Day One

Greetings blog readers, Facebook friends, and Internet search engine web crawlers. Since my last article I have received several out-of-band messages indicating that some of you were expecting more blog posts from me during my journey of self discovery and home renovation. Apologies for that, I’ve been quite busy. One would think that the absence of a nine-to-five job would result in more free time but the truth is, I’ve been busier than ever. In today’s post I want to share with you my initial observations on my time liberation experiment.

But first I want to thank everyone who came out to my Career Change Event on the seventeenth. I hope you all had a lovely time. From what I can remember, it didn’t rain very much.

One thing I’ve noticed since I quit the nine-to-five routine is that during working hours the city undergoes a transformation of sorts. On weekdays during the hours of 09:00-11:30 and 13:00-15:30, when most of the population is locked away in their offices and cubicles, things slow down considerably from their usual frantic pace. And those who are fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of these periods enjoy a more leisurely existence. The stores are less busy, the roads have less traffic, and the people one encounters are more relaxed (probably because the roads and stores are mostly empty).

“I’m not locked anywhere” you say? Really? Then just walk away. Just walk away.

Once you join the ranks of the Abnormals, it’s only then that you notice them going about their day-to-day exchanging silent, Fight Club-style nods as they pass each other on the street. They think that knowledge of this parallel existence needs to be kept on the downlow because if the Normals find out about it, it will be ruined somehow.

By posting this article I’m probably going to end up ostracized (you’ll never guess what the Abnormals’ first rule is) but I don’t care. The reason I don’t care is because as the most recent one to make the transition, I understand better than anyone that their concerns are unfounded. Fresh in my mind are all the conversations I had with other Normals about the pitfalls of my experiment – and there were many. I can say without reservation that it is impossible for this to go mainstream. Fear is keeping the existing systems in line. Society is just not ready.