The ground had a light dusting of snow this morning, but the sky was a clear blue when I finally left the hotel for the North End Church. I had breakfast at a cafe across from the old church, then continued the sightseeing, stopping again at another old cemetery before walking the bridge over to visit the U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides).

Statue of Paul Revere with the North End Church in the background.

The ship was now owned and maintained by the navy, so when I walked in, I had to go through a security checkpoint and basically strip myself half-naked. Apparently I carried a lot more metal objects than I thought. The guard waited patiently as I emptied my pockets, pulled my belt buckle, took out my phone, my iPod, my old camera, dumped my backpack, my work ID and badge before I could finally walk through. I can’t even imagine what TIA would do to me if they saw me coming.

I finally got in, went inside the main entrance where I saw a group of other tourists waiting. A park ranger saw me and asked me if I wanted to join the tour to board the ship.

“You mean it’s still open?” I was surprised.

The old ranger didn’t respond, instead he just looked away as if I had just asked the most monumentally stupidest question he had ever heard, then went back to continuing a conversation he was previously having with another tourist.

I decided I didn’t want to board the ship if this douche nozzle was going to be giving the tour, so instead I went outside to see it for myself. Tours are for girlie boys and little children anyway.

*sniff* so beautiful... *sniff*

After spending some time admiring the ship and giving it a hug on the front end until the navy seamen shooed me away, I continued to the museum nearby. A sweet girl at the front desk greeted me, but then got a little uncomfortable when I asked her to be my love snuggles, so I continued onward, reading about the history of the ship, the war with Tripoli, and enjoying the model ship exhibits they were having in the conference room.

I had only one stop left in the Freedom Trail now: Bunker Hill! I followed the line back, then hoofed it up to where a monument now marked the spot of the famous battle.

There is NO way I'm going up that.

pant… pant… wow… it really IS a hill.. pant… pant…

By the time I finally reached the top I decided I was not going to kill myself by climbing 20 flights of stairs just so I could get a bird’s eye view of Boston, no thank you, I’m good here, really. Ugh. I really wanted to, but I’ll save it for next time, hopefully when I have a girl then willing to travel with me and carry me up the stairs.

Don't fire until you see the whi- hey you! Yeah you with the Yankees hat! You're blocking my view here!

After relaxing inside the monument for a while, I decided it was time to go to Griffins Wharf, the site of the famous Boston Tea Party so I could do my own tea dumping. On the way I stopped by the Bunker Hill museum to see some of the fascinating exhibits that had been excavated from the hill, including a British drum and several swords and cannonballs. Amazing.

Cannonballs excavated from Bunker Hill

I found another T line from there and got out again at Southern Crossing, enjoying the walk and the booths there until I reached the harbor. I bought a Snapple bottle from one of the hot dog wagons nearby, then walked over the bridge until I reached the middle. I had to wait out some of the pedestrians though, who might not understand why I would want to dump perfectly good Snapple tea in the middle of the harbor, or in case they were eco-algore loving crazypants thinking I was littering mother nature.

Where it all began!

But I pulled it off, and I had to admit the feeling was awesome. I think every proud member of this great country should do this once in their lifetimes, (just make sure you dump only the TEA, and not the bottle it was in too, lest I should slap you one.)

The dumping of Snapple tea into the Boston harbor concluded my journey into the past, and it was now time to get back to the present again. Whatever I missed would have to wait for another time. I went back to the hotel and wracked my brain over and over on where to dine tonight, considering that dining out was going to be far cheaper than ordering in.

Where to go, where to go… where could I go, where I could take a break from all my worries? That sure would help a lot… Sometimes I just want to get away… maybe go, where everybody knows my name? And they’re always glad I came?

NoOoOoOOoorrrmm!!!

Well ok, no, Norm wasn’t there. But the food sure was! I stopped by the replica in Faneuil Hall, found a quiet spot inside and a outlet to plug my laptop in, and I was happy as a clam. I ordered a Norm Burger and Carla’s Boston cream pie, all while enjoying the twinkling lights of the marketplace inside the windowed dining room. Somewhere in the background, a radio was playing Boston’s “More than a Feeling.” I knew right then and there the city was welcoming me home.

