Goodbye Leslie rough draft in progress
Leslie Harpold has died. A writer, designer, editor, and web pioneer of prodigious skill, she was 40.
Her passing is being felt throughout the internet community. Jason Kottke wrote that Kevin Fanning is collecting online rememberences of Leslie on del.icio.us.
She loved her friends, stories, cigs, and Diet Coke. She could hostess like all get-out.
This is to be on SFist because Leslie passed through SF, indelibly touching many of our soft San Franciscan lives, whether in real life or through the internets.
When she was here in San Francisco for a couple years, she lived in The Mission over where the streets are named after the states. There she withstood flooding and the world's most poorly proportioned couch (pretty sure it was there when she moved in). The flooding got fixed, the couch was replaced, and things got done however long it took.
In all that she did, it always seemed like she was moving so much faster than everyone else. Her writing and design are as sharp and clean as record player's needle. When she brought her attention to bear on you, it could be blinding for its brightness.
From SF, she had moved back to Michigan and bought a house.
Her famous/fabulous online Advent Calendar sits stalled at 12/7. (2005/2004/2003/2002/2001)
She had plans.
It's not f---ing fair, but nothing is. We can make and do things that can help stroke towards "evening out" the inherent inequality of things.
She wrote this advice in a letter to herself after/during one of her most difficult times:
My advice to you is this: make something you love. You love to make things, feel best when you're creating something you feel has value, even if only to you. Tap into the vein again, as many tries as it takes. Find that place where the world blurs by, and it's just you and and your project in pure creation mode.
Go do that. Call/write someone you love, donate to a charity, make something with your hands.
Make your time count.
And drink a Diet Coke.