The other day I filled my backpack for the first time with the stuff I thought I would be taking on my trip. Getting all of my gear into the pack was a daunting task, a battle of wits between myself and an inanimate object. I lost round one due to a disagreement between my sandals and my sleeping bag, but I kept my eyes on the prize, and round two worked out in my favor when I finally managed to squeeze it in all at once. Total weight: 40 pounds. Total room to spare: El Zilcho.

I figured I'd probably want to buy some stuff along the way, so with no empty space, my backpack was too heavy and too full. I took everything out, laid it all on the floor, and meticulously added to the empty backpack only the things I needed to survive. Round three made my backpack light enough to take anywhere with ease. Total weight: 27 pounds. Total room to spare: Enough for a bowling ball. Too bad I gave mine away.

Traveling would have been pretty easy with only 27 pounds on my back, but without a camera or laptop computer, the memories of my journey would escape my head far too quickly. My light- and word-capturing devices and accessories weighed 13 pounds. I deemed these items necessary and added them back in, while leaving out life's little luxuries. The compromise of round four was a clear victory for me. Total weight: 35 pounds. Total room to spare: Enough for a few bottles of tequila and some painkillers for the impending herniated discs.

Today I gave hiking with my full backpack a try. I traversed three miles of roadway in 45 minutes. At the end, my shoulders were a little sore, but my overall condition was surprisingly good. Of course, I was hiking on a flat road at a low altitude. I imagine it won't be so easy when I attempt to hike a vertical mile on uneven rocks in the thin mountain air, but at least my proof of concept was a success.

I think my 35-pound backpack will work out. It may slow me down a little, but I should be able to manage. The best part is that I will be able to take my nifty gadgets with me to capture the greatest moments of my journey for all to see. I haven't even left, yet I can already feel the dew forming at the Gate of the Sun as the crisp morning air whisks away the dark sky of the night, revealing the greatest secret of the ancient Inca world.

On Saturday, I went to REI with my friend Urrv to get some supplies for my trip. I originally went with the intention of getting a backpack, but that didn't work out as planned. I was looking for a large front-loader for two reasons: 1. The ability to lock the zipper would give added security compared with my current top-loader, which doesn't have a zipper for the main compartment, and 2. Being able to load the backpack from the front would allow me to deposit and withdraw my daypack with ease. The store had lots of top-loading backpacks that were very large, but the only front-loaders they had were smaller, and they all came with a small detachable daypack, which I didn't want because I already had a secure daypack. My only two choices were to get something similar to what I already had, or to get something that would be way too small for my trip, so I didn't get a new backpack. I guess I was just being to demanding. However, I did get a new sleeping bag and mat, so the trip was not a complete waste.

I think I now have most of the gear I will need for my trip, other than some clothes. I'm going to try to live out of my backpack, including taking some hikes with it, for a few days before I leave to find out for sure.

I'm down to one more day of work. All I have left to do is turn in my badge and computers, then I'm free to go. However, we do coincidentally have a picnic tomorrow afternoon for my area, so it will be a good opportunity to say goodbye to everyone at work one last time.

I told myself all day that I would have to write a blog entry tonight so I could look back many years from now and remember what it felt like to have to take only one more ride on the corporate train. However, now that I'm actually living that moment, I don't know what to say. Maybe it hasn't quite sunk in yet that this is it. Maybe I've been too busy to take time to think about what I've done. Maybe I'm just mentally suppressing the horrible decision I have made. But now that I'm setting my alarm clock for the last time, I don't really feel anything.

I guess I should think about what not working means. No more struggling for half and hour every day just to make it out of bed. No more worrying about whether I'll finish my project du jour on time. No more trying to keep up in the corporate rat race. No more shitty cafeteria food available at ungodly prices. No more regular paychecks. No more being able to saunter down the hall to ask a friend for advice. No more knowing where I'm going to sleep tonight. No more getting paid to accumulate ridiculous amounts of knowledge about computers. And, probably no more being able to discuss The Simpsons with just about anyone I run into.

Of course there are good and bad things about having a job, but either way, life goes on. A year from now, I have no idea if I'll be back in the corporate world, traveling around the world, or sitting in a prison camp wondering why I didn't take the blue pill. I don't know what my future holds, and that's OK. So, how do I feel on the eve of my last day of work? I feel fine.

I've been really busy moving out of my apartment and finalizing some stuff for my trip for the last week or so, but in the last few days, I've been thinking a lot about the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It's unbelievable how many people are suffering as a result of this disaster. Thousands are dead and hundreds of thousands are homeless. It makes realize how powerless human beings still are, even in this age of incredible technology, to the forces of nature. It also reminds me how lucky I really am.

Several thoughts went through my mind after hearing of the destruction. My first thought was, "How can I go on this trip when people are suffering?" It just didn't seem right for me to travel around the world while people were dying in my own country. I then thought, "Maybe I should just cancel this trip and volunteer to help." But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed wrong to do so. I've worked and saved and planned and invested so much time and money into this trip that it would be a terrible waste to throw it all away now. Maybe I'm just selfish, but I feel like I've earned this trip through all of my hard work. I could try to postpone my journey until a time when there is no suffering in the world, but that will never happen. So in reality, it's now or never.