Tags: boston, Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, cannonballs, cemetery, cheers, church, Faneuil Hall, freedom trail, Griffins Wharf, history, marketplace, museum, navy, North End, Paul Revere, snapple, Southern Crossing, USS Constitution, William Prescott
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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So I looked out this morning and the sun was gone, turned on some music to start my day, lost myself in a familiar song, closed my eyes and I slipped awaaaaa… no wait, that’s not right.

On second thought, that WAS how I started my first morning in Boston. Heh. After a hot shower and a quick breakfast at a restaurant next door, it was off to the Boston Commons to begin my walk on the Freedom Trail.

It's beginning to snow at the Boston Commons!

By this time it was already snowing, yet nothing so severe that it would ruin my morning (and the rest of my time here.) I took the T line again and got out at the foot of the famous park, taking a quick walk around to find a few hidden geocaches and then doubling back to start the Freedom Trail.

Seriously, they could have dressed up the beginning of the trail with a bit more fanfare than this.

After a few stops, I eventually found myself at King’s Chapel, and tried to get a shot off at an angle so I could capture the entire steeple of the huge church, when the camera slipped right out of my gloved hands and hit the pavement with a sickening crack.

Bostonians within a block of me all turned their heads in the direction of the girlie shriek they had just heard.

I quickly picked up the camera hoping it was shockproof enough to withstand the impact, but I could see the lens was already cracked. My beloved Canon had just taken what would be its last ever picture.

The last picture my Canon would ever take.

It had to happen RIGHT before getting to Granary Cemetery too, the site of many famous burials, including Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock, and so many others. My only option was to use my camphone in the meantime, until I could get back to the parking garage to get my older, backup Olympus camera. Thank goodness I thought to take it with me, even though it was old, bulky and slow. Now it was all I had left to use while I was here.

Grave of Samuel Adams

After the cemetery I stopped by the old South Street House and decided to spend a few minutes there out of the cold and the snow. I’m glad I did too. The building was quiet and homey, so I took some time to sit down in one of the pews and relax, amazed that I was in the very same building where Samuel Adams gave the signal that launched the start of the Boston Tea Party.

Taking a breather inside a famous U.S. landmark.

After getting warmed up again, I decided to leave and visit the old State House before getting back to the garage. The state house was also a museum, which included a gallery of old photos in the basement chronicling Boston’s history. By this time the snow had now turned to hard rain, forcing me to conclude the Freedom Trail for the day. I got to the garage and got out my old camera, testing it to make sure everything still worked fine.

And of course the flash was broken.

Walking through history, even in the rain!

Good grief, this was turning out to be one camera killing trip. I grabbed it anyway and headed out again, running as fast as I could back to the hotel as the rain pelted me mercilessly. I spent the rest of the afternoon vegging out in my room, watching the rain outside and and deciding to order in so I could give my feet a rest. Which I might add is a mistake in Boston. Between the delivery charges and the gratuities and the absurd prices for beverages, I was paying close to $40 for a small dinner. What, does Boston have something against introverts who hate dining out? Yeesh.

By now the full brunt of the storm had descended on Boston, but I had lucked out, either due to being awesomely awesome, or being so hot that I kept the entire city warm, because it had never snowed more than an inch. New York had gotten walloped with over 15 inches of snow, but Boston received but a light dusting. The roads and sidewalks would still be free and clear for me to conclude the Freedom Trail and visit a few other sites for the rest of the week.

But for now, it was time to rest and enjoy my $40 dinner. Oh, and do some research online for a new camera.

Tags: boston, Boston Commons, burials, camera, canon, cemetery, church, freedom trail, geocaches, Granary Cemetery, graves, history, King's Chapel, museum, Old State House, photo, Photos, Samuel Adams, South Street House
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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I’ve been going on a spending spree ever since paying off the last of my debt earlier this month, but don’t worry, most of it has been for necessities such as work shoes, which literally had gaping holes in them and were over 2 years old  (you could see my toe-sies!)  And believe me, you don’t even wanna know what state my underwear were  in.     Thankfully though, I am no longer a tighty whitey dude.

I also threw down for some chick magnetizing sunglasses and FINALLY settled on a brand new watch as well, getting ever so closer to checking off all the items on my wishlist and becoming … *clears throat* …  the ULTIMATE Blogging Badass. 

