This post isn’t about paladins, I apologize, this post is about me.
The economy sucks right now. I could point fingers in any direction and call anyone out but, that isn’t the point of this post. What’s happening is happening. I’m sure many of you are being affected by the economy as well. My situation is a bit unfortunate, and hopefully you all aren’t in the same boat.
I’ll keep this story as short and sweet as possible to make an attempt not to have you just get bored halfway through.
I’m 21, live on my own, work in an office and on the side I play music all while going to school. Recently, the past 2 roommates I’ve had haven’t worked out. Lack of money for the both of them pretty much sums it up. I’ve been affording the place on my own, but, it hasn’t been easy.
Well, the company I’m working for isn’t doing too hot. I don’t want to hurt their image so I can’t really tell you the name of the company. I basically haven’t even gone into work more than half the time last week; there just isn’t anything for me to do. Business has hit the ground for them.
I’m forced into having a few options. Few being one. If I stay in my current situation, I won’t be able to afford rent in the next few months, because of this I’m currently negotiating my contract for the US Air Force.
I feel that all this is important to share with you all. Many of you have been here with me for quite awhile. Even more so, some of you have followed me on the good times I’ve had in this game. For that I can’t thank you enough.
When I brought Megaphone onto the team, I knew he would do a great job, and I knew that if I ever needed to step down I could without feeling like I’m leaving the community high and dry. That time is here and he will be taking care of the site with our new writer. He has plans to help improve the site, and I know he will go above and beyond what I’m able to do for the website at this time.
This is my official notice to everyone in the community that I am saying goodbye and I will no longer be writing here.
Some of you might have questions or want to keep in touch, I welcome anything you throw at me.
Myspace; www.myspace.com/schabel
facebook; http://www.facebook.com/david.schabel?ref=sgm
Email; Slayton@justpvp.com
Before I head out, I wanted to mention some people, as these people deserve to know how much they mean to me, because I know me heading into the Air Force will prevent us from being as close as we are now.
Tara Rodriguez; The best friend anyone in this world could ever ask for, good luck in Washington.
Aaron Burton; One of the coolest guys I’ve ever had the pleasure of being friends with.
Trevor Harbin; Thanks for all the help, you’re good guy keep it that way man. Best of luck to you in school.
Goodbye everyone, and best of luck.
David Schabel
Slayton
June 28th, 2009 - 4:16 pm
Good riddance.
Err..
June 28th, 2009 - 4:25 pm
Good luck, Slayton.
June 28th, 2009 - 4:30 pm
Dont think i can say it any better than Dar so…
Good Luck, Slayton.
June 28th, 2009 - 4:57 pm
Farewell, good luck. Thank you for being a good role model for playing Ret and for setting up such a great resource.
June 28th, 2009 - 5:01 pm
/salute
Can’t wait to learn Divine Missile Strike, I bet.
June 28th, 2009 - 5:05 pm
Best of luck in the USAF. Thanks for everything.
June 28th, 2009 - 5:25 pm
Best of luck in the future Slayton
June 28th, 2009 - 5:48 pm
Hope everything work out for you Slayton. You contributions to this community will of course not be forgotten. Good luck to you in the Air force man.
June 28th, 2009 - 5:55 pm
Thanks for all you’ve brought to the community, and I certainly understand when real life has to come first, it’s been the same for me, I’ve had to step out of the game for awhile now, even though I still keep up with what’s going on. So I wish you the best of luck with the Air Force. Be safe. And we hope to see you back here one day soon(tm).
June 28th, 2009 - 6:34 pm
Good luck and thanks for everything!
June 28th, 2009 - 6:51 pm
WTB Slayton Replacement that is Megaphone, ∞G
June 28th, 2009 - 7:32 pm
I probably won’t come to retpaladin.com as much with you gone, but thanks for coming this far. You’ll always be a legend among rets. Take it easy.
