A few things have changed the past years like working full time, co-habitating with another human, and using a very different set of slang these days, but apparently I'm still staying up way too late when I should be sleeping. Hey guys, been a while. I was at work when Laura messaged me about Des' and my original thought was "no f--king way... holy crap." I got along with Jonathan really easily. He didn't let stupid things rile him up and couldn't be bothered by petty dramas that we tended to observe from... others. He was my never-emptying source of prime screencaps all through the many years of caption battles and still the guy I think of when I see anything Rozen Maiden. Dude was awesome and I'm sad I didn't have the chance to tell him that more sooner. That said, I won't lie, I have definitely not been broken down the same way as some of you guys have. I'm very sad that Jon is gone and that I didn't message him more before the end, but overall I'm still going on alright. I am and always will still be the old man who has seen too much. I had a friend from work pass away from complications of leukaemia some years back (Graft vs Host Disease is seriously messed up), and I actually ended up being a pallbearer during his funeral. I've had a very close friend who has been dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts for a lot of the past 3 years as well, and in a lot of ways he has put my mind into a degree of preparation for what I may have to deal with some day (though I hope to all hope that day never comes). And a lot of you may still remember that one week many, many years ago one of our closer friends here almost got away from us in a similar way. Who knows, maybe I'm running out of tears to shed? Probably not. The worst things really can happen in an instant. Sometimes we can see it coming, other times all it takes is a tree and a windstorm like what happened to one poor local boy a couple weeks ago. Things can and will happen to us and the people around us, and with technology the way it is, the world is a whole lot smaller and our groups of friends are getting wider and wider. People we know will one day not be there. This is part of the life experience. It still sucks, but that's not gonna stop this truth. That said, while a lot of us have drifted away from this site, we can't help but acknowledge that we've been shaped by it a lot, and a lot of our younger formative years as sort-of adults started here. We all grew into the people we are not thanks to the people we met here. And this is why even though the last time I threw a message back and forth with Jonathan was in 2013, I can still tell people around me now about how chill and easygoing he was, how he was probably a huge fan of at least one thing they love, and why so many people now, all around the world, will still grieve for him so much now. Let me tell you guys something kinda ridiculous: I started posting here less, more or less abandoned my duties as a team member on this site (still really sorry about that, Adam!), and overall only popped back to write an essay or two about how my life had been going about girls I took far too long to get over. Despite that, my Firefox homepage is still "theotaku.com/backroom/". Even if we don't use the site as much now, we don't have to close the connection. Des' worked hard to help code that stuff, damnit... ....okay, maybe it was actually really easy for him... Either way, even if this reunion is for the worst reason, just let it remind you all that everyone who affected your life here will continue to do so once you're well into your grown-assed adult lives now. We're all still here. And you all still mean something to everyone here... ...oh crap... ............I was supposed to have a cup of tea in Des' honour today. Oops. Sorry Des'. I'll fix that tomorrow, promise.
