Well, before Monday I was going to do a blog all about how I’d seen The Rolling Stones over the weekend and about how Andy Murray had won Wimbledon and about how I’d gone to Rezzed at the NEC in Birmingham last month and about all the games I’d been playing. And then this happened.

Now, we are all citizens of the Internet, and like many of you I never had the chance to meet Ryan Davis in real life. Living precisely 5300 miles from San Francisco and only having been to SF once in my life, I accept the chances of meeting were slim unless I somehow got to go to E3 or PAX or something. But having started absorbing content from Ryan since approximately 2004 (before I even joined GameSpot for real), following his tribulations in the wake of Gerstmanngate through to establishing Giant Bomb and up to the present day, I have to admit that I have spent a good deal of my time on the Internet for the past decade either watching and listening to Ryan in some fashion or another. Add all those podcasts, quick looks and livestreams together and you end up with a gigantic amount of content, and a gigantic about of happiness. And when you watch and listen to a person long enough, you feel you know something about them and you feel connected. We all knew we felt what kind of person Ryan was, despite never meeting in the flesh. That is both the power of the Internet and the power of the personality Ryan was able to portray across it: One that was friendly, fiercely-opinionated and staggeringly hilarious. Ryan Davis made me laugh more times than I can count; less of a man, more of a force of nature with near limitless enthusiasm (especially for Wake-up Club).

I cannot hope to fathom what his family, friends, and colleagues are experiencing right now and all I can say is I am so sorry. All this just makes me remember how delicate and how important life is. We've got to hold on to everyone we've got while we're all still here and we’re all still kicking. Even if they're hundreds of miles away or you've never met face-to-face, you still count and you're still important. Happiness is only genuine when shared. Thanks again Ryan.