I do all this, of course, with the full knowledge that the current economy quite plainly sucks flaming donkey balls (while the democrats in Congress continue to serve up a fresh batch of them by the day.)  I realize a lot of people are hurting out there, so when I go on about buying some nice, shiny new toys (and manly looking boxer-briefs) while people are out there suffering from all sorts of financial distress, I do feel bad about it…. for a minute or two.

The reason I don’t feel TOO bad about it is because I remember the days when the economy was boom stomping and people were going half mad buying up tech stocks or purchasing ridiculously sized homes they couldn’t afford, while I could only watch with wonder and dismay, unemployed and eventually even homeless.

Yep, there was a time when I was actually homeless, evicted by a demon possessed relative who literally poisoned my beloved cat.  I guess this Nazi loving moochbag couldn’t find a Jew to gas, so he went for my cat instead.  Fun times!

I remember that all happened in 2000 too, during what was supposed to be the year of jubilee.  All the churches in my area just kept going on and on about the year of jubilee, and how it was going to be a time of unparalleled blessings and prosperity and bountiful harvests and God only knows what else, none of which incidentally enough, I ever experienced.  Instead, it was just one traumatic loss after another.  Loss of inheritances.  Loss of homes.  Loss of security.  Loss of family.  I think if you were to collectively take everything that had been lost by either me or my family, it would literally amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.  The magnitude of what we had lost or stolen from us amazes me even today.  All during a time of economic prosperity and growth too.

In a way, I see these modest splurges as a way to regain some of what I had lost after ten years of plague and darkness.   To find myself in a secure job, debt free, with money to invest and a blog that brings me a decent second income during a time of economic distress and imminent calamity has to be the ultimate height of irony.  This is the LORD’s doing, and it is marvelous before our eyes.

I find myself in a transitional phase now, with one shackle after another slowly falling off until one day I am going to find myself completely independent, and completely free.   Knowing that day is not too far off now, I wonder to myself, What will I do with this newfound freedom?  What will I do with the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) that I’ve been given?

I certainly can’t hoard it to myself, nor do I want to.   A free man can set others free, and I want to take what is mine, and give it to those in need.  I know what it’s like to lose everything.  I know what it’s like to suffer.  But I also know that a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things he possesses.  We have been told by our society that a man is nothing if he doesn’t have a house or land, and we are now paying the price for that fallacy.  Truth be told, of all the things that had been stolen from me, including a home, I never really wanted any of it anyway, nor did it bother me all that much to lose it.  It was the concept that someone had taken something from me through the most despicable and evil means (and had gotten away with it) that bothered me, and more than bothered me, it enraged me.  It wasn’t justice.  Why did God reward evil with good?  It’s something I still struggle with even today, even as I watch the tide gradually turn in my favor.

As angry as I am about the past, I never want to do to others what had been done to me.  It’s my desire to alleviate the burdens of the innocent, not add to them.  But in what capacity I could realize these desires, I don’t know.  That chapter has yet to be played out.

I do know I want to save the world, one innocent person at a time.  And I hope one day I can do so… while wearing comfortable boxer-briefs and looking cool in my chick magnetizing shades. 

Tags: blessings, church, darkness, economy, financial, freedom, homeless, independent, justice, money, plague, rage, security, spending spree, wishlist, year of jubilee
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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One of the things that really kill any incentive to pull myself together and get my life back on track is that there seems to be nothing worth fighting for.  I have no desire to fight for myself, because I’m kinda of a weenie and don’t like myself very much, so there’s no motivation there.  I can’t fight for my parents either, because they’d actually be better off if I were dead.  That way they could get my pension, my car and the rest of my possessions, which is enough to afford them a nice house somewhere without having to take out a mortgage.  Really, I’m holding them back just by being alive. 

If anything, I should be fighting for God, but I can never be convinced that He loves or cares about me, even when there are occasionally signs to the contrary.  It always seems like the people who have hurt me the most in my life end up getting ridiculously rewarded for their malice, and I’ve never understood why.  It’s like I’m a lucky charm for my worst enemies.    That’s why there are times I suspect that He cares more about my enemies than He does about me.  It’s really a battle to try to change that perception too, especially when on top of that everything else I do in life amounts to a complete failure.  Whatever I say or do has little to no impact on anything.  I can’t change lives for the better, help people get saved, or contribute anything of value to society or the church.  I am hated by all and loved by none, and it’s like I don’t even bother anymore because I know I’ll just fail as usual, so what’s the point?  (And before you start berating me for having this loser attitude, just remember it took years of perpetual failures and disappointments to develop this self-defeating mentality, so nyah.)