June 28th, 2009 - 8:46 pm
Sorry to hear the news. Honestly, when you mentioned Retpaladin back in the days when I was lurking at Timangi’s site during TBC, I was already impressed with you, and felt that this was a good idea. And I was proven right. Thanks to the community focused, and me in turn with a clearer head, I’ve become a far better paladin than I was at that juncture. Hell. Half the time anymore, I can’t see how I didn’t play a pally sooner. (Aside from that I forsook alliance in early Vanilla WoW. :P)
What I’m trying to say is, you’ll be missed, and not forgotten. Even if you’re not the guiding hand, your vision is what brought this together. Keep us updated somehow, and best of luck to you. The torch’ll be carried.
June 28th, 2009 - 8:49 pm
A great loss, always had a good time playing with ya slay, whether it was with you, or against you. Your work was always amazing(and occasionally, fucking brilliant) and I hope things turn out for the better when you come out of the air force.
With all due respect,
Erzant of Smolderthorn
June 28th, 2009 - 8:56 pm
See you in another life, brotha.
June 28th, 2009 - 9:00 pm
can i has info?
good luck killing Muslims, i mean terrorists
June 28th, 2009 - 9:38 pm
Slayton,
I want to wish you the best of luck, man. Without you I would not be able to play the paladin I can play today. Thank you for everything you’ve done for the Ret Pally community. Stay safe and god speed in the future, man. I hope to see you return someday.
Sincerely,
Kaylib of Archimonde
June 28th, 2009 - 10:07 pm
Good luck homie!
No worries dog, I’m most likely saying good bye to my account to save myself the $41 every 3 months…
…yes i’m getting that broke. F U economic downfall!
June 28th, 2009 - 10:12 pm
We all are going to miss you dear friend. I cannot express my gratitude for what you have done for the community, to have you around guiding this website with megaphone was a god send. Be sure to drop us a msg to tell us what’s going on with you, your like a brother to us. I sure hope that, one day, when everything will turn out the better that you will come back here and that we will welcome you back and tell us: I’m home guys. Because after all Slayton, your da man.
Amadeo, Executus
June 28th, 2009 - 10:40 pm
This is quite good, thanks. It’s gonna be very useful for many.
June 28th, 2009 - 10:44 pm
Best of luck to you. I will miss your videos and the knowledge that you brought to the game and to the community itself. That said I hope everything works out for the best for you and good luck with the Air Force. Take care and Godspeed.
June 28th, 2009 - 10:51 pm
(Insert generic farewell message.)
It’s just a game, maybe when life is treating you better, we’ll see you around. Could be on the next blizz MMO, where it’ll be to the ground for sure. :p
June 28th, 2009 - 11:33 pm
Good luck, Slayton.
I remember well how I heard of this awesome Ret paladin, one who was actively pushing for a more positive image of the spec and trying to get Blizzard to take notice of their own mistakes. He was very knowledgable about Ret and paladins in general, and his guild was getting world firsts on the PTR during Sunwell to prove it. He is what brought me to this site, which I’ve been visiting for almost 2 years.
I’m glad you started this site, and it will continue on without you thanks to the time & energy you’ve put into it.
Hopefully, life finds you in better times soon.
June 28th, 2009 - 11:42 pm
Best of luck moving forward good sir. Thanks for starting this site, one of the few WoW-related sites where I don’t feel like I’m becoming dumber just by reading its contents.
June 29th, 2009 - 12:18 am
So long to you sir…and thanks for all the fish.
>.>
June 29th, 2009 - 12:23 am
Good luck Slayton.
June 29th, 2009 - 12:38 am
Slayton, I feel for you man, I was in a very similar situation as you, minus the vacating roommates.
I wish you luck, and I hope at some point you feel you could come back to RetPaladin.com.
Until then,
Take care.
June 29th, 2009 - 12:42 am
Slayton havnt talked to you at all since you left bonechewer, but you tought me everything i knew about ret pallies in bc, just want to say thanks! good luck to you
June 29th, 2009 - 12:48 am
Good luck and i wish we will have news of you soon .
