As Coronavirus rears its ugly head, I thought it would be important for me to finally get around to focusing on the important things in life. By which, I of course meant the Eurovision 2020 song competition.

For those of you not in the know, Eurovision is a song competition designed to help foster a sense of "European Community." Each country sends one artist to perform one song, and people in each country get to vote on which of the other countries' songs they most preferred.

The songs vary in quality and style, but they can basically be described as pop, mainly dance pop (yay!) or ballads (eh!). (Oh, look, I'm outing my prejudices right here.)

Perhaps one of the most prominent artists that Eurovision can really be thanked for bringing to widespread attention is ABBA. So good on them for that...

So without any further ado, here are my thoughts on all entrants.

This post will inevitably fit somewhere into a series of posts on NYC life, but it's neither the beginning nor ending of this series, which has a couple of nice drafts in progress.

Also, I have no basis for giving serious medical advice, so please listen to sources like the CDC etc.

Hurrah! We have reached the time in which I write the inevitable post about Coronavirus: the latest and greatest in ultimate excuses to avoid visiting elderly family members! And also, a seriously quickly spreading plague. And a lot of memes about handwashing.

Love in the Time of the Coronavirus, a mega thread. If you see an attractive person in a cafe, do not approach them. Instead, go home, wash your hands, and write a sad, yearning poem.

— Maurice Carlos Ruffin (@MauriceRuffin) March 9, 2020

If I had written this post a week ago, I probably would have said something about the low fatality rate, and the lack of any need to be concerned. But, I am not someone who is as at risk as others. I can easily avoid putting myself in too much danger and lower the likelihood that I inadvertantly spread the disease by working from home and doing a bit more hunkering down than I'd prefer to do.

The answer then to the title of this blog is that I'm at home with some pierogies, whiskey and coffee, but I still plan to go to Wednesday night karaoke.. just with the microphone being held farther away from my face...

This is a conversation I witnessed last night. Normal blog content will resume soon; I have about 4 posts in progress but my photos are currently on harddrives quite a few miles away.

A couple scream at each other across the tracks at 34th St-Herald Sq.

“Where are you!?!”

“I’m down heeere!!”

“Why the fuck are you on the uptown side? You’re supposed to be on the fucking downtown side.”

“I am on the fucking downtown side!! ...oh”

“where the fuck are you!?!”

Maybe this is weird post. Then again, maybe not.

It is at least a weird title. (But at least not as weird as my draft title. Believe me!)

Obviously, my intention is for this to be sorta sorta like a travel blog, with information that would be useful for someone visiting a city or something along those lines, except it's also supposed to be a weird hybrid of that content with a diary.

And the thing is:

Important things don't just happen when you're travelling. They happen just easily, if not more easily when you're at home.

Good day folks!

As is traditional for such a momentous occasion as the start of the new decade, I present a hymn of the new year:

The Ice Of Boston Click to load YouTube video.

(Technically this is a Tuesday and not a Thursday, but you know... writing posts on time is hard stuff, eh?)

I've felt really enthusiastic about travel for about as long as I can remember, but it's only a bit more recently that I've felt as enthusiastic about solo travel. My first trip entirely by myself, where I wasn't planning on meeting anyone, was in the late days of October 2016.

Somewhere inside of me is an urge to see how far I can go. To push a boundary, to cross a line, and consequently to experience something, or to be changed in some way. The fact that this isn't a particularly relevant way to make choices, and can often lead to prioritizing things that might be... subpar decisions, is beside the point.

But, I can tell you that this... curiosity, if you will, meant I was not able to keep myself from buying direct bus ticket from Tokat, Turkey to Batumi, Georgia as soon as I found out such a thing was availible.

This Thursday's post is a throwback, in which I review a round-trip plane trip from earlier this year. Does it sound thrilling? If not, then allow me to introduce you to the airline.

Air Peace is a Nigerian Airline, whose operations are currently constrained to West Africa, but whose ambitions are much larger than that. As of recent, destinations like Dubai and Beirut have been added to their website, which indicates some serious expansion beyond being a West African airline. Moreover, they have publically discussed planning to fly to even more far flung destinations, like London and Houston.

Air Peace does use older planes, and yes, they have been criticized for having poor safety standards amid a flurry of minor incidents in 2019.

Allen Onyema, the CEO, replied in a lengthy phone intevriew with a YouTuber that Air Peace doesn't have a problem because our pilots don't want to die.

Talk about reassurance!

Lastly, and perhaps most topically, Onyema has recently been accused of money llaundering by the U.S. government. Allegedly, he moved "more than $20 million from Nigeria through United States bank accounts in a scheme involving false documents based on the purchase of airplanes" by pretending to buy things through various shell organizations.

Though I cannot speak of the allegations one way or another, I can tell a search for Mr. Onyema on twitter will retrieve many passionate responses, mostly arguing for the CEO's innocence with various explanations of why he has been framed. Onyema plans to vigorously defend himself against the accusations.

So, with that out of the way, maybe you're marginally more interested in my flight experience with this airline. Maybe?