Sorry for the long post.
I first heard Christien in the first or second week of January 2014. That’s when I first listened to one of the movie podcast episodes. It took me several episodes to figure out who Dingus was, and who Christien whatever his name was, and that they were in fact the same person.
I joined the forum about a month later but kept a pretty low profile for several months. I didn’t interact at all with Christien but I listened to a whole heck of a lot of movie podcasts and as multiple people have posted here, after you listen to a bunch of episodes you feel like Christien, Kelly, and Tom are dear friends.
I still hadn’t actually interacted with Christien at all, but I knew his strong feelings on Prometheus, the first two Hobbit movies and that he was pro-Marvel movie. And I learned that Christien had a penchant for standing up during a movie, pumping his fist and saying “Nice.”
The first time I ever directly interacted with Christien was when he responded to one of my posts in a Movie Podcast thread. The quote at the end of the post where he responded to me was:
I was fortunate enough to start trading PM’s and forum posts about the Podcast. At one point, Christien asked if he could have my mailing address since he liked to write letters to people. I figured he was just being nice to me so I shared my address never thinking I would get something from him. Then in late November of 2014, I got this in the mail:
An actual letter from Christien. And of course, being Christien, here is how the letter starts:
I also got a Starbucks gift card that Christien had included in the letter. I think he was a little hurt when I visited him in L.A. and let him know that I don’t drink coffee and that the gift card was used to buy expensive Starbucks water.
So then it was PM’s letters, Seinfeld quotes, and gifs that I started to trade with Christien. He liked this gif:
After another post in a Movie Podcast thread I got this in the mail:
Honest to goodness Christien movie notes that he made while watching ParaNorman for the Podcast.
I’ve even got Star Wars postcards for Christmas from Christien:
I finally got to meet Christien, Tom, fire, Kiernan, and fire’s son when I went to L.A. to visit them in February 2018. Some highlights of my first visit were eating a Shabbat dinner with fire, her mother, her son, Tom, Kiernan, and Christien. A dinner that Christien cooked. I got to sit at Tom’s gaming table and play The Voyages of Marco Polo with him and Christien. I got to go for a walk around Tujunga with Christien where I got to see the Hobbit house:
And a location that inspired a scene in the book he wrote:
I got to see all of them again later that year during (American) Thanksgiving which also happened to be at the same time as Christien’s 50th birthday. I got to go shopping and make my first visit to a Trader Joe’s, to get food for Thanksgiving with Christien, fire, and her son. I had the pleasure of eating Thanksgiving dinner with fire, Tom, Christien, fire’s son, Kiernan, and Christien’s father and brother. Again, a dinner made by Christien.
I got to have a barbecue at fire’s home where we celebrated Christien’s 50th birthday. I got to watch InSight land on Mars in fire’s kitchen with her, Christien, his father and brother. I also got to go on a tour of JPL given by fire for Christien, his brother, his father, and myself.
I have all these great memories of my friend but all they do right now is make me sad. Thank you fire and Tom for being there for Christien, he loved both of you so damn much.