Skirv's Friends

There are two choices for how one may go through life: you can either make friends or go insane. While I did spend several years sticking to the latter track just to see what it was like, lately I've taken to trying to happily following both paths, and life is better.

These are the people (and otherwise) that I've hung around with or otherwise dealt with on a day-to-day basis for some extended period of time, and who have made me who I am (intentionally or not). May you be as entertained by them as I.

(Please note that the categories are approximate, and are probably not adequate to handle major life changes. For instance, Significant Others tend to end up in the same category as the person I knew first, and children go with their parents.)

Nuclear Family

Unlike many of my friends, I actually like my family on general principle. Maybe that's just because I'm so much like them. You think?

Danny Skirvin - Nuclear Family (Brother)

Danny is my younger brother, born 26.5 months after me, inducing the standard level of jealousy and comradarie of any good sibling relationship. A quarter of a century later, he's turned out to be a pretty cool guy - my brother, certainly, so we still fight over little stuff, but still pretty cool. After graduating with a degree in Entomology from UIUC, Danny proceeded to get a Vet degree from the local college as well, and then to finally leave home. He now lives in Arizona, working at a vet practice with his girlfriend Celeste and living with a random variety of animals. I'd like to resent him for being more "officially" highly-educated than me, but truthfully, I mostly just miss him. *sigh* It's tough growing closer with a sibling just in time for them to take off for the other side of the country. But he's happy and stays in touch, and we're as close as the distance can allow. And I still get to laugh at how much he's turned out like me (and vice-versa!).
Oh, and I admit it, we look more alike lately.

*They don't often act like each other publicly*
/I think that it's done out of a sense of loyalty, and not wanting to step on each others' toes/
Allenite; Groomsman

Margie Skirvin - Nuclear Family (Mother)

Mom is one of the variety of people in our town that is best referred to as a Professor Spouse; they're overeducated, under-jobbed, and looking to do something useful. She took care of me and Danny as we were growing up, which was a full-time job; but as we got older, though, and we required less of her direct attention, she turned her interests towards politics. She first helped the local Democratic party for years, and later ran for Champaign School Board, where she served a little over two terms. She really did enjoy this, and was *very* good at it, but the stress took its toll; and so, when it came time to run for re-election in 2007, she decided to bow out. Now she's relaxing - and it's doing her good! - while looking quietly for the Next Big Thing in her life, and still occasionally getting interviewed by the news media.
On a more personal level, Mom and I are very close, and tend to talk about the world for a few hours a week, especially politics (state, national, University, you name it). We don't always agree on everything, but that's not really the point; more important is that we respect each other for being willing to go out and pursue our goals, and not just sit back and let the world happen around us. Now, in the mean time, I find it kindof amusing when Mom asks to borrow my Nintendo DS for a while...
Oh, and for the record, while I may not look *exactly* like Mom I certainly got a lot of my good sense and personality from her. And interest in math.

*You don't look like her?*
What? Don't you start...
/What? You do look like her/
*You just don't look as much like her as you look like your Dad*

Bob Skirvin - Nuclear Family (Father)

Dad is a professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES), specifically in Horticulture, and more specifically Small Fruits. He's an expert in brambles (raspberries/blackberries) and tissue culture (plant cloning), but mostly enjoys teaching his Introduction to Horticulture class and talking with the students. But that's just his profession. Personally, Dad is an extremely jovial guy who loves to tell stories and jokes (good and bad), bargain hunts at every opporunity, and collects more stuff than he needs or can even store. Many of my friends have taken his class and loved it; I recommend it to just about everyone. He's also incredibly devoted to our family, and is as good a father as I could ever hope for. Oh, and physically we look like clones. Yay genetics!
Beyond that, Dad is truly one of my best friends; we love to just wander the town whenever can, for garage sales or random shopping or just plain carrying on. We get to be each other's partner in crime, and I think it's good for both of us, even if it drives Mom and Beth just a bit insane.

/There's more to it than just the beard; they act a lot alike too/
*Sense of humor-wise, anyway*
/I don't think it's just that.../

Family Pets

Animals have regularly brought joy to my life. These are the animals that I, or those around me, have owned through the years.

Cassidy - Pet (Personal)

Cassidy is our hedgehog. We got him back in August 2006, when Beth decided that another pet was vital; after rejecting getting another lizard, she found that hedgehogs were fairly cheap and easy to take care of, as well as cute! He's a prickly guy, both in form and personality; I don't think either of us really know how best to deal with him, but we do like him.

*BTW, they're all named after Preacher characters*
/The cats and the hedgehog, that is/

Jesse - Pet (Personal)

Jesse is a black long-haired cat that we found at the humane society just after I'd bought our house. He won my heart by dropping everything and running to jump on my lap when I sat down in one of the communal rooms, and continuing to do so every time I came by, even though there were already other cats on my lap! Really, being willing to be bitten just so he can get my attention is a good way to win my favor. Jesse is a talker - he constantly wanders around chattering and talking to us, partially because he wants the attention but partially just because he likes it. He still loves being a lap cat, though mostly when you're doing something else (like typing...hey!@#) He likes to hang around outside the shower, and wants nothing in life quite so much as kitten food. And he is, just barely, the Alpha Cat of the house, simply because he's willing to ignore Tulip's carryings-on.

Tulip - Pet (Personal)

Tulip is the younger of our two cats, a tiny tortie. She was also a humane society cat; Beth had picked her out when we first moved into our house, and when she was (shockingly) still there a month later when we actually went to choose cats, we brought her home. It was only her allergies that saved her for us; there's no way such a sweetheart cat would have lasted there so long otherwise. Two years later, she still acts like a kitten all of the time, either whole-heartedly loving her pets (us) or pouncing on Jesse for a combination of battling and grooming. She steals our food, she loves our guests, and she never actually hurts us; to me, she's an ideal cat. And I love that she and Jesse get along so well.

/That's getting along?/
*You going to start doing that to me?*
/It does go both ways, Nik/

Sampson "Big Boy" - Pet (Parents)

Sampson is my parents' second cat. He's a short-hair black boy, with only a few spots of white here and there; he's also one of the wimpiest cats I've known. We've never been sure why he lets Sheba beat him up; he out-weighs her by quite a bit, and can be vicious when he's motivated, but generally he just runs off when she comes around. Over the time my parents have had him, he's moved from friendly, to skittish, back towards friendly again, and currently to afraid of anything that moves. His greatest joy in life is to be brushed on the top shelf of his cat tree, and to find some small way to thwart Sheba while being safe from retaliation. These opportunities are rare. I'm still convinced that his life would be better if he's just let us catch him...

Sheba "Little Girl" - Pet (Parents)

Sheba was the first of my parents' two new cats - and when I say "first", I mean "by two hours". She was originally named "Delilah", to match Sampson; but given her response to having another cat show up and *invade* her new house, and her overall attitude towards people, my parents decided she was far closer to "the bloody Queen of Sheba". The name stuck. Sheba is a wonderful little squeaky thing, whose greatest joy in life is to thwart Sampson. And I'm her favorite person in the whole world, which is greatly satisfying.

*That story sounds a bit like us*
/Except you don't squeak/
*Wait, I wanted to be Sampson!*

Extended Family

Outside of the immediate family, I've got Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and a pile of In-Laws.

Lauren Barley - Extended Family (Beth's Aunt)

Lauren is Beth's Palo Alto Aunt. I've gotten to meet her a few times nice, and she's a wonderful, sweet person that really seems happy to have me in the family. I've only gotten to meet her husband (Randy) and son (William) once, at the wedding, but that went well too. Overall, she reminds me of Aunt Jeanne, but not so late...

Susan Barley - Extended Family (Beth's Aunt)

Susan, Beth's Aunt, lives in Seattle with her family, the Barley-Greenfield clan. She's actually the member of Beth's west-coast family I've had the most opportunity to interact with, and I've enjoyed it - strong-willed women are lots of fun! Her kids (Simone and Evan) and husband (Jim) are great fun too, and I'm glad to be getting to know them all better.

Lois "Other Grandma" Clauson - Extended Family (Maternal Grandmother), Deceased

I didn't really know Grandma all that well; I knew that she was kind to me,and all that, but she died before I really got a chance to *know* her. I did know that she loved me and my family, that she didn't really like Dad all that much, that her last request was "not Fruit of the Loom!", and that she loved to play Oh Hell and Cribbage with me and my brother; the rest of it is all from stories, though, stuff like her not letting anybody have an unequal number of eggs and pieces of toast, and how she yelled "Bob!" at Grandpa in a wonderful voice that I can still reproduce. And I think that's really enough.

Deceased

Michael Clauson - Extended Family (Step-Uncle)

Michael is one of Grandpa Bob's kids, and the one of them that I know the best. He has long lived in Indiana, and about a year ago actually moved in with Grandpa near Indianapolis. Since then, he has been around for most of the times that we've seen Grandpa. It's fun wandering around with him, and it's nice to occasionally pick up a family member like that.

Bob "Grandpa Bob" Clauson - Extended Family (Maternal Step-Grandfather)

Grandpa Bob is Other Grandma's third husband; I never knew the first (my blood grandfather), and the second doesn't sound like he was worth much, but Grandpa Bob is as good as a grandfather can get. He's a retired electrical engineer (specializing in power systems), whose great talent is lying - he can make anybody believe anything, because it's fun and because he's obviously enjoying it so much. Dad wants nothing more than to be Grandpa when he grows up; I'm tempted to go that way myself. Grandpa now lives just outside of Indianapolis; Mom and Dad go to pick him up from there probably 4-5 times a year. It's always good to see him, and laugh with him.

Bob and Jeanne Green - Extended Family (Paternal Great-Uncle), Deceased

Uncle Bob was my grandfather's oldest brother, and one of very few family members of that era that I actually met. He was in the Navy during World War II; as I understand it, his career was fairly impressive (he was most proud of his time on the USS Saratoga), even if he didn't actually go to any major combat zones. (Or maybe he did, I don't really know.) He and his wife Jeanne lived in Conneticut, where they owned both a house and a nice shack in the woods; it's rustic, and it's where my parents spent their honeymoon, so we would occasionally go out and visit it. While he and his wife Jeannie were going strong well into his 80s, the two of them started going downhill in 2005-06. Finally, the two of them died in 2007 within a few weeks of each other. Uncle Bob was 90, and he lived a good life. I will miss him.

Kathy Maloney - Extended Family (Maternal Aunt)

Mom's always described Aunt Kathy as brilliant but irresponsible - exactly as any eldest sister would of the youngest sister, but there's a major grain of truth in it. Still, I enjoyed her as a kid; being the first nephew comes with perks. Kathy has three kids (Jessica, Stephanie, and Natalie) and three grandchildren, all of which live in Springfield. She took care of Sherlock when we went to New Zealand. And, after probably 15 years since I hadn't seen her (nor most of my family), she came to my wedding back in May! I'm still excited by this, and I need to find a better picture for the occasion...

Orlando McMeans - Family Friend

Orlando was one of my Dad's students for his entire college career and then some - he started with him for some high school projects, and got his PhD with him about a decade later. During this time, he was fairly often tapped as a babysitter for me and Danny; as such, we still have very fond memories of him and all the silly stuff we'd do together. Orlando is now a very successful family friend, working as a Dean out at the University of West Virginia, a position he got only a couple of years after getting his doctorate. And he comes to visit probably 1-2 times a year, so we still do see him...

Bridget Norton - Pet (Family Friend)

Bridget is Margaret's dog and constant companion. She's a large Yellow Labrador, and stereotypical in every way. She's also been great fun to play with through the years; we've done a lot of dragging games over the years that ended with my arms sore and her gums bleeding. Good times. She enjoys nothing quite so much as coming over to our house for dinner, since she always has the chance of getting the best treats. Bridget has regularly gotten my brother and I a nice batch of candy for Christmas, since our family gets her a nice large box of dog biscuits... Bridget will be moving away with Margaret shortly, and, well, I'm really going to miss them both.

Margaret Norton - Family Friend (Dad's Lab Manager)

Margaret is my Dad's lab manager, and has been working with him for 19 years now. I first got to know her when she would semi-babysit me and my brother while our parents went travelling; as such, she's effectively family, and has been for a long time. We have dinner with her about twice a month; she brings some kind of dessert, generally including something that I'm actually able to eat (yay, no chocolate!), and always brings Bridget, her wonderful dog. She's one of the most amusingly sarcastic people I've ever known, which appears to be how she puts up with Dad at work. Definitely a fun person. Margaret has just announced that she'll be moving to Alaska shortly, to take a USDA job doing research on rhubarb; I really hope that goes well for her. I don't think I comprehend how much our family is going to miss her...

*And her desserts?*
/That's really the least of their worries/

W. David "Bil Skirvin" R. Green - Extended Family (Paternal Uncle)

Uncle Bil was the youngest of his family, and is now the family artist - he can draw, paint, whatever. Because of that, most of the walls at my parents' housee are covered in paintings of one form or another, all of which are very good; as a housewarming present I got a few of my own, and I'm quite impressed. Uncle Bil recently changed his name to "W. David R. Green"; he became Mormon, and changed to closer match the reality that we should be Greens. He lives out in California; he's got three kids, and is twice divorced. For me, the most useful knowledge is that he used to work for Sierra On-Line, which is probably a major reason that I got interested in computers. Thanks, Bil...err, David.

Emma Siewny - Extended Family (Maternal Cousin)

Emma is the youngest of the four kids, and it shows. She's the rough-and-tumble kid of the bunch, as well as far more cunning than her exterior would suggest; this makes her a whole lot of fun to hang out with, if perhaps a bit dangerous. Emma is also currently the one that I get to see the most, since she actually stays in public areas and likes to see her cousins. Besides, we get to help her plot for... things. *grin* It'll be interesting to see how she does as her siblings continue to head out of the house.

Greg Siewny - Extended Family (Maternal Uncle)

Uncle Greg appeared in my life when I was about seven years old, when he married my Aunt Jeanne and started having children with her. Jeanne and Greg live in Middletown, OH, half-way between Cincinnati and Dayton; when we visit, we spend much of our time going back and forth between these cities, often with Greg driving. Greg is an OB-GYN that everyone in the town knows. He's always got a plan, though it's rarely all that sensible; at the very least it involves watching very bad science fiction and getting some random piece of hardware...

Jeanne Siewny - Extended Family (Maternal Aunt)

Aunt Jeanne is my Mom's middle sister. I was her first nephew, and so she spent a whole lot of time with me as I was growing up; in return, I've spent nearly as much time hanging out with her kids over the last couple of decades. We tend to visit her house 2-3 times a year, and generally have a very relaxing time while we're there - as long as we can get over the general lack of organization in the house, anyway. If nothing else, it's fun to just talk with her for a while when I do make it over. Definitely my favorite aunt.

Lauren Siewny - Extended Family (Maternal Cousin)

Lauren is the oldest of the four Siewny kids. As is the case with all the Siewny kids, I watched her grow up; in her case, it means that I've watched her slowly take over the household, organizing things so she can do what she needs to do (but not in a bad way!). Lauren's a smart, fun girl with a bright future, which is no doubt being encouraged by her college career at Vanderbilt. This has led to two majorly odd things: I don't see her as much when I visit the Ohio home, and I find out much of her life through Facebook. Oh, Internet...

Matthew Siewny - Extended Family (Maternal Cousin)

Matt is the second of the four Siewny kids, and is the family computer geek. In many ways his life resembles mine at that age - his technical skills are outstripping his social skills, and he doesn't seen to mind that much. But as he grows older, the arguments I get into with him over computer issues grow more and more fun and knowledgable... and there's where I see him doing well in life. I came out okay, didn't I? Matt will be starting college next semester, and I'm while I'm sad that this probably means that I'll see less of him, I'm still happy to have seen him grow up so effectively.

