Candlelight vigil for Techman.

I havent been on the board for awhile, as some of you know my sisters house burned a few weeks ago and I have been busy with that and trying to find employment. So imagine my shock and surprise when I do come back and find out that a hero has fallen.

RIP my friend, even though I never met you---I feel like we are all a family here and when one of us hurts, we all hurt

you know in life you have basically two kinds of people
those you complain because they are contrary and those complain because they care. This is where I think he and I wouldve gotten along. Im a chronic yeller and bitcher from way back, but my intention is to help people, even if they dont ask for it or want it, and I like to think that he was like that too. Did I agree with everything he said, no, but who does. Times likes these always make me reflective and so I went back and read a few of his posts. And once again I found similarities in us that I never noticed before. Both of us, for instance had acid tongues, but for the right reason. And he was damn quick with the one-liners too. And even though I never met the man and am a relative newbie here, I feel the loss. Its almost like your eccentric uncle died. At least thats how I feel

*ahem*

No?

There's only one thing to say.

We'll all be there eventually, Techman. Keep that bulb lit and we'll find you.

The smiley is named after Techman.

= : techman :

Yeah, didn't spot that at first, just looked like a thumbs-up. So Chewie wasn't, in fact, saying what it first looked like he was saying. My bad.

Why is it that after years of interacting solely through tapping on a keyboard, it is enough to feel the camaraderie, but when you feel the shock and grief of another's loss as if he were any friendly acquaintance known face to face that keyboard now somehow feels entirely inadequate to express condolences?

I think Techman would have answered that thusly:

This was the first thing I saw when I came back to Wordforge last week. I can't believe Techman's gone. Like a lot of other people here, I remember him from back in the TNZ days on Trek BBS. I didn't disagree with him as often as some of the others did but it also wasn't like we were the best of buddies either. But he was such a fixture of both TBBS and later Wordforge. I always imagined he would be posting WF long after I was dead, even though he had quite a few years on me.

Over the years since I quit frequenting WF, I've occasionally come by just to see what was going on without jumping in and posting again. It was the "In Memory of Tom" banner at the top of the page that made me stick around this time and reregister. I guess that's not relevant to anything...just wanted to mention it.

Posting to pay my respect.

a.