Gazing Into The Abyss (Michael Rawdon's Journal)  
 
Cast List

This is a list of some people I mention with some regularity in my journal, just to get you a little oriented. They're roughly grouped by how I know them, or how long I've known them.

Last revised on 1 August 2003.


Family

Mom and Dad: My parents, not surprisingly. Both of them still live in the area where I grew up.

Katy: My sister, about four years younger than me. She's a library archivist, spent a few years working for Yale, and now lives elsewhere on the east coast. She got married in December, 2001.


California Friends

Anders: Cow-orker of mine on Xcode at Apple.

Becky: Apple employee and Bridge buddy. One of the few comic book fans I've encountered out here. Her husband has published a few SF short stories.

Bill Humphries: Expatriate Madison fan and keeper of a Weblog. He also works at Apple now.

Chad: One of the gaming buddies whom I know through Subrata. Often borrows science fiction books from me.

CJ Silverio: Also known as Ceej. We encountered each other on the Internet back around 1990, I had her Web page bookmarked for several years, and her own journal ultimately inspired me to start this one. We finally met on my California trip in 1998, and became good friends when I moved out here. We go to many, many baseball games together.

David Zink: Husband of Ceej, owner of yorkshire terriers. He and CJ each work at a start-up. David is one of the most philosophical people I know out here.

Debbi: My girlfriend. We actually went to junior high and high school together back east, but were never really friends. We met up through a high school alumni mailing list in April, 2001 and have been dating since then. Debbi is a senior administrative assistant at a technological supply company.

John: Apple employee, and the guy who brought me out here. We met through the Internet back in the early 1990s, on the rec.arts.startrek newsgroup, getting in contact when I moved to Madison, where he lived at the time. We became good friends, but he moved away in 1993, eventually going to work for NeXT and then Apple. We got back in touch in 1998, and I visited him that summer, and he eventually persuaded me to apply for a position at Apple and move to the Bay Area. He also works with me on Xcode.

Keith Woolner: Fellow Red Sox fan and contributor to the Baseball Prospectus, he's also the longtime organizer of the fantasy baseball league I'm in.

Lisa and Michel: Debbi's best friends, and also a couple. The four of us sometimes do things together, things which often seem to involve baseball, football, miniature golf or Ghirardelli Square.

Lucy Huntzinger: Bay area fan, travel agent, and on-line journaller, who knows several different people I know, but I really met her through Bill Humphries. Lucy and I became good friends during 2000. Her husband's name is John.

Mark: Another of the gaming buddies whom I know through Subrata, and also an Apple employee. Boyfriend of Yvette.

Mike Trent: Apple employee, and former Epic employee. Mike got to Apple about a year before me, and I think it was a dream come true for him. Fun guy to hang around with, we have some common interests like comic books, although he prefers Manga whereas I'm not much into that comic book style. Mostly we'll chat at work every so often.

Monique: A poet and on-line journaller who moved to the east bay from the LA area. We dated for a month or two in 2001, and remain friends.

Newton and Jefferson: My cats. They live with me. Jefferson whines a lot, and they don't like me being away or being on the computer, but we work things out. They're great guys, I don't know what I'd do without them!

Rob: Actually an old friend from high school, he's now a lawyer living in the East Bay. Also a Red Sox fan. I don't see him as often as I'd like.

Rollie and Kelly: Yet more gaming and bridge buddies, who became fast friends with CJ and David when I introduced them all. They also read science fiction and all that jazz.

Subrata Sircar: Apple employee, and the guy who hosts the Wednesday night gaming sessions. Also a Bridge buddy, he's Ben's regular partner at that. We share many common interests (gaming, SF, comics, ultimate frisbee, old movies at the Stanford Theater) and have a lot of fun together. He's a night owl, however, so our schedules are sometimes a little out-of-sync.

Syd Polk: Cow-orker of mine on developer tools at Apple. He's a big fan of jazz music and of baseball, and also games, so we have lots in common and natter endlessly about all three subjects when we're together.

Tom: Apple employee, cow-orker of mine on Xcode.

Trish: Fellow journaller, we both moved to the Bay Area around the same time and hang out together sometimes. She worked for Apple for a while, but now works at an area university.

Yvette: Yet another gaming buddy whom I know through Subrata. Girlfriend of Mark.


Internet Friends

Laurel Krahn: Minnesota fan who helped feed my interest in Homicide. She keeps a Weblog (a sort of less personally-oriented form of on-line journal; she used to keep a personal on-line journal and I think had the first such one that I'd ever seen) and we correspond semi-regularly. Although we bumped into each other at a couple of cons, I don't think we've ever had an actual conversation in real life.

Terry: Another fellow - like John - whom I 'met' through rec.arts.startrek, back in college, Terry and I have never actually met in person, though we have talked on the phone. Another programmer who's into SF, he's also really, really into airplane flying. I hope to meet him someday.


Old Friends

Bruce: Old APA friend, we've kept in touch for years after both of us dropped out of the APA we were in together. Bruce is an aspiring writer, longtime SF and comic book fan, and avid Red Sox fan. One of the cooler people I know, I make every effort to get together with him whenever I'm back in the northeast.

Charley: High school friend, former comic book fan.

James: Another APA friend, we haven't quite kept in touch as well as Bruce and I have. James kept his own on-line journal for a while. A fan of things British, he's also into SF stuff, and we have some overlapping musical tastes. I haven't heard much from him the last few years.

Kathleen: My first girlfriend, we were together for several years in college, during which time she decided that she was bisexual, which bothered me not at all as long as she was monogamous. It was a learning experience, and the accumulated weight of our various mistakes at managing the relationship ended up with us breaking up when we graduated. We lost touch a few years later; last I heard (circa 1995?) she was working in Chicago.

Matt: High school friend, Red Sox fan. Got a Master's in architecture in late 2001. Lives inn the south.


Midwest Friends

Charlie: Not to be confused with Charley, Charlie and I met in grad school and became good friends. He's gay, and I think has always been convinced that I am, too. (I'm not.) Charlie helped me get hired at Epic when I left school in 1994, and we co-developed the application I worked on for the next four-and-a-half years, until he moved into sales.

Colleen: Ex-girlfriend, we were together for a year and a half, breaking up due to disagreements over marriage and kids issues. Afterwards, she went back to school to get a Master's in psychology, and last I heard was moving to Alaska to work.

Gene: Former Epic employee, I basically hold him responsible for getting me into Magic, the bum.

Jim Rittenhouse: "Big-name fan" in the Midwest. We met through an APA, and he dragged me into going to cons. I also met Colleen through him. I visited him several times a year when I lived in the Midwest. I've always been flattered and somewhat surprised at the respect he had for me.

Karen: Probably my best friend in Madison, we met in grad school, dated for a few tumultuous months, and became great friends thereafter, which I think worked out way better than dating world have. She earned her Ph.D. in CS at the end of 1999 and is now a a professor elsewhere on the left coast.

Tracy: Former Epic QAer, member of SF3. Sarcastic, smart, funny. We might lure her to California someday.

  e-mail me My Home Page