*Don't answer that*

Rachael Siewny - Extended Family (Maternal Cousin)

Rachael is the social butterfly of the Siewny family. Third of four children, she historically got along best with her youngest sister, Emma; over the last couple of years, though, she's taken up running social networks at home and school, and is now always busy trying to keep up with the pressure. She even finds time to occasionally talk to me over Instant Messenger... Okay, more than occasionally. It's really been a pleasure watching her grow up this way.

Skyline Kitty "Sammy" Siewny - Pet (Extended Family)

Skyline Kitty is a small, black scaredy-cat that belongs squarely to Lauren. She's a cute little thing, and lots of fun to chase around the house in a futile attempt to pick her up; still, she enjoys hanging around and just looking at you. Her favorite game, at least that I've found, is CD Tray - she is endlessly fascinated with the CD-ROM tray as it opens and closes when you press the button. She comes up and lightly hits it as it goes, before running away and hiding behind something before pouncing again...

*Poor computer!*

Tobey "Wiener-Bun" Siewny - Pet (Extended Family)

While reports of his ancestry don't necessarily agree, Wiener Bun looks like a mix between a black lab (head and facial features) and a daschund (everything else). He's my cousins' second dog, after Jack passed away; he's also a much more pleasant dog to be around, though I wouldn't say he was *smart* or anything. After Tigger passed away, Wiener-Bun was proclaimed Alpha Pet of the Siewny household; Tigger just couldn't see the mantle being passed on to Skyline Kitty. Too bad he's not much better...

Cheese Coney Siewny - Pet (Extended Family)

Cheese Coney is the most recent addition to the Siewny clan. She's a huge long-haired grey cat, somewhat skittish and always hungry. The other animals in the house seem mostly annoyed at her, but she's never seemed that bad to me. But I'm biased in favor of large cats; they're easier to catch...

Candice Skirvin - Extended Family (Paternal Cousin)

Candice is the oldest daughter of my Uncle Jim, and is about a year and a half older than me. We're not close - I've only seen her twice in the last fifteen years, and then only for an afternoon at a time - but I'm still impressed at how obviously my cousin she is. Candice has four children (Rebecca, Elliott, Mariah, and Sebastian), and last I checked returned to live in New Hampshire.

Jim Skirvin - Extended Family (Paternal Uncle)

Except for Jim's red hair, Dad and Uncle Jim look exactly alike. It's kinda scary. Jim lives in Hesperia, California, near to Grandma; he runs a flower shop with his wife Phyllis (his third). He was in the Navy for a while, and then lived in New England for a while before moving back west... And, beyond the fact that I have a whole pile of cousins out of the deal (Heidi, Erica, and Candace by blood, Josh and Micah by marriage, not to mention at least five second cousins that I know of...), that's really all I know about him - I never dealt much with him growing up, and didn't hear that many stories.

(Note: I have been informed that Uncle Jim recently got botox, or some equivalent, and no longer looks so much like Dad.)

Orval Skirvin - Extended Family (Paternal Grandfather), Deceased

I can't say I really understood Grandpa; he was my grandfather, and I dealt with him as such, but he just wasn't coherent enough when I was congnisant enough to really meet him. So I guess I'll just describe what I know of him. Grandpa was born to a crazy family, and came out of it...well, a bit crazy, but probably better than most of his clan. He joined the army, and marched on Germany in WWII, where he was wounded and earned a good pension for life. He returned to marry Grandma, had three boys, and found God. There was a lot of other stuff in there, too. I was his first grandson. I'll always remember his strange sayings ("it's okay, I got back in", "don't shoot me, I'm half shot already", stuff like that); he loved me dearly. But he had diabetes and had been wounded back in the war. And now he's gone. I didn't see him for almost five years before he died, but I'll miss him.

Deceased

Sylvia Skirvin - Extended Family (Paternal Grandmother)

Grandma is as loving a person as I've ever met, and therefore a wonderful grandmother. She and Grandpa raised my father and his brothers in Barstow CA, and were incredibly impressed when Dad got his degree and became a professor; then he had me, and she got even more excuses to come across the country every now and then and visit. She still lives in California, several years after Grandpa died, near my Uncle Jim; she still seems incredibly *alive* for her age, no matter how much annoyance her family brings to her. I'm just happy to not be part of that annoyance - she deserves all the love I can give her, and not the evils of California life. But she can't get over the Illinois winters, so she won't be coming here for anything but visits any time soon...
I should also note that Grandma was willing to dance with me at my wedding, and honestly, I think we made each other's day with that one. (And I was already having a *very* good day!)

*Explain, Kile*
/Grandma Skirvin is in one of the sects that believes that dancing is a sin. By dancing with Tim, she was committing a sin, and perhaps going to hell, just so she could be with him/
*Did he ask her?*
/She asked him/

Adopted Family

In the past, I managed to adopt several of my friends, or be adopted by them. At this point, they fit into a special category of "family" that I wouldn't otherwise have gussed at.

Xian Barrett - Adopted Family (Brother)

Sean was my first "best friend", the kid that we all find when we're young and deal with as the most important being in your life for some long period of time. We went to school together, grade school through high school; he skipped more grades than me, though, so I saw him less and less as time went on. Brother status was reached when he realized that he'd gone through school too fast, started hanging out with Danny, and moved in with my family (the reasons still escape me, since he lived down the street, but it worked okay). Then he got into anime, found a major, graduated, and disappeared to Japan to teach. He's been travelling between C-U and Chicago quite a bit over the last few years, and I haven't seen him much; and while I missed his wedding, he was able to make it to mine. It's good to see friends of yore...

*I thought Tim saw him at AAP meetings?*
/Yes, but that's not that often/

Ray Reskusich - Adopted Family (Brother-In-Law)

Ray was essentially the founder of allen19, and was the last surviving resident of the 1997 Quad. He invited me to live in the room, because I had chosen to hang around there occasionally the year before and they needed somebody strange to live there; as far as I could tell, though, I was more than he was bargaining for. That didn't hurt, of course - over the year we got to be good friends, as we encouraged each other in our anti-work ways and generally slacked more than any sane person ever should. Still, we both eventually graduated, him a year and a half earlier than me; he went off to work in St Louis for most of that time, and eventually returned to work for CCSO and live with Mel in Urbana. Now, of course, he and Mel have moved off to Seattle, with Ray working for Microsoft, and I miss them both dearly. At least they come to visit fairly often, and we still talk on the phone whenever we get the chance.
I got to stand up with Ray as one of his groomsmen at his wedding to Mel; it was an honor of which I am still proud, and a truly excellent night. Ray was also one of the ushers in my wedding, as Mel stood up with me; I just couldn't figure out how to fit everybody in! I still feel a bit guilty about that.

/Why didn't he just add Ray as another groomsman?/
*Balance, I think*
Allenite; allen19; Eva Gang; Monday Movies; Usher; Roommate: allen19 (Fall 1997- Spring 1998)

Mel White - Adopted Family (Sister)

In retrospect, Mel justifies everything I did in Allen Hall. I met her through one of my "harass the freshmen" techniques - they move in, are greatly confused, and are suddenly dragged into a huge group of upperclassmen and forced to talk about their confused lives until 3am. It was a fun tactic, and Mel loved it - enough so that she started dating my roommate Ray, and adopted me a week or so later. As with any siblings, we've fought and argued, and cared about each other far too much; but still, she was one of the forces that kept me in C-U for years, simply because I didn't want to be too far from her. Of course, then she took off with Ray for Seattle, and now there's a siren call dragging me there too...
Mel stood at my side in my wedding to Beth, as one of my groomsmen. It was an honor to have both her and Ray there, two of my best friends and confidants, the kind of people that would drop everything to protect me (and vice versa).

Allenite; allen19; Monday Movies; Groomsman

Captain Morgan White - Pet (Adopted Family)

Captain Morgan is Ray and Mel's cat. He was adopted to be Riley's pet; after a short period of being freaked out by the animal several dozen times his weight (he was just a kitten, after all!), he adjusted quite nicely, and the two became friends. The last I saw him, he was still quite kittenly, enjoying the tearing-up of everything in sight and occasionally pouncing on your hand beacuse it seems the right thing to do. It's nice to have an animal that just wants to destroy your hand every now and then. He's gotten a lot bigger in the intervening years, but not that much less crazy; and I still find it satisfying to actually fight with a cat every now and then.

/Even if they tear up your hand?/
*He seems to be fine with it*

Riley White - Pet (Adopted Family)

Riley is Mel and Ray's dog; Mel has had him since he was a puppy, and he's been living with the two of them ever since she finished school. He's a large red Irish Setter mix, always enthusiastic and much more puppy-like than his age would indicate. He loves cats, his tail is a thing to be reckoned with, and he's one of the most comfortable cuddling dogs I've ever known. Sadly, since Ray and Mel moved to Seattle, I haven't seen to much of the poor puppy; and worse, he really is getting old after all of these years, so I can't even wrestle with him as much. Accursed march of time!

Caitte Williams - Adopted Family (Sister), Allenite

I adopted Caitte on my 21st birthday. It was the right thing to do; we'd known each other for about three years at that point, and treated each other like siblings for most of that time. Caitte was a Chemistry major when she came to UIUC from Indiana; I met her through a Babylon 5 showing, and over a very short long time grew to be close friends with her. We lived together for a year; we fought and argued, but it was fun for both of us, even as we drove each other crazy. Siblings, I tell ya. I helped her through relationships and breakups, school and job crises, and everything in between; she helped me just as much, through topics just as varied. We're still taking care of each other, talking every couple of weeks as she has continued her life in first Texas and now Washington DC, as she works as an odd statistician. We both need to do a better job of actually calling regularly, of course. And I need to find some more excuses to make it out to DC again...
Also worthy of note is that when Caitte got married to Randall (who has definitely been a great brother-in-law) she demanded that I act as a bridesmaid for the event. (Not that I required much convincing). When I later got married to Beth, I similarly demanded that Caitte act as a groomsman for me. Sadly, Randall wasn't able to make it, just because he was busy actually receiving his grad degree. Caitte actually missed her own husband's graduation ceremony to attend my wedding... and I don't think either of us have ever been prouder.

*Do you know what he didn't mention?*
/That she's short?/
Eva Gang; Like Disco (Fall 1996 - Spring 2000); allen19; Groomsman; Roommate: BASL (Fall 1999 - Spring 2000)

Randall Williams - Adopted Family (Brother-In-Law)

Randall is my sister Caitte's boy. The two of them met while working for Teach For America back in 1999-2000; I met him about a year later when Caitte brought him to Chicago to meet us, and again later when I went to Texas to visit the two of them. I approved; I think Caitte took this as the go-ahead. They were married in November 2003, and he moved from boyfriend-in-law to brother-in-law. I approved of him before the wedding, and I approve of him now - not only is he good to Caitte, but he's smart, amusing, able to keep up with her *and* me; we can rant about TV shows and politics and all sorts of random stuff. All in all, a good in-law, if my first. Randall has just completed master's program in Museum Studies, and is now working with his degree; as far as I can tell, this has been a massive improvement in their lives. They're still living in DC with their two cats (Nikodemus and Nostradamus), and I hope to be able to spend some more time out there with them soon.

Tim and Judith Ng - Extended Family (Adopted Uncle/Aunt)

While pregnant, it was proclaimed by my parents that I would be named after one of these two; they were all best friends through grad school, and, well, you have to name kids after someone. They never guessed what the results would be, though. It wasn't the academics - Tim is a professor of Horticulture like Dad, as well as a department head and various other scary things - but the love of computers, video games, movies, and random little toys can be directly attributed to the name. Or that's my theory at least. Judith works at the Department of Education, and manages to both keep Tim in line and keep the wheels of government running. I'm still proud to be associated with both of them, and they with me. Besides, they got Beth and I our single most amusing/awful/wonderful wedding present!

John Reskusich - Semi-Adopted Brother

John is Ray's older brother. He's a friendly-but-quiet kind of guy, with the standard similar-but-different brother thing going; he's more cheerful and open, but generally just as passionate. Ray and John tend to follow each other's hobbies, too; John's more into comics and movies, while Ray's into computers, but still, it's similar. Since Ray and Mel moved to Seattle, I've seen him significantly less than I'm used to; he didn't even make it to our wedding. But I have no doubt that the next time our paths cross, things won't be much different than when I last saw him.

Charlotte White - Semi-Adopted Sister

Charlotte is Mel's younger sister, which makes her my sister in some strange way that's not quite as strong as the bond to Mel. She's an odd girl, very much into world travel and pseudo-hip stuff; we get along quite well, almost to official sibling levels though I'm not sure how close of friends we can really be said to be; it's an odd dynamic. She spent a year or so in Australia, until recently returning to live in the St Louis area; hopefully I'll still hear from her periodically, even with her sister having moved far away. She did miss the wedding, though, and I missed MelFest after that, so it's been a while...

Bay Area

I have rather less friends out in the Bay than I'm used to, but those that I do have I really am quite fond of.

UIUC - the Allen Hall Era

It has become more and more difficult to divide up my friends over time. Rather than try too hard, I have decided to just merge several classes of my college friends into a single group: Allen Hall and the Associated Empires.

Jenny Albrich - Allenite

I met Jenny through Eva - they'd known each other virtually from birth onwards, and so she was inducted into the Gang as soon as she showed up. She's a Disco alumnus of three years, Caitte's ex-roommate, a biochem major who's attending UIC's Pharmacy school - and, to me, my ex. Nobody's really sure where the relationship came from, or where it went; all that we know is that we got together, stuck for six months, and eventually fell apart when we both ran out of time and decided we had the common decency to let the thing die gracefully. If nothing else, the whole issue indicated that I can actually have relationships legitimately. She's a good, if absent, friend, and I have no doubts that she'll manage to make a good life for herself - if she can distract herself a bit, anyway, and keep her residency from killing her. Jenny got married in 2006 - I was invited to the reception - and has moved to South Africa with her husband, Werner. I'm proud of how her life is going, and I'm glad that she's still my friend.

/You might want to check here/
*It's a fairly positive account, for what it's worth...*
Eva Gang; Like Disco (Fall 1996 - Spring 1999); Girlfriend (August 20 1998 - February 10 1999)

Sarah Auvenshine - Allenite (by Marriage)

I met Sarah through Mel; she was a fellow civil engineer at the time. Within a week of my meeting her, she was dating Jesse. I never actually worked out the details surrounding that; regardless, it was a nice change. Sarah's a quiet, friendly woman that holds her own in the geek conversations; if nothing else, she'll add a bit of CE talk. She and Jesse got married in November 2004; she is currently living in Chicago, while Jesse is going through Army Helicopter Training. I've actually seen a lot more of her in the last year or so than I've seen Jesse, and I've enjoyed it.

Jessica Barwa - Allenite

Jessi was the first RA that I really befriended, and the only one for which this happened while they still had their job. She never really appreciated it when I called her The Enemy, of course, but she took it in stride; after all, while I was fighting the system, I did avoid her room with my wrath. Jessi was the 2S RA during my junior year, and an RA in ISR the next year; for all of that time we stayed in contact, mostly because she and Chris counted themselves as married ("WIFEY!" It doesn't help that I gave them the official approval of the ULC). I'm not doing a good job of keeping up with her for some reason, but hopefully finishing off this friends page update will give me the necessary incentive to get back to her emails... but that's what I wrote last time, so what do I know? She did come to my wedding, too...

