A not-funny entry

Steve Jobs died today at age 56.
I'm in shock.
Whenever I followed Apple-related news, I got used to predictions about what might happen to Apple once Steve Jobs was no longer actively at the helm. I tended to skim over dire predictions because it's not like the company wouldn't have a clear plan in place for how things would proceed once the current CEO leaves (for whatever reason) and the next one comes in. If JoeBob's TackleBait and Chicken Shack can manage it, so can Apple.

Then Steve Jobs formally resigned earlier this summer and I got a bit worried. Worried because it sounded like he was not in the best of health.

And now he's passed away. I've never met Mr. Jobs but I'm greatly saddened by this news. I'm sad for his family and friends, his coworkers, etc. And I'm sad because I love Apple products. I'm typing this on a MacBook Pro; my 4th? Mac in 10 years. I did my undergraduate thesis on the rise of the iPod's popularity. For a brief (but fun) period of time, I wrote for MacUser and it was awesome because I could talk about Macs, and iPods, and iPhones all day long. So I may have never met Steve personally but I owe him big time.

This news comes on the heels of several other sad items in the past few months-- a friend's father passed away from cancer very suddenly in the summer, my 12th grade Personal Finance teacher was buried today, after struggling with cancer for the past 15 months, a relative is currently undergoing cancer treatments...I work in the cancer research industry but it only feels like now that my brain is taken up with "cancer cancer cancer" all the time.

Damn.