Today I drove down to Silver Spring for my first round of vaccinations. The nurse gave me a very thorough briefing on what I should and should not do to stay healthy, and presented me with a huge book with information on each country I plan to visit. Basically, I will be fine as long as I do not eat any raw meat, cooked meat, fruits, or vegetables, and do not drink any water. This is of course impossible, so I can look forward to being sick at some point. The nurse gave me a prescription for Cipra for when this happens. I also have to decide which malaria meds to get.

Then it was time to talk shots, the big question being whether I wanted Japanese Encephalitis and rabies or not. These were both very expensive, each requiring 3 shots, $92 each for JE, $128 for rabies. I decide to get JE, and pass on rabies due to the extreme price, and the fact that even if you get vaccinated, if you get bit, you still need more shots anyways. So that left me with Hepatitis A ($70), Hepatitis B ($68), polio ($38), tetanus/diphtheria ($46), and typhoid capsules ($58). With the menu decided, it was time to get jabbed. After the two Hep shots in my left arm, the nurse asked me if I felt OK. I thought this was a strange question, after all, there just shots, why wouldn't I feel OK? So I got a third shot in my left arm, then a fourth in my right arm. Suddenly I wasn't feeling OK any more. The nurse asked me how I felt, and I mumbled that I didn't feel well, then promptly fainted. I have come to learn that when I get blood drawn, I have to be laying down to avoid this. Unfortunately, I was sitting in a chair, and the nurse couldn't get me onto the floor, so I was out, into a strange world of half-sleep and vivid dreams. The smelling salts woke me up five seconds later, but it seemed like I had been asleep for an hour. Very strange. Then it was on to the familiar drill of laying down, putting a cold wet towel on my forhead, drinking water, and eating candy. I got the final shot laying on the floor, and all was well. All told, the bill for today came to $410. Ouch!

I got home at noon and ate lunch. I couldn't sleep at all last night, so I was very tired. I figured I would take a quick nap. I woke up at 5:30. Oops, missed work. Oh well, only 21 more days to go!

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I now have dates attached to my itinerary. The main reason I did this was for malaria med planning purposes. I need to know how much medicine to get. Looks like I will be in malaria land for eight months. Wow. It seems kinda silly, though, since I have a suspicion my plans will change once I get on the scene. It's good to have a plan, though, and this got me thinking seriously about weather conditions, as well as festivals. It looks like I should do pretty well avoiding rainy seasons, and I may even be in SE Asia for the Lunar New Year, where everybody sprays water at everybody. From my research, this sounds like a fun time. I have a massive spreadsheet with dates, visa info, and even budget info for each country, which I plan to add to the How section. I may have a serious bite on my car. A guy called yesterday, and seemed interested. He actually saw the car page on this website. Cool, the internet works! One call in a week is not good, though, so I put an add in the Baltimore Sun. Turns out they screwed it up, though. They did not put the year, or the miles in the add. ARGH! I'm still not too worried, though, as I have four weeks yet.

I think I can get rid of most of my furniture besides the sofa. So I finally bit the bullet and put the sofa on ebay, with no reserve. Maybe I'm crazy, but I just want to get rid of that thing.

I can see that adding journal entries is going to get a bit tedious. In light of this I am going to investigate Movable Type, a program bloggers use. It's all server-side scripts, so I should be able to use it wherever I am. The thing is, every website I've looked at that uses it looks the same, so if it doesn't let me maintain my "artistic freedom" I don't think I'll bother. While I'm on the subject of software, I've started using 1st Page 2000, for HTML editing, which is great so far. It has a spell-checker built in, so no more copying and pasting out of Word. Best of all, it's free.

My mom just bought a new Dell, so I can look forward to working on a nice computer next month, when I am in Indiana. She is getting DSL, so working on this site should not be a problem. It even has Windows XP, which I can't wait to play with! Ah yes, I'm a computer geek and proud of it! I have serious worries about this computer. It seems to be slowly dying, so I will be sure to back up all my data.

