Not to sound like a cliche or anything …

… but I woke up this morning thinking today really is the first day of the rest of my life!” After which point I went back to sleep, and didn’t get out of bed until close to noon — I mean, might as well get the rest of my life off to a nice relaxing start. When I got up my first reaction was “geez, how 70s”, and then I realized that wasn’t clear when to start the 24-hour “first day” clock from; and in any case, I’m reading Dzogchen Ponlop’s mind beyond death, and had just encountered the timely reminder that “the duration of any moment is not the actual experience itself. Our sense of time comes afterward, outside of it.” Indeed. Still …

Yesterday was my last day at Microsoft, after being there 8 1/3 years. It’s been an amazing time (as the last six weeks of summing up, appreciation, and compliments from friends and colleagues, old and new, has helped remind me). I learned a lot there, grew a lot, and am really proud of what I accomplished.

I’m really excited about what’s next — can’t wait, in fact! The first step is to take some time off, and work on some projects with Deborah and hopefully some other friends as well … after that, we shall see; I’ll also be blogging, here, and will keep everybody posted. And it kind of feels like stepping off of a cliff and leaping into the void: exhilarating and a sense of total freedom.

Saut dans la vide

It may well take me a while to find my voice with this blog; in the short term, it’ll probably be a mix of personal stuff and talking about my writing, with some politics mixed in, and then more about some of the projects as we get going on them. I’m sure there will be a wiki involved as well at some point and a bunch of experimenting with different look-and-feels and perhaps writing style as well. It’s all pretty ad hoc and informal right now…. still not sure how often I’ll be posting, or the mix between long and short posts. Please stay tuned and bear with me as I work things out!

jon