Helen Benner - Allenite

I'm not really sure when I met Helen. I'm pretty sure of where - it was in Allen, while we were both living there. But the time - it's all mixed up in a huge series of fights, arguments, and shared responsibilities. Regardless, Helen is from Tuscola, is a CPA for a local accounting firm. She was friends with both Danny and I back in college, when she was willing to come out of her work and talk; but she was difficult to keep track of over time. For a long time she lived in Tuscola, and was mostly out of contact; but when I ran into her with Danny at Wal-Mart once, we convinced her to come out a bit more. She met Chrispie at one of Darren's parties, and they've been dating ever since; and as a result, she got interested in board games as a good hobby. Since her recent movd to Champaign (well, Savoy), we've been playing board games with us fairly regularly once or twice a week, and I've once again start growing close with her. I'm glad to see her having fun in life nowadays.

Thursday Games; Sunday Games

Kerry Blasingim - Allenite

I met Kerry at the start of my senior year, just before he started dating my sister for nearly two years. During that time he looked to me as much more of a mentor than I really deserved to be; in return, I tried to look after him, even as it became apparent that a CS career was not going to work. We essentially lived together for the year before he left school; then he left, and I started seeing him much less. I'm still not sure what all happened there, honestly. Kerry eventually got his degree in English (it suited him better) from SIU-E, to which he commuted from home; then he went off at grad school in Ohio, with one advanced degree already and another coming eventually. He's currently teaching English as a Foreign Language in South Korea, and is due to return fairly soon. I wonder where he'll end up? I do hope it'll be nearby.
Also of note: Kerry was instrumental in getting Beth and I together, or at least in doing so as quickly as we did. Heh.

Like Disco (Fall 1998 - Fall 1999); Roommate: BASL (Fall 1999 - Spring 2000)

Chuck Bohall - Allenite

Chuck is James' brother, and generally did his best to follow in his footsteps. He's began college as a Civil Engineer; he used to live in Allen with Bryan Kieft and then with Belle's brother Doug, and all during this he was in Like Disco. Really, he's far too much like his brother, except that he spends more effort on religion than James, and has a different set of neuroses. While we were fairly close during college, we grew closer afterwards, as he used me to keep up with the rest of our crowds; and after he left town, I was one of his major contacts whenever he found an excuse to stop by again. Having finished (more-or-less) his MS, Chuck has recently moved back to Bloomington, and gotten a job with the USGS in Champaign. He's currently looking for a house in town, and with any luck we'll be able to put together a new improv troupe soon! Here's hoping...

Like Disco (Fall 1997 - Spring 2002); Eva Gang; Monday Movies

James Bohall - Allenite

I met James early in my freshman year, when we both joined Disco pretty much by accident; we stayed good friends for the next couple of years, sharing leadership of Disco for a while and generally acting like a good pair. Finally, after the years of keeping each other sane and entertained, we decided to live together with Caitte for a year - and it was interesting. (In the Chinese sense.) Still, he was a great roommate the whole time, and we got along really well. He even gave me someone to watch movies with. James now works for the Army Corps of Engineers in Florida, having left Davenport, Iowa shortly after he got married to Jeanie. I really do miss seeing him, even if it was just once every few months; but in the mean time, it was great fun (and a great honor) to stand up at his wedding. And we at least get to keep up with the latest random computer game news together...

Like Disco (Fall 1995 - Spring 2000); Eva Gang; Roommate: BASL (Fall 1999 - Spring 2000)

Tamira Brennan - Allenite

I met Tamira during 1998's freshman orientation session on Disco, where she just outright rocked and happened to be female. I encouraged (far too weak a word; "pushed" is probably closer) her to join privately, and, much to my surprise, she did. She rapidly became a good friend, someone different to talk to but always willing to do it; her mindset is just that little bit off, which is so amazingly helpful in making decisions... She smokes, which is sad, even though we've managed to talk her out of it off and on; she was co-director of Like Disco for a while. And then she graduated. I wasn't expecting to see her again, but she did come to my housewarming party. Whee, old friends! Chuck is theoretically still in contact with her; maybe we'll be able to talk her into coming up again one of these days.

Like Disco (Fall 1998 - Spring 2002)

Jenny Brown - Allenite

Jenny was one of the first people I met in Allen, back during that "get to know your classmates" expansion in the first few days of living in the dorm. She was a recent IMSA grad, one of the first I really knew, and quite interesting for it; but before too long she had gone her way, and I had gone mine. I kindof heard of her continued existence for a long time after that, but we finally got back into touch over LiveJournal in the last few months. An interesting woman, Jenny...

Erin Burns - Allenite

I met Erin when she showed up for a South Park showing in my room, and for whatever reason she decided to join our crowd - maybe it was my scaring her by figuring out her phone number with ph too quickly, maybe it was just my strange personality, who knows. She was a theatre major that hated acting, and instead concentrated on set design and such; she lived in Allen primarily because her sister had before, but it wasn't really for her; she quickly took off for apartment pastures, where she lived until she graduated. Now she's in New York. I saw her briefly at Mel's wedding, but I honestly don't expect to run into her again, though I would enjoy it...

allen19

Erin "Wolf" Chambers - Allenite (Associated Empire)

The Wolf was an offering of Ray to the Quad, after he left - a rare species of student known as a "female CS student", they'd known each other in high school and gotten along far too well. She turned out to be custom made for the Quad, which was proven when she showed up for an Empire Records showing and knew the lines better than us. Still, she's been elusive; she cares too much about her classes to really play with people. But she comes over for Ex-Buffy-Night, Monday Movies was made so she's be social, and Mel can make her come over occasionally. Erin worked for The Man for a while as well (the CIA), and may do so again after grad school. How odd. Erin theoretically changed her name when she married Jeff back in 2003, but nobody really believes it yet; we still call her Wolf. Erin had her first daughter early in 2007, and we've been able to see her at games pretty regularly ever since. I still find this a bit odd, but I'm not complaining; she's a good friend, and I enjoy seeing her.

allen19; Buffy Crowd; Monday Movies; Sunday Games

Grace "Mort" Chambers - Allenite (by Birth)

Grace, better known as Mort (her middle name is Moriarty), is the first child of Erin and Jeff. She's an absolutely *adorable* little child, and blessed with a collection of friends that don't particularly want kids of their own at the moment, but are happy to dote upon the new cute thing of the world. I've bought her two onesies - Trogdor the Burninator (Baby Version), and a Poupon U setup - and I try to get away with holding her as much as possible. We've actually gotten a lot of contact with the Mort so far, because she's still capable of being carried along for Sunday Games; hopefully even when she starts crawling I'll get to be a part of her life.

Sunday Games; Sortof-Niece

Jeff Chambers - Allenite (by Marriage)

Jeff is Erin's husband. I've actually met him many times through the years; he always seemed like a nice guy and all, but I never really got a chance to talk with him much until he moved to town in 2002 or so. The last year or so, though, has had us seeing each other fairly regularly, mostly based around board gaming at first Valhalla and later Armored Gopher Games. It's fun to play with someone with the proper caustic attitude... He and Erin are still having a great time playing with their cute-as-a-button daughter, and I've enjoyed seeing them so happy about it.

Sunday Games

Moshen Chan - Allenite

Moshen was my next-door neighbour for a year and lived three doors down the hall for another year; he's also a townie, which I knew for years (we BBSed together back in the days when such things existed) but never got around to doing anything about until we popped up next to each other. I officially met him at The Etc with Karen Day (proving once again that you always know somebody at The Etc), and we've been friends ever since; after all, he's a fellow computer geek, he likes good music, he'll talk about just about anything, and he never gets in the way even when he's hanging around at strange times. He dated Rachel for a couple of years, which was interesting. He graduated eventually, and currently works in the Bay Area with a lot of that old crowd.

allen19

Dan Chen - Allenite

I met Dan when he joined Disco at the beginning of my senior year; he seemed pretty quiet and fairly shy, but, hey, it's not my place to judge such things - after all, I've only recently done things any differently. He's gotten a whole lot better over time, though; eventually he even started talking with us. It got a lot better when he, Kerry, Pat, and Charles Bank moved into the 3N Quad together, and we had a few more things to talk about; now he even occasionally asks about schoolwork, and I get to see if I can lead somebody on a more successful path of ECE than I've had. All in all, a good guy. I've seen him around quite a bit lately, for some reason, and the experiences generally make me jealous of his camera...

Like Disco (Fall 1998 - Fall 1999); Monday Movies; Sushi Club

Chris Conrad - Allenite

Chris was Rene's roommate for two years, first in LAR and then joining Rene in moving to Allen when it seemed appropriate. While she's amongst the most ditzy of my friends, she's still palatable - she cares(d) about hall politics, she likes the same kinds of movies as us, and besides, she lived in the 3S Quad with Rene and Mel. That, and she was always fun to gossip about - when you have a new boy every couple of weeks, them's the rules. She later replaced me as Allen's Internal Vice President, and temporarily took over the ropes of <FISH>< House in my absence; then she lived in the New Quad for a year. The last I heard, she was working as a teacher in North Carolina, but that's been a long time now.

allen19; Like Disco (Spring 1998)

Anatoly Delm - Allenite

Having joined the Gang through his connections to Andrew, Toly was our resident Evil Empire representative - he interned for Microsoft for two summers, and we all thought he'd end up working there when he graduated. He changed his mind, though, and just went to Chicago (to work for Motorola, IIRC). Through all of the evil, though, he's a good guy - terrible at Starcraft, the mortal enemy of Caitte, always fighting on Usenet, newly Libertarian, and generally friendly whenever he gets the opportunity. Now if we could just get over his former evil... He's working for Motorola now, in some kind of manager-track position with Marketing. I know I should be afraid of his new powers, but I just can't bring myself to worry...

Eva Gang; allen19; MeatNews

Brijeet Dhaliwal - Allenite (by Relationship)

I met Brijeet through Dan Wright when they were both in college, after they had been dating for several years and several years before they finally got through the family issues and got married. I was amused with her from the beginning, as an amusing, very-liberal, strong-willed woman that knew her way around computers, but didn't actually deal with them for a living. After going to Loyola University for a while, she finally came down to UIUC, occasionally showing up and coming to parties as reasonable. For a while she worked for our research group as well, working on some web stuff and some surveys and the like. Since she and Dan broke up, though, I haven't seen too much of her except on-line; hopefully I won't lose track of her.

Co-Worker: TCBG (2004)

Amber Donner - Allenite (by Relationship)

Amber is Jacob's fiancee. She works at the American Players Theatre in Spring Green, WI, which is where the two of them met; Jacob is a sound engineer, and she works on the costumes. She's a strong-willed girl, who has put a lot of effort into making sure that Jacob will talk; and she has seemed to fit in pretty well with those of us that have been able to meet her. Jacob and Amber plan to move to Denver after this season of APT, and will be getting married in Iowa (near her family, which is *really* important to her) next August.

Belle Drake - Allenite (Deceased)

It has been three years since my friend Belle died of liver cancer in July 2004. I had, at that point, known her for nine years; she was the oldest Eva Gang member, having graduated in Summer 1997 (and she was already older than usual for that). Belle was one of the most cheerful, optimistic, *friendly* people I ever had the privelege to know; and I'm proud to say that I stayed close friends with her for as long as I knew her. She still remains an inspiration to me; she knew she was dying, but she pressed on anyway, buying a house and working through a year of vet school through it all... I miss her. And I don't think I can ever be as eloquent as I am in the above link.

/I can't recommend the above link enough/
*Nor can I*
Deceased; Eva Gang; Monday Movies

Randy Duax - Allenite

I never would have guessed that Randy would be one of the old Ground Southers that I'd truly stay close with. Back in the day he was our floor troublemaker, and hilarious at it; and much as his antics were legendary, he was just as good at telling the stories of others. I always pegged him a a writer; instead, he went to New York and started working as a truly excellent HR guy. And more surprising, he stayed in touch! I still talk with him online on a fairly regular basis, and truly value his advice and friendship; and I would be happy to have my life enlivened by having him move out here some day.

allen19; Like Disco (Spring 1999)

Shaun Edmonds - Allenite

Shaun is a tester at Volition software here in C-U. I met him back in college, when he was one of the most flamboyantly gay people I knew - which was saying something, given where I lived. After leaving Allen, he spent some time in Japan being a half-Otaku; it was nice to have him back when he returned, because he had really gotten his life together. For a couple of years I saw him semi-regularly on the bus to work, until he got himself a car and didn't have to deal with that anymore; now I don't see him enough, and I feel bad for it. But it's always satisfying when I do see him, and Beth sees him a lot in the mean time.

Jon "Hippy Jon" Fisher - Allenite

Jon Fisher was dubbed "Hippy Jon" when he lived in Ground South with us my junior and senior years; it's never been *entirely* appropriate, but at least it differentiated his name from the rest of the Jo(h)ns of the world. Outside of his name, he's never had a reason to worry about it; he is truly a unique individual. Jon is a devout vegan, and the founder of the Campus Vegetarian Society (who, as president of Campus Carnivores for Christ and such I regularly fought with in college [ritualistically anyway]); he loves cooking, video games, and generally carrying on silly with as many friends as possible. Our social groups have tended to mesh pretty well, somehow, even after he moved to Washington DC; and years later I still get to see him fairly regularly. And every time, I can live in awe of his 8-bit skillz...

Jeanie Froman-Bohall - Allenite (by Marriage)

Jeanie is James' wife. I could tell all sorts of stories about her - how they met (James' odd courtship procedures paid off!), about her family (on the last plane out of Vietnam before the war), etc - but all I really have to say about her is that she's incredibly friendly, sharp, and fun. James did well for himself, and I'd say that Jeannie did well to snap him up. I should also note that I am proud to have been in their wedding.

Erik Gilling - Allenite

I met Erik in my Math 242 class, but it took me a few weeks to realize that he was a fellow Allenite and lived next door to the GS Quad. When I found this out, and threw in his geekiness and other credentials, he rapidly became one of my best friends - and he probably should have been for years before, if our schools had just meshed or we'd at least been paying attention. He never actually graduated, instead heading to San Francisco to enjoy the night life and work for Sun/Cobalt. The last I heard, he was working for OQO in San Francisco, but given that nobody in our section of the country ever (*ever*) hears from him, he could be anywhere by now.

allen19

Aaron Gutierrez - Allenite

Aaron started hanging around the Quad after his girlfriend dumped him; after all, he lived just down the hall, he no longer had anything better to do, and that's what the Quad is there for... He really was a worthwhile addition to allen19, taking to heart our anti-Coke stances, understanding how the sleep schedules worked, and always willing to bring us more video games to play and music to listen to. Besides, listening to him rant about his roommate Mike was loads of fun, and he actually guards the room well when necessary. He currently lives in the House of Ground South with a bunch of other people, and has begun DJing semi-professionally. I'm not sure how this fits in with this degree, though. I haven't heard anything from Aaron for a while now, and I hope that he reappears at some point.

allen19

Dave "Diode" Hayashida - Allenite

Over the last few years, Dave actually managed to change his nickname from "Jiggy Dave" to "Diode". I was impressed, but not convinced. Dave was an alternately electrical engineering and graphic design major from Hawaii, who lived with us in the Quad for a year and managed to add quite a bit of amusement to our lives. He was amusingly stuck up about silly things, prone to great silliness when drunk, and so over the top that we really should have figured out he was gay *before* he moved out the next year. Mind you, that would have been fine, the whole lot of us was just impressed with our lack of observation. Dave is currently living in Boston, and is...buff. Scarily so.

