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General Category => General Talk => Topic started by: Sredni Vashtar on April 20, 2010, 02:51:21 pm

Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Sredni Vashtar on April 20, 2010, 02:51:21 pm: Hi all,

Amark's family would like to extend their gratitude to all of you guys for offering as much support and condolences that you did during their difficult times. Amark talked about this community a lot. It was clear that you all were an important part of his life, and he held many of you in very high esteem. Not very many people can say they have genuine support and caring from others all around the globe, but you guys have definitely been there for Amark.

A book of his writings has been published, and is available here (http://www.lulu.com/product/hardcover/breaking-the-system/6566657) if anyone wants to buy it. His family is putting the proceeds towards a fund (which is currently being set up, will post details as they come).

Again, thanks to all of you for being such a big part of who he was.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: big ass skelly on April 20, 2010, 03:51:12 pm: That's really awesome man. I'm definitely going to buy this instead of just waiting for the movie.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: meat.lover on April 20, 2010, 03:54:34 pm: there's no way i'm not getting this! this makes me happy.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: dicko on April 20, 2010, 04:20:10 pm: absolutely buying this, going to have to wait until i can afford to get it on my credit card (doesn't accept by debit card) but this is a really great thing and i can't wait to own this.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: bonzi_buddy on April 20, 2010, 05:06:31 pm: my god!!!!!!!!! that's nice of Amark's family. this is a really cool idea Sredni!! how does this Lulu works, i am going to assume cross-continental shipping is possible right?!
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: dark_crystalis on April 20, 2010, 05:20:29 pm: This is really great man... I'm curious about reading his writings
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Vellfire on April 20, 2010, 05:43:09 pm: i'm going to buy this as soon as i have some money, this is excellent thank you dude
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: DDay on April 20, 2010, 06:23:09 pm: After I'm done putting together my Computer I will get this.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Death Gulp on April 20, 2010, 07:11:20 pm: i'm buying this
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Barack Obama on April 20, 2010, 08:39:25 pm: looking forward to reading this
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: ase on April 20, 2010, 09:51:50 pm: Do you have any idea if the estimated 10-15 day wait prior to shipping would be reduced if a certain amount of people purchased it?

Either way, I just ordered. From the preview, it looked excellent. If I recall correctly, getting printed was one of Amark's major goals.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Farren on April 20, 2010, 09:55:39 pm: getting this as I am typ?////
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: dada on April 20, 2010, 09:57:26 pm: I think it's great you guys have put in the effort to get this printed. I've always loved to read his perspective on things because he held such an amazing conviction in everything he believed. Going to order it right now, can't wait to see what's in here.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: dada on April 20, 2010, 10:05:24 pm: Hidden content (Click to reveal)
(https://legacy.gamingw.net/etc/wedemandhtml.com/tmp/lulu_oops.png)

Fuuuuck you lulu, trying to posthumously sabotage steel!
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: mkkmypet on April 20, 2010, 10:59:25 pm: ah dude this is amazing! awesome. i am so glad that this was put together, and i will definitely buy a copy and treasure it dearly.

p.s. i guess this is appropriate to ask here: today, a few hours ago, i saw someone playing CoD Modern Warfare on xbox live with the gamer tag "SteelCancer420".... woah~ was that any of you?
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: cowardknower on April 20, 2010, 11:09:53 pm: that sounds like a gw joke, but a really awful one.

or maybe not -- he'd probably make it about himself.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Seawed on April 20, 2010, 11:27:07 pm: I will try my hardest to buy this.

But out of curiosity what are the contents? How many of the writings are stuff we haven't read before from him. Is it stuff he left lying around?

Either way, I'll buy it and keep it in a special place with all my other favourite books.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Barack Obama on April 21, 2010, 12:07:23 am: Quote from: Seawed on April 20, 2010, 11:27:07 pm
I will try my hardest to buy this.

But out of curiosity what are the contents? How many of the writings are stuff we haven't read before from him. Is it stuff he left lying around?

