PinnedMember-onlyMy journey to a sub-3-hour marathonA friend told me that breaking the 3-hour marathon mark can be underwhelming. It’s just a number, he said and once you get there, it’s possible to feel empty. Bullshit! Yesterday, at 41 years of age, I ran a 2.57.04 marathon in Southern California and it felt like an achievement…Running8 min readRunning8 min read
PinnedMember-onlyA decade ago I had the biggest standoff I’ve ever had with my wife. She demanded we leave Russia.I spent most of my teen years away from Russia but Moscow was my home. I was studying abroad — first in the US, then England — but would be back In Moscow for every school break. I missed Moscow during my boarding school years and missed it even more…Life5 min readLife5 min read
PinnedMember-onlyMy son and I have been playing this silly game and it’s hilariousI don’t know if this game has a name. We started last night and it escalated quickly. I arrived in Florida from California, my wife met me at the airport Fort in Lauderdale, we drove home and went straight to dinner — it was my Mom’s sixty third birthday. On…Humor3 min readHumor3 min read
18 hours agoMember-only“Dry January” or dry whatever is a good idea.I only recently found out about “dry January”. From social media, I think and one of my colleagues joked about it on a conference call. I never aimed to make my January dry and it wasn’t. However, at the end of last year, I tried breaking my decades-long habit of…Alcohol3 min readAlcohol3 min read
1 day agoMember-onlyOh, this post from LeBron James went straight to the heart.I wasn’t going to write my second Medium story today but then I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and saw this: I’m not sure what triggered LeBron to post this. I even looked up the Lakers to see if they were playing tonight. No. Maybe there was something else…Success3 min readSuccess3 min read
1 day agoMember-onlyI will never fall out of love with these…My family doesn’t count! You’re supposed to love your family, notwithstanding the occasional crises and even feuds. Why am I writing this? Well, I wonder sometimes — can you love something forever? For example, in the past, I loved Moscow, my home city. Now I don’t care. No nostalgia. This…Running3 min readRunning3 min read
2 days agoMember-onlySo let’s talk about obesity.There was this essay today in the New York Times: Opinion | Why the New Obesity Guidelines for Kids Terrify Me Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share…www.nytimes.com I re-read it twice and didn’t understand much. Anti-fat bias, a weight-inclusive approach, and so on. But I get the gist of it: let’s be very careful discussing and combating “obesity”.Weight Loss3 min readWeight Loss3 min read
3 days agoMember-onlyChatGPT and AI are like fake boobsAnd I don’t give two shits if this story doesn’t age well. And what is aging well anyway? Let me reveal a secret. I met my wife when she was … let’s call a teenager. We’ve been together ever since. Almost twenty-five years soon. We’ve aged. We’ve seen each other…Artificial Intelligence2 min readArtificial Intelligence2 min read
3 days agoMember-onlyNoticed how I’ve stopped writing about Russia?‘Cause, there is nothing to write about. It’s now like an empty space. Or maybe that’s how it is when close people die, whether they are good characters or toxic jerks. There is a spurt of emotions at first. Memories, emotions, musings. Then it all fades. Gets buried. Granted, we…Russia3 min readRussia3 min read
4 days agoMember-onlyMy parents could’ve given me moreNow my time to air my family’s dirty laundry! Inspired by Prince Harry’s memoir. Just kidding. I enjoyed my story about Prince Harry getting a lot of reads! My mom practically sacrificed her career so that she could take care of me. Granted, my father started making good money when…Parenting4 min readParenting4 min read
