I feel like I say this far too often, but this wasn’t the diary I initially intended to write tonight. Fresh off a really nice weekend spent with family and with lots of offline time, I had a food diary in the works. Don’t worry, you’ll get that one soon. Catching up with news meant learning that cops continue to murder black and brown people during a pandemic and white women continue to attempt murder by proxy of black and brown people. That was enough to jolt me out of my weekend good mood, but then a friend messaged me.
I’ve shared often about my presence in the virtual world of Second Life. While most of my time there these days is spent at live music shows, I used to spend a lot of time with a group of progressive folks and still stop by as often as possible for nightly social activities. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a number of these folks in real life, either via vacation travel or at Netroots Nation. Much like here, however, we don’t always have full contact info for those we know — people may log in for a while then drop out of sight for days, weeks, or longer. In the Before Times, I think most people just assume Life Happened and someone was just taking a break if they disappeared for a bit, but these days not so much.
One of the folks who hung out in my political SL circle DJed events for us several nights a week and Mr. Brillig and I were fortunate to meet TF (for privacy, I’m using the initials of his SL avatar’s name and not his real name) during NN14 in Detroit. I’ve been in SL only occasionally for the past few months, and so was shocked today when another friend messaged to say she’d just found out TF had passed away… around April 15th, and the presumption was from COVID.
He’d last been inworld to DJ a few days prior, then went silent on Facebook and did not log into SL again. When he missed several DJ gigs, my friend B posted a “we’re worried, can someone who lives nearby check in on him” message to his facebook wall. Today, a childhood friend contacted B with the sad news. It turns out he didn’t have a lot of friends locally, and none that connected his local real life with his virtual second one, which is why we’re only now finding out he died six weeks ago.
I think it’s safe to say we’re all heartbroken at his death, and also sad that it took so long to find out.
As I really couldn’t figure out where in the above to put a Story Break, let’s put it here, and when we meet below I have a request for you...
Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!
I know we’ve had a couple of cases recently here at dKos where a frequent poster stopped commenting, and people got worried. There are people whose names I stopped seeing and I don’t know what happened to them… did they simply move on, or did they move on and should have an Eternal Mojo symbol?
Mr. Brillig and I consider ourselves fortunate to be SO connected in all our worlds, plus we have the luxury of one another. If something happens to me, he knows the various social groups who will need to know and vice versa. But we know there are others who aren’t so connected, and so I’m asking… pleading, actually- you to do two things for me:
First, make sure SOMEONE in your life knows that you have a presence here (as well as in any other communities to which you belong, be they virtual or physical spaces), and people who will notice and worry if you disappear. Give that person the info they need to contact others.
Second, BE that person to others. Check in on folks, and know who might need to know in a worst-case situation.
The Buddy System worked when we were younger, it most certainly will now too. Before you head to the trio of Top Comments, Mojo and Pictures that BeninSC brings us tonight, ask yourself: If I died tomorrow, would you all find out, or would I just be a mystery forever? Don’t let that happen. Please.
Top Comments
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down. Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers, Barack Obama or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
Highlighted by thehecticdialectic:
Is this excellent comment by islandchris, about the racist woman who called the police on a black man for asking her to put a leash on her dog, in Laura Clawson’s diary on the incident.
Highlighted by keithl:
Is this comment by rudewarrior with a great background story to exactly who (and WHAT!) Trump is.
Highlighted by P Carey:
Is this shades-of-EdTracey comment by praesepe!
Highlighted by Crankylib:
Is this comment by tljdk, with a great answer to the question of where the GOP should hold its miserable convention.
Highlighted by njm5000:
Is this novel comment by Janesaunt on plausible deniability.
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, May 25th, 2019, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
Top Pictures
Top Pictures for May 25, 2020! Thanks so much, jotter!