I'm really sad to hear that he passed on. He was a great guy and he was full of potential. Sredni, I wish you and his family didn't have to go through this. My condolences.

I don't really know what else to say. Shit just isn't fair sometimes. :/

I'm a friend of Amark's. I lived in the same dorm with the guy and have known him since sophmore year of college. The first time I met Amark was in the lounge of my dorm, an RA was putting on a program down there and in the middle of the program Amark started spouting out some Mitch Hedburg lines. Everyone there thought he was crazy. But I soon started spouting off some Hedburg lines back at him. That's when I knew that I've met a great friend. A friend that didn't really care about normality and niceties.

Throughout my time with him he pulled me through doubts about life, job losses, breakups, and a slew of other problems. The man had a way of telling you the honest truth in both a comforting and visceral way. He cared about each and everyone in such a deep way that I can't even fathom. And Amark was just so god damn intelligent. I'm in here stumbling upon my words, while Amark could pull out poetry without even having to press the backspace key. I always admired how he could talk to you about anything, no subject was off limits. There was no fear of crossing a boundary with Amark.

I was there last night along with a couple of his other friends and his family when he passed. He was in a coma for his last few hours and we were told he could hear everything we were saying. So we told countless stories about how much Amark has changed our lives. The man is an inspiration. I know I would be a much more passive guy, letting the world pull me down, if it wasn't for him. He has taught me, no matter what to be yourself, fight, and really take no shit from anyone. When he did finally pass away you could tell that he was calm and at peace.

Amark always would talk about gamingworld and how much he loved you guys and I'm glad to see how much you all care about him.

it means a lot that you came here to share this with us

he always spoke very highly of you and i'm glad you chose to be a part of this with us

I remember having a conversation with him about David Liebe Hart from the Tim and Eric program. He called him "Wesley Willis as fuck" out of genuine affection for the guy. That's the thing; even over an internet devoid of body language and facial expressions, there was this exuberance about him that was just unmatchable. I followed his LiveJournal for quite a while, and while I didn't talk with him often, he was a genuine fucking character. Once, he talked about Hundley and said something to the effect that if Hundley was a character in a book, an editor would circle him and say "that character cannot exist." That's how I feel about Steel. We have lost someone with so much potential to do good in this world. It's staggering.

Rest in peace. Please give my condolences to his family and friends (as weird as "random internet guy sends his condolences" sounds). If anyone who was close to him is reading this topic, please, do us all a favor and share whatever stories you have.

I'm a friend of Amark's. I lived in the same dorm with the guy and have known him since sophmore year of college. The first time I met Amark was in the lounge of my dorm, an RA was putting on a program down there and in the middle of the program Amark started spouting out some Mitch Hedburg lines. Everyone there thought he was crazy. But I soon started spouting off some Hedburg lines back at him. That's when I knew that I've met a great friend. A friend that didn't really care about normality and niceties.

Throughout my time with him he pulled me through doubts about life, job losses, breakups, and a slew of other problems. The man had a way of telling you the honest truth in both a comforting and visceral way. He cared about each and everyone in such a deep way that I can't even fathom. And Amark was just so god damn intelligent. I'm in here stumbling upon my words, while Amark could pull out poetry without even having to press the backspace key. I always admired how he could talk to you about anything, no subject was off limits. There was no fear of crossing a boundary with Amark.

I was there last night along with a couple of his other friends and his family when he passed. He was in a coma for his last few hours and we were told he could hear everything we were saying. So we told countless stories about how much Amark has changed our lives. The man is an inspiration. I know I would be a much more passive guy, letting the world pull me down, if it wasn't for him. He has taught me, no matter what to be yourself, fight, and really take no shit from anyone. When he did finally pass away you could tell that he was calm and at peace.

Amark always would talk about gamingworld and how much he loved you guys and I'm glad to see how much you all care about him.

<3

God, this is terrible. I can't even believe this actually happened, it all seems like a bad dream. I'm just speechless.

Rest in peace, Steel. You will be greatly missed. You made such a huge impact on my life, and even if you never knew who I was, I will never forget who you were.

I'm a friend of Amark's. I lived in the same dorm with the guy and have known him since sophmore year of college. The first time I met Amark was in the lounge of my dorm, an RA was putting on a program down there and in the middle of the program Amark started spouting out some Mitch Hedburg lines. Everyone there thought he was crazy. But I soon started spouting off some Hedburg lines back at him. That's when I knew that I've met a great friend. A friend that didn't really care about normality and niceties.

Throughout my time with him he pulled me through doubts about life, job losses, breakups, and a slew of other problems. The man had a way of telling you the honest truth in both a comforting and visceral way. He cared about each and everyone in such a deep way that I can't even fathom. And Amark was just so god damn intelligent. I'm in here stumbling upon my words, while Amark could pull out poetry without even having to press the backspace key. I always admired how he could talk to you about anything, no subject was off limits. There was no fear of crossing a boundary with Amark.

