These are some of the people who've made my life worthwhile. Don't fret if you're not on the list or you weren't first to get a snippet written about you. Honestly, I just write when I get an idea of a natural way to describe someone properly.

People with web pages whom I have yet to describe: Larry, Leslie McCluskey, Sam and Mandie Smith, Jessica Hodgins, Vernard, Will Moss, James O'Brien, Gary Yngve, Jeffrey Fowler, Strick, Blair Dowling, David Michael Brown, Olin Shivers Sean Caulfield, Stevie Strickland

But maybe now that Tech doesn't have its teeth so far in him, he'll find the time to live again - to breathe, free from the sedate acceptance of fate which comes with finding yourself depressed and far behind midway through a semester of Tech. The quarters were just long enough so that you hit exams at about burnout time and you could either get by or not and come back with a clean slate after a short break. Now that point is two-thirds of the way through a term. stupidly behind.

During one of my particularly depressed days, Mark invited me to go camping with a group of interns up in Colorado - two days of having fun with real people and seeing something other than Dallas Public Transit did worlds of good for my mental state.

And when the thieves got to be dangerous (and started bringing other angry criminal types home at three in the morning) it was not my co-workers, not my fraternity brother (though Chester did save my ass at least once while I was in Dallas) but Mark who let me crash on his couch for the last three months of my co-op stint.

He was a badass flat-mate, always toying with some sort of BSD distribution, and heading down to Austin (his alma mater) once a month or so. One of those trips took us to a symposium in honor of Edsger Dijkstra's retirement, where we were spotted acting like teenage girls fawning over a rock singer when we tiptoed up to Knuth to ask him to sign our books.

Mark was addicted to EverCrack for a while, along with the rest of the 20-something Convex crew; and, for shame, was willing to play the game of trivial patents for employer's monetary rewards, patenting an O(log-n) method for reversing the bits of an integer. It really is too bad that the patent office doesn't read the exercises sections of Knuth's books.

Mark is a good-natured man with a good sense of humor who is willing to do a lot for a friend. Last I heard, he was in DFW working for TI and coming to know the joys of being a daddy.

Atari is a fellow WebMonkey and Psi U :-) When I was a freshman still submerged in studying and general school shite, so eager to please my profs -- so far from companionship that I found only emptiness around me, Atari was there. He's probably what kept me going fall of freshman year. Those late nights, while I was studying mechanics or doing CS labs, he'd ICQ me, and we'd head out to Copper Kettle. Food, company, Gods I miss Copper Kettle...

When you're in college, there's always a place like Copper Kettle. Copper Kettle's the Georgia variety of such establishments that's slowly dying out. It's one of those quaint little short order grills you find where people go cause the food is cheap and there's always good company. It's a place that's got a lot of regulars - locals who just go to have a cup of coffee and be around people. The Copper Kettle we went to was just an exit up the highway, right off of Howell Mill, and we'd always see Mary, or Jimmy near the end when Mary left after fourteen years. But no, Holiday Inn management bought the Copper Kettle and decided to turn it into a barbeque pit. The place is devoid of the life it once had. I went back there once, the food's more expensive, and doesn't taste as good. And the wait crew isn't the same. They left when the place changed; I just hope they find the place they were talking about and give our memories new life.

Atari's currently plodding his way through an intensive program in graphic design at GSU. I miss being able to spend time with him; he's got a gentle, accepting way about him, and a talent for comforting. And we've both got a taste for cynical and morbid television; so when time comes to zone out a bit from the world, his home -- the house of green light -- is a good place to be.

Atari's real real name is Jonathan Chaffin, but he only uses that when he meets a girl he's interested in, and then he switches over sort of unconsciously :-) We've even got his grandmother trained to ask for "Atari" when she calls.

I met Lisa at a University of Delaware Scholarship weekend. It was one of those High-school-seniors-touring-the-prospective-schools -looking-for-offers-to-use-as-bidding-material weekends. I learned that UD, like all state universities, draws all the average students in the area. And it was not for me. Computer Science department was too small. It was too small for Lisa too.

I visited Lisa's family during passover and got to participate in a seder for the first time. Her family are lovely people: compassionate, well rounded, understanding. They have their problems, like all people, but fewer than most, it seemed; and most of their strength stemmed from their commitment to each other.

When we met, Lisa was a blossoming young woman - smiling, jewish, beautiful; with a voice that could liberate all of the ancient spirits in a room with merely the start of a song. Intelligent, well-read, able to attack seemingly anything and conquer it swiftly, easily. A beauty to behold. Her talents diverse: music, science, languages, sports. A prime target for all of the college recruiters. But I digress. We visited several times, and I escorted her to her senior prom. But nothing happened between us.

She found some of her more carnal ambitions in the following summer and fall. This I learned when I stopped by driving back to Tech after Christmas Break :-) She's the one who taught me the beauty and pleasure of a deep bite into the flesh of the shoulder.

Since then she's found jobs for the government unrewarding and is excited about doing research in Natural Language at the University of Maryland for grad school. She's still as ravishing as ever.

