Christopher Setterlund, In My Footsteps

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #145: Halloween Week, Scam Emails, A New Bridge, etc.

2026-11-02T06:16:58.628-05:00

1. It’s Halloween week. It’s the final week before stupid Daylight Saving Time ends, and we lose an hour of light in the afternoon. That also meant that it was the season finale, if you will, of Monday Runday. As you know, most Mondays, as long as it’s light out and not raining, I go to a local track at a now-closed school and run, or mostly walk, with my old friend Mike. This year his wife Beth and their dog were there on most weeks as well. It’s a chance to catch up and exercise. I tend to log somewhere between 3-5 miles depending on how much running I do. For this 3rd season finale of Monday Runday, the weather couldn’t have been any better. It was sunny with temperatures in the mid-60s. I was lucky that I was able to leave my day job early since it was slow on my end. We were able to walk for over an hour and just chat and soak in the weather. At this time of year in New England, you never know when a perfect weather day will end up being the last until spring, so you need to take advantage. Based on future sunset times, the 4th season of Monday Runday could be as early as the second week of March. That also depends on the weather, as you never know when a late-winter snowstorm will ruin plans. Overall, it was a good end to one of my favorite regular events of the warmer months.

2. If you don’t value yourself, don’t be surprised when others don’t as well. Also, people learn how to treat you by what you allow. These two phrases are sticking with me a lot recently. It all comes down to my day job and a collision between how I value myself, my work, and my time, versus how I am seen by the boss. The boss is great at his job, but as a business owner, he is average at best. I haven’t received a raise in four years. I blame myself a lot for not noticing how the time flew by. Besides being a personal trainer, I became a chiropractic assistant. This meant assisting in administering therapies and occasionally running the front desk if needed. I was naive enough to think that as more responsibilities were added to my plate, the boss would see it, appreciate it, and compensate me accordingly. Unfortunately, that is not how the world works. In reality, the boss was content to let me do more and more for the same pay. I mean, why would he pay me more if he didn’t have to? I have been so focused on my outside creative projects that I let this boat sail way too far down the river uncontested. Now things have reached a breaking point. Several times in the last few months, I have brought up wanting a raise. What I get in return is crying poor about overhead. That might be true, but it is also my responsibility to myself to realize that a situation has become stagnant and act accordingly. After the ‘overhead’ line was dropped on me yet again this week, I hit the last straw. I was asked to start teaching small group training classes to bring in more clients. That’s fine, of course, as long as I am compensated for training more people at the same time. I ended up being told that I’d get a bump in hourly pay while teaching the class, but only if there are at least four people in the class. What that means is that if the class has three, I get paid the same as if it was one, with the boss pocketing the rest. Absolutely ridiculous. I mentioned the extra stress of training multiple people, but he didn’t care. In my mind, that was it. If he doesn’t value me, then it’s time to start planning the exit strategy. It will begin with cutting my shifts there and gradually moving back toward in-home training. By doing that, I can make 3x or more per hour than I get currently. Of course, I need to get all of my ducks in a row with insurance, bookkeeping, and learning about self-employment taxes, but I don’t plan to make any moves until this year ends. Again, if you don’t value yourself, don’t be surprised if others don’t either.

3. Have you heard of Albert Cheng? He was the Chief Operating Officer of Amazon Studios. Also, he emailed me this week out of the blue, asking about possibly securing the film rights to my Lady of the Dunes book. What, you don’t believe me? You’re saying that the head of a major film studio wouldn’t email a small author out of thin air? Well, you’re right. It was a brief moment of exhilaration when I got this email asking about the rights to my book. I read it over a few times before doing a Google search and asking Gemini if such a scenario could be real. Nope. Not even sugarcoated. It was obvious it was a scam, but man, I was excited for those few seconds before reality set in. Looking back at it, the scammer quoted parts of the book description in italics. They also suggested that if I didn’t have an agent, they could put me in touch with an agent they trusted. If I had said yes, I am sure that ‘agent’ would have said they’d help me, but I’d have to give them some money up front. You know, just like any reputable agent would. Oh well. I do think my Lady of the Dunes true crime book would make a great movie or short television series, but I have no idea where to even pitch it. Maybe I should email the real Albert Cheng? Yeah, sure, he’s as likely to respond as he was likely to randomly email me in the first place.

The book in question. Yes, it would make a good movie.

4. October 28th has become a low-key epic day on my calendar. In 2012, I ran my first marathon. In 2013, it was the release of my first book, In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod Travel Guide. In 2020, it was recording the first episode of the In My Footsteps Podcast. I don’t know how it ended up becoming a date when amazing things seem to happen in my life, but it did. I wish I had social media back when I was a kid, maybe. I would love to know if any other really cool events occurred in my life on October 28th in the past. At this point, when the date comes around again, I keep my eyes and ears open more to see if anything drifts into my orbit. Since the day kind of organically became special over the last many years, I try not to set things up for it. What I mean is that I try not to force the moments on October 28th. I want it to be in the hands of the universe. It gives me another day to look forward to each year. Everyone has birthdays and holidays. I also have a Soberversary and the random goodness that October 28th brings. I guess any day can be a day to celebrate, and with the fleeting shortness of life, maybe it should be. But it doesn’t hurt when special days are randomly created.

5. I might be sliding down the hill to 50, but I will always be a kid at heart. That means that when Halloween comes around, I do as much as I can to celebrate the season. This includes buying a small pumpkin, giving it some sort of wacky face, and bringing it to various places for photos and videos. It can also include dressing up in some way for work. I’ll admit I had bigger plans for this year’s Halloween. I was going to go to Spirit Halloween in Hyannis and find a few things to create a fun costume. I also thought it might be fun to look for potential props for a second feature film that will likely be happening later in 2027. Well, first of all, due to new construction in Hyannis over the last few years, Spirit Halloween was not located where it had been over the last decade or more. It had taken over the old Sports Authority (remember them?) building in the old Kmart (also remember them?) plaza. I went up there one evening this week, and it was going to be the final stop on my errands. The trouble was I couldn’t find it. The store was in a different location. Granted, once I looked it up, it wasn’t that far, but by this point I had bought dinner, and the thought of going a half-mile out of my way wasn’t appealing anymore. Yes, my hunger won out over possibly spending more money than I should on things I’d wear maybe once for an hour. Okay, when I put it that way, it worked out for the best. Although it’s not quite over yet. After Halloween, they’re still open, trying to rid themselves of their stock. That means I still could get wicked deals on potential props, fingers crossed!

6. I did dress up for the last work day of the week to celebrate Halloween. I turned out to be the only one who really dressed up. It was all stuff I already owned: an executioner’s hood, a large crystal ball for photography, black rubber gloves, my all-black hoodie. It looked great, pretty creepy, plus I brought my pumpkin to sit on my desk. I couldn't see much with the hood on, so I’d have to take it off to train people, which was fine. Before totally getting rid of my outfit, I had one final moment planned. It involved scaring one of my coworkers. They went off to set a patient up for a therapy session in another room. I figured I had a few minutes to hide in the little closet near their desk. Another coworker was an accomplice. They would tell this person to grab something from the closet, and when they opened the door, boom, I’d be there to scare them. It was a foolproof plan, or so I thought. Once inside the closet I was figuring it would be two to three minutes I’d wait before they’d return. It passed five minutes with nobody. I started to get cold feet, but my other coworker said I’d come this far and couldn’t get out of the closet yet. Then another patient came into the office, so I didn’t want to pop out and scare them. Finally, after probably ten minutes, they came back. As they approached and the plan got ready for action, I thought to myself, ‘what if they get so scared they take a swing at me?’ I put my hand up by my face as protection. They opened the door. I definitely scared them. They didn’t scream, but they did cock their fist back like they were going to swing. Luckily for me, they didn’t. Also lucky for me, my boss had gone out to run an errand. It was all laughs. This coworker threatened revenge, but it never came.

Not a bad look

7. Birthday celebrations started early. I visited my mom, and the celebrations began. I am still a person who enjoys the overall feeling of a birthday. I can’t understand people who either don’t want to celebrate their birthday, or don’t see it as a big deal. I feel like they have lost the plot in terms of living. It’s like you made it to the next level up in years; that is something worth celebrating. If your birthday does not feel like something worth celebrating to you, I feel bad for you. I like having multiple celebratory events surrounding my birthday. They don’t have to be major, just things that make the days surrounding it feel special. Celebrating a few days early with some of my family is one such way. The older I get, the more I cherish the family moments. My mom, stepfather, one of my sisters, and one of my nieces all sang Happy Birthday. I blew out the candles on a mini-sized cake, and then came the gifts. My family knows me. Every year I mention my joy at the monster cereals being released in September and October. Well, my family made sure I wouldn’t have to go out and find the cereals all sold out. They got me several boxes of each of the three: Boo Berry, Frankenberry, and my favorite Count Chocula. Hey, I am not hard to please. I don’t need expensive things, just favorite cereals, oh, and quality family time.

A mountain of cereal, I wasn't joking.

8. All eyes were on Willow Street in Hyannis this week as the new bridge for the Cape Cod Rail Trail was set to be put in place. A new extension of the beloved bike path had been laid out over the last year or two. It added something close to three miles of new riding trail to the bike path, which now goes from the town of Wellfleet into Hyannis. Since being paved, I have walked all of the new trail. It was necessary so that I could keep up my achievement of walking or running every bit of every bike trail on Cape Cod. There was a catch, though. A bridge was needed for the two parts of the new trail extension to meet at Willow Street. This is a busy stretch of road located near the Mid-Cape Highway. Anticipation built as the bridge had been constructed and was on the ground next to the bike trail on the eastern side. It was due to be put in overnight one night this week. The area around it was closed to traffic so the massive bridge that was close to 200 feet long could be installed. My plan was to go for a walk the following day and cross the new bridge. It was a beautiful day with temperatures around 70 in late October. I began my walk at the Bayberry Hills Golf Course; it was going to be about 3.5 miles in each direction. I planned to shoot a video from on the bridge to share and show everyone how it looked. Then I got to the bridge. Yes, it was up and stretched over Willow Street, but something was missing. The pavement didn’t go over the bridge, and even though it was in place, it wasn’t fully connected. So I guess the first half of the bridge installation was done. Boo. I was one of several people who went out there to cross the bridge only to be disappointed. I’m not sure how long it will be until it’s really done, but I’ll be going back next weekend to check.

9. It is all systems go as far as submitting my feature film The Cabin to the Provincetown Film Festival for 2027. The movie is already fully edited by Mark Polonia, who also directed it. I was amazed at how quick the turnaround was, and how much I enjoyed the movie. It is a suspenseful, psychological, low-budget, indie horror movie. Before it gets a distribution deal and possibly shown in some Cape Cod theaters, there is an important achievement I want. Last year I co-produced a short film, When Henry Met Henry, about a fictional meeting between iconic authors Henry Beston and Henry David Thoreau. I wanted desperately to enter that into the Provincetown Film Festival, but unfortunately the editor took somewhere in the neighborhood of seven months to edit a ten-minute film, so we missed the deadline. That won’t happen this time. As of this writing, there are over three months until the final deadline for the festival. There is, however, one hiccup. As I was submitting the film, a question popped up asking me if I had something called a digital cinema package. I had no idea what that meant, but that’s what Google is for. A DCP is a much larger and higher-quality file of the film. This is what is used to show a movie on the big screen. There are two ways to go about getting a DCP. One is to pay someone to do it, which I have seen go as high as $200 to $300. Or I can try to do it myself, which leaves a higher risk of screwing it up. Luckily, there is a lot of time, and I am sending feelers out to those who might have some knowledge on which path I should take. Either way, having a DCP means I can not only submit the film to festivals but also easily pass it off to theaters to show it. More updates when needed.

10. The fun uncle came through in the clutch on Halloween. I was sitting at my desk working on my next book, a follow-up to my first Cape Cod history anthology book, when my phone went off. It was my 7-year-old niece Sylvie, and she needed help with her costume. It was supposed to come with some sort of plastic knife or sword, but either it didn’t, or she couldn’t find it. I was her only hope to find something useful to replace that sword. So we were on FaceTime while I searched my closet. I had bought a plastic knife that had fake blood in it many years ago as a part of a costume. Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen it in a few years and couldn’t find it. Just when I was about to give up, I remembered I had something in the trunk of my car. Don’t ask me why it’s still there, but years ago I also bought a Star Wars lightsaber. It is made of plastic and has a button on it that, if it’s held down, you can quickly move the handle and the lightsaber will pop out, much like they do in Star Wars. Sylvie had seen it before and liked it, so we were saved. Since she lives fairly close to me, I was able to go out to my car, grab the lightsaber out of my trunk, and walk it over to her. All of this was done while she was still on FaceTime, which was funny. There was still one issue. The rest of Sylvie’s costume was blue and black. The lightsaber was red. She had an idea, though, and that was to use blue-colored tape to wrap around the entirety of the lightsaber so it matched her costume. A lot of tape was used, but it got the job done. So in the end I came through to help my youngest niece have a fun Halloween. I didn’t get off scot-free, though. She made me wear a jester’s hat with jingling bells on my walk home. I did it, of course, because someday she will grow up and not think her crazy uncle is as cool and fun anymore. I’m taking full advantage of the time I’ve got.

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 266: Charles Manson & The Beach Boys, D.B. Cooper, 1960s Urban Legends, the Real 'Candy Man'(10-28-2026)

2026-10-28T07:00:07.436-04:00

The unsettling connection between Charles Manson and the Beach Boys. The infamous skyjacking of D.B. Cooper. Some well-known 1960s urban legends.

Episode 266 puts a wrap on Spooky Season with a chilling dose of GenX nostalgia.

How did one of the most beloved American bands of the 1960s become connected to one of the most infamous 20th-century names? The story of Charles Manson and The Beach Boys is one of fame-seeking, the counterculture world of Southern California, and what happens when evil is denied what it truly wants. We go through the details in a creepy deep dive.

It is a story so shrouded in mystery that the name of the perpetrator isn't even correct. In 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked an airplane, got his ransom, and parachuted into the desolate, stormy night in the Pacific Northwest. What happened to the man who became better known as D.B. Cooper? Why has this case been so difficult to solve even 55 years later?

Some spooky tales are built to last. In this week's Top 5, we look at some well-known 1960s urban legends. A few of these might sound familiar, as they have been told for generations after. How many of them have you heard of?

There is a terrifying new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the awful poisoning murder of his son by the real-life 'Candy Man' Ronald O'Bryan.

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Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 265 here

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #144: Joke’s On Me, Becoming Stagnant, Magnet Fishing, etc.

2026-10-26T06:11:10.750-04:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

In My Footsteps Podcast - BONUS: Cape Cod True Crime - Interview with Author Liza Rodman and Filmmaker Frank Durant(10-25-2026)

2026-10-25T08:59:22.020-04:00

Order Liza Rodman's book The Babysitter

Order Frank Durant's film The Lady of the Dunes

Cape Cod is a vacation destination. It is filled with pristine beaches, quaint shops, and ample opportunities to make beautiful memories. But just off the beaten path, Cape Cod has seen its fair share of darkness.

Author Liza Rodman and filmmaker Frank Durant are familiar with both the beauty and the darkness of Cape Cod. In this special bonus episode of the podcast, I sit down and talk to them about their experiences.

Liza has a unique story in that, as a child, her friendly and kind babysitter was also a serial killer. At 10 years old, she was being watched over by Tony Costa. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1970 for two ghastly murders, with the potential number of victims being anywhere from four to eight. She shares some stories but it is highly recommended to read The Babysitter book for the full account.

Frank has been working for years, chronicling some of Cape Cod's most enduring true crime stories. His Lady of the Dunes documentary helped to open doors and light a fire under law enforcement to solve the case. Ruth Marie Terry very likely would still be unknown if not for that film. Now Frank is turning his attention to Sydney Monzon, an alleged victim of Tony Costa. Much like with Ruth Marie, Frank wants to give Sydney her name back. He wants her to be remembered as a person more than a victim.

We discuss all of those names and stories, how these crimes impact the appearance of Cape Cod, and much more in this long-form interview.

To support me and the show, become a member on Patreon.

Or you can support my work and Buy Me A Coffee!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 265 here

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 265: The Many Halloween Movie Timelines, What Was Ong's Hat?, Best 2000s Horror Movies(10-21-2026

2026-10-21T07:03:20.339-04:00

The many confusing timelines of the Halloween franchise. The story behind an early internet mystery. Some of the best horror movies from the 2000s.

Episode 265 continues down the horrifying path of spooky season with a fresh batch of GenX nostalgia.

We start by going through a maze. That maze consists of the many confusing timelines of the beloved Halloween movie franchise. It all begins with the classic original, then it goes in all different directions. The question is, why are there so many? I might not be able to answer that, but I can try to lead you through them as best I can.

Ong's Hat was one of the early Internet mysteries. It was based enough in reality that it gained traction as a potential conspiracy theory story. However, the creators hadn't anticipated that the spark of reality caused an inferno that they could not put out. I will share the entire story of Ong's Hat, a fascinating and spooky early internet rabbit hole.

Get ready to binge. This week's Top 5 features some of the best horror movies from the 2000s. Low-budget classics, paranormal, suspense, and yes, lots of gore; it's all represented here.

There is also a brand-new This Week in History and Time Capsule looking at the publication of J.R.R. Tolkein's finally of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King.

To support me and the show, become a member on Patreon.

Or you can support my work and Buy Me A Coffee!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 264 here

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #143: Sydney, Clout Chasers, Pumpkin Return, etc.

2026-10-19T06:41:32.682-04:00

1. My dopamine stores got a huge boost this past weekend. It all began with an early morning, a drive out to Eastham, and a trip down Memory Lane of sorts. For a few years, my producer friend Frank, of the Lady of the Dunes documentary film, has wanted to do a short film about the story of Sydney Monzon. Sydney was an alleged victim of notorious Cape Cod serial killer Tony Costa in the late 1960s. More so, she was emblematic of the culture of the time as well as the loss of innocence of youth that happens in your late teens and early twenties. Her story is a bit of a continuation of the Lady of the Dunes story, mainly due to proximity and the time period. It’s interesting how deep the true crime on Cape Cod goes in the 1960s and 1970s. You had Tony Costa, the Lady of the Dunes, and also serial killer Hadden Clark in the area. These last five and a half years of working with Frank on various projects have definitely made me see Cape Cod, especially the Outer Cape of Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown, in a different light.

2. I had always said that when he got time to shoot the Sydney project, I was on board. I was early for the shoot but late compared to the rest of the crew. They had started shooting when I got there. The director was named Kalima, and she was deep in shooting scenes around the cemetery where Sydney Monzon was buried. Nicole was the actress who played Sydney. She had been a part of the Cape Cod Cthulhu film I was also in, so I remembered her from being on set in Provincetown in 2025. I did my best to stay out of the way of the scenes being shot but also wanted to be useful. After all, Frank had invited me to be a part of it, so I should be doing something, right? Well, maybe I should have kept quiet. Kalima asked me if I could get some b-roll of the cemetery. She had a few specific things for me to shoot, which was easy enough. Then she handed me her spare camera to film with. I played it off like I had it under control, which was another mistake. Moments later I was fumbling, trying to figure out how to shoot video, without having to ask for help. Eventually I gave up and asked her where the button was to start recording. Yes, it was very easy to find, but I guess my brain wasn’t fully functional at 9am. After that, it was all systems go for getting some, hopefully, good b-roll footage of the cemetery.

A photo of Evergreen Cemetery in Eastham

3. A reporter from the Cape Cod Times newspaper showed up to ask some questions and get some photos of the movie shoot. It was pretty cool that the Sydney project was getting some attention. Kalima and Nicole ventured off to get some shots all across the cemetery. This left Frank to chat with the reporter. I mainly stayed in the background since I was not a huge part of the production. When asked, I did come over and chat a bit, telling the reporter who I was and such. I got more comfortable and started regaling her with some of the stories from Frank and my previous adventures. She did seem interested in our stories and the Sydney project as well, so all in all it was a good experience. From there we had a few more spots to shoot around Eastham. The idea was to have Nicole portraying Sydney in areas she might have visited while she was alive. We all left the cemetery in a caravan headed for the nearby high school. There, it was a similar process. I went and got some b-roll, trying to earn that camera assistant credit on IMDb, while Kalima and Nicole got the most important shots. We had permission to film at the school on a Saturday, but we did seem to draw an interested onlooker who came out of the school. He didn’t say anything, but he did have a ‘mean old man walk,’ as Frank said. We went all over the school grounds. One of the highlights was Frank driving down a road, at least we think it was a road, and coming out of an open gate near a football field. Hey, we’d never been there; give us a break. Plus, we made it with no issues, so it all worked out.

4. I live by the credo ‘dedication to the craft’ when it comes to photography. This also carries over to film. I put this into action at our next location, Nauset Light Beach. Kalima gave me my marching orders for b-roll, and I was off. She wanted some video of the waves crashing but then also the darker sand that’s left when the waves retreat. I went as far as I could to the shore and crouched down. The waves had behaved up until then, but of course once I got close, the ocean decided to send a few rogue waves my way. Of course I could have stood up and moved back, but, you know, dedication to the craft. I was filming, and the wave came right up on me. I stood my ground and got the shot, and also soaked shoes. Oh, but that wasn’t the end. I had walked back up the beach to share my brave story of getting the video despite the ocean’s objections. My shoes were coated with sand, and my socks were squishing. One shot not on the list that I wanted was the waves crashing around a rock and then pulling back. I put all of what had just happened out of my head and walked back down to the shore. Take a wild guess what happened. Not only did the rogue waves come back, but instead of just soaking my shoes, this time it was a wave above my ankles. It was as if the ocean said, ‘Okay, you didn’t learn your lesson?’ I cleaned my shoes of all the sand so I didn’t mess up Frank’s car, but I had to spend the next several hours with wet feet. The video had better have come out good, that’s all.

