i posting this up here for a variety of reasons.
first, i have taken the last week away from the "toy scene" here, and have not shipped out my sales or trades because it was the last thing on my mind. i tried getting my mind off of everything a few times and coming on here, but i realized i needed to keep my mind on it. so i haven't put any thought or energy into answering the pm's i've recieved from brainers wondering where there stuff is. its coming your way tomorrow.

i also wanted to post this up, because i'm not a very "emotionally active" person, and wanted to let more out, and figured sharing it with strangers i only partially know might be good.

a really close friend/cousin of mine passed away early last week. it was a shock, totally unexpected. he was only 27 years old. its been hard, being that he has been living in my basement on and off over the past 4 years.

he never collected toys, but he liked mine. whenever something funny popped up on skullbrain, i would share it with him. he really dug the animated gifs thread, and a while back, the sales thread that went totally off subject with the gif of the burning crotch and the dudes friend stomping it out.

he was a freestyle hip-hop artist around the bar scene in my home town. for those who don't know him, its just another random guy trying to rap, but listening to his stuff is a nice lasting legacy of my buddy. and its something i can share with people, because he always loved having new people here his stuff:

http://www.reverbnation.com/profehsah

r.i.p. ryan "profehsah" esser

I'm sorry for your loss, my best friend of the past 15 years, died a little over a month ago. He was a genius, a college professor, world renowned photographer (If anyone is interested in seeing some amazing photography, you can check out www.patrickmillard.com, his work was all about the symbiotic nature of humanity, and machines.) , but he had a secret life, that few people knew about. When it happened, I broke down, I couldn't do anything for weeks. Even though toy collecting is a major part of my life, it felt like nothing could ease the pain or make me feel better.

I feel your pain, and as you most likely know it does get better. I think the purpose of humanity is to enrich others lives, so that when we too pass on, those people we've helped can still live on through our ideas and nature.

I can see my friend in his girlfriend, and family, and I think this realization has helped me start feeling better. Thank you for sharing his music, it's so nice that whenever you want him around, you can play one of his songs.

I hope you don't think I'm trying to post-jack, but I've been dealing with almost the same exact situation, and I want you to know your definitely not alone here. There are a lot of good people on SB, that know exactly how your feeling, and would like nothing more than to help.

Even though death is the most natural thing, we have the hardest time coping.
Death of our loved ones is the thing I hate the most. I know there are no words... I feel for you guys.