His legacy is great, and there is no shame in using drugs. He never hid it, but I thought it was under control. I guess we need to learn from this.

Sometimes physical pain keep you in a chair all day, sometimes mental pain keeps you there all day, and when you are so constrained by this, there is still a great sense of accomplishment when handling a tremendous amount of work on this site. We both spent days on end, stuck on a chair or couch, able to mentally get through it because we accomplished something on MA. I remember several consecutive 16 hour days spent entirely working on the band queue. He spent many more days like that than I did. At the hardest times in life, this place is here to give you something to take pride in, and a wonderful community where we have made friends who have helped us through a lot.

Chris had a tremendous work ethic, and for all the time he spent working on this site, he was incredibly dedicated to bodybuilding - anyone who has ever talked to him about it or has just seen a picture of him knows that he was dedicated to what he did. He had the same amazing work ethic on MA, and beyond that, he was kind and good-natured. We clashed many times on details of maintaining info on the site, while I could be hot-headed and arrogant at times, he was steadfast and calm in his demeanor. There were many reviews that I rudely rejected, and so many of those he would work with them, going back and forth to help them until their reviews were acceptable. Impressive both as a feat and a testament to his character.

It was great to have someone who could constantly tackle a greater workload than any of us, and it was incredible how he did it for years on end. It was a concern, though. This is the hard part.

Dedicating yourself to a tremendous amount of work here is often a distraction from difficult times in life. It has been on and off for me, from total immersion to inactivity to a healthy hobby. For Chris, the immersion was very deep and very continual, but he handled it well. It was also a cathartic escape from the tedium of life, and a constant intellectual stimulation to your brain that was both satisfying and a fairly wholesome activity - better than running away from your struggles or coping with drugs. Working on MA was both a way to stimulate oneself and a way to be productive in life. It is really an accomplishment in life, something that can't be said of MMOs and other time-consuming pastimes. I was always somewhat concerned when Diamhea seemed to be spending whole days on MA, but there was more to it. We connected about many parts of this. He spent a lot of time taking care of his mother, who was ill, and the way things fell seemed to offer them no mercy. Knowing those 16+ hour blocks in his edit history were punctuated a dozen times per day by cooking meals, running errands, and taking care of his mother (and of course going to the gym) just completes the picture. His heart was in the right place, even when it stopped working....

The timing was cruel - after years of spending all this time keeping the report queue under control and adding additional versions, in the last few weeks Stormy III has kept the queue under control, and we seem to have added the majority of additional versions. We pretty much achieved his goals, largely due to his work, and he even remarked how it felt weird to have these things under control. The timing was so cruel.

I feel like we should talk about mental health and how it is often under pressure when spending so much time working on this site, but I suppose the key to this is also just talking to your friends about life. I'm glad I did that with Chris so many times.


One last thing I'll address, since it was mentioned, is drug use. Diamhea never hid his penchant for drugs. It was on and off. He talked about it with friends. Talked about it many times before, including the difficult parts. It was another way of coping with the torments of life. Several of us close to him talked about it, and he hadn't brought it up since last year. One thought he had kicked any habits. Last he mentioned it to me was last year, coming off a heavy prescription. Drugs were definitely a factor in coping with life over the years, and his friends were aware of this. A few days before he passed, he told an injured friend to pray for Vicodin. I don't know if he was using as he had in the past, but he had not mentioned it as he usually had. There's no shame in drug use, it would be no surprise if that was a factor, but he had been dealing with the struggles of life without heavy drugs in recent times, as far as we know.

I am so sad to read this earlier, so utterly shocked and left feeling numb. Diamhea was a real good guy, someone I only know through the internet but when something like this happens it actually feels so much more. The first review I ever wrote was for his band The Vala, a band showing much potential that sadly seemed to be overlooked and disappeared after a few demos. I really enjoyed his keyboard work and it was what first got us in contact way back when. He will be very much missed round these parts Always enjoyed his reviews and were great if you were in the mood for some keyboard heavy melodic death metal from unknown sources. Gutted to say the least...Rest easy big guy.....

Time to dust off and spin some old demos .....

https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/The_Vala/93910

I forgot to do this when I closed the gofundme, but thanks again guys. Diamhea was cremated and is chilling at his moms crib free of any mortal pains he previously experienced. I just want to thank you guys for helping his mom out, she was able to pay off the expenses that she incurred. There wasn't a proper funeral there was a small park ceremony, but I feel like this thread memorialized him properly.

Effective May 2014: Due to my recent promotion and inability to adhere to my former review output, I may now go for extended periods without contributing a review. This no longer means I am either dead, in jail, or without internet access. Please comprehend that those three ultimatums are still inherently possible at any time, however.