Regular visitors of the MRC have probably noticed that my activity has kind of grinded to a halt recently. You might (at least) have noticed I was a tad less motivated and a tad more edgy for quite a while as well. To prevent rumors, and to save me time from replying to personal emails, I thought it'd be best to open this forum topic and explain the hows and whys. I'm not really fond of posting personal stuff on the MRC, so I might use the liberty to delete this thread at some (early or late) point in time, but at the moment it feels like the right thing to do.

To keep a very long story short: my father, 59, is very ill. Cancer of the lungs, diagnosed a bit more than 6 months ago. During the past 6 months I have spent a lot of time with my family. Despite an operation, chemotherapy and radiation it is now clear that my father is losing the battle. Needless to say, at this point in time, the entire MRC doesn't matter very much to me right now.

I'm not writing this to get your sympathy, my close friends and relatives are there for me and considering the circumstances I'm doing fine, mostly, but I do have a few requests:

a] Now, more than usual, understand that if it takes long to spot and post news it is because all the MRC crew members, me included, have a private life. You can help us out by submitting MSX news if you spotted it -- and don't be surprised/annoyed if it takes a while before an MRC team member processes it.

b] Now, more than usual, understand that it can take a long time before I respond to emails or requests in the forum. Keep in mind MRC is a team and not a snout-show, so please submit your questions using the 'Contact us' forum, instead of using MSN/IRC/mail. If you absolutely need my personal response and I have not answered for a long time, please don't get angry but simply and kindly remind me.

c] Now, more than ever, MRC needs you. We need extra content managers, extra translators - especially English to (Brazilian) Portuguese, English to Russian and English to Dutch - and extra forum boosters/moderators. If you have some spare time frequently and enjoy MSX, browsing the web and MRC... just fill in one of those 'join our team' forms. For reasons mentioned above it might take a while for me to get back to it, though.

thanks for your understanding.

I actually wish to add something to point C.

In the past half year a few members stepped out of the team, while some others (me included) joint. New blood, new ideas, etc. it's all natural. As on major fairs -and esp. with the upcoming OCM and Woomb activity- you might understand that the Bazix people will prolly want to spend a major part of their fair on the Bazix booth(s). I can also mention [D-Tail] who also has a Bitwise booth to run, or the fact that not every Dutch MRC admin/webmaster can always make it to a Dutch fair anyway. The net result: a one-man gang like Nijmegen'07. In short: apart from the online things mentioned in snout's post, what we really could use in our Dutch department are one or two people who could man the MRC booths on the next major fairs (Bussum, Nijmegen, whatever other major fair comes around), not to have a massively crowded MRC booth all day, but a few extra hands means that the other hands can walk around on the fair to visit some booths and have a few talks and generally see/enjoy these fairs.

May the force be with you, Snout (and your family)

About C)

This is terrible news, I'm so sorry. Recently my grandmother, who lived with us for many years, has suffered pancreatic cancer so I can somewhat understand part of your feelings in this moment

I'm so sorry also.

My sympathies to you Snout - I lost my mother to cancer when I was 11, so I definitivly know a little about what you're going through.

It was hard on the family, but we managed to get through... I wish you and your family the strength to overcome those dark times, so you can enjoy better days when they come.

Take your time - after all, family comes first.

Quote:

My sympathies to you Snout Take your time - after all, family comes first.

I completely subscribe this.
About 12 years ago, my situation was the same.

Stay near to your family. It's very important.

Just a short, but very big thank you to all the people who posted here or supported me by sending me a private mail. I really appreciate it. I'm with my family right now and although things are not looking very bright, I do find the time to be onlne every now and then again.