I'm Dan Carey and I work for a company called "Intel". You might have heard of us. What's that you say? You lost a pile of money on Intel stock? It sucks to be you! Well, if it makes you feel any better, you're not alone. We all lost a pile of money on Intel stock.

Anyway, Intel's policy is to underresource its projects and work its employees into the ground, to burn them out. If, by some stroke of luck, an employee survives for seven years, Intel throws said employee a bone: The Sabbatical. This is eight weeks time off, paid. Being a hopeless optimist, I assumed that I would last until my seven years was up and I started saving early. When Sabbatical time came, I had plane tickets and hotel reservations all over planet Earth. I went to the South Pacific and Germany. My only regret was that I had to leave my dogs behind.

Me, on the veranda outside my room in Chuuk.