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.
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…
Japan, At Last
March 17, 2025
Hawaii with my 3GD friends last fall was such a success that, upon returning home, conversations quickly turned to where we could go next as a group. Alas, Scott has a lot of things going on in his life and has bowed out of a trip this year, leaving me…
Oahu’s East Coast & Some Goodbye Laughs
November 18, 2024
As our trip draws to a close, yesterday was spent reminiscing about trip highlights and celebrating our friendship over drinks in the hot tub. It took a while for us to figure it out, but pouring our off-property alcohol into aluminum resort water bottles is sure a lot cheaper than…
A Minecraft Movie
May 5, 2025
Expected it to be dumb and aimless, but it was actually kind of entertaining. Jack Black’s outrageous personality and full buy-in to the ridiculousness really sell the movie. Momoa’s little belly is on brand for the character, but I’m wondering if it’s a consequence of his notorious distaste for working…
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
April 30, 2025
Touching. Certainly makes you stop and appreciate life a little bit more. That’s powerful. Lots of great footage, and the editing is especially impressive. Crafting a coherent, emotionally resonant, and well-paced story without relying on a third-party narrator is no easy task. The frequent time jumps felt a little gratuitous,…
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
April 29, 2025
Tim Burton is right at home here, delivering his signature blend of quirky macabre, high school theater-style effects, and retro claymation. He’s always had a playful relationship with goth aesthetics and a light-hearted take on death, and this film is no exception. But my beef with Burton is that he…
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…