Sayonara, Suckers

Folks, I must say it’s been a great pleasure working on The Mega Man Network for approaching four years now. It may possibly be the longest tenure I’ve had with a Mega Man website in my 14 years of activity in the Mega Man community. That’s half the time I’ve been alive now. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve taken unique experiences and lessons from each endeavor, but TMMN I think has by far been the best. It’s been such a great pleasure to serve you all with the news, content and entertainment which I hope you enjoy with every day I put it out. Some may look up to me as an okay guy, but really it’s all of you that give my effort and passion some sort of purpose.
So it is with great sadness that today I announce I have absolutely no intention of leaving the site.

What I am leaving, however, is the country. Tomorrow, Wednesday morning, I will be departing for the city of Himeji, in Japan, to take up a job as an assistant English teacher, an encourager of learning, and a representative of the city of Phoenix and the United States. It will be a fantastic adventure and responsibility that will consume me for at least a year, probably longer.

As you might imagine, I just won’t have nearly as much time to pay attention to the site. I don’t even know how soon I’ll be able to get an internet connection running in my apartment. I still fully intend to contribute to TMMN, probably more on the content side than the news side, but until I get acclimated and form a routine, I can’t commit to anything. I suppose being in Japan may have some benefits for covering events, though at this point I don’t expect anything to be going on with Rockman/Mega Man for a while.

Once again, my sincerest thanks to you all, and I hope you will wish me well, too. I should also mention that if you happen to live in Phoenix, Arizona or surrounding cities and have an interest in Japan, you should definitely look into Phoenix Sister Cities and join the Himeji Committee. It’s a great way to volunteer your time and help strengthen cultural connections. You may also want to look into your own home town’s sister cities program, if outside of Phoenix.

Anyway, I give this site two months before it falls apart without me. Go get the news from Protodude. Haa, just kidding. Actually, if you think you can fill my size elevens, send us an e-mail. We’d be pleased to hear from some energetic, responsible people who have a decent amount of free time and aren’t insane for fielding the news.

Incidentally, I have started a small blog to cover my Japan exploits, if you’re interested in following.

Thank you for the picture, Andy!

LanceHeart