This website was started in 2000, originally as rpwong.com. There was no real purpose to it…I just figured that I’d build a Web site, and decided to talk about both my personal life and stuff that I thought about, characterized as “random thoughts”. I didn’t really care if anyone read it, and for a few years it was interesting and fun. It was also a good way to hone my writing skills and develop my “voice”, while offering up something that was, at the time, unique.
Over time, the site became a reflection of my thoughts and feelings. As I was influenced by the world around me, so too was the content. The end result was a fairly accurate portrayal of what was going on in my head (though better organized), and it was best summed up by this quote from July 19, 2003:
It would be pretty easy to misinterpret my random thoughts if you don’t know me or don’t come to this site regularly. You might come here for the first time and just think that I use this space to complain. Or maybe you’ll think that I’m way too silly. That I’m too positive or too negative or whatever.
There are two factors involved: my mood when I’m writing the thought (which directly impacts on the writing tone) and your mood as you read it (which determines how openly you interpret the meaning). So, if someone comes here and reads one thought, or maybe even the last few, they might get the wrong idea about what’s going on here.
And there’s not really a lot that I can about it. If visitors want, they have access to over two years of my random thoughts, as well as the Best of Year One and Year Two collections. If you want to get an idea about who I am, that’s the best way to go about it. If you don’t care to, that’s your choice.
This site took a turn for the dramatic in August 2003, when my first long-term relationship came to an abrupt end. Struggling to deal with my emotions, I wrote a neverending stream of random thoughts on the subject. Publishing my feelings for the world made me feel more complete than ever. As such, I felt that it was time to abandon the old domain in favour of a new one, and Scatterthought.com was born.
In the fall of 2005, Scatterthought began its third life. After four-plus years in straight HTML and JavaScript, this site was converted to WordPress. Unfortunately, my time was more limited and my attentions were divided…over time, my scatterthoughts trickled, slowed, and pretty much stopped.
And then…tragedy. In 2011, I lost all of my original HTML files due to a hard-drive failure. Ironically, it was my backup hard drive, and it failed while I was in the midst of transitioning to a new computer. Sigh.
Scatterthought was resuscitated in July 2013, when I embarked a road trip across North America, not knowing where I was going from day to day, and with the sole goal of eventually ending up in Victoria, British Columbia. I did it in 17 days, getting as far as San Francisco, and it’s one of the best things I ever did for myself. My Road Trip Reports served to inform friends and family of my whereabouts (and continued well-being) while ensuring that I’ll remember what happened years later.
I then ignored this site for another six months, took on some other web projects, and eventually circled back around. After pouring a lot of time and energy into the design, and finally getting Scatterthought to once again look and feel the way I want it to look and feel…I guess you could say I’m back.
For how long? Who knows. I didn’t plan on walking away before, and I don’t plan on it now. So long as I have things to write about and an interest in writing them down, they’ll show up here.
Probably.