Day: October 16, 2006

I applied for a new US passport this morning. I’ve wanted to get one for a while, mainly to use as another form of photo ID (for instance, in case my driver’s license was ever lost or stolen), but I dragged my feet on it for years. Bruce Schneier’s article on passports and RFID chips motivated me to do the deed this month. It might be too late for me to get a passport without a chip, but at least I tried.

I actually found my old passport, which was issued in 1984 and expired in 1989. The photo of me on it looks like another person, especially next to the photo I got for my new passport (which cost me a whopping $4.99 + tax at Costco). As you can tell, I don’t leave the country much. The visas stamped in that passport featured two trips to England (in 1985 and 1986), and one to Ontario, Canada (in 1988). I have no trips planned in the foreseeable future, although I would like to do a couple of weeks in England: Maybe a week in London, and a week driving around the country looking for stone circles, which have always fascinated me. (Plus, maybe I could do things like visit MKS or meet Iamza.)

A whole world of possibilities… but probably none of them will be exercised anytime soon!