Where the Hell is Matt?

This one has been around the internet quite a bit recently, but nevertheless, I think it's awesome. And as this blog is about awesome things, he deserves a place.

Matt, of Where the Hell is Matt? has made himself a web celebrity by going around the world and recording himself dancing in various locales. Not waltzing or tap dancing, but just sort of a funny, happy, silly dance. He did this first in June of 2006, and set it to delightful world-new age music. He just spent the last two years going around the world again, and produced a longer and more people-filled video.

But really it's his story that's so awesome. He started as a coder for computer games, without a college degree. After some time doing this his company opened up an office in Australia and asked for volunteers - he went. With a few trips to surrounding countries while there, he decided that he was tired of being a Code Monkey. He quit his job, pooled his cash, and traveled around the world on the cheap.

I want to do this myself, in fact. He had balls, and he made it work. Travel doesn't have to be expensive.

He soon got a sponsor for his dancing videos: Stride gum, which more or less pays him to see the world. God bless the wonderful people at Stride for thinking this is a good advertising scheme.

The biggest benefit from Matt's videos in my mind is the sense that you get from them that people and places are not as different and foreign as we're led to believe. That silly little dance somehow makes people understand that people around the world are, in fact, people. It makes the heart swell with pride for humanity's beauty...