Then there’s the girl of my dreams factor.  One of the worst sins I could think of having committed is that I prolonged meeting her only because I’ve been such a weenie all these years.  But is she really out there at the end of the rainbow, waiting for me to get my act together and go get her?  Or am I just deluding myself into thinking she is, when the cold, hard truth of the matter is that she doesn’t exist after all, and I will live and die alone?

There were times though when I thought I had met her, and it was within those times that I found all the motivation I needed to get my life in order.  I stopped hiding in my own skin and started taking care of myself.  My clothes were new and fashionable.  My place was always clean.  I became more outgoing and personable.  My performance at work improved dramatically  I just did everything better.

And then it would all come crashing down when it became obvious that she wasn’t in fact the one, sometimes in the most cruelest way imaginable.  Afterwards it was all I could do to even get out of bed some days.  Sometimes I’d sleep for 12-15 hours straight, and even then I still couldn’t get up.  When I did get up though I had a devil may care attitude about life, purposely hurting myself and not giving a damn.  And then I would go back to sleep again for another 15 hours.

Things may calm down after a while, but I never do break out of this vicious cycle completely.  Yet… what if I could be convinced that there really was somebody out there for me after all?  Not just merely hope there was someone, but know it for a fact?  If that were the case, there’s no way I’d behave like this, because now my attitude is adversely affecting someone else’s life.  It would be wrong of me then not to pull my life together so I could be there for her.  I’d feel the same way if I had children too, because there is just no way I could excuse myself with living the way I do if it’s going to hurt my kids.  They deserve the best of me, 8 days of week, and they (as well as the girl of my dreams) would definitely be worth fighting for.

As the years go by though and I get older, these dreams and hopes begin to fade away, and with it my desire to live.

I guess I’m looking for something tangible now that will give me enough resolve to fight again, and I don’t mean mere wishy washy, hopey o’ change signs, but something truly rock solid.  If the girl of my dreams is out there, I will fight for her.  If a better future awaits me, I will fight for it.  But I have to believe it.  I have to know it to be true.

Show me the way, and I will walk in it.  Help me find what’s worth fighting for.

Tags: attitude, better future, church, depression, despair, disappointment, disappointments, dream, dreams, enemies, failure, fight, fighting, girl of my dreams, God, incentive, loser, motivation, parents, purpose
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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I always get cheesed whenever a woman blows me off or treats me with utter and pointless disrespect, but when I really stop to think about it, I realize I’ve been treated by dudes the same way too, so this is pretty much par for the course as far as my experience with the human race goes.  Not that I’m into dudes or anything, but it would be kinda nice to find someone I could be B.F.F.’s with again, since it could help take the edge off the fact that I’ll never find the girl of my dreams because women have all become evil spawns of the devil.  Well, at least the ones in New York have.

I remember back when I thought I’d be attending law school, I touched bases with this guy from California.  Had a wife, several kids and a job, but felt “led” to pull up roots and head over to the eastern coast to pursue a career as an attorney.  At the time I was reading and studying several primers on the law to help me get started, so we traded a lot of emails about the law and about preparing ourselves for the fall semester.  Things went south for me so I ended up not attending, but he went on and started his first semester.  We still exchanged emails, and we had planned to do a live chat to work on a “fact pattern” so he could better prepare for his next class, and I was happy to help out since I wanted to get the hang of doing these fact patterns myself when it came time for me to start school as well.

And then I never hear from him again.  I still sent him an email every now and then, just wanting to make sure he was ok and that he was doing well, but even though I got his read receipts, I never did get a response.  I even sent him a Christmas e-card, which he of course picked up but never bothered to say thank you for.  And that was pretty much the end of that.

You know, it wasn’t even the fact that I was blown off inexplicably that frosted my rear so much, but the fact that this guy was supposed to be a Christian, and technically that meant I’m supposed to be his brother in Christ, right?  So where was the camaraderie or respect, or even just the simple fricking courtesy to acknowledge the help I gave him and maybe say thank you for it?  Is this the kind of people I’m going to be meeting up with in heaven too?  Great, spending eternity with a bunch of snotheads who were too good to give me the time of day on Earth.  Yeah I can’t wait.