June 29th, 2009 - 1:50 am
Live long and prosper. ;_;
June 29th, 2009 - 2:12 am
The Air Force suckered another one I see. I’m sure you’ll have time for wow again once you get out of your tech school. For the love of christ, do not sign up for Security Forces, unless you want to be some tech sergeants bitch for the next two years of your Airman life.
Telephone maintenance or go home baby!
June 29th, 2009 - 2:26 am
/salute
Good luck and all the best man, this site and the community you fostered through it were a source of inspiration and solace to those of us who were making ret work back in TBC when nobody was prepared to give us a chance. Whenever someone /spat on me for having a 2h equipped in Shattrath, I knew I could come here and bitch about it
Peace bro, all the best…stick your head in and say hi if you get the chance, you’ll be missed.
~Ash
June 29th, 2009 - 3:09 am
Take care and good luck with everything Slayton, you’ll be remembered as a living legend amongst us ret’s
June 29th, 2009 - 4:23 am
Peace out and good luck man. You did a hell of a lot for the ret community and inspired many of us to go to or stick with ret when it wasn’t that hot. Thanks for everything.
-Paneele
June 29th, 2009 - 6:59 am
I hope to see you come back to this site, however far off that may be. Until then, best of luck in the Air force man. Thank you for everything, you won’t be forgotten here.
June 29th, 2009 - 8:05 am
Good luck dude, you pathed the way for many great paladin, inspired and taught hundreds if not thousands.
All the best in RL
June 29th, 2009 - 8:45 am
I really can’t say it better than everyone else who has already posted. You helped forge me into a better Ret and Paladin in general. Thanks for all you have done. Good luck in the Air Force.
June 29th, 2009 - 9:29 am
Slayton, you’re not allowed to quit. I passed all my readership from E4AE to Ferraro and you, and now you’re both gone. Not cool!
But seriously, good luck and be safe.
June 29th, 2009 - 9:54 am
Good luck man. You’ve done amazing things for this community, and while you may not be able to play WoW anymore(trust me on this, depending on what you end up doing in the military you may have the time if you can get the money) you will continue to do great things for this community. It’s just in a different capacity and in a far more important way.
I know your joining for economic reasons and not patriotic reasons, but from personal experience I feel those reasons are still there, and even if they aren’t, what you will be doing is very important and admirable. The military will do good things for your life as well, so its not all bad. The money isn’t really what you’d call good, but you’ll always be taken care of. You made a good service choice as well if you wanted an easier and just more easy going time in the military. Hey, I’m in the Army, I have to make a crack at the Air Force. Good luck man, and keep us posted on how your doing. Don’t be a stranger, you’ll get the opportunity often enough.
Good luck man, and take care. And thank you for everything you have done and everything you will be doing.
PS: No matter the service/MOS you have in the military the hours suck. Too bad you don’t get paid by the hour lol.
June 29th, 2009 - 9:54 am
Best of luck to you.
June 29th, 2009 - 10:23 am
will be missed :*(
Gl in the air force man, im army mabye 1 day our paths will cross =D
June 29th, 2009 - 10:55 am
Wish you luck in the airforce mate
hope to see you soon again here
@jd
Let’s hope that you won’t, because if you do, it’ll most likely be in some sort of combat >.<
June 29th, 2009 - 12:06 pm
Hey Slayton,
Thanks for everything you’ve done for the Retribution Paladin community man. If it wasn’t for you and your work and dedication I would have given up on this class long ago. I understand your plight as I’m in a similar situation myself with regards to economic state of our country. I wish you nothing but the best in the Air Force and all your future endeavors. God Bless.
June 29th, 2009 - 12:56 pm
Goodluck, and thank you for the site.
Life is very hard unless you are fortunate enough to have an abundance of finances you are at the mercy of fluxuation, I know I feel it everyday.
Maybe you will come back one day.
again, goodluck.
