too long. Maybe it’s a sense of loyalty? Maybe it’s a fear of change? Maybe it’s a lack of confidence in myself that I can cross the unknown bridge to something potentially better on the other side? I have spent close to 20 years pursuing a career in some sort of creative field. Writing, photography, podcasting, filmmaking, content creation, usually it’s a mash-up of a few or all of those. On the other side has always been a full-time day job to pay my bills. I’ve realized that you have to have a safety net. As much as I want to use my creative passions as a source of income, I also don’t want to become homeless or destitute in their pursuits. So I find a day job that’s good enough to allow me the ability to continue chasing my true dreams. Sometimes though, I get so caught up in staring at the creative pursuits side of life that I take my eyes off the day job side. Then I turn my attention back to it and realize that I have been stagnant for years. I’m not interested in taking my efforts away from the creative side in order to pursue more opportunities on the day job side, but I would like to be properly compensated for the work I do. When you look up and realize that despite increased responsibilities, you haven’t received a raise in four years, something is wrong. Not even a minor ‘cost of living’ raise, nope, stagnant. What happens when this is brought up? Complaining to me about the cost of overhead, and also trying to manipulate me with these little dangling carrots of ‘potential’ earnings. This leaves me currently in a tough spot. I said above that I often fear change, and a wholesale quitting and looking for another job doesn’t seem like the right answer. But I also am not stupid. All of the complaining about overhead, despite this job wasting at least many hundreds of dollars monthly on equipment that is barely used, if at all, tells me that if I stay, I will not see one cent more in my paycheck. I guess recognizing that a situation has outgrown its usefulness is a good start. Next comes action. If I am feeling drained of my passion on the day job side, it only further cements my desire to succeed on the creative side. The rest of 2026 will be about planning. It might be a true ‘new year, new you’ type of deal for me to kick off 2027. Life is too short to just sit back and accept ‘good enough’ as good enough.
6. This time of year in my neck of the woods, the weather gets really dry, as opposed to the extreme humidity that we get during the late summer. Along with the wild swings in temperatures, it can wreak havoc on people. A lot of people get sick. Sometimes my allergies kick up, and I begin to drag. This year the dryness has really affected me. My eyes have been irritated, and I end up rubbing them for relief. If I am at home, it’s not a big deal; I mean, yes, it’s annoying, but I don’t care about how they look. Things change when I am going to, or am at work. Rubbing my eyes naturally reddens them, which makes me look suspiciously like I have been smoking weed in the parking lot or something. Nobody has said anything, but I do wonder if people start to wonder, especially if I say anything foolish, which can happen sometimes. I have to get some eye drops one of these days, or I can actually smoke and say it’s allergies or the dry weather. Yeah, I’m sure I’d be able to get away with that.
7. It’s weird how during this time of year (late October) I start to see the stream of people complaining about having to turn their heat back on. I don’t understand. Are you forced to put it on? You know, you could always, I don’t know, not turn it on yet, right? No, my heat is not on, and won’t be on likely until sometime in the middle of next month. It’s this sort of first-world problem: ‘Oh no I have to put on my heat.’ I’m betting people who can’t afford heat would kill to be in your shoes. Another thing, how high do you put your heat? Do you really need it set at like 75? I keep my heat low, very low; we’re talking 65 in winter. Sure, I run hot thanks to my Scandinavian blood, but it also saves money to keep things a few degrees cooler. I don’t think the difference in comfort from 73 degrees to 68 is that great, but what do I know? I guess the constant complaining about privileges just irks me.
8. Circling back to the top. I was able to watch Crystal Lake by finding websites that ‘shared’ it. Yay, joke’s on you Peacock. Anyway, I absolutely loved the show. It is eight episodes and serves as a prequel to the original Friday the 13th film. There are a few minor changes to the timeline, as it begins in 1971 rather than 1958 in the original. You get a much deeper look into the story of Pamela Voorhees, Jason’s mother. You also get to see young Jason as a child who talks, has a life, and at least one friend. Of course, the main plot points stay. Jason is deformed and thus is bullied by a lot of other kids. He eventually drowns in Crystal Lake while at summer camp, thanks to the counselors being too busy fooling around to be watching him. You get a much deeper backstory into why Jason is the way he is and why they ended up in Crystal Lake, including meeting Jason’s father. Plus, they went back to Blairstown, New Jersey, where they filmed the original movie in 1979. You get a lot of the same locations, and it gives you some powerful nostalgia. I’m making sure not to spoil anything major. There is a lot of drama, some nasty gory scenes, and a lot of Easter eggs for fans of the movies. I hope that there is a second season because there is a lot more that the showrunners can share before the timeline catches up with the original Friday the 13th movie.
