I’m over here now.

I’ve been blogging for almost four years, beginning when we moved out to San Diego, in February of 2003. I started this blog as a way to practice writing, stay in touch with family and friends, and think out loud.

Because of my tendency to reminisce about the passage of time and changes, I find myself thinking how much has changed in our own lives and the lives of everyone we care about. We have moved across the country, made new lives, traveled around the world, and had our first child. I personally have had to reconsider everything I once believed in, and am still in the process of doing so. But through it all, our closest friends and families have been there literally and figuratively (through this blog and other ways) with us. Thank you to everyone who has followed along with us on our travels and our discussions. I’ve learned a lot from everyone here and in our lives.

A theme that has dominated this space of late, of course, has been politics, which is why I chose today to stop writing here. We are in many ways on the edge of at least a partial, temporary retreat from madness or a full-fledged plunge into a new dark ages. Those who find that statement to be hyperbolic or exaggerated are not paying attention.

People have often asked me what “Sacking Rome” means. Everyone knows about the sacking of Rome, most notably in 410 AD, by the “barbarian” tribes. This event has fascinated me for many years. I once wrote about Ralph Winter’s take on this event. This perspective continues to influence me, although my view of the church has changed radically in the last few years.

At any rate, the death of empire is a concept that has always forced me to wonder about how and why powerful civilizations collapse. They always do. One day, maybe not too far in the future, America the Empire too will be swept away. Perhaps it’s the process of imperialization itself that sows the seeds for the empire’s own destruction. Perhaps human societies don’t scale well, or sustainably.

No matter what the superficial reasons are, one lesson is clear. Civilization collapses as a result of the actions of its own people. The invading hordes do they what they do because the giant has become weak through fear, corruption, and despotism. All of these things are both the cause and result of unsustainable growth and freakish consumption.

There are those, even among my readers and friends, who look at such statements as overt negativity. What they don’t realize is that people such as myself are often more optimistic than those who refuse to heed such warnings. It’s because I believe in the worthiness of humanity and the beauty of culture that I say these things. I want to save the good things that we have, but in order to do so, we have to find a better way to live. That is my point.

Enough.

This doesn’t mark the end of my writing, thinking, or photo-shooting. I’ve begun new projects that I am very excited about. For one, I have a new camera, so I will continue to post my photos online here and here. I’ve made exactly $50 from my photography and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s all I ever make from it. I do it because I love it and because I get great enjoyment from my friends and family joining us on our travels through our photos.

Speaking of travel, I’ve started a new website dedicated to finding the good things in life through travel, called Quit Work to Travel. It’s little more than a place holder right now, and is very rough in terms of content and design. However, in the last year of settling back into life in America, I’ve realized that we are permanant carriers of the travel bug. I plan to make this site into a resource for like-minded folks who find themselves gazing off into the horizon when the proper thing to do would be to keep their eyes on the freeway ahead. Every day, I run into more people with the nomadic spirit and they always ask me how to do what we’ve done. There are people with much more experience than we will ever have, but I would at least like to share what we learn as we continue to forsake sensibility for freedom.

They say after a person has written approximately 400,000 words, they start to become a better writer. I’ve written a lot over the last four years, but I know I haven’t written anywhere near that much. So, I’ll keep writing somewhere, but no longer here. I’ve decided to devote my energies elsewhere, and now I’m off to figure out where that elsewhere is. Thanks for everything.

The US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud is a fascinating project. It puts into a tag cloud the keywords of every US President on a sliding time scale.

We’re going to be in Columbus this Sunday through next Sunday for my sister’s wedding. Anyone who reads this and lives in Columbus or therebouts (that means you Erik) and is going to be around, definitely let me know. Does anyone know a good place to eat / drink where 10-15 people can comfortably socialize? We were thinking of someplace like b-dubs, but there has to be someplace better than that.

It’s a funny feeling to go back to Columbus this time of year because it means that almost an entire year has passed since we came back to the US after our trip around the world. Lots of changes. Last year when I was home, I was studying for the GRE to get into Journalism school. Got in, but I decided not to go for a number of reasons, the most important being the birth of our son. Also, in February I started work at one of the hottest startups in Southern Cali and I enjoy it too much to think of doing much else right now. That in itself is a big change because all last year I though I had left my last job with the intention to never return to software. Turns out, software is incredibly fun if you’re in the right position and the right industry and the right company.

Anyway, we’re looking forward to seeing all of you!

I just read that Enron’s ex-CEO, Jeff Skilling, was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

I’m no fan of corporate corruption, and justice did need to be served, but come on… 24 years? This sentence is essentially a death sentence. He’s already in his 50s. This ends his life. He will lose his wife, his children, his sanity. Even 10 years would have been too harsh.

What’s ironic is that this does nothing to solve the real problem, which is that greed and the accumulation of wealth hold more value in this country than human life. Essentially, Skilling was given this sentence because he was responsible for wiping out people’s wealth. A horrible crime, yes, but not one worthy of this degree of punishment.