Doggo/Axolotl/Al-The-Editor- R & D - AoV - Passed away 6/16/06 :(

[collared_cherri]

Doggo?  But now who's going to put sand in my pancakes?  





He was one of my fave people here.  And I didn't even know that he was ill.  I'd noticed he wasn't coming on so much a little while ago and it gave me less of a reason to log in.  So I didn't.  Nobody made my time here more pleasant than he did.  

My upmost condolences to his family.  RIP mate *kiss*.

[Tesseract]

Rest well, we will miss you.

[notty]

He drove the bus.  He made the pancakes.  He laughed at my Celine Dion jokes.  This was a great man.

[Angelus]

He was a great writer.  The entire community will miss him.  

My condolences.

[MaxBigfoot]

Shit.  I am very sad.  Goodbye doggo, it was great seeing you.  

[crajosto]

Damn we have lost the best - I still have the hard copy printouts of the first 20 or so R&D's I will go back and re-read them in sorrow & joy
R.I.P

[Cutter]

May the Goddess welcome him to her large, soft, warm bossom.

*punches hole in wall*

[notty]

Quote:
doggo - the original doggo. There'll never be another

Truer words were never written.

I miss my friend.  *le cry*

[smiley]

Doggo/Al <--> Axolotl. Man, I never realised. Never told him how much the St Cats stories made me laugh.  

He's free of the pain and reunited with the dog he loved so much. One less prince on earth, but one more saint in heaven.

[Prophet_Tenebrae]

One of the most prolific writers in BEdom (if not THE most) and the editor of the only webzine that managed to survive the test of time. Quite an achievement.

[Wren]

Al was a unique talent and a good friend.  There was a time when we corresponded every day.  I deeply regret not keeping in touch with him more often.  Now I'll never have the chance.  I'm so very sorry, Al.  You were the best of us.

Wren

[JSfdd]

Right, he was the best. I got in contact with this great guy back in 2001, Al was one of the first supporters of the Farang Ding Dong adventure. He helped me a lot, we exchanged many emails and I even was about to meet him in person, now I regret I never did. I didn't know much about him, he once told me about his daughter, he liked to watch cricket games and he loved the Isles of Scilly. I always loved his British humour, his witty, ironic style without being offending or vain – he could laugh about himself, even when his situation got worse. I remember when the first thread about his health problems appeared last year, with some comments like an anticipated eulogy, he told me when he saw it "I thought I must have died". It was back in 2003 when I offered him a job at FDD, Al confirmed and everything was fixed, but just then he got ill and received the cancer diagnosis. He didn't want to believe it and probably didn't expect to die, but told me he doesn't know if he will be able to do the job in the future... I know he had a very bad time, and he also had to wait for months for his first operation, maybe too long. Later, I was happy to see him back on the track with his doggo-postings and his own flyingrabbits website, so I hoped everything was ok. And now, within such a short time…his last postings are just 3 weeks old, and it's hard to believe he will never come back. This is for me the second time a member of the BE-community I knew more closely passed away (remember r2d2) - but now I think the BEA lost it's greatest mind.

JS

[Dingus]

Christ our eternal King and God;
You have destroyed death and the devil by Your Cross and have restored man to life by Your Resurrection;
Give rest, Lord, to the soul of Your servant Al, who has fallen asleep, in Your Kingdom, where there is no pain, sorrow or suffering.
In Your goodness and love for all men, pardon all the sins he has committed in thought, word or deed, for there is no man or woman who lives and sins not,
You only are without sin.

For You are the Resurrection, the Life, and Repose of Your servant Al, departed this life,
O Christ our God; and to You do we send up glory with Your Eternal Father and Your All-holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit; both now and forever and to the ages of ages.

