Today I learned about the death of a recently acquired friend. Thanks go out to Julie for tracking down information about what happened.

I met Ritsuo in the daily AIM chat room that I join every day. He was invited to join by Julie sometime in January. Julie’s LiveJournal contains the entry linked above.

He was one of the nicest and most intelligent Internet personas I’ve come across. What I’ve read of his LiveJournal writing reveals a deep and thoughtful person. I will miss his contributions to our little chat room greatly.

Rit died at age 36, from an aneurysm. I am the same age, so this brings the fragility of life into sharp focus. The response I have seen from the LiveJournal community over this is overwhelming. I can only hope that when I move on, I am missed as dearly.

Other user’s thoughts:

kathy, my wife
one of his co-workers
marv, the chat room center

Rit’s friends page has a lot of other posts. It is mixed in with several busy RSS feeds, so you have to click back through a lot of chaff.