I just five minutes ago learned that Lilo has tragically died. I knew Lilo in person in the heady California days, I remember going out for noodles with him a time or two and listening to his vision for what IRC could become, both technically and socially. We wern't close, but we got along well, and I'd chat with him on and off on irc over the years, though increasingly little recently.

I feel that Lilo fell into a trap out there in Texas, living out of his immobile mobile home, without a car, taking care of his family, and just scratching by, and at the same time, trying to live up to his vision. I know from experience what that can be like. And over the years, a lot of people found reasons to dislike what he did and how he chose to do it, and there was a lot of controversy about various things, on which I won't try to pass judgement. It really doesn't matter now..

There are two things that I really regretting right now. The first is that irc.debian.org moved away from freenode so shortly before this happened. Lilo's last blog entry is about it, and I think it was very discouraging to him, and I hate that his life ended so soon after that disappointment. Even though I think the move was the right choice for Debian. I think that Debian should do something in honor of Lilo, just as we do for others of our own who pass away.

My second regret is that I remember a while ago, Lilo posted something about wishing he had a truck he could use to maybe get his trailer mobile, and for general getting around. I have such a truck; I use it less than once a month. I really did think about driving it down and giving it to him, but I never went through with it. Due to sheer materialism and financial responsability; it's a reasonable fraction of my possessions after all. Now, especially given how he died, I really wish I had. I had a chance to change a friend's life, and I turned it down.

Lilo, I'm sorry, and I'll miss you.