Into the Sunset

Day 1,052, 14:16 • Published in Ireland Japan • by Donovan Thomas
(Hey Jster, do me a favor and vote this one up with a passion will ye? Cheers)



After over a year of playing, well. I’m done. After thinking about Maddog's article all day it dawned on me that it’s just not fun anymore. I’d almost not come back after my RL hiatus during April-June but just had to give V2 a try. I loved the war module and it really gave me a reason to stay. Then I got back into being emotionally invested in eIreland and her people again and well… you know how it goes.

October is about the only month of the year where my RL travel schedule allows me the time to apply myself and is the reason I ran for CP again (as I did last October). I had hoped that if I had won it would have given me that invigorating feeling that would have had me stay.

I thought of quitting again the other day when I lost, not because of sour grapes (Congrats to Connell, honest) but because I really didn’t know if I had the emotional commitment left to try again. I thought of going to NZ or even Pakistan (Longbaugh invited me, you believe that sh!t?) I realized that being anywhere but good old dysfunctional eIreland would not cut it.

I won’t say the admins ‘ruined the game” for I’m sure a new generation will spring up. But they did enhance and then lobotomize the one that got me to log in every day I was physically able.

*Sniffle*
You see, ladies and gentlemen, you were my family for over a year. Some of you were brothers, sisters, mentors, protégés etc. Some were enemies, respected foes or insufferable trolls.

But you were all my family. You saw me through RL struggles that you will never know, be they a near divorce, minor PTSD after combat it Afghanistan and Iraq, a long bout of insomnia as well as plain old apathy. You gave me a place to go, to chat, to fight, to argue, laugh, smile and scheme and I am grateful to each and every one of you.

I just can’t figure the game out anymore. I don’t know where the admins are taking it and I am tired of reading a new eRep Insider to unlearn what I had to learn last week.

In my time in eRep I’ve had some brilliant moments and some others of pure paranoid delusional hell. Some of my best articles were written with mass quantities of Irish whiskey in my veins and copious amounts of Marlboros in the ashtray. Then again, some of my worst were written the same way.


The Plan
Today I have given all of my orgs and passwords (and all the loot in them) to a good and loyal Friend (it’s up to him to reveal himself if he wants) to include my Q2 food Co. I have four days until my 12th hard worker medal and when I have it I will send the gold to the DoD. I just can’t see in wasting free gold that could help eIreland.

I would ask the Minister of Community to donate the 50iep and 5 gold from the eIrelander of the Month Award and Most Acclaimed Publisher Award to the IDF as well.

After that last bit of gold is donated I will find some battle against Phoenix, fight as low as I can and then use MT’s to take myself back to Cork (where I was eborn and where my parents were born) and down to zero health. It’s the only way I can guarantee that I won’t come back.

If we were friends, you know who you are. If enemies, well, you know that too. Thanks to each and every one of you.

I had fun eIreland, and that is what it’s about.

Sláinte!

Sean (AKA Donovan Thomas)




Please Enjoy the Music

And now, the end is here
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way

I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing
And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say, not in a shy way,
"Oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it my way"

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!

Yes, it was my way





[Thanks to Luminara for the kind words and wonderful art. This was nice to get at the end]