28 Dear Gentle Readers,
For a long time I have been an author and outlet for many in the chemistry community and the run was, to say the least, more than I could have ever expected. It was through this blog that I found a cathartic release of frustration, anger and, most importantly, the insatiable curiosity I have always had for science.
Some time ago, a reader named Bethany Halford asked me a question about why I blog and I framed my answer in as quotable of a context as I could – because I wanted to see how far I could push this thing. I think I have pushed it far enough and I have reached the end of my intellectual interest and now wish to divest myself from blogging so that I may completely free myself for the pursuit of other things. No doubt you have noticed that the frequency of posting has diminished as my other projects have begun to take off and my fullest efforts are required there.
Now that blogging appears to be an activity which is regulated by the FTC, I think it’s safe to say that it has finally arrived. I now know (or at least I think I know) what it takes for someone to develop a successful web presence and what sort of innovations are needed to build on that presence. My programming skills are also none the worse for the endeavor.
In any regard, this is the end. The lights will be shut off next month, the gmail account will no longer be answered and the chemblog store with its catchy EJ cup and functional group poster will be deleted.
Good bye, world.
Yours,
Kyle Finchsigmate
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Bye, bye.
Thanks for the ride.
Don’t be a stranger.
Ah, this is a shame. Long time reader but seldom comment, will have to take my 4:30 pm procrastination elsewhere. Thanks for the laughs!
Will the archives still be available or do they go down too?
2 questions for you:
1, you’ve amassed quite the wealth of information between your blog itself and the comments. any chance of saving an archive, a la tenderbutton, so that any info, helpful hints, or just good reads dont vanish? (you could port your stuff over to a free wordpress account, and it’d be good for a long while…)
2, now that the blog has run its course, will we ever learn who the real kyle finchsigmate is?… not do be a downer and spoil the mystery of it all, i’m jus’ curious.
Well, I was going to delete everything so I could use the reclaimed server space for my next adventure, but megabitz are cheap, so, maybe I’ll archive it.
i approve.
thank you, sir, and best of luck with your future endeavors…
Please archive it.. if nothing else leave some trace of it behind. I’ve always loved reading this blog and it would be a shame to let it disappear completely as people start it forgot over time. Besides, if this is the end (I haven’t been reading since the start) then I’d like to go back and read older posts every few days in place of new entries. Whole blogs been a good read, so at least leave it for me to read in full.
Also curious… what are you goin go do with any left over merchendise from the Chemblog store anyway?
Anyway (since I was running short on time while posting earlier), whatever you do.. thanks for the good read all this time and good luck with whatever you do. Gonna miss thing.
The stuff in the store is made to order so there’s never an inventory.
Ah, alright. Turned out to be a good choice then I guess. Would have been a pain to have a bunch of left over stuff.
*cough* http://www.sitesucker.us/ *cough*
good luck with the rest of your life. i’ll always have my EJ mug to remind of the good ol’ days.
When do we buy you an iPod?
bye. we’ll miss you.
THERE’S A CHEMBLOG STORE??!?!?
haven’t you said this before??
is this like jayz’s fade to black tour???
Tenderbuttoned!
“For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from wars with victory brought to the patrimony of Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR) enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, dazed prisoners walked in chains before him. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and repeatedly whispering in his ear a warning: ‘Sic transit gloria mundi‘.”
…and Bethany Halford takes another life. When will people learn?
Best wishes, Kyle. Thanks for the ride.
NOOOOO!
*eye roll* best of luck, and thanks for your entertainment over the years. :,(
Well I’ve certainly enjoyed reading over the years and am sad to see you go. Thank you.
Off into the sunset, what a shame. Your posts were always entertaining and very intelligent: keep it real, KF.
That´s sad. I enjoyed reading your posts a lot! All the best for your future!
Sorry to see you go. Hope everything else goes well for you.
But who will stroke your ego now?
So long and thanks for all the fish.
If this is the end, then this is the end:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/1995.....Cadaverine
He hadn’t known quite what to expect, but he had not expected this.
No, that was not right. He had some sense of what might be inside such a box. It had been carefully constructed of hardwood and brass. It was dense, heavy with import. Some kind of analytical instrument – a microscope, maybe. Had he come across it without provenance, he might have thought it a strongbox built to carry one or more bars of gold bullion.
He’d slid it way back under a low table where it was obscured by a case of methanol and some big Dewar flasks. It had taken his group three weeks or so to use up the methanol bottles in the solvent cabinet, and when he picked up the big cardboard cube to slice it open to replenish their supply, he’d again seen the box.
Why do I keep hiding that thing from myself?
He dug around in the top drawer of his desk and found the key Colder had given him. It slid into the lock and turned without effort, like it had not been ignored and neglected for who knows how many years.
The top swung up. Recessed about an inch below was a piece of wood that filled the opening. In the center of this was embedded a simple square gauge, a brass plate, and a tiny toggle switch. On either side of these were two silvery metal knobs. Inside the thin glass covering the gauge was a hair-thin black needle pointing up to an line arc annotated in a spidery hand, left to right: NONSENSE at what looked to be the zero point, where the needle rested; BOMBAST in the middle at the apex of the curve; BUNKUM at full-scale.
On the brass plate above the scale was engraved:
A DEVICE FOR
RHETORICAL CALIBRATION
Presented to “Sparky” Horvath
August 1900
McAllister turned the box over. There was no other lettering to be seen, no indication who had made this present for Horvath, nor where it had been fabricated. There were screws that probably allowed the panel to be removed. It looked like it took batteries. It must take batteries – there was no cord. He tried to remember if there would even have been outlets to plug into in 1900. He clicked the switch up and put a finger on each of the silver knobs and jerked like he had been shot through with a thousand volts when the fragile little needle moved from NONSENSE almost all the way up to BOMBAST.
Holy Crap! Colder must have been keeping the charge up!
He pressed down harder, and the needle climbed higher. He found that by gripping the whole knob and squeezing he could get the indicator to swing all the way over to BUNKUM.
He started to laugh, first at the silly absurdity of the thing, then at the bizarre fucking nature of – well, of everything. It gripped him like a seizure, the convulsions of hilarity making his eyes water and his ribs start to feel sore. And somewhere in the fit he realized that he would never see that ghost again.
Thanks for the years of good reading. I checked it every day right before CNN, hockey news, and way before I even started getting any work done. My question though is, how can I continue doing chemistry without the chem blog? Do you suggest any way to keep this thing going, with another author?
Thanks for running the blog for so long. I’ve really enjoyed reading your many entertaining and witty post and occasionally learning something new. Good luck with your future projects.