A pic I took of James with Matz in 2010:
I met James at a Ruby conference, probably in 2008. Later, I stopped going to Ruby conferences, but we stayed in touch via email and text and very occasionally Skype. In 2011, I probably sent more drunk emails and/or texts to James than to any other person. Not 100% sure, I don't have precise statistics on this, for obvious reasons, but I hope it paints a picture.
I have very specific dietary restrictions that make travel a real pain in the ass for me, but I figured out some workarounds, and last October I went to New York for a Node.js conference. While there, I met up with James for drinks with a few other people from the Ruby world. The next day I dropped by his office because he wanted to show off his showroom. It was pretty awesome. He was stoked about his new job as CTO of Normal Ears, as well as his new apartment, and his relocation to New York in general. With a sometimes cynical sense of humor and a badass attitude, he was kind of like a born New Yorker. Like somebody who had finally found their ideal habitat.
The last thing James ever said to me was that it had been 4 years since we had last hung out in person, and I shouldn't make it four more. I made a mental note to figure out some excuse to come back to New York in 2015.
I really wish I was at his funeral right now.
Although I've met a ton of really smart people throughout my life, there have been very few that I ever really bothered to listen to, probably owing to my own numerous and severe personality problems. But I listened to James, I think more so than he guessed. After talking to James about jazz, I spent weeks and weeks on the harmonies and melodies in the music I made. After spying on his Twitter conversations about valgrind, I went and learned C. James was the only skeptic on Node.js I ever bothered taking seriously.
He was the best kind of friend: I would always hold myself to higher standards after talking to him.
Honestly, I cannot fucking comprehend his absence. It feels like some insane hoax. And although he was a good friend, he was a light presence in my life. For others, it must be so much worse. Utmost sympathies to his family and his other friends. This was an absolutely terrible loss.