The Bostonian Abroad

Every year around this time, I choose to watch as much as I can about 9/11. I watch the specials, learn about the personal stories, and I cringe and cry and try to comprehend what the victims went through on that day, even if I never will really be able to. In the past, I was told I could not watch those specials because they were useless or exploitative of those who perished and lost so much. I would watch the specials in secret, feeling guilty, like I was being perversely morbid. Now that I am able to do what I wish, I have immersed myself in the many stories of 9/11, and it has scared me, angered me, shocked me, and saddened me. However, no matter how bad I feel, I believe it is my duty to re-witness these terrible events in order to honor the memory of those who were killed. I believe it necessary to suffer through this in order to maintain the vital memory of what happened. Forgetting is not only to disrespect the fallen, but to endanger the present and to risk the future. Thi...

This morning, I was reading an interview with a Scottie breeder. She was going on about how Scotties are very independent and are certainly NOT lapdogs. She said they are likely to be aggressive towards strange dogs and that they hate to be treated with condescension. Apparently, my Scotties are not really Scotties. Maybe my evil plan worked: I bought them as wee puppies and brought them home to a family of Malteses, six Malteses, to be exact. I reasoned that this environment would teach my Scotties how to behave in a more Maltese fashion, and it worked! For starters, they are very much lap dogs! They love to lie on me or very near me, and they love to get rubbins and snuggles, just like my Malteses did (before the ex took them to FL). They are very friendly with other dogs, which is rather unlike my Malteses, actually. And they are quite well-behaved, generally speaking. My Scotties are not typical, then, except for a few factors: First, they do not listen very well, espe...

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, received praise for ONLY working from 9:00 - 5:30. Apparently, she is a "time deviant," according to the article. How dare she leave early??!! The article praises her for being so brave in this modern world where getting ahead means putting in extra hours and being constantly available. While I am glad they praise her for not working even more than she already does, they ought to be castigating her for working as much as she does and excoriate society for its unrealistic expectations of the modern workforce. What are we, slaves?? Are we owned? Since when is it written that we have to put in 80 hours a week and be accessible 24/7 in order to be considered a competent employee?? Is this Korea, for god's sake!? We are losing our humanity in this insane rush to be the biggest and best at everything. For anyone who wants to put in that much time because it fulfills that person, I say, "Bravo!" But to expect it of everyone??...

It would seem that riding my motorcycle in the cold has lost some of its old allure for me. I used to seek it out, enjoy it really. I even helped to start an international motovlog competition where people ride and vlog in the coldest temperatures possible! But the three or four opportunities I have had to ride this year, I have decided to stay in my warm and snuggly bed. Last year, I did only one ride because I had a broken leg. But this year, my life has taken an even more bizarre and terrible series of twists and turns, and riding is really not high on my list of things to do. However, all is not lost because I am rediscovering a hobby that totally obsessed me last spring: Shooting and gun collecting!! After my Dad passed, I inherited his guns, which, coupled with the leg thing, left me with some tools to start a new hobby --which I did with gusto! I traded a couple of times, fearing the wrath of my father's spirit, but realizing that he often traded as well, it wasn't...

You are doomed. Yup, we all are! You might not like to think about it, might not like to admit it, but it's true and as plain as the nose on your face: You are going to die. Everything you do, hope, think, dream, plan, and make will all one day be for naught. You think you will be remembered for something? Try again. Sure, you might be the "lucky one" and be remembered like Jesus was, or Rama, or Mohammed, but who remembers Ahmed, Sanjay, and Jimbo? No one, that's who. You might get real lucky and have a huge funereal temple built around your slowly rotting corpse, a la Tutankhamun, but most likely, you'll end up in the ground in a quite unremarkable enterrement,or worse, your ashes will lie scattered in a million directions across the uncaring world. . . Maybe you think someone's great sacrifice will lead to immortality? I betcha Jesus wouldn't be too thrilled with what became of his teachings. You think he ever had the Pope Mobile in mind back i...

So Weiner actually DID send that tweet of his meat to a college student. He also has done this many times before, both before and after he was married. And he spent the last week or more lying about having done any of it??????? Ok, So here is why I am mad enough to say this jack-wagon has to be drummed out, driven out on a rail, if he doesn't do the right thing and resign. He is a big, fat, public, petty, selfish liar. And, yeah, I know, "Aren't they all?" True enough, and you might ask if I had the same attitude when Clinto went through this with Lewinsky. What Clinton did was no less stupid, no less reprehensible, and no less pathetic --except that Clinton was presiding over the best economic boom in the history of the planet. But when the country is in its second Great Depression, when the economic collapse has caused over 25 million Americans to have lost their jobs, some for over two years, when we are fighting two and a half wars, when the Republicans ...

Since I am leaning heavily towards not riding anymore, I have been trying to find something else to occupy my time and interest. Guns have filled this role. Thanks to the inheritance of firearms left to me by my father, I have begun to take a much more serious interest in shooting and reloading. I have gone to the range a lot more in the past six months than I ever have, and I even started shooting a Glock 30 (.45 ACP). I got educated in the necessary bits that would enable me to get a concealed-carry permit, so now I'm able to pack heat , so-to-speak. I'm into holsters, shooting vids, ammo, reloading, and virtually all manner of handgun shooting. Except for revolvers. I just don't find myself being very enthused by them. They are perfectly good-looking guns, and no one can argue with their reliability. It's just that, for me, they don't inspire me. I think I am more practical in my approach in that I am thinking about the number of rounds, the quickness of rel...