This wasn’t part of the plan. But as you know, life doesn’t go as planned. When unforeseeable circumstances hit you in the stomach, you can only hope friends and family will pick up the slack. Luckily, as Donald Trump would, say I have the best friends and family.

Effective immediately, I’m taking my leave of absence from my position as Editor-in-Chief. Actually, it already happened, this is the official announcement. You may ask yourself ‘why’? This is a fair question. One day I will talk about it but today is not that day. It’s fair to say that I have some pressing personal issues that need to be addressed, and the running of the site is incompatible with what I have to do in that area. How long will this take? I’m not sure yet.

The site will continue on in my absence.

You guys might not know this, but Wild Goose is an outstanding fellow. I’m proud to call him my friend, I hope he’ll have time to stop by occasionally as well. Christi Junior should be around too, that should be a treat for you all since his writing is splendid. Thank you to him and the aforementioned Goose. And my man, Jack Outis? Shine bright while I’m gone, brother.

Also want to give a shout out to Beagle, TooManyCucks, VoiceOfFreedom and Lucifer (not the real one, unfortunately). They have all contributed to the site one way or the other. It  is much appreciated, perhaps more than they’ll ever know. We can’t forget the one and only Janet Bloomfield who is one of the most based person I have ever met. Doing the Killlstreams with her has been a true pleasure. Oh. Ian Derickson is a cool guy too. New Media Central is a great site that I recommend you all checkout.

This is not goodbye. In fact, I will try to submit some work here and there. I can’t predict how often it will be at the time. Yes, I’ve been reduced to a staff writer on my own fucking site. Looked at in a certain way, it seems like I’ve accomplished a lot here….with a good bit of help from my friends.

I love the community here. I love my friends on twitter and elsewhere. I miss the action terribly but this is something I have to do for myself. It transcends my role as site runner. Sometimes we have to things we particularly don’t want to do so that our futures will be more secure. This is one of those times.

Thank you all for reading the blog I started way back on a whim in 2012. I figured I was a big enough asshole to have my own site. Eventually, thanks to your help, I was proven right. It’s been one hell of a ride, people. It’s not over by a long shot but we have taken a slight detour. That’s perfectly fine as I’m 100% determined to turn the lemons I have been handed into lemonade.

Sincerely,

Ethan Ralph

Owner & Founder of TheRalphRetort.com