Yesterday was my last day at the insurance company for which I’ve worked in a digital imaging and archiving capacity over the last three and a half years. As of right now, I am a full-time employee at Metafilter.

No more top-down bureaucracy to muddle through. No more corporate structure. No more trying to make the best of limited resources and unreasonable demands.

No more arguing with nannyfilter software about what internet content I can, as a full-grown adult, handle looking at. No more blocks on ssh connections; no more scuttled IM access; no more reloading youtube videos a dozen times hoping that this refresh is the one that won’t be borked by the local proxy cache system.

No more dresscode. No more dull, cycling fleet of slacks and button-down shirts that have been mandatory wardrobe for last few dozen months. Greetings, beloved jeans, cherished t-shirts: your weekday has come at last.

No more cubicles. I work from home. I have my own office. The office has windows, and a stereo in the next room, and a pool table downstairs, and scotch in the cupboard.

The job I’m leaving behind was not a bad one, and there are folks I will miss seeing every day. The transition will probably feel weird for the next few days. That is the sum total of my complaints.

It’s a wonderful, pants-optional world, and I am deeply grateful to have found may way to it. Thanks, Matt, for making this possible.