The next thought I had was that maybe I could drive to New Orleans and volunteer before leaving on my trip. Unfortunately, I only have three weeks before I leave (my plane tickets are non-transferable) and New Orleans is thousands of miles away. I would spend a week driving across the country, and I have a lot of stuff to take care of at home before leaving. There's just not enough time to do something like that. So what else is there?

I guess I have to be realistic. I can't save the world single-handedly. A very smart person pointed out that there will be others in need of help in the places I am going, and while they aren't going to be on the nightly news, my time would be better spent helping them. Therefore, I have donated money to help the victims of Katrina, and I will volunteer time to help the local people I will be visiting. I feel that this is how I can make my best impact. I'm not writing this to brag or to tell anyone else what to do with their lives. I just want to show myself that, given the circumstances of the world around me, I am doing what I can do to help.

I finally finished moving out of my apartment today. Last night my roommate and I spent many countless hours cleaning everything. I think I have done more cleaning in the last three days than the combined total of my entire life. I think the apartment is cleaner now than when we moved in, which doesn't sound too horrible until I mention that my roommate was the first person to move in after the complex opened. Our security deposit was $400, and I think we should get $800 back. Needless to say, we went way overboard with cleaning, but at least it's done now.

Nicolle threw me a going-away party tonight. Several friends came over to her place and shared some memories of playing Ultimate and partying. I was also told about a man named Hector, who I never want to meet, but I'll probably bump into in a Peruvian jail cell after I get busted for sucking on cocoa leaves. Or maybe I'll meet him after I run out of money and have to resort to… doing some low-grade things to get some money back. Nick seemed to know a scary amount about this Hector fellow, but I'd rather not go into details here.

It's been a long week for me, but in a good way. I now have my Inca Trail reservation through Andean Life. I also purchased six months of travel insurance, which I can renew while I'm on the road. I only have one more week of work left, and it should be an easy one. Even though I'm thoroughly exhausted, my trip planning is moving along quite well and things seem to be going great for me. I'm still really excited about my trip.

Thank you Nicolle, for cooking a great dinner and for inviting people over. Also thank you to everyone who came and enjoyed reminiscing, as well as envisioning the experiences my future travels will entail. I think I'm now officially prepared for the worst of it.

My parents came out to Rochester to help me move all of my stuff out of my apartment over the weekend. Other than my TV falling off the flatbed cart and probably breaking, everything went fine. The last few nights, I've been sleeping on my floor with no entertainment besides the Internet and a small alarm clock radio to keep me company. The lack of stuff to do is a good thing, though, because I need to do some serious cleaning.

I admit, I'm not a very clean person. I've only lived in this apartment for a year, yet it has already become fairly dirty. In fact, I have a friend who was so appalled by the mere sight of my bathroom that she made it her personal mission to return and clean it to her high standards. She did a great job, but there was still a lot more left for me to do. I'm not a big fan of dusting or vacuuming, but I do understand that it's common courtesy to leave a residence neat and clean for the next occupants. Unfortunately, I found out this weekend that I don't live in just any apartment complex.

Besides the normal stuff I would clean before moving out, my roommate and I were given a huge checklist of things that will be inspected with a white glove upon our departure. Who in their right mind is going to clean the tops of their kitchen cupboards, the inside of their fuse box, or the outside of their screen windows? Yet these were all requirements given to us if we wanted to get our security deposit back. To make matters worse, after talking with some of the employees at this apartment complex, it seems that nobody gets out of here without being charged for some ridiculous cleaning that nobody cares about. I guess we'll see about that. My roommate can be a real tough negotiator, and I think he's going to fight any bullshit charges with the apartment manager to the end, simply based on principal. I can't wait until I have to show up at court for our $30 lawsuit. Well, that's enough ranting for now; I need to get back to washing the insides of my smoke detectors.

I finally bought my plane tickets tonight. I'll be leaving from Chicago on September 28 and arriving in Lima, Peru the following day. Mark your calendars.

Another monkey is off my back. Only three more to go: moving out of my apartment, finishing work, and making sure the rest of my miscellaneous things (money, gear, destination plans, etc) are in order. It's a little bit scary buying a non-refundable ticket for over a month from now where I'll be gone for at least a year, but what's done is done, and this is happening for real. Now I can spend another sleepless night thinking about my trip.

For the last few days, I've been going through all of my old stuff and deciding what to keep, what to sell, and what to give away. Most of it is old junk I haven't used in years, but it still is hard for me to get rid of my possessions. Buddhists believe that possessions are the cause of all that is evil in this world, but I'm still having trouble letting go. I know my old bowling ball doesn't fit my fingers very well; I know I haven't picked it up in at least five years; I know I wouldn't have even noticed if somebody had taken it away when I wasn't looking. Despite all of these facts, it still is difficult for me to part with something that has been with me for over a decade. My clothes, my tapes, and even my shoes have become a part of me over the years. So many memories are tied into this â"junk," and they're not even the pictures and souvenirs that carry real sentimental value.

I know I could probably keep a lot of this stuff. I could let my possessions accumulate throughout my life. I could haul them from apartment to apartment, house to house, till the day I die. I could do that, but I'm determined not to. I'm trying to cleanse my soul. I only hope my bowling ball makes some kid happy someday. And I hope his name is "Dan," too, because if it isn't, then having a "Dan" bowling ball would be really weird.