O Captain, my captain

[Ingmar]

I'm pretty sure it's ok to argue in argument threads. It's not really at all the same thing as derailing an RIP thread. (Which we are doing.)

[Rasix]

It's a wee bit distasteful and something we usually attempt to avoid here. 

[01101010]

One of my favorite movies as a kid and into adulthood.

[Surlyboi]

Cop: Are you okay?
Randolph: I don't know. I'm kinda fucked up in general, so it's hard to gauge.

[lamaros]

A funny guy and a gamer too.

[Engels]

I always felt he was just a regular guy and was half baffled by his celebrity, but big enough to roll with it anyway. And anyone who couldn't see the pain behind the japes was just not looking very closely.

[Abagadro]

Interesting recollection by David Simon. On top of everything else he is probably responsible for The Wire existing.

http://davidsimon.com/robin-williams-a-brief-encounter/

[Chimpy]

Cop: Are you okay?
Randolph: I don't know. I'm kinda fucked up in general, so it's hard to gauge.

God I loved that movie, Rainbow Randolph was such a great character.

[Shannow]

Interesting recollection by David Simon. On top of everything else he is probably responsible for The Wire existing.

http://davidsimon.com/robin-williams-a-brief-encounter/

That was fucking awesome.

[Engels]

Very awesome.

[WayAbvPar]

Interesting recollection by David Simon. On top of everything else he is probably responsible for The Wire existing.

http://davidsimon.com/robin-williams-a-brief-encounter/

I love the way Simon's mind works. He is as fascinating as Mr. Williams.

[Raph]

Odds are decent someone here killed monsters in an MMO with him. I remember when we found him in the UO user database and were in disbelief.

Really sad.

[Ginaz]

Odds are decent someone here killed monsters in an MMO with him. I remember when we found him in the UO user database and were in disbelief.

Really sad.

It would have been awesome to be on voice comms with him doing a raid or pvp.

[Surlyboi]

Sadly, a lot of his playing was before voice comms.

[MahrinSkel]

Odds are decent someone here killed monsters in an MMO with him. I remember when we found him in the UO user database and were in disbelief.

Really sad.

Similar experience in DAoC (I was the one that went data-diving for it, after he mentioned our game in an interview).  At some point, he sent his guildmates a pic of himself playing his character in DAoC, to prove it was really him.  Supposedly he played nearly every MMO.

--Dave

[Nebu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1uWvvMsL5w

A 2 minute mashup of some great roles. 

[Jimbo]

Me and my friend used to drive to school together sometimes and we would have his tape playing back in the 80's, GodSpeed kind sir...I always wanted to play video games or ride bikes with him, thinking it would be pretty cool.

[Surlyboi]

Norm MacDonald tweets his goodbye to Williams.

[Nebu]

Norm MacDonald tweets his goodbye to Williams.

That was pretty powerful.  Well done Norm.

[Ironwood]

Odds are decent someone here killed monsters in an MMO with him. I remember when we found him in the UO user database and were in disbelief.

Really sad.

 

Edit;  and then I read the Simon piece and the Norm twitter.  Shit, man.  Arg. 

[schild]

I feel like I was a bit non-chalant on the last page so let me elaborate.

Robin Williams was one of the greatest comic minds I've ever had the pleasure of seeing work, whether that be in TV or Film or anywhere else. Possibly one of the greatest comic minds to ever have graced humanity. It's a terrible loss to have someone like that die of anything that isn't 'walking into an open manhole' or dying in his bed while sleeping at 102. My grandpa had the pleasure of meeting him when he was having heart surgery in the next room over from him. I've heard he was sweet and up-lifting to others even in that awful environment. So yes, I'm deeply saddened by his passing, particularly since my Grandpa is 94 and is basically 'on watch.'

That said, suicide. He left behind three children who may have kids and may never know their grandfather, one of the worlds greatest comic minds. That's the real shit. It's incredibly hard to respect someone, depression or not, for going out like that.

One of my friends and I were talking about it and I made a comment about Hunter S. Thompson, whose suicide had a, let's call it large, effect on me. I said that I think the difference between the two was that suicide was EXACTLY how Hunter should go out. He's a man who gets to decide when it happens. He lived by his own sword and died by his own sword. Robin Williams was not HST, and I simply can't muster the same amount of "feels" for his recent financial and emotional predicament.

[Ironwood]

It's a disease and it kills you.  It's that simple.  You're trying to make it complex because you don't get it, and that's fine, but you're Not Right.

It's a disease and it kills you.  You're basically sitting there saying that the guy who's cancer finally got him is a pussy for giving up.

