It worked for Batman.

It worked for Apollo and Starbuck.

James Bond did it, and so did Kirk, Spock, and Optimus Prime.

Even G.I. Joe and the fascist space lizards of V are going to give it a shot.

And now that all the cool kids are doing it, I figure it's my turn, time to reboot my personal franchise, as it were.

Time for a new career ... in a new place.

After a few months as a paradoxically busy layabout, I'm proud and exceptionally pleased to report that I have returned, with a distinct lack of kicking and no real screaming, to the ranks of the gainfully employed. Continuing my extraordinary run of good luck at building new jobs from the best bits of the old ones, I have accepted an extremely generous offer from the Experimental Aircraft Association as their new Online Community Manager.  Thus, my wife and I will soon be heading to America's heartland, more importantly known as the Mecca of sport aviation - Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Relocation will be bittersweet, naturally, though the Microsoft layoffs last January certainly have scattered some of my close friends and colleagues to the four winds already. Thankfully, things like email, Skype, Facebook, and my retired-United-pilot dad's giveaway "companion passes" make the world a lot smaller than it used to be. I've been a proud EAA member for many years, and the opportunity to actually work for them is extremely exciting to say the least. I'll be working alongside a number of friends I've made over the years, so immersed in the aviation world that I'll go to work each day inside a building that's actually located on two airports. (It's tough to explain if you've never been.)

I'm eating a lot of cheese to try to build up an immunity, and honing my pronunciation of the phrase "Go, Packers!" even though I have absolutely no idea what it actually means.

I'm also dreaming of great big skies and the rolling green hills of the countryside I've fallen in love with over my last dozen or so trips to the area. Not to mention enjoying four distinct seasons instead of the local two (grey and gorgeous), and the sheer number of aircraft I'm going to try to weasel myself into flying because that's just who I am.

I'm expecting to have an EAA-specific blog up and running at some point, but I plan to keep this one around as well for the more personal bits of esoterica that need to find their way out to the Internet.

And should Microsoft decide to reboot that other franchise, the one that deserves it more than Knight Rider and The Bionic Woman combined, I'll be first in line at GameStop. And happily reminding them that they've got friends at the EAA.

See you at EAA AirVenture — July 27 – August 2, 2009!

Note: rumors that the part of Hal Bryan will be played by Katee Sackhoff, Dick Sargent or Barry Van Dyke are total fabrications.