Amen

------------------------------------------------------------
Or maybe the Lakota say it better;

GrandMother East:
From you comes the sun which brings life to us all; I ask that you have the sun shine on my friends here, and bring a new life to them -- a life without the pain and sadness of the world; and to their families, bring your sun for they also need your light for their lives.
GrandFather South:
You bring the storms from the south which brings the rains to nourish us and our crops. Be gentle when you fall on my friends; and as the rain touches them, let it wash away the pain and sadness that they carry with them.
GrandMother West:
You take the sun from us and cradle it in your arms, then you bring darkness onto us so that we may sleep. When you bring the darkness to my friends here, do so without the nightmares that we have had for so long. Let your stars and moon shine on my friends in a gentle manner; and as they look at the stars, they remember that those stars are the spirits of my friends shining on them and those friends are at peace.
GrandFather North:
You are the Warrior, you have ridden alongside my friends here into battle, you have also felt their love and caring when you were wounded or lonely; ride alongside of them, for now they are in this the hardest battle for their life, the battle for inner peace. Now is the time for you to care for them.
GrandFather Sky:
May your songs of the winds and clouds sweep the pain and sadness out of my friends' hearts; as they hear those songs, let them know the spirits who are with those songs are at peace.
GrandMother Earth:
I have asked all the other GrandFathers and GrandMothers to help my friends rid themselves of the troubles that weigh so heavy on their hearts. This way, the weight they carry will be less; and they will walk more softly on you.

GrandMother Earth, from your womb all spirits have come when they return to you; cradle them gently in your arms and allow them to join their friends in the skies. If they want to hurry themselves to you, tell them you are not ready; and they must wait, for now they can pass on peace to others.

May the Great Spirit watch over you, and may you be at peace.
   

------------------------------------------------------------

[3deroticer]

It’s been really weird. After a heated passionate discussion and bantering of name calling, comes a peace after a storm. I had thought that maybe there was a choice of showing consideration for being different. Nope! Stretcher dies, well then at least the others are calmer: Nope! Doggo dies.

Stretcher was such an extreme lefty and Doggo on the extreme righty. So hopefully they met each other in Heaven and checking up on Angela Devi. I am saddened of the way Doggo suffer in the end. Sounds to me that they put off the surgery hoping that he get stronger for it. I don’t fathom what was on his mind in his last days. By reading the message that everyone wrote I would think that nobody could have foreseen his seriousness of his condition. If anyone goes 3 days without food get help immediately.

They were both on my shit toward the end of their life, but I would gladly have another day of raucous debate if it meant one more day of piss and vinegar in the spirit of kicking ass. I will miss their energy and spirits and they were too young to go. I don’t think the pancakes joke could uplift me; they never did before, but definitely not soon.

[beachboy]

doggo was indeed a cornerstone and a pillar of the BE community.  We shall all be the more solemn for his passing.

[Sadistyk]

 


  Legend

[Joe Average]

Like Wren, Al and I exchanged e-mails nearly every day.  He was my mentor in the big-boob fiction field, and our discussions took in that and so much more.  I have lost a friend I never met.

I feel privileged to have known him and to have benefited from his expertise, experience, wit, and taste.  There are things I learned from Al about writing that I will remember and use my entire life.

You know he was Some Sort of Dog and Axolotl.  You may not know he was Barrowclough, Kittywinkle, and one half of Hugh Japparatus.

The last item refers to the most fun Al and I had together on the web.  We were talking about the old Deja News classic  "A Growing Boy" by bigguy, and how it was too bad the author never continued the story.  I don't know how we arrived at it, but we decided to write a continuation ourselves, under the nick "Hugh Japparatus", which only the dry Brit wit of Al could have come up with.  We'd alternate.  I'd write a scene and send it to Al, then he'd write one and send it to me.  It was a slow process, being transcontinental and all.  "A Growing Boy--The Continuation" was posted on Chili's Annex. The next chapter "A Growing Boy, Continued--A Growing Girl" can be seen now on Liam's Chest Talk site, along with the first sequel.

There are parts of this story where it is evident neither Al nor I knew where we were going.  But it didn't matter.  It was such fun!  By the time we managed to finish the second one, to me we had blended almost seamlessly.  When I read that story over, there were parts I was sure I had written that I could tell came from Al, and there were parts he thought he must have composed that it turned out were mine.

It was fun.  I'm glad I knew him.  And I will miss him.

Thanks for listening.

Joe Average

[Sauerkraut]

 I do not post often, and I have been unable to contribute much to this community, but I understand and cherish the massive contributions that Al has made for us here and for everyone. The few stories that I have submitted were nowhere near the quality of his own, as Al/Doggo/Axalotl and his other aliases had a true talent. He did what he did not simply for himself and, I can see, he was always willing to contribute his precious time to the community, what little he sadly had left. It is horrible to hear his death involved such suffering, as he assuredly did not deserve such.

