Birthday of joy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY scarah2!!

Happy Birthday to a hilarious, talented LJer! Your journal is a bright spot, full of wit and amusement. Hope you have a great day!

The plot congeals...

Today's message to my sister's friend from the "ex-wife" went along the lines of this:

"I've gone through all of his journals and he mentioned you a lot. I still cared for him deeply, and our child as well cared for him. It might not have been an accident, it might have been a suicide. Please don't contact me again, I can't bear it."

My thoughts are this. We've found his homepage, and it mentions two children, and a wife. It also says he works for a different company than what he told my sister's friend. No mention of divorce. The wife's name is different than the name on the email. There were also posts on German forums, but they apparently stopped as of March 28th. There is no mention of him in the Carithie papers, nor of a mountain-climbing accident. The paper which supposedly would contain his obit, the Dutch Telegraaf, does not seem like a publication for obits; it's more like a Star magazine or a tabloid, though I could be wrong. I couldn't find any obituary listings in the online version.

I'm certain that there could be logical explanations for all of this, but just the very manner in which the information was conveyed leaves me suspicious. My gut reaction is that he was surfing the webs under a "persona", telling information that was nearly the truth but wasn't, had some fun with her, and then got scared when she turned out to be so into him. He was afraid his wife would find out, possibly, and decided to run away, and thought the only way to do that was to fake his own death, which he thought couldn't be too hard because he's half a world away.

By bringing in these new details, he's trying to actively discourage her from ever contacting him again.

And yet, I could be utterly, completely wrong, and he could be truly deceased, poor guy. I have no clue. I've already spent too much time on it as it is.

What sort of feedback/concrit/comments do you leave?

I was thinking about that today as I was leaving a comment. I realized that after two years of having a LJ I've begun to review with a system. I'm like that, of course, because I like to break everything down into categories and organize things.

If I didn't like a story---if I skimmed it and didn't finish it---I don't leave feedback. Sometimes when I see a story like that, I'll keep a tab open with the story in it, and wander back to check on it later to see if anyone else says anything. Sometimes those stories never get more than a comment or two, despite being in active comms, so I have a feeling that I'm not the only one who does this.

If I liked a story, but not a lot, and it had a few problems, but I am wary of getting into it with the author, I usually leave a comment that I enjoyed it, or I thank them for sharing the story.

If I liked a story, but not a lot, and it had a few problems, and the author seems to want concrit, then I'll leave a few thoughts, and make certain to add at least one strength I found in the story.

If I liked a story, I usually leave a comment that says something to the tune of "I enjoyed this". Sometimes I'll add something positive about the story.

If I really liked it, I usually try to leave a sentence or two about what strengths the story had, and how much I enjoyed it.

If I loved it, I usually quote a line that I loved and mention how much I enjoyed it. I also tend to get to glow a bit and add a few exclamation points.

Do you have a system of feedback?

If anyone still cares...

...someone independently e-mailed the guy, and he responded. So he's alive. Exactly as suspected.

Thanks to everyone who helped out. *hugs*