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Wednesday, March 5, 2025

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 185: House Party Turns 35, Poppin’ Fresh’s Restaurant, & Obsolete Jobs From 100 Years Ago(3-5-2025)

 


Episode 185 helps March roar in with a blast of nostalgia, from '90s party vibes to long-lost professions!

🎬 House Party Turns 35! – One of the best teen comedies of the ‘90s is officially middle-aged. We’re throwing it back to Kid ‘n Play, Martin Lawrence, Tisha Campbell, legendary dance moves, and quotable lines. Plus, I’ll share a personal house party story that could’ve been its own movie.

🥖 Poppin’ Fresh: The Doughboy & His Lost Restaurant – He’s been giggling his way through Pillsbury ads for 60+ years, but did you know Poppin’ Fresh once had his own restaurant? We uncover the surprising history of Poppin’ Fresh Pies—and what happened to it.

🛠️ Jobs That Time Forgot – Ever applied to be a lector? A scissors grinder? No? That’s because these jobs disappeared long ago. This week’s Top 5 spotlights careers from a century ago that no longer exist—some of which were way cooler than they sound.

🏀 This Week in History & Time Capsule – The night Wilt Chamberlain did the unthinkable and scored 100 points in a single basketball game.

Hit play and let’s get this nostalgia party started! 🚀

For more great content become a subscriber on Patreon!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 184 here


Monday, March 3, 2025

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.


Wednesday, February 26, 2025

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 184: Vampire Rabbits, Overhyped Athletes & Vanishing Restaurants(2-26-2025)

 


The last full month of winter is almost over, but we’ve got plenty of nostalgia to keep you warm! Episode 184 brings back childhood chills, cardboard heartbreak, and the flavors of restaurants we wish never closed.

📖 Bunnicula: The Vampire Bunny That Bit Into Our Imaginations – A bloodsucking rabbit? The Bunnicula series had just the right mix of humor and horror to captivate Gen Xers and older Millennials. We’ll revisit this beloved (and slightly spooky) children’s classic.

⚾ Overhyped '90s Athletes Who Ruined My Baseball Card Collection – If you grew up in the '90s, you probably got burned by the hype train. We’re looking at the athletes who were supposed to be legends but left collectors (and fans) disappointed. Were any of these guys in your stash?

🍽️ The Rise and Fall of Casual Dining Chains – Some places seemed like they'd be around forever… but then they vanished. This week’s Top 5 covers some of the most missed discontinued restaurant chains. The twist? A few might be making a comeback!

🕰️ This Week in History & Time Capsule – A jazz-infused journey back to the very first jazz records and how they changed music forever.

Hit play and step into the time machine! 🚀

For more great content become a subscriber on Patreon!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 183 here


Monday, February 24, 2025

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #57: Bloody Good, Diet Woes, Don't Call Me Sir, etc.





1. At my work we have something called compression therapy. You get wrapped up in these pads that squeeze your body stimulating the lymphatic system to get moving. It is great for your overall health. When you do this therapy it is 30 minutes you relax and then when the session is done someone comes in and unwraps you. If somebody has done the compression therapy enough they might feel comfortable enough to start unwrapping themselves to help. A person was doing that before I got in the room to assist them. It all seemed fine until I went back in to clean off the pads. It was then that I noticed the splatters of blood on different parts of the various pads. It looked like a crime scene. The worst part was there was another person set to use the compression therapy and as I wrapped them in the pads I kept noticing other drops of blood I had missed. I had no poker face and was horrified.


2. The only thing that could possibly rival the bloody good story above at work this week was the following. My boss got a great deal on a used mannequin. He intends to use it to display clothing featuring the business logo on it. Makes sense. The funny part was how it arrived. It was in pieces. So bringing in the top half and the arms was fine. However, nothing could prepare me for the sight of my boss walking in with this naked ass mannequin bottom up near his face. I couldn’t have written it any better. We ended up stashing it for a while in the compression therapy room but kept the door closed since it looked like we had killed and dismembered someone in there.


3. Only I could vacuum a room for several minutes not realizing the hose wasn’t attached. Granted I wondered why the vacuum had such terrible suction but it wasn’t until I turned around and saw the disconnected hose on the floor that it all made sense. I have said it a million times, I was born blond so don’t be shocked at stories like these.