It's a disease and it kills you.  It took me a long time to get to grips with it too after Jim went up into the spare bedroom and hung himself with electrical cord, leaving my wife one of those 'children' you speak of, but;

It's a disease and it kills you.  Jim wrote a lot of letters to his son and my wife before he went, he spoke a lot about the psych place the doc sent him to.  He talked of the pills he was on.  He spoke of how these urges would come on him and he didn't understand them and he liked his life, his wife, his kids and he didn't know where it came from.

At the end, it was just a disease.

And it killed him.

Stop worrying about his children and getting angry at him for something that I am almost certain they either understand already better than you or will certainly come to terms with, like my wife did.

I'm not getting at you, but I don't think you get it.  I didn't.  I was angry at him for a long time.  Even as I went through it myself, angry, angry, angry.  Hurt.  Sad.  He did it before his daughters wedding for Christ sake.  He brought sadness to my perfect day.  Much like would happen again when Elena was born.  On the same day as HIS birthday.

But I have all the respect in the world for Jim, his life, what he did, bringing my wife into the world, granting me his blessing to marry his daughter, liking me despite me being a cunt, helping me move house for the first time.

Yesterday, it was my daughters birthday.  It would have been Jims birthday.  Robin Williams died, in the same way Jim did.

And it's all great and tragic and wonderful and sad.  My heart goes out to Zach and Zelda and all his family as I know what a fucking BOMBSHELL they are currently dealing with.

He was a great man and a disease killed him.  Who am I talking about now ?  Doesn't really matter.

Hey ho. 

[Teleku]

I really don't want to keep this particular line of discussion going in this thread, but I will say I'm totally of the opposite opinion when comparing the two deaths.  Suicide is complicated as others have pointed out, and it should never be totally dismissed, but Thompsons always felt like the selfish pointless suicide you were raging about earlier, rather than this.  Williams suffered from clinical depression throughout his entire life and struggled to cope with it (though drug addiction, drinking, meds, doctors, ect.).  As others have said, it’s a terrible medical condition to deal with that most of society just writes off, and it’s a tragedy that he finally lost that battle.

Hunter, on the other hand, did not have any mental or medical issues beyond what ever drugs he was pumping into his body caused.  I could be wrong (And somebody please correct me if so, I haven’t followed HST as much as many here), but he never battled with depression or anything like that through his life.  In the end, most accounts say he just got depressed at getting old and the shift towards conservatism in the US since George Bush got into office, then decided to end it one day while his family was in the other room.  It was entirely his choice (and kind of stupid to kill yourself over if it was due to the politics of the period).  Which made me feel, "Well, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, shit for brains," over his death.

I feel everybody has a right to decide when they check out of this life (though they should take into consideration to harm they’ll cause to other people by doing so), and I don’t want to belittle either of their deaths.  But Williams lost a battle with a disease.  HST just said “Fuck it, I give up.”  So I find it odd you were much more sympathetic with his suicide over this.

[lamaros]

Hst had a lot of issues he was dealing with, his body was not working anymore and it was pretty much self applied pre-emptive euthanasia. It's neither here nor there really. People have a right to die. The thing about suicide is that people are often suffering from things that could have treatments. The tragedy is them not working or being provided, not the decision of the ill person - that's understandable and just really sad.

Williams doesn't owe you or 'the world' anything. People who knew him and loved him far more than you or me might be excused for being angry and shellfish while dealing with this, but what the fuck are you doing shitting up a thread where people are mourning?

I can only assume that you have your own issues that are causing you to act out like this, but there are better ways.

Sorry to hear about your situation IW, that must have been/be very hard. I only know what ive read on here, but I have a great amount of respect for you.

[Engels]

A little video on depression. May be informative for some of you who seem to have a somewhat cursory understanding of depression.

[apocrypha]

It's a disease and it kills you.  It's that simple.  You're trying to make it complex because you don't get it, and that's fine, but you're Not Right.

It's a disease and it kills you.  You're basically sitting there saying that the guy who's cancer finally got him is a pussy for giving up.

It's a disease and it kills you.  It took me a long time to get to grips with it too after Jim went up into the spare bedroom and hung himself with electrical cord, leaving my wife one of those 'children' you speak of, but;

It's a disease and it kills you.  Jim wrote a lot of letters to his son and my wife before he went, he spoke a lot about the psych place the doc sent him to.  He talked of the pills he was on.  He spoke of how these urges would come on him and he didn't understand them and he liked his life, his wife, his kids and he didn't know where it came from.

At the end, it was just a disease.

And it killed him.

