Day 263: We Don’t Know Where We’re Going

… but we know where we’ve been. (Yes, I realize that’s Road To Nowhere inverted)

When elections roll around, my mind invariably wanders to travel. The stress, contentiousness and negative campaign ads (read: evolved poo-slinging) related to what should be the willing presence and participation in the Here And Now makes me want to go away. I’m not in a position to do that just now; instead, I play with eToys that help remind me that the world is a large and vastly unexplored place.

Douwe Osinga’s Visited Countries is a widget which helps generate a map of the nations you’ve visited. Here’s my footprint:

create your own visited countries map

North America, Europe, a little bit of Arabia (a tiny nation known as Kuwait for 15 years) and Southeast Asia. With a bit more effort, the northern hemisphere will soon be mine. By popular demand, Osinga created a Visited States interface in which you do the same thing but with US states. Thanks to geology field trips, I’ve been everywhere in the continental United States except for the Northeast.

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Try these as pre-election stress relievers or just for fun. Don’t forget to post them on your blogs so I can see where you’ve been. What a great conversation starter. “And what exactly were you doing in Vanuatu, young miss?”

P.S. Pictures of the Orange St. wharf fire are up. Poor, poor NOFD.