Adios, Amigos

[Update — years later — Guess what? False alarm! It was just a temporary hiatus.]

This is the final entry to the Fire Ant Gazette. Effective on Monday, July 14, I’m unplugging the press, shuttering the windows, locking the door and donating my parking spot to anyone who wants it.

Blogging has been fun, exciting, frustrating, time-consuming, depressing, uplifting, therapeutic, challenging, anger-inducing and educational. Like life, only a tad less real.

I’ve finally realized, however, that I’m not any good at it. Being able to string a dozen words together in a coherent sentence doesn’t make one a writer any more than being able to fake one’s way through a few waltz steps makes one Fred Astaire. Further, I have nothing to say about anything that isn’t being said more eloquently and with more credibility in a hundred other places.

I’ve grown to appreciate and like many of you who have dropped by on a regular basis and left comments or sent emails about all manner of things. Working from a home office, staring at a computer for hours on end, I miss the normal face-to-face social interaction that comes with a more “mainstream” occupation. Blogging helped in that area.

Some of you have just begun to read the Gazette, and have even done me the amazing favor of adding it to your own blogroll. I feel like I’m letting you down by bailing, and I hope I’m not too presumptuous in relying on your understanding and forgiveness.

But, in the end, I feel I’ve just run out of time and out of imagination (not that I had much of either to begin with). I’ll not disappear completely, as I fully intend to continue to visit and harass many of you through your own excellent blogs, and I encourage you to perservere, as you are making a difference, whether you realize it or not.

Blessings on your heads, amigos, and on the heads of your families. Vaya con Dios!

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16 comments

  2. Eric,
    I’m disappointed to see that your shutting down the Fire Ant Gazette. I have very much enjoyed your writing from the beginning. The strength of blogging is the diversity of opinion and perspective. Your blog has always been fun and creative.
    Abbye will probably be very disappointed if her rise to fame is prematurely ended! I hope you’ll reconsider, but I certainly can understand your reasoning.
    Take care,
    Steve

  3. Oh dear Lord. See? You are a philosopher.
    Look, I’ll pull out my standard bitch-out: you aren’t getting paid, so you do this on your own terms. Likely nobody blogrolled you because you’re the next Eugene Volokh. For me, that’s a relief and a pleasure. There’s so many damn pundits out there, you can hardly swing a dead cat without hitting one. We don’t need more people to tell us how to think. We need more people telling us what they think, and how they got there.
    It’s your time and your blog, so do what you want with it. But I hope you’re not hanging it up for good…just for a while, maybe. Now, go ride your bike.
    PS Who decides who’s good at blogging? The readers! I say you’re good, and so do others. So there, Mr. Whiny-Pants.
    PPS I did this same thing every three months until I had a year under my belt, then I said eff it…it’s fun and who cares if I can’t write?

  4. Well, maybe just a break is in order. I, too, have thought of giving up the effort on Streams, but resigned myself just to posting what I was interested in at the moment and let that speak for itself..even if no one else visited.

  5. Eric,
    Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, ya know.
    I’d like to add my dittoes to everything said above.
    We’ll miss you when you’re gone, and hope for your return.
    all the best,
    Roscoe

  6. I just found you, my friend! And I am going to miss you. I read your posts regularly and this was such a shock. I blogrolled you because you had something to say and your blog was refreshingly clean and well-appointed. Stop by once in a while and say hi. And I, too, hope that you will be back soon. God bless.

  8. Well, geez, I’ll second all those folks who hope you’re just taking a little hiatus, and will come back at some point. I’m disappointed I only recently discovered this place. And thank goodness it’s not the antiseptic legal/philosphical factory that some of the “pro” blogs are! It has a nice personal touch that I’m going to miss. Anyway, best of luck to you, and I hope you’re not a stranger (well, if I ever get my site unhacked and functioning again)!

  10. Eric,
    I’d like to join with the comments already offered and say that I’ve always found your writing to be a genuine pleasure to read. I ceratinly hope that you’ll certainly consider not completely shutting the Gazette down.
    It is, of course as with any of us, your call – but just know that there are many of us out here, who may not all make our presence known, that looked forward with a pleasant anticipation to seeing a new entry on the Gazette.
    Having just moved her over to MT, it would seem like such a shame to go through that, then just let it go.
    Hope you’ll reconsider, and leave the option open – the key to the greatness of the Gazette is the quality, not the quantity.
    Best of luck to you, whatever you decide, and thanks for what you’ve offered us so far.
    We’ll be here if you change your mind…

  12. Good luck, Eric. Started reading about a month ago while searching for Texas blogs. Yours was one of the more interesting and down to earth…and “The Fire Ant Gazette” is a great name. Best wishe to you, whatever the future holds.
    Chito Vela

  16. Just another of the faces out there in the dark. I travel a lot internationally in my work, and the Fire Ant Gazette keeps me grounded at home a bit. I know you’ve already rescinded your decision to stop blogging, but just wanted to give you some more encouragement.
    Victims, aren’t we all?

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