5. Sometimes I end up in the right place at the right time. Before we left Nauset Light Beach, I suggested we grab a shot or two at the nearby Three Sisters Lighthouses. They are three 15-foot-tall white lighthouses located in a field about 1/3 mile from the shore. They weren’t always there. They actually used to be out on the bluff at Nauset Light Beach before eventually being replaced by the current Nauset Light. It is a forgotten attraction in Eastham. It paid off going there. The center lighthouse in the field is the only one still with a lantern on top. The other two had been sold and combined into a cottage about a century ago. When we got there, I was shocked to see the door to the center tower wide open. I could barely contain my excitement as I’d never been inside one of the Three Sisters. I got my chance and did a full walk from outside to the inside, and then up the stairs to the lantern room. There was even a bit of a trap door that led underneath to the basement, but I didn’t want to push it and get stuck in there or something. I did try a few times to open the hatch in the lantern room to get outside at the top of the lighthouse, but it wasn’t to be. I figured that would be my luck. I’d get to go inside the lighthouse and proceed to damage a historical site at the same time.

6. Last but not least, on the Sydney shoot was a stop at Fort Hill. This is the area that, in my mind, she would have visited most when she was alive. It has a beautiful sweeping view of Nauset Beach and the Nauset Inlet where boats, kayaks, and stand-up paddleboarders like to play. One thing I kept forgetting was that it was a holiday weekend. There were more people around than I expected. Luckily, we got the last parking spot at the lot on Fort Hill. Of course there had to be one car that didn’t know how to park, and they were right next to us. This lady in her SUV parked diagonally in the spot, leaving me little room to get out. Not sure what her deal was, but she was sleeping in the front seat when we arrived and still was when we left. As we walked around the ground getting video, we were unsurprisingly gawked at by others wondering what we were doing. One older couple thought we were taking senior high school photos. I guess it’s not that unlikely since Nicole looks like she could still be in high school. We got all of the shots we needed and wrapped the shoot after a little over five hours, not bad. I am sure there will be more information to come in the weeks and months ahead about the Sydney short film project.

7. The other big happening over the long holiday weekend was a Zoom interview with filmmaker Frank Durant and author Liza Rodman. We got together to talk about Cape Cod true crime for a special podcast episode as well as a YouTube video. Obviously, those who have followed my journey know that I have worked with Frank on the Lady of the Dunes projects, and you just read that I was a part of the Sydney short film. Liza Rodman wrote the book The Babysitter, which covers her life growing up on Cape Cod, but more specifically the fact that her childhood babysitter was none other than convicted serial killer Tony Costa. The book is fascinating, and she made sure to stick to her story and not delve into rumors or sensationalize the Costa murder cases. The interview was a blast. I tried my best to be a competent interviewer, but you can be the judge when you watch or listen to it. How do I know the interview went well? On Zoom, you only get 40 minutes of meeting time. We were up to about 35 minutes, and I knew I couldn’t just cut it off. So I went during the meeting and signed up for a month of Zoom Pro, which gave us unlimited time. It was $16.99, but I think it was worth it for the extra 30 minutes that we chatted for. In the end, the raw meeting was 65 minutes. I am sure I will whittle it down a bit to be less than an hour. Overall thought it was a great interview that I can’t wait for you all to see. Hopefully I get to do it again with Frank and Liza sometime soon.

8. The last several years of my life have mainly consisted of me working on a bunch of creative projects all at once. This is in addition to having a full-time job to pay the bills. It is all in the never-ending quest to create the best version of myself and my life. I joke at times that I feel like I am the bus from the movie Speed. If I slow down, it will be a disaster. It’s only a half-joke. I often feel like the only time that I am of value is when I am chasing dreams and goals. If it’s me, just me, I never do, and never have, felt like it was enough. Some days I feel like I am close to whatever the ultimate achievement is that will make me feel like I have succeeded. Other days I feel like I have no idea what I am doing and that every step I take gets me further from success. I am terrified of failure, and that keeps me from taking big risks in life like I did in my 20s. I don’t have a wife or kids or a house, but still I feel at my age there is more to lose and less room for error. With my birthday coming in a few weeks, it is hard for me not to look back at the last ten years and wonder where my life has gone. I am getting close to starting the last year of my 40s, and it gives me this overwhelming sense of desperation. It’s like I need to make something of whatever gifts I have before they are truly squandered. The scariest part is if the day comes when I have to give up chasing my dreams, I honestly don’t know who I’d be or what I’d do with the rest of my life.

9. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it incredibly weird for someone I hardly know at all to find it appropriate to tag themselves in photos of mine on social media. It’s even weirder when they not only aren’t in the photos, but weren’t even there when the photos were taken. Anybody else ever have this happen? I know on Instagram people tag bigger accounts in their photos in the hopes of getting spotlighted. Is that what this was? Some sort of sad clout chasing? To be honest, this person I met through the production of my film The Cabin. I met them for maybe a few hours combined. Their friend request I figured was fine since we’d all worked on the film together. They almost immediately began tagging themselves in photos I’d been sharing of my time out in Pennsylvania. I’d have been cool with it if they had been there for the photos, but when you’re tagging yourself in a photo of just me, that is way too creepy and off-putting. I loaded in a big batch of photos of my filming experience and tagged everyone in the album that I was friends with on Facebook. I figured that would be satisfactory. Nope. This person again began tagging themselves in the photos. I reached out and asked them to please stop doing that. Then I went and changed my settings so that if anyone tries to tag themselves in my photos, I get an alert and have to approve it. Only a few hours later, this person AGAIN tried tagging themselves, even after I asked them nicely not to. I denied all of their tag requests, which made me happy. At this point I am just waiting for an excuse to delete this person off Facebook. Oh, and when the time comes for the next feature film, I will make sure there isn’t a part for them.

A photo of only me but this weirdo thought they needed to tag themselves in it.

10. As we get deeper into October, it was time for me to get my annual pumpkin. It has been a tradition over the last 5 years to buy a small-ish pumpkin, draw a face on it with a Sharpie, and take it around Cape Cod for some fun photos. This year’s pumpkin is probably close to twice the size of a typical softball. The face I gave it was a simple smiling face, but with one catch, I gave it an eye patch. So the pumpkin looks like Snake Plissken from Escape from New York. I even called it Snake Pumpskin. The first batch of photos consisted of a sunset shoot at Englewood Beach in Yarmouth, aka my Nana’s favorite beach. I am lucky where I live to be able to get beach and sunset photos with the pumpkin before hitting up a few creepy cemeteries for the more traditional Halloween-style shots. This shoot ended up being even better as the sun went down and created a fiery sky. It was a wash of hot pinks, yellows, and oranges. I ended up taking a long walk down the beaches in Yarmouth, watching the colors change. If it hadn’t been for the cold wind and temperatures in the upper 40s, it would have looked like summer. There was even a girl standing up to her waist in the water, saying she was training for the Polar Plunge. Even better was since the sun now sets before 6pm I got all of the photos I needed and was home having dinner before 7.

A pumpkin and a sunset.

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 264: The Evil Dead Turns 45, Insane Stories of Action Park, Best Low-Budget Horror Movies(10-14-2026)

2026-10-14T07:24:40.196-04:00

The anniversary of an influential horror film. Some unbelievable stories from an unbelievable amusement park. The best horror movies made for little money.

Episode 264 kicks off Spooky Season proper with some haunting GenX nostalgia.

It starts with the story of Action Park, an amusement and water park where coming out unscathed was a bonus. For decades, visitors entered the grounds in New Jersey looking for a fun day creating memories. Some got what they paid for, while many left with injuries, and some even lost their lives, earning it nicknames like Traction Park. How was this park allowed to stay open?

45 years ago a group of friends with little money but a lot of talent and drive created a horror film that changed the industry. The Evil Dead lacked a big budget but made up for it in story, creativity, and gore by the bucket. We look back at how the film came to be, why it was so popular, and its legacy and influence.

Not every movie can have tens of millions of dollars at its disposal. Some films have to make do with a far smaller budget. In this week's Top 5, we look at some of the best low-budget horror movies. These were made for less than one million dollars (at the time).

There is also a brand-new This Week in History and Time Capsule looking at the life and career of animator Mike Judge, creator of Beavis & Butthead and King of the Hill.

To support me and the show, become a member on Patreon.

Or you can support my work and Buy Me A Coffee!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 263 here

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #142: The Cabin Movie Shoot Epilogue

2026-10-12T07:14:21.440-04:00

1. It is amazing how, despite not drinking alcohol in 6 years, I can still feel hungover. The long, long drive home from western New York to Cape Cod to finish off my movie shoot for The Cabin was as taxing to my body as running a half marathon used to be. I got home at 11pm on a Sunday, quickly unpacked, and collapsed into bed. Normally, if possible, I’d have slept as late as I could have. Unfortunately, past-me figured it would be smart to return my rental car at 9am on Monday. This meant that sleeping in wasn’t possible. Energy drinks helped wake me up much like they did every morning when I was in Pennsylvania. I took advantage of every split second that I had to wake up before heading out. Not wanting to get in any trouble, I stopped and filled the gas tank. I was dreading the drop-off of the car at the Hyannis Airport. One, because the website said for me to have my rental agreement with me. That had been left on my couch, as one would expect. That didn’t end up being an issue, though. Second, I was worried about my adventures down the toll roads when driving from Cape Cod out to Pennsylvania. I thought the rental place might have questions about the tolls, or why I put 1,200 miles on the car I rented. Surprisingly, that was not an issue either, although I did get an email a few days later explaining that my card on file had been charged for the tolls. This was expected. I was a bit surprised that the tolls weren’t more. It ended up being $4.31, which is a bit of a random number. In the end, the rental drop-off went as well as I could have hoped.

Back to the airport to drop off the car.

2. I was lucky that my sister Ashley had offered to pick me up from the airport. This meant that after a text, all I had to do was sit and wait. The airport was quiet. It was Labor Day, but I still thought there might have been more people flying in or out. Then again, the Hyannis airport itself is relatively small, so I don’t know what ‘busy’ looks like there. I sat on a couch in the lounge area scrolling my phone. The entrance doors parted and in walked a very cute girl. Yes, I looked up, and she definitely caught my eye. After checking in at the desk, she wheeled her luggage over and sat down on a couch across from me. This sounds like the start of some cheesy rom-com, but unfortunately that’s not reality. I looked over, not too much, though. All I kept thinking was, ‘What do I say to not become a joke that she tells her friends wherever she’s going?’ Not wanting to be perceived as a creep, I kept quiet until I eventually got up and went outside to sit in the sun. Maybe we would have hit it off, and I missed my chance, but with the way the world is today I didn’t want to risk it. I kept picturing her telling her friends, ‘so this random guy tried to pick me up in the airport lounge.’ That was enough for me to pass.

3. Labor Day Monday, it was a beautiful morning on Cape Cod. Bright sun, low humidity, temperatures in the low 60s. I actually did prefer sitting outside rather than on the couch inside. Too bad that girl didn’t come wandering out. Anyway, I was awaiting my sister Ashley. My brain was like mush after the 10+ hours of driving the day before, so I was off in my own world as time went by. Eventually, I got a text from Ashley saying she was there. I immediately sprang to life and looked around but didn’t see anything that looked like her car. I asked where she was, and she said she was by the car rental drop-off. She said she’d come back around. How had I missed her? I stood up and waited by the curb. It was then that I realized what the problem had been. Ashley had the same SUV for 10 years or more. I was looking for that car when, in reality, only a few weeks earlier she had gotten a new car. So she had driven right past me, and I didn’t bat an eye because I forgot she had gotten a new car. We both had a laugh.

4. The week I had in Pennsylvania was truly one of the best times of my life. An interesting thing happened while I was away, though. Several horrible things happened to my family. My Aunt Amy, my mom’s youngest sister, had a serious medical issue that now requires her to have a more watchful eye placed upon her by the rest of her siblings. That could have been worse, but it was still a major happening. My stepfather, in the span of three weeks, lost both his mother and one of his sisters. His sister died while I was away. I couldn’t imagine how I would feel if I lost my mom and one of my sisters in less than a month. With that, all we can do is be there if he needs us, but I try not to push or pry if he doesn’t want it. Lastly, my sister Ashley had to put her beloved dog Buddha down. She got some terrible medical news that told her that his life was going to end soon. Whether that was days or weeks, it wasn’t long. He had been the center of her world for nearly 10 years, and it was heartbreaking that he was gone almost in a flash. She felt guilty about putting him down, but the reality was that he would have kept going downhill and suffering more with each passing day. It doesn’t make the hurt any less, but she did make the right choice. All of that happened during my time off, when I had the best week. It felt as though, to allow for my happiness, the universe had to balance it out by giving suffering to my loved ones.

RIP Buddha

5. It was bittersweet when I stopped at my mother’s to retrieve my car. I was bursting with joy and stories, but with all of the bad that had happened to the family, I felt almost a sense of guilt for wanting to share it. To be fair, they all felt bad as well, like they had no control over the events that happened or their timing. I sat and would tell stories when warranted, but I’d also sit back and listen when my mom or Ashley wanted to share some of what they had gone through. It is a good lesson to be learned. Good times and bad times can happen at the same time. It can be an ebb and flow. I didn’t get upset if my wonderful experiences were somewhat muted on that day. There would, and will, be plenty of time to reflect and reminisce. Sometimes you have to be present and go where the conversation and situation take you. Sure, I’d love to have been celebrated like a returning hero or something like that. Even if it didn’t happen like that, it doesn’t mean my family wasn’t happy for me. Plus, with the holidays coming up in a flash, I will have ample opportunity to regale the family with stories of my adventures filming The Cabin.

6. The most difficult part of my return to the daily grind of my everyday life was feeling like I was being stuffed into a box that no longer fit. I honestly do try to enjoy each moment, each adventure, and be present and grateful. However, I will also admit that every time I have something amazing happen in a part of my life where my passion lies, and then I have to go back to the daily grind, I feel let down. I feel like each time I am forced back into my cage, I have failed. I feel like I am given a chance to break through in one of the creative fields that drives me, and then when I have to go back to my day job, I am like a defeated animal with my tail tucked between my legs. This feeling drives me to put my all into any creative opportunity that I have, but it also takes away from the opportunity itself. I have this underlying sense of desperation at all times. I am not 25 and stepping through the doors for the first time. I am rapidly closing in on 50 and have spent 20 years knocking on doors, windows, anything that might show me the way. I don’t mind the grind, but the grind without the progress can feel pointless. I felt that way when returning to work after filming The Cabin. It was like a hangover. I could not concentrate for days. Anytime I wasn’t actively doing something, I felt restless, like I needed to be at home working on another project to help me capitalize on the momentum. It took a while to settle back into the ‘normalcy’ of daily life.

7. When dealing with a dopamine crash like I have been doing since returning from filming The Cabin, you kind of do what you have to do to feel better. For me, since I couldn’t immediately start work on another movie, and I didn’t have another book event until the first week of October, I had to find things that gave me that same satisfaction as the movie shoot did. The easiest thing to do is to eat the foods that make you happy. No, these are typically not vegetables and other healthy options. When I feel down, I go for the worst. Fast food, pizza, Chinese food, cereal, junk food snacks. During my road trip, I didn’t have the time or the bandwidth to stop and slow down and choose meals wisely. I had to get whatever took the least amount of effort. That was usually one of the options I named above. So once back home and feeling pretty deflated, I went back to those foods. Since I was eating them while on the movie shoot, it was the quickest and easiest way to mimic those good feelings I had while I was in Pennsylvania. I have also learned in the last several years when dealing with rough times that it’s okay to allow yourself to do what you have to do to get through that stretch of time. When I was a distance runner, which ended in 2019 due to injuries, I never would have allowed myself to indulge. I was borderline obsessed with my physical appearance. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look as good as you can, but I know now it was an obsession based on how my brain has reacted since those days ended. I forced myself to be as restricted as possible in my diet, and now when I get the chance to eat some unhealthy foods, my brain is more than happy to dive in headfirst. I am sure this current dopamine crash after the movie shoot will end, likely only when I start doing another exciting project. Until that time, it’s just going day by day and doing the best I can to navigate this stretch of time.

I have seen quite a bit of these over the last few years.

8. I had made a vow before heading out to Pennsylvania that while I was there I’d take every opportunity to get behind-the-scenes photos and videos. I did not disappoint myself. Immediately upon returning to Cape Cod, I started working on putting some videos together. Each day I was on location, I shot a vlog detailing what had happened the previous day. These ended up being invaluable because I was recalling in real time what had happened. When I returned to Cape Cod, I realized just how overstuffed my brain was. It was like I crammed a month’s worth of memories into a week. Naturally, some things would have been lost if I hadn’t been so diligent with my footage. I could realistically end up with a couple dozen different pieces of content from what I shot. From the vlogs, to a large cast interview, to individual cast interviews, random scenery, and more, I could stitch together weekly content from now until the end of the year. If nothing else, through my content creator journey, and probably long before that, I have become an advanced-level self-promoter. When I first wrote and self-published ebooks in 2007, including The Cabin, I knew I had to be the one to promote myself. It’s nice to have family and friends every now and then share your work, but you can’t depend on anyone but yourself to share your creations with the wider world. I have always said that if you are in any sort of creative field and someone else is promoting your work more than you are, then you really aren’t putting in the work. I still believe and stand by that. So get ready for loads of Cabin content. Actually, that includes this blog as well, so you’re already a part of it.

9. There is a popular saying: Strike while the iron is hot. It basically means that when you have momentum, you keep moving forward, even if you’re a bit tired and worn out. In order to stave off the dopamine crash, I have been trying to fill my calendar with projects that are in my wheelhouse as far as passions go. Book events, interviews, developing content, these are all things that I have been doing. One thing that came up faster than expected was a script for a potential second feature film. Yes, I had an idea for the next movie. It is in the same vein as The Cabin as far as cast size and budget. Small and relatively cheap. However, I had thought that it would be next spring when I’d start working on that script. Then I got a message from my friend Frank, who said there might be someone interested in investing in that film. They want to see what the film is all about before putting any money into it. That means the time to work on the script was now. I put myself on lockdown to try to get the first draft done as soon as possible. It didn’t have to be perfect, just a placeholder for the potential investor to see. As of this blog, the first draft of the script is done. However, it won’t be known if we have an investor likely for a little while. Like I said, you have to strike while the iron is hot. Who knows, if I said I couldn’t get the script done until the spring, the investor might have said they weren’t interested anymore.

10. I guess if I had to sum up my experience with The Cabin, it would come down to one word: gratitude. I am so grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life. I have had family that has always supported my dreams and goals. I have had friends who have become chosen family and not let me give up on myself. Hell, a lot of these people have believed in me and my dreams more than I have at times. Through issues of self-worth, through crises of confidence, good times, and bad times, I have been so lucky to have who I do in my life. This is not limited to those I have known for twenty or thirty years or more. I have found newer people that have drifted into my orbit, sometimes out of nowhere, who have helped to supply my passions with a fresh boost of rocket fuel. I work hard, and have for going on twenty years. When it comes to my creative endeavors, I will put in as much work as I need to. When people are willing to put their money behind something I have wanted for so long, it humbles and inspires me. I’m not saying that the only way to support me is financially, but movies don’t come cheap. I put in some of my own money, but it took a village of family, friends, and some total strangers to make The Cabin happen. Those people believed in the project; the director, Mark Polonia, believed in the project. Everyone who acted in the film or had anything to do with it, they all believed in it. I believe that we created something fun and unique. We worked hard to validate those beliefs. In the end, I am so grateful. I am grateful for the opportunity. I am grateful for the experience and all that I learned during my time on location. I am grateful for those who believe in me. I am grateful for those who helped bring this film to life. Thank you all, and here’s to the next exciting chapter not just of The Cabin, but of the movie that I like to call my life.

Thank you everyone!

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 263: Super Mario Bros. 2 & 3, Saturday Night Live, Famous Backup Singers On Famous Songs(10-7-2026)

2026-10-07T18:51:32.400-04:00

A pair of beloved Super Mario Bros. sequels. The premiere of Saturday Night Live. Some famous people singing backup on other famous songs.

Episode 263 kicks off the month of October with a lot of fun GenX nostalgia and pop culture.

We begin with a double dose of video game classics. Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 are so connected that it felt wrong to not talk about both. One was experimental while the other became one of the best-selling games ever for the NES. Both of them were highly influential on games that came after. Get ready for a speedrun through the world of Mario.

Saturday Night Live should not have succeeded the way it did. Unknown comedians, unknown writers, creating a show seen as filler for what were reruns of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Yet, more than five decades later, the show is looked at as the launch pad of dozens of famous stars and is one of the most important television shows ever. We will look at how it all began.

In an oddly specific Top 5, we will look at famous singers who also sang backup on other famous songs. Some of these are common knowledge, but others you might not have heard about. Get ready to create a new Spotify playlist.

There is also a brand-new This Week in History and Time Capsule looking back at the Broadway debut of the musical Cats.

To support me and the show, become a member on Patreon.

Or you can support my work and Buy Me A Coffee!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 262 here

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #141: The Cabin Movie Shoot Day 4

2026-10-05T06:29:06.814-04:00

1. This was the final shooting day for my feature film The Cabin. It ended up being the tale of two halves. The first half was an exciting last filming location, while the second half was driving - lots and lots of driving. It might have been the most I'd ever driven in a single day, at least in terms of time.