Stop worrying about his children and getting angry at him for something that I am almost certain they either understand already better than you or will certainly come to terms with, like my wife did.

I'm not getting at you, but I don't think you get it.  I didn't.  I was angry at him for a long time.  Even as I went through it myself, angry, angry, angry.  Hurt.  Sad.  He did it before his daughters wedding for Christ sake.  He brought sadness to my perfect day.  Much like would happen again when Elena was born.  On the same day as HIS birthday.

But I have all the respect in the world for Jim, his life, what he did, bringing my wife into the world, granting me his blessing to marry his daughter, liking me despite me being a cunt, helping me move house for the first time.

Yesterday, it was my daughters birthday.  It would have been Jims birthday.  Robin Williams died, in the same way Jim did.

And it's all great and tragic and wonderful and sad.  My heart goes out to Zach and Zelda and all his family as I know what a fucking BOMBSHELL they are currently dealing with.

He was a great man and a disease killed him.  Who am I talking about now ?  Doesn't really matter.

Hey ho.  

Do you mind if I show this post to some of my friends and family Ironwood? Within my extended family there's a lot of depression and other mental illness, yet despite the close experience there are still some who have an incredibly (and, I suspect willfully) ignorant view of it.

I'm very angry at some of the reporting of Williams death, despite having multiple briefings from mental health charities and care organisations far too many (UK at least) newspapers & news websites have reported it in a deeply irresponsible way. It's well known that detailed reporting of suicides is strongly correlated with subsequent spikes in similar suicides. The Sun and Metro in particular went out of their way to ignore reporting guidelines and clearly put lurid headlines and copy at a higher priority than the risk of leading to further suicides. I struggle to think of a profession I respect less than journalism at its worst.

The more I read about Robin Williams now the more respect I have for him and the sadder I am at his death.

Edit: Did a bit of searching about coverage while typing this and discovered that the US media simply doesn't bother with reporting guidelines regarding suicide. So, wow, good job there I guess. 

[Cyrrex]

So we're, what...2 days or so removed from this, and every time I see an article or just sit here and think about it, I just feel worse.  What a miserable loss.  I never realized how bad he had it, but in retrospect it seems so apparent.  There have been a few celebrity deaths that were more painful than others, but in my lifetime this one takes the cake.  Michael Jackson's might rival it in terms of general hugeness, but it was far harder to empathize with or even relate to MJ.  He wasn't remotely lovable.

Ironwood, thanks for the perspective you put on it.  I've never actually personally known anyone who attempted it, so it is hard to understand that it is a disease. 

[Signe]

I just read that he also had been diagnosed with early stage Parkinsons.  Too sad.  I have no idea what the fuck I would do in his shoes.  People cope the best way they can, I guess.  My dad used to threaten suicide a lot.  He also did things like lock himself in a room with a gun and pretend he was going to shoot himself.  Of course, I realise now he had no intention of doing that... he just wanted to scare us.  It worked because when I was a kid I believed he was going to kill himself any minute.  My mom was smart though.  She never believed him and never tolerated his crazy behaviour.  She simply ignored it or went next door to my Aunt's house and drank coffee and smoked some Benson and Hedges. 

[Riggswolfe]

This was posted on Facebook by a conservative I spent a lot of time 'debating' with. He also joined me in calling Rush an asshole over what Rush said after Williams died. I think people like Schild could do with reading this:

Someone may have heart disease though we can't see it; we treat it. Someone may have diabetes and we don't see it either, but we treat it. Someone may have cancer and again, we don't see it but treat it. We don't point fingers and laugh at them, we don't shun them, and we don't shut them out. They may die and we don't blame them. So, why is it if someone has a mental illness, that we cannot see, not treated the same as anyone else with any other medical condition? I've lost battle buddies and a life long idol due to this. Don't shut out those who my be affected. There may be no chest pains, no headaches, no physical pain at all, but there is a silent cry inside that can be seen if we look close enough. A silent cry for help and not to be alone in a crowded room.

[Der Helm]

At this rate I will probably break down and cry sometimes around Saturday afternoon.

[TheWalrus]

Why wait? It's a big club. Join it.

[Stormwaltz]

Ironwood, I don't have anything to say but, "yeah."

I can't say more.

"Yeah."

[Cyrrex]

We are going to sit around the TV tonight and watch Mrs. Doubtfire.  I wonder if I'll manage not to cry.

[Phildo]

I sat down to watch Hook and I had completely forgotten that Bob Hoskins had died in April.  Last night was a really sad night.

[90Proof]

Can anyone share how this was reported and viewed in Asia?  

fake edit: Removed dumb comments.