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Full Circle
On June 6, 2023, I published the first post of this blog. The post featured a photo, taken that day, of the skies made hazy orange by Canadian wildfire smoke. Today, June 6, 2025, I am posting a picture, taken yesterday of the sky over my neighborhood made orange by Canadian wildfire smoke. This time Continue reading
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Easter Eggs
“‘Remember when’ is the lowest form of conversation.” ~Tony Soprano After finishing the second season of Andor, I decided to watch Rogue One for the first time in at least six or seven years. Rogue One is a film that I mostly like but have always had some mixed feelings about. When I first saw Continue reading
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Immaculate Grid
I’m not much of a video/computer/mobile gamer. Hand-eye coordination was never my strong suit, which put a hard ceiling on how good I could ever get at a lot of arcade and console games. When I was younger, I enjoyed PC-based strategy/worldbuilding games like the Civilization series, but those games are major time-sucks. I simply Continue reading
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Mission Accomplished
Back in January, I set a 2025 reading goal on Goodreads of 30 books. Today, on May 29, I finished number 34 and started number 35. Guess I should have set a more ambitious goal. With the exception of my sampling of pulp fiction a while back, I haven’t written much in this space about Continue reading
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Musings on Potential from a Twilight Dog Walk
“You may grow frustrated and depressed, never realizing that the source of it is your alienation from your own creative potential.” ~Robert Greene I came across the above quote online the other day and it resonated with me. I’m not currently feeling frustrated or depressed, but when I think back on times in my life when Continue reading
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Exit Stage Wide Right
I don’t like Hallmark holiday movies. I don’t like the fact that there is going to be a Hallmark holiday movie about my favorite football team. I really don’t like the fact that, despite not liking anything about this concept, I’m still 100-percent going to watch this movie when it comes out. All that said, Continue reading
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Clark Reservation State Park
Memorial Day is the traditional kickoff for summer, so my family took the opportunity to visit one of the many New York State Parks we plan to hit over the course of the season. Today’s destination was Clark Reservation State Park located in Jamesville, a suburb of Syracuse. The park’s webpage describes the place as Continue reading
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Cascading Effects
Like Al Capone in the 1987 film version of The Untouchables, I believe that baseball is often a good metaphor for life. Take, for instance, a team’s starting-pitching rotation. We tend to think of the quality of each starting pitcher as being independent from each other. You have five starters, and the assumption is that Continue reading
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Salmon River Falls
In my corner of upstate New York, there are certain sights that one never has to travel very far to see. A few such entities that come to mind are Dunkin’ Donuts locations, abandoned factories, and all manner of items emblazoned with a Bills logo. Oh, and also waterfalls. We are very fortunate to have Continue reading
About Me
Researcher. Marketer. Teacher. Father of adult children and dogs. 20th Century holdover. Central New York native. Long-suffering Buffalo Bills fan. History nerd. Traveler. Vintage advertising enthusiast. Hat wearer.
a.k.a. V.J. 