Digital cameras kick ass! I don't know why I didn't get one sooner. It's so easy to experiment, since if your shot doesn't turn out, you can just delete it and try again. I hope to post more pictures once my 256 MB compact flash card arrives.

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Good news today, well, potentially good news. When I got home from work, I had four calls on my answering machine about my car (including the guy from Friday), and another guy called while I was there. Plus, I got an email about one of my internet adds. Now I am worried that I did not ask enough for the car!

I wrote the paragraph above two hours ago. Since then, one of the people called to ask if they could see the car tonight. They came by and drove the car. Even though they liked it, they think it may be too expensive for them. At least I have some prospects now, though.

I got my Japanese Encephalitis shot number two today. It was $98 for that bad boy. No fainting this time, thankfully. I presented Donna the nurse with my itinerary, and we decided that doxycycline would work best for me. It's a daily pill, but it's about half the cost of Larium, and no chance of psychotropic side effects. Since it's daily, I will need 215 of them.

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Get this: I just sold my car!!! It's like a giant weight has been lifted from my back. Now I will actually have the cash to carry out my plan. Of course now I'm worried that I didn't ask enough. Maybe I could have gotten another grand for it? I will always find something to worry about. Anyway, my buyer was quite accommodating to my request to keep the car for a couple of weeks (since he's getting such a deal?), so I should have something to drive for awhile. Hopefully we will close this deal soon.

Things seem to be going well on the furniture front. The sofa will go, since people are bidding on it. I'm just not sure how much I will get for it. Selling furniture is not easy.

Maintaining this journal has become quite tedious, what with all the manual editing of links required. I hope to figure out Movable Type soon. There hasn't been a heck of allot of time, though, what with all the running around for the car.

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I'm really liking Movable Type. You can do anything you want with it, since it uses HTML, with special tags to handle the journal entries. I made a start on customizing the layout, but there is still much work to be done.

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Today I visited my friends at the Target pharmacy, who, between allergy and thyroid meds, all know me by name. I presented them with my prescription for 215 doxycyclines and 30 Cipros, which they filled without a problem. I chatted with the pharmacist, originally from India. She said she picks up doxy for cheap in India when she goes home. That's what I figured, but my prescription coverage is still in effect this month, so both prescription were only $48. Man, that's a big bottle of doxy, though. Ironically, the doxy warns to avoid exposure to the sun. Unfortunatly, I have a feeling that will be difficult

Yesterday night I remembered I owned a ten-speed. Theoretically, I will be able to ride it to work. Work is 7 miles away, though. I took it out today, and made it a half an hour out before having to turn around. I figure it will take about an hour. Unfortunatly, riding a bike around here is slightly dangerous, due to all the cars, and the lack of shoulders. Also, the bike isn't in the best condition. This should be interesting.

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I called up the buyer of my car, and arranged to close the deal tomorrow. I want the cash, as much as he wants the car. I figure between biking and bumming rides, I will be able to get around without much difficulty. I made the entire bike ride to work yesterday, and it took me 55 minutes there, and 45 back. On the way back I overcame my fear of cars, and used the road rather than the sidewalks, which saved allot of time.

You do tend to get attached to things, and I would be lying if I said I wouldn't miss the car. It was so much fun to drive, and taking care of it was an obsession for me. But in the final analysis, it is just after all a thing, and it has not provided me with meaningful fulfillment. Who am I kidding, anyways? I have never been a car person. Heck, even though I am trained as a mechanical engineer, I don't even know how to change the oil! Plus, I feel like a bit of a hypocrite driving it, since I've become more aware of environmental issues now that we have oilmen in the White House, and the car doesn’t get great gas mileage. My next car will probably be a Civic, or a hybrid car, if I can afford one.

I looked at my site in Netscape 4.whatever-I-had, and it was all messed up. I upgraded to version 6.whatever, and now it’s even more messed up. I guess it will still be awhile until I move this to my main site.

