Last night the world lost a fucking fireball….

Last night the world lost a fucking fireball of fun, whose wellspring of love and compassion was apparently bottomless (I never found the bottom: he always had more to give).

And I lost one of the best friends I ever had.

He was someone I could call at any time of day or night – he was always happy to hear from me. There were times when we talked nearly every day.

He supported me in the nutty stuff I try to do: teaching or writing or drawing or even just ranting about the state of the world. He’d always say “Your shit’s pretty cool dude”.

He also recognized my areas of fumbling inadequacy and pushed me to overcome them:

He pushed me to overcome my fear and really learn to surf. I’m still not the greatest surfer, but I think he’d be proud of who I am now out in the water.

And his dating advice and encouragement helped push me out of the shell I like to hide in: it’s not much of an exaggeration to say that without him I might never have gotten married….

He was also big enough to tell me when I fucked up, and if I fucked up with him, magnanimous enough to forgive me.

He will be sorely, painfully, viscerally missed by a great many people, and I feel proud and blessed and humbly grateful to count myself among them.

I hope he found my friendship even slightly as helpful as I found his. I’ll always wish I could have done more.

Rest easy now, my brother-from-a-different-mother…..

Pretty sure the surf must be firing where you are, my friend, so remember what you always told me: gotta want it to win it dude, so go hard, point it down, and get some… Enjoy your eternity of perfect waves, my friend, you, more than anyone, have earned it….
This is how I will remember him….
From back when life was simpler….

Climate Emergency Presentation Nodake 3ku 2020-02-28 UPDATE: CANCELLED

自治会会長と話して、ウイルスでイベント中止の動きに揃いましょうって。ご了承下さい、近い内に…
I talked to the head of the neighbourhood association and we decided to cancel this event to help contain the corona virus (many public events are now being cancelled) we’ll reschedule once things have calmed down…

日本語でプレゼンする、是非来てください、人数いればいるほどインパクトがある、インパクトがあればあるほど行動に繋がる確率が上がる。チラシはこち、ご自由に印刷、シェアなどよろしく。

I’ll be doing my next Climate Emergency presentation at my local neighborhood association, it’ll be in Japanese but please come if you can, the more people show up the bigger the impact, and the bigger the impact the greater the chances of it leading to real action.

Nerd Nite 2020-02-07 Presentation: Apocalypse Soon

Nerd Nite のプレゼンのスライドファイル:
Here is the slideshow file to accompany my Nerd Nite presentation

Apocalypse Soon

[Follow-up comments, written the morning after my Nerd Nite presentation]:

Firstly I want to thank everyone who watched my presentation last night. Despite how I look once I’ve got a mic in my hands (somehow being in the limelight lends me a lot of energy), I’m not a naturally outgoing person (I’m terrible at small talk) so I was very nervous: you were a wonderful audience and made it easy for me to give my talk. Thank you.

I have a few follow-up comments, things I might have said if I’d had more time and/or if I had been quick-witted enough to have thought of them in the moment:

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