Who Were All These People? Part 1
Most of the people I follow on LiveJournal are people I know in real life, just as I do on Facebook. However, because it was the first social media I ever really used and I was making it up as I went along, some are people I only know vaguely, or hardly at all. In the same spirit as my complete guide to my LJ tags, I thought I'd chronicle all the people I'm friends with here. LiveJournal being basically dead, this will include a lot of people who deleted their accounts and now exist as no more than embedded names in my own posts. It will also include a few people I'm not friends with anymore for various reasons. It will not include anyone is following me who I don't follow in return, most of whom seem to be spam accounts or strictly in Cyrillic. This will hopefully help me remember relevant detail about old posts at some point in the future, and at worst may be some nostalgia value.
Note that I frame these as "who was my friend". This is not to imply they are not my friend in real life, but to point out that their LJ account is either completely inactive or in a few cases, dead. Let's start with the one exception.
People Who Still Use LiveJournal - 1 person
As of this writing, it says I have 72 "friends" on LJ, not counting deleted accounts. Exactly one has posted in the last 6 months.
kylecassidy is Kyle Cassidy is a photographer and author hailing from Philadelphia, I met him when catvalente and justbeast got married. He also was the one who said " my friend Eliza Rickman needs someone to host a house concert between Chicago and Philadelphia" which ultimately led to hosting her house concert in 2011, which led to me hosting a total of seven house concerts. So that all turned out well!
Cat & Dmitri and the People I Met at their Wedding - 6 people
catvalente is New York Times Best Selling Artist Catherynne M. Valente.
justbeast is Dmitri.
I met both of them through theferrett and zoethe around the late 2007 time frame.
They got married in 2009, divorced somewhat later. I still talk to Dmitri occasionally, but lost touch with Cat along the way.
At their wedding, I met a bunch of other people basically who I followed, none of whom post anymore. Besides kylecassidy, they were:
yagathai also lived in Philadelphia. caudelac was out of the Raleigh area. Both actually stayed at my house for the wedding as many of us offered up crash space for people who were on a budget.
roomette was another wedding guest, confusingly also named Cat (I think), who I met possibly even more briefly than Kyle Cassidy. Lovely writer though.
tithenai was still another wedding guest. She is Amal El-Mohtar, writer and occasional radio personality.
Other People I Met Through Ferrett and Gini - 15 people
I met theferrett (aka Ferrett Steinmetz and zoethe (aka Gini) through the Monday Night Movie Club back in 2005. Specifically, after a showing of Murderball, which means I met them on August 8, 2005. They are still dear friends.
Through them I met a lot of other people through various means. First the people I still keep up with.
susitna was their daughter Erin, who was briefly in one of our gaming groups for a while.
khiron1416 was Ian, who I met somehow through Ferrett and Gini. He was part of our gaming group for quite a while.
jackofmany was Todd, who I met at a Rock Band night at Ferrett and Gini's back when that was a thing. He and I go to concerts and movies together from time to time.
hooloovooo was Shannon, who I believe knew Ferrett via livejournal and then met him in person when she moved to Ohio.
babymonkey was Tiffin and mishamish was Mischa who I met at a party at Ferrett's, or maybe at Dmitri's? I don't remember anymore. Most memorably, I hung out with them in Barcelona.
aiela was Angie, who is a close friend of Ferrett and Gini.
bart_calendar was Bart, one of only two people I ever followed on Livejournal who I hadn't met at least once in real life, however fleetingly. I met him because he was commenting regularly on Ferrett's journal. I then met him in person when I was in Europe in 2015.
And now the ones I don't.
tylik was Catherine, the other person I ever followed on LiveJournal who I hadn't met at least once in real life. Again, met her because she was commenting regularly on Ferrett's journal. Met in person for a few meals along the way.
celticcowboy68 was Shannon's then husband Jonno, who I don't keep up with anymore.
bec76 was Bec, another friend of Ferrett's. She took my ex's side when I got divorced, more or less.
zodarzone was Bec's partner, Jer. Huge comics fan, really nice guy. Also lost in the divorce.
moominmuppet was Sarah, Bec & Jer's roommate. She dog sat for Tulip a couple times.
