News &: Updates
How I Met Travis Farren
Posted: Sunday, June 29, 2008
Author: Aaron Clark
At Katsucon 2004, some friends and I hosted a panel on the subject of psychology and sociology in anime. It was a topic we were short on expertise and credential, but still managed to provide a sufficiently engaging open forum for people to discuss anime on a higher level than usual. To this day, I still view the panel as a flop, but there was one very special aspect of it that I'm still glad for. At the end, just before we cleared the room for the next panel, we reiterated who we were, and when I stated that I was from EvaMonkey.com, a voice from the front of the room squealed in excitement something like "Are you serious...? OMG, it's teh Eva Monkey!".This is how I met Travis Farren.
I've met quite a few people through conventions and the Evangelion fandom. Some more interesting than others, but none quite like Travis. It's an obvious statement to say that someone is unique. Everyone is. But in Travis' case, he was about as unique as you could be. He was a person who I palled around with at conventions, talked with over messenger, email, and occasionally over the phone. Despite the fact that I was only in his physical presence as many times as I can count on one or maybe two hands, I enjoyed every chance I had to interact with him.
Needless to say, I was excited when I saw his name pop up on my phone Wednesday morning while I was settling in at work. Travis was like that, he would call at the most unexpected times, and ultimately, it wouldn't matter what the message would be, just that it was coming from him. But when I answered, it wasn't his voice on the other end, it was his mother's. She told me that Travis had passed away, and that she thought I should know.
I was in disbelief for a brief moment before my stomach dropped. She told me that he and a friend had been jumping from a footbridge into the James river, and that Travis had had a seizure while swimming back to shore. You see, Travis had developed epilepsy in his junior year of high school, and the adrenaline rush from the jump and the change in temperature had triggered the seizure.
I expressed my condolences to his mother, and then we hung up. I eventually found myself in the main conference room to be alone, as I had started to cry a little bit. My boss came in to wire some cable, and he asked me if I was okay. I explained to him, and he told me that I could cut out if I needed to. I did what I could on one particular project, and made arrangements to leave.
I went home, packed some things, and made the five hour drive down to Roanoke in time for the second viewing. It was a very strange and uncomfortable experience, as I didn't know the family and felt very out of place. It took a little while, but I managed to find his mother to express my condolences and thank her for telling me. It was at that point that it all came out and I wept uncontrollably.
I didn't understand at the time why it affected me so much. It was not until the funeral the next day that I realized how truly special Travis was to everyone, including me. He really was the light of everyone's life, and what a shame it was for that light to be extinguished at such an early age. He was only twenty years old.
While I was raised catholic, and it shows, I'm not a religious person. So when someone dies, to me that's pretty much the end of it. All that is left is memory, and the things left behind. I'm not comforted by a belief in an afterlife where we can be together with people again who have passed before us. But a part of me struggles with a belief in things happening for a reason. And this is one of the truest cases of this.
Early in the month, Travis messaged me saying that he had a Red Cross Book laying around that he no longer wanted, and that he was going to sell it to get some cash to buy Metal Gear Solid 4. He asked me how much it was worth, and if I knew anyone he could sell it to that would appreciate it. You see, he didn't simply want to eBay it, he wanted that book to mean something to someone. I replied that I would like to have it, as I had not gotten my hands on one yet. We both gasped at the blasphemy that The Eva Monkey, master of all things Eva, had no Red Cross Book amongst his expansive collection. We agreed upon a price, I paypalled him the money, and he shipped the book off to me. I got it about a week later, and he tossed in an extra little photo-holder-type-thingy, and a note which was true to his character. Two weeks later, he passed away.
He wanted that book to mean something. And he didn't mean it that way in the time, but part of me feels like he gave me that book for a reason. For that was the last exchange I ever had with him, and now it means so much more than just an uncommon book. It's my last memory of Travis. And I'll always cherish it.
Goodbye Travis, I'll miss you.
Labels: personal
I am whole again.
Posted: Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Author: Aaron Clark
I am now the pround owner of a brand new Toshiba Satelite laptop. I got a pretty good price for it off of Best Buy's site, and so far, I'm pleased. I just have to get everything back up and running. Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Paint Shop, Winamp, BSplayer, Divx, Xvid, Media Player Classic, and all those other programs I just can't live without. Once that's all done, and I'm content with the configuration and state of my new lappy, I can get some work done on this website. I just have to get used to the new keyboard, because even though the tab key is in the same location, my brain wants to believe that it's further over, since this laptop is a widesceen model and all of the keys are shifted slightly to the right. I miss my pointing stick on my old laptop already. I really want to know who thought that touch pads should be on every laptop in existance, because I really do think that the elusive pointing stick is vastly superior. My old laptop had one, and it was much better than a touchpad or a trackball. Not as good as an optical mouse, but pretty good for a built in pointing device. I think they should manufacture more laptops with the pointing stick. In the end, it just means I'll be using my mouse a lot more than before.Labels: personal
I hate my father's computer.
