You may or may not know about a pioneer in personal blogging, Heather
Armstrong (AKA Dooce). She died this week. She was a searingly
honest, painfully funny writer, who struggled with depression and
substance abuse, and she truly was a pioneer of personal writing on
the internet.
I only bring it up here because I was surprised to find out that her
partner at the time of her death was Pete Ashdown, one of the early
IDM list subscribers, whose messages are worth looking up in the
archive. I met up with him in real life once and he's a great guy, and
another pioneer. He was the founder of XMission, one of the very first
ISPs in Utah.
Anyhow, I haven't talked to Pete in decades, but I'm holding him in
the light. Losing a partner like this has to be a grief that's
unimaginable. To lose your partner out in public (being quoted in the
Washington Post & New York Times) has to be doubly hard.