 I never met him, nor talked to him, only reading what he's contributed and I regret that I never took the time to at least speak to such a great man. His loss is great, and his contributions were many. He will be sorely missed.

 My condolences.

[Lightfoot]

Wow.  I never expected it was this serious.  It seems almost unbelievable.

Al was a legend.  Not even considering his many popular, well-written stories, he managed to successfully run the only related webzine to last more than a year or two.  R&D has been around longer than most of us even realize, even back to when it was just an email newsletter.

I don't think even three or four people could even try to replace all of the time, skill, creativity, and energy he put into all of his projects.

[TheZookie007]

Quote:
You know he was Some Sort of Dog and Axolotl.  You may not know he was Barrowclough, Kittywinkle, and one half of Hugh Japparatus.

I suspected that he was also "Barrowclough", but I had no idea that he was also part of the team behind "Japparatus". (I hope his chain of Swiss bank accounts isn't as tangled as his list of BE noms de plume ) The Growing Boy series as archived on ChestTalk is definitely one of my favorites...I re-read it every time I go to that site. Good work, Joe! You are also another one of the big guns of BE fiction and I admire and enjoy your work immensely. (I never read the original "A Growing Boy" by bigguy, nor the "A Growing Boy--The Continuation" story on Chili's, nor have I read any stories by "Kittywinkle". I shall have to, now.)

Dingus, that was a beautiful tribute. Thank you, and thanks also to Plato Voltaire (I'm glad to hear that you are writing again!) and JS of Farang Ding Dong fame, for coming here and paying their respects, as well as you, Pacman. Gosh, this thread is like one great big cyber-wake.

Shall any dare to take up the mantle of maintaining R&D, or to keep the Flying Rabbits site up now?

[brianm]

Hello Everyone,

Thank you all for the kind words regarding Al.

I just thought I'd give you all a brief update.

I will be meeting up with members of Al's family tomorrow and will take them a print out of this thread, along with a few photos I have of Al from some of our working holidays.

So if you want to add anything else - keep it clean!  

Cheers!

brianm

[collared_cherri]

As is the nature of this medium, you never really get to know anyone.  Until this thread, I didn't even know his real name.  He never knew mine.  But "doggo" was my friend.  A good friend.  He made me laugh.  He brightened my world.  His charm and wit were admired by many.  He was humble and never boasted about his achievements, of which there are many.  Many more than I was aware of.  

Those insignificant few who didn't understand him, don't understand what it is to be a decent human being.  doggo was a decent bloke.  He laughed at my jokes - even the bad ones. He made fun of me.  He made fun of himself.  He made fun of many people.  But there was never any malice in him.  He didn't laugh AT you, he laughed WITH you.  

Wherever you are now mate, I hope your pancake-making skills improve.  Try not to get too much sand in them.  Chicks don't dig that.  Maybe you should try stirring the batter with your tail instead.  That'll impress them for sure.

I'll miss the jokes we shared.  I'll miss the antics we got up to.  I'll miss you doggo.



Your comrade in arms
cherri x

[LeahJayne]

al aka doggo aka julie aka poodle aka pudge! (so many pet names!) he will be dearly missed, he had the best sence of humour, one of the funniest guys ive ever met/worked with, im just glad i got to meet him at all.

Bye Al...how the hell are you going to photoshop me from up there!?!?!  
Leah Jayne xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<3

[andrat2000]

No! This can't be true.
I always did hope for new St. Cat's stories. I did realize in the past that the majority of BE stories I liked most were not from different authors, but one and the same.
The St. Cat's stories were the first one that I found on (prohibited) when using the concept of search engines like Fireball or Altavista the first time.

[MixMaster]

Man...Strecher, now Al. These are indeed dark times  . Look on the bright side though, some angels are about to make a dude really, really happy  

[BillN]

Words fail me.  

[Cheviot]

I've been putting off posting to this thread for a few days now. There's just something so final about posting here... having to admit to myself that he's gone.

I've known Al since the old days, back in 1996, before Research and Development even got started. Over the years we've exchanged more emails than I can count discussing more topics than I'd care remember. He always knew how to make me laugh.

Goodbye Al. I miss you.

[brianm]

Al and I first started corresponding early in 1999. I mailed him as editor of R&D and asked him to forward my congratulations to Some Sort Of Dog on his excellent St Cats stories.

