TechCrunch head honcho Michael Arrington appears to have finished his leave of absence and is ready to get back to work at the highly influential blogging site. Arrington took a leave of absence from blogging after a harrowing experience in which he was spit on at the Digital, Life, Design Conference in Munich recently.
In his post “Back I Am,” Arrington describes his month-long vacation in Hanalei Bay as relaxing and rejuvenating. “I hiked, I surfed (badly), I snorkeled. I read book after book sitting in the sun with an ice cold beer next to me,” he writes. Arrington left behind his computers but brought his iPhone — something he said he wouldn’t do — so he could take pictures to post on Posterous and Facebook.
Arrington couldn’t quite distance himself from his TechCrunch fame (and infamy) while away from the grind, however. When his rental was up, Arrington used the promise of a shout-out on TechCrunch to convince the owner to let him stay a bit longer. The owner had no idea what the site was, “but the dollars did the trick,” Arrington explains. This use of his influence is notable given that TechCrunch has been accused of accepting bribes for stories in the past.
The post does not indicate whether Arrington plans on staying on at TechCrunch for the indeterminate future or whether his month-long leave of absence is just the beginning of an extended stay away from the site he co-founded. But if the post’s title and Arrington’s character are any indicators, readers can expect to see his byline a lot more in the future.