2. It was a Sunday. I needed to take care of everything at the motel I had called home for the previous five days in Mansfield, Pennsylvania. This consisted of packing thoroughly and carefully. If I forgot anything, there was little to no chance of me getting it back. I had a little more room in one of my bags because some of the clothing I had brought with me was used as the costume for the creature. Since it had been sliced up and coated with blood, there was no need for me to take it back home. I made sure to rearrange the furniture back to the way it was. I had moved a table to give me a setup similar to my desk at home. Everything was cleaned, the bed was made, and after checking for maybe the fifth time, I grabbed the room key and headed out. The manager wasn’t in the office, but he was at the top of the stairs, which led to his apartment on the premises. I made sure to get his attention as I dropped the key into the box. I didn’t receive any sort of negative email in the days after, so I assume I left the room looking fine. I sat in my rented Honda Accord and took a few breaths; the trip was almost over. I felt like I had lived a month in a week, and although there was still one shooting day to go, I already felt the dopamine crash that comes after you have an exciting experience and then have to get back to ‘reality.’ I pulled out onto the quiet Main Street as I had every other day that week, and made the drive to Mark’s house in the neighboring town of Wellsboro. I tried to soak in every hill and every curve, every shop and billboard, anything that might make a good entry in the blogs that would follow. Who knows if I will ever see that area again? If not, both Mansfield and Wellsboro were fine places to stay and spend a week.

Thank you, Mansfield Inn, it was a fun time.

3. I knew this final day was going to be something different from the moment I arrived at Mark’s house. On previous days, when I arrived, I parked my car in the grass next to his driveway. This let me leave at the end of the filming day without being blocked in or blocking someone else in. When I pulled up on this day, I hadn’t been there for more than a minute or two when Mark gave me the location where we were going on location to shoot. He said I could leave ahead of the rest of them to get some photos and videos. I enjoyed carpooling and connecting with the rest of the crew, but I was really craving some alone time, driving and playing the music I wanted while soaking in the new scenery. I took that chance. I punched in the location: Morgan Marine, Penn Yan, New York. Slowly, I pulled away and left Mark and his house in the rearview. It was time for our final rendezvous for The Cabin.

4. Each morning, when driving from Mansfield to Wellsboro, it was roughly 15-20 minutes of driving. I began this day with that drive. Getting from Wellsboro to Morgan Marine was about an hour and a half north. We were to be filming the final scenes of the movie on Mark’s boat and at a marina located on Keuka Lake, part of the Finger Lakes in New York. Things looked rough within the first half hour of the drive as the skies clouded up and it began to sprinkle. It was brief, though. The majority of the drive was beautiful, peaceful, and sunny. It made me wish I had some sort of GoPro, or other camera that I could have filmed the trek with. It was rolling green hills, small lakes, and good music, at least in my opinion. I wanted to make sure I had a little while at Morgan Marine by myself, so I was testing my luck with my speed. I was lucky in that I never had any sort of close encounter with police. Considering how much I drove on highways, I was a little surprised. Later on, though, I got to see someone else have an issue with the cops, but we’ll get to that. During my 90-minute drive north, things felt relaxed. I was thinking of all of the amazing things I had seen and done in the span of a week. That trip down memory lane was interrupted by a different feeling. In order to be ‘up’ for this final day, I began the morning with a slightly more potent energy drink. Within an hour of driving to the Finger Lakes, I knew I needed to find a bathroom. It became a battle between my desire to have some free time to shoot at Morgan Marine and my bladder telling me that wasn’t likely to happen. At one point I stopped my car to get a photo of an amazing view. I stopped right in the road. I very nearly took the chance to run into the grass to pee but wasn’t willing to risk it. The final leg of the drive was filled with a lot of leg bouncing just to keep my bladder distracted. Then, there it was, Morgan Marine. I made it. Before doing anything, I basically ran to the bathroom. Unfortunately, it was for members only and was locked. That was nearly the end for me, but I held it together and hustled over to the docks. There I asked a pair of teens who were working where the nearest bathroom was. I got pointed in the right direction, and within moments my nightmare was over. I calmly walked back to my car to grab my camera equipment to get some footage of the marina before everyone else arrived.

Yes I thought about running into the bushes to pee there.

5. Throughout my adventure on this movie shoot, I did my best to stay in the moment and appreciate all of the new experiences I was having. As excited as I was, and am, for The Cabin to be a finished product, I was more keen on enjoying each memory as it was being made. I could have easily sat in my car and waited for Mark and the rest of the crew to arrive at Morgan Marine. It was, after all, a 90-minute drive early in the morning. I knew I’d regret it, though. Instead, I wandered all over the docks of the marina, capturing video and photos. I had never been to the Finger Lakes. Even though it would be brief, I wanted to get as much footage as possible so that memories, and blogs like this, would be chock full of details. There were dozens of boats docked, but surprisingly very few people in them. It ended up being a ruse. Only later on, when we were there filming and needed the appearance of isolation, did boat after boat of people come cruising by. It was a pleasant morning with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-60s. I wanted to stand and soak in all of the sights and sounds of the marina and Keuka Lake, but from in the distance I spotted the rest of the crew arriving, so it was time to get to work on the last scenes for The Cabin.

Some of the boats at Morgan Marine

6. In reality, we only needed a handful of scenes to be filmed. A few of them were on the docks, a few were in and around Mark’s boat, and a few were on the water. Luckily, when greeting the crew, I heard about us going out on the boat to shoot. I get terrible car and sea sickness, which is loads of fun. It leads to me doing most of the driving when going on any sort of road trip. It also means I need a fresh stock of Dramamine when I go on any car or boat adventure. I popped one pill and then hoped we’d take our time filming on the docks so that the meds had time to kick in. Cody, it turned out, wasn’t the biggest fan of the water. I offered him a Dramamine, but he said he’d be alright. As I just mentioned, only when we started filming did a seemingly endless stream of boats and even jet skis start to arrive and depart from the marina. The scenes are supposed to be in a very isolated area, so any sort of sound ruins the illusion. It was funny at one point I was filming behind the scenes, and Mark had to stop his own filming due to a plane going overhead. His giving the plane the middle finger had us all cracking up. Another laugh came when Jeff dropped his script on the dock, and a page went into the water. Fortunately, it was a scene we had already shot, so the sopping wet paper could be thrown away. The scenes on the docks went smoothly, so all that remained was getting some action shots out on the open water. By this time my Dramamine had kicked in, so I was itching to go. I just hoped Cody would be okay.

7. Keuka Lake is one of eleven lakes in the Finger Lake chain. It is unusual for its Y-shape. We were all the way at the northernmost tip of the eastern end of that Y shape. The lake is 20 miles long. I was hoping for a nice long cruise around but was also realistic. I knew we needed to get a few scenes on the water and that business came first. One scene included Jeff driving the boat. Mark had to get it going and then get out of the driver’s seat. Next, Jeff had to sit down and start driving carefully while also reciting his lines. My job was to sit, watch, and get some behind-the-scenes footage. I definitely had it easy. Once Mark got back to driving, we picked up speed and started cruising. I was thoroughly lost in the sights and sounds of Keuka Lake. I tried to get as many photos of as many lakeside properties as I could so I could remember the moments. It wasn’t lost on me just how much I had seen and done in such a short time. The airfield, the cabin, the university lab, the group dinners, the sunset chats in the front yard, and now a boat ride. There was so much to remember and talk about for so long to come. All good things do have to come to an end. After probably 20 minutes of cruising, we headed back to the marina. There was one final scene to be shot, and very fittingly I missed Mark saying ‘that’s a a wrap on The Cabin.’ I caught the last moment and had to then ask him to repeat himself, wicked smart. Jeff, Cody, and Michael headed back to dry land while I helped Mark put the cover on his boat. With each snap attaching the cover, I felt the reality sink in. My time on the movie shoot was ending. I knew it was meant to be a very full but also very fast shoot, but still it felt like it was over too soon. I savored each snap of that cover.

8. Despite the others quickly heading off to the parking lot, I knew they wouldn’t be going too far. One because Mark was driving at least some of them, and most of all because the end of the shoot meant it was time to dish out payments. This was a lot of fun. There I was pulling my bag out of the trunk of my rental car, whipping out my checkbook, and asking people how they spelled their last names. Without disclosing any numbers, because that would be lame, I will say that I ended up giving extra money to everyone who acted in the film. Seeing their hard work close up inspired me and made me feel like they deserved a little more than Mark and I had originally agreed upon. One by one, I wrote checks. I shook each person’s hand and thanked them for being a part of this project. I truly meant it. I had wanted to be a filmmaker since high school. I had written The Cabin book in 2008. So, standing there on the shore of Keuka Lake after wrapping filming and looking at these people who had chosen to be a part of the film, it was humbling and left me full of gratitude. Mark joked that I was setting the bar high with extra pay and all of the thanks. When the time comes to do a second feature film, I will still have that same level of gratitude. I hope I never lose it.

9. It was time for us all to go our separate ways. Being smart, I ran to the bathroom one last time. I watched Mark and the rest of the crew begin the return trip south to Pennsylvania. I, on the other hand, was staring at one of the longest drives of my life. Mark had said that driving to Keuka Lake would leave me 90 minutes closer to Cape Cod when it was time to leave. This was not the case. I actually was 90 minutes further away. It was nearly ten hours straight through. I needed a break somewhere in the middle. It was then that I realized that a spot I had wanted to visit for years was literally right on my drive home. It was the Saville Dam in Barkhamsted, Connecticut. This was only 5 ½ hours away and would allow me a built-in break to stretch my legs and get some long-awaited photos. It was just before 1 pm when I threw the address into my GPS, also remembering to avoid toll roads, and rolled out of the Morgan Marine parking lot to begin the very, very long drive back to Cape Cod.

10. I headed southeast through the rolling hills of Western New York. In an interesting twist, I ended up not seeing any deer on my long drives to and from Pennsylvania. When I had done a 6-day, 2,100-mile road trip around the Eastern U.S. in 2019, I saw so many deer in New York and Pennsylvania that it was akin to seeing squirrels along the roads on Cape Cod. What I did see a lot of on this particular drive was Pennsylvania Dutch people. I don’t believe they are specifically Amish. These folks were dressed in 18th-century garb and rode on the sides of the roads using horses and buggies. Even if I didn’t see the buggies, I knew they had been by since there were nonstop piles of horse poop all over the roads. It was truly unique to see what probably added up to a dozen such vehicles within the span of an hour. If I had not been at the start of such a long drive, I might have been tempted to stop at one of their roadside stores, but my rental car needed to be returned by 9am the following morning, and I had no plans of spending more money on another hotel stay. It was Cape Cod or bust, Pennsylvania Dutch or not.

11. When undertaking such a long drive, it is important to stay awake and alert. This is obvious. But how do you do it? Music, podcasts, and having a passenger are all good ideas. I tend to break things down into smaller bites. I’d use my GPS to break the trip down into chapters based around each new command. There were, however, long stretches of time where I had to force myself to pay attention. Much of the highways in New York and Pennsylvania were as rural as the road out to the cabin where we filmed. There was beautiful scenery everywhere, but sometimes no other vehicles in either direction. Then came the defining moment of my drive. In a patch of busier highway, I saw a car coming up on me. I was in the slow lane, just enjoying the drive. This car was speeding, and I knew this because a state trooper pulled behind them and put their lights on. I was both happy and sad since it wasn’t me, but that car was going to get pulled over. Or so I thought. Now, I don’t know about you, but if a cop puts their lights on behind me, I pull over as soon as possible. That’s kind of the point. I didn’t measure the distance, but I’d have to say that the car behind me drove for well over a mile without pulling over. Maybe they didn’t see immediately, but after going on two minutes, there was no way that person didn’t know a cop was on their tail. I was saying out loud that they needed to pull over. The cop was not happy and pulled into the other lane, right up alongside the car. They must have yelled and pointed because moments later the car pulled over. I don’t know how long you have to keep driving while a cop is on you with their lights going to qualify as fleeing, but this car had to have been close. I do not want to know how much their tickets were because I am assuming the cop gave them more than one because they were pissed off.

12. The drive back to Cape Cod was sunny and pleasant. It was a far cry from the monsoon that I drove through to get to Pennsylvania. The only times that I got off the highway were to use a bathroom at a rest area and then to find dinner. One thing that was a good and bad discovery while I was on this trip was the fact that I could use Venmo to pay for food. When I open the app on my phone, it is now littered with payments to McDonald's, because they are everywhere. For dinner, I stopped at a McDonald’s in the small town of Valatie, New York. It has less than 2,000 people and is about 20 miles south of Albany. I noticed that prices are somewhat lower for a lot of things in Pennsylvania and New York compared to Cape Cod. Saving a few dollars on food was good after the rental car, hotel, and other expenses of a week-long movie shoot. I sat in the parking lot just after 4pm, listened to a podcast, and did some people-watching as a way to recalibrate before continuing on the long drive home. By this point, I had already driven over four hours and nearly 250 miles and was still about 90 minutes from Saville Dam. There was no rush; I knew I had plenty of sunlight left in the day. Before getting back on the highway, I stopped and got gas at a Stewart’s Shops, which was right down the street. This was another place I’d never been. It’s a chain of convenience stores with more than 400 locations in New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont. After eating dinner, though, I had no desire to go inside and buy any food, so it was just gas up and go. Sorry, Stewart’s, you weren’t that important to me.

Here is the Stewart's Shops in Valatie, NY.

13. The anticipation built as I got closer to the Saville Dam. My fascination with the spot has lasted for years after seeing numerous photos of it on Instagram. Being about 3 ½ hours from Cape Cod, a drive out there wasn’t a quick trip, so it had to wait. Visiting it was the unexpected cherry on top of the sundae that was an incredible week. It was just after 7pm when I arrived. There was still a little time until sunset, leaving me plenty of opportunity to get all of the photos I wanted. I parked at the west end of the dam because it was the first parking spot I saw. If I had gone across to the eastern end, I would have been better prepared for the surprise that awaited me. In a public place, you have no control over who will be there or what they might do. I understand this. But there’s a big difference between families with screaming kids and what I saw here. At Saville Dam, closing in on 7:30pm on a Sunday, there were at least ten cars parked along the road in front of the beautiful gatehouse, which is the main photo point of the area. These cars were all owned by young people, probably in their late teens and early 20s. Oh, but they weren’t just parked. No, they were each taking turns racing by the gatehouse like a single-sided drag race. These idiots had no concern for any normal people who might have been driving that road or stopping to get photos of the area. I did my best to get all of the footage I needed. I can always overlay nature sounds on the video and mute the stupid cars. I stayed there for about 30 minutes, and by the time I left, it was almost dark, but the kids and their cars were still there. It was a weird mix because the Saville Dam itself was exactly as cool as I’d hoped, but the noise and foolish idiots racing there made it so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I might have if they weren’t. After sharing a few photos of the gatehouse on social media, it was time for the final push back to Cape Cod. 3 ½ hours of driving in the dark lay ahead of me.

The gatehouse at Saville Dam

14. I fully enjoyed driving the Honda Accord I rented. It had a lot of tech upgrades that my Toyota Corolla doesn’t have. There were LED headlights that turn from bright to normal depending on whether there’s a vehicle coming toward you. It felt good to finally give people a taste of their own medicine, seeing as how I have been getting blinded by LED headlights for years. They should be illegal. I enjoyed having the song display right in front of me along with the speed, plus the lane departure warning came in handy as it got later in the night. It also had a device charging pad located right under the radio. This was a great feature, but when you’re trying to see the GPS display and your phone is lying down, it became a bit annoying, so I didn’t use the charger as much as I thought. The next morning I filled the gas tank as is expected when you rent a car, and it made me even happier that I rented an Accord. Yes, the fill-up was a lot of money since gas probably costs double what it should currently, but it could have been much worse if I had been a fool and gone for the SUVs. I say that because the basic rental price of an SUV is less per day than a typical sedan, but you end up getting gouged on the gas. In the end, I would definitely rent that same type of Honda Accord again. Who knows, maybe when my Corolla is finally ready to be put to pasture (hopefully not for a few more years), I will buy one of those Accords as my next car.

15. The night drive through Connecticut, Rhode Island, and finally into Massachusetts was a war of attrition. I was just trying to make it home in one piece. In a funny twist, after seeing the Saville Dam for the first time, I ended up passing another spot that’s been on my New England photo bucket list. Jerimoth Hill in Foster, Rhode Island, is the highest point in the state. I have wanted to try to visit the highest points in all six New England states. So far I have visited exactly one, Mount Greylock in Massachusetts. I passed the sign for Jerimoth Hill at probably close to 10pm so I wasn’t going to hike to the top in the dark. Granted, it’s only about 811 feet high, but I’m not going to wander around a place like that in the dead of night. For a moment, I had thought that I put ‘avoid highways’ on my GPS because I seemed to be on a lot of local roads rather than highways. Finally, I found I-195 in Rhode Island, and it was smooth sailing home. I pulled into the driveway at 11pm. I had left Keuka Lake around 12:30pm. Yes, I stopped to pee, get gas, eat, and shoot the Saville Dam, but still it ended up being more than ten hours of almost nothing but driving. In total, I put more than 1,200 miles on that Honda Accord I rented. My Corolla at present needs some exhaust work and probably a few other smaller things. I couldn’t imagine having tried to pull that trip off in it. I’d probably have left it in a field near one of those horror houses in rural Pennsylvania.

16. I made it inside carrying all of my luggage in one trip. It was about all my body could handle. Even after driving for so long, I knew that I needed to take a few minutes to put everything away before simply collapsing into bed. I unpacked and drank some water. The next morning I needed to return my rental car by 9am. Only when I was about 7 hours into my drive home did I regret that decision. It all worked out for the best, though, as I saved money on an extra day of rental fees, plus however much I’d have needed to spend on a hotel room. The night ended the way most of my time on the movie shoot had; I did all I could, knowing that I’d have time to reminisce and enjoy it later. All of the photos, videos, and memories would be waiting for me in the morning. I had made it home after a marathon drive and a marathon week that felt like it had a month of memories crammed into it.

It was a pretty good week.

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 262: Nickelodeon's Double Dare, Worst After School Specials, Weird 1980s PC Games(9-30-2026)

2026-09-30T10:53:05.477-04:00

Celebrating 40 years of Double Dare. Some of the worst after-school specials ever. A collection of weird and wild 1980s PC games.

Episode 262 ends the month of September with all shades of GenX nostalgia and pop culture.

On your mark, get set, go! The show sprints from the start with a look back forty years at the debut of Nickelodeon's sloppy fun game show Double Dare. Every 80s kid who watched the show either wanted to be on it or wanted to find ways to replicate it in our own lives. Slime, physical challenges, flags, and loads of memories are here.

ABC's After School Specials were a big part of the lives of 70s and 80s kids. It's where we learned about how to deal with bullying, drugs, peer pressure, and more. On this week's show, we will go to the bottom of the barrel to find some of the worst episodes from the beloved series. This includes a future A-list actor diving out of a window.

Not every video game can change the industry. For every Oregon Trail that defined the 1980s, there were also plenty of weird and just plain terrible PC games. This week we look at the Top 5 weird PC games from the 1980s, including one based on a C-level one-hit wonder band.

This week, we also have a brand-new This Week in History and Time Capsule looking back at the debut of the Ford Model T.

To support me and the show, become a member on Patreon.

Or you can support my work and Buy Me A Coffee!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 261 here

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #140: The Cabin Movie Shoot Day 3

2026-09-28T07:13:11.657-04:00

1. This was my fifth day in rural North-Central Pennsylvania and the third full day of filming for my feature film The Cabin. The heat and humidity finally broke, leaving us with perfect weather for our last day of shooting in the middle of nowhere at the cabin in Osceola. This day was a bit easier. The weather helped, as did the fact that we had left all of our stuff at the cabin the night before. We really only had to bring ourselves. I began the day as I had all of the other days: a quick energy drink and a protein shake. Then I was flying out the door to drive from Mansfield across to Wellsboro so we could carpool out to the middle of nowhere.

2. I had been meaning for days to stop at a spot near Mark’s house in downtown Wellsboro. It was a beautiful fountain surrounded by flowers on the town green. On this day, I finally left a few minutes early to allow me the chance to grab some photos and videos. It was a classic hurry up and enjoy it later type of shoot. I probably spent three minutes at the fountain before I had to rush off to Mark’s house. Later on, I learned that the fountain is called the Wynken, Blynken & Nod Fountain. They are characters from a Dutch children’s poem, and the sculpture inside the fountain features those characters sailing in a wooden shoe. I would have regretted not stopping to get those photos since I kept saying it every time I passed by it, whether I was alone or with someone.

3. The first thing we saw when we pulled up to the cabin on this day was the carnage I left behind from the night before. The front door had two bloody handprints from where I, as the monster, busted through to attack. Inside the bedroom, in a pile on the floor was the outfit, consisting of clothes from my own closet, that I had worn as the monster. They would be getting another use on this day. We were like a well-oiled machine by this point. The cast entered the cabin, and within ten minutes we were shooting.

4. Laughs were had as we realized an error we had made the previous day. Even though the humidity had broken the previous afternoon, we had wondered why the cabin interior remained like a sauna. We figured it must have been well insulated and retained heat. Now, one walk around the entire cabin would have told us that wasn’t true; still, we believed it. The tradition became that we showed up at the cabin and turned on whatever power we needed from the fuse box next to the front door. This is when we realized that somehow, someone had turned the heat on the previous day. We only figured it out when we spotted the thermostat set at 75. This meant that the previous day, when it was 85 and humid outside, we had the heat on inside anyway. No wonder we were cooking the previous day. Although, to be fair, wearing a huge trench coat inside during the summer would likely have made anyone sweat. During the morning, it was definitely more comfortable inside the cabin than it was the previous day. However, by early afternoon it was starting to get warm inside. This made us question our theory on the heater being turned on. Luckily, this was our final day at the cabin, and as long as we remembered to turn the heat off when we left (we did), then everything would be fine for the owners when they returned.

