I’ve been keeping an almost daily journal since 1998, but only started this blog in December of 2003. Wanting all of my journal entries in the same place though - and easily searchable - I’ve decided to transcribe the old ones. I just finished the first one - from September 1999 when I was studying in Katmandu, Nepal. Here’s an excerpt:

I am at a cafe in Patan Durbur Square, stirring coarse crystals of sugar into my Nepalese black tea. My mind drifts as so many minds have in the centuries of this historical plaza. So many tourists come to photograph the monuments yet I always wonder how many of them take the time to sit on the steps, close their eyes, and let the hypnotic sounds of children transofrm their minds into the times of the past.

It’s been interesting, strange, awkward, embarassing to look back on what I’ve written. I feel like there’s this huge disconnect from the person writing those words and who I am now. Instantly I was tempted to alter, edit, and add to what I was typing. I wanted to correct mistakes, clarify what I might have been trying to say, and … well mostly, leave a lot out.

But I didn’t. Instead I commented in red type (depending which style you’re using - I still have to update some of them) trying to guess what the hell I was saying or reflect on how something applies to my life now.

It will be a slow painful process trying to get everything up on the site and many of the entries will probably be kept private and/or password protected but in the end it will be nice to have everything in one database.