ascending.direction
seattle, wa
6 may 2012 - g10, f/4 1/250s, iso-80
i started this blog ten years ago to this day, probably on a whim at some equally strange hour of the night, likely in some room in some building that was not my apartment at the time in leiu of studying or doing any homework assigned. ten years ago, about two years before blogging would hit the mainstream.
it probably was started as some place to record and develop or to fragment and deconstruct thoughts that would bubble to the surface during long nights of sanding and machining, building a race car of a team which i was a part of. i was still in rochester, new york, at the time this blog was born and i can safely say that it was created with very little foresight in mind. in fact, i had expected to abandon this altogether by the time the race car was complete--thinking this would be yet another one of those silly whims that sounded good at the time.
thankfully, i was very wrong.
perhaps it was thus quite appropriate that the 20th anniversary unveiling of the team with which i spent five years of my life coincided so closely with the anniversary of this blog. 8 may 2002 coincided with the construction of the 10th design and perhaps the first real burn-out or some need to really vent a bunch of thoughts in any given direction. some may remember this, some may not, and i'm sure there are many stories floating around both correct and incorrect about the circumstances and after-effects but the main point here is that while flying back to rochester this weekend was sort of a return to a prominent part of my life in the context of engineering, it was a bit more than that.
driving down the familiar streets, it was hard not to have all of the memories come back--driving past the spot i would sit and watch airplanes takeoff and land, driving past the ford street bridge where i took pictures for a still photo i final project, even driving back toward the machine shop brought back a flood of smiles and thoughts about the things we did back then.
there have been many changes since, and yet at the same time many things stayed the same. talking with one of the people that helped me maintain my sanity throughout those years, a man with endless patience, it was quite easy to go through the various memories and shenanigans that stood out through the years, including when he would teach me how to use the machines and eventually how he trusted me enough to be one of those allowed run the machine shop during the off-hours as well as to teach some of the labs.
but those views in retrospect seem to make sense with all the views in prospect. looking forward from this time it is amazing how things have changed, and yet the presence of this blog remained constant throughout, and recently one of the xanga questions of the day asked, "how has your xanga changed your life?"
i don't think i can answer that in any short question, but there are quite a few friends that have stemmed from this, some during periods of important personal growth, but i think as many would tell you that have had some contact with me in some shape or form with this blog, the stories are true--even if it may seem that the imagination would have been the only possible source. if anything, in this blog are the answers to why i love barnes & noble, and why i have a nook instead of a kindle, but while there are answers for what has been and why things are, there really is no telling what will be in store for the future. only guesses.
if anything, it's the people that i have met through this blog that has changed my life in the way i could never have imagined. to that and to those people i say one thing: thank you.
so, ten years in and however many more years forward, the flight plan is set but depending on what lies ahead, there may be a few side adventures or even discoveries. who knows, right?
and not knowing, i think, is the best part about it.
on to the next milestones...
-j
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