Last day at work

Yesterday was my last day at work. I wasn't naive enough to expect a farewell party, but I was hoping for more than; a pen, a 5 minute talk about my future and a weak handshake. After I cleared my desk of all my belongings (seriously, he did I accumulate that many pen lids?), I felt a sudden urge to go to Knox Grammar School. I'm not really sure why I decided to go to my old school; maybe I was just in a reflective mood, or maybe I wanted to see for myself how far I've come since I graduated since '08.

It was a bizarre time for me to come visit because I noticed that there were students, parents and teachers everywhere. I suspected they were having a parent teacher night or something like that which must have made me appear like a single young parent who had lost their kid. Despite everyone staring at me strangely, I managed to tour all my old classrooms and hallways. A lot has changed. The biggest change though, is that I noticed girls wearing Knox uniforms! WHAT!? To be fair, it was a Friday and I only saw girls wearing Knox Cadet clothing, but it's still a really big step! I guess the 100+ year old conservative supporters of the school must have all dropped dead, allowing a wave of liberal thinking to wash over the school. Another strange thing I noticed is that there wasn't (much) screaming, shouting or hurling abuse at other students. Is it true that my negative perception of my old school is a fabricated memory I invented to suit my own preconceptions? Nah, it was just a Friday and parents were around to control their kids.

After I came back from Knox I immediately headed straight to the Opera house to meet Matt Gates. He had somehow managed to get free tickets to see the comedian Russell Brand! It was really cool, I loved it.

Alright, enough small talk, now for the deep introspective bit.

I'M UNEMPLOYED! YAY!?

I originally wanted to use this time to go on the Great North Walk (a solid 2 week hike from Sydney to Newcastle). Sadly though, I found out a few days ago that I have "tibialis posterior tenosynovitis" , which is a fancy way of saying i have "tendonitis" which is a fancy way of saying that my tendon has fluid in it which is a fancy way of saying my foot is fucked. Woah, that means I ran the 42km marathon with a fucked foot! Can I get my international badass of the year award now?

But when God closes a door, he opens another one. Even though I can't walk or run, I can still do weights. I've still got 30 something gym passes on the Luna Park gym - what a joke, I know. My aim is to get absolutely ripped by the time I travel to Malaysia. I can also make more videos without distraction now which should keep me occupied too!

Strangely, this is the first time where I haven't constructed a well written list detailing all the things I want to do. I reckon I'm gonna wing it. I'm a little terrified that I might just resort to playing computer games for 5 hours a day to fill up my spare time though!

But wait! Are playing hours and hours of computer games really too different from working a 9-5 job? In one environment you're sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen for hours swearing underneath your breath at someone who isn't utilizing your skill set, and in another environment you're sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen for hours getting sworn at by someone for not using your magic skills!

Unemployment!

I'm almost jobless! Poor nutrition, dirty clothes, and brown paper bags to conceal my alcohol - here I come!

At first I thought I would be really empowered by the idea of being unemployed because of all the opportunity lying in front of me:
1) I have money now!
2) I have got my website up and running (barely)
3) I have nothing chaining me to Australia. For the most part, I can literally spin a globe and randomly point to a place I want to live
4) I'm going traveling around Asia in November & December

But recently I've been starting to feel quite anxious. My main concern is that once my travel induced optimism wares down, I'll be stranded in a random country without a job! I'm also especially worried that I might decide to spontaneously get a tattoo saying "Thug Life" across my chest in Vietnam, which will make employment quite a bit harder! Fortunately, no matter how drunk I am, I can trust my nerd instincts to kick in, and demand the tattoo artist to write "Thug Life" in klingon or elvish.

In all honesty though, I'm actually kind of glad I feel a little anxious. I think I'll be able to funnel that emotion into excitement and motivation when the time comes. I mean, there is so much I can do right now in this period of my life. I can brew my own beer and create personal labels for different types - I'm going to label them "Good Shit", "Cheap Crap" and "Decent Stuff".  I can live in Canada for a year and get drunk playing ice hockey! And so many more beer related activities!

At least for the next two months, I'm going to live entirely in the 'now' and let the future paranoid Matt go AWOL for a little while.

Water on Mars!

Ok so this post is going to be the first of it's kind! For once I'm not going to talk about me!

We (NASA, not me) found liquid water on Mars! Wohoo! How awesome is that? How cool would it be if life existed on Mars?

(ok this is where it gets boring so feel free to skip)

This isn't just interesting scientifically, it's interesting philosophically too. So far every religion asserts, either though metaphor or literal interpretation, that humans were created by God on a world that's just right for us. I reckon Discovering life on Mars should silence these confident religions. Why would the Bible or the Quran leave that shit out?  I'm honestly curious about how many religious scholars will try and reinterpret passages in their holy books and claim, through creative use of metaphor, that it was always written that life was on another planet. I mean, lets face it, if science could silence creationism, it would have already done so - if discovering the true age of the earth and facts about evolution can't stop people believing that humans were placed on a 6,000 year old earth, then nothing will. Overall I'm both happy that science is pushing the limits further and further every day, and frustrated that superfluous religions are being dragged kicking and screaming right behind.