4. I spent an evening tearing up an old carpet and then slicing it into strips with a box cutter. I was so focused on getting it done right after work that I didn’t bother to put any sort of mask on to protect me from dust. Eventually, I brought several contractor bags of rolled-up carpet slices outside. My body was exhausted from the workout. Then later on while relaxing not wearing a mask came back to haunt me as I got a major bloody nose from inhaling all of that dust and whatever else was underneath the carpet. Oh well, at least it got done.

Yeah, it was a little like this.



5. In the coming weeks I am shooting the scenes for my first acting gig. It’s funny because I made tons of skits as a kid with my camcorder and craft scripts for my podcast weekly yet trying to get lines I didn’t write memorized is really tough. I printed out all of my scenes and have had trouble getting the lines down. One solution I had was to print them out again, only in a much bigger font. It’s like speaking to a dog, and then saying the words again slower like that will suddenly make the dog understand you.


6. I could be on the strictest of diets but will never not be a sucker for a new flavor of Doritos. I have loved them since I was a kid and any time they release a new flavor I will try it. The latest proof of that is the Late Night Sizzlin’ Cheeseburger flavor. I definitely enjoy them. Every now and then some Doritos are okay, but when I see there are more flavors in this Late Night series that’s when the ominous music starts to play and I feel my pants begin to get tighter. Oh well, six-pack abs are overrated anyway, right?

Dangerously good.



7. Did my first real interior paint job this week. A subtle gray paint on half of my apartment. Luckily I wore clothes I was cool with throwing out because to no one’s surprise, I got paint all over me. Also, put in new flooring in the form of carpeted tiles. That was fun as well but hell on the knees. The room does look a lot better but my body needed a day to recover for sure.


8. I was under the impression on Instagram that once things you post on your story are gone (after 24 hours) nobody can see them except you in your own archives. This week I had some random person like a story of mine from 5 ½ years ago. Not sure how they got to see it. It was very creepy and suspicious that I immediately blocked them just to stop any weirdness before it really gets going. I mean you need to be a special kind of weirdo to deep dive someone’s IG story back more than 5 years.


9. This winter has been one long hibernation. It’s like I’ve done a lot of work, content-wise, but I feel like I’ve been holed up. I don’t know if it’s the cold. I don’t know if it’s being busy with work. I don’t know if I need a change physically to gain energy. Maybe it’s my diet being bad and my body doesn’t produce the energy from bad foods. One or all of these things need to change soon. This blah chapter feels like it’s run its course.


10. Being called ‘sir’ by someone much younger is still a very weird thing. I don’t feel that old (most days) so I definitely don’t feel like being called ‘sir’ is warranted. But I’m also not going to be some mid-life crisis guy who corrects someone young who calls me sir. It actually shows respect for your *ugh* elders. I mean I call people much older than me sir. Wait, so I guess I’m much older than these people? Man, it’s time for a nap followed by dinner at 4pm.

I'm not this guy...yet.


Thursday, February 20, 2025

1997-1998: My Life In Poetry Form - Throwback Thursday

 

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This is a weekly recurring series featuring 5 poems all written within the same calendar year. They capture a sense of what my life and my mind were like at a certain age. It also will show the evolution of my life, mind, and writing style. We have come back around to 1997 and 1998. I was in college and was 19 and 20 years old.

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Flame


Can’t believe it had to end.
The flame slowly faded, I could not comprehend.
Time, for a change clocks have no hands to point the right direction, 
for me to understand.
Didn’t want it to be this way.
Watched you turn your back and walk away.
I was down, oh yeah I was low, below underground.
You left me there, dirt in my eye with your bald-faced lie.
Thought we’d always be as one.
Silver and pearls, kissing my girl, in the moonlight under the sun.
Not for me, was not to be, my time bought with bad checks bounced away her love to another unworthy.
Can I say how I feel, facing a storm at the wheel, 
control my chances with a sigh and a tear.
The flame is gone, smoke and ash burn my eyes when I look at where we are, when I realize.
I was wrong.
Trust my heart to a heartless soul, 
with a lie to my face and a “know your role”
Slowly in time, my flame will return, for a beautiful person my new love will burn, I’ll find someone.
A quick fix rebound ricochets in the mud, supposed reality will be shattered.
The new and improved will go astray, 
and a poisonous love will long to come home.
You will need me there.
Will you be able to speak from the heart, 
or become shadowed when problems start.
To know that the one you love is never to return is reason enough,
to begin the search for a new flame to burn.