5. There were a few scenes inside the cabin where the main character was sitting at the dining room table eating. We had brought some food for us to have during downtime, so we figured we’d use that as props for the film. That being said, we did make sure to take the time to explore the kitchen to see if there was anything of use. Anthony and I had fun poking around looking for kitchenware and utensils for props. There were also some interesting choices as far as food left behind. I mentioned previously that the fridge included loads of beer and condiments. In one of the pantry cabinets, there was a stash of canned goods. This was dominated by green beans. I don’t know why we thought it was so funny and odd that this hunting cabin had several cans of green beans. I guess because you looked around and saw an obnoxious amount of deer heads and a month’s worth of beer, and you get one image in your head of a typical hunter, but then they have to have their veggies for health? Besides that, there wasn’t much else of note left in the cabin when we arrived. Well, except for the human-scent masking shampoo and deodorant in the bathroom. That was definitely interesting but also made sense as to how they managed to shoot so many deer.

6. One of the most memorable moments of my entire trip to Pennsylvania happened on this day. We had a scene in the film where a person had been killed and their body needed to be dragged from the cabin outside to be stashed somewhere near the water. The person who originally played that character was unavailable until much later in the day. Not wanting to sit around the cabin for hours, we decided to improvise. We had Anthony stand in, well, his legs did. There was a brief scene inside where Cody grabs Anthony’s legs. It then cuts to outside in the grass. Anthony is a big boy, so we were trying to figure out the minimum amount of movement we’d need to make it look like he was being dragged. We again had Cody grab his legs and then, through movie magic, filmed Cody close up moving backward to simulate dragging a body. I know, so far that’s not very interesting, but oh wait, the best is yet to come. We hadn’t wanted Anthony to have to lie in the wet grass, so I found a pretty grungy white tarp in the basement. A basement that looks to be right out of a Saw movie, by the way. Once he was on the tarp, we figured out that with more movie magic we could have Cody drag Anthony on the tarp with a few of us helping to drag it off camera. So Anthony lay on the tarp while one by one the rest of us pitched in to try to move him. It was an exercise in futility. Not even four of us together could get the tarp to budge. We all were laughing at the scene. Jeff laughed the most, so much so that he had to walk far away to hide how much he was laughing. I had wished there was someone to film this scene, but I had been in charge of the behind-the-scenes footage, and at that time my hands were busy trying to drag Anthony on the tarp. Mark wondered aloud if there was some other way to get the tarp to move. For his part, Anthony said a weight loss program would help. Mark said deadpan that we didn’t have time for that. This entire scene became the main source of laughs for us throughout the rest of the shoot.

7. When people weren’t needed on the set, they tended to venture off to be out of the way. Anthony and Michael had a few times when they went for walks or went exploring. I mentioned before that this cabin was probably a mile from any other house. The dirt road that passed the cabin saw at most three vehicles pass on any day that we were out there. So you could imagine my surprise when I saw an ATV slow down at the end of the driveway. We were shooting inside. Anthony and Michael were at the end of the driveway. A guy on an ATV slowed down, then stopped briefly, and continued on his way. A few minutes later, he returned and stopped for a little longer next to Anthony and Michael. Then he was gone again. I went over to help Mark and the crew any way I could. A few minutes later I looked back out the window and noticed Anthony and Michael were gone. My common sense said that they had gone for a short walk and probably weren’t far away. A small part of my brain wondered if that guy on the ATV had lured them back to his house of horrors with promises of candy, or beer, or something else. Maybe Anthony and Michael were being turned into skin suits as we spoke? After a few minutes of finishing up a scene, we decided to find out. Cody went out on the deck and shouted for them like he was a parent calling their kids home for dinner in the 1980s. Cody’s voice echoed, and then moments later we heard the callback. They were fine. We did make sure to tell them what we thought might have happened. Just in case they got the itch to wander off into the rural abyss. Oh, and as far as that ATV guy went? He lived on that road and knew the owners of the cabin. He had stopped to ask if one of them was there. Anthony told him they’d be back in the next few days, although he said he actually wanted to tell the guy we were robbing the place.

Deserted, until it wasn't

8. As we got closer to wrapping the shoot at the cabin, it was time for me to get back into costume as the monster. The outfit, coated in fake blood, was sticky and a bit cold. I had to be doused in the blood again. These scenes were part of the big climax of the film. There was lots of running and fighting. I loved the mask that Anthony had made, but there was a problem; it didn’t offer much in the way of vision. In fact, I had less than a quarter-sized hole’s worth of sight and only in my right eye. The rest of my vision was blocked. That meant I needed assistance when it came to movement. For my chase scenes, I asked that any rocks and roots be moved, and I would run in a straight line. I still went for it, though. I’d run, and scream and growl like I was trying to scare any nearby animals away. Of course, after nearly every scene I needed the mask removed since the only air coming in was from that tiny hole of a right eye. We had fight scenes where I had to do some stunt work, like taking a flat back bump (that’s a pro wrestling term). When swinging at people, whether with fists or weapons, I did my best to hold back since I couldn’t see well. I am happy to say I didn’t really hit anyone. In one scene, Cody had to hit me with a weapon. We chose a shovel. The mask provided a bit of cushioning, and I told Cody to give a good swing, not full-force but more than a love tap. In all of the takes of that scene, I barely felt anything but reacted like I was really hurt. Without revealing any major spoilers, I will say I got to have my Michael Myers moment in this film.

9. Once my scenes were wrapped, I was able to get out of the blood-soaked clothes and clean up. There was a problem, though. We had been keeping the water pump off because it seemed to be having trouble pulling water from the well. It was counting down to the end of the shoot at the cabin, and we didn’t want to break anything, so we thought it might be better to leave the water off and use the woods as a bathroom if needed. This was not helpful when it came to cleaning fake blood. We had to improvise. Anthony grabbed a few bottles of the ice-cold water from the fridge that we had brought. I lathered up with dish soap first, and then he started pouring. It was not a pleasant experience. I tried to hold it together but ended up shouting and cursing from the cold. This got us yelled at by Mark, who was filming a scene right outside. We finally broke down and put the water pump back on. Thankfully, it ended up working because I wasn’t looking forward to cleaning the rest of the blood off my neck and chest with ice-cold water. The costume and mask were kept as potential props for future films Mark might do. I told him he should make a comedy where it’s the same monster, but he’s just doing everyday things like laundry and mowing the lawn. Maybe that will be coming to a theater near you in the future.

A pile of (fake) bloody clothing

10. It was mid-afternoon when we wrapped filming at the cabin. We had worked so hard, with few breaks, and ended up far ahead of schedule. We honestly thought we’d have been at the cabin until well after sunset. Instead, we were cleaning up around 3pm. This was an arduous process. We all had to go room by room and put everything back the way it was. In reality, we left that place cleaner and better organized than we had found it. All of the kitchen utensils went back. We remembered to snag the black sheet off the bedroom window. It would have been interesting for the cabin owners to come back and see that setup, though. They might have wondered what kind of movie we had made. Everything was packed up, and we were ready to go. I sat at the dining room table taking one last look through my belongings. It wasn’t like if I forgot something, it was an easy trip back to the remote cabin. While I was sitting, thankfully, I noticed something. There was a big bloody handprint on the side of one of the chairs. We likely would have missed it if I hadn’t sat down. I’m sure Mark would have gotten a call about blood, even fake, left on their furniture. We cleaned it up, shut down all of the power, and headed out. We took one last look at the property before leaving down the quiet country road back to civilization. In total, we had spent something like 20 hours filming at the cabin. It was a fun time.

11. With the cabin scenes wrapped, and with there being time left in the day, we decided to celebrate. Mark said there was a local restaurant where he liked to go with the crew anytime he finished a film. Now we weren’t done, but we were close. The next day would be the finale. Since I was planning on heading back to Cape Cod right after filming wrapped, there was no other time for us to enjoy a celebratory meal than right then. The place was Harland’s Family Style Restaurant on Pearl Street in Wellsboro. Anthony said he was there a few times a week. He wasn’t kidding. When we all walked in, he got a reception like he was Norm entering the bar on Cheers. The restaurant was quiet, as it was 4pm on a Saturday. We got a big table. It only took me a few seconds to see what I wanted. On the first Saturday of each month, they did a meatloaf special. Since it was the first Saturday of the month, I knew what I was getting. What arrived was a gigantic slab of meatloaf and a healthy pile of French fries. The ultimate irony is that the veggie that came with the meal was green beans. Anthony and I laughed about how there had been so many cans of them at the cabin, and here I was having them with my dinner. We all ate and talked about what we had filmed and what was still to come. It had been an amazing adventure thus far, but it wasn’t over yet. Naturally, we retold the story of Anthony and the tarp a few times, mostly to see how much we could get Jeff to laugh. He is very quiet and reserved, at least that’s how I saw him, so seeing him get so animated, laughing at the tarp story, was great. The food was excellent. When I went up to pay for my meal, I explained to the woman that I was visiting from Cape Cod. She went on about how she’s always wanted to visit the Cape. I had debated giving her my number, but I didn’t want to seem like a creep, so I just thanked her for the food and walked away.

12. The shooting day wasn’t done, though. We went back to Mark’s house because we needed some scenes of his large shed that doubled as another cabin in the film. The only issue was that these scenes were at night. We all sat around on his porch waiting for sunset. It was fun to just hang out and chat for a few hours on a quiet street. I tried to make sure to remain present throughout the entire trip. Sitting in the front yard on a perfect summer evening was an unexpected but welcome part of the whole experience. I passed the time by doing a few cast interviews in Mark’s backyard. These will be a part of the bonus features on the future DVD release. Finally, it got dark enough to film. We needed longer to set up the lighting than we needed to actually shoot. It was a few simple yet creepy shots that will go nicely in the film. As producer, I tried to make my job being available to help in any way I could. I hauled equipment, handled the script, and even acted in a few roles. I figured I’d learn as much as I could in my debut as a producer so that when the second film comes around I’d have way more knowledge and could be more helpful.

13. By the time I left Mark’s to head back to the motel in Mansfield, the next town over, it was almost 9pm. We had eaten a little after 4, so I was feeling hungry again. I decided to stop at Weis supermarket, which was on the way. There I grabbed stuff for the morning and also decided on what I’d do for second dinner. I had become too familiar with the Mansfield McDonald’s. Running out of ideas as I drove, I figured I’d hit up the Sheetz near the motel. I’d grab something quick and easy I could toss in the microwave. Little did I know what the scene was like at Sheetz. I pulled into the parking lot and was shocked by how busy it was. There were cars and people everywhere. I guess Sheetz is the late-night summertime hangout for a lot of younger people in Pennsylvania. I couldn’t imagine hanging out at a Cumberland Farms on Cape Cod on a Saturday night. Once I found a parking spot, I ventured inside. I tried to make it a point to eat as many things on the trip that I couldn’t find on Cape Cod. McDonald’s aside, I think I succeeded. At Sheetz I had a big ol’ chicken sandwich which felt pretty dense. I also grabbed Herr’s chips and a sugar cookie-flavored whoopee pie. Healthy? No way. Tasty? Absolutely. I ate my second dinner at about 9:30pm. What was amazing about this trip in general was that no matter how much my adrenaline was pumping during the day, my body knew to shut it down by 10:30pm so I could get close to a full night’s sleep. I finished eating, had a short time to decompress, and then my body began to shut down. It was time for bed. There was one last day to come, as far as filming and my trip in general. It would end up being one of the longest driving days I’d had in my life.

Apparently the place to be on weekend nights.

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 261: Pee-Wee's Playhouse Turns 40, Famous Fictional Bands, The US Festival(9-23-2026)

2026-09-23T18:24:29.256-04:00

The simultaneous success and failure of the US Festival. Pee-Wee's Playhouse hits the Big 4-0. Some famous fictional bands.

Episode 261 welcomes fall with a show featuring varying shades of GenX nostalgia.

It all begins with what could have been the next big evolution in music festivals. The US Festival had some of the biggest names in music and technology in the early 1980s. In many ways it was a resounding success, but financially it was an abject failure. What happened? We will look into the whole story.

This week's secret word is forty, as in forty years. Pee-Wee's Playhouse entertained and, yes, educated 1980s kids. From the mind of Paul Reubens, this mashup of many different types of entertainment took Saturdays in the 80s by storm. We celebrate the 40th anniversary of Pee-Wee's Playhouse this week.

The Top 5 is real, but none of the musical acts featured in it are. We are going to look at some of the most famous fictional bands ever. Fun fact: three of these bands scored number one hits.

This week, we also have a brand-new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at when the fictional cartoon band The Archies scored a #1 hit song.

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Or you can support my work and Buy Me A Coffee!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 260 here

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #139: The Cabin Movie Shoot Day 2

2026-09-21T06:46:45.194-04:00

1. I began the fourth day of my time in rural north central Pennsylvania by downing an energy drink and trying my best to wake up quickly before exiting the motel room to head over to Wellsboro to meet the rest of the crew. I found it amazing how fast my body will wake up when I have fun and exciting things on my schedule. If it was a typical work day, my body would have been like a Ziploc bag full of oatmeal. Yet, there I was on that morning, very tired but fully awake because of the adrenaline that kicked in as soon as my eyes opened. Each filming morning required me to be at Director Mark’s house in the next town over from where I was staying by 8:15am. No matter what time I managed to fall asleep, I was alive and kicking by 6:30am at the latest.

2. This was the first day that we would all be heading to the cabin to shoot. We were lucky in that Mark knew someone with a cabin nearly in the middle of nowhere. They were willing to allow us to use it for nothing. We had gone a few nights earlier to clean the cabin to get it camera-ready. That day, we packed up gear, loaded the food I had bought at Walmart, picked up anyone who needed to carpool, and started the journey to the tiny township of Osceola. I thought Mansfield was small, with a population of just under 3,000. Nothing prepared me for Osceola. Its population is under 600. On each of the drives out to the cabin, we would pass by many dilapidated houses. These looked like if you got a flat and needed to ask for help, you’d be shot before your foot touched the grass on the edge of their property. In fact, there was one time when Mark had to stop to wait for another car to catch up. I was carpooling with him. I was on my guard as we parked in front of one of these sketchy houses. When a person stepped out onto their porch, I was ready to duck and cover. There were never any issues with anyone on the drives out to the cabin, but it felt like the threat was always there.

3. A daily highlight on my drives, not only to the cabin, but just around where I was in Pennsylvania, was the fog and clouds. The elevation in the area ranges from 1,000 to 2,000 feet, and so there were times, especially in the morning, when the fog and clouds would be right at eye level or just above. We get tons of fog on Cape Cod; the spring is the worst of it. However, I hadn’t seen it hovering just off the ground, the same with the clouds. I couldn’t get any photos while I was driving, but managed to grab one while on a drive out to the cabin on that first day of shooting. It won’t do justice to how cool it was, but it’s better than nothing. Mark told me that the fog/clouds and the heat lightning that I found so exciting were so routine that it didn’t even faze him. I guess it’s the same as how I feel about the summer traffic on Cape Cod. No, wait, that’s never exciting or fun.

Looking at the fog on the horizon traveling toward Osceola.

4. The cabin itself was an interesting character not only in the film but for my trip in general. I mentioned the obnoxious amount of stuffed animals inside, and not the cuddly ones kids have on their beds. We arrived and, first off, had to turn on the power. This would come into play a few times throughout the shoot. There was a breaker for the pump, which allowed us to have running water. Not wanting to overdo it, we would only flip the switch for short bursts periodically when we needed to use water or the bathroom. I was honestly fine with just wandering off behind some bushes, but I know that’s not for everyone. We unpacked the food and set up the props, lighting, and scenery we needed. Even though we were only there for two full days, it did feel like we were arriving at an Airbnb. There were a few perishable items we brought: meat, cheese, and bottled water, so we had to shove them in the fridge. Surprisingly, the fridge was full. We didn’t get too excited, though; it was mostly condiments and copious amounts of beer, which I am sure the cabin owners had counted. There would be some time to explore the cabin thoroughly, but once we had everything settled, it was time to dive right into shooting.

A pano shot showing how isolated we were.

5. It’s funny, regarding the trip in general, I can tell how busy the days were by just how many photos and videos I got. This day was the busiest by far, with the following day being only slightly less busy. It should come as no surprise that, since we were shooting at a cabin roughly a mile from anything that the cell reception was nearly nonexistent. I would get flashes of one bar of service, but it was never anything that allowed me to post any updates on social media. I was, for all intents and purposes, off the radar for two entire days. I still shot a handful of videos on this day. I even began uploading one to Instagram around 10:30am. By the time we left the cabin, which was close to 9pm, that story was maybe 30% uploaded. I ended up canceling that upload and throwing all of the footage up once I got back to my motel room and civilization.

6. Being that we had a small cast and a small budget, I had a feeling that I might end up with a role or two in the film. One came about by my own foolishness. I was checking over the script while still on Cape Cod, and on the first page, in the very first scene, I saw that there was a character that I never cast. It was another friend of Will, the main character, who is being given the lowdown about why he was quitting his job. Since I was pressed for time, I decided to just record those lines myself, so that was my first role. Secondly, I took on the role of an investigator near the end of the film. This was relatively small, so I wasn’t too worried about remembering lines. This role was memorable because it came with a costume. Mark’s son Anthony, who is such a sweet person and a very talented visual effects person, brought this hefty trench coat with him. I agreed to wear it in my role as the investigator. The trench coat was memorable for two reasons. For one, it was 85 degrees and humid, so wearing it was like having a portable sauna. Secondly, it was too big. I looked like a five-year-old who got into daddy’s clothes. All I could do was laugh when the cameras weren’t rolling, of course. I was so inspired by the incredible acting jobs that Cody and Jeff did that I took on some extra lines and lightened the load for Michael, who played another police officer. A funny thing that won’t come through in the film is that my character was interacting with Cody’s character in a scene. The only issue was Cody had to run home to let his dog out. So we shot my scene with me interrogating an empty chair off-screen. I got really intense too. I hope I scared that invisible ghost I was yelling at.

7. As far as my roles in The Cabin go, we save the best for last. My third role ended up being that of the mysterious creature that stalks the main character. Coming into the shoot, I don’t think any of us had a clue who would be in that role. I had brought the outfit for the creature from my own closet. Anthony had made the mask. So we had the creature costume but nobody to play it. I didn’t need to have my arm twisted too much to play the role. For one, it had no dialogue, just a lot of growls, grunts, and howls. Also, it was another perfect full-circle moment. When I used to make skits with my friends with my camcorder in the 1990s, I enjoyed being a bit of a stuntman. I would fall and throw myself around to make things look good. Granted, I was now 30 years older, but how much different could it be? The answer was very similar but also very different. I had to get made up in the monster garb, which included a horrifying mask with one tiny eye hole for sight. There were also copious amounts of blood to make me look as gross as possible. A fun little issue came after nearly every scene where the neck of the mask needed to be tucked back into the collar of the shirt I was wearing. I looked a bit like a cross between Jason from Friday the 13th Part 4 and Sloth from The Goonies. The setup was all good to go, but could I pull off being the creature?

8. Yes. But seriously, we shot the initial monster scenes at night, and so with very little vision I had to basically use The Force to make my way around. This included crashing through a door, killing one person convincingly with no real way to see them, and then viciously trying to bash my way through another door. I was told that my performance terrified the others. Mark said as he was filming that he thought I was going to really break the door down, but he didn’t want to stop me. I left blood all over the cabin, some of which we wouldn’t find until it was time for us to pack up and leave. The initial crashing through the door was nuts. I went all out. Not being able to see much in the dark and with a quarter-sized eye hole made it easy for me to appear to be wild. I was throwing chairs, growling, and causing utter chaos. The only downer was one guy whining that I got blood on his shirt. It’s like, you’re acting in a movie; nobody forced you to come. Later on, as we were all leaving, we saw him pulled over in his vehicle, changing his shirt. He must have had a date that he didn’t want to know what he was up to. I would have another crack at being the creature the next day, but we’ll get to that when the time arrives.

9. Throughout our time out at the cabin, I tried to manifest a nature encounter. I saw a few deer, including one that walked into the front yard to eat apples. There was a rabbit that really seemed to enjoy hanging out in the back yard by the shed. Those were all well and good, but what I wanted was a black bear. Oh, I’m sure if I had been jumped by a bear I’d have regretted asking for it, but I never got the chance. I didn’t go all out and start playing bear calls on my phone or anything, but we were in the middle of nowhere in bear country; I mean, come on. A few times I wandered up into this clearing behind the cabin hoping that I’d sneak up on a bear foraging for berries. Yes, I did think to myself how stupid and dangerous it was, but damn it, I wanted photos of Yogi doing stuff. The closest I got to a black bear while in Pennsylvania came when I was walking the bike trail earlier in the week. I heard some noises coming from maybe 20-30 feet in the woods off the trail. I figured it was either a group of squirrels or maybe a deer. Mark said it was more than likely a bear since they like to forage for food in areas like that. I never saw it, so there’s no proof, but Mark lives out there and would know better than me. Therefore, I am considering it a near-miss with a black bear. In the future, the story will evolve into me fighting for my life against the bear, which is why I was unable to get any photographic evidence.

10. There were several hilarious moments during our shooting at the cabin. One that only became funny after the fact was as follows. It was broad daylight, but we needed to get some night scenes done. This required some lighting trickery, including shooting day for night, which will mostly be applied during post-production. A more practical way to make day look like night is to cover windows with something black. We had a sheet that would do the trick. First, Anthony and I tried taping the sheet over the window from the inside. This was a failure and included us losing the tape as soon as we put it down, despite neither of us moving from where we stood. It ended up being wedged between the mattress and the side of the frame. We even sent Michael outside to see if somehow we dropped it out the window. The next bright idea was taping the sheet to a pair of lighting stands outside and raising it up to block the window. The sheet was taped, but as soon as we attempted to lift it, everything unraveled, and the sheet fell to the muddy ground. Yes, the ground was soft and muddy, which made everything else harder. Finally, Mark found a ladder, and we were able to nail the sheet to the window frame. It ended up being like a scene right out of the Three Stooges. It took five of us about a half hour to get that sheet in place. We nearly forgot to take it down when we were leaving too. I could only imagine the cabin owners showing up and seeing a window totally blacked out. They’d probably have started wondering what type of movie we had been shooting.

