This is a memorial to Julia (Julieclipse) Orth, 20 January 1982 – 11 July 2006.

Julia was my housemate, teacher and old chum. She was brilliant. No one else did the things she did like she did them; no one did as well under their own pressure. She was a hacker: she made wonderful code, comics, and everything else she put her mind to, and she put her mind to the very best tasks. She knew herself better than most people know anything. She knew everything better than most people know anything.

I was always proud to be her friend. I argued with her all the time. She probably learned more from me being wrong than I leaned from her being right.

She was weird and bold. She was shy and lovely. She was not like other people. It’s a harsher world without her but a better one for what she did.

The loss is terrible for all of us who knew and loved her, but incomparably for her family and for her partners, my other best friends, Ryan and Nick.

She was much more beautiful than I can show. This is not retouched; it’s with a lens she found for me. She didn’t actually hold still.