Retirement

All good things must come to an end. After four years and three months of writing this idiotic blog, nearly 2,000 posts, I've decided to call it quits.

Do I mean permanently quits, or am I waiting for a massive outpouring of love to force me to return? I'd say permanently, but I'm not swearing on a stack of bibles that nothing ever could bring me back. Most likely, this is it. Almost certainly this is it, in fact.

I'm sorry for announcing my retirement without warning, but realistically, you can't give a warning about retiring from blogging without becoming a drama queen. You've all seen that kind of behavior. And I didn't want any of it.

1. Let me give my faithful readers a little explanation of my decision:

I've enjoyed writing at Pillage Idiot, but four years is a long time, and I feel I've run out of things to say. Some might suggest I ran out of things to say over four years ago. Maybe they're right.

In addition, writing under a pseudonym turns out to be more stressful than I'd anticipated. It's sort of like being a spy, but without the glamor, without the money, and without the treason. On the other hand, if I'd used my real name, people would have known I was a total idiot instead of merely suspecting it.

Last, I've sometimes said I've written mostly for my own amusement, but that's a cheap way of avoiding responsibility for my small readership. The fact is, no matter how high or low my overall traffic has been at any given time, I've never had more than you and several dozen other regular readers. I appreciate every one of you. It's just that there isn't much point trying to be something I'm not.

2. Out of vanity, and in an effort to collect some of what I've written, I've put up immediately below this a post called "An annotated Pillage Idiot sampler," which gives anyone who's interested some links to a sampling of my posts, organized by subject matter. Read them at your own risk.

3. Michael Swartz, a highly regarded blogger who writes at monoblogue, and one of the longest-time members of the Maryland Blogger Alliance, will be taking over leadership of the Alliance.

4. Finally, in case I get the urge to write some more stupidity outside of Pillage Idiot, and if you want to receive it in email form, send me an email (correct the address first), and I'll add you to the Pillage Idiot Retirement Mailing List. Some of you are subscribers to "Pillagemail," and you currently receive emails whenever I post. I'm going to assume you don't want to be on the retirement mailing list unless you tell me you do. In any case, I expect my post-retirement emails will be infrequent. Maybe even non-existent.

5. At least from my perspective, it's been a great run. Thanks one last time for reading. I really appreciate it that you've been willing to come back.

Attila