Blogs
When I have spare time, I'll write in my blogs. Here's a list of them, along with the latest posts from each.
Fancy Rooms & Red Lights
May 15, 2025
The planning continues. It took some patience with surprisingly clunky and poorly translated Japanese websites, but all of our accommodations for the trip are booked! As expected, Dave opted for the bougiest hotels he could find for our big city stays, and he’s really outdone himself. The two-bedroom suite we’ll…
Tweaks to the Japan Itinerary
May 11, 2025
Flights are booked! Now it’s time to hammer out all the details. ChatGPT has helped us fine-tune the itinerary for our 2 1/2 weeks in Japan, with a focus on making our route and even daily schedule as efficient as possible. This is… too easy. And all the planning culminates…
Time to Start Japlanning
April 3, 2025
Credit to Dave for the witty title. Occasionally, he throws out a gem. After a call with Dave to hammer out the dates and basics, it was time to dive deep into Japan research. It’s a monumental effort, partly because I’m unfamiliar with the country, but also because there’s so…
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
June 6, 2025
A touching, beautifully nerdy love letter to a kid who made a difference. The immersive dive into the game world might seem corny to some, but it works. The graphics are striking, and the attention to character expression clearly took effort. But at the risk of sounding insensitive… Did Mats…
A Real Pain
May 30, 2025
An interesting character study, though I’m not sure the story offers enough arc. Who really grows from this experience? Do either of them genuinely change by the end? Michael Cera brings his trademark nervous energy to the role, as expected. Kieran Culkin is especially strong. His performance feels raw and…
The Taste of Things
May 27, 2025
A truly beautiful film. It begins at a slow simmer, 19th-century food porn, meticulously crafted. But as the dishes come together with patience and care, so too do the characters and their quiet, heartfelt stories. It’s a simple narrative, yes, but like the gourmet meals lovingly prepared on screen, there’s…
The Day I (Almost) Got Scammed
April 25, 2025
Several times a week, I get calls from scammers. The calls usually appear to come from random places around the US. If you answer, and they confirm that you are in fact a human gullible enough to answer a call from an unknown number, the scammer follows a standard script. […]
Are We Alone?
December 26, 2022
We’ve all wondered if there’s other intelligent life out there, and we’ve wondered if we’ll ever make contact with them. But if there are hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy, and each of these stars likely has a planetary system, and many of these planetary systems have Earth-like […]
Things I Love
December 8, 2022
Everyone’s got their little joys in life. Here are some of mine.
1991 Topps #15 – Von Hayes
September 16, 2013
The Card The 1991 Topps set was an attempt to be a little bit more minimalist and refined with its design, which was the trend in the early 90’s. An anniversary emblem adorned the front and back of every card, but other than that, it was just another very mediocre…
1990 Leaf #180 – Albert Belle
September 5, 2013
The Card Donruss used the Leaf brand from 1985 to 1988 for cards distributed in Canada. Despite their relative rarity and the fact they were almost visually identical, Leaf cards were even less desirable (if that’s even possible) than the standard Donruss offering. In 1990, Leaf was rebranded as an…
1990 Topps #162 – Todd Zeile
September 4, 2013
The Card The 1990 Topps set was a hideous abortion of secondary colors, halftone gradients, and squares. Topps tried real hard to cram the trendiest design elements into a single layout and succeeded in making one of the ugliest sets of the decade. It didn’t help that most of the…