“He won't believe me,” he replied with a   “It's me...”

And so our friendship was born.

I knew Al for seven years and yet I’m still finding out new things about him even now. It turns out that he was almost every favourite author I’ve read. If I hear that Terry Pratchett passed away last Friday I should not be at all surprised.

It was Al who encouraged me to write my first piece for this community - an account of a photoshoot I had with Linsey Dawn McKenzie which Al hosted on R&D back in 2001.

I wrote it and Al then very politely told me what a hash I’d made of it and made me do it again! He was quite right, of course, and I learned a lot from the experience.

Al continued to encourage my fledgling writing. When I wrote my first Hilda Humper story he said it reminded him of something Joe Average might have wrote. I beamed with pride at that.  

And it was Al who inducted me into Flying Rabbits - switching from amateur to professional photographer and from zero-rated to amateur sound engineer and spare cameraman.

Al always accused me of never listening to a word he said. That was half true. I wish I’d paid more attention to him when I had the chance. There is so much more I could have learned. But then I always thought I would have much longer with him...

It was through Flying Rabbits that I met so many wonderful people - models like Lorna Morgan, Michelle Monaghan & Leah Jayne, and behind the scenes Martin Solo, Mark, John, Faye and, of course, Al himself.

And it gave me an excuse to spend much more time with two models I already knew - Kerry Marie and the very special Lisa Anne.

Working with Al was never really work. Working with Al meant getting the job done but having enormous fun at the same time; and the memories I have of our trips to Amsterdam, Ibiza and Poitiers are amongst the happiest of my life.

What can you say about someone who has given you so much?

And perhaps it is only now that he’s gone that it is possible to grasp just how much he did give us - his fabulous stories, R&D, his contributions to this forum, his continued correspondence with so many of us and, when we created Flying Rabbits, he was adamant that it should contain a lot of free content (Much of it through yet another nom de plume - Everard Twinches).

The last time I saw Al was at Easter. Lisa Anne and I were in the neighbourhood so we arranged to meet him for dinner. It was a great evening and I am so grateful to have had that last opportunity to be with him.

And finally...  

Al loved his cricket.

He’s now in that great cricket pavilion in the sky, dressed in his whites, having just come in from his turn to bat. There is a bowl of Marks & Spencers grapes on the table beside him, alongside what you thought was a cricket ball, but which is actually a dark Terry’s Chocolate Orange.

He’s watching as we continue to play the great game with the occasional nod or shake of his head.

And then he’d lean over, read what I just wrote and say. “What a load of sentimental old nonsense, Murphy!”

But he’d be smiling when he said it.  

God bless you Al!

[BarnacleBill]

In realizing all he had done for this community, I'm reminded of a quote used to describe God...  "God is like Light in that we don't see Him, but by Him we see all else".

Such could be said of Al/doggo in relation to this genre and this most excellent community of friends.

I had no idea Al-the-Editor was doggo, who was also "some sort of dog".  One of the funniest posters, best webzine authors/maintainers, and best writers in the genre, all rolled up into one man?

Apparently so, and he will be missed, as the desert misses the rain.

In any community, it is a sad and tragic thing for a person to be unfairly and prematurely taken from his peers in the middle of his career, but it a more profound kind of loss for a person who helped build the gathering place to have to take that final journey....  

God Bless you, al/doggo

[JustMeMike]

While Al's passing is sad, reading all of these messages is uplifting and encouraging. It appears that Al was a partner, a muse, a confidant, a drinking buddy, a teacher, and a guiding spirit to so many of us.

I am amazed at how he was able to touch so many of you on a personal level. It appears that there were an infinity of Al's, doggo's, some-sort-of-dog's and so many aliases and alter-egos. He was a modern man for all seasons.

Back a few years ago, when Flying Rabbits released their first big-bust video with Chaz, Lorna Morgan, and Kerry-Marie as the featured performers, I ran a full length interview with the video's director - a chap named Pete Small. Do you recall the piece? Pete was at once - abrasive, friendly, and filled with the insiders view of the making of the movie. It was aterrific piece.

I can now tell you that Al was Pete Small. He directed, he wrote script, he managed the equipment, and more than likely he lugged the cameras, lights, and other gear on and off  the lorry.