Posted: Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Author: Aaron Clark
I need a new computer. Badly. I need to be able to work on this site with ease again.
Labels: personal
Sweet Blessed Freedom
Posted: Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Author: Aaron Clark
Labels: personal
This post has nothing to do with Evangelion
Posted: Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Author: Aaron Clark
I knocked my Maglite flashlight off of my desk shelf and it landed on my laptop, annihilating my computer's hard drive. So to all you people out there, don't be stupid like me, don't ever put a heavy object where it can fall onto and destory a part of your very being.It's very strange, for about two or three hours after my computer died, I didn't know what to do with myself. It was as if part of my soul had been violently ripped from me. Like I was incomplete. I completely lost track of time. I couldn't go online. I couldn't check my email. I couldn't post on forums. I was very sad.
I've had this Toshiba Laptop for almost five years. I got it the summer after I graduated from high school. It's been through so much over the years. I can't tell you how much this laptop had become entwined into the very fabric of my being. With its destruction, it's as if it's the end of an era in my life. I wish I could put some money into getting it back in working order, but it would be too costly. I'm thinking of replacing it with a more current model of Toshiba Satelite. It did me pretty good. Five years is pretty exceptional, especially considering the hell I put it through. I just gotta figure out how I'm going to afford to purchase a new laptop...
Ok, so I lied, this post does have to do with Evangelion, in that I was getting back into Evangelion fandom, and was putting together some new stuff for the site, and just lost the work, and the means to work further on the site. As a college student, I have plenty of computer access, but just not the personal kind where I can multi-task from application to application doing all of the tasks I could conceivably perform in just the manner I would like. So, I don't know how much I can do on this damned site until I get a new computer. And I was getting pretty close to transferring the forums too. Well isn't that ironic?
Labels: personal
On ambitions and monstrosities.
Posted: Friday, February 04, 2005
Author: Aaron Clark
"I closed not my eyes that night. My internal being was in a state of insurrection and turmoil; I felt that order would thence arise, but I had no power to produce it. By degrees, after the morning's dawn, sleep came. I awoke, and my yesterday's thoughts were as a dream. There only remained a resolution to return to my ancient studies, and devote myself to a science for which I believed myself to possess a natural talent."
This passage from Frankenstein really struck a cord with me just now. I have spent many a sleepless night agonizing over this site, wishing that my ability to build it could progress at the speed at which my mind built it within my head. Not to say that I consider this site comparable to Victor Frankenstein's Monster, but the restlessness he describes in the chapter prior to giving life to the monster really jumped out at me and made me think for a second. He later comments that he must be driven to achieving his vision, so that he can enjoy leisure and good health. I'll have to see how that turns out for him, though I'm pretty sure I know how it goes.
Given that I really haven't much in the way of real life associates with the "Eva Bug", I feel it necessary to continue to use the front of this web page as a sort of soap box. But I promise you, if I do so, I'll give you something in return for [emphasis]hopefully[/emphasis] reading my inane banter.
And without further ado, I give you manga-ish stuff.
Dirty Work
While this is a bit unrelated to Evangelion, it might still prove of interest to Eva fans. Dirty Work is a one shot manga done by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, and his wife, who goes by the pen name "Takaha Mako". While some may find it "unrealistically dark", I find it to be quite similar to Sadamoto's manga interpretation of Evangelion. Fans of Sadamoto and the Eva manga might want to take a look at this to get a better glimpse into Sadamoto's story-telling. And finally, a warning: while there's nothing extremely mature or explicit about this, some may find its content a bit unsettling.
Route 20
Another kernel of Gainax/Sadamoto interest. Route 20, from what I understand, was to be Gainax's follow-up project to The Wings of Honneamise. For whatever reasons, it never made it to production, and all we are left with is a preliminary work-in-progress trailer, a few Sadamoto illustrations, and a manga adaptation by Sadamoto that never went very far either. Nevertheless, as far as I know, I have available nearly everything from this project. So set aside a moment, and take a look at what might have been
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Iron Maiden 2nd
Eva fans consider spin-offs like Iron Maiden 2 (aka Girlfriend of Steel 2) by Fumino Hayashi to be anything from light fare to a defilement upon all that is holy. Nevertheless, it is directly building upon what Anno set forth, and it IS new Evangelion story. Though it is far from its predecessor, it is something to wet one's appetite in wake of the abundant lack of new Sadamoto Eva manga. The series is (to my knowledge) up to three volumes, and still in production, and who knows if it will ever see an English language version. So for those who have an open mind, and a ravenous hunger for Eva, enjoy!
"I believed that exercise and amusement would then drive away incipient disease; and I promised myself both of these when my creation should be complete."
Labels: Angelic Days, manga, personal
Have something cool that's Evangelion related?
Email Aaron about it at theevamonkey@evamonkey.com.