I don’t go on the SD nearly as often as I used to, and nowadays I’m mainly in the Cafe, so I just heard about this. Good to see everyone here.
Bye, Opal
By chance I was checking a community on LiveJournal and saw a post by the current moderator that he was taking over because she’d passed away. I went spelunking in the usual places (here, Fathom, Giraffe boards) and found out.
Feeling very mortal today…
Esprix
Cyberhugs to you, Esprix. Most of us have had some time now to get over the shock, but it may be hitting you pretty hard. I’m sorry for your loss today, as I continue to be sorry for all of us in the loss of Opal. She is most certainly missed.
I came in for a visit and their was a don’t talk about Opal comment. Eventually it was apparent she did what I expected she did.
Opal and I got to know each other IRL the last time she lived in Atlanta; when she moved back, we traded texts and talked about getting together soon.
One thing or another kept us both busy and our texting dwindled to nothing. We never got together again.
Last night…just last night!..I was popping some bubble wrap, and that prompted me to type her name into Facebook to see what she’s up to these days.
Now I feel horrible. I’m so sorry, and sad, and angry at myself. Goodbye, Opal!
So sorry, Fiver. Doesn’t matter whether one learns of it as it happens or months later, it still hurts. My heart goes out to you, and to her mom all over again; the holidays are usually a really hard time to get through after the loss of a loved one.
This is a one year old thread, but I just found out about Opal’s death because of another poster’s comment that she is not with us anymore. 
I am mostly a lurker, but read this board frequently, it is weird how I miss some posts that go to 10 pages or more.
Opalcat stuck out as one poster you got to know because of how often she used to post. Plus she had a quirky online personality, and shared a lot about herself. She seemed interesting and I read some of her offsite stuff. She had artistic and web design talent. IMO she was a fairly well known internet personality. It is too bad so much of her work is no longer available, and soon much more will probably disappear.
So I am sad for her and her family that she is gone. I just have to try to appreciate what I have as you can be gone in an instant. Bye Opal.
She would smirk, methinks, at the idea that she’s the subject of a Zombie Thread.
I was away for awhile, so coming back and looking through the memorial thread was rather scary. It was like all the most memorable posters had been targeted (not just Opal). I was expecting to not recognize the grand majority of people listed, and instead recognized all of them.
I guess it’s a good thing that Qadgop is squirreled away in a high security facility all day.
On the one hand, reading this thread has made something fly into my eye, so I could be unhappy that it got zombied.
OTOH, I did find out about and apply to join the SDMB FB page. So there’s that.
They are all bring shut diwn one at a time in some manner. Most I think because payments have stopped. Virtual bubble wrap is still up though.
Wait, OpalCat created Virtual Bubble Wrap!? :eek:
My wife loves that site!
I made a website for the local running club back in 1999 (joined the SDMB late 2000) and that was one of the links in the “Fun” section. It was several years later I found out OpalCat was the creator.
I still have Flash enabled there, even. And while the Android game doesn’t seem to available on Google Play anymore, I did find it on Amazon.
I also found an older version on another site, in case that one goes down: Puffgames.com
Wow! I just found my post in this zombie thread. Dezombified for bubble wrap?
She told me once that she created the first version of the bubble wrap almost as early as it was possible to do so on the Web; she built it out of .jpgs and image maps, with a .wav file for the “pop.”
Damn, I miss her.