Recently, on a brisk winter night in St. Petersburg, Florida (if a Florida “winter” can really qualify as winter) I sat with a member of my family, who shall remain nameless. I was describing to this person, whom we will refer to as Beth, what I do for a living, that being, of course, video production. Beth is also well aware of my intent to one day be a screenwriter and possibly direct, and she was adamant that I should utilize my access to the equipment we have at the studio and “just make a movie.”

Hello ladies and gentlemen, and a happy and pleasant new year to you all! With the holiday season we figured we’d offer you all a respite from the constant barrage of wit and entertainment and simply let you enjoy time with your family. Like your “lovely” in-laws, or far-flung distant relatives whom you have never interacted with in your life but are somehow expected to forge a familial bond with in just a week’s time.

But fear not! We have returned to continue to enlighten you as well as provide you with a seemingly endless amount of puns.

I regularly ask you to picture a scene and this week, I must ask it of you again.

It’s the evening of December 24. You’re sitting by a roaring, open fire, reading a nice b-- alright never mind, nobody reads any more. You’re binge watching “Grey’s Anatomy,” and enjoying a nice plate of warm cookies and a glass of cold milk. As you reach your ninth or tenth episode, the fire slowly goes out until it’s a just a heap of glowing embers and ash and a soft snow begins to fall outside. You begin to doze off, until…

There’s a thud on the roof. You snap awake, looking around wildly. Without warning, an obese old man crashes into your fireplace.

To begin this week’s blog, allow me to tell you a little bit about myself.

By day, I am a functioning, civil, relatively ordinary member of society, besides my deft comedic timing and the fact that I look like Ellen Degeneres with a beard (and I’m just as good a dancer). Besides fits of berserk road rage, I’m essentially quite normal, and I pride myself on being fairly social.

But, when night falls, I find myself degenerating into what many now define as “social.”

We are a mere 24 days from the conclusion of 2017, and what a year it has been. A year where unattractive semi-redheads have dominated pop culture (i.e. Donald Trump, Ed Sheeran), the masses were repeatedly told to sit down and be humble, Frances McDormand kicked teenagers in the crotch, Jon Snow got it on with his attractive aunt, and much, much more. Through it all, some truly terrific advertisements were released around the world, and we decided to sift through thousands of hours of footage (or read a few “best of” articles, either way) and pick out some that are being recognized as the best of the year. Enjoy!

Allow me to, once again, set a scene for you; imagine you’re Liam Neeson. That’s right, you have a very particular set of skills, skills that make you a nightmare for Albanian criminals (but if only you had given up your watch, you could’ve done more!). It’s a sunny March day in the bella citta that is Rome, Italy, and your 6’4’’, Irish self is enjoying shooting some baskets between shooting some scenes for Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York.” At one point, your film buddy Daniel Day-Lewis comes up to join you.

It’s that time of year folks -- Thanksgiving! A time where we celebrate, according to lore, when the Native Americans and pilgrims sat around all chummy-like and raised a goblet (Goblet? Glass? Cup? Flask? Who knows?) to give thanks for their completely peaceful, nonviolent, and bloodless union and teamwork to build America! Even the turkeys that were sacrificed at the altar of gratitude had no choice but to be humbledto be selected to roam the serene fields of the turkey afterlife for such a celebration.

Until just recently, Trove was doing a blog series on Advertising through the decades, ingeniously titled "Ad Nauseam" (although this author does hope it didn't bring anyone to actual physical nausea). In that series, Trove talked about a slew of different ads and showed how advertising changed decade to decade from the 1950s onward, and we introduced you to the series with what was a truly terrifying ad--the dawn of the Jolly Green Giant. This ad has haunted my dreams every night since I saw it, as this Jolly Green specter of a vegetable-based doom has been permanently lodged in my memory.