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I now have a large check, but own no car. I will miss the car, but I am more releived than depressed. Cars are fun when they are new, but when you've had them for years, they're not that great any more. I can live without it. When I told my officemate about my plight, he said he would be out of town starting on Thursday for two weeks, and I could use his Civic. WOW! What luck!

I picked up some good reading material at Borders today. About two years ago a book caught my eye called "In Siberia," by Colin Thubron. Wow, I thought, I wonder what's in Siberia? What a fascinating place to visit. I never got around to reading it. It's been in the back of my mind though, now that I am going to be in Siberia too, even if just passing through, so I figured I would check it out. I also picked up Paul Theroux's "The Great Railway Bazaar," about the author's trip through Asia by train. He went through Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan; I fear those days are over for awhile, unfortunatly.

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I haven't written for a couple of days, so I had better get y'all up-to-date with me. I survived two days of biking to work, barley. Yesterday was a code red ozone day, so I don’t think that help my breathing situation any. Danger bike is all screwed up, and I don’t think it could make another trip, so I am glad I have a car now.

On to my car situation. I got my big ol’ check Monday night, and then I promptly set about a series of unfortunate events. I figured it was a big check, so it needed “special protection,” so I put it into an envelope, which I did not seal. I also wanted to get it into my bank account ASAP, so I put it into my backpack to take to work on my bike, rather than wait the two days until I had a car. Needless to say, I got pretty hot on the 45 minute ride, which caused me to sweat profusely. When I got to work the first thing I did was take the envelope out of the backpack, which I noticed was slightly damp. Then, to my horror, I noticed that the glue had been activated, and the envelope was now stuck to the face of my check. An amused co-worker pointed out I could steam it off, but I had already damaged the check by trying to remove the envelope myself. Rather than take the check home again on my bike, I decide to go to the credit union and show them my plight. After all of the tellers and supervisors finished laughing at me, the manager said it would probably go through, but they would put a 9 day hold on it just in case. I haven’t heard anything yet, so I’m optimistic. If it doesn’t go through, I will have to figure out how to get a new check, and get my buyer to sign it again. I guess I just wanted this experience to be as exciting as possible.

All of my furniture is now sold! In fact, I have been so busy selling furniture, I have not had time to work on my website. I hope to get the redesign done this weekend.

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Tonight I made a list of all the stuff I have to deal with, in no particular order. I though it might be fun to share it with you. So without further ado, my to do list:

• travel insurance
• ebay toys
• cancel cell phone
• rollover 403(b)?
• find bank, get debit card
• update webpage
• digital wallet
• backpack/gear (this has a sublist)
• turn in license plates
• cancel auto/renters insurance
• cancel phone/electric/cable/cable modem/water
• fund Roth IRA?
• power of attorney for mom
• make address book, store online
• scan passport, store online

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The redesign is almost done, and I am moderatly pleased with the results. All feedback is greatly appreciated, as I'm not sure how easy it is to get to the old entries. Also, what do you think about seeing all the entries for a country on one page? Too much information? I kind of like the individual entries you get when you click on the calendar, so I may try to do more with that. Tomorrow I think I will make this the main index.

Oh, and check out the nifty new GuestMap!

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Welcome to Terry's Trek version 2.0! After hours of struggle, I finally got the site to look the same under both Netscape and Explorer. Much hacking was required, but I think everything works. Now I have to implement some kind of photo album, as well as some kind of archive. So stay tuned.

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The last of my furniture is now gone; what a relief! For the last few years I have felt that I have been married to the stuff. I had wanted to just get up and go for awhile, but I always had all my furniture to worry about. Now don't get me wrong, of course I need a place to sit. It's just that all my furniture was HUGE. I had that massive computer desk, the gigantic entertainment center, and my pièce de résistance, the humongous sofa. I had more furniture than anyone else I know my age. I feel like the narrator from the film Fight Club. But instead of blowing up my apartment full of furniture and collecting the insurance money, I just sold the stuff. A bit less dramatic.

