It seems incredible that a dozen years have passed since the first issue of The Floating Egg rolled off the printer and out through the mails to meet an unsuspecting world. In those black and white pages, crowded with rambling sentences (and parenthetical asides), a young writer found his space to grow, to find his voice, to experiment, and to thrive.
As he gained confidence and readership (and who can say which led to the other?), the page count grew, and so did the mailing list. It was a beautiful, heady time to be a young man putting words out into the world to be read, just past the peak of the ‘zine era, and Beaner threw himself into desktop publishing with shameless aplomb.
But then college was over, and while life certainly continued to be very interesting, Beaner spent far more energy living it than he did writing about it, and The Floating Egg shriveled, and ultimately died, largely from neglect, an endemic lack of focus and dedication to anything but the continuous circuit of local watering holes. The silence that ensued was largely reflective of the utter lack of output on the part of the erstwhile writer.
And then he discovered Blogger, and the spark burst into flame once again. While this blog has always been sporadic at best, there have been some terrific moments along the way, and it has been most interesting to see the voice on these posts move further and further beyond the frenetic limitations of the college-age Beaner, limitations that — for better or worse — formed a vital part of the persona. So perhaps it was inevitable that, at some point, the writing must go on and on, and Beaner must eventually fall by the wayside. That day has at last arrived.
So, Beaner, we salute you, and bid you a fond Adieu. Thanks for the many, many, many words, and may the best parts of your spirit continue to live and grow in these pages.
