Where were you ?

Just minutes after I learned that Ryan Davis had passed I cried. Not the frugal tears of a 16 year old adolescent at the end of a sappy love story that are hidden by bravado or some sense of pride/ego, but the sobbing of a 34 year old man that just lost a long time job, or a grandmother or his own mother for that case. Me? crying over someone I had never met, never shared a meal with, never even corresponded on twitter, yet there I sit in my living room, tears pouring down my face wondering why the hell I was crying over a person that had no personal relationship with me other than those beloved words "Hey Kids! It's Tuuuuesday......" Over the course of the next few days I really thought about why the passing of Ryan Davis affected me so.

The first time I listened to the Bombcast I was sitting in a very uncomfortable recliner in Boston Children's Hospital, my son had just had spinal cord surgery for a tumor that had grown at the base of his spine. Between the nurses rushing in and out every hour and the cries and screams of children and even babies that had just had similar or even worse surgeries I could get no rest whatsoever. I had been and avid gamer for most of my life and was searching the App Store for something I could listen to to help me sleep and get some rest and there it was the Giant Bombcast. Although slumber didn't come I spent the next 2 weeks in the hospital in better spirits. The crew pulled me through this situation and many others that would come later in life.

So what were you doing on your first "Tuuuuesday!"?

Fuck if i know

Where were u in 92?

@guided_by_tigers: high school

Fuck if I can remember. I suppose I was in my home office, where I usually am. Except it would have been across the city, when I lived in an apartment on the tenth hole of a golf course (literally outside my window and down a hill - I could piss onto the green and maybe even hit the flag on a windy day). Until APD/GB, I never even followed gaming press. I just didn't give a shit (also, as a lifelong PC gamer - I never saw any point in it). I only went to gaming sites when I searched for reviews of games on rare occasion. APD/GB's start (around the same time I hit the big 3-0) was the start of me actually participating in gaming forums and following gaming personalities and listening to gaming podcasts.

I do remember where I was this Monday, though, when I heard the news. I had fallen asleep in my den on the giant 9' bean bag in the corner and when I woke up, I checked a couple things on the ipad before even rolling out of bed. During one of my rare checks of Reddit (I fucking hate that place, but it has a couple valuable tech related subreddits that I rely on, sadly) I saw a submission at the top which had just been posted and said Ryan Davis was dead. I was going to click "comments" and post about how sick and fucked up trolling with that kind of shit was and so was anyone who had just upvoted it . . . but I accidentally clicked on the link/title, instead . . . to find myself at GiantBomb reading the obituary that had also just gone up, here. Pretty sure it was a hoax, I made it until the end of Rorie's post before I burst into a messy slob of tears like a toddler who had just stubbed their toe or someone who was just dumped out of nowhere by their long-time significant other or something. I was completely unprepared for it and had a hard time handling it. Today is the first day where I don't think anything has managed to make me cry like a little girl over Ryan.

If I had to take a guess your probably 38 or 39?

Anyway on Tuesday I was going about my normal routine, and I was reading alot of threads about Ryan. I'm glad to see that Ryan had an huge positive impact on people. It was nice to see what people was willing to do to support his family and friends.

Skipping massive amounts of freshman year and then dropping out of school. :D

Just got home from work. Checked Twitter, saw that Harmonix tweeted about some weird tribute livestream for Ryan. I thought it was some stupid joke because it seemed like something Ryan would coordinate with the Harmonix guys. Went to GB, saw that it was not a joke and then stared at the wall for like 2 hours straight before watching old Ryan videos and playing Civ for 3 days straight (16 hours of Civ in one shot. That is more game playing than I do in two weeks usually. From 10AM one day until 2:30AM the next. Basically no breaks).