The journey ends, the journey begins

After 8 years of dedicated work, I have announced my intention to leave Giant Robot and Megatech behind and begin a new chapter in my life.

Yesterday was my last face to face with the assembled scientists of the United Nations. My final reports were routine and uncontroversial. I stood at the front of the conference room, flipping through my usually unadorned black and white PowerPoint slides, stepping the assemblage through a set of agreements, minor algorithm tweaks, and identification of future problems.

I had thought for a second that I might say goodbye to the group. I've stared at these faces for 8 years, trying to sound interested and interesting when it was my turn to speak. Trying to sound calm and intelligent despite inner excitement, boredom, anger, or cynicism. As I wrapped up, Megatech's Technical Director hurried me off so that we could head to lunch. I was minorly deflated that I didn't get to use my goodbye speech, but, in truth I did not think the U.N. think enough of me as an individual to care. I was just another talking head in our bi-monthly barrage of Power Point poisoning.

The speech would have been "As some already know, this will be my last time addressing this group. I wanted to say that it has been an honor and a privilege for me to have worked with such talented people on such a noble cause."

Now, with two weeks left, I have a ton of stuff to do. Final documents to write. Final analyses to complete. Giant Robot v6.0 is due out soon, and there is so much work to do.

With some amount of ego, I feel that my presence will be missed. I was pretty good at my job, and I think many of the team feel actual affection for me. Certainly it will be hard to find another robot scientist that can do what I can do for the salary that MegaTech paid me.

But, these past eight years seem almost like a detour on my hero's journey. Soon, I need to get back in earnest to the preparation for the Super Secret Plan, or the SSP.

First, I need a list.

For the SSP, I need to be able to do the following...

1. Bike 56 miles at pace.
2. Run 13.1 miles at pace.
3. Swim 1.2 miles at pace.
3. Bench press 150 lb.
4. 10 pull ups.
5. Learn some Arabic
6. Learn some Chinese
7. Learn to box
8. Get wicked tattoos
9. Practice rock climbing
10. Save $25,000
11. Get house ready to rent.
12. Have sex with someone hot.

Possible I may also need to
* Learn some French
* Get a secret lair
* Learn to sail

I'll need to update the list as the SSP becomes more concrete.