Three Stooges Seal of Approval

11. Being on a tight budget, you have to become creative. I wish we had a more robust budget to use on props and effects, but that wasn’t the case for The Cabin. In the script, there is a scene that includes the main character finding the dead deer. Sure, we could have found stock footage of a deer to put in post. But what made more sense was grabbing one of the many, many deer heads off the wall and using it as practical effects. I grabbed one, which weighed next to nothing, and brought it outside to lay in the grass. It ended up working perfectly. Cody came around the corner of the cabin and spotted the dead deer, brilliantly shot by Mark. In the script, it is supposed to be all bloodied up, but that probably can be done in post-production. We just needed the one shot and then to get it back on the wall no worse for wear. My greatest fear was that I had hung it back up improperly and that it had somehow fallen off the wall and been destroyed. I figure if that had happened, the cabin owner would have called Mark, and at least as of this writing, I have heard nothing about damaged deer heads.

The one in the middle was used in the film.

12. After a long day of filming, you can get hungry. Sure, we had a lot of food that I got from Walmart; that was part of the budget after all. But finger foods like granola bars, donuts, bags of chips, and even peanut butter and jelly sandwiches don’t fill you up unless you eat a ton all at once. I had been picking at stuff when we had the chance, so by the time we called ‘cut’ to end the day, which was close to 9pm, I was starving. As I was in Mark’s car, being brought back to his house where my rental was, my wheels were turning as far as where I could go to grab something quick for dinner. I only knew a few places along my driving route back to the motel. One was a McDonald’s located maybe two minutes from the motel. I decided, why not? I was technically on vacation, right? Something exciting, but also troublesome for me, that I discovered was the fact that I could pay for my food through the app using Venmo. Not only was everything slightly cheaper than on Cape Cod, but now I could just click one button, and it was paid. I grew up in the analog age of the 1980s and 1990s. Most things I learned about now require fewer steps, which I don’t mind. I think if you grew up before technology took over, you appreciate the advances. If you are born into a world where everything is simple and convenient, you likely don’t appreciate it. I didn’t think about that much while enjoying my late-night dinner, though. All I could do was eat and hope that my adrenaline wore off soon enough so that I could get a relatively good night’s sleep before another full day of filming.

I became very familiar with this spot

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 260: The Muppet Show, 1970s Music Fails, A Bus That Acts Like A Dog?, 2Pac(9-16-2026)

2026-09-16T18:19:22.605-04:00

The debut of The Muppet Show. Some of the music fails of the 1970s. A school bus that acts like a dog?

Summer is ending, but the Gen-X nostalgia continues with Episode 260.

We start off with a look back to the debut of the original Muppet Show, which occurred 50 years ago this month. Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, and so many more classic characters burst onto television sets and became cultural icons. This segment gives an overview and is only the beginning of the Muppet content.

A school bus that acts like a dog? What sort of acid trip created that idea? Who knows. What we do know is that this is the main plot behind the odd 1970s educational short film The Big Yellow Fellow. We will review this insanity and see if there are any valuable lessons to be learned.

The 1970s had some amazing music. From Led Zeppelin to Pink Floyd, all four Beatles' solo work, and more. This week's Top 5 will have none of them. Instead, we will look at some of the biggest musical fails of the 1970s. Lots of bad music and bad choices abound.

There is also a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the life and career of iconic rapper Tupac Shakur 30 years after his death.

To support me and the show, become a member on Patreon.

Or you can support my work and Buy Me A Coffee!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Mixtape #5 here

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #138: The Cabin Movie Shoot - Day 1

2026-09-14T07:02:00.764-04:00

1. This was my third day in rural North-Central Pennsylvania for the shooting of my feature film debut, The Cabin. It was also the first official day of filming. I had arrived during the late afternoon on Tuesday after driving 450 miles from Cape Cod. The next day was mostly spent laying low and exploring a little. By the time Thursday arrived, it was all systems go. Unlike a typical ‘vacation,’ I had to be awake and out the door as if I was going to work. Mark, the director, wanted all of the necessary cast to be at his house by 8:15am. For me, driving from Mansfield to Wellsboro, the next town over, took roughly 15 minutes. Luckily, it was pretty much a straight shot on Route 6. The drive ended up being a regular occurrence, so I got used to the amazing hills. You really could fly down some of the hills. I know I got up to over 60mph at times. I have no idea how people drive up them during the winter months. The hardest part for me, besides just waking up at 6:30am on my vacation, was fighting the urge to pull over and get photos of the beautiful countryside scenery. It was literally all around me. It was especially hard when I passed a beautiful fountain on the green near Mark’s house. It took me until my last day in Pennsylvania before I finally got my photos and videos of that location.

2. I arrived thinking I’d be late, but I was actually earlier than most. Those of us who were there exchanged some small talk. I might do a lot of public speaking for my books and record weekly podcasts, but still deep down I am an introvert. Initiating conversations is not my strong suit. This is exacerbated when I am surrounded by people I don’t know. Mark, I had met a few times, so I was at least comfortable around him, but most of the other cast was new to me. As the shoot went on, I got more comfortable with everyone, but that first day I spent a lot of time being quiet, listening, and speaking when spoken to.

3. This shoot was a full-circle life moment for me. When I was in high school, I spent my savings on a Sears camcorder. I wanted to be a filmmaker. In those days, though, it was a lot of very loosely developed skits that I performed with my friends. There were no scripts. It was ideas like I thought I was a dog, and my friends took advantage of that with hilarious results. As a writer, I am all about symbolism. My plan for the first day, and more specifically the first shot, of The Cabin was to have something that tied it back to those camcorder days of the 1990s. A few years ago I found the red flannel shirt I used to wear all of the time in high school. It still fit, and didn’t disintegrate when I washed it, so I brought it along. I did get a smirk or two when I put it on, as it was humid and in the 80s when we were filming, but I didn’t care. I didn’t even take a photo of myself in the shirt on the set. The moment was only for me to symbolize that I had not given up on that high school dream, and in a small way, I had done right by my teenage self. I sat on the stairs in my red flannel as Mark yelled ‘action’ to begin filming The Cabin. It was a simple scene of the lead character coming home. Cody, the actor who played Will (the lead character), walked through the front door and past the camera. Nothing explosive, but I made sure I was rolling with my own camera as this scene played out. It was a seminal moment in my life. I did, however, take the flannel off not too long after since it was still a hot and humid summer day.

4. Nature was everywhere in Pennsylvania, even in the backyards of a typical neighborhood. I mentioned in the last blog about the deer that enjoyed sleeping in Mark’s backyard. On this day it was time for the groundhogs to shine. I mean, it is the home state of Punxsutawney Phil, the world’s most famous groundhog, so of course they’d be everywhere. There was one that was hanging around a shed that we would end up using as another cabin for the film. I wanted a photo of it, and doing so through a window wasn’t going to do. I gently turned the back doorknob. It clicked ever so faintly. That was enough for the groundhog to scurry under the shed. Damn survival instincts kicking in. I eventually did get a photo of it, through a closed window.

It didn't want to stick around for a close-up.

5. The first morning of shooting was exclusively at Mark’s house. It was easy to have it double as the main character’s house. We took care of a lot of miscellaneous scenes that required me to do a lot of reading lines. Before leaving Cape Cod, I had recorded a series of scenes for the film with friends acting in the film. They’d all have been interacting with the main character, Will. Little did I realize while recording those scenes, where I did the lines Will would say, that I’d in turn have to do the same thing on the opposite side once I was in Pennsylvania. I had to read dozens of lines for Cody to keep time as Will. My voice started getting hoarse, which was pretty funny. I said to Mark after that there was a reality where we could layer my voice as Will speaking to my voice as each of the four characters that I recorded while on Cape Cod. I guess if our budget had been that small, it probably would have been close to that situation. Me as every character, just with different clothes and wigs. I found myself apologizing to Cody many times during the shoot for the long strands of dialogue he had to read. The joke I made was that The Cabin was just a remake of Cast Away, except instead of Wilson the volleyball, the sidekick was a pocket recorder. Cody really was 75% of the film, and he killed it in every scene he did.

6. The highlight of the first shooting day was our journey out to the Grand Canyon Regional Airport. It was a 10-minute drive from Mark’s house. We were lucky enough that a man who worked there was allowing us access to his Cessna plane for some scenes. It was a hot midday when we arrived. The scenery was amazing with the elevation. I was smart and put on some sunscreen, figuring that with my luck I’d get burned and then be miserable for the rest of the time there. We waited probably 15 minutes, wondering where our man was. We had knocked on doors and looked in windows, but it felt like we had been forgotten. Then, from a distance, we heard a motor. It got closer, and we spotted a red motorcycle. It pulled right up to us, and slowly the driver pulled his helmet off. It was a man in probably his mid-70s, definitely a surprise. His name was Skip, and he was the one who was gracious enough to allow us access to his plane. Not knowing how long we had, I was a madman, shooting as much video and photos as possible. I made sure to chat with Skip so that he could be included in the behind-the-scenes extras on the eventual DVD. It was another surreal moment as he pulled the Cessna out onto the airstrip and allowed us to begin shooting our scenes. I hung back and let Mark direct and Cody and Jeff act. It was weird at times because we were all there because of something I’d written, yet I’d often stay in the background and let the people with experience do their thing. Not everyone at the airport knew what was going on. Some guy in a pickup truck came barreling over to where Skip was standing and asked what was going on. They seemed to be fine with it, and we were allowed to keep filming, but momentarily there was a bit of panic as we thought we might have our time cut short. In all, everything went off without a hitch. We got all of the shots we needed. I got to get photographed inside the Cessna. There was even a plane that landed while we were there. I got that video and have sent it to Mark for possible inclusion in the film. We left the airport feeling enthused about the project, and it had only been a few hours of shooting. There was a lot of daylight left, though, and we had another location we needed to get to.

In between takes at the airport.

7. The Cabin is not Mark’s first rodeo. He has directed more than 100 films in his life, many of them shot around the Wellsboro and Mansfield areas of Pennsylvania. He knows where to go and what to look for as far as locations go. It was my first rodeo, but I was lucky to have Mark. I put my total trust in him as far as bringing much of my original vision for The Cabin to life. So when we left his house in the mid-afternoon to go shoot at Hills Creek State Park, I knew nothing of where we were going except that Mark said it was perfect. The spot he chose was the Beaverhut Boat Ramp, about a ten-minute drive from his house. Naturally, being a rural area of Pennsylvania anyway, this location was deserted. It was meant to be a stand-in for a secluded lake in Northern Canada, as was in the script. This was one of a few areas where the echoes when the actors would yell were mesmerizing. The sun was dancing in and out of thickening clouds, and I hoped that my sunscreen would hold on. It ended up being an eventful shooting location.

A perfect setting.

8. Cody, being the main character, was in nearly all of the scenes. With the film taking place over nearly two weeks, there were a bunch of wardrobe changes. We also tried to shoot all scenes in the same area at once, even if they took place on different days in the film. This meant that Cody had to change clothes repeatedly. At Mark’s house, or even later at the cabin, he had a clean and sanitary place to change. At Hills Creek, it was either change out in the open or hide out in a pretty putrid outhouse. I know how nasty it was because I had to use it at one point. I am sure it was checked on every now and then, but it felt like if I dropped anything on the ground in there, I’d have just left it behind rather than pick it up. It wasn’t as bad as some porta-potties I’ve seen in my life, but it was not a place I’d wanted to have needed to sit down in.

9. Just a friendly reminder, if you’re going to turn over something in the woods, be it a rock, log, or a canoe, be prepared that there might be something living underneath. For one scene in the movie, we needed Cody to act like he had just canoed across the lake. Luckily, there were a few overturned canoes on the shore. Unfortunately, the one that we chose had occupants. When Cody flipped it right side up, he immediately recoiled. Slithering around under the canoe was a pair of garter snakes. Now, honestly, these are small. The pair were probably only between 2 and 3 feet long. Cody doesn’t like snakes, so he was not happy. I, on the other hand, was practically falling over myself to get photos and videos. I knew they were harmless, and I didn’t intend to hurt them, so it was a win-win. In an interesting twist, one of the snakes had milky blue eyes. I thought maybe it was blind. After researching, I found out that it was because it was getting ready to shed its skin, and fluid builds up around the eyes to allow easier shedding. I didn’t try to pick the snakes up or anything. I have done that in the past to freak out other hikers. This time it was just filming them and being surprised that they stayed around the canoe despite there being a bunch of people around. Maybe they had eggs buried under there?

Ol' Blue Eyes

10. Our time at Hills Creek was almost finished when we got an unexpected guest. A few vehicles had passed by on the nearby road, but none had ventured into the parking lot. That was until a park ranger came rolling down in his white SUV. I knew enough to keep my mouth shut and let Mark do the talking. The guy was friendly and curious. He even said we didn’t have to tell him what we were doing. Mark was open about us shooting a movie. The ranger said he was new to the job but thought it would be wise to reach out to someone in charge to make sure it was okay. Mark said he would, but that was just to make the ranger feel like he’d done his job. When he mentioned that the film was a script I had written, the ranger started asking me questions about my work. I was surprised that I still had a few old business cards in my wallet. I gave him one, but as of this writing haven’t heard anything from him. The other funny part of this interaction was Mark explaining that we were going to be shooting much of the movie up at a remote cabin. He even gave the ranger the road it was on, inviting him to come on out and see. For the entire time we were at the cabin, a running joke we had was whether the ranger would end up showing up. He never did, unless it was long after we left. I mean, we didn’t say how long we’d be there. Sorry to him if he showed up later and the place was deserted.

11. It was getting close to 5pm on the first day of filming, but we still had another location to go to. This time it was the university in Mansfield where Mark worked. He was able to set up an abandoned laboratory to look like a hospital room. This was necessary for a few scenes near the end of the movie. The irony of this location was how close it was to the motel where I was staying. It was literally a 3-minute drive away. This would have been amazing for me when we wrapped shooting for the day, if not for the fact that we carpooled. After we got done, I had to be driven all the way back to Mark’s house to get my rental car and drive back basically to where I had just been. The scenes in the abandoned lab were fun. It was a battle finding outlets for the lighting, but everything seemed to work out for us during the shoot. As producer, I spent a lot of time managing the script. This meant that as the actors were going along, if they needed a line, I’d provide it. A lot of the shoot consisted of me asking Mark what I could do to help. This was all new to me, so I needed to be coached. For one scene, an actor, Michael, was playing an investigator. He had a lot of dialogue explaining some in-depth plot points. He had some trouble remembering all of the lines, which was understandable with how long the speech was. In order to put him at ease, we set me up in his line of sight with the script so he could just read the lines without it looking awkward on camera. This university location was another where I didn’t really have time to stop and soak it in. Luckily, I got a few shot videos of the laboratory, but those were interviews for the DVD extras.

A creepy vibe

12. When I am on road trips, one thing I enjoy is visiting stores that we don’t have near me on Cape Cod. I find them as exciting as attractions you’d find on TripAdvisor. I’ve already mentioned Sheetz. Another such place was Weis supermarket. There was one right on Route 6 on my drive back to Mansfield from Wellsboro. Needing something for breakfast the next morning, I stopped in. No, it wasn’t anything game-changing as far as a grocery store. I actually ended up stopping in a few times. Their flavored seltzers were good. I looked through their à la carte section, energy drinks, and barbecue sauces. Why the last one? Because many years ago my all-time favorite barbecue sauce, Cattlemen’s, was discontinued at every local store near me. I hold out hope that maybe some obscure market still carries it. Thus far, I haven’t found it anywhere. Now, to be honest, I can order it off Amazon, and I have several times. But I like the potential excitement of finding it in the wild. Much like with Sheetz, I got myself a few plastic bags with the store logo on them. Yes, I don’t spend loads of money on souvenirs; I just get plastic bags.

Yes it was an exciting visit

13. The first day of shooting ended with me returning to my home base motel well after 9pm. I had my Weis seltzer and stopped by McDonald’s, which was only a few minutes from where I was staying. No, it wasn’t the healthiest eating habits while on this movie shoot. Then again, it wasn’t the point. My entire reason for being in rural Pennsylvania was to film The Cabin. It wasn’t to hike, or run, or sightsee; it was for the movie. It kind of took the pressure off me as far as extracurriculars went. I didn’t have to feel bad about eating terrible, or needing energy drinks to get me in gear early in the morning. None of that mattered. If I ended the day feeling good about the work we all got done, then the day was a success. I could always amp up my diet and exercise heading into the fall. I wasn’t always going to have an opportunity to produce a feature film based on a story I wrote.

9/11: 25 Years Later

2026-09-11T09:03:13.254-04:00

I remember where I was on Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. It is hard to believe that we are looking at it as being 25 years ago. I lived through it, and those memories have remained clear and present ever since.

Manhattan is more than 250 miles from where I lived on Cape Cod. There are times when it feels like the other side of the world. On 9/11, it felt like everything I was seeing was happening right outside my door.

I was 23 years old, living with my family in a small house on a small road that ended in a cul-de-sac. It was a mundane morning. I had the day off from work and was sitting in the living room at our big, boxy dial-up internet-connected computer.

The morning consisted of writing an unremarkable email to my friend Barry. Back then I didn’t have a cell phone, so the best way to stay in touch with people was either through a landline phone or via email. I remember I was going to tell him I was going to visit Nickerson State Park in Brewster on my day off.

Despite never finishing that email, I still remember its contents. It was so blissfully ordinary. It was my last memory of the time before. I wish I had kept writing that email and sent it instead of turning off the computer. However, everything happened in a flash.

I remember my mother's frantic screams when she heard the first radio reports in her car. She was in the driveway. I don’t remember if she had just gotten home, or was getting ready to leave. Her screams for us to put on the television inside, I can hear today as I close my eyes.

From those early morning moments, I remained seated on the couch watching. I watched as the towers fell. It felt like watching a big-budget Hollywood film that was playing, but this was real. Everything from the television itself, to the layout of the living room, to the feeling of being hungry yet being frozen where I sat; it’s all still with me today.

I remembered the memories of visiting the Twin Towers when I was in 7th Grade. They all came flooding back as smoke and ash filled the view of Lower Manhattan on 9/11. That had been 10 years earlier, 35 years ago now, on a field trip from Mattacheese Middle School. Ironically, a lot of that trip is burned into my memory as well, but in a far more positive light.

It was my first real trip to New York City. My classmates and I saw the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and I even bought a bogus ‘gold’ chain off of a street vendor. One of the places we visited was the World Trade Center complex.

Looking up from the ground, the Twin Towers appeared to pierce the sky. I believe time was running short during that field trip, and so we were not able to go all the way up the 110 stories to the observation deck. We got to go inside to the lobby of one of the towers. I was able to go up to the first concourse level and look down. Maybe it was 20-30 feet up; I don’t remember that, but I can see the bustling energy of the people coming in and out still clear as day.

I remember the surreal feeling on 9/11 watching the towers fall, contrasted with the memories of being there years earlier. It was a struggle, knowing they were now only a memory. Things like that don’t happen, at least not on such a scale. It was like I was floating, or falling down an elevator shaft. I remember having that feeling for the next few days.

Being so far away was no comfort. Everything was on the table after watching the towers fall. Sure, in all honesty, I didn’t feel as though a plane was going to come crashing into any place near me, but that was of no comfort. On 9/11, especially in those early hours, you truly had no idea of what might happen next.

I remember my sister Kate, pregnant with my niece Emma (now 24), frantically calling my then-brother-in-law Peter. He was out on a job landscaping, and she told him what was happening and also wanted to make sure he was alright. She told him in so many words that the world as we knew it was coming to an end. It was hard to imagine such a bold and audacious thought being true, but it was.

I remember my niece Kaleigh, all of 2 ½ years old(now 27), staring at us with a mix of concern and curiosity at what was on the television that was causing all of our fear and angst. How do you explain what was happening to a child? I was in my 20s and couldn’t figure out how to explain it to anyone who might ask. My mother eventually brought Kaleigh into her bedroom and even put Barney on for her to watch, a show my mom really didn’t like. I often wonder if she has any memory from that day. Maybe it is more of an underlying feeling that she can’t explain?

Hours wore on, and I sat on that couch. The towers fell, the Pentagon was hit, and a mystery fourth plane had gone down in rural Pennsylvania. Even when all air travel was suspended, it felt as though some new threat was going to begin. I remember feeling physically on edge but mentally tired watching things unfold.

I am an empath; it’s always been a blessing and a curse. On 9/11, my heart and soul ached for the thousands of people in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania affected directly by the attacks. Then I’d think of the families and friends of those lost in the attacks. It was a scale of sadness and loss I’d never imagined.

It was a push and pull between wanting to close my eyes and forcing them to watch. There were a few moments where I wanted to retreat into my bedroom, or take off in my car to try to escape it. There was no escaping it. This was real. This was serious. This was a line of demarcation between one timeline and another.

I remember fearing that if I stopped watching, something else would happen. It was as if I was waiting for a cut scene, like it was a docudrama where they would say, 'that's what the end of days would look like.' Then life would go back to normal, but it didn't. It really never has.

That day on Cape Cod was perfect weather-wise. It was sunny, low humidity, temperatures in the mid-70s. I had planned to visit Nickerson State Park. It would have been a simple day. My Fuji FinePix digital camera, some sort of fast food for lunch which I’d have eaten in the car, and maybe a magazine to read while I sat in the quiet companionship of nature.

Staring out of the living room window at that beautiful late summer day in front of me and contrasting it with the scene of utter horror on the television left me feeling both detached and attached to the situation at the same time. I hoped I would have another day like the one I was meant to have on 9/11 before the towers fell.

By late afternoon it appeared as though the attacks were over. It was an attempt to try to figure out the scope of the damage and also who did it and why. I had skipped lunch but didn’t feel hungry. I still felt the need to venture out to make certain that my world close by was still standing.