Eva Gang; Roommate: allen19 (Fall 1997 - Spring 1998)

Rene Hendrix - Allenite

Rene is pretty hard to describe, because she changes her personality radically every now and then. For a while, she was a typical SanFran techno-girl, working for Sun/Cobalt with Erik and Moshen during the day, but that didn't really cover it. None of it changed her basic personality - a female computer geek that constantly manages to get herself into trouble by trying to do too much. It was almost fun trying to de-stress her occasionally. I still see her occasionally when she comes back to C-U for something or other; this is far too rarely.

allen19; Roommate: h0l (Summer 1998, Summer 1999)

Dave Hoffman - Allenite

Dave started out in Allen a year before me and set the path that I was eventually to follow - sure, I added a few jinks here and there, but overall the direction was the same. I met him when I joined Disco, when he was working becoming director of the troupe; we became fast friends, watching lots of movies in his Quad and spending long nights in the Commons just talking. Due to the Ch@os schism we finally began to part ways - he spent a year just hanging around on his floor and not talking to the outside world much, and then moved out. I, of course, did pretty much the same thing the next year... I've done what I can to rebuild our friendship, but I'm not sure it's going to last anymore - he just wandered too far away. But he was a good friend once, and I won't forget that... Last I heard, he's now off in Hollywood doing editing work, so he's happy.

Like Disco (Fall 1994 - Spring 1997)

Dan "Dannyman" Howard - Allenite

Dannyman is an interesting individual. Originally a CS major, he finally graduated after five years with a degree in Rhetoric; the change was, as far as I could tell, made to give him bragging rights over the rest of the CS majors in the area. Like me, Dannyman tends to spend his life fighting the system for no particularly good reason, though he doesn't tend to get in as much trouble as me; instead he just gets people ticked off for a while and then they give up and forgive him (this includes me). He hosted killfile.org for a couple of years, and therefore knows the Daemons fairly well; hey, they're good guys... I mostly follow Dannyman's life through his journals lately; he seems to be doing pretty well for himself, and documenting many of the same technical issues that I go through on a regular basis.

Darren Hron - Allenite

For about five years I lived with Darren, and we managed not to kill each other. Given our significantly different personalities, this was no small feat. Mind you, we're still pretty similar - Darren works for CITES, the main campus computer organization, as a Windows admin (compare to my Unix); he was my successor as the director of Like Disco; he even took my place in the Quad when I left. But he's neater than I am, psycho about different things, and...well, I'm not CITES' favorite person, which makes things difficult for him sometimes. I finally moved out a couple of years ago when I bought a house, which caused interesting wrinkles in our relationship - he's figured out that he has a whole house to himself, for starters, and we now have to run our social groups from two different corners of town. It's actually worked out pretty well, with him running games and me running movies.
Hannah is now moving in with him, which should be exciting. I'm happy for him! And I'm glad that he was able to stand up in our wedding.

*On Beth's side*
/She wanted him/
Like Disco (Fall 1996 - Spring 2000); Buffy Crowd; Monday Movies; Sunday Games; Thursday Games; Bridesmaid; Roommate: BDOD (Fall 2000 - Summer 2001), BTOD (Fall 2001 - Summer 2002), Darren's House (Fall 2002 - Spring 2005)

Sarah Ibis - Allenite

I met Sarah during our sophomore year, when she joined Disco in order to get more theatre experience than she was going to get as an English major. A good friend of Valerie's, she was already a member of the Eva Gang at the time but I hadn't really dealt with her much; the Disco experiences got me talking, though, and our friendship was cemented during the Ch@os mess of Winter 1996. Now, years later, I still try to talk with her whenever possible; we may not have that much in common *directly*, but sometimes there's just something satisfying about having a friend for the sole sake of friendship - and besides, I still need to get her back for calling me a 'social butterfly' Back In The Day. *grin* She and Sean recently got engaged, after dating for ten years; hopefully they'll stick around the Chicago area, so I can continue to see them on a regular basis.

Eva Gang; Like Disco (Fall 1996 - Spring 1997)

Andrew Kaczorek - Allenite

Andrew was one of the original core of the Eva Gang, since he lived with Ed, Rachel's then-boyfriend; he's also one of its oddest members, and one of its biggest computer geeks. Andrew, who graduated in CS in May, is more into toys than I am - he has loads of computers, old video game systems, strange electronics, two NeXTs, and plenty of other random stuff to keep us all amused. His sense of humor is about as warped as mine, too, as shown by his originating the Big People project and finding Captain Pecker to order; he's even got a cat named Holstein, thus beating me to the cat-loving punch. I don't see Andrew as much our proximity should dictate; I just don't get to Indianapolis enough. It is strange of me, I admit. But now that he's got a Skyline Chili... Andrew and Nicole (his wife) are currently looking for a new house in the Indianapolis area; I should really get out to visit them soon.

Eva Gang; allen19

Nicole Kaczorek - Allenite (by Marriage)

Nicole is Andrew's wife, and is one of the biggest sweethearts I've ever known. I met her at some Eva Gang event or another, and was instantly impressed; it's rare to have someone act so friendly to strangers. Since then we've become fairly close; it's always a pleasure to stay at their house overnight, and to just wander around and eat Skyline and otherwise play silly together. For that matter, it's always fun to see what she's knitting; she gave us a knitted sushi-colored toilet paper doily for our wedding, for instance. So cute!
And I'm impressed with her website, if I hadn't mentioned that.

Amy "R-A" Katscher - Allenite

Amy RA (Rosenblatt-Andris, when I first knew her) was a long-time Allenite that left after Winter 1997 due to continuing sickness and a certain desire to get the hell out of Champaign. Her purpose at Allen was to get us all sorts of Toyz and Candy from catalogs (well, and to be friendly to everyone and stuff, which she was actually pretty good at), and to remember the old times about as well as me...oh yeah, and to have an email address without vowels. Amy got married in 2001 to Chris Katscher, and has moved to Arizona (last I heard). I'm still in periodic contact with her, and she even visited town not too long ago. It's nice to have at least a few contacts from that early Allen era...

Bryan Kieft - Allenite

Bryan is He-Who-Laughs, a naturally cheerful guy that I met early in my sophomore year (his freshman year) when he joined Like Disco and started hanging around a lot. And then I killfiled him. It was such an auspicious start to a friendship... He eventually got better, though, and started making friends with whole bunches of my friends - and so we got to actually talk, and it was good. And so over the last few years I've watched him change majors, come out, live with Chuck Bohall and my brother, become an RA (Allen 3 Center), fight with his family, get the cover story of the local newspaper, go for boys and sometimes succeed, try to learn real responsibility and leadership skills... And I've enjoyed it all deeply. If nothing else, Bryan is a kind of embodiment of what college was all about for me, though I doubt he understands why. While like many people I don't see enough of Bryan lately, I do know he's alive, if for no other reason than he's my masseur. Mmm, licensed Bryan...

Like Disco (Fall 1996 - Spring 2000); Buffy Crowd; Thursday Games

Jacob Krimbel - Allenite

Jacob is a quiet-but-not-unassuming IMSA graduate. I met him during my sophomore year, and we became friends if for no other reason than he would occasionally talk around me; to others he was always just silent, looming, and omnipresent, and most of my friends were scared of him. But he eventually got himself into the allen19 crowd, and began down the path of self-destruction with the rest of us. He eventually moved into the Quad with me, and we addicted each other to video games and comics and what have you as we wreaked havoc throughout the dorm. A year later, he failed out as a result. He came back as a History major, and really did pretty well at it by completely ignoring it - he worked for CCSO, and spent his spare time doing lights for various local shows. But he still didn't talk. He lived in the New Quad with Ray, Mel, and Jesse/Chris for two years; then he spent a couple of years in a Virginia theatre troupe, and then in Wisconsin in another one, where he found his fiancee (Amber) and, as far as I'm concerned, had his life put together. All in all, he's one of my few friends to actually find work in the field he *wants* to work in (well, besides the engineers). I wish him luck, but I really do miss him greatly.
I'm also supposed to be in his wedding next August. Hooray! Of course, I hope that my speech is better than this entry...

allen19; Monday Movies; Best Man; Roommate: allen19 (Spring 1998, Fall 1998 - Spring 1999)

Tori Lease - Allenite

Tori was one of the old-school Allenites - one of the most psychotic people I've known, and also one of the most style-laden and interesting. I won't get into everything about her - she's one of those people you've got to have met before you start having long discussions of her history - but I will say that she was one of my major influences in Allen. That should be enough to understand her power, at least... Last I heard, she's in California somewhere. Maybe.

Matas Morkevicius - Allenite (by Marriage)

Matas is the man that caught Valerie. Unexpectedly, he did it with a long-distance relationship - he and Valerie met in Lithuania, and dated by phone and internet for several years (with a few trips here and there, to be fair) before finally getting married last December. Matas is an MD in Lithuana and, now, in the United States; the two of them are living in Chicago now, where he practices and the two of them take care of their two kids, Emilija and Ingrida. And now that my wedding's over, I've been able to see them more often, which has been wonderful.

Valerie Morkevicius - Allenite

When I first met Valerie, she was older than me - or, at least, that's what I thought, since I didn't have any conception that people were allowed to counsel me and not be older. As time went on, though, and I became the counselor, I began to spot the fact that she's actually a year or so younger than me. Valerie graduated from UIUC in Japanese and French, after a year-long trip to Japan and one final year in Allen living with Eva; now she's off at grad school in Chicago, where I don't see her as much and really regret it. I should really visit her more often; at least we can talk quite openly when we do visit. She got married to Matas a few years back - I got to participate as a candle lighter - and currently has two children, Emilija and Ingrida. With any luck, I can make it up to Chicago often enough to be a fun part of their lives; at the very least, Val is encouraging it.

Eva Gang

Jess Olson - Allenite

For my first couple of years in Allen, Jesse was my best friend - a nice psychotic kid from Minnesota that was oddly attractive to women and more than a bit obsessive, and just someone I was always willing to talk to about anything. He was a CS major, too obsessed with the machines for his own good - which, considering that he really wasn't the best with them, didn't serve him well, and he began to slip. Then he dropped out and joined the Marines. He finished training after a year, and was then stationed in Okinawa Japan for another three; now he's back in the States, living first in the New Quad and then a house with Ray and Mel (as he got himself two BS degrees from UIUC; he done good!), and then in Chicago and New Mexico. He got married in 2004 to Sarah Auvenshine, and I still regret not being able to make it to his wedding. Jesse is currently in training with the Army, where is is training to be a helicopter pilot. I wish him luck, and I hope he stays safe, so I hopefully see him regularly again some day...

/He actually switched the name over to 'Jess'!/
*Yes, but not the description. I guess it's a start*
allen19

Lavesh Patel - Allenite

I met Lavesh through Toly, even though he'd lived in Allen for a while before that; by the time I really became friends with him, though, he'd finally moved out. That doesn't mean he'd moved on, of course; much of his last year here as a CBA major was spent studying in Allen, or at least hanging around and talking about The X-Files with me and anybody else that was interested. Of course, now he's graduated, and I don't really see him much anymore; it's a shame, really. He should really at least make it to Eva Gang events...

Gautham Rao - Allenite

Gautham is one of the guys in the Gang that I never got to know all that well, mostly because he spent all of his time studying in his room - a different situation than the rest of the compulsive studiers, because he wouldn't hang around in the Commons like the rest of us. He always said it was because we were too much of a distraction, which of course we were, but that's unfair anyway... He was Sean's roommate for two years ('96-8), during which most of the times I saw him were when I was looking for Sean, trying to invite Gautham along for something, when we were watching The X-Files (the one distraction he allowed himself), or on his birthday, when we'd all drag him out to some fun place and actually force him to have a good time. Oh yeah, and when Eva would talk him into studying in the Ice room. After graduating in Biology, he went to Yale to get his doctorate; I've seen him once or twice since, but not as much as I'd like.

Eva Gang

Bill Renner - Allenite

Bill was one of the few to join allen19 that wasn't in any way a computer major - and, well, I think I'm a bit proud of his persistence. Bill was almost a Quad resident - not quite, since he didn't live there and was hard to talk into anything, but he played so many video games... I'd count him as an ex-roommate, except that he returned to his room to sleep. He currently owns at least two spare souls - one that we thought was Tunji's for a while, and one that he won in a bet over the fore-mentioned Tunji soul. Yay. Bill is currently in Hawaii, programming and enjoying just living on an island, but I suspect that he's going to move somewhere else soon; he's the restless type, you see.

allen19

Hadas Ritz - Allenite

Hadas was the only person from my high school to join anything resembling my social group - and even that was tenuous. She liked to watch Empire Records with us, which was quite fun; otherwise, she kinda stayed off in the distance doing her Mechanical Engineer things. The last I saw her was at Mel's wedding, and even then I didn't get to talk to her much...

allen19

Tom Saleh - Allenite

Tom is a CS major from Princeton, a small town upstate that sent its entire population to this school. His most prominent relation to me is as a co-worker; he got me hired by CRHC early this year, which both meant that I had a really cool job and that I saw a whole lot more of him. I knew him before that, though; he was an old member of Ground South, and 4N before that, and remembers my roommates of the era with a level of awe and disgust that nearly matches my own. Anyway, he's a fun guy, if prone to act a bit silly at times (putting down "UK" as his country of origin on his tax forms wasn't a particularly bright move, for instance). Tom's currently in Caltech working on Earthquake Detection stuff, the last I heard anyway.

Co-Worker: CRHC

Pat Sanders - Allenite

Pat came to the U of I as an ECE freshman, wide-eyed and open and wanting to do all the theatre stuff that he saw - something fairly well after my heart, considering how I turned out. He joined Disco, he did some computer stuff, he made a lot of friends - and then left, and didn't come back for several years. When he got back, his life was definitely back on-track; he worked at Cheddars for a while as he went to Parkland, before heading off to Bloomington to go to ISU. I'm in close contact with him again; he became close friends with Beth for a while there, and spent a year living with Vered and Stuart, before settling down in Bloomington and visiting on a semi-regular basis. He's currently finishing up his Education degree at ISU, and then he'll be off to some other part of the state; but for now, I'm happy to have him around as much as possible.

Like Disco (Fall 1998 - Fall 1999); Buffy Crowd; Monday Movies; Sunday Games; Usher

Jen Schneider - Allenite (by Marriage)

Jen is Jimpy's wife. I met her when I was dating Jenny and hanging out at the ASL; she seemed friendly and cheerful, and definitely the center of Jimpy's world. They got married reasonably quickly, the first of our social group to do it; then we didn't see them much for a while, as they established themselves in the world. I've begun to see Jen more often over the last few years, mostly while she's doing an impeccable job as hostess and enjoying re-meeting all of Jim's old college friends. It's been a pleasure to see the two of them...

Jim Schneider - Allenite

Jimpy is a nice, normal looking tall guy that, while he was at the U of I, worshipped Winnie the Pooh, collected Kraft Macaroni and Cheese boxes, acted, spent his life at KCSA (Krannert Center Student Association - theatre major wannabes), and just plain radiated an air of "I'm kindof strange, follow my example". But when he graduated in Electrical Engineering and Math, he took a decidedly more normal path - he moved in with his girlfriend Jen and proceeded with wedding plans. Jim and Jen have begun to reconnect with our group over the last few years, throwing parties and coming to ours. Now we just have to make it up to more of their events!

