Seoul, Korea - May 31, 2006
Rest in peace Shawn Matthews: who died May 23, 2006 on Tuesday at 5pm in Beijing. RIP. He took his own life by jumping out the 15th floor of his own apartment building. A person who I consider a friend of mine.
He came up to Seoul a couple times.. and I had a night out with him.. I even took this picture of him with his camera: (he's the one on the left):
He has a caption on that webpage that says: "I have no idea who this guy is. I vaguely remember meeting him, but that's about all. Why I have my arm around him and a crazy look on my face is beyond me. He looks a little skeptical, but at least he isn't angry". What a great sense of humor. Man, he will be missed.
He was also an extremely prolific bogger in Korea.. his website http://korealife.blogspot.com/ for five years.. and later onwards to China for the last year or so. In his time here, he wrote two books about Korea, both published, and both quite popular and well-known here among the Korea expat communities.
I've been reading about him all day today. I never knew this about Shawn, but his dad committed suicide years ago.. and Shawn missed him.
Here's another blogger from Beijing (where Shawn died), who knew him well. He wrote of his final days. Its on the May 30, 2006 entry if this later becomes dated: http://chinavlog.typepad.com/
Anyways, I feel really low and depressed myself over the entire thing. What a great writer and amazing personality. When I met him, he was one of the most likeable people I've met. A great personality, a great blogger who I have nothing but extremely positive great things to say about. He'll be greatly missed. I read somewhere on the internet as well that his dad committed suicide, and that he missed him. Damn, I'm sad today.
Next Journal Entry in Korea:
July 4, 2007
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com