June 29th, 2009 - 3:35 pm
I hope the best for ya. I sent u a friend request on Facebook. As i said in that if u have any questions hit me up i was in the Marines ( 2 tours in the sandbox ) for 4 years and my brother is in Iraq right now in the Army and my wife is in the AirFroce Reserves and my cousin Retired from Marines… so on and so forth so. The Military is a big step dont make it without some help
June 29th, 2009 - 4:38 pm
long time fan dude, hate to see you go but times are hard. Best of luck dude. You can do some IRL PVP with the airforce atleast, I’m sure you’ll pwn at that too.
June 29th, 2009 - 4:52 pm
You probably don’t remember me because I didn’t really post here much, but Ive been following you since your first pvp movie, following your first streams, and did a bit of theorycrafting towards the end of bc and during the start of the wrath beta even though I wasn’t in it.
You were an inspiration to me as a ret paladin, and I learnt a lot from you which led me to be a better player. Twisting a SoJ ( I preferred to use SoB) onto a SoC and WF proc was fun
I’d list everything else i’ve learnt, but I don’t want this to become a wall of text.
Anyway, it’s sad to see you go man, but I guess that’s how things go.
Good luck in the USAF and with everything else that comes your way.
June 29th, 2009 - 5:09 pm
Good choice joining the Air Force. Hopefully you are going in the band
I was in the Army Band and it was a great time for playing music. Don’t worry, you’ll be back on wow soon enough in the barracks.
June 29th, 2009 - 7:42 pm
I concur with Caedorn, after tech school you’ll have plenty of time for wow. Just avoid Security Forces and you’ll most likely have plenty of spare time to play.
June 30th, 2009 - 3:30 am
Thanks for making this site, you’ve taught me everything I know about Ret Paladins and I couldn’t be more grateful.
Good luck to you.
June 30th, 2009 - 4:36 am
Thanks for keeping me sane during the post-WotLK nerf cycle. Really. I will miss your witty and insightful comments on this board. omg Seal twisting..good times
Good luck in the USAF. A four year stint is a cake walk..Former zipperhead here:)
June 30th, 2009 - 5:10 am
Good luck, and thank you for all you’ve done for Retribution Paladins in WoW. You inspired many of us to continue playing Ret at a time when there were deep flaws in the design, and the general community scoffed at us. You will be missed.
June 30th, 2009 - 5:59 am
Slayton,
I’ve always been a big fan. Best of luck in everything man. Wish you the best.
June 30th, 2009 - 6:16 am
Good luck man, We will all miss you.
This is a great loss for the paladin community, but I have no doubt a great addition to the USAF.
Peace bra, peace.
Nothing but love
June 30th, 2009 - 7:02 am
Later Slayton, Goodluck in the Air force!
Hopefully you’ll come back and own in the future
June 30th, 2009 - 8:30 am
wtf man now there aren’t any good paladin bloggers left… that’s right mega I said it… WHATCHYA GONNA DO
June 30th, 2009 - 10:45 am
Hey Slayton,
I just started playing WoW again, and I saw a post on the paladin forums saying you were leaving! Good luck in the Airforce, or whatever you end up doing!
I’m not really sure what industry you work in, but maybe you should take a shot at posting your resume here. You’ve got quite an audience, and if you were willing to relocate I’d bet you could find a decent job somewhere.
June 30th, 2009 - 4:21 pm
Take care Slayton! I miss you two shotting my rogue on d’thul
June 30th, 2009 - 6:36 pm
I know this doesn’t go along with the general feel of the replies, but I thought I should mention it;
Don’t be so quick to give everything up just because you are joining the military. I served in the US Army, finished my tour in 2001. One of my best friends served in the US Air Force. You will have plenty of time for playing WoW and running the site after you finish training. Granted, depending on what your MOS is, it could be a year or more before you’re finished, but you will finish. And no matter what your job is, you will have time to play, etc. My friend who joined the Air Force decided on firefighter as his job. He was one day on one day off, and had more spare time than I did as a civilian. In the Army, I was a paymaster for a combat arms unit. We spent nearly half the year every year in the field training, and I worked a lot of hours even when we weren’t in the field, but I still had more time than things to fill it with, when I was off duty. Until I met my ex wife that is, but thats not worth going in to.