Eva Gang

Don "Smoot" Smoot - Allenite

Smoot was a Math major from Boston that managed to appear on our floor and quickly gather a following, if for no other reason than the beauty of his name - "Smoot" just has such a nice ring to it, and even has some important cultural significance for us geeks (an MIT bridge was once measured in Smoots). He was quickly assimilated into Quad culture - a bit too well, in fact, considering his tendencies to not sleep. Aah, well. He's a good guy, a source of a large car, a great fan of The Matrix, somebody easy to order around, and a useful person to know. And he's got a great blanket which he doesn't get too overly offended when we steal it. Yay. Smoot eventually moved away, back home as far as I know.

allen19

Eva Sueto - Allenite

Eva, leader of the Gang, never thought that she was going to be in charge of a group of people like what she got - she was just setting up a small list, she claims, why would it turn out to be a group that would virtually take over Allen for a while? Little did she know originally that I was going to get involved, and how I would react to being in such a group - I was a latecomer to the group, having met Eva my freshman year talking about gg's roommate Todd, and through her involvement in my life I managed to actually make myself social. Really - she was it! All that follows in my life is because of that time. She's currently working in a Chicago blood bank after finishing two Bachelor's, which still seems a bit...overeducated. Accursed economy! I'm still in close contact with her, and hope to continue that way for a long, long time.
I was honored to have Eva stand up with me at my wedding. In fact, I'm still honored that she was so willing to do it. For whatever reason, I figured she'd be the most difficult to convince; silly me.

*Also, she made him learn to use chopsticks*
Eva Gang (Leader); Groomsman

Nate Sweeney - Allenite

Nate was the first freshman I met during my junior year; he moved in early, and actually had the presence of mind to come sit and talk with the upper- classfolk. I'd actually heard of him before that, as he was one of Sarah Ibis' friends from home; still, it was interesting actually seeing him, and it's been particularly interesting knowing him. He's a bit clueless at times, but I'm pretty sure that was always intentional; he still can't stand my taste in music, either, but it's for the same reasons as I don't like Alternative (he lived in Holland for a year and heard it on the radio all the time), so I can forgive it. And his friends even like me now... Nate also gave me a really cool fish belly-pack which was used in Europe, ostensibly as a graduation gift even though I wasn't done yet - hey, at least it's a cool toy. He's graduated now, and last I checked is working in Baltimore.

Like Disco (Fall 1997 - Spring 1998)

Dave Terrell - Allenite

Dave was the first of my real friends to have a kid. This still bothers me a bit, though I have no excuse for it now that he's upped the number to two. He's a UIUC dropout that went to California to find his fortune; oddly, it worked pretty well, as he kept his job through most of the Troubles until he found another back in Chicago. Now he's back in our state, and I suppose I should track him down in person at some point... He used to be the patriarch of h0l, the guy that made the parties happen, gathered the technology to make it interesting, and generally was in charge of its social circles. He was also the one that invited me there. Now he still runs meat.*, the newgroup hierarchy for current and ex-UIUC folk, and continues to do neat techie things whenever possible.
I finally met his wife and kids at my wedding, which was the first time I'd seen him in way too many years. He looks good! I've really got to stay in closer touch with him.

MeatNews; Roommate: h0l (Summer 1998)

Tunji Toogun - Allenite, Deceased

Tunji was Allen19's younger brother, the kid that was trying to learn the ropes but gets made fun of all the time for it. He was really a pretty nice guy - he started out terribly obnoxious, when he lived in the 3N Quad his freshman year (1997-8), but we all grew to really enjoy his antics, and enjoyed watching as he grew to bring his oddness to the whole campus instead of just our floor. His accent was amusing (he's Nigerian), and he had a tendency to be belligerent for no reason, but that was just charming. And once he gained a position of seniority in Allen, he was truly a force to be reckoned with - and befriend. Of course, by the point he got there I already owned his soul seven times over... After his undergrad, he began a PhD program in Molecular and Cellular Biology; he was originally expecting to take just three years, but this increased over time, like with all students. And while I mostly fell out of touch with him once he hit grad school, I did still see him around town, almost always on the arm of ~3 attractive women...
All was looking good for him when I last saw him at my wedding - he was graduating soon, and was planning on leaving town to find a job or a postdoc or whatever seemed likely. But one evening in August he fell into a lake and drowned. And the world just seems smaller now.
The above link points at his eulogy.
I miss him.

*He was a good man*
/Ave atque vale, Tunji/
allen19; Like Disco (Spring 1999)

Aaron Vanderwerff - Allenite

Aaron lived across the hall from me my freshman year, and basically taught me the ropes of a lot of Engineering ("these classes are hard" especially). While he was here he was a major B5 fan; through his work he managed to move me up from Lurker to Fanatic status, by introducing me to Peter Baer. That, and he was part of the Eva Gang before it officially existed. He was in Africa (Burkina Faso) with the Peace Corps for a few years, and is currently teaching high school Physics in Oakland, CA. And we're back in contact! The Friends page wins again...

Eva Gang

Laura Walker - Allenite (Associated Empire)

Laura was one of Caitte's Speech Geeks. She was a Computer Engineering major here at UIUC that graduated, what, a year and a half ago? She lived in Busey-Evans and worked as a NetTech for the buildings. All in all, she was an excellent example of a female geek - so strange, so refreshing, to see girls in the role.... Of course, I have a better reasons to like her - mostly involving her treating me like I'm one of the Gods' pet projects, sent down here to spread goodness and strangeness to all around me. It's nice to have someone look up to you that doesn't look *up* to you. *grin* I've used her as a good source of counseling through the years, and she's always there to provide her unique viewpoints on life. She's an interesting person, and I wish I could see and talk to her more.

HOMMAJ

Brian "bwang" Wang - Allenite

bwang (the best login name on campus) showed up in Allen as Jimpy's roommate my sophomore year, an old friend from home that quickly insinuated himself into Allen culture and, of course, the Gang. He was a CS major, always overworking himself at the task; because of that he was always a good study partner, and, when we had time, video game partner. I'll never forget our nights of CS225 MPs, working until 5am twice a week on some piddling little bug that refused to budge, with bwang occasionally taking time out to go beat up a post in the Commons... bwang moved out after his sophomore year, and nobody really talked with him much for the rest of his college career; he just playd too many video games to keep with, and of course had to graduate and all. Last I hear he has recently stopped working for CITES in Chicago; I'm not really sure where he is now. Hopefully I'll get to see him again soon; if nothing else, he's one of the primary drivers of new camera technology in my life. (Is that a good thing?)

Eva Gang

Dave Watanabe - Allenite (by Marriage)

I actually met Dave on my first day of high school, when he was a few years ahead of me and introduced me to Battletech. Fast forwarding about a decade, he began hanging around Allen Hall, where he met his future wife, Karen; and a decade after that, we're now hanging out fairly regularly, both in the new-to-me Sunday Board Games group and whenever there are parties or events around town. It's been great getting to really *know* Dave for once, rather than just intersecting on the outsides of our social circles. Who would have guessed it back in the 80s?

Uni High; Sunday Games

Karen Watanabe - Allenite

Karen entered my social circles in Allen early in my sophomore year, when she made her way over from Boston to go to UIUC in the theatre department. Like many people, the department didn't treat her all that well, so she jumped to a more standard LAS major and proceeded to put her life together pretty well. She found her future husband, Dave, while hanging out in Allen, and after college I lost track of her for a while; but we eventually re-entered each other's social orbits through the industrial scene, and we have lately grown very close through a combination of playing board games together every Sunday evening, attending each others' parties, and a close friendship formed with Beth. She's a strong-willed friend, and I'm honored to have known her for as long as i have.
I should also note that Karen enjoys knitting. I wouldn't normally report this so clearly, but the little nautiloids for Mort were so *cute*!

*Nautiloids?*
/Think Cthulhu. For an infant/
*Awww...*
Sunday Games

Dave "DB" Weber - Allenite

DB was my next-door neighbour for the 1997-8 school year, until he graduated and moved out; before that he had lived in FAR for two years and, after that, lived in the 1N Quad with Dave Hoffman for a year. I think he enjoyed our floor more, too - Ground South is just better for a strange guy like DB, who tends to wander around screaming "POOP!" a lot just for the fun of it. DB is a Mac geek, to the extent that (in part) he quit his last job with a local ISP because they wouldn't give him a G3 for his desk. He works for CITES/DS, where he is partially in charge of the Turing Mac Cluster (poor soul). And, as may be obvious by the name, he's married to Raché.

allen19; Monday Movies

Lance "OC" Weber - Allenite (by Birth)

Lance is DB and Raché's first child, and the first child of our social group. He was born on 18 Nov 2004, the day after my birthday; by that time I had already named him ("Oyster Cracker"), bought him a children's version of Settlers of Catan, and been proclaimed the Official Uncle of Giant Robot Play. I also lent his parents a camera so they could chonicle his growing up... *smile* To think that there is now a next generation! It's been great fun watching him grow up, following much the same path that I did when I was his age (poor parents!), and taking pictures every step of the way.

Nephew (Adopted); Nephew (Adopted)

Rachel "Raché" Weber - Allenite

Raché was Ground South's resident female computer geek, fish maniac, and general purpose silly person for the entire duration of her Allen Hall career - two years, to be exact, before she graduated and went off to the Real World. She now designs web pages for a living; yes, she occasionally uses the cursed Frames, but I'm trying to talk her out of it and they really don't look that bad when she does it. We actually still see her fairly often for a graduate, because she's both still in town and married to DB; since we're all friends, it's easy to still stay in touch, and besides, the two of them tend to throw fun parties when they're bored. Too bad they couldn't be talked into letting me preside over the wedding - I would have loved being a minister... She and DB had their first child, Lance, a while back; I've gotten to be an unofficial uncle, even though we don't see them anywhere near enough. At least he's gotten old enough to let her get back to work at the University...

allen19; Monday Movies

Jeff "Duck" Williams - Allenite

Duck (a name that nobody's been able to explain to my satisfaction) came to the Quad as part of a mixup between Joe, Ben, and the rest of us. He's fit in remarkably well, though - along with being a fellow Battletech and other RPG geek, he had a good amount of strange things to bring to the room, didn't mind having people in the room at all time, and was able to actually keep up with me in willpower. While there, he's managed to convert everybody into enjoying Battletech and soccer, not interrupted anyone's movie watching even while he was almost dying of pneumonia in the corner, and dealing with as much personal drama as any of us could imagine - and then he stayed for another year. Duck eventually graduated, and now works for a civil engineering firm in Chicago. He recently bought a house, same as me; and while I don't see him all that often, we still look out for random Mech-related materials for each other on a regular basis, and that's worth something.

allen19; Roommate: allen19 (Fall 1998 - Spring 1999)

Sean Willis - Allenite

Sean is a quietly insane person that manages to get a lot done in his quest for silliness; an Aeronautical Engineer shouldn't have the time to put up a "Ask Shatner" board, but, hey, this is Sean... He's actually fairly similar to me - his recreational reading is similar, he watches the same kinds of movies and TV shows, he cares about politics and has some Libertarian leanings, he enjoys causing trouble every now and then; I guess the real difference is that he's a lot more diplomatic than me, and therefore gets himself into less trouble. That's probably a good thing, since his major didn't allow him much time for that trouble. After graduating, he worked for a while at a car dealer, then at CCSO for a year; after that, though, he decided that he wanted to actually go after his chosen field, and has been gone for a while. Happily, he actually found the job he was looking for (or at least something close to it). Sean and Sarah recently got engaged after dating for a decade; I think it's fairly safe to say that it's going to work at this point...

allen19; Eva Gang; MeatNews

Rachel Woo - Allenite

Rachel is fairly quiet on the surface, but tends to shed that demeanor as soon as she's around people she actually wants to talk to - which is actually fairly often. She's been here for years - she started college before I did, and just finished up recently. To me, her greatest accomplishments were introducing me to Space Ghost ("You say potato, I say cheese!") and that she feeds me fairly often. Not bad. For a year or so she lived in a house in Urbana with Jen Auler, an old friend from grade school, and I enjoyed spending time with her; now she's followed her boyfriend to Iowa to open a restaurant, which seems to be going okay for her. I haven't seen her much since, though, and I'm getting kindof grumpy about it. I should go kidnap her. At least she made it to my wedding.

/Yeah!/
*Do it!*
allen19; Eva Gang

Dan "GothDan" Wright - Allenite

Dan actually no longer likes to be called GothDan, but that doesn't stop us, 'cuz it was so amusing while it lasted (and because I know far too many Dans). Dan is the friend that is closest to my personality - he's a Libertarian, is severely into techno (well, industrial), likes Babylon 5, and even worked as a Unix admin for Klaus' wife. It's almost scary. We worked together at CRHC for a couple of years, which was quite fun. I still see him around the office occasionally, since he occasionally gets some development work done with our group; and I wish I could see him around town more, since he's still fun to hang out with. But he seems busy with his grad school life. *shrug*

allen19; Co-Worker: CRHC

Hannah - Allenite (by Relationship)

Hannah is Darren's girlfriend. She appeared in our lives during Darren's bout with pneumonia following our cruise in January; Darren likes to joke about how he woke up and had a woman. Hannah is an English grad student, one of the teacher-types that actually enjoys waking up in the morning. She's got major dietary restrictions, which have led to two things: she can't eat what everyone else eats, and she's learned to be a really good cook. Mmm for all of us! She's also addicted to board games, and has been directly feeding Darren's interest in buying and playing games, which works out well for all of us. She's definitely been a fun addition to our social group; subconscious-Darren did well.

Sunday Games; Thursday Games

UIUC - the Post-Allen Era

After leaving Allen behind and beginning work at the University, I still met a large number of people that have influenced my life. This is a reasoanble collection of them. (Note that many of these 'Post-Allen' people actually *did* live in Allen, but it wasn't until I had left.)

Amanda Beltramini - Post-Allen

Amanda is another in a long line of ex-directors of Like Disco...but not Really. She's a small, expressive girl that never lived in Allen but kindof acts like she does; and in the line of what I've already said, she did a great job just keeping the troupe together and moving. I mostly saw her at parties and improv shows, but we actually seemed to enjoy talking when we do see each other, so she gets to be here. Plus, she's extremely photogenic... especially with Ryan. Amanda now attends OSU, and I keep up with her life over LJ. Like everyone else.

LDBNR (Fall 2001 - Spring 2004)

Stuart Broz - Post-Allen

I met Stuart through Vered several years ago. At the time, he felt old; nowadays, he just seems like part of the crowd, probably because a four year age difference no longer feels like it matters much. Stuart writes grants for a living, for the local children's protection program; and he is dating Angela, and just now moving out of the Necropolis.
None of this really does a great job of explaining why he's such a good friend to me. I trust Stuart implicitly; he is kind, pleasant, thoughtful, and experienced in a wide variety of matters that I haven't yet had to learn. He shares several interests with me, including role-playing and science fiction. And I think that we both look to each other as a good person for counsel and advice. I'm honored to have Stuart as my friend.

Buffy Crowd

Jan Busby - Post-Allen

Jan was the person that convinced me to start going to BTCU. I had never really been interested in the idea, for some reason; but that changed when I was offered rhubarb cake just for attending. I like rhubarb. So I went, and I met Jan in person, and we talked and had a good time and all was good. She moved away a long time ago now, and I missed her wedding to Sam Atlan just because it was in France, but I hope that I can get back in contact with her some day.

