A FEW WORDS ON THE DIGITISER FAMILY
Added 2020-04-06 12:39:34 +0000 UTCHi all.
As some of you will have seen on Twitter, or if you watched the Digi live stream last night, over the weekend the Digitiser community lost one of its most colourful personalities.
Gaming Mill - or Shaun, as he was otherwise called - was somebody I had known since the mid-00s, when he was a member of my message board, the Board of Biffo. Shaun, like several people I'm still in touch with from those days, was on the receiving end of harassment from the same people who, ultimately, drove me into seclusion for six or seven years . We both talked about it at the time, and when he found me again after I re-emerged, and I appreciated not being entirely alone in what had gone on.
I can't pretend he was somebody I knew well - I only met him once when he had a cameo role in The Trojan Arse Protocol - but through messages we exchanged over the years, and his emails to the Digitiser Friday Letters Page (which became a highlight and mainstay of the site) - I felt like I did. He was, in a funny way, part of the fabric of Digitiser2000.
Receiving the news from his brother last night, shortly before Sanja and I were scheduled to go live, was a real shock. We both teared up, if I'm honest, and remain shaken by it today. Though his death wasn't Covid-19 related, getting that news right now, when everything is just so damned bleak as it is, hit harder than I would've expected it to. It probably doesn't help that over the past year or so I've lost far too many people who have been a part of my life to one extent or another.
Something I'm realising during this weird time is how much I need to feel part of a community, be it family, friends, or you guys. I'm generally pretty antisocial, but being told I can't see people I care about has made me want to see them all the more. Losing Gaming Mill - one of our own - has again highlighted for me how much Digitiser, and its audience, means to me.
That's why I've kind of thrown aside any sort of effort to keep growing the channel for now, and just kind of be there to give you stuff to watch or laugh at, and to heck with whether it's tailored to pull in a new audience. I just want to draw the wagons into a circle and appreciate what we have already.
Take care, you lot.
Paul
Comments
I never met the Gaming Mill, but used to enjoy his letters. After your news I found that he was following me on Twitter, but I hadn't followed back. I corrected that, a bit late, but it's a gesture.... and put something in the hat for his funeral expenses. These are times of crisis, but one where it's difficult to all pull together because of fear. Entertainment and kindness is what we've got to keep it going. RIP Gaming Mill, I'm sorry I never got to meet you.
WhatHoSnorkers
2020-04-08 13:59:37 +0000 UTCCheers, Jason (and everyone else). I know we'd be the first ones out of the balloon, but we're doing what we can!
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-04-07 08:54:20 +0000 UTCSuch terribly sad news. I loved Gaming Mill's brilliant flights of fancy in the Letters Page and his delightfully daft YouTube videos, which deserved a far larger audience. He will be missed.
Matthew Long
2020-04-06 22:10:06 +0000 UTCAs I mentioned when you first posted on the site about hard times, part of the reason I became a patreon was because right before xmas last year, my 19 year old cat passed away. I'm a pretty shut in person so my cats were extremely like family for me and I was a wreck. The first thing to make me smile was one of the xmas time Digitiser videos and I decided that part of what was my cat food monthly money would go to support the work you do to make us smile. It's greatly appreciated at all times but especially when things get rough that you're out there making silly stuff to make us all laugh and like you say, it's always good to remember you're a part of a group....a group of mainly weirdos but awesome and wonderful weirdos. I CUSS YOU ALL......lovingly <3
Jason Salisbury
2020-04-06 22:08:01 +0000 UTCGreat shame to hear of Shauns passing :( Both yourself and Sanja`s stuff is much appreciated more so than ever at the moment (and that also goes for the rest of the Digi team) and many, many thanks to all for doing this. It is the community of Digi that I am really glad to be a part of as much as we appreciate the bizarreness of it all, when important things come along we are all there for each other in some way :)
Tyronne Mann
2020-04-06 16:49:10 +0000 UTCGaming Mill's letters were always a joy with their off kilter and vaguely melancholic tales of misadventure (often involving Smoking Brother). The slow evolution of his "I am fit and strong" sign off was clearly more of a portent than I knew. R.I.P. Shaun, you've left a very distinctive hole in the Digitiser universe.
Treacle Truffle
2020-04-06 14:11:02 +0000 UTCR.I.P Shaun. sorry for your loss Paul and Sanja. Last nights live stream was a much needed bit of frivolity, you kept it together very well considering you had just had very sad news. Look after each other and here's to better times ahead. β€ virtual hugs and much love. X x
2020-04-06 13:28:04 +0000 UTCYeah, we'll try and fix the buffering before we do the next one, so worry ye not.
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-04-06 13:26:31 +0000 UTCSorry to hear about that. I enjoyed the live stream last night but it was definitely a bit buffery (that's almost certainly not a word). I'm only on the periphery of the periphery of any of this but it appears lovely and warm, looking in. Watched the Totally Turts and Phants video earlier and have been saying it ever since
na plz
2020-04-06 13:24:06 +0000 UTCLook after yourselves to the best of your abilities, and let those who want to look after you do so.
Dominic-Jo Miller
2020-04-06 13:23:36 +0000 UTCAh, we're fine, feller. Thank you.
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-04-06 13:17:22 +0000 UTCThank you, but we're okay. Don't want to make it about us!
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-04-06 13:17:08 +0000 UTCSending much love your way dude. Hope you and Sanja are doing OK
Dominoid
2020-04-06 12:59:12 +0000 UTCOh, that is very sad news. Take care all.
Nick
2020-04-06 12:53:51 +0000 UTCYou too Paul. Hope you realise, by not realising π, just how important the Digi ecosystem is to so many of us.
Dave Graves
2020-04-06 12:49:51 +0000 UTCTake care matey i'm sure there are quite a few people, including myself, who are available to talk if any of the community is feeling especially lonely at this time
Re-Enthused
2020-04-06 12:48:16 +0000 UTCYou take care too, Paul π
John Veness
2020-04-06 12:44:23 +0000 UTC