Just trying to say, don’t burn all your bridges just yet.
PS: Since finishing my time in the service, I have gotten divorced, moved half way around the world to Australia, and re-married. I have a great job, and live in an awesome place with a wonderful lady. Life is good.
June 30th, 2009 - 11:16 pm
Slayton I remember you ganking my paladin quite a bit in SMV during BC before you and the old D’thul (You, Spit, Maeson etc) pvp guys transferred off.
Good times. Stop in every now and again.
June 30th, 2009 - 11:55 pm
His name, was Robert Paulson.
His name, was Robert Paulson.
His name, was Robert Paulson.
July 1st, 2009 - 5:10 am
YOUR MY BOY BLUE! BLUE YOUR MAH BOY!
July 1st, 2009 - 5:33 am
Know that this website served me greatly and that you guys did a wonderful job… Whatever path life takes you will do great at it because everything you did so far was great.
Best of luck
July 1st, 2009 - 9:49 am
Good luck Slayton.
Stryker
July 2nd, 2009 - 4:11 pm
Good luck in whatever option you choose and hope to see you on the radar in a game again.
July 3rd, 2009 - 4:31 am
You know, I’ll give you a piece of advice.. Enemy ordinance procs mass dispell 100% of the time, and it is unable to be resisted.
Everyone moves on eventually, but never forget.. once you have been a ret paladin, you will never not be one. It’s about defiance, even if life nerfs you to the ground (baby) you have to keep standing tall.
July 3rd, 2009 - 11:52 pm
Man it’s sad to see you go. We better keep in touch man!
PS thx for the shout out xD
July 4th, 2009 - 1:49 am
Hey man, I totally feel for you and your situation. If your fate is not yet decided on which AFSC (job in the USAF) you will be in the USAF, stay away from 3P0X1, also known as security forces (USAF version of the MP). Personal experience talking here, it’s not fun and not what the real air force is all about. It drove me out of the air force, and is probably the biggest regret of my life. Had I chose a different job in the AF, I would probably still be in.
Sorry I didn’t have time to read the rest of the comments to see if anyone else posted about the AF, but good luck man. Best advice I can give on the whole is, it IS what you make of it. Try not to waste it. Try not to buy into the negativity that seems to float around the USAF. It really isn’t as bad as it seems. Oh and basic is pretty much a joke… don’t volunteer for ANYTHING, and just blend in.
~Tay
July 4th, 2009 - 10:26 am
Sucks my second favorite ret paladin is quiting. Good luck in the air force. I would suggest that you suspend your account till you’re out of your schools. My brother’s in the air force right now and I just got out of the Marine Corps last october. If you still want to play there will be time. But work and school do come first. Good luck with all your endeavors.
July 7th, 2009 - 6:43 am
This is like Steve Rogers being replaced with Bucky Barns
July 7th, 2009 - 7:30 am
First I would like to say to you that you have inspired me to become a Ret Paladin when I was so unsure of what to do with my Paladin. I remenber after watching your 1st bc video and I was like I now know what I want to play. I do not want to see you stop playing so SLAYTON PLEASE READ THIS……………………
I would like to wish you good luck with joining the USAF. I am a member of the US Navy and I can tell you that you will have time to play wow again after your time in boot camp is over in you get in your tech school and once you get in your command you will get a room and you will be able to get use the internet there and there is always a rec center on base that has free wireless so you will always have a way to connect to the net and wow.
July 7th, 2009 - 10:36 pm
Keep your head up just like with all us pally’s we are one big family an we are all pulling for you.. Stay safe n god bless for your service to our country.
July 20th, 2009 - 9:44 am
Thank you for serving.
July 29th, 2009 - 12:19 am
Your post Retribution Paladins » Blog Archive » It’s Time I Say Goodbye to You was very interesting when I found it over google on Wednesday by my search for fire fighter site myspace.com. I have your blog now in my bookmarks and I visit your blog again, soon. Take care.