Either way, I'll buy it and keep it in a special place with all my other favourite books.
from the looks of the preview it's a collection of writings he was working on and things like journal entries, etc.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Terrorantula on April 21, 2010, 12:31:45 am: I hate to seem clueless, but who was this person? I'm not certain I ever crossed paths with him here. He died of cancer?
-Edit_ I've been reading the archives- seems like everyone liked him.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Sredni Vashtar on April 21, 2010, 02:41:08 am: Just to clarify, the book was an effort by his family and his friends from NC State. I didn't know it existed until pretty recently, and all the credit for that effort goes to them!
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: the_bub_from_the_pit on April 21, 2010, 02:45:09 am: Also getting this!
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Parker on April 21, 2010, 04:29:54 am: Quote from: Dada on April 20, 2010, 10:05:24 pm
Hidden content (Click to reveal)
(https://legacy.gamingw.net/etc/wedemandhtml.com/tmp/lulu_oops.png)

Fuuuuck you lulu, trying to posthumously sabotage steel!
I got this, too. Twice. What did I do wrong? I want to order this. :(
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: dada on April 21, 2010, 06:42:02 am: Quote from: Parker on April 21, 2010, 04:29:54 am
I got this, too. Twice. What did I do wrong? I want to order this. :(
You didn't do anything wrong. Lulu is apparently the worst site ever. I've opened a support ticket here (https://support.lulu.com/Question.jsp?id=5fe2016324e94ed9ed6dcdc1ec4e5cdd&).
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: cartertac on April 21, 2010, 10:02:56 pm: I've been contemplating whether or not to get an account here (my brother would probably kill me if he was around and saw me in the same forum) but I figured I should now. I'm his sister and I know that he's always talked fondly about you guys. It's been a hard couple of months but we're all getting by. This is actually one novel of three he's written as well as a bunch other smaller things. As far as the book being distributed, I'm trying to deal with the problem. Steve actually published it on Lulu, not me, and he didn't put an ISBN on it (and you need that if you want to sell on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and places like that). So I'm trying to see if I can get an ISBN and try to make the book more available in other places. I keep trying to contact Steve but he doesn't respond. (I assume he's busy and that's why it's taken so long). In any case, I'll make sure this book gets out easier to you guys. I'll also let you know when I plan on getting the second one finished (once I can clean up the mess this one, I'll work on the other).

Thank you all once again for your kind words. My mother and I appreciate everything you guys have done. I have tons of pictures of him as well as a few other things so if you ever want me to share, please let me know and I'll be happy to do so.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: dada on April 21, 2010, 10:24:24 pm: Quote from: cartertac on April 21, 2010, 10:02:56 pm
I've been contemplating whether or not to get an account here (my brother would probably kill me if he was around and saw me in the same forum) but I figured I should now. I'm his sister and I know that he's always talked fondly about you guys. It's been a hard couple of months but we're all getting by. This is actually one novel of three he's written as well as a bunch other smaller things. As far as the book being distributed, I'm trying to deal with the problem. Steve actually published it on Lulu, not me, and he didn't put an ISBN on it (and you need that if you want to sell on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and places like that). So I'm trying to see if I can get an ISBN and try to make the book more available in other places. I keep trying to contact Steve but he doesn't respond. (I assume he's busy and that's why it's taken so long). In any case, I'll make sure this book gets out easier to you guys. I'll also let you know when I plan on getting the second one finished (once I can clean up the mess this one, I'll work on the other).

Thank you all once again for your kind words. My mother and I appreciate everything you guys have done. I have tons of pictures of him as well as a few other things so if you ever want me to share, please let me know and I'll be happy to do so.

I think it's great you decided to join this forum and send us a message :) I've always loved reading Amark's writings and really appreciate your efforts to try and get them out into the world. As for the other things you say you have from him, I think you should decide for yourselves whether he would have wanted them to be shown to the rest of the world. I respect him very much and would definitely not want to step on his privacy for the sake of curiosity.

Thanks for your work and for keeping us up-to-date.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: dicko on April 21, 2010, 10:33:39 pm: Quote from: Dada on April 21, 2010, 10:24:24 pm
I think it's great you decided to join this forum and send us a message :) I've always loved reading Amark's writings and really appreciate your efforts to try and get them out into the world. As for the other things you say you have from him, I think you should decide for yourselves whether he would have wanted them to be shown to the rest of the world. I respect him very much and would definitely not want to step on his privacy for the sake of curiosity.

