As I relaunch this website for the umpteenth time, I realized I’ve been blogging and maintaining a web presence since around 2005. I decided to investigate what kind of person I have been, online, over the years.
Here’s a trip down my internet memory lane.
2005 Vibes
Collin is nineteen, moving out of his Mom’s place, studying Computer Graphics at Purdue, listening to emo rock, watching anime, playing loads of Halo 2, working part-time in the accounting office of a Sam’s Club, and writing about all of it on LiveJournal.
This recollection based on a single sheet of notes taken on the back of my Rwandan entry-visa receipt…and memory.
I’m in a hostel in Moshi, Tanzania. My goal here is to climb Kilimanjaro, a 19,000 foot tall extinct volcano — its peak the highest point in Africa.
The world is always shrinking. My girlfriend’s voice crackles in from ten thousand miles away with surprising news. A friend’s colleague has been kidnapped by extremists in Egypt, forcibly taken from a car while traveling from the airport to his worksite. He has a wife and a kid.
Current Location: Louisville, KY, United States of America
** Current Weather: 32****°F (feels like 24****°F**)
** Days Gone: 201**
Days Remaining: Zero
Home provides its own type of chaos. Perhaps the chaos and uncertainty craved by the traveler is really just a craving for simplicity. Unknown means no planning. It means your time is yours and yours alone. For me, unknown is easy. With too many variables, calculation becomes impossible. You can’t suffer from analysis paralysis if you can’t analyze the situation. I’ve said before that the present is all we have. Well, it turns out that while traveling the present is the only thing worth considering. Even for someone like me, a person who considers every option and almost subconsciously plans for every consequence, travel makes careful planning impossible. With an unwieldy trip such as this, the possible futures which cascade outward from every event are so multitudinous and varied that I can actually allow myself to not think about them. Mental peace.