Maybe it’s because I don’t attend church, but I usually have a much deeper sense of appreciation for fellowship than my church going dweebs do.  A lot of them just seem to flip it off like its meaningless.  Really, I don’t get the coldness.  It’s not even that it’s cold hearted,  but like, no feeling at all.

I know these things happen, and that’s life.  I get that.  People are jerks, but every now and then this jerkiness really, REALLY grates on my nerves, especially when there’s no rhyme or reason to it.  Maybe that’s why I like to antagonize people so much.  At least then when they hate on me I totally know why, and I’m cool with it.  Heck at times I even revel in it. 

But when I’m all sweetness and light and snuggly wuvables, yet still get treated like a compost heap in New Jersey, that’s when I get upset and start writing really bad things on bathroom walls.  There’s just no logic to such behavior, at least not one that’s apparent to me.  It’s the mystery, the not knowing why people go rogue like that that drives me nuts.  One minute everything is fine, the very next I don’t know which end is up, and the worse thing about it all is that I can’t learn from the experience.  I can’t figure out what it is I might have done wrong so that I could learn from it and move on from there if necessary.  But no, nothing.  Just the cold random encounters of life that brings me nothing but frustration and thoughts of mixed martial arts violence.

In a weird way, I guess that’s why I find comfort in being a badass who just loves to rub people the wrong way.  There’s something… safe about it, the security in knowing you’d never have to deal with the mystery of why people might hate you so much or disrespect you, unless they happen to see through the facade of course, in which case I’d be screwed totally. 

Tags: behavior, camaraderie, christian, Christians, church, disrespect, facade, hate, law, law school, logic, mystery, women
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log, Romance and Relationships
 
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There have been various prayer movements in the United States focused on praying for change in our government, the most popular that I know of being TheCall.  I’m sure a lot of young Christians now are probably devastated by the election results, at a loss to explain why God would seemingly ignore their heartfelt prayers.

While some proponents might argue otherwise, the whole point of these movements have been largely to effect political reform.  They were overly focused on what was happening with our government, but not what was happening in the churches.  In short, we were praying for the wrong things.

Our churches are in complete disarray, deluged with religious fads and heretical teachings, with a community of believers that are more concerned about prosperity than they are about holiness.  Whatever the world does, we imitate it at every turn, whether it’s coming up with our own version of “American Idol” or turning our churches into entertainment centers complete with built-in basketball courts and coffee shops.  We’ve become so preoccupied with meaningless creature comforts, and through it all we’ve allowed an entire generation of Christians to be deceived by the rampant heresies that have overwhelmed the body of Christ.  And yet in spite of all this, we’re holding prayer vigils outside the U.S. Supreme Court building pleading for God to give us more conservative judges.  And how has that been working out so far?

Here’s the deal:  God is not concerned with our governments so much as He is concerned with His people.  And since judgment must first begin in the house of God, our focus should always be on taking care of the church first before anything else, ensuring that we walk soberly, with our minds on heaven rather than on political issues of the day.  All the nations are as a drop in the bucket to the LORD of creation anyway, and more notably, the lesson of history has shown us when a remnant of God’s people repent and seek Him with their whole hearts, things then have a way of working out for themselves without any active intervention on our part.

This will soon be an extraordinarily distressing time for Christians, yet I believe it is not intended for our destruction, but rather to encourage us to seek the LORD once again in a spirit of true repentance and broken heartedness.  Whom the LORD loves He rebukes and chastens, and He admonishes us all to “be zealous therefore, and repent.”

So for those of you have become disillusioned and even bitter about the direction our country has been heading in, don’t despair.  God has not abandoned us, and while we may experience grievous times, it is in those times that we will find true faith and revival.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. – John 16:33

Tags: abandoned, america, christ, christian, Christians, church, churches, country, despair, election, God, government, heresies, holiness, judgment, lord, nation, peace, prayer, prayers, praying, religious fads, remnant, repent, repentance, revival, sin, thecall, unanswered, world
Categories: Christians Gone Wild
 
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