9. It is incredible when you notice the sheer lack of creativity and originality on YouTube. This is not an overarching thing, mind you. It’s just that the more you watch videos or creators that you like, the more you find a slew of imitators. For example, I found one channel called The Paint Explainer. They do videos that are a series of topics of a similar nature in a single video, like ‘the most off-limits places on Earth.’ Their display is a landscape-oriented image with all of the topics laid out in rows and columns; as they speak of one, the camera zooms in on that topic. Don’t worry, I’m putting an image in so you can see. Anyway, once I liked one of their videos, I was bombarded in my algorithm with many other channels that have the exact same setup. A list video, columns/rows of images, each topic zoomed in on while it’s spoken about. It’s amazing the copycat nature of what is successful on YouTube. It’s not just that particular account either. Animated videos about the lives of certain animals; I liked one, and got shown several other creators doing the same thing. I guess it can trick viewers into clicking on something that looks close enough to what they’re looking for, but it’s lame and unoriginal. My videos are my own style. Yes, I try to craft engaging thumbnails, but I’m not big on seeing what works for other more popular channels and just copying it. Maybe I’d have more viewers and subscribers if I did, but I’d rather stay true to myself than lose myself in copying others. That belief can help you in all forms of life.
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| All of their videos have this sort of thumbnail featuring the specific topics. |
10. Another week, another fun adventure on a weekend. This time it was a collaborative video between Cape Cod Magnet Crew and me. They are a channel dedicated to magnet fishing. If you’re not aware of what that is, they take some pretty powerful magnets and fish for metal objects in local waterways. Nate is the head of the channel, which is linked in this segment. They have more than 10,000 subscribers, so it’s great exposure for me. We decided to meet in Wellfleet to fish at the old railroad bridge remains on Duck Creek. It was about five hours from the time we met to when we parted ways, and I had a lot of fun. I haven’t done much in the way of collaborations when it comes to social media, and with their subscriber count, I am hopeful that I can gain some new fans and followers from this meeting.
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| In the middle of casting the magnet. |
11. As far as the details of the expedition. Nate’s goal was to snag an old railroad spike from the water, and he did. We parked near Uncle Tim’s Bridge in Wellfleet and walked over to the railroad bridge site. It was not a big success catching anything from there. The best part was the family who lived in the house closest to the spot came over, and we chatted with the father, mother, and two sons. The little boys who were probably six or seven were so comfortable with us that one, I think his name was Nico, that he came back by himself and just sat with us. We knew he was safe, but it was understandable that the mother was worried when she didn’t know where he was. The camaraderie paid off for us when it was time to leave. The tide had come in and blocked our original pathway. We’d have been stuck for a while, but the family told us to come walk through their yard. It was made even better by the fact that the house they live in, they believe, is an old house from Billingsgate Island. That’s something I’ve been looking to find for years. Billingsgate was a community out in Cape Cod Bay that eroded away a century ago and is now only a shoal at low tide. Getting to see what is likely a house from the island was a thrill.
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| A possible home from Billingsgate Island |
12. We ended up on the opposite side of Duck Creek to try to fish out a railroad spike. On that side, we had to sneak our way along the waterline beside a private home. Luckily, we made it out there without being seen. Although, to be honest, Nate and I actually walked up their driveway, knocked, and even announced to their Ring camera what we were doing out there. It was at this location where a railroad spike was hooked. That made the trip a success. There were also what looked to be remains of the old railroad bridge, along with a possible shipwreck, strewn along the shore. Of course, I made sure to get a photo and video since who knows when the next time is that I’ll be in that area? It was fascinating to watch Nate toss the big square magnet. He said it has 6,000 pounds of force behind it when it grabs onto something metal.
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| A possible shipwreck? |
13. The magnet fishing ended at the Wellfleet Harbor pier. It was a beautiful day for late-October with temperatures in the low 60s and brilliant sun. I found out the hard way that even this far into fall you can still get a pretty red face being in the sun for several hours. That fact aside, Nate snagged a whole bunch of stuff tossing the magnet off the pier. It was mainly junk, brackets, bolts, nails, things like that, but he also focuses on how anything he pulls from the ocean is a little less junk in the water. The scenes of him fishing are going to be interspersed with some talking I did about the lost history of Wellfleet. This includes places like Mayo Beach Lighthouse, Chequesset Inn, and Billingsgate Island. We were doing an intro for the video, and it was made all the better by the fishing boat that slowly sidled up to the pier. It was like it was creeping into the shot. I was too busy focusing on the camera that I didn’t notice the boat until its engine was so loud that I had to look. It was a really fun time. I hope we get to do something again, and I will keep you updated on when the video is uploaded.
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| Have a safe and happy Halloween! |
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