The most surreal thing for me was driving around the town of Dennis. Everything in my little corner of the world looked the same, yet I knew everything was different. All of the houses were standing, all of the businesses were open, and there were some cars on the road. It was quieter than expected. Now things do slow down on Cape Cod when Labor Day passes, but I knew that people were glued to their televisions like I had been all day.

I remember feeling so small and insignificant. There was an overwhelming sense of pride, respect, and love for the firefighters and police who were walking into the battle zone when everyone else was running away. I wondered what it took to have that much courage. Perhaps when the situation arises, you just turn off the fear in your brain in the name of duty?

I stepped out for maybe a half-hour in the afternoon. I believe I went to a Subway to get dinner. I don’t remember any conversations I might have had with the people working there, although I am sure we spoke of the tragedy that was unfolding as we stood there.

Once back home, it was a return to sitting frozen still on the couch. I don’t think I left that spot for fourteen hours in total. I was just watching. I was trying to process something that couldn’t be processed. Part of me foolishly still hoped that there would be a disclaimer on the screen that said it was all a hoax. It would be like War of the Worlds on the radio; even as night fell, I clung to that belief.

I remember the next morning being back to business as usual. I returned to work cooking at The Marshside restaurant. It was a slower day since the busy season had ended. Still, I tried to occupy myself with as many tasks as I could.

At some point I found myself standing on the deck with Maui. He was the head chef, and I had known him for 8 years at that point. I remember still having that feeling of falling as we spoke. I don’t know how else to explain it. It was like my body’s empathy for the enormous loss.

The deep blue sky was untouched by the gentle exhaust of aircraft as all air travel was still suspended. I also remember the silence. It felt like there was an overwhelming and deafening silence that surrounded those days. It was as if all of us were quietly trying to wrap our heads around what this all meant.

I remember the names coming out over the next few days. I remember the photos, the interviews, the magazines, the newspapers; I still have them, so I will always remember. There is a box in my mother’s basement that is filled with these things I gathered over the coming weeks.

It became even more real when attending a candlelight vigil a week or so later. It was held in the parking lot of the Patriot Square shopping center in Dennis. I don’t remember how many people were there; it was probably a few hundred. We all needed to be around each other to collectively process and grieve, even though most of us didn’t know each other.

I remember there being a few people there who had come from Ground Zero and had helped in the massive recovery effort. Their words painted the picture of the scale of the devastation. I shook their hands, thanked them for their efforts, and said they were heroes for what they had done. Shaking their hands made me feel a direct connection to New York and Ground Zero.

I remember each anniversary of the day that changed our world. Over the years, many harrowing accounts of survival came out. There were stories of people having near misses. There were more magazines, books, and even movies about the events of 9/11. Amazingly, there were fleeting moments in some of the movies where I felt myself asking if it was all real.

In the 25 years since 9/11, I have never been to Manhattan. I have never been to One World Trade Center, which was opened in 2014 and stands an appropriate 1,776 feet tall. I have never been to the 9/11 Memorial, although many Cape Cod police and fire departments display pieces of debris from the Twin Towers.

As I write this, with the memories of that day filling my head, it’s hard to believe that it has been 25 years now. It's hard to believe some people have grown up not knowing about 9/11. If you're under 25, this event probably hits you like World War II did for my generation.

Please take a moment to remember. Even if you knew nobody involved, or have never even been to New York, just stop and remember for a moment.

Remember 9/11. Remember those who died in the attacks. Remember those who bravely fought on the hijacked planes. Remember those who ran toward the disaster knowing they might not make it out. Remember the families who lost fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, spouses, and children.

We are all part of one family, the human family; above all else, always remember that. Peace and love.

In My Footsteps Podcast Mixtape #5: Blink and You'll Miss It Retro Segments(9-9-2026)

2026-09-09T19:02:47.622-04:00

Happy Labor Day! When this episode premieres, I will be on location producing my first feature film, The Cabin. Thank you to everyone who donated to the fundraiser and helped to get this project made!

Being on location means that in place of a new podcast episode, you get Mixtape #5

All of the Blink and You'll Miss It retro segments are here in chronological order.

They contain foods, toys, television shows, miscellaneous products, and more that were here and gone in a relative flash. If you weren't around when they came out, you might have no memory of them ever existing.

You will laugh. You will shake your head. Maybe you'll go scouring your basement to see if you have any of the items mentioned, as they might fetch a few bucks on eBay.

Enjoy some memories in mixtape form on the podcast. Happy Labor Day weekend, and thank you again for all of the support for the podcast and my other creative ventures!

To support me and the show, become a member on Patreon.

Or you can support my work and Buy Me A Coffee!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 259 here

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #137: The Cabin Prologue

2026-09-07T08:04:33.024-04:00

1. For weeks leading up to my departure from Cape Cod to go produce my feature film, The Cabin, everything was smooth. The fundraiser went off without a hitch; I got my hotel, rented a car, and we hired the whole crew. In my mind, this was the next natural progression in my creative journey. The last five years have been one long road of continued growth. It’s funny how, despite all of the things I just mentioned, the old insecurities came creeping up the day before I was to head out. It was like the Imposter Syndrome and the little negative voice in my head decided to make themselves known. When I woke up on Monday, I felt this tension and these nerves that hadn’t been there even the night before. It was as if the reality of the situation finally stepped to the front. The voice was asking me if I knew what I was getting myself into. It asked who I thought I was, trying to do something new and challenging. It tried telling me that I would be found out and this project would fail. I have had to battle these demons of self-worth and self-confidence for way too long, and this is no different. I have been told every step of the way that the script I wrote is good. We have everything set up to make the best film we can. I have the funds, the place to stay, the car, the time, and yet despite all of that, the voice still came calling. I had to take a step back and reassure myself that I deserve this opportunity based on all of the hard work and sacrifices I’ve made throughout the years. It’s almost as if the closer I get to this new, exciting opportunity, the harder those old thoughts push back. Only when I open that door and step through will those voices shut up. They won’t do it on their own. I have to make them by believing in myself.

2. To time things right, I had to put off doing my laundry until the day before I left for Pennsylvania. I wanted to make sure I had all of the clean clothing possible for the movie shoot. No need to stop at some dollar store and buy shirts made of recycled paper. This meant that those extra days without doing laundry saw me wearing clothes I haven’t taken out of the closet in a long time. Thankfully, I do have enough that I didn’t run out. I suppose there are some guys who have enough outfits to last a handful of days, and if anything goes wrong, they’re stuck wearing an old T-shirt they’ve been using as an oil rag for years. The only downside to waiting to do laundry was the sheer size of the load. The laundromat I go to doesn’t have a good spin cycle to rinse the excess water out of the clothing. This means when I take them out of the washer, they weigh a ton, sopping wet. You do get a workout having to carry the basket. In total, to get that load of laundry done and fully dried, it took about 2 ½ hours. Lucky for me, all I had to do on that day was wash clothes and pack. If I had made any plans, they would have needed to be postponed. Telling someone you can’t meet them because you’re doing laundry sounds like a lame excuse because you don’t really want to see them. Next time I do a huge load like that, I’ll have to weigh it to see just how much of a workout I get when carrying it.

3. Once everything was packed and ready for the long drive out to Pennsylvania, the last thing on my list of things to do on Cape Cod was checking for a few things for the trip and the shoot itself. This meant going to Dollar Tree and Ocean State Job Lot. Hey, I’m not looking to gash the movie budget by getting expensive items. Mark, the film director, asked me to look for cheap clothes we could ruin for the film as well as some LED lights for a few scenes. As is typically the case when I go to these stores, I wandered around looking for any deals I didn’t know I needed. I got a cheap T-shirt for shredding but found myself interested in some of the other clothes. I literally just mentioned above that I didn’t want to get such clothing for my regular wardrobe, and yet here I was on the edge. I will say that teenage me would have scoffed at shopping at Job Lot, or as my Nana used to call it, ‘Odd Lot.’ Now, I find the savings more appealing than caring what some rando might think of whatever I get. I got a cool travel bag for toothpaste and things of the like. The piece de résistance, though, was buying unknown-brand energy shots at both Job Lot and Dollar Tree. They would no doubt come in handy on the long drive out. Eventually I had to remind myself that I could always come back again once the movie was done being filmed.

4. The anxiety was in full-court press Tuesday morning as I got ready to leave for Pennsylvania. Despite checking repeatedly, I still believed that I was missing something when packing. I finally had to accept that everything was good and leave. I was a little early when I got to my mom’s. It was there that I was leaving my car for the week. Leaving it at the airport wasn’t as bad as I’d expected, something like $80 for the week, but $0 is way better. It’s a good thing I was early too because it took a few minutes at the airport to figure out where to go to get my rental car. My sister Ashley, who drove me to the airport, had to circle the parking lot a few times while we figured out the protocol. Eventually she parked in front of the main terminal of the Hyannis Airport while I ran in to check. I was renting through Budget but got rerouted to Avis. The terminal was empty, as I guess not too many people are arriving or departing from Cape Cod on a Tuesday morning in September. The actual process of getting the car was easy and took a few minutes. I had wondered how many people went to the airport to rent a car but didn’t come in via plane. Surely I can’t be the only one. Oh well, they didn’t ask any questions, so I wasn’t sharing any info. Shortly after, Ashley was helping me toss my luggage into the backseat of a pretty sweet Honda Accord. Of course, it began to rain once I was ready to drive, but we’ll get to that in a moment. I was very grateful that my sister took time from her day to drop me at the airport. The money I saved alone on parking and an Uber probably covered the gas and tolls on the trips out and back.

This was what it looked like, except mine was gray.

5. Speaking of tolls. Because this was a new adventure, I wanted to try a few new things. I’d never rented a car for a trip, so driving a pretty new one with a touchscreen display was an immediate luxury. I also wanted to try a different navigation app, so I went old school with MapQuest. It all seemed fine at first. You get to pick out an avatar to move across the map while you drive. I picked someone who looked like he was from Lord of the Rings. I just kept calling him Gandalf. It was my choice to keep the toll option turned on while driving. It was already 450 miles, and I figured that was the fastest, so I could spend a little money on tolls to speed things up. What I didn’t expect was MapQuest not only bringing me to the toll road, the Mass Pike, which was expected, but also taking me off and back onto it. It was like they saw the toll option on the app and wanted to see how much they could rack up for me. I yelled that Gandalf was screwing me over, which wouldn’t have made any sense out of context. I had no clue what my toll bill would be. They do everything by license plate now, and you get a bill sent. That leads to another issue you may have guessed. It’s not my car, so it will be the rental company getting the toll bill. I am sure they will just use my card to pay for it, as I would expect. I do wonder if I can get a receipt so I can see just how much I paid. Oh, and I got rid of MapQuest and went to an old reliable in Waze. That whole getting me on and off the Pike twice was weird. I plan on keeping the toll option off for the drive home as well.

6. I have driven in all of the bad weather. Rain, snow, storms, wind, so when the weather report said some rain along my driving route, I was prepared. What I wasn’t prepared for was a near-death experience. For a while, going through Western Massachusetts, the rain was basic showers, nothing to be too concerned about. Then as I crossed into New York, it changed. Showers became sheets of rain. It was like a whiteout to the point where my windshield wipers were almost useless. The final straw for me came when I came up on a ramp after stopping at a rest area. I was merging, but the rain was so dense I could hardly see the semi truck barreling down. I was in the middle and didn’t know whether to slam on the brakes or gun it. I gunned it, and that truck was coming up fast. All I thought was, ‘man I should have gotten the insurance on the rental.’ I was sure the truck was going to knock me into the guardrail. Luckily, I sped up enough, and the truck driver was able to get into the other lane, so a tragedy was averted. That incident convinced me to pull over and wait out the heaviest rain. My thoughts of arriving in Pennsylvania early went out the window. But hey, I arrived alive, which I think is more important than arriving early. The rain ended up staying moderate much of the way, only really stopping when I was within an hour of my destination. Naturally, as soon as I parked at the motel, the first sound I heard when stepping out was a loud boom of thunder.

7. To answer a question I asked after a 450-mile drive in one day, yes, you can get symptoms similar to jet lag when driving. It’s known as travel fatigue, but oh boy did I have a bad case of it upon arriving. Driving that far, stopping only 3 times, and having to white-knuckle miles of road due to serious rain left my brain resembling a fried egg when I got to my motel room. I texted my mom at first so she wouldn’t worry. Then I texted Mark, the director of The Cabin, so he knew I arrived. He wanted to meet up and start going over logistics of the shoot. My brain was trying to escape through my ears by this point, but I mean, I was in PA for the movie, not a vacation. I was hungry and a bit dehydrated, so trying to listen and formulate thoughts was tough, but I did my best. It was mostly catching up, going over the shoot dates, and planning some of the smaller minutiae that might fall through the cracks. Lucky for me, the following day was basically the one ‘vacation’ day I’d have. We didn’t have plans to do anything related to the movie until later in the afternoon. This gave me plenty of time to hydrate and relax. I don’t know for sure, but I think that it was the most I had driven in one day since I drove to Florida in 2005. On that trip, I got into Southern Virginia in one day from Cape Cod, which I think is over 600 miles. I was so hell-bent on beating the time that MapQuest had said for my arrival and was way ahead until the rain hit. Now I am gleefully anticipating the drive back home, part of which will be at night, and I am sure full of jet lag the next day. Oh wait, sorry, travel fatigue.

8. Travel fatigue made the choice of what to do for dinner much harder. My brain didn’t want to form coherent thoughts, so I did a lot of staring at local maps and various restaurant websites. In order to get the blood flowing again, I needed to just get moving. A half-mile away was a Sheetz, which is a convenience store chain in the Northeast. I decided to walk down there, which allowed me a cool view of Lamb’s Creek. There are more than 800 Sheetz locations, but none in New England, so when I am out in their neck of the woods, I stop in. It’s the same thing with Wawa. Not sure why, but visiting stores I can’t regularly see on Cape Cod is thrilling to me. Their claim to fame is having an actual cooking line there to make food. This isn’t like reheating pizza slices or microwaving egg sandwiches. No, this is an actual line with people working. I say all of that and didn’t order anything. I grabbed typical things, drinks and snacks. I did make sure to get enough stuff that they had to give me a plastic bag with their logo. Yes, they had branded merch in the store, but that costs money. It’s far easier to have them give me a bag that I can keep and eventually forget where I got it from. I am sure before I leave, I will be back to Sheetz. I saw a few brands of things I want to try. Yay, visiting a convenience store is exciting to me now. Man, I’m old.

9. My mind was set on having Chinese food the night I arrived in Mansfield. There were two places close by; it was just a matter of deciding which one. Mark made sure to let me know that the one located a block away, Lucky Star, was the better one. By this point it was dark out, but I had only had a protein shake during my 450-mile drive, so I needed to eat before I crashed out. Rather than drive literally 500 feet, I again just walked. No, I didn’t have PTSD from driving in the rain; these places are literally within walking distance. Mansfield is a college town. A very small college town with a population of under 3,000, but it is a college town nonetheless. So it has a walkable Main Street with lots of stores clustered together. When I went down to order my food, the streets had a charm to them. There were string lights on either side, and even though it was now September, there were still families and groups of friends out walking. I felt right at home. Two things about Lucky Star: their food was great, and the price was lower than similar places on Cape Cod. It was a win-win. I got sesame chicken and also a take-out menu as a souvenir. The portion size was also amazing. Lifting the bag was like a mini workout. I will say that the travel fatigue was a killer. I was eating and expecting to immediately feel 100%, but I was just a puddle. I was able to eat and stayed up until maybe 10:30pm, but my body was desperate for sleep. I was so tired that the bed, which was a little too firm for me, didn’t hold me back. I crashed and enjoyed the one day of being able to ‘sleep in.’ The rest of the week would be earlier wake-ups and longer days than a typical workday on Cape Cod.

10. The rain continued into the next morning. In fact, it was more heavy thunderstorms. My plan of walking a nearby bike trail went up in smoke. I used that extra time to go to the closest Walmart and gather supplies for the crew that Mark had laid out. This Walmart was a big one. It was made more impressive by the rolling hills surrounding it. As I walked toward the entrance, a huge bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by a crackling roar of thunder. A guy walking out asked loudly, ‘Who angered Zeus?’ That was pretty funny. Inside, it was a typical Walmart, although larger and cleaner than most I’ve seen. The people, though, fit right in with what you think of as Walmart folk. Not all, mind you; most of them were just ordinary people, but you had a good group of stereotypical odd folks wandering the aisles. I think it was the most I’ve ever bought at Walmart with food and drinks for the next shooting day or two. I went to self-checkout because, of course. A woman was working there, or more like watching me check out. I don’t know if she ever even looked at me while I was there. When I rolled the cart away, there wasn’t even a sound. I guess she’d have noticed if I stole anything, so why bother to interact with customers?

11. An interesting, and probably fitting, thing I’ve noticed since I started my journey off Cape Cod. The sights and music remind me of people from my life. It’s like I have been driving through previous chapters of my life as I am on this road to a new chapter. There were tons of moments like that on my drive up to Pennsylvania. Passing places that somehow sparked memories of old friends or family. Sure, I was playing my music on the drive, but it still seemed to capture the right emotions of this journey. It culminated while I was in Walmart. My favorite Grateful Dead song, Eyes of the World, came on. It’s an 18-minute jam, and a fairly odd choice to play at a Walmart. But it reminded me of an old friend, Dan, who I worked with for years cooking. He was a writer, and he pushed me to be a better writer, mostly to stop his trash talk. That never would work. That really put the icing on the cake for the symbolism part of this trip. I am fulfilling a dream, shedding parts of my old self, and also trying not to lose the essence of who I am. It’s having one foot in the future while keeping one eye on the past. I wanted to make sure I noted this phenomenon before I forgot about it in a sea of filming days.

12. As soon as the rain stopped, I was itching to get outside. I went to a nearby ‘bike and hike’ trail. One thing I noticed was how it immediately got insanely humid as soon as it wasn’t raining. It was still cloudy and maybe 75, but I was sweating pretty good after only about fifteen minutes. In total, on the trail, I walked a mile. There were more spiders than people. I did manage to spot a cute brown cat but only got a fleeting glimpse of it. I think it lived in a house right off the trail. The big thing I wanted to explore was an abandoned old bridge that crosses the Tioga River, which the trail runs along. I wasn’t desperate enough to walk the 2.5 miles in each direction, though. Nope, I drove out to where it was to hike down. Seriously, it was in the middle of nowhere. I passed vultures and crows eating a dead deer. There is an overgrown road leading down to the bridge. It’s now referred to as the Graffiti Bridge and has been closed since the mid-1970s. It is obviously covered in graffiti, which is where the name came from. I was hoping to see a live deer along the riverbanks, but sadly only that poor dead one along the road. The walk was totally worth it, and I got tons of photos and videos of it. I briefly thought of not walking onto it but figured if I didn’t I’d regret it the instant I got back to Cape Cod. It was very peaceful and way less creepy than expected based on the photos.

13. We unofficially got down to business around 4pm on Wednesday. Mark came and picked me up from the motel, and we went to his house located in the next town over. The plan was to start formulating a plan for the movie shoot while awaiting the arrival of the rest of the cast. I quickly made friends with Mark’s dog named Django. He was very old and had limited mobility. Mark even said that this past spring his family thought they were going to have to put him down. But he was there, still kicking. For me, filming a movie was all brand new, so I made sure to sit under Mark’s learning tree and ask loads of questions. One thing that hammered home that I wasn’t on Cape Cod anymore was the wildlife. To save money on the budget, we planned on using a beautiful larger shed in Mark’s backyard to stand in for a location in the film. So I am looking out of the back door and thinking about whether deer ever come through the yard. As if he were psychic, Mark mentioned that he gets a lot of deer in the yard. I laughed and then jumped back when I spotted a lone deer walking out from behind that shed. I don’t think the deer is psychic, but stranger things have happened.

14. Dinner was an event. I went with Mark. We picked up his son Anthony, who lives a few minutes away. The plan was to go meet a few others from the cast who had arrived and were staying in another hotel in Wellsboro. As we all got acquainted, or reacquainted, in the parking lot, we decided to go eat at Pizza Hut. It was convenient because it was literally a block away. For a moment, I thought Mark had said ‘Frog Hut,’ which got me intrigued because it was a place that, when looking for food on this trip, looked interesting. It was right across the street from Pizza Hut, so from our table I could see it. I hadn’t eaten at Pizza Hut since I was in high school, so it was very full-circle on this trip. There were six of us at a big table; the rest of the restaurant was empty when we got there around 5pm. The server was really friendly, and we all ordered. Then the positive coincidences continued. Someone ordered a pepperoni pizza. That’s not the coincidence. No, the server came out with a large pepperoni pizza that someone had made by mistake, and she asked if we wanted it for free. Well, you can guess what we said. There we are with all of our meals plus a free large pizza. It ended up becoming part of the food for the film crew the next day. As we laughed and told stories, the server came back and said they had made a mistake with someone’s food. She brought the mistake out, and the person who ordered took it, but then she also said they were remaking it. In the end, we got two free items. It was as if they knew we were making a movie and they wanted a positive write-up in my blog. In reality, it was one cook who made mistakes. He actually came out and apologized. We were all fine with it since it resulted in free food.

