"This is the best day of my life."

That's what I told the Chief Operations Officer Paul Finer of ACTV in my exit interview when I got laid off on June 19, 2003. My Re-Birthday.

My job at ACTV for 3 1/2 years started out as an exciting and hip dot com job, but gradually degenerated to a regular boring corporate job. By my third year, I had survived about six layoffs, and I was getting tired - and lonely too as my colleagues were getting laid off periodically on a whim like a UFO abduction.

I wanted to get laid off and see the world. It seemed that everyone that got laid off was having a better life after ACTV. It never happened for a whole year.

Meanwhile, I read Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist on New Year's 2002/2003, and I vowed that I would leave ACTV by the end of the year, whether they liked it or not. I envisioned myself quitting in grand style like Jerry Maguire, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving 2003. To prepare for my big scene, I started saving money like crazy, which included moving back home to my folks house. (They had me at "hello.")

It's funny how life throws you a curveball because I actually got laid off five months earlier than I anticipated to be unemployed. No worries; I got a decent severance package which brought me to my target save amount. I didn't even have to yell "Show me the money" into a telephone neither.

So, I am off to see the world for 14-16 months, starting in October. And it's funny how things just fall into place, because coincidentally, I landed at gig being the weekly travelogue columnist at the Lycos Network, in Asia, based on my work at BootsnAll.com. (See the right column for those.)

A new weekly travelogue column. Over a year around the world. It's like a whole new life for me after 28 years of going through the rigamarole of society's daily routines. But now I have been unplugged from The Matrix.

Go shorty, it's my birthday, I'm gonna party like it's my re-birthday...