Thanks for your work and for keeping us up-to-date.

i agree completely with this. we all loved amark and had a huge amount of respect for him. i really loved what i saw of his writings and am obviously very eager to get this book, and really do appreciate your efforts.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: tuxedo marx on April 22, 2010, 12:57:30 am: wow, this is amazing. that's all i really have to say about it atm!
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Shadow Kirby on April 22, 2010, 02:08:11 am: Wow, I've read the first few pages that were on preview and yeah, dude's gone way too soon. He was such an amazing writer.
You can be sure that I will get this, it's like a part of his legacy to this world or something. I was too stupid back when he was alive to listen to him, maybe through this book I can learn from one of the best guy I never met.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: King of Spooks on April 22, 2010, 03:20:02 am: This is a great way to appreciate who he was and to really see into his perspective on things. Does anyone know if some of his posts are included? Some of the stories sound like his posts but I'm unclear as to where they came from.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Sapsuker on April 22, 2010, 04:48:54 am: We should publish a book of Steel's old articles on the blog. He had a lot of really good college ones.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: cartertac on April 23, 2010, 01:33:12 am: Thanks, guys. I'm going to try and see if I can get an ISBN for his book and maybe better distribution. I know, Lulu's site kinda sucks. If there's anything you guys can dig up and find, please let me know. I'd like to collect them all. I have some but not all of them.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: ase on April 28, 2010, 05:26:46 pm: Hey, I just received it a few minutes ago! 7 days after ordering is better than I expected (I got Ground shipping for $9.99)!

Here are the titles of the stories/writings, since the preview doesn't show most of them:

Chapter 1: (No Title)
Chapter 2: Chocolate chip Tookie Williams
Chapter 3: HoLLa 2 My GuRlZ
Chapter 4: HE IS COMEP
Chapter 5: Cat the fackin chese...
Chapter 6: I'm sorry
Chapter 7: The House of Spirits is full of ghasts....watch out for the ghast
Chapter 8: HAVE YOU SEEN MY ANIME?
Chapter 9: bleah bleah BOOK barf
Chapter 10: I Am Bruce Genitals.
Chapter 11: FRACKIN Mexican...
Co-Author's Note

Chapters 9 is by far the longest (~18 pages)

I haven't had time to do more than skim over it, but it looks fantastic. I see a bunch of references to Bruce Genitals in a couple of the stories, a couple pages of playwriting mixed in. Mostly though, it is written very professionally (which the titles don't completely reflect...). Not at all the spelling/grammatical disregard we've come to expect based on his rants and posts. I'm very very excited to read it.

EDIT: I was mistaken. It seems the whole book is a continuous "story" of sorts. These aren't just random short stories. ~~I'm not sure if he was inspired by it, but it sort of follows a "House of Leaves"-esque storytelling of another person's "notes"~~

EDIT2: OK. I need to read more of this before I jump to conclusions. I think the stories are still written in the voice of a single narrator. I think. Just thought I'd clarify that this comment:

Quote from: DietCoke on April 21, 2010, 12:07:23 am
from the looks of the preview it's a collection of writings he was working on and things like journal entries, etc.
does not seem to be true. The characters in these stories are linked. It doesn't seem as autobiographical as a journal entry would be.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Parker on April 28, 2010, 09:30:30 pm: I got an email yesterday that mine had shipped. Excited.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Farren on April 29, 2010, 02:30:01 am: me too and I can't wait to read it when I get home

my man steel, always leaving those little puzzles behind for us to figure out.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: DoctorEars on April 29, 2010, 02:43:51 am: Wow I only just noticed this topic. About to order the book on Lulu.