The Frog Hut

15. The Cabin wasn’t just the title of the film. It was also the largest shooting location. In order to have the film appear as isolated as it needed to be, Mark found a cabin in the middle of nowhere. I don’t use that phrase lightly. To get to it, we had to drive 25 miles north, near the New York border, to a very small and very rural town called Osceola. When I say ‘rural’ I mean like sparse houses, and of the ones you’d see, half of them looked like the people would shoot you and turn you into a skin suit if you put a toe on their property. It was one-part terrifying and one-part exhilarating. The cabin itself is owned by hunters, and oh boy could you tell. There had to have been more than 20 stuffed deer heads and deer skulls, all over the walls and on various tables. There were also stuffed squirrels, a turkey, a black bear, and probably other animals scattered about. Our job on that first trip out was to clean it enough to make it camera-ready. This meant some sweeping, covering up objects that didn’t fit with the movie’s theme, and blocking areas to fit upcoming scenes. Blocking just means getting the scenery set, like moving a bed back so we could get a clear shot of the bed where the main character in the film is supposed to be sleeping. It probably took us longer to drive out to the cabin than we were there cleaning. It was a mix of rustic, modern, confusing, and horrifying. It would prove to be home for us all for the entirety of two days of the movie shoot.

What the buck is going on?

16. We ended up making that long and lonely drive out to this cabin three times. The first time was the most memorable. It was around 6:30pm as we got deeper into the drive. I kept hoping I’d see a deer, or even a bear. What I got was lightning, and lots of it. When the rain had stopped that morning, the humidity began building. By the time dusk rolled around, it was in the mid-80s. As Mark explained it, heat lightning was a common occurrence in that area due to a similar weather pattern. On the drive out, as the sun sank behind the surrounding hills, I became fascinated with the lightning. I shot video and photos trying to get bolts of lightning. This lightning never let up. It was literally like 15-20 flashes per minute for probably three hours. That is not a stretch. It was amazing. As we got near the end of cleaning the cabin, I again wanted some lightning photos. Behind the cabin is a pathway that leads to a big clearing up a hill. There was a birdhouse on a high pole, and I thought a photo of the lightning behind the birdhouse would be money. None of the photos captured the lightning bolts. It was around this time that all of our phones got the emergency alert: tornado warning. Here we were in the middle of nowhere as it got dark, and now there was the potential for tornadoes. I turned my back to the lightning and shot a video of me explaining what we were doing and the tornado warning. All the while, the pink sky behind me was exploding with lightning flashes. It ended up being one of the best, and most surreal, experiences of my life. Once we had cleaned the cabin to Mark’s satisfaction, it was time to leave. We drove the dirt road out as the lightning made the sky look like a movie special effect. If I didn’t have the videos, I wouldn’t have believed it. There didn’t end up being any tornadoes. We also didn’t see any weird people out there, at least on that first day. The first day of the movie shoot came next, and we all had to make sure to be at Mark’s house by 8:15am. Luckily, the first scenes to be shot were inside his house, so it was shaping up to be a good way to ease us into filming The Cabin.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #136: Expensive Soup, Goodbye Dolly, Finally Caught, etc.

2026-08-31T08:07:25.285-04:00

1. I have heard of things being marked down in a store, but this one takes the cake. While in a supermarket, I was looking for soup to have with dinner. Of course there are loads of ‘New Low Price’ stickers everywhere. They don’t mention that first they had to jack the costs up a ton, so the low prices are still probably above where they should be. Anyway, I noticed one particular markdown that caught my eye. It was a Campbell’s soup, now marked at $3.99. The old price? $21.99. For soup? Unless it’s made with fresh lobster mixed with real gold, I couldn’t imagine any soup being that expensive. Honestly, I think it was a mistake, but still I had to grab a photo of it so nobody would think I was telling tall tales. You know, like seeing a three-foot garter snake but telling everyone it was a fifteen-foot boa constrictor? Not that I’ve ever told anyone that.

That's some markdown

2. Sometimes workouts wipe you out, and you know it immediately. Sometimes they are sneaky and leave you a puddle after you’re done. This week I had a shorter day at work. Since there literally is a gym attached to the office where I train people, I figured why not just use that instead of driving somewhere else. When I exercise at my work gym, it typically ends up being option overload. I have unobstructed access to almost anything I could want for training. This time it was lots of kettlebells, BOSU, cable machine, and such. I worked every major muscle and even threw in some HIIT cardio while I was at it. Good job for thirty minutes. I got done and had barely broken a sweat, so I figured I hadn’t gone as hard as I did. The joke was on me; before I had even gotten into my car, my body felt like it was turning to dust. All I wanted to do was go home and collapse in a heap on the floor, but I had to stop at the store. If I could have lain on the floor and slept, I would have. The best workouts are when you feel you didn’t do enough but in reality did more than enough. I’m sure some of you are saying the best workouts are none at all. That is a perfectly fine choice as well.

3. One of the banes of my existence during the warmer months is woodpeckers. I am kidding; it’s not that bad, but they do become annoying. Obviously, if you just look at their name, you know this bird loves to peck at wood. Every year they return and choose the areas on the other side of my walls to hammer away at. What do you do to stop them? I’ll bang on the other side of the wall to scare them off, but what if they don’t get scared? I was hitting the wall, and the dang woodpecker just kept going. There was only so hard I was going to pound on the wall. I could just imagine me putting a hole in the wall trying to scare a bird. I mean, how do you explain that to someone? If you say you were trying to scare away woodpeckers, they might just call the nuthouse to come and get you. You’d almost be better off saying it was roid rage or something like that. In the end, the woodpecker got tired of annoying me, I guess, and went away. The only thing worse than a woodpecker attacking the walls is when they do the same thing to the gutters. Then it goes from a dull thud to a jackhammer that never ceases to give me a mini heart attack when it happens.

It was one of these that was the culprit.

4. Live your life in a way that, when you pass, hundreds of millions of people feel like they have lost a loved one. That is the sentiment I get when looking around social media after the death of music icon and humanitarian icon Dolly Parton at the age of 80 this week. She is someone whose music touched generations, but whose contributions to society in general touched so many more. She made life better for countless people whom she never met. I have been reading dozens of stories from celebrities and ordinary people about their interactions and connections to Dolly. I am preparing a blog post to go more in depth, but I will quickly summarize mine. When dealing with a crisis of confidence or uncertainty about where I am going in my life, I look for inspiration and direction. I tend to look toward not just people who have been successful, but people who have been successful and, on top of that, a good person. Numerous Dolly Parton quotes have made the rounds in my life during the last several years. The biggest one in particular is her quote: “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” I felt that, as I have always felt like there was something beyond just a (no pun intended) 9-to-5 job. I have been trying to create my own path for years, and that quote reassures me each time I read it. I think there are very few people who were as universally loved and admired as Dolly Parton. Her death, even though she was 80, has stunned the world. But I circle back to the top. I feel like I am part of the largest group of mourners ever. Hundreds of millions of us feel like we lost someone special even though the vast majority of us never met her or even saw her in real life. There will never be another like Dolly Parton. Rest in peace to the Queen of Country. We will always love you.

5. I want to piggyback on that last entry. There are many celebrities, in particular musicians, who have inspired me with their work. Sadly, when you’re working on creating your own path, you sometimes forget to give thanks to those who inspire you to carry on. Such as it was with Dolly Parton. It was like after hearing of her death, I remembered all of the times that I read quotes of hers that seemed to bring clarity to my mind. I should have put it out in the universe, even if it was a social media post that she’d never see. Yes, celebrities don’t need the validation; after all, they have already made it. However, I would know that they lent a hand in my journey even if they never did. This is going to be a kind of catch-all, thank-you purge while it is fresh in my mind, as I don’t want to have a posthumous thank you as I just did for Dolly Parton. Whether working on a creative project or simply looking for answers in a sometimes overwhelming life, these are the artists whose music I have leaned on the most in those times. Thank you so much to: Stevie Wonder, Stevie Nicks, Norah Jones, Dave Grohl, Elton John, Phil Collins, Thom Yorke, Glen Phillips, Bono, Michael Stipe, Sade, and probably more, but those are the people whose words and music have spoken to me above all others. There are certainly more who have since passed on, but I wanted to thank these people while I still have the chance.

6. My life at times feels like two totally different films smashed together. No matter if they make sense, they are jammed into one hybrid. I feel like I am, on one hand, a health-conscious, wise, confident, and driven person. Then on the other hand, I am a self-loathing, terrified person bound to bits of self-destructive behavior. One day this week, it crystallized in a series of events that saw me ping-pong back and forth from fitness to fatness. I began at my day job as a personal trainer. As the day drew to a close, I was hungry and decided that going for a run was not going to happen. I wanted to eat, preferably something bad. That came in the form of a large pepperoni pizza. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it tasted great, but it left me feeling angry, knowing the amount of exercise I’d have to do to burn off what I’d just eaten. A few hours later, I was doing some writing work and felt the urge to go for a walk. So after eating a large pizza I proceeded to go and walk nearly 5 ½ miles on a perfect summer afternoon. I burned over 700 calories. Finally, the day swung totally in the opposite direction again. I got hungry after the walk and couldn’t decide what to have for dinner. My mind was set on cereal. So I went and got a box of cereal to have for dinner. Not a bowl, the whole box. It is wild when I write it down to think about how I swung in such opposing ways in the same day. I was a personal trainer and went for a long walk, burning lots of calories. Yet on the same day I ate a large pizza and a box of cereal. So yes, my life feels like it can be a pair of diametrically opposed films that are crashing into each other. It’s sort of like when you mix two perfect colors of Play-Doh, and it makes some weird color. The weirdest thing is that I kind of enjoy almost having the best of both worlds. I do heavy bouts of exercise when I want to and don’t deprive myself of the foods I like, even if they are way less than healthy.

7. The latest episode of being the fun uncle. I went to my mom’s to visit, and my 7-year-old niece Sylvie was there. We had fun with stuffed animals playing around. Sylvie had this spray-on, leave-in conditioner, and she started spraying the animals and combing their fur. Naturally, she wanted to style my hair by spraying the conditioner in it. The only issue is that I have less than an inch of hair on my head. I don’t need much conditioner. She also grabbed a pen and said she might be able to color in my gray hairs, but that didn’t work. To say I ended up with a lot of that conditioner in my hair would be a huge understatement. I’d say conservatively Sylvie sprayed the bottle 20 times on my head. It was plastered down with it. I left it in the whole time she was there, but once she had gone home, I went straight to the bathroom to try to wash it out. Despite soaking my head with water, I could still feel it hanging on. I guess that makes it a good conditioner. It took a full, hot shower to finally remove all of the conditioner. I did make the mistake of telling Sylvie that in the winter I will have a lot more hair. That means the odds of a follow-up featuring the conditioner are likely, but with even more to slick my hair down.

This is the stuff she used, I'm impressed I found it.

8. I know we were all kids once. I know most of us did dangerous and reckless things when we were kids. I’m assuming that those who are Gen-X like have way more stories and battle scars than a lot of the younger people do. I preface this next story by saying all of this so that I can then say that kids have to be smarter. I was leaving the supermarket one evening this week. I took a back road behind the plaza and through a neighborhood because in the summer it’s way easier than trying to navigate Route 28 (our busiest street on Cape Cod). On this occasion, I was going slow to a stop sign and preparing to turn right down another road. I would say 99 out of 100 times when I hit that intersection, there is nobody anywhere. No cars, no people, just a wide open road. However, I also never assume, so I stopped and waited a moment. Good thing I did. Without warning, and from an area completely shielded by bushes, a kid on a motorized scooter came flying around the corner. He doesn’t stop, doesn’t look, just flies right in front of my car. I had no idea that he was there until he flew in front of my car. It was a total blind spot. I am so grateful that I was taking my time because if I had started driving a second or two earlier, I could have hit that kid. I can only assume he goes down that route and never sees a car. I also remember, as a teenager, you feel you’re invincible until something comes along to slap you in the face. I shouted a few words at his stunned face and then went on my way. I am glad I didn’t end up being his wake-up call to be more careful, or something worse.

9. This week I finished the series Glitch on Netflix. It was another in my run of sci-fi, supernatural, suspenseful shows. Yes, I guess I have a type. The series is from Australia and has 18 episodes, which are divided into 3 seasons. The gist of it is a group of people returns from the dead, literally crawling out of their graves. The show is then trying to figure out why they came back looking normal and healthy, and also the ramifications of their return. I won’t spoil anything but will say it actually has a happy ending despite it being totally different than what I expected. One thing totally unrelated to the plot of the show has to do with the recent trend on streaming platforms of original shows having incredibly small numbers of episodes counting as a ‘season.’ 6 episodes is a season? Even 8-10 is weak. I guess growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, when TV shows had 20 or so episodes in a season, I have been spoiled. Attention spans and commitment levels are a lot shorter in the 2020s. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t matter much when you’re binging a show that has already run its course, but I have a few shows that are still currently going, and having to wait a year or more for another handful of episodes is pretty lame. I’ll still do it, but yes, I will complain about it along the way.

10. Well, it only took 9 months, but Netflix finally realized I was getting all of their shows ad-free when my subscription was the low tier with ads. I had wondered if they would ever catch on. I mean, I certainly wasn’t going to write to a multi-billion dollar corporation and tell them I was getting a higher tier than what I was paying for. In December, when I got Netflix back, I noticed after a few days I hadn’t seen one ad during my time on the platform. Weeks turned to months, and I almost started taking it for granted, expecting that they might have forgotten about me. This week I was watching something when all of a sudden an ad popped up. Then, maybe ten minutes into the show, a full-on ad break came on. I was sad for a moment, but hey, I had a good run with ad-free Netflix. Besides, I grew up in the times when you couldn’t skip commercials; they were just part of the experience. I guess if I was a kid who had only known streaming, I might be upset. I’m old, though; I can deal with a few ads with my shows. It’s just like the 90s all over again. Well, except my knee doesn’t get sore because of playing sports; it gets sore because it’s Tuesday.

11. As things ramp up for going on location to film The Cabin next week, I have gotten to enjoy recording some scenes with friends that I cast in the movie. First, it cuts down on the search for people to play the roles. Second, it allows me to thank them by giving them roles in the film. Two scenes were audio-only, as they will be telephone calls in the film. A third was a fake Zoom call. The audio scenes went pretty seamlessly. In the end, I decided that it might be better to do the fake Zoom call in person, just in case anything went wrong. Boy, I was lucky I did. There were a few minor mishaps when it came to lighting and sound that would have been harder to try to solve from the other end of a computer. Plus, if you’re on Zoom, you only get something like 45 minutes of video time before it shuts down. I could have just imagined needing to spend most of that time fixing technical issues only to have Zoom kick us off as we finally got going. In the end, we got it all to work and got the scenes shot. It was the final thing I could do on Cape Cod for the film before heading off on location in a few days.

Goodbye Dolly

2026-08-29T07:24:20.527-04:00

Live your life in a way that, when you pass, hundreds of millions of people feel like they have lost a loved one. That is the sentiment I felt while scrolling social media after the death of music icon and humanitarian icon Dolly Parton at age 80 this week.

Her music touched generations, but her contributions to society touched so many more. She made life better for countless people whom she never met. I have been reading dozens of stories from celebrities and ordinary people about their interactions and connections to Dolly.

Anything I could write about her life and career could easily be found by doing a quick Google search. I won’t waste time telling you things you could easily find yourselves. I never met her. I don’t have any stories of interacting with her. However, one thing I can do is explain why she had meaning to me in my life.

At the root, it’s actually quite simple. Dolly Parton reminded me of my Nina, and vice versa. They both were tiny, smart, beautiful, full of fire, and owners of a lot of blonde hair that may or may not have been theirs.

When I was a kid in the 1980s, my Nina felt to me like she was a mix of a whole lot of Dolly and a large dash of Tina Turner. No, she wasn’t a celebrity. She did run the first all-women’s fitness center on Cape Cod, and she was a great jazz singer, along with my Grampa, but not famous. Above all else, she was a genuinely loving and caring person who made you feel like you mattered when you were around her. That, I believe, is how Dolly made people feel.

There were times throughout my life when I felt like in some alternate timeline Dolly Parton was my Nina and my Nina was a world-famous entertainer. My Nina definitely could command a room, and Dolly had said that because she couldn't have children, she was 'everybody's mother.' So maybe I wasn't too far off.

It’s interesting. I have never shared that story or those thoughts ever. I’m not sure why. Maybe it sounded weird to compare my grandmother, who I knew, to celebrities I likely would never meet. Maybe I was afraid of being mocked or ridiculed. Not by my family, mind you; I am sure my Nina would have found it flattering. I mean, after all, I was comparing her to two titans of the entertainment world. Still, I kept that little anecdote locked away until now.

To sum it up, in a small way, losing Dolly Parton felt like losing my Nina again.

My Nina and Dolly Parton at roughly the same age, around 40.

My introduction to Dolly was through her seminal film 9 to 5. It was released in 1980, when I was three years old. I didn’t see it then, but it was on rotation on cable during the mid 1980s. Having a young mother and three sisters meant that I was dealt a heavy dose of female-led movies. 9 to 5 was one among many, including Dirty Dancing and Mannequin.

I can remember seeing Dolly in 9 to 5 and being amazed at how much she reminded me of my Nina. Granted, I was probably seven or eight, but that young perception became reality.

As I grew up, I learned of how important and accomplished she was almost by accident. When I heard Whitney Houston sing ‘I Will Always Love You,’ I learned that Dolly Parton wrote it. When I heard this really great Hawaiian jam called ‘Islands In the Stream’ by a group called Ten Feet, I learned that Dolly Parton sang the original with Kenny Rogers.

Later on in adulthood, I learned of her enormous impact outside of music. I was battling depression and questions of self-esteem and self-worth throughout my twenties. This is where I began to seek out inspirational quotes and just general quotes about life and healing.

When you feel lost, confused, maybe a bit worthless, you look for something, anything, to provide a little clarity. I didn’t look to just anybody. I looked for words of wisdom from people who not only succeeded, but did it as genuinely good people.

This is where Dolly Parton played her second important role in my life. She provided comfort and familiarity since I saw her in some ways as a stand-in for my Nina as a child. Then, as an adult, her words provided light in dark times.

Sure, there were other people whose quotes helped to part the dark clouds around my mind, but Dolly was as important as any of them. I am certain that there are so many others like me who were shown care without her even realizing it.

Dolly left such a wide range of gifts to the world that I think it would be hard not to be moved or inspired by something she did. Her skill as a musician, a lyricist, a singer, and an overall presence likely was enough. Her philanthropy, at the very least, equaled her musical prowess.

For me, there are a few of Dolly’s quotes that remain important in my life. I mentioned earlier battling depression off and on throughout my adulthood. I also have been on a creative journey for decades.

I wanted to be a writer from the time I was eight. I wanted to be a filmmaker starting in high school, even purchasing a big, bulky Sears camcorder in 1994. I always felt my path didn’t involve a (no pun intended) nine-to-five job. I always wanted, no needed, to be something more than that.

Maybe that goes back to the self-worth and confidence issues stemming from childhood. Maybe I felt that if I wasn’t greater than expected, I would be seen as far less than. But how do you chase your dreams and still stay true to who you are inside? Ask Dolly Parton.

The quotes that feed my soul have to do with each of those things I mentioned.

Those both speak to me. One, in terms of dealing with the hard times, for me, the bouts of depression and self-doubt. Secondly, the feeling that walking the same path as most others just didn’t fit who I wanted to be.

Many of you reading this likely have other Dolly quotes that speak to you. That’s the idea. We might all enter this orbit of grief and admiration from different roads, but they all end up connecting in the end.

That might be Dolly’s greatest gift. She unified so many people. Her death felt like losing a loved one to likely hundreds of millions of people. There are very few celebrities who are as universally loved and admired as Dolly Parton.

I have seen many people I admired in the entertainment industry pass away; very few have I felt the urge to write my own thoughts about. Even as I write this, I periodically stop and scroll social media to read stories of Dolly from fans and other celebrities.

She might have left this world, but there are still gifts from her to come in the years ahead. I have read things about a musical of her life, dolls, dog treats, coffee, and best of all, an unreleased song. That last one we have to wait until her 100th birthday in 2046, though.

Dolly Parton might be gone, but the stories told of her will keep her alive. Just as my Nina might be gone, but I do my best to keep her memory alive. This includes sharing a very private, if not a little embarrassing, story of how she reminded me of Dolly and vice versa.

Goodbye Dolly. You left an impact on this world far greater than most people could ever dream. Thank you for reminding me of my Nina. Thank you for your words to remind me that “if you tell yourself enough nice things, eventually, you’ll believe them too.”

If you happen to bump into my Nina, maybe you could sing a duet, lead a fitness class, or exchange hair tips? We will always love you, Dolly. And I will always love you, Nina.

1996 Changed Everything: Pt. 5 - We'll Meet Again Old Friend

2026-08-27T07:42:40.917-04:00

This is part of a series of articles about 1996, as it holds significance for me since it was the year I graduated high school. This fifth article is all about the friends we make, the friends we lose, and the friends we keep.

Thirty years ago I walked across a stage, strutting like pro wrestling icon Ric Flair, grabbed my diploma, and began the slow walk from childhood to manhood. My sister Kate recorded much of that graduation ceremony on my old Sears camcorder. I cherish every second of it.

Even today, as the young faces pass by the camera on that tape, I remember so many of them like they are frozen in time. I feel as though those people who held the greatest importance in my life back then still do today.

The classic 1986 film Stand By Me has an iconic quote at the end that sticks with me to this day. Richard Dreyfuss as Gordie types: "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone?"

I wasn’t twelve when I graduated high school, but that line perfectly encapsulates how I feel about the friends I had back then. I’ve never had any like them since.

We were all learning and experiencing life for the first time together. We were succeeding, failing, laughing, loving, achieving, hurting, rebelling, being overwhelmed, and clinging on to each other as we rose and fell with the waves of teenage life. Those friends I made were not just friends; they were lifelong brothers and sisters.

When looking back at the people I called my friends as I graduated high school, I don’t look at a strict timeline. Many of those I’d have taken a bullet for I had already known for years by the time of caps and gowns. It was as if I already knew I’d found my tribe.

Doing some work in photography class.

Making friends is hard at any point in life. As an adult, it can feel like you’re applying for a job. As a kid, you’re putting yourself out there hoping that a stranger finds you worth getting to know better.

