Recent sad news
As some of those reading already know, Jamie "Egg" Kufrovich, moufette, died earlier this month. I never met him face to face, as if that really mattered - the only time we might have met something important came up that required his attention more than the relative frivolity of the event others were attending. That said, I did know him. Perhaps not as well as some, and maybe a bit better than some others.
In the early to mid-1990s I knew him only as a poster on usenet, where he was a regular poster on alt.tv.animaniacs. A year or two later I saw him on IRC when I finally got there. We, and a good many others, talked of various things and engaged in some role-play and for a while the world was the one we all made, rather than the one everyone is stuck with.
A few items got sent between us over the years. There were things I happened upon that were no longer available most places (I used to joke that Fairmont experienced things a year or two after everywhere else) and so some Tiny Toons items or such would get sent his way. The reverse happened as well. There's a very nice sketch, of an anthropomorphic unicorn sitting at the edge of a pool, on the office wall at home because Egg found it and sent it to me as he thought I'd like it. He was right.
Egg's on-line appearances became more and more infrequent as the procedures to treat him and keep him alive did so at a price. The first trade, that I know about, was his hearing. Usenet and then IRC, being textual, made that irrelevant for interaction. Later, balance and coordination were affected, making walking and typing difficult. Even so, he did post to LJ once in a while and made an appearance on IRC not too long ago. I suppose I had the impression a good many did, that he'd always be there, even if in diminished frequency.
It's sobering and saddening to realize that he was two years younger than I am. It may seem selfish, but it's scary. I've delayed saying much as the news hit me harder than I'd have imagined. I'm glad that I knew him and could call him a friend and I hope he thought the same of me. The life he had wasn't the one he deserved; He deserved better.