I've told Salvador that if I ever switch, he'll be top on my list of people to date. He's such a sweetie. His full SCAdian name is His Lordship Salvador Paolo de Barcelona. Originally he wanted to be "Salvador Paul, from Barcelona," but in period his name translates to "Salvador, son of Paul from Barcelona." He's a kingdom-level herald, and has done exquisite costumery for the theatre departments at St. Edward's (near Austin), the University of Delaware and now at Catawba College (North Carolina). And he makes wonderful Mexican food :-)

I met Sal (mundanely Eric Abbott) at Black Tower, A.S. XXXII. I was there with Rachel and Loren and Courtney, watching the fighters and going swimming in the big pond. The event was held at Carousel farms, a nice place for camping in northern Delaware, ahem, Caer Adamant. I can still remember Sal looking down at me as I walked by, that muddy Saturday morning. I think he was the first guy who ever flirted with me. And how could I resist? I mean, it was cold, and he had that great big warm cloak :-) You could fit five people and about a dozen sheep underneath that thing.

Underneath the cute veneer, Sal's just a big time geek like most of my other good friends. Sci Fi, Fantasy, Gaming, Movies, Python - you name it, he's probably geeked it.

Judith of Northumbria (Rachel) dancing for her camera

But Rachel was the person I needed to find to know there were real people out there. People who lived life deeply -- and someone that could actually understand me. The rest of the world just seemed to be full of people who just couldn't relate to who I was. But Rachel understood.

Rachel's one of the most extraordinary people I've ever met. I was mesmerized by her the second time we met - sort of funny, as I got to know her only because of Katrina. Rachel stayed with me through the rough times trying to get over Kat . . .

I saw in Rachel that ever-rare spark of fire. Intelligent, witty, in love with history, resilient, melodramatic, and ever so lovely.

Nothing serious ever happened between us, and in a way I'm glad, for else I fear how distant we'd be now. I could spend hours talking about those nights after DelTech when I'd go up to Milford just to talk; the events she took me to; the times together with the Milford gang, or seeing each other after months of being states and countries apart. The friendship is still there and alive. Whenever I pass through Milford on the holidays, I just drop in. Her door's always open. And it's so good to see her when she's home.

Relationships come and go, most of them. Rachel's one of the few people I will always love.

It came as a shock to me, she had seemed so vibrant when I met her my senior year of high school. I met her originally as Maggie's mother. That's Jack's girlfriend Maggie. But we soon came to have a friendship our own. While most of my friends were happy playing games and watching anime, I drifted off to other rooms, and had meaningful conversations with Mrs. Rippon. We talked for hours about the world, about the wars and famine that we often try to ignore... and why. We drank coffee and she told me about growing up in Virginia and water-skiing all through high school. And she listened to me as I wept over lost love. She was a sweet and wonderful woman, and the world is a little less bright for her absence.

When I was in high school, and bored in study hall, I decided to use white-out to put the initials of a few of my dear friends on my book bag. The first two were RAL and KKK -- which gave me no end of trouble with the administration, let me tell you. And on to those two I added MJH. I looked at it for a few minutes, thinking about the fact that I really hadn't known Melissa long, but having her initials there just seemed natural. And so Melissa Jill Harwitt got added to my short list of really cool close friends.

When I met her, she was an undergraduate at Yale, studying psychology -- smart, and always with a beautiful smile. I visited her once up at Yale and we wrote from time to time. And talking with her always seems the most natural thing in the world.

Sometime late 2002 I believe, she got married to a very clever mathematician computer scientist boy. They live on Long Island where he teaches computer science and she studies Jewish history and law.

His bouts of spastic shouting tend to be well timed for desired effect. In reality, he is one of the most well-read and well-thought people I know; he desires to be non-judgmental on most issues, except for the times when he tells me my box is too small.

He's a Debian geek. He likes bitching about technology and foaming about esoterica. It's more than likely you'll see twitch jittering about his house drinking tea or smoking out on the couch after being up for several days. Nonetheless, the most insightful opinions on life, the universe, and everything, I get mostly from either Twitch or Pynk.

Though I did eventually get her to try some wines, for the most part I gave up on my big corruption plans. Partly because corruption is a lot of work, but mostly because we talked a lot, and I came to really respect her. She's a good mathematician, a thoughtful human, and always up for a good mathematical or algorithmic riddle. When I presented her with the Paint By Numbers problem, I started coding and she started reducing The Hamiltonian Curcuit problem to it. It's really too bad we didn't have more time that semester to work on the puzzle. But then, she was taking BSM's infamous Advanced Algebra course (which uses a book which begins "One year of graduate algebra studies should be a sufficient preparation for this material...").

We spent many nice days together at BSM, and one day, I'm convinced we'll decide whether P=NP.

Heather Lickliter - Cricket - is a sweet girl who I dated for most of a year. She's an artist, and has a great set of big pointy teeth. If she likes you, she might show them to you some time.

There were lots of reasons I gave for breaking up with her; but mostly, it was just the drift that set in while I was away in Texas. I got to a point where I thought "If I'm really getting to be this indifferent about us, that's not a good sign..." At this point I tend not to wonder any more. We're very different people. She's very sweet, but we don't match so well. She and John seem much more suited for each other, and I wish her only happiness.