Candlelight vigil for Techman.

Lo, there do I see my father.
Lo, there do I see...
My mother, and my sisters, and my brothers.
Lo, there do I see...
The line of my people...
Back to the beginning.
Lo, they do call to me.
They bid me take my place among them.
Iin the halls of Valhalla...
Where the brave...May live...
forever.​

That's where he is, Marso. It's where we'll all be eventually. So I choose to look at this as only a temporary parting.

Beautiful post, PotN.

Damn.. why am I still upset?

Could anyone please post a link to Techman's last post? I am wading through a lot but cannot seem to find it. I'd like to rep it please?

http://www.wordforge.net/showpost.php?p=1257651&postcount=22

You've been a little beaten there.

When it's someone like Tech, who fought his way through and survived a lot of Bad Shit, you kind of wish he'd had more time here to savor the triumph, enjoy the easy things in life.

Mostly, though, I find when we feel ongoing sadness when someone dies, it's because of the hole that person leaves in our lives.

I've lost a few people to whom conventional wisdom says I should have been "close" and I've thought, Pffft, good riddance! At the same time, I've lost people whom I may have known not all that well or only for a short time, and I still tear up when I think of them.

Techman was a presence here. Now he's an absence, echoed by memories.

"He's really not dead. As long as we remember him."

Thanks Bailey. I realized I cannot posrep it at the moment.

Mods: can I rep that post and can you guys make it a posrep please?

Yep. That's something I've been mulling bringing up to TKO in her "Suicidal Friend" thread--sometimes you can't make things better. A person only has so much influence on other peoples lives, and sometimes it just isn't enough. Shit, get Techman to see a doctor just because of some chest pains? You probably have about as much luck as getting him into a movie theater.

His last post was to me?

It's been a day since I read about Techman. Like I said I don't post much here, but I did like to read what Tech would post. Most often I'd laugh, sometimes I'd shake my head, and once in a while I'd think but in the end, he knew who he was, he was comfortable with who he was and seemed like he didn't care what others thought of him, because he was happy with who he was.

I remember him from way back in April of 2001 on the TBBS. I may not have always agreed with what he said, but respected him for not wavering just to appease others. In some ways, I have the same attitude he had, "Who cares what others think of you, be yourself and be happy with it." In the end I don't think he knew how everyone who's posted with here felt about him. He knew how he came across, but I think he would have been genuinely surprised to know how much we'll miss him, and how much we liked him, and probably say something where we would all

God speed, rest well and give them hell.

I can't believe it.

I just got back from college orientation. I was starting a new life, and his was ending.

I'm crying. I'm going to miss him. We didn't talk much, but he was always nice (at times too nice ^_^) and... I'm just in shock.

Changed my sig and av. I donated some money in memory of Tom.

Damn....

It's always the adversaries that make wordforge worth coming to. This place will not be the same without him. I will miss him.

​

To Tom.......

I can't say I knew Techman beyond what he projected online, but he apparently lived a full life, and was happy in his own skin. I've read his posts ever since TNZ days, used to spar with him quite a bit back then. My deepest condolences to his family and friends.

I have one more tribute for Techman:

Damn face, who would have ever thought that something you said would make me cry.....But that was beautiful.

I've been avoiding these threads like the plauge since I got the news. I don't deal with death well. But now i've gone through all the threads and read what everyone has said. I've cried so hard that my head and throat hurts. I can't believe that Tech is gone. Sure, alot of us disagreed with him about alot of stuff. But I honestly think that if he could see how many people have come out of the woodworks, be it on WF, TK, or any of the other boards, I think that he would be pleasantly suprised. And I also think that he would be happy, as I am, to see people who never agreed with him on anything to show this outpouring of love and respect. I know that I miss him.

​

My condolances to all who knew and loved Tom. I hope at least everyone on WF will remember him if they ever wonder about visiting a doctor - please err on the side of caution, mmkay?
Heart disease is pretty common in my family, killing two grandparents and affecting my father and two of his brothers. But most survived their first, they got a warning. Tom didn't and that sends a powerful message to all of us - you might not get a warning. Stay healthy, if you're at risk, change your lifestyle now, not tomorrow, and if you do get complaints, go see a doctor. We may fear we are overreacting, but who cares if we are? Stay safe, stay healthy, remember Tom.

I think all of us will have learned from the lesson.

I, in particular, have to be careful. I have a heart murmur and blood pressure problems, both of which can be dealt with without medication provided I avoid too much salt and get plenty of regular exercise. But if I let myself get too fat (anyone can see from the pictures I post that I am already somewhat overweight, but as much as I like sweets the problem could be increased significantly with very little trouble...) and out of shape, I would be a prime candidate for a heart attack. For now, though, my rest heart rate is about 55, my blood pressure is satisfactory and I don't have any cholesterol problems. But those of us in the "over 50" crowd have to be careful, especially when we have problems along those lines.

​

If it's any consolation, Face, I kind of feel the same way. This was my last interaction with him, months ago. I was just kidding, of course; I just couldn't resist the straight line. It could have just as easily have been you, Lanzman, Storm, etc.

It obviously bothered him, and at the time, I just sort shrugged it off.

Now I kind of feel like shit when I think about that. It doesn't make sense, because I doubt he really took it very personally, but I kind of hate having that be the last thing I said to him.

Just kind of shitty.

I have read every post on here at least once and let me say this. It is nice to see all the posts from people both here and at Tbbs that I have not seen posts from in a long time. Its just a pitiful shame that it takes something like this to get us to get together again in the same thread. We need something like a reunion thread or something in the forums once a year or something. I've seen posts here from people that I have never seen post on WF but remember from Tbbs.

Techman was the polar opposite of a lot of people (including myself) when it came to attitudes towards gay rights and homosexuality in general.

However, I always respected his strong anti-drug stance. I respected his willingness to stand up and say "it's wrong" and "you shouldn't do it". That position certainly isn't popular here, and it's a testiment to the strength of his convictions that he made himself a target by voicing those opinions. It was always something that we agreed 100% on. I never could decide whether his anti-gay rhetoric was genuine or just internet trolling, but his opposition to drug use, the tone of his posts on that subject, always gave me the impression that I was getting a genuine look at who he was in real life.

I have always admired Techman for coming in here,
and mixing it up with the young people on this board.

He stuck to his guns, and kept firing away;
even when his ideas weren't that popular.

I just got back from a weekend in North Carolina. My wife told me this morning that Tom passed away and I'm just now catching up on everything.

My condolences to his family and to all concerned.

You know, this little freak show called Wordforge certainly has its pluses and minus, but when the chip are really down, it's nice that this collection of user names who have never met can come together for one of our own.

Tom and I disagreed over religion, sometimes strongly. But one thing about him- he was genuine. His was not an internet personality. Nor did he ever really troll. He stated what he believed, no matter how unpopular it was. That's a mark of a man.

I'm gonna miss the big lug. There will be a hole at WF that cannot be replaced.

Is it too soon for someone to use the McCoy line from ST II? Or better still, parody the Kirk eulogy?

I would try that in his RR thread. But not here.

From what I know of Tom, he wouldn't have held a grudge against you (or Face) for that.

Scruff has asked me to pass along his condolances and best wishes to those that were close to Tom.

He himself didn't really know Techman, but he wanted you to know that even so, he and WF were on his mind at this time.

Didn't Cass already use the "He's not really dead" line already?

Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels...his was the most...stubborn.