EDIT: FARK, not enough money on debit card.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Brad on April 29, 2010, 06:03:27 am: This is great! I'm getting this for sure and looking forward to reading. It still feels weird to me, knowing that the dude that would make all these huge fantastic posts isn't around anymore to tell us whats on his mind... If you can get more of his writings like you said that would just be awesome. I've told some people I know about Amark and how he meant much to all you guys and me as well, they don't understand the whole GW thing but they seem caring and interested. They can't experience him like we did, but this book could really show them how much of a great person he truly was.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: cartertac on April 29, 2010, 10:03:17 pm: So I've been trying to get this book out in other places and it turns out that it's not of right size to distribute. That's why it's so hard to find. Therefore, I'm trying to get a hold of Steve (I haven't had any luck) to see if he redo this all over again. I'm sorry about all this. Also, all of Amark's other stuff is way too hard to finish on my own. I have no idea where he was going with some of them.

Incidentally, has anyone succeeded in buying/getting the book?
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: ase on April 29, 2010, 10:22:18 pm: Quote from: cartertac on April 29, 2010, 10:03:17 pm
Incidentally, has anyone succeeded in buying/getting the book?
Yeah, if you look a few posts above, I received the book yesterday. Thank you for putting it together! I love it so far. And if you have trouble compiling the rest of his writing into novels, I'm sure a lot of people here would be thrilled even if you just released them in crude e-file format here.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Farren on April 30, 2010, 12:05:26 am: hey, couldn't you and drule just make a seperate page for his work and have the stuff distributed via GW until his sis and steve can get something solid going? it could be done through a web page and paypal right? or am I wrong about that?
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: cartertac on May 01, 2010, 12:33:18 am: Ah, I missed your post somehow. Glad that some of you are able to get it and I hope you enjoy it!
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: cartertac on May 01, 2010, 04:26:24 pm: Okay, Steve finally got back to us and he's going to try and make the book more available in other places if possible. I'll keep you guys posted on when that'll happen.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Master Tea on May 04, 2010, 07:13:50 pm: very nice, going to order

By the way does anyone have the picture book that gw made for amark? Read about it a while ago but never saw it, that might be to include for this compilation
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Farren on May 05, 2010, 01:10:41 am: that would actually be really cool

the .zip file of it is in that forum that was made for steel's donation money, I'm pretty sure that whole forum was archived at some point.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: ase on May 05, 2010, 02:09:35 am: COMIC: http://sharebee.com/f02917e7 (currently only the megaupload link works...)
(from this topic: http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?topic=9362.40)

If you are a premium or a fallen hero, you should have no problem accessing the archives.... i dont know why so many people sound like they can't find it! Although I guess there are about 200 subforums in it.....
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: dada on May 05, 2010, 05:28:35 pm: Those file sharing sites are annoying to use, here's the file on my server: http://wedemandhtml.com/tmp/STEELBOOK.zip
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Parker on May 06, 2010, 10:23:27 pm: Got my copy a couple days ago and just started reading it last night. Really, really good. Loving it.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: headphonics on May 12, 2010, 12:27:30 am: my copy came in today. actually it came a few days ago but i just now had time to pick it up today.

this is really nice. i want to thank you a lot for doing something like this. i was only vaguely aware he even wrote anything so finding out he wrote enough material for a small book (and more?) was a pleasant surprise. the book itself is really big. i was expecting it to be a normal-sized book and it's more akin to a children's book in terms of size. that has nothing to do with anything but it was just an observation i made.

i am not very far in at all but so far it smacks of steel and this is about the best thing i could hope for! it's been like a year since i regularly conversed with him, and i was kind of forgetting what he was like already. this book could not have been written by anyone but him! it sounds like him talking. everything sounds like him. turns of phrase and everything. i didn't know any of this material existed so it's really great to be reading something entirely new and unheard of from him. it takes me back. i know i can read it online, which is cool, but it's nice to actually hold it in my hands, and see his name on the cover. so yeah, thanks a lot! even though he apparently was not particularly happy with this specific work and IN LIFE probably would not have wanted everyone reading it, it was a great thing to do i think. then again maybe he is cringing from beyond the grave as we speak. who knows.
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: Farren on May 12, 2010, 12:32:04 am: headphonics

what up brotha man
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: cartertac on May 12, 2010, 09:23:30 pm: The book's been resized now so it will be smaller if you order it now. :woop:
Title: A message from friends and family of Amark (Steel)
Post by: dada on May 13, 2010, 06:20:42 am: Got the book in the mail today :) I actually got two, even though I paid for just one. Haven't had the time to read it yet, but I will soon.