I was there last night along with a couple of his other friends and his family when he passed. He was in a coma for his last few hours and we were told he could hear everything we were saying. So we told countless stories about how much Amark has changed our lives. The man is an inspiration. I know I would be a much more passive guy, letting the world pull me down, if it wasn't for him. He has taught me, no matter what to be yourself, fight, and really take no shit from anyone. When he did finally pass away you could tell that he was calm and at peace.

wow, thank you so much for posting this. i'm also curious as to more details about the time you were with him...

in response to some other comments, let me just say that I fully agree with Hundley. this whole thing is definitely very sad and unfair, but it's worth nothing if we don't learn from it. we should be optimistic about all this, as difficult as it is. i know it sounds cliché, but... It's what Steel would have wanted, y'know? I am sure if he could make one final post right now, he'd definitely include something like, "Now you fuckers better not go all pessimistic on me acting like you didn't learn anything from this whole experience." haha. And even when we were always debating about stuff like how a loving god could allow such bad things to happen, he would never disagree with the fact that the aftereffects of a negative event can be beneficial to those around. and Steel definitely influenced-- and continues to influence--every single person who ever had the pleasure of talking to him. as people he knew, it's our obligation to keep spreading his messages and doing the work that he didn't have time to do within his unfortunately too-short lifespan (but face it: even if he lived to be 150, he'd still have more to say). At some point, people gotta go. we should just be happy that he is no longer in such pain and helplessness, and now we have the pleasure of being able to share the knowledge we gained from him with the rest of the world.

geez this is so hard to deal with... :[ I feel like I've lost a very smart, close teacher. like, the kind of teacher that you talk with for hours after class and share videos and books with. the kind of person you look up to and want to be just like someday. Anybody else know what I mean? like, this is such a "Tuesdays With Morrie" kind of feeling.

but wow... R.I.P Steel. i will never ever forget about you no matter how weird it is that I never met you. I have been thinking about this all day and crying, despite the fact that the only contact we ever had was on a GAMING FORUM. ahahah. wow. life and death are strange.

the worst part is that i saw that "honoring steel" topic and didn't even think twice. i thought silhouette just wanted to do something neat for steel. the fact that he might have died never occurred to me. i always thought he was going to pull through. it's how he was.

ahaha, sorry, I always confuse you two when he mentions you.  aaaaa mentioned you.  that's going to take some getting used to.

that's a good story, though.  CLASSIC STEEL.  so was cooking with doop, for that matter.  it's good he left so much shit behind.

that post makes some good points. First, yes it is really weird saying "Steel WAS awesome" instead of IS. :[
But yeah, one of the weirdest things about all this is the whole "this guy was from the internet" fact. as a result of that, it means we have sooo much stuff leftover online that he made--posts, images, videos, etc. I guess that while it is sad to look back and remember all the good times, it's also fun and definitely, umm... therapeutic? seeing old things and hearing old stories somehow makes it easier to get through this.

what a guy

TRICK MY TRICK
david liebe hart is such an interesting person.  reading this is actually kind of sad.  i read once that he was selling his cds on the awesome show tour in order to pay his rent because he was four months behind.

i never thought that someone who had a job starring in a tv show would not be able to pay his rent

   

john_of_dreams 2009-03-28 06:16 am
from what i understand, he's mentally ill. like they brought a guy to "play" him on awesome show once as a fake tim and eric movie skit or something and he got really sad and was like DONT KICK ME OFF GUYS. someone stole one of his puppets once and he got really sad too.

he's really cool and basically wesley willis as fuck. he is one of my favorite people completely unironically and I hope hes forever happy.

I don't really know how to respond to this at all, really.

I haven't posted here much for months and honestly, I always felt very much like an outsider looking in, not someone invested in the community to the extent that the rest of you seemed to be. But the reason I posted here, back when I did have a lot of interest, was very much entwined in, well, Steel.

Steel was someone I always kind of wanted to be my friend, who I'd always wished I'd been around more in the 'good old days' of GW, or whatever, so that I could have been more like him. i think that headphonics and him knew that and made fun of me for it a lot and for other reasons didn't like me (and this is/was definitely understandable, retroactively), but whatever - he was definitely always a reason i came, to post, to read posts by him, and in the end, to hope he got better.

It's weird to think that I learned a lot from a guy that I barely ever talked to, probably didn't like me very much, and whose name I didn't even know until today. But that's the kind of guy Steel was - the kind that you felt drawn to, because he was such a complex and intelligent and, well, christ, a brilliant guy. Steel helped change my life. I am not the same person I was a few years ago and Steel definitely was a person who influenced me intellectually and personality-wise.

I will miss you Steel.

god this sucks.

even though i haven't really even thought of him in months i feel like i broke a little inside today

god steel.

if I could be like anyone, I'd want to be a lot like you.