A Non-Film Story With a Strange Segue

It starts with a dog.  Well, not just a dog, my dog, The Illustrious Dr. Jones ESQ., Victorian adventurer, bon vivant and gentleman scholar ... Jones for short.  When he was adopted at the age of two from a rescue agency eight years ago (the then) we promised to treat him better than the family that gave him up.  This meant three walks a day, seven days a week, of varying lengths (he doesn't like when it is raining).  Sure its a chore, but it's healthy, relaxing and when you can see how happy a dog is on his stroll it's gratifying.  They wear their emotions on their tails you know.

Well from 2010 to 2012 I went through some course changes in the direction my life was taking.  I suffered the stresses of not one, but two job restructurings and my personal status reverted back to being single.  Through all that I came out with Jones at my side and I have kept the promise that I made eight years ago to treat him as best I could.  It has come with some compromises, like moving to afford a backyard, and we can honestly say that my work/life schedule is very structured, whimsical flights of fancy are not even on the page anymore.  One of these days I might have the time to go on a date again.  Now don't get me wrong, I have great friends who help out immensely whenever they can, especially when I travel for work and the occassional out of town fun trip, but bottom line is that Jones is my responsibility, and for the happiness that dog gives me I wouldn't give that up in a New York minute.

So during these walks, and my commute to work, I have time to fill my brain with audio content and I've dove into the varieties of podcasts that are available out there (for free).  I listen to comedy (The Bugle), geekery (Radio Free Skaro, Loudest Geeks in The Room, Rooster Teeth), informative ones (Hardcore History, Stuff You Should Know), but the bulk are about video games, an interest I haven't gotten rid of in my waning years, and one of my favourite ones is the Giant Bombcast.  I like the humour, the opinonated, but non-malicious, comments from the group, and the banter among the podcasters.  I enjoyed the two hours of commentary from these guys and really appreciated the way they handled post E3 2013 coverage that was different from the knife-sharpening, torch lighting, bandwagon riding venom coming from most of the rest of the internet.

And here's the segue

Last week Ryan Davis (no relation), co-founder of Giant Bomb and pilot of the Giant Bombcast passed away unexpectedly at the age of 34.  He was on his honeymoon.  I never met the man and I only know of him from his website, occassional interview and his podcast, but for some reason his death shook me a bit.  He, through his podcast, was/is part of my regular Wednesday schedule of bussing and dogwalking and I find it weird that as of today I will not be hearing his opening greeting and off track digressions.  It's like finding out a player on your favourite sports team is gone, it doesn't affect you in real life, I still get up walk the dog, go to work and so on, but it's still something you will miss.  He will be missed, by this old f@rt in suburbia, who has to go home from work to feed and walk his dog.  Thanks for the two+ years of entertaining me on Wednesdays Mr. Ryan Davis.