Mission Control, Space Cadet First Class Pettersen here kindly informing you that at exactly noon Eastern European Time on Thursday August 31st, I will permanently abandon my post here in Iasi, Romania, merrily leaving this accursed, gasping laptop behind to drag someone else’s potential productivity to a crawl. Seven days…

That’s right suckers, I’m calling dibs on this one right now. Chuckle if you want, but I guaran-effing-tee you that space tourism geared for the average schmuck will happen in our lifetime, thus the need for a space guidebook written with flair and authority. I’ll go out on a limb…

I consider myself to be a reasonably funny guy. I’ve gone to pains for much of my adult life to be ‘the entertainer’ whether it be on stage, in writing, at funerals (yes, really), whatever the occasion. Unfortunately, I’ve been in Romania for over a year now, where the language…

Guidebook authors can’t brag about much.  When you’re on the road, it’s a solitary, sub-budget, exhausting existence.  When you’re not on the road it’s a solitary, sub-budget, tedious existence. Broadly, the main perks of this career path can be narrowed down to three categories; 1) The freedom and giddying uniqueness of…

If you’re just joining us, you might be interested to know that I’m long-winded and I don’t care.  That is, I didn’t care until I decided to ‘moonlight’ in guidebook writing.  Up to that point, I had managed to consistently find (or be found by) gigs where word count limits…

A certain compact, rambunctious busy-body here in Iasi has repeatedly raked me over the coals about the fact that I only write in this blog about who’s pissed me off lately in Romania, never writing anything about incidents where people were nice to me.  This is true, once I commit…

My intended September/October travel plans have taken a small twist.  Instead of traveling four countries in Southeast Europe by train, Lonely Planet is flying me to San Francisco for an author workshop!  Who else didn’t see that coming? Moreover, since I’ll be right there, I’m going to do a three…

I’m finally back from Kiev.  Actually, I’ve been back for two days, but I’ve been occupied with the Cricova champaign that I brought back (and the brain damaging aftereffects). Aside from being targeted for a lamely executed tourist scam and spending part of my time in a hostel with no…

Busy, busy. Lots to tell, but no time… except for this one tidbit: The highlight of my first full day in Kiev was the attempted scam two jackasses tried on me.  I was walking down a fairly quiet street about 100 meters from a hotel I was visiting for the…

All, Well it’s been an exciting weekend here at killing batteries headquarters in central Iasi. Since the nytimes story ran I’ve had more hits, comments and naughty offers from blog groupies in 72 hours than I received in the five months previous. As much as I’d like to sit and…