BTCU

Ryan Byers - Post-Allen

Ryan was essentially my successor in Allen Hall for a year - well, not in all ways, but in plenty. He was in charge of Like Disco and a few other groups, he dealt regularly with the politics of the hall, and he kept himself busy with more stuff than any one person should be involved in. After spending a year as an RA in a Champaign dorm, he's went off to law school in Michigan, where he learned to destroy us all. As I write this, he is waiting to hear back about whether he passed the Illinois Bar exam; I'm hoping for him.

/I thought lawyers were evil?/
*Pragmatically, Tim needs some on his side*
HOMMAJ; Like Disco (Fall 2000 - May 2003)

Eamon Caddigan - Post-Allen

Eamon is a uiuc.test regular that one day started working with our research group. He worked with John as a graphics programmer for a a little over a year, before taking off to get a real job downstairs and, later start as a grad student in that group. I don't see him that much lately - he's busy with the whole grad school thing - but it's always nice when I do, and I'm happy to see him doing well for himself.

BTCU; Co-Worker: TCBG, Feb 2003 - Jul 2004

John Dodd - Post-Allen

When I was feeling depressed about leaving Allen at the end of my (first) senior year, some guy from FAR offered to take over the dorm for me. John was good to his word, and did what he could to keep track of Allen for me, sharing the work with others whenever possible and generally keeping me in the loop where possible. He started dating Missy a few years ago, and they've lived together for a while; and right now, he has just finished up Law School, and will soon be seeking his fortune as an Evil Lawyer. Probably.

HOMMAJ; Like Disco (Fall 2000 - May 2003)

Seth Fogarty - Post-Allen

Seth is a CS major that hangs out on Usenet but not often on .test. It's a very odd combination. I've known him as one of the successor Allen Hall freaks for several years now, even though he moved out a while back; after role-playing with him and watching Buffy and Angel with him weekly for a while, I was sad to see him take off for Texas to start grad school. Life is a bit more normal without him, but that's not really a good thing...

Buffy Crowd

Chris Gressley-Ruppel - Post-Allen

Chris is Beckman's sysadmin; what this makes our working relationship is kindof unclear, since our group is a part of her building, but at the very least we're colleagues. When I started working here, our positions seemed fairly adversarial; over the last few years, though, we've actually begun to appreciate each others' existance, helping each other were possible and even talking occasionally about non-work stuff. This came to a head when I discovered that she and her husband Rick had moved into the old Drake house, where Doug and Chuck had lived before. Chris left Beckman about a year ago, in large part so she could take care of her new, extra-cute daughter; she is missed around here, but I'm glad she's doing well for herself.

Chrispie Hutchens - Post-Allen

I actually befriended Chrispy in high school, where he was several years behind me but we still talked fairly often. We lost track of each other after that, until he got involved in the new Allen crowd that I was spending a fair amount of time with. Then, after a little bit of grad school, he went up to Chicago to work for George's software company. He started dating Helen last year, and since then, I've seen *both* of them around quite a lot, which has been fun.

HOMMAJ; Uni High; Thursday Games

Klara Kim - Post-Allen

Klara is an interesting girl. She first appeared on my radar one day when I got an email praising my web page; over the next few weeks, we exchanged quite a few emails and (eventually) AIM messages, and through that got to know each other. This eventually petered out, only to pick up through other means later; and, over time, she actually grew into my main circle of friends. Klara is currently living with Zeb, comes to Monday Movies on a semi-regular basis, and even occasionally plays some board games with her; I wouldn't have guessed that things would have gone this way back when we met, but it's worked out pretty well.

Monday Movies

Mike Lockwood - Post-Allen

Mike is one of my regular lunchmates. He's a friend of Jim and John's through Dancing Illini; he works elsewhere in the Beckman Institute, doing a more audio- and EE-related job than I have. He recently bought a house, he's a major audiophile, and he can once again stand Longhorn. Those are the kinds of things you learn at lunch... He's currently dating one of the Lisas (that John used to date; not Lisa Hoppe), and continues to work on telescopes and other home improvement projects. And I've found it fun to talk to him for years.

TBL

Rebecca McNulty Schrieber - Post-Allen

Rebecca appeared one day when Darren said "I'm going on a third date tonight". Me and Julia got to coach him through it: "show her the place, Darren", "cook for her, Darren", and so forth, until finally we got to sit down and meet The Girl. Rebecca was generally a very good influence on Darren, until school (and other problems) got in the way, and they broke up amicably. Since then, Rebecca married a librarian named Tim; it's been nice to see life working out for her. Rebecca recently got her Ph.D, and is not working for the University Press. Her life is definitely coming together, and she seems to be better able to come out in public now, which is a nice change. She's even taken up board games sometimes!

Thursday Games

Tony Meizelis - Post-Allen

I've never been entirely clear on how to describe Tony. He was the co-director of LDBNR for a while, the only one at the time that actually lived in Allen. He's a bit of a computer geek, though not necessarily logically so. And... well, I dunno. I never did know enough about him, but we still stay in contact anyway. So goes life. He did give me a Cuddly Cthulhu Summer-Fun plush toy a little while ago, which makes him incredibly cool... and confuses the work folk. Now we just have to get him to come over from Bloomington more often, preferably with Pat instead of separately.

Kevin Miller - Post-Allen

Kevin is a grad student at OSU in Social Psych. I met him through Julia, but essentially befriended him separately through the years. Last year he was Sarah's roommate and partner in procrastination. While here he was a Psych/PoliSci major, with some ranking position in the local student ACLU chapter, that was into anime and Babylon 5; while he primarily hung out with my various female friends (and then girlfriend), he's also very gay, which headed off any concerns that others may have had. Kevin's not the most responsible person in the world either, which is sometimes a problem. He's one of the two people I'm happiest and most surprised to have not lost during the breakup, and I'm still incredibly thankful for it. We still talk occasionally over AIM and LJ, though I wish it was more... but I think it's just the grad school blowing him away. At least he comes to town every now and then to play board games...

Like Disco (Spring 2001 - Spring 2002); HOMMAJ; Monday Movies

Vered Miller - Post-Allen

Vered is one of the most strong-willed women I've ever known. On the surface, this makes her come across as caustic; but in reality, she's really a very kind, loving person who has her own very definite sense of right and wrong, and the willingness to let other people know about it. It takes a little while to get used to, but it's well worth it; if nothing else, she is one of those rare people that I truly feel that I can trust. She moved away a few years ago, but she still comes down every now and then to visit; I just hope that it continues more often lately. Life without her just isn't the same.

*Vered's journal was the one that first got him interested in LiveJournal*
/I thought that was us!/
*Well, we were the catalyst...*
Like Disco (Spring 2001 - Fall 2002); Buffy Crowd; Monday Movies; Usher

Mark Murphey - Post-Allen

When I met him, Mark was an undergraduate Physics major, and a very devoted one - you know, one of those people that likes building weird physical things like trebuchets or going out to show off neat tricks to young children. He was more satisfying as I got to know him, and figured out the shared interests - he loves Invader Zim more than me, for instance, and he'll talk about video games with me for hours if necessary. He eventually left to go get his graduate degree at OSU, at which point I stopped having so much contact with him; but he still occasionally shows up at a party, or just coming through town, and he made it to our wedding. I hope I can stay in contact with him.

HOMMAJ; Monday Movies

Jon Proesel - Post-Allen

Jon is a lot like a younger version of me that happens to be in a frat. He's young, brash, self-assured, and too competent for his own good; he also tends to get himself into trouble for all of it too much of the time. For my part, I want to navigate him through the waters that I screwed up so badly (but then again, I came out okay...) A good kid; let's keep him going. Jon is currently off at grad school (CMU), and we mostly communicate over Livejournal.

Angela Rose - Post-Allen

I met Angela through roleplaying with Stuart and his group; she's an insanely quiet and apologetic art major, far too talented for her own good but unwilling to really talk to anyone to show it off. She's a very self-deprecating person, more than is really healthy; but after a few years of work, Stuart and company convinced her to stop saying "I'm sorry" for saying "I'm sorry" too much. It's nice to have her out of her shell, at least partially.

Ella Rotman - Post-Allen

I met Ella through two methods: first because she was the daughter of a Math professor I knew, and second because she was a Uni student. The latter was, oddly, less influential than the latter, because she started in 1995, right afer I left. She did recognize me from a couple of visits I made after graduation, though; we talked occasionally through the years when we saw each other on campus, never really sure how we knew each other but pretty sure that we did. Finally, she decided to move into Allen, after I was gone - but still, I saw her there, and talked with her whenever I came over. Over the years we've kindof existed in similar orbits around town, and while I don't see her too much, it's always pleasant when I actually get a chance to do so.

Em Schroer - Post-Allen

Em (most call her Emmy) is a girl that I met through Randy and Smoot early in the year, and proceeded to get to know over various electronic fora, before I could honestly call her a friend. She's a townie (went to Urbana) and a vegetarian; she even went to my nursery school. Like me, she watches far too many movies and has an odd fascination with Space Ghost; unlike me, she wants to be a copy editor. I'm quite impressed with her. A worthy addition to my friends list. I've missed her since she left for the east coast with her boyfriend, Sean Busbey; even when she returns, it seems to just be for a little while, before she can return to be with him... At least they both made it out to my wedding.

Sarah Scott - Post-Allen

Sarah is a recent Music Education graduate that's far too much like my Aunt Jeanne for her own good - primarily in that she's incredibly friendly and nice, well into the "to a fault" stage. She loves animals, children, and just about anything cute - and so she's a vegetarian now. She's so slow (late-wise, not speed-wise) as to almost be beyond belief. And, well, she's more than a bit naive. But it's hard to yell at her for any of it... Sarah also loves the X-Files, for no known reason, and has an all-handy car.
All of that said, Sarah is one of my closest friends as well. I've been hanging out with her pretty regularly for 2-3 years now, helping her deal with major life decisions as she helps me deal with mine. She's currently working at the Humane Society, which all seems like too much temptation for someone like her; but it's worked out pretty well, at least. We see plays and movies together, and just generally like to hang out a lot; I don't have too many people like that anymore, and she's one of the best I've had. I'm glad she's stuck around.

HOMMAJ; Like Disco (Spring 2001); Monday Movies; Sunday Games

Missy Skowronski - Post-Allen

Missy laughs. Oh how she laughs. It's something generally on par with Bryan's laughing - loud, silly, and infectious if you can figure out what she's laughing at, which isn't necessarily common. I met Missy at Allen, shortly after I moved out and when she joined Like Disco; but I've gotten closer to her in the last few years, since she started working in my Dad's lab as his grad student. As I currently understand it, she's finishing up her Masters right now, in preparation for starting at the local Vet School in the fall; and, having seen how that did for my brother, I wish her luck!

/Everyone should be amazed that this picture isn't horrible/
*Tim can't get a good picture of Missy to save their lives...*
HOMMAJ; Like Disco (Fall 2000 - Spring 2002)

Amy - Post-Allen

Amy was our waitress at the Office for BTCU from when I started coming until she left in July 2004. She actually seemed to enjoy us, if not entirely understand us; we were regulars, we were weird, and we were most certainly not dangerous. BTCU lost a lot when she left, and I'm not sure we'll ever get it back.

BTCU

UIUC Working Era

I met a large number of people from the point when I met Beth on until we moved in together and eventually got married. This is a sample of these people, focusing on those that I consider friends separately from Beth.

Jacen Burrows - Current Era

Jacen is a local comic artist, who works with a lot of the big names and is generally pretty impressive in the field. I met him as he entered my social circles through Vered and Stuart; this was a bit awkward because of his relationship with my brother's then-GF, but things managed to work out pretty well. He's a fun guy, if still a bit confused about how to be over 30 in this town. He's fun to rant with, get gossip from, and just generally hang out around.

Cari Clark - Current Era

Cari is a friend of Vered's, a nice random music major that seems to want to be social but sometimes has a hard time actually making it out to things. I see her enough at parties, though, to know that I should get to know her better. I know that she feels the same way; but somehow, it never works out all that well. Oh well, at least we're still trying.

Caroline Davis - Current Era

Caroline is an engineering student that Beth met randomly and nabbed into her social group, in much the same way that I did back in the day. She's a video game geek from Minnesota, which gives us something interesting to talk about on a regular basis; and she gets along with Rob pretty well too, so there's quite often a good chance to see her. She's been working in Peoria for the summers, so I only get to see her semi-regularly for nine months out of the year, but that's not really so bad.

Monday Movies

Wendy Edwards - Current Era

Wendy is a part of the local computer crowd, speicfically the political wing. I think I met her through BTCU back in 2004 or so, though I had probably seen her posting to the local newsgroups before that; she was shy, but friendly enough once you got past that. She's currently a regular at our movie nights, and always brings food, without fail. Wendy is currently working over at NCSA for one of our competitors, and I think we both like hearing what's up in the world from each other's perspective.

BTCU; Monday Movies

Rex Fitzpatrick - Current Era

Rex was Rob's roommates for his first two years of college. Rob knew him through Church back home, and wanted to have somebody known to live with in the dorms, so it made an obvious match. Rex is friendly, exuberant, and fabulously dressed, and it's always fun to have him around the house. He works at Buffalo Wild Wings, which always gives Rob an excuse to stop by; if only I liked the place...

Lindsay Gallagher - Current Era

When I met Beth, Lindsay was the second of her three roommates, and the one that I met last. She was an Animal Science major; while sometimes this isn't really that relevant, in Lindsay' case this was a very important part of her life, as she spent much of her time down at the University farms taking care of the animals and generally acting like an undergraduate vet student. Lindsay is a remarkably caustic girl, kindof Caitte-like in her own way; and as such, it took a while for the two of us to really get to know each other and appreciate both our personalities and our relationship with Beth. But, eventually, we accepted each other. I got to be there when Lindsay got married to Joe, and took a lot of really excellent pictures of the event; I'm still proud that the attached picture, which is of me and her at the wedding, is one of her favorites. And I'm also happy that she was able to stand up with Beth in our wedding.

Bridesmaid

Nicole Holtzclaw - Current Era

Nicole is John Stone's girlfriend, and a fairly common lunch partner. She's an interesting woman, very political (enough to shift John's sensibilities pretty sharply) and knowledgeble on a wide variety of topics, so she fits into the lunches pretty well.

Greg Koenig - Current Era

I met Greg through Sid, and later started seeing him at BTCU far more regularly. Later, he became one of my users. And with that, I'd say that there's more than enough to add him to this page. He's a nice guy, older than most of us but generally friendly. And he at least once offered me the compliment "you run the network how I would run it"... I still see him at BTCU pretty regularly, where we rant about computers and grad school and all that kind of stuff. I assume that will end as soon as he finally gets to deposit his thesis, but that seems to be taking a while.

BTCU; Co-Worker: TCBG (User, Sep 2003 - Dec 2004)

Brian Looker - Current Era

Brian is a librarian, and one of Hannah's friends. I met him and his wife through our Thursday Games group, and play with them probably 2-3 times a month. He seems level-headed, pretty fun, and, well, as odd as the rest of us. This is satisfying.

Thursday Games

Danielle McKay - Current Era

Danielle was one of Beth's roommates when I met her, and is still one of her best friends, enough so that she acted as Beth's Maid of Honor in our wedding. She recently graduated with an art history degree, and acts like it - she has lots of piercings, varied hair colors, stuff like that. She's also the roommate that my group and I have befriended the most; this is probably because she would have fit into Allen Hall the best of three. I'm fond of her, anyway. Danielle actually lived with us for a semester as she finished up her degree; she was an *excellent* roommate, and I already miss living with her, as do our cats. Of course, Beth is more devastated than I am...