So it looks like I have a small audience! I'm doing this for myself, but if other people find it interesting, that's great! I'll try to keep the updates coming regularly, and hopefully they get a bit more interesting once the trip actually starts. Also, I have sponsorship, thanks, Dan! I plan on setting up my sponsorship program in the next few days. I'm thinking of doing something like Marie did on her World Tour site where if you give $25 I'll send a small souvenir. Not sure about the logistics of that, we'll see how it goes if some people are interested.

I'm still seeing bugs with the site, mostly stuff not lining up right. And Ann pointed out below that if you are using Netscape 4, all bets are off. Thanks for bursting my bubble, Ann!

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I thought I would briefly address this topic, since some people are concerned for my safety. A friend of mine even asked if I would be bringing a weapon. Since I've never handled a gun in my life, and there would be no way to get it on an airplane, that isn't even an option. And cans of mace can explode in tropical heat, and are illegal in Australia, so I think that would be more trouble than it's worth. A bit of a reality check is in order. The US is actually one of the most dangerous countries on my itinerary. Heck, there are murders right here in Columbia. But it's easy to avoid that stuff by using common sense and staying away from shady areas. This will be a non-issue in NZ and Oz, since those are laid back countries with low crime. Sure, every once in awhile a backpacker is murdered, but the media totally distorts the situation by making the one out of a million backpackers killed into a huge story. Once I get to Asia, getting ripped off or getting stuff stolen will be a bigger problem than getting murdered.

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This will be brief, since I'm pretty tired after spending three hours at my new favorite store, REI. I hoped to have my pack, but I am still undecided. I am considering Eagle Creek's 65L Global Traveler, which feels adequate, and should be fine for hostel hopping. However, I would like to have the option of hiking and camping out, so I had been considering a "proper" pack, the Arc'Teryx Bora 60LT, which is about $100 more expensive. Of course they only had the massive 80L model, but even that was super-comfy. I'm thinking the Arc'Teryx may be worth it. In lieu of buying a pack, I bought some convertible pants (zip off legs), shorts, rain jacket (with zip-open armpits for tropical heat!), and a polyester/spandex shirt for layering. I also bought a bunch of gear from Magellan's the other day. I intend to place an itemized list of all this stuff in the Logistics section eventually.

I've also been running around to try to automate my finances as much as possible. I now have a $2000 line of credit for overdraft protection of my checking account, and am waiting for paperwork to automate my credit card payments. I also found myciti, which will let me access all of my finances from one website.

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Tonight three cops were escorting a guy in handcuffs out of my apartment complex. And I'm in the "nice" part of town. So once again, to those who think travel is too dangerous, your own town can be dangerous too. To be totally safe, you would have to spend your life in your bedroom hiding under the sheets.

I was supposed to pick my mom up at BWI at 10:50 tonight, but her flight from Lafayette, IN to Detroit via puddle-jumper was canceled. Northwest has put her and her four fellow passengers up for the night in a hotel. So now I have to pick her up at noon, and Chris, who's car I am driving, at 5:30. I hope to squeeze a trip to the other REI in between pickups, since I imagine Chris will want his car back.

Only three days of work left. My coworkers seem to fall into three categories: those who think what I am doing is pretty cool and want to know details of my plans, those who don't know what to make of what I am doing and don't care about my plans, and those who disapprove of what I am doing, and make jokes about me joining the Taliban. That is in bad taste and is not remotely funny, so thankfully those people are in the minority.

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To liven things up, I thought I would share some of my worries with you. I am a worry-wart, so there are many. In no particular order:

• I will not be able to find another job, and will be destitute for the rest of my life.
• My allergies (hayfever/dust) will flare up. They have been the worst in years, lately.
• My feet will hurt (I have flat feet).
• I will lose my thyroid meds I have to take every day.
• I will lose my digital camera.
• I will lose all of my luggage.
• I will get ripped off.
• Nobody will talk to me, and I will be lonely.
• I'll get bitten by a rabid monkey in Mynamar.
• I won't be able to order food/lodging/transportation since I can't speak the language.
• I will get altitude sickness (it has happened before).
• Something will happen back home that requires my attention, that I can't handle from abroad.

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