Being as shy and introverted as I was during my childhood, it’s a wonder I made any friends at all. Without luck, I’d have had to wait for a kickball to roll my way and use that as the opening to befriend whoever retrieved it.

My two oldest friends, Barry and Matt, came into my life through luck. Matt grew up across the street from me, and Barry happened to live a few doors down from my aunt. I’d go and visit her and invariably end up with Barry. I met both of them around the age of seven. Barry ended up being one of the most important and influential people in my life.

It’s interesting, as I sit here mining for memories going back 40 years, how I can’t remember those first meetings with people who went on to become chosen family. Oh sure, I can give you the Cliff’s Notes version of when someone crossed paths with me. I can share some early memories. However, the first meeting is a blur in virtually all of these cases. I guess you don’t realize that someone has become an integral part of your life until a certain amount of time has passed.

Hasan lived a few streets over from me. I know we bumped into each other during the summer before 6th grade. We built a bond like steel. He came from the city to Cape Cod and taught me about late 80’s/early 90s Hip-Hop. We played basketball. Rarely was it one-on-one because he’d crush me every time. So we’d do these two-against-zero games against opponents we called the ‘invisible ghosts.’

Tim lived further away, but our origin story is similar, revolving around a shared love of basketball. I remember sleepovers at his house often being punctuated by freshly made donuts the next morning by his parents. It was the Jerky Boys, walks through the woods to get to a nearby strip mall, and countless hours of me trying to figure out how to defend his patented ‘Fishy Swim’ fallaway jumper.

John I had seen around in middle school, but only when we sat next to each other in Freshman English did we connect. It was our just slightly wacky sense of humor that made us friends. I wish I still had my English notebook where we’d one-up each other with foolish lines and drawings, rarely paying attention to what the teacher said. To be honest, I would have had an easier time hearing an ant speak than that teacher, though.

Rob, much like Matt, happened to live close by. Our families were heavily intertwined, but it was only when I entered high school and bought a camcorder that we truly connected. He and I were the typical feral Gen Xers. Out all day on our bikes, going places we’d probably have needed permission to go, junk food, caffeine, crazy ideas, and laughs that brought tears.

Liam was another stroke of luck. We happened to work at the same job at the same time. Standing side by side with him, preparing food while music blasted loudly off the walls, ended up becoming some of my fondest memories of high school. Some funny lines we said back then we still bring up to this day.

There was a massive influx of new friends when I got to high school. My high school saw two neighboring towns’ middle schools combine into one blended family. It was an interesting transition. I played for the basketball team in middle school. A few of the new faces in the halls of the high school were once rivals on the other middle school team. It took a minute to realize we were all on the same team now.

New faces like Steve, Greg, Mike, Kevin, Pete, and others quickly went from strangers to major parts of my crew. Our interactions varied depending on the person. Greg, Mike, and Kevin became frequent subjects of photos during senior year.

An attempt at an artsy photo of those three.

I was taking a photography class and had to practice using a film camera. Those three would pose, or something like that, in the middle of classes. It was my job to hit up the darkroom and develop the foolishness that we created. To this day, Mike insists he wasn’t in any of those photos. The joke is on him, though. He has aged very well, so he looks almost the same today.

During high school, I was at the mercy of my bike, walking, or occasional rides to hang out with friends. I didn’t get my driver’s license until senior year, and even then I had infrequent access to a vehicle, what with me being one of five kids and having a mother working full-time and going to nursing school full-time.

It was a different era in the 1990s. You didn’t sit inside on a phone, playing video games, or watching television. Well, sure, we did all of those things to a degree, but for the most part life consisted of calling friends, quickly getting off the phone, and getting out of the house to have some sort of an adventure.

You quickly learn who your ‘ride or die’ friends are based on the level of stupidity they were willing to join you on. Wandering through the woods? Sneaking into a construction site to explore half-built houses? Hanging out of the back of a station wagon riding a skateboard? Drinking Jolt and creating caffeine-soaked skits with a bulky camcorder? These were only a few examples of what I’m talking about.

Yes, we drove something like this while someone rode a skateboard out of the back.

A classic ride-or-die story happened freshman year. Hasan and I went to a party at another friend’s house. It was in the next town over; we must have been dropped off there. It was populated by probably 8-10 more kids, but it was over thirty years ago, so my memory is hazy. What’s not hazy is how the party ended.

I am sure we were loud. I think there was at least some alcohol there, but I don’t think Hasan and I had more than a few sips at most. It was when the red and blue lights started flashing that we knew the jig was up. The police were there.

All of us 15/16 year old kids scattered. People were going in all different directions. Hasan and I though stuck together. One wouldn’t leave the other. We ran through yards, behind houses, tearing through trees and bushes until we were safely behind a nearby strip mall. It was part terrifying and part exhilarating.

At the strip mall, I called my mother to come and pick us up. We stood in front of a darkened store and waited, letting our heart rates come down. The fact that we hadn’t drunk worked in our favor. When my mother showed up, we didn’t reek of alcohol, so when we told her the story of what had happened, it was believable.

I feel like growing up in the 90s, I had a lot of near misses when it came to danger. I don’t think I’d have gotten in much trouble if the police had snagged me, but who knows? Being a minor, I knew I could do nearly anything I wanted with little repercussions.

That doesn’t mean that I went out defacing people’s property, or starting fights, or stealing. It just meant that the voice in my head telling me something was dangerous kept quiet a lot of the time. Maybe it wanted to see how I’d react to adversity?

I find it interesting that I didn’t go out drinking, or smoking, or partying until all hours of the night, and yet I feel my high school years were filled with adventure. That comes down to who my friend group was.

What the ‘cool kids’ would have thought of as adventures I saw as dangers not worth the time or risk. Now I can’t say for sure that if I was asked to go out drinking and partying and randomly hooking up that I would have said no. I can say that, looking back at the classmates who got DUI’s before they were of legal age and those who held their own children before holding a diploma, I am happy with my choices in friends and adventures.

I chose wisely when it came to friends. I also didn’t restrict myself to any certain subset of people. Only in the last few years have I noticed just how all-encompassing my friend groups were. Yes, I said ‘groups.’

I can rattle off a handful of different groups of friends. These had very little, if any, cross-pollination with other groups. I tried to be friends with anybody who wanted to be friends. It’s the way I was raised by my mother. I tried to fit in with anyone while also staying true to who I was.

Being seen as a poser is a kiss of death in any generation. If you lose your authenticity, you lose credibility. At least that’s how it was in high school. The way I navigated those waters was by amplifying traits around certain groups. I never hid who I fully was; I just shined a brighter light on the things I had in common with the people I was with at the time. Does that make sense?

I must have done a good job in my choices of friends because, as I said earlier, I still consider many of those same people my friends to this day. There are also no friends, not acquaintances but friends, that I regret knowing or having in my life. I think it’s rare to look at your friend group and not find someone who turned out to be a bad apple. I mean, unless we all were bad apples and none of us noticed the difference?

Friendships in high school changed and evolved along with all of us. You start with needing rides to someone's house to using your bike or your own car. Adventures go from walking to the corner store on a summer afternoon to driving to Boston for a killer, loud, AC/DC concert. Relationships could come and go, but friendships tended to stay.

A replica of my concert T since I have no clue where it is.

In my life today, I have more than a handful of friends of over thirty years. Now we don’t get to see each other all of the time due to work, family commitments, and location. That being said, if a friend reaches out to get together, I try my best to move whatever I need to see them.

I still remember inside jokes. I still remember certain foods certain friends liked. I still remember who was in what class. Mainly, I still remember how these people made me feel and why they became my friends in the first place. I think that is the most important thing.

Over time, specific memories might fade. That’s just the price of doing business in life. Feelings remain, though. If I hear any of a few dozen names from high school, whether they are still fixtures in my life or not, I get a smile and a blast of warm positive feelings.

We were all teenagers. We all went through the experience of finding ourselves in the world. If we are lucky, we have a solid crew of friends to navigate the choppy waters with. Very few grow up on one straight, clear path. It’s typically filled with twists, turns, dead ends, heartbreak, confusion, anger, and possibly, if a Gen Xer, indifference.

To wrap things up, I found one song that stuck out to me as far as my high school friendships went. Not surprisingly, it is a Red Hot Chili Peppers song. They were a band that made you cool if you listened to them, along with the Beastie Boys. At least it was in my circles.

The song is My Friends off of their less-than-stellar One Hot Minute album from 1995. The entire song weighs heavily on my memories of high school. The hook, I guess, is the lyrics I gravitated toward.

I love all of you
Hurt by the cold
So hard and lonely, too
When you don't know yourself

It’s a perfectly fitting sentiment. We were growing up, trying to find ourselves, but also knew that even as alone as you might have felt at times, if you were lucky, you had some friends to stand by you through those formative years.

In my next post, I will take a look at my family dynamic during senior year and a look at the role of family in the life of any high schooler. All families are created differently, as was mine.

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 258: Stand By Me Turns 40, Metroid For the NES, Classes No Longer Taught In School, River Phoenix(8-26-2026)

2026-08-26T14:02:40.340-04:00

The 40th anniversary of Stand By Me. Also, the 40th anniversary of Nintendo's Metroid. Some classes that are no longer taught in school.

Episode 258 brings the Gen-X nostalgia in time for going back to school.

40 years ago this week, one of the seminal movies of 1980s kids' lives was released. Stand By Me was based on a Stephen King story and gave many kids of the time the desire to go hike the railroad tracks. We do a deep dive into the film, its importance, and the impact it had on kids at the time, like me.

Also 40 years ago this week, one of the most popular and influential games for the original Nintendo was released. Metroid was heavily influenced by the film Alien but in turn also blazed a trail for future games. Perhaps the perfect game for Gen-X, it taught you to go explore and find your own way. Were you able to defeat Mother Brain? Did you know the main character was female?

It's back to school time. This week's Top 5 ties in perfectly as we look at some classes that are no longer taught in school. Whether totally obsolete or extremely scaled back, these are classes that used to be part of the curriculum but have since faded away.

As always, there is a brand-new This Week in History and Time Capsule, looking back at the life and career of actor River Phoenix.

To support me and the show, become a member on Patreon.

Or you can support my work and Buy Me A Coffee!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 257 here

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #135: A Big Success, Glitter Face, Pack An Extra Chin, etc.

2026-08-24T06:51:21.815-04:00

1. I was so grateful and a bit overwhelmed to see the budget goals for my feature film debut, The Cabin, get met through GoFundMe. I wanted to say ‘we’ did it, but in all honesty it was my family, friends, and total strangers that came through. In the end, I kicked in a little to get us over the hump, but the vast majority was from others. In a fun twist, one of the locations we’re going to shoot at is now going to be ours free of charge. Yes, that means our budget has dropped, which is a good problem. I said if, after everything, there is a little money left, I will just absorb it back into my bank account. However, with the budget set comes the actual action. I am thankful but also feel a bit of good pressure to help to make a film worthy of all of those who have shown their support. In the back of my mind, I had a fear that the fundraiser would be a bust and I’d have to cough up thousands of dollars to make my dream come true. I would have done it, but I am so much happier that I don’t. There will be so much more to come in terms of updates about The Cabin. For now, all I can say is thank you to those who donated to the fundraiser. Your support means the world to me.

2. In life, you need to try to learn to not get too high on good days and not too low on bad ones. I say that because after a string of amazing days, capped off by reaching the budget goal on The Cabin, I had a cold slap of reality in the face. Nothing will dull your good vibes quicker than a text from your bank saying there was an attempted fraudulent purchase on your debit card. I went from a peaceful, easy feeling to sitting in the sad cafe, sorry that was a couple of Eagles puns. Luckily, I am so regimented and boring with what I spend money on that my bank instantly caught it. Some ass hat tried to charge $350 for some crap but got foiled. So I didn’t lose any money but had to immediately cancel my debit card. Next is the process of getting a new one sent, which could take until the middle of next week. I am working on getting a digital card and finally starting to use Apple Pay through my phone. The only issue with that is that I am forced to have a passcode on my phone to protect that debit card. That’s right, I have had my phone without a passcode for years. It is never far from me, so I never felt the need. On one hand, I am so pissed that some scumbag tried to get my money. Get a job, you waste of human life. On the other hand, I am so grateful that my bank foiled this attempt. In some ways, and this might be the middle-aged man talking, but I miss the days of everything being cash and digital banking not being everywhere.

3. One interesting scenario when it comes to the filming of The Cabin has to do with actually getting there. Do I drive my car, or do I rent one? On one hand, driving my own car saves hundreds of dollars over renting one. On the other hand, I just had some exhaust work done on my car, and although I trust driving it locally, and probably up to an hour from home, I don’t know if I trust driving it eight hours each way. I know my car needs some more work done on it to get it to closer to 100%, or at least as close as a car nearing 170K miles can get. I don’t want to have that work done until the new year, so it does make sense to spend the money to drive 1,000+ miles in total over the course of a week. I was hopeful that my AAA membership would give me some great discounts on renting a car. Nope. I guess I thought renting cars was cheaper than it is. Renting a vehicle for what would be six days costs the same as the hotel room I’ll be getting out there. That includes whatever discounts AAA would give me, which isn’t much. The funny part is that of all of the vehicles I’ve been looking at to rent, the cheapest are SUVs. It’s funny because, thanks to gas prices being as high as they have been in years, any savings I’d get on renting an SUV would immediately go out the window when I had to pay close to $5 a gallon for gas on a vehicle that gets half as many miles per gallon as my car. Update: Yes, I ended up renting a car.

4. So I had to cancel my debit card and ask for a new one to be sent to me. Fine. Not much I can do but wait, right? Wrong. An interesting little side quest in this latest fraud saga was learning about digital debit cards and also learning how to use Apple Pay. The debit card took seconds to get, so that was good. Next was setting up Apple Pay to include that card. I have had iPhones since 2011 and have never used the Wallet app for digital payments or storing cards, passports, etc. I figured approaching fifty was the right time to learn. It turns out it is way easier than I could have imagined. The literal next day after canceling my old debit card, I was able to use the new card to get gas via Apple Pay. Sure, swiping my card or using the chip reader didn’t take long, but Apple Pay cuts that time down even more. In less time than it takes to sneeze, I had my card accepted and was pumping the very overpriced but very needed gas into my car. One funny little twist to the Apple Pay story is that it has forced me to start using a passcode to open my phone. What’s that? You can’t believe I never used a passcode? My phone in the past 15 years has rarely been out of my sight, so it never seemed necessary. I grew up in a time when the majority of people still left their doors unlocked, so I guess I’m old-fashioned. Anyway, in order to have Apple Pay working, you have no choice but to use a passcode to protect your money, which makes total sense. I’m just getting used to the major inconvenience of typing six numbers in two seconds to open my phone. In the end, though, if it keeps my money safe, I can deal with it.

5. I think I have earned my reputation as the ‘fun uncle’ in my 27 years of being one. I tend to let my nieces and nephews do whatever they feel like, unless it’s super dangerous. Five of my six nieces and nephews are grown up to a point where they have their own friends and lives, and my time has been reduced a lot. It’s just what happens in life. So when I get the chance to spend some time with my youngest niece, Sylvie, you can bet I am taking advantage of the chance to be fun and foolish. The latest such chance was this week. My mom had gotten Sylvie some glitter makeup, and once she saw what it looked like, I knew it was only a matter of time until I was wearing it. Sure enough, she laughed while coating my face in glitter. This was accompanied by a 2nd place medal she had won at summer camp. Not wanting her to feel bad, I kept the medal and the glitter on even after she left. I went to the store after I left my mom’s, and even though I took the medal off, I did go inside complete with a glitter face. Seeing how much my face shined at my mom’s, I can only imagine what people thought seeing me in the store. Oh well, the price you pay for being the fun uncle is walking into public places with glittery makeup on your face. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

No, I wasn't this glittery, but there is always next time.

6. Sadly, I am now at the age where I can end up with some sort of pain or injury and have no memory of what caused it. This week it is my right shoulder. It has been painful to fully extend overhead. Tracing steps backward, I threw a pair of 10# slam balls with a client at work one day this week, but that wasn’t the cause. I also demonstrated a kettlebell windmill exercise with another client (this involves keeping your arm fully extended overhead while simultaneously hinging your body sideways away from that arm). That also wasn’t the cause. All I can think of is that I slept on that shoulder awkwardly, woke up with some pain, but didn’t pay attention and kept going about my day. I wish I had a better injury story. I wish I had tackled some guy that stole a woman’s purse, or hurt it dragging a stranded dolphin back into the ocean. Nope. I slept wrong. Yay, soon it will be that I threw out my back coughing or something dumb like that. Oh wait, it was only a few years ago that I threw my back out leaning forward to look at sliced meats in a deli, so yeah, we’re already there.

7. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: If you can’t figure out how to use self-checkout at the supermarket, go to a register with an actual person. This ends up being an older person most of the time. Lo and behold, it was again this week. A guy who had to be in his mid-70s had invariably messed up scanning his items at self-checkout. The store seemed to be short-staffed, so as the light was blinking, there wasn’t anyone immediately coming over to help. Then it happened at the next register, which was shockingly being operated by another old person. Rather than walking over to the service desk, which was about ten steps away, or, I don’t know, being patient for a few moments, these old bags started waving their arms like they were signaling a passing plane while stuck on a deserted island. God forbid an old person show sympathy for the short-staffed store. After a few seconds of waving like idiots, the old man started whistling like he was calling his dog at the park. Seriously, it was incredibly annoying and embarrassing. I was scanning my items with no issue since I had a good grasp on technology. All the while, this pair of old bags were doing a talent show routine. I wanted to tell them they should go to a regular register, but I’m sure they’d have just blamed the machine instead of their own incompetence. After an employee came over and sorted things out, one of the old people immediately caused the register to go off again. Naturally, they blamed the machine. I’d say they should do home delivery, but they’d probably give the wrong address and never get their stuff.

8. Three weeks ago I first shot a video of the current demolition of the Bass River Bridge on Cape Cod. They are slowly removing the westbound lane. That lane will be totally rebuilt wider. Once finished, work will begin on the eastbound lane. All the while, the bridge will still be in operation, which feels a bit shaky. I have heard the bridge is safe to stay in use even while being torn down. As of this week, half of the side barriers of the westbound lane have been removed. I stopped at the neighboring river park during a run so I could get some video of it. Since it’s still the heat of summer, the traffic gets pretty crazy on the bridge. I was able to run across the bridge faster than most vehicles could cross. I am not sure how long it will take to finish removing the barriers, but I am curious as to what the next step in the demolition process will be. The bridge functions fine without the barriers. However, once they start removing the pavement, then what? Regardless of the progress, it appears as though it will be about five years until the entirely new Bass River Bridge opens. Here is a video I shot this week so you can see how far they’ve gotten.

9. Filming unofficially began for The Cabin this week. I recorded three audio-only scenes with my buddy Steve, who plays the main character’s best friend. The setup was simple. Steve sat in front of the microphone with a soundproof box around it. It’s the same setup I use for my podcast. I was in charge of recording on my laptop and read the other lines in each scene. The awkward part came when intentionally placing spaces in between dialogue. After each character spoke, we would pause for a second or two. The reason for this is so that in post-production it will be easier for the editor to remove my voice and put in the actual actor playing the main character. It ended up being a pretty easy read-through and took maybe a half-hour total. I will be interested in hearing the finished product, as I was tempted to edit Steve’s dialogue to make it sound like he was on a phone. I’ll leave that stuff to whoever the editor will be. There are still two scenes to film before going off on location. Both of those are on video. I will end up standing behind the camera to run lines and also just rein in my excitement over this dream project starting to take shape.

10. Naturally, as I draw closer to heading out to Pennsylvania for The Cabin and get my hotel reservation set, I begin scoping out the area to see what there is to do and see. Now, with the town being small, there aren’t tons of attractions, but there are tons of places to eat. I am staying in one town, and we will be doing a lot of shooting in the next town over. There are lots of great-looking restaurants there as well. It’s a strange combination, as I technically am going on vacation, but in reality will be working more hours than I do in a typical work week on Cape Cod. I won’t have loads of time to explore, so I am guessing most of the adventures I have away from the movie shoot will consist of eating. I have already resigned myself to the fact that I will be in need of a serious cleanse upon my return. I mean, there is a Chinese food buffet a five-minute walk from my hotel, so why fight it? My hope is that the 12+ hour shooting days will help me keep burning calories, but I’m not getting my hopes up. The main souvenir I bring back from the filming may be an extra chin.

Me when I get home from the movie shoot

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 257: Super Nintendo's Debut, Legacy of the Original Woodstock, 1990s Celebrity Crushes(8-19-2026)

2026-08-19T18:55:47.874-04:00

The original music festival. The follow-up to the king of video game consoles. Some favorite 1990s celebrity crushes.

Episode 257 has a batch of Gen-X nostalgia, hot and fresh out of the oven like Poppin' Fresh dough.

It starts with a look back at the original, and many say, greatest, music festival. Woodstock occurred this week in history in 1969 and changed not only music but the culture of a generation. However, it ended up being a success pulled from the jaws of failure. A larger-than-expected crowd, food shortages, bad weather, and more could have sunk the event before it happened. Instead, it helped make it one of the most important events in music history.

Now you're playing with power...super power. How do you follow up the most successful video game console ever made? If you are Nintendo, you take your time. 35 years ago this week, the 16-bit Super Nintendo made its debut in America. Sega Genesis had a two-year head start, so how would the SNES fare? Far better than they could have imagined.

How many of these celebrities adorned the walls of your bedroom? This week's Top 5 is all about the biggest 1990s celebrity crushes. Male, female, actors, musicians, it's all covered here.

Of course, there is a brand-new This Week in History and Time Capsule, featuring the ultimate bad-luck story of a person being struck by two consecutive foul balls at a baseball game.

To support me and the show, become a member on Patreon.

Or you can support my work and Buy Me A Coffee!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 256 here