I had a blog twenty years ago...

In the early 2000's, a coworker and friend encouraged me to start a blog. Manan was heading back to Pakistan for a couple months, and he encouraged me to write. Even though I do not consider myself a writer, he liked the stories I told on our smoke breaks. Yes, I used to smoke cigarettes. It was 2003, and I was 24. I was doing Systems Administration at the University of Chicago in their Information Technology Department. Manan was a programmer in the department who also had a blog. However, he wrote really, really deep stuff. Intellectual stuff. Academic stuff! I, on the other hand, wrote about my life as a young, gay man in his early 20's living in Chicago. Things like people I was dating, music I was listening to, pop culture, etc. For any other bloggers out there, I repeat... this was 2003 at the beginnings of Word Press

Even to this very day, my favorite male musician is Ryan Adams. He had just released an EP and one track was on HEAVEY ROTATION on my mp3 player. God, I feel old even as I type this. This was before iPods. So, I named that blog after that track... iseemonsters.com. I wrote for several years even during the time when I met my now husband.

I can't remember what year I stopped writing, but I've come to realize I miss it. 2020 has given me enough time to figure out what, how, and when I want to write. And with that, I present my blog... Volume 2.