I designed a hat!

Chalk this up to things I didn’t think I’d be doing in 2025 but a few weeks ago I was with my brother in St. Petersburg, Florida. We had a lot of time together and part of that was swapping stories and one of my stories was about a landmark moment in my camping life. It’s been a few years now since I came across this unforgettable deer at a state park in Louisiana. For the backstory of the doe, click here. While I was messing around on my computer in the amazing design software Affinity, I wanted to take the picture of the deer and make it into an image suitable for print, although I really didn’t have an idea for what that would mean tangibly.

In fact, her picture started as a cow (more on that later) and slowly morphed into the final image.

I showed my brother what I was working on and he’s a “big picture” guy so he immediately had ideas for sharing the picture and the story of my encounter with the deer. Long story short, she’s now on a hat and my brother gifted the hat to his coworkers in central Florida.

I write a lot of words but I’m not sure I have words for how I feel in this moment. It’s just a hat in one city of one state in a country surrounded by many other countries in a big world. But gosh I feel like I’ve accomplished something big in my little world. I can’t wait to find out what else this might turn into with designing pictures and even sharing the story of the deer with people along the way.

-Out of the Wilderness

Cell Phones Make Television A Lot Easier

I was watching one of my favorite shows, “Tracker,” the other day and something happened that brought about a question in my mind. The scene had three people in it and at the conclusion of the scene, one character was no longer needed to keep the story going. So how did the writers get that character out? Simple. Her cell phone rang, she responded, “I need to take this,” and she exited the scene.

Naturally, the question that arose in my mind: Before cell phones, how did writers remove characters from scenes? It’s not the easiest Google search but here is one result I got.

That search result was more for permanent character disappearances but it kind of works for short-term, too. A character leaves the scene to join something else off-camera. Or they simply exit through a door. Or someone enters to take the character out of the scene. Or there’s a previous arrangement (an appointment or date) and the time has come for that character to go do that thing.

So the summarization is this: with the invention of the cell phone, scenes got a lot easier to write. What are your thoughts about this quandary?

-Out of the Wilderness

The Oily Duck Dawn Soap Commercial – The Song!

I’ve been seeing a new Dawn soap commercial with a cute little duck suffering from an unidentified oil spill. Instead of focusing on the harm and the anger aimed at the company responsible, the ad focuses on the saving of the little duck. Check it out then scroll down for more…

The Song. The uplifting gospel-style song is called “Better Day Comin'” by AG and Garrison Starr. Here’s the full track released in 2019…

This is a great commercial from Dawn because it appeals to the compassionate part of our human nature. I mean, who wants to see a little duckling suffer? No one. So we go out and buy Dawn. Does it work on greasy dishes? It almost doesn’t matter. But I’m guessing it can help clean a duck off and our dirty plates, too.

-Out of the Wilderness

The Target commercial featuring an unserious Santa?

Target introduced a new, modern Santa Claus last holiday season. He goes by Kris K. on his Target name tag (watch it here) and he’s back in 2025 but something seems different. Check out a new ad then scroll down for more…

Is it just me or did they turn Kris K. into Hank the Buffalo from Buffalo Wild Wings? He’s mostly goofy and doesn’t come across as someone I’d trust delivering gifts around the world in one night.

-Out of the Wilderness

She’s Not Mine To Miss

I don’t always watch Hallmark movies, but when I do… I regret it. OK, that’s not always true. There are one or two that haven’t bored me. It *is* kind of funny that they’re all basically the same and yet people love to watch them during the holidays. It’s a comfort thing, I’m sure. When you’re watching a holiday Hallmark, all is right in the world, right? When I was a child and got scared after a horror movie or a frightening event on a TV show, my comfort was to think about baseball.

I can’t remember the last time I sat through an entire Hallmark movie and yesterday was one of those days where I watched just a few minutes, catching the end of a predictable Christmas love story. But I’ll admit, there was a line that caught my attention. A woman was planning to return to her normal big-city life with her boyfriend. The guy she had met in the small town of Evergreen was asked by his daughter, “Are you going to miss her?” He responded with, “She’s not mine to miss.” We all know how it ended, of course, but I’ll hand it to the writers on this one.

The movie is called “Christmas In Evergreen” and it’s about as predictable as you’re imagining.

-Out of the Wilderness