We were blessed with a gift too soon in life to be understood.
Believing we’d make it, not knowing, not caring if we really could.
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Quiet Contemplation


I am down, but do I care?
I could move on, but do I want to?
I’ll stare at a distant corner of darkness and enjoy what I don’t see.
I could shake myself from this tree of pain, but I choose to sink myself into it.
Quietly contemplate the outer reaches of fantasies that will never be real.
Delve deeper into a black hole of mysterious thoughts and memories, for emotions I need to feel.

A red moon hangs low over this sad imperfect world.
Will its blood drip down and drown us in our sorrows, or melt away into the space of another day to live?
My eyes are the magnifying glass that helps me to avoid the big picture, the real reason I feel like I do.
I’ll get up, I’ll move on in time, 
how I get there is yet unwritten.
The problems I face are only a blip on the world’s radar.
With all the plight and suffering mine is just a little pain, so why worry about me?
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Stitch


Drifting in, drifting out of conscious thought.
It’s all about, the times we’ve shared, the times we’ve lost.
The place in your heart my callous hands have crushed.
I’ve split at the seams and broken in two, 
my mind is racing under the soles of my shoes.
For so long, traveled so far, never thought I’d be here now, alone.
Thousand thoughts coming together pierce me at once,
they’re all rolled together, clouded and blurred.

I need to know just where I’m standing.
I need to know how far I’ll fall if I lasso my love to something that isn’t there.
Stitch up my mind, it needs to be saved,
before I’m too far gone and can’t find my way home.
Stitch up my heart with a tight binding love,
to keep me whole when there’s nowhere left to turn.

Flowing up, flowing down, each day I break without a sound.
Hurt can not take me down, but the glowing sadness I feel, stops me from feeling.
Don’t stop, stop loving me.
It’s now and forever I need you to be, by my side, just here with me.
Shells are cracking, my mind has spilled, run over the ground and out of my reach.
I’ll never know if I’ll get it right when happiness can’t last me through the night.

I need to know just where I’m standing.
I need to know how far I’ll fall if I lasso my love to something that isn’t there.
Stitch up my mind, it needs to be saved,
before I’m too far gone and can’t find my way home.
Stitch up my heart with a tight binding love,
to keep me whole when there’s nowhere left to turn.

Save me, close up my heart with a kiss from the heavens.
Don’t walk out, I’ll make it better every day.
I’ll give you my heart, my soul, my time, my all.
If you’d stitch me up and catch me as I free fall.
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Top of the Mountain

Hold your dreams in my hand.
Her love a prize high in demand, mine for now.
She’s mine thanks to you.
Passion or obsession sees it through.
Don’t try to change that which is beyond control.
Feel the pain cast on you, weighted pressure deserved in my eyes.
Shadowed hidden pride can’t save you from heartache.
Taste what you once had, given secrets once held tight in her hands.
And now I know it’s true.
On your foot place the lonely shoe, hear the cries out in vain.
Can you see life’s reflection there, empty filled with pain.
Believe in nothing, for nothing’s now the same.
When you close your eyes tonight say a prayer for me.
That I won’t fuck it up the way your twisted soul has done.
Don’t feel that time will heal, fear not for her she’s happier here.
Better beware yourself to stay away, pressure engaged she will not stray.
Convinced I am right like you once were, I’ll blow your light out in her heart.
To forget what was there, new memories we share, 
obsessed with not being alone.
Please try to understand, wanted what is needed by any other man.
Love, sex, one who will do anything for me blindly, 
step on whomever to get to the top.
If linked and bonded by blood or by words, 
to me it’s no matter, nor is it hers.
Just live and leave us to our lives,
for her love is no longer the straw from which your life stirs.
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