Maid of Honor; Roommate: The House (Jan 2007 - Jul 2007)

Celeste Nafziger - Current Era

Celeste is Danny's girlfriend. She's a fellow veterinarian, the two of them having graduated in the same class before moving to Arizona together. She seems to be able to properly handle him, which mostly consists of knowing how to keep him in line; that's an important trait for those dating Skirvins. *grin* I've enjoyed having Celeste around; Beth has enjoyed her even more, because the two of them can gang up on us at family meals. Of course, I don't see her too much anymore, but hopefully I can get my butt out to Arizona sometime soon to visit the pair of them.

*She doesn't eat green food*
/This is apparently true/

Dani Pershouse - Current Era

I'm not really sure how Beth met Dani. She's a local grad student, whose boyfriend worked for a while in a lab related to mine; that would make her more my territory, you'd think, and indeed that may be how things have worked out. But Beth found her somewhere, and started bringing her along for the C-U Sushi Club, which is where I met her. I went garage saling with her a bit before she moved to Urbana, but I still manage to see her around town quite a bit.

Monday Movies; Sushi Club

Jenny Powers - Current Era

Jenny was Beth's third roommate, and the first one that I met when we started dating. Jenny was the party girl of the apartment - for as long as I saw here there, she was accumulating piercings and always been looking for another boy to fool around with. Still, it was always fun to hang around, partially to see what she'd do next and partially because she was just fun... She graduated with a Biochemistry degree, and decided to go to Pharmacy school in Chicago. I've seen her for a couple of weddings, along with her boyfriend, whose name I forget but I at least note that he appreciates Transformers. She's done well for herself, and I'm proud of her.

Dan Sachs - Current Era

I met Dan working at CERL between my freshman and sophomore years; while we didn't exactly stay in close touch after that, we still continued to see each other around town and our circles continued to intersect. Eventually we settled into a comfortable pattern, when we both attended BTCU on a regular basis; Beth also helped house-sit the cats he was staying with, which was interesting. But eventually he graduated, and Got The Hell Out to Chicago with his wife; so now I don't see him anywhere near as often, except online and through various journals.

BTCU; Co-Worker: CERL

David K. Stipp - Current Era

David was, until recently, one of the regulars at BTCU. He graduated with a CS degree from UIUC in 2006, and fairly quickly started working over at CITES, where he was a very, very bitter man; this was actually quite fun to interact with, to be honest. But the bitterness eventually caught up with him, and he recently moved to Virginia. He will be missed.

BTCU

Dana Stodgel - Current Era

Dana is an IT project manager here at UIUC. I've never been entirely clear how she first ran into Beth, but it was a good match from the beginning; they've enjoyed hanging out and carrying on about all sorts of things, even though I'm probably a lot closer to her in occupation and temperament. It certainly paid off, anyway, since Dana stood up with Beth at our wedding. Dana is a low-level TV otaku, really caring about cult shows like Supernatural and Doctor Who; but this is well-balanced with taking care of her son, Jack. I've been impressed on those opportunities I've had to actually work with her, as well. All in all, she's someone that I really need to get around to being closer with, and I think that this may well happen on its own.

Bridesmaid

Jack Stodgel - Current Era

Jack is Dana's son. I act in many ways as "the cool uncle-like guy that as a lot of video games and toys" in his mind, which is really fun; but more than that, I've enjoyed watching him grow up and become more and more of a real person every time I see him. As an added bonus, he's a great person to shop for at garage sales - I don't want the Pokemon cards, after all. *grin*

Zeb Tate - Current Era

I met Zeb through Beth randomly early into our dating. He's an ECE grad student here at UIUC, steadily working towards his PhD, but in the mean time he's kept his life together pretty well and enjoys actually going out and doing things (unlike many students I know). I tend to see a lot of movies with him; we both enjoy seeing old Samurai movies, for instance, which few of our friends are that excited by. Zeb is currently dating Klara, and I generally see both of them weekly for Monday Movies.

Monday Movies

Josh Tolbert - Current Era

I met Josh at BTCU, and as has happened several times before in my life, I've wondered why it is that I hadn't met him before. He's a local geek, like me, working for Wolfram instead of the University; unlike me he's a car and sports fanatic, more like a regular guy. I've been trying to bring him into my social groups for the last few years, which has worked out okay; he just needs to show up for movie nights more often. At the very least, I see him about weekly at BTCU; he's probably my main draw to keep it running. Josh has also gotten me to occasionally out to the shooting range, which I really should do more often.

/Because Tim with guns is vital/
BTCU; Monday Movies

Scott Weber - Current Era

Scott, one of DB's cousins, has actually been around town for a long time, but I've only gotten to know him recently. He's a friendly guy, one of Bryan's roommates; he helped found the C-U Sushi Club, and has been doing a good job of pushing it on his friends for the last year or so now. He and Beth have also been hanging out more lately, and I've been partially pushed along since he started taking some photography classes.

Sushi Club

Kelley Wegeng Shimmin - Current Era

By many rights, I should have met Kelley back when we lived in Allen together. She was part of a couple of groups there that I wasn't, first the smokers and then the Intervarsity Christians (well, not *precisely* IV, since it came after college and I think it was a slightly different group, but the idea was close); so while we would surely recognize each other on the street, our paths didn't really cross. This changed in 2006 some time, when she decided to start hanging out in the local goth scene, and we got to talking. Since then, she and Beth have become pretty close friends, and I've enjoyed having her around as well. Her enthusiasm is infectious...

Erin Zaletel - Current Era

Erin is one of the many hardy souls that left the bounties of Illinois in order to pursue her dreams in the icy wastelands - or, in her case, Seattle. Okay, maybe that's not so icy. She's currently working as a school teacher, she seems to be doing well, and she's the person that finally got me to go ahead and start working on this web page again.

/Erin has been griping about her picture for a long time/
*This is recompense for the desk, I would guess...*
BTCU

TCB Group

These are my co-workers at the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group, or at least the ones that I've felt close to through the years.

Jacob Beacham - TCB Group

Jacob was my fourth assistant; he worked concurrently with Erik, though he tended to be around slightly more. Like most of my assistants to date, he was an IMSA grad; I'm not really sure how I found them that way, but it certainly worked out. Jacob was a bit quieter than the rest of them; he was also especially interested in the job itself, and did an excellent job with limited information. Definitely an asset. Jacob graduated in 2006, and moved out to Seattle to work for Amazon; I haven't heard from him for a while, but I hope he's doing well.

Co-Worker: Assistant, Mar 2005 - Dec 2006

Rosemary Braun - TCB Group

Rosemary is one of my grad students - that is, she's one of the grad students that I can order around. She's a New York native, rather short (Caitte-height, to be exact), and the co-president of the GEO, the campus graduate union. Good person to know, all told, and we get along quite well... After a brief stint as the treasurer of Usenet @ UIUC - oh, and graduating - Rosemary has headed off seek her fortune and start a government fellowship. She seems to have done well, and I've managed to keep up with her both over LJ and through occasional visits to DC.

Co-Worker: TCBG

Robert Brunner - TCB Group

Rob is the group Mac expert; he was hired about the same time as me, and programs for the BioCoRE project. He's also a lot more educated than me, like most people in the group. To me, the most important thing about him for me is that he's a Skyline Chili fan - after all, he's from Ohio. One other major benefit of Rob is that he loves to grill; it was nice having somebody take care of that at our last party, and it was quite tasty too...

Co-Worker: TCBG

Gila Budescu - TCB Group

For the first three years of my career, Gila was my boss, and during that time she also became a pretty close friend. I still found this odd. Part of it was that there were other odd connections - she was also the mother of my brother's roommate's then-girlfriend (which is closer than you think), and as such there's always some strange conversations between us about her daughter. She was a good boss, really, if a bit odd in her requests at times - but that's what comes of being an administrator and not a techie, I guess. Aah, well. I miss her since she left for Northwestern back in 2003, but at least I've gotten to go to a few parties at her house. Now that she's moving to New York, I don't know when I'll get a chance to see her, and that's sad...

Co-Worker: TCBG, Boss, Mar 2000 - Jul 2003

Markus Dittrich - TCB Group

Markus was probably my most reliable grad student sysadmin. A Physics student, he's still more than willing to learn about whatever computer-related issues need to be worked out, as well as helping people out with their problems proactively... It was selfish of me to hope he never graduated, but oh well, it happened anyway. He currently works out at the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center. Amusingly, he's married to the sister of an old Ground Souther. I love this town.

Co-Worker: TCBG (Jan 2001 - May 2006)

Joanna Francis - TCB Group

Joanna was my assistant for more than two years. I'm not really sure why I've got an assistant, save that I've got that much stuff to do, but it's pretty nice. She's also an amusing person - she's an old IMSA freak (even though she doesn't know about the Uni/IMSA rivalries), a vegetarian, a CS/Aviation major, and incredibly good at her job. And I signed her payslips. She eventually left, though (her and her degree...hmmph. She made Bronze Tablet), and I had to hire a replacement, which was quite challenging but eventually worked out. Now she's a pilot for American Eagle, working out of Boston as I recall. She still visits periodically.

Co-Worker: TCBG (Assistant), Mar 2000 - Jun 2002

Justin Gullingsrud - TCB Group

For approximately three years, Justin was one of my users, and one of the most friendly ones. He was a Physics grad student that spends most of his time programming; he was also one of the more social and active of my users, and so I hung out with him occasionally in other contexts. It's fun to get my butt kicked in some video games anyway... He currently works in New York City for one of our competitors, but I still enjoy seeing him when/if he comes around.

Co-Worker: TCBG (User) Mar 2000 - Sep 2003

Barry Isralewitz - TCB Group

Barry was the primary sysadmin for the TCB Group before me, and was on my sysadmin team for several years before finding out that he didn't have to be. He's also always been fairly fascinated by me and the sheer scope of my friends and acquaintenances. He's currently dating one of Sarah's roommates, which gives him an odd connection to my life; and beyond that, he's always the life of the party whenever we actually have one. And he may have even finished his PhD now! Go Barry!

Co-Worker: TCBG

Jerry Jaskierny - TCB Group

Jerry was my second assistant. He worked for me for about two-and-a-half years; during the last few months of it, we also become friends outside of work, at least in as much as we both hang out at BTCU. If nothing else, he's always full of amusing stories - amusing landlord troubles to speak of on a regular basis, random biases against other runners (he did lots of cross-country in high school), etc. Jerry and Erin are currently living in Seattle, and seem to be doing pretty well for themselves; it's nice to see my old students doing well, you know? And they are also joining in the "go to Seattle" call, which Beth appreciates.

Usenet @ UIUC; Co-Worker: TCBG (Assistant), Sep 2002 - Feb 2005

Marilyn Lynch - TCB Group

Marilyn was our group secretary, essentially the one that takes care of us all. She brings us food, organizes our lives, and knows what's going on in general. And I'm happy to be the sysadmin that she's liked the most through the years (which is mostly because I'm a generally nice person, unlike most sysadmins...) Marilyn retired a few years back, but has still been coming back to do miscellaneous work every now and then when necessary, and has managed to make it to a large number of miscellaneous group events. It's nice to not entirely lose track of her.

Co-Worker: TCBG, Mar 2000 - Dec 2004

Jo Miller - TCB Group

Jo is the group publications manager, and another one of those people that really keeps the group running. She's been with the group for just about longer than everyone, and knows where everything is kept; she's also bright enough to know when to stay out of things... Jo is also the highest-ranking Republican I know, which makes things interesting at work every now and then. I think we both like making fun of each other over politics.

Co-Worker: TCBG

Jim Phillips - TCB Group

Jim lives a couple of blocks down the street from my parents - one of the strangest parts of working in town, let me tell you. He's an old Lib and a good programmer, and knows the old backup setup a lot better than I do; he's also one of the people I consult with before decisions are really made. And, nicely, he's laid back enough to deal with easily. He's also a member of the Dancing Illini, so we've got mutual acquaintences... His official job is programming NAMD, a molecular dynamics program designed to run on supercomputers and across loads of processors. Cool stuff.

TBL; Co-Worker: TCBG

Klaus Schulten - TCB Group

Klaus is the head of our research group, a professor of Physics that's as good at his job as anybody else world-wide. He's driven, sometimes scary, and quite often a lot of fun to work for. If nothing else, he understands that he's not an expert on everything, so hires technical people to advise him. The group is successful, so I guess it works... now if we can just get him to listen to us a *little* more often.

/The job has at least been good for Tim/
Co-Worker: TCBG (Group Head)

John Stone - TCB Group

John is the group's Official Hacker - he's in charge of VMD, a large molecular dynamics visualization program, and used to be a sysadmin in a previous life. As such, he's the main person I consult with when I'm thinking about work - it's not great for his ability to get work done, but it certainly helps me. John is also the worst gadget gatherer I know, which sometimes scares the hell out of me; he has more DVDs than me, more machines, more books, more everything...

TBL; Co-Worker: TCBG

Emad Tajkhorshid - TCB Group

Since Gila left in August 2003, Emad has been nominally the boss of the group when Klaus isn't around. He's really a scientist, and would much rather being doing science work, but them's the breaks... He is quite a nice guy, and fun to work with, so I'm not exactly complaining; we tend to have a lot to laugh about, which makes life much more amusing around here. His son Navid is also quite fun, and my parents like to laugh as they watch him in stores growing up on the same paths that I went on.

Co-Worker: TCBG

Kirby Vandivort - TCB Group

Kirby is a Research Programmer from Rolla, another convert to the ways of computer science after failing to find a career in Nuclear Engineering (this happens all the time). He's essentially in charge of the BioCoRE project, which is fairly neat but should really be more modular; he's not directly on my sysadmin team, but he shows up for meetings and is part of my general consultation group. Personally, Kirby was the one that finally convinced me of the ways of the TiVo, for which I am quite thankful.

Co-Worker: TCBG

Elizabeth Villa - TCB Group

Betsy is one of my more amusing users; she's active, she's funny, and she's generally good about not asking for the impossible even if she needs it. It's just plain fun to sit around and talk with her at work; I could use more of that...

Co-Worker: TCBG

Erik Volkman - TCB Group

Erik was my third assistant in the TCB Group. He's an IMSA graduate, and currently a senior in Computer Science; he's still quiet around the office, but in a self-assured way that he didn't really have that much before. One thing I've noticed from him is that he maintains many of his IMSA ties, in a typical way that I've recognized from many other IMSA folks; it's amusing hearing stories around the office periodically...

Co-Worker: TCBG (Assistant), Feb 2004 - May 2005

Mark Wang - TCB Group

Mark was an anomaly as an assistant, inasmuch as he came from Uni instead of IMSA. He mailed me one day fairly out-of-the-blue and asked if he could work for me unpaid for a while, since he knew that I needed somebody; I took him up on it, and he turned out to be very good at the job and reliable. The original goal was to keep him on for his entire college career, but that fell apart when he got an excellent scholarship at Harvey Mudd; so he'll be taking off shortly. But I was lucky to have him while I did.

Co-Worker: Assistant, Jun 2006 - Aug 2007

Childhood

While I don't have too many friends left from my childhood, those that do remain are actually pretty close.

Ben "Dover" Brenner - Childhood

Another of Danny's childhood friends, I really started to get to know Dover when he started bringing over euro-games to the house when I was in college. Lately I've gotten him to start coming to games at Armored Gopher on Sundays, which has been fun for both of us. Nice guy, very enthusiastic.

