Close the World, Open the nExt - Ryutaro Nakamura (1955 - 2013)

I learned with much sadness today that anime creator Ryutaro Nakamura, who directed both Kino no Tabi and Serial Experiments Lain (for which this blog is named), passed away due to pancreatic cancer.

Based on interactions I've had with lain fans over the years from all around the world, I know I'm not alone when I say his works works have played an important role in my life. As I said tonight on Twitter, I suspect that many lain and Kino no Tabi marathons are being held right now.

Here are the news stories announcing his passing. It's worthwhile to read the comments to get a sense of the impact he left:

• Serial Experiments Lain Director Ryutaro Nakamura Passes Away (Anime News Network)
• "Serial Experiments Lain" Director Ryutaro Nakamura Passes Away (Crunchyroll)

Lawmune's Netspace turns 15

Even though updates to my personal website have slowed to less than a crawl, today marks the 15th anniversary of it being online. In June 1998, a month after I left college, I put up the site as a way to keep in touch with friends (this was before Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, etc.). It evolved into more than that and led to numerous opportunities for which I'm super grateful.

Tonight, I will take a moment to reflect on the World Wide Web and how it's changed in the last 15 years (for better and for worse), and maybe I'll fire up Lynx just to make sure the site still looks good in a text-only browser, something I used to do regularly.