This blog was originally used to describe my travel experiences way back when. I had an amazing 3+ years of almost constant travel (December 2016 to Covid-19). And even in the time since my travel pace slowed due to the pandemic, a waning enthusiasm for that living-out-of-a-duffle-bag lifestyle, and the need for an income, I’ve…
Old Blog, Who Dat Say Dey Gonna Beat Dem Saints?
Hey there! Long time, no see! Three and a half years since I last posted here. How the hell y'all been doing?? I'm getting ready to blow the dust off this blog and get it active again, though the theme is going to change a bit (expand, really) just as my life has changed and…
Travels with Charley
It's been approximately 40 years since I read John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. I remember almost nothing about it now except the simple premise: famous author travels with his dog across the USA by car. Outside of a vague notion that I enjoyed the book, that's nearly the full extent of my recollection. Nonetheless, the…
An Important Message from Mexico
I'm sitting in a lounge at Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City awaiting my flight home following an all-too-brief two-week trip that involved both volunteer duties and fun, both here in CDMX and in the state of Oaxaca. When I say that Mexico asked me to carry a message home with me, I'm not…
Ketamine for Depression and PTSD
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. I want to spread the word about a new experimental treatment that shows great promise for those living with depression and PTSD that’s been difficult to treat with standard medications. In the last 15+ years, researchers and clinicians have found that ketamine — a dissociative anesthetic more widely known…
New Starts
You're an American who's flown 3500 miles to a new destination in a different hemisphere, arriving in the early morning hours and managing only four hours of sleep, but you're excited to start exploring this new place, so you stumble downstairs to the hotel breakfast and the very first voice you hear in this new…
That Familiar Sense of Unfamiliarity
Walking alleyways (known as hėms here) in Ho Chi Minh City District 1 this morning -- partly in search of good coffee, mostly to start to get my bearings and explore this new-to-me city -- I was suddenly struck by the excitement that often hits when I'm in a strange place for the first time.…
“You So Fucking Sexy”
I'm walking on the outskirts of downtown Raleigh one Saturday afternoon in October. It's an NC State game day, so there are small groups of red and white-clad fans heading out to watch the game at locals bars and restaurants. A block or so ahead of me had been one such group who disappear from…
City Dogs
These city dogs were more restless, more desperate, than the dogs back in the village. -- Orham Pamuk, A Strangeness in My Mind, Vintage International, 2015 These are just some of the many city dogs I’ve encountered in my travels this year. Not pictured: the pack of dogs that owned and patrolled Street 22…
New Day
The following post has been sitting in my Drafts folder for many months. I'm finishing it in April 2018 but using the original creation date for posting. Reading through it now, I realize that all of the issues I listed were minor annoyances or inconsequential rudeness, the details of which have long since been lost,…
That Dude Over There 