sabbatical

kirkcudbright mentioned to me that his employer gives a 5-week sabbatical after each 5 years of service. This struck me as wonderful idea, and then I realized I've been doing it myself. On my birthday in 2000 I quit my job at BBN with no plans for a new job and took six weeks playing with stuff *I* wanted to be doing before starting the next job. I wound up starting two companies, one of which continues to make my taxes more complicated to this day. My friend Robert remarked that I was the busiest unemployed person he'd ever met (though I think tcb puts me to shame in this department). It was a blast.

I had a smaller intentional gap in 1992 after MTDP folded which I used to bicycle to the Worldcon in Orlando (well, really to Richmond VA, because who wants to bike any further south than that in August) and one when I left MIT in 1996 which is how come we could get set up for a housewarming party in the new place in DC so quickly. I used a bunch of vacation time while chairing Arisia 2006 around the time of my 5-year anniversary at Permabit and I suspect a formal sabbatical then would have been eaten up by Arisia, as was the couple of weeks I had between jobs at the end of 2006. I conclude from this that three weeks is not enough time to do more than catch up on the metaphorical laundry.

And so it is my plan to spend August on sabbatical. I will be employed on the 1st and the 31st but not in between. I've already booked some travel into this plan, but I hope to make major progress on some personal projects. Four and a half weeks is not as good as six but hopefully it will do.