Sunday Games

John "Dirt" Phillips - Childhood

Dirt has been Danny's best friend since they were in second grade or so. He's a really friendly, competent, *random* guy that has managed to stick around town doing various volunteer things forever, like us. He recently got married to a girl I barely know (Polly Mae), but Danny assures me it's a match made in heaven... certainly they both appreciated the Urkel doll that Danny gave them as a wedding shower gift. I've started actually thinking of Dirt as partially my friend, and not just Danny's, over the last couple of years, especially after I started working at the Center for Women in Transition (where he's the Director of Children's Programming); so now he makes it to the page, where he belongs. Dirt moved to California with his wife, Polly-Mae, but I'm sure I'll see him in some Danny-related context some day.

Emily Weber - Childhood

Emily is my oldest non-family friend. We met when we were in pre-school; I was 1, she was 2. We fought and argued, and generally she got along better with Danny than with me, but childhood bonds sometimes endure. Now, more than twenty years later, we're back in contact, after I ran into her at a job interview and we had all sorts of wacky adventures wandering New York. So now we're kindof in contact again. How strange, and how satisfying. She managed to make it away from her med school for long enough to attend my wedding.

Jane Weber - Childhood

Jane is our official Old Family Friend. I've known her since I carpooled with her daughter (Emily) to nursery school back when I was two years old; she moved away when I was in the sixth grade, but she's stayed in close contact with Mom anyway, and we see her once or twice a year on when she comes back to C-U to visit. I've been to Europe with her, and it wouldn't surprise me that much if I went again in the future. Jane was able to make it to my wedding, but I'm sorry that her husband Larry wasn't...

Uni High

Of those that are left, these are the ones that I primarily knew because I went to high school with them.

Paul Grayson - Uni High

Paul is a Physics grad student at CalTech, and one of my old users. I've known him for years (he was a couple of years behind me at Uni, and one of the people I talked with at the time), and always pretty much gotten along with him. As a user, he was great. And when he comes back, I hang out with him and Cynthia (maker of my favorite t-shirt ever!) 'cuz they're just good folks. So, while there aren't many details...it's about time I add him to the page.

TCB Group; Co-Worker: TCBG, User, Sep 2001 - Aug 2002

George "gg" Gruschow - Uni High

gg, a friend from high school to both me and my roomate Andy, virtually moved in with us my freshman year within a couple of weeks after he figured out how much he hated his roommate on the 4th floor. This really didn't cause too many problems - the room didn't have enough space for him to sleep so he had to leave sometimes, and the music he brought managed to shape my musical tastes forever. It got worse the next year, though, when I lived in a triple with Andy and Harf - with George still living with us. The room rapidly drove me insane, 'cuz I couldn't stand the knowledge that none of them *ever* slept. I eventually left, to move in with George Harris, which was a mistake; it didn't hurt our friendship, though, which I'll be forever impressed with. George finally graduated in CS and got married to Catherine Chou, an old high school classmate, making him the first of my class to get married - considering that he was one of The Geeks, this still impresses me. Though not as much as Andy's wife. He won the competition to be the first in our class to reproduce as well, with his son Tyler, both in November 2004. He and Catherine were able to make it to my wedding; it was good to see them. And as far as I can tell, he's managing a software design firm...

Roommate: allen262 (Fall 1995 - Spring 1996), allen485 (Fall 1996 - Winter 1996); Co-Worker: CERL

Andrew Nicholson - Uni High

Andy and I were high school friends and decided one day after we were done with the deal that maybe we should live together. After figuring out that we couldn't get into ISR, Andy's sister pulled some strings and got us into Allen, the next closest dorm to the Engineering campus - never mind that it was our best choice anyway, we weren't thinking like that at the time. Anyway, Andy was a great roommate - sure, he was anti-social, but he slept and he was willing to talk sometimes, and when we were living in a double there was still a chance for a bit of free time. Even the next year, when I moved out because of him and the other Geeks' (gg and Harf) antics, I still appreciated him the most out of the set; I've missed living with him ever since. Andy graduated in CS, started working for Motorola, got married, and eventually left to work for Amazon in Seattle. I haven't heard from him for a while, I hope he gets back in touch at some point...

Roommate: allen262 (Fall 1995 - Spring 1996), allen485 (Fall 1996 - Winter 1996); Co-Worker: CERL

Zhenya Tumanova - Uni High

It never ceases to make you feel old when you realize that the people you no longer see are also on your list of longest-standing friends. I met Zhenya during my senior year of high school, when she was just a freshman - I talked with the underclassmen, you see, and was more than willing to have friendships with them. We stayed in reasonably close touch after that, with her remaining my closest gateway to her class; it's helped that she dated Peter Folk, an old classmate, for many years. Anyway, she's a fun person, more introspective than most I know and prone to live in her tangents, but still able to catch all sorts of things that others miss. I haven't really seen her much recently, sadly, but I still talk to her every now and then over IM and run into her around town.

Pets of Friends

Gandalf "Quarter Pounder" Scott - Pet (Friend)

QP is Sarah's first cat; I helped her pick him out at the local Humane Society back when she adopted him in November 2003. He's a big, grey cat, always energetic and wanting to go play outside or do something else that he's not supposed to. Sarah is convinced that his name is Gandalf ('the Grey'), and has admittedly done a pretty good job of arguing with me about it. But I still think of him as Quarter Pounder.

*Why does he name cats after fast food?*

Gimli "With Cheese" Scott - Pet (Friend)

Gimli is Sarah's second cat, a big, orange, rough-playing guy that tends to do what it takes to get what he wants (in a way past what most cats do - for instance, he'll bite your nose to wake your up). He's always fun to play with, because he's dangerous; he might be rolling around in ecstasy one moment, before reaching over and biting you the next. But unlike some cats with such personalities, he's not evil or broken, just... himself. I'm fond of him.

Non-Biotic Companions

Sometime, the best friends are the ones that don't talk back. Of course, sometimes even those ones talk back too, but let's not get into that...

Seal - Non-Biotic

Seal was Belle's friend and companion. She found him in early 1993, and kept him with her for her entire life, a constant (if not particularly talkative) companion through all of her troubles and tribulations. He was quite nice and incredibly creative - his cards are always the most fun to read. He was also prone to wearing costumes. A nice guy. I miss him...

/And Tim will never see Seal again/
*But it's hard to say "deceased" on a non-biotic...*

Captain Pecker - Non-Biotic Companion

Captain Pecker is the Six-Foot Party Penis; he was discovered by Andrew Kaczorek, purchased by Rachel Woo, and, finally, taken care of by me. Sure, he wasn't really purple like we expected, and was only 5'8" - but he was still a large inflatable penis. I have no idea how many people I've freaked out by carrying the Cap'n around Allen and other parts of campus, or how many parents I scared away with his presence; his presence was nothing but a benefit to life around Allen, I can say that much. I currently have joint custody of the Captain with Rachel, though he's not exactly of much use lately; he's having trouble keeping it up, you see, and we need to patch the problem before he'll be coming out again...

Optimus Prime - Non-Biotic Companion

Optimus Prime is a friend to all sentient beings. He has been at least a low-level hero to me since I was seven; I currently have a shrine to him on my television set. If I were to see him marching down the street to battle, I would drop what I was doing and join him.
And he has a facemask, dammit.

/It's not really that creepy of a shrine, just a collection of toys/
*Roll out!*

Nik and Kile - Non-Biotic Companion

Nik and Kile are my Killfile Daemons. I hired them in 1994 to keep track of my killfile; it turned into a bit bigger relationship than that over the years, as they started taking care of my web pages and I started writing them gateways to access more and more of the 'net. Now they live on my site and spend most of their time...well, I have no idea what they do most of the time. It's not my business. But they still do the job...

/Damn right we do the job!/
*Better than anyone else out there, too...*
Oh, and in case it's not obvious, I AM NOT THE DAEMONS. Thanks.

Deceased Pets

I miss my old friends, but this is what comes of short life spans...

Bullwinkle - Pet (Deceased)

Bullwinkle was my pet blue-tongue lizard in Australia. We got him from a friend who found him in a field; because we couldn't find a heat lamp, I generally carried him around in my shirt. He was a wonderful lizard, and one of the few things I liked about the place at the time. But he died about three days before we left Australia to return home. I'm not sure if I've ever been that heartbroken since...

Deceased

Frank - Pet (Deceased)

Frank was the family cat when I was born. She was a beautiful long-haired calico, one of the prettiest I've ever seen - but she was also a *cranky* cat, and not just because I picked on her as a child. She hated everybody except my Dad, Uncle Tim, and Grandpa Bob; for some reason the Alpha Male of the house appealed to her, as well as the massively allergic. We got rid of her when I was about two-and-a-half because she had taken up trying to bite my eyes out rather than look at me. I missed her then; now I just think of her as excellent story-fodder.

Deceased

Joel - Pet (Deceased)

From March 2001 to December 2004, Joel was the family cat. We adopted him from Danny's vet clinic; he was left there for several months by his old owner, until they finally decided that someone had to take him because it was just cruel to leave him locked up. After a short period of adjustment, he fit straight into the family. Joel was an orange tabby, fairly normal looking but far friendlier than just about any cat I've ever known - not in the standard "pay attention to me" way, but instead just always wanting to be around and near his pets and visitors. It was extremely endearing. Sadly, Joel was never a healthy cat; he had a heart murmur when we got him, and just deteriorated from there. But no matter what it took to keep him going, he seemed happy and loving up to the day he died, in our arms at the vet clinic... I miss him.

/You get a vibe of "favorite cat" from that/
*Yes, but he can't say such a thing for fear of upsetting future cats, or speaking ill of past ones...*
Deceased

Sherlock - Pet (Deceased)

Sherlock was the family cat from the mid-1980s until the early 2000s. We adopted him from my Dad's secretary when I was 9, to be used to take care of me through puberty. Sherlock was a dark grey cat with white boots and muzzle; he was also a remarkably scared cat, always worried that my Dad was going to kill him at a moment's notice. He was a great cat, as good as I could ever want; I was the only one that he was allowed to play rough with, and that was enough to pay back for being used as an older-kid teddy bear when I was young. Besides, cats love that stuff. He spent a lot of time fighting with rabbit's feet too, and sitting on the porch and on laps. He finally died of old age when we'd had him for nearly 14 years, making him about 16; it was sad, but it was his time. I still miss him, of course. He was my cat.

Deceased

Other

These are the people that didn't get a category for some reason.

Sid Cammeresi - On-Line

Sid and I have always kindof circled around each other. Most of my contact with him was through a business relationship - killfile.org was hosted on his network - but over time, we've actually started hanging out with each other at BTCU. Sure, he's an obnoxious Objectivist, and he's kindof weird online, but he's still fun to rant with and he's a nice person to have on your side... A while back, Sid moved to Minnesota to be with his girlfriend, and eventually got married. I don't really expect to see him again.

/The real problem was that he took his network with him/
*Damn you, Sid!*
BTCU

Beth Dillman - Ex-Wife

Beth is my ex-wife. Yes, that's already listed in the 'category' field, but at this point it's the defining characteristic of our relationship; and it turns out that this isn't entirely a bad thing. We were once in love, and then it stopped; we got out before we hated each other, and now we're still friends. And at some point I'll write more in here, as I get back into this kind of page.

Wife (19 May 2007 - 07 Oct 2008); (Fiancee (10 Oct 2005 - 19 May 2007); Girlfriend (08 Feb 2004 - 10 Oct 2005)

Rob Dillman - In-Laws (Brother-In-Law)

Rob is Beth's younger brother, by about 3.5 years. In many ways, he reminds me of myself at his age - somewhat awkward and not sure what to do with himself, very competent, possessed of a variety of random friends, and carrying interests that few understand but are at least respectable. Rob runs a regular Podcast on the history of video games (linked from his name, above), which was a surprise when I found out, but it's oddly professional and amusing. Go Rob! Anyway, he's a fun guy, and I enjoy hanging out with him; now if I can just help him get through the same awkward life transitions that took so much trouble for me back in the day...

*Rob has also introduced Tim to the wonderful world of XBox 360*
/Settlers ahoy!/
UIUC Working Era; Bridesmaid

Chris Gurney - On-Line

Chris was our lab consultant during my freshman year, and for whatever reason I decided to meet her, bother her and make her a friend. It worked. I even figured out that she was a fellow Libertarian, made her get into Babylon 5, and generally interesting-fied her life... Of course, she then graduated in Spring '96 and moved back to Chicago - which kindof put a damper on things. We're still talking to each other, though, a bunch of of years later; it's the penpal-style by now (short letters with random information that don't come anywhere near often enough). And I think it's probably my turn to get back to her. In fact, it's almost always time for me to get back to her...

Paul Kennedy - On-Line

Paul used to work in the Beckman Institute as part of Beckman System Services, the guys in charge of the building network. I had already known him before he started here, but I got to know him better over time, as we comisserated with each other about the state of the building and our jobs. It was fun having an ally down the hall, and we both took advantage of it. He eventually moved out east, where he teaches at Georgetown University and just generally seems more relaxed; and I still get to see him on the occasional trip out there.

Jason "Linky" Lindquist - On-Line

Linky is one of the few friends I've got that I've really never known; I only met him about 2 or 3 times before he graduated, and only a couple of times since. Still, I knew him through Usenet - he read and posted unihigh.* during its heyday, for starters, which thouroughly impressed his image on my brain. I still think he thought of me as his protegé, the one that would take over Usenet after he was gone, even if he denies it; little did he know how far I would take that role... Since then, I've seen him when he's come back to C-U for visits, and continued to exchange e-mail about all sorts of topics over the years; I even manage to get to San Diego far too often. It's nice to have someone to talk to that isn't actually around, and who really has his head on straight. (Or at least can help me get mine on straight, anyway.)

MeatNews

Maryam Mohseni - On-Line

Even though I met Maryam through Vered several years ago, it took me until 2006 before I actually met her in person. Maryam briefly attended UIUC before returning to the Washington, DC area back in 2004; and while we talked about meeting up before that point, it never happened. But we did add each other on LiveJournal, and over time we've had a good time talking and keeping track of each other. I finally met her and Kaiser on a trip out there, and that was fun too! All in all, she's a good on-line friend, and I need to acknowledge the value of such a group lately.

Geoff "g0ff" Raye - On-Line

g0ff was one of the most interesting UIUC folks around back when I knew him, and I regret never getting to know him better than I did. He loves cats, Star Control II, and saying random things in not-random ways. He hung out with the MeatNews crowd most of the time, but I missed a lot of it. He lived in h0l before me. And I still share a news feed with him. Yay, g0ff!

MeatNews

Dave Redinger - Ex-Roommate

When I started in h0l, Dave Redinger was the roomate I knew the least about; after living with him for a summer I got the idea, though, and approved heartily. He's a computer geek, like the rest of us, enjoying setting up little Linux boxes in various parts of the house and always wanting to do it on more little systems; he cares a bit too much about school, but, hey, so do a lot of my friends. He overspices foods, he sucks at video games, he shouldn't be allowed to shop for groceries. And like me, he eventually got out. I recently heard from him, actually, and he's threatening to come through town sometime soon; that should help me get a decent picture of him.

Roommate: h0l (Summer 1998, Summer 1999)

Mike White - Other (Memorial Day Party)

Mike is Mel's Dad. He's the primary force behind the White Family Memorial Day Party, which has been going for more than 25 years, and that was the context in which I met him, years ago. Over time, I've grown to enjoy hanging out with him more and more; he's always fun to see at various parties and events, and of course every year down in Murphysboro. It still seems odd that I'm probably only going to see him once a year from now on; but even so, we've made it a date. He and his new wife, Mattie, came to our wedding, because they were sad that I wasn't going to be able to make it down to Murphysboro this year; I found that really touching.