He'd tell me about driving Kerry-Marie home after a photo-shoot. Just a guy dropping off a co-worker after a long day at the office. He be matter of fact and proud of the fact that he had shared the time with her and even prouder that he was a friend to her.

Back in early April, just after we published the April 2006 issue of AoV, I started to make some plans about what I wanted to do with the June issue of AoV, which would be the 100th issue. He applied the brakes by saying -- "Ah let's not talk about anniversary issues. There's a finality about such a round number.

Of course I had no idea. I surmised this was just a numerical superstition. I had no idea that this was Al telling me not to plan too far into the future. We now know with a certainity that Al knew his days were numbered.

When May arrived and Al advised me that he was having issues walking, sitting at the computer for long stretches, and he wasnt sure he could get the May issue up on schedule. He suggested that I send him only the Intro, and he would see how it went.    

Well he didnt have much strength left at all, and May never got done. I took to calling him on the phone often. It was then he confided that he was not able to eat, and was getting dangerously weak.

He went into the hospital on or about the 19th of May. A week later he was home and that was when he wrote his last post about being quite ill. His words were, "People, its very bad". I think that post was May 26th...

He came home, strengthened, I supposed, but not really. When we talked on June 11 he was almost gone but still home. He sounded weak, and scared. His daughter got him into a hospital a few days later, and by the 16th he was gone.

Al was a widower as his wife had died some years back. His children are all grown and have their own families. If you recall in one of his posts he was asked about his name, 'Doggo ' and the image of the cute pooch that was Doggo's avatar. He said Doggo was that dog's name, and there would never be another Doggo.

Prophetic words indeed. There will never ever be another Doggo, Al-The-Editor, some-sort-of-dog...or even a Pete Small. The girls of St. Cat's will never get a day older.
We are so fortunate to have had Al come into our lives. And wherever he is now, I'm sure he will bring the same good cheer there as he has done here.  

JMM

[CarlTL]

Amen

[3deroticer]

wow! I am in tears just reading that. He truly gave all he had to the end. I didn't get the chance to know him that well, but thanks to all who knew him thanks for sharing your experiences with him and what it means to miss him. I am very touch by this all. I walk away thinking about how courageous he was to the end knowing the end was near.

[LurkingWolfen]

Quote:
 It's bad, people.

When I first read those words from doggo it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.


I feel fortunate to have had the pleasure of getting to know doggo from his posts here.

He posts were always kind and considerate. Cheerful and upbeat.

His mischievous sense of humour practically radiated from the screen.


My sincerest condolences to his family and friends.




I will miss you, my canid friend.

[geffo1]

Oh Jeez.....Ive only just read this thread. Id noticed Doggo was absent, but I didnt bother to read this thread.

Im gutted..

[MasterDragonfly]

I've been meaning to post for a few days now.

I'd noticed this thread previously, but as the title "Al-The-Editor - R & D - AoV" didn't hit any buttons at the time, I gave it a miss.

It wasn't until this past Monday, after getting settled in after my first day onsite at a client in another city that I decided to check in here.  First time in a couple days.  I noticed the title had been changed to include "Passed away 6/16/06 " and wondered whether that had always been there (and how could I have overlooked that, etc).  On cracking open the thread, it didn't take long for the penny to drop.

I was stunned, but I was also exhausted.  I didn't want to post some gibberish in case I ended up regretting it later.

Instead, I immediately let cherri know (I know her time here has been less frequent of late).

I thought I'd be able to feel more rested/lucid before long, but it wasn't until I'd made it back home again and had a good sleep in my own bed, cherri by my side again, that I can say I've cleared away all (most?) of the cobwebs.  And maybe a seasoned professional might say I'm in denial.

I can't say I have anything profoundly deep to say here, and I certainly didn't know even a fraction of what other activities doggo was involved in.  To my knowledge, he was just a wildly clever guy whose posts I really enjoyed, and someone who dabbled in something he called Flying Rabbits, without ever really knowing what that was all about.  He certainly kept cherri amused, and that's aces in my book.  

I find it hard to imagine what it would have been like to have Al as a friend and neighbour.  It would very likely have brightened up the daily grind.  

As I consider myself to be more spiritual than religious in nature, I have no doubt that Al is catching up with family and checking in on loved ones, at the very least.  He may even be conjuring up more stories, just because he can.  Like no other.

Cheers, mate.  You've made a difference in many lives.