March 25, 2003: Last week, the United States went to war against Iraq. Late that night, I spent the better part of an hour sifting through old writings from years ago. I finally found what I'd been looking for: my journal entry from the last time we went to war against Iraq, a dozen years ago. I then pieced together some of my current and past thoughts on the war.

September 11, 2002: One year ago, terrorists hijacked four airliners and destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon, and killed nearly 3,000 people. I reflected back on that day, and a few words appeared on the page.

April 18, 2002: With events in the Middle East drawing the attention of virtually every news source in the world, I've recently been drawn into discussions on the subject. I knew the situation was a real thing, but I had never really looked into it, or tried to fully understand it. I wrote a few paragraphs about the subject on a message forum, but the discussion there soon ended. Then our opinion editor at the newspaper decided to put together a special online section addressing the subject, so I expanded my paragraphs to become a column. That column appeared on Yahoo! and is on the newspaper's Web site, but I decided it also deserved a place on my own Web page. I still have many questions and few answers, but these are my thoughts and feelings on The Middle East Situation.

February 10, 2002: I shy away from publishing personal writings on my Web page, but in some cases, I think they should be shared with others. If people can gain something from my reading about my experiences, it's worth it to me. And sometimes, when I come through hard times and manage to Regain Perspective, it's a triumph that I don't mind sharing.

November 20, 2001: After being assigned to participate in four new recreational activities, called Discovery Events, and write no more than one page on each one, I decided to turn it into another writing section on my Web page. The page limit was a bit difficult, but it never hurts to be brief and concise, and it forced me to focus on the main highlights of the activity.

October 15, 2001: I've always loved to watch people, and I've been thinking about that a bit more lately. I just stumbled across a paper I wrote for a Communication Studies class in September 1999, and I found that the ideas I discussed in that paper are still relevant. So I went through it, cut it down to size, and the result is my commentary on Imperfect Perceptions.

August 16, 2001: I recently embarked on the largest writing project in my life, other than the never-ending diaries I've kept sporadically throughout the years. I simply refer to it as a journal, as it chronicles an amazing 18-day vacation I recently concluded. Not only did I see a majority of beautiful New Hampshire and attend a weekend-long conference of over two dozen Internet friends, but I also stayed with two amazing friends. The full journal is nearly 85 typed pages and, after much editing and cutting, the result is my abridged New Hampshire Journal. (It has its own section, but I decided that it wouldn't hurt to include it here, since it is a piece of writing.)

July 12, 2001: Incidents that will one day fade away and be forgotten sometimes leave lessons behind. One such event happened last night, and it's interesting to think that we can learn Lessons from Stalkers.

June 18, 2001: I was digging through my files and found a self assessment I had written as an assignment for a speech class. It set me thinking, so I revised it, cut about half of it out and am now left with a small sampling of my thoughts on The Power of the Spoken Word.

June 9, 2001: I wrote this Purple Money column for a class in April. I work for Sacramento County and we moved to a brand-new building two months ago. This column is about that building.