Radio People - 9 people
Way back in the day, my custom signature on my email included a link to my Livejournal with what was purportedly a Bob Dylan quote saying "I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.". I may have been a bit pretentious back then, although I still like the quote. Anyway, a small number of from my radio station people followed. Remember, LiveJournal was popular back then.
pussygalore66 was my friend Elise. We met when she was dating a guy in my quad freshman year. She and I hosted a show together was back in Spring 2004, but went to innumerable gigs and restaurants together even after she moved away from Cleveland.
fadat was my friend Tom. He and I even hosted a show together in the Spring 2017 semester, even though I'm supposedly his nemesis.
ron0 was my long-time cohost Ron.
mikhailalterman was my metalhead buddy Mikhail. Honestly, I think he created an account just to comment the first time I got engaged and never used it again.
pianodan was my friend Dan, who had a show adjacent to mine for several years - he was at 2pm and I was at 4pm.
And while she wasn't specifically a radio person, drdingbat was Dan's wife Leigh, who lured him away from radio to live in another state. To be fair, pretty much any rational person would have made the same decision, since Leigh is pretty cool.
undertheivy99 was my friend Patty, the last woman standing from my Spring 1998 training class.
lipitup was Tran, a ska kid at the station back in the early 00s. I hear she went to Asia to teach English or something.
ayche was Harold, aka "Ayche". The last time I saw him was the night I saw Dolly Parton. He passed away within that week, as I recall.
Coworkers - 5 people
There aren't a whole bunch of these since I normally kept that pretty segmented.
rshruti was my friend Shruti. I went to college with her four years and never met her, but we did have friends in common. We've now worked together for well over a decade.
herpdaddy was my friend Tim, one of the few people who has been at my company longer than I have.
jmartenstein was my friend Justin, who technically could have been listed as a radio friend or a college friend. He was working at my company when we started, but didn't stay long as he and his then spouse moved to Seattle. I'm still vaguely in touch with him.
nein09 was a woman named Melinda (I think) who interned at my company. We had a lot of friends in common and stayed in touch via LiveJournal for a few years.
eldan was her spouse, Eldan. I met him through one of my roommates in Little Italy before I actually met her.
Family - 1 Person
tigerlily_blue was my sister, Rachel. She lurked here for quite a few years before starting her own journal in 2005. Also, her presence here proves that I didn't prioritize these people in any coherent order!
The Ex Games - 6 People
xhollydayx was my first wife, Holly. This is the first time I've referred to her as anything but "the ex" since 2011, but she was a big part of my LiveJournal life from 2005 to 2011 so it seems dishonest not to list her here somewhere.
teriel was Taylor, a friend of my ex. lupagreenwolf was Lupa, who was at the time married to Taylor, Both were at our wedding.
aspasia93 was Marie, another friend of my ex.
inastateofhope was Erin. She was one of my ex's best friends and the "Lady of Honor" at the wedding.
onabus was Tony, who was dating Erin at the time and was therefore at the wedding. I kept him in the divorce, so in some ways he's the best thing to come out of my first wedding besides Tulip, which is appropriate because he was one of the first people to meet Tulip.
That's the first 43 people, which just misses being a fortuitous number. I'm vaguely confident that I can knock out the remainder in a second part. We shall see. And once I've done that, I'll have removed yet another procrastination reason that keeps me from tagging all my old posts.
EDIT: Added a few people as I reviewed the list and realized that I'd missed a few in these categories. All were added shortly after posting though.
Note that I frame these as "who was my friend". This is not to imply they are not my friend in real life, but to point out that their LJ account is either completely inactive or in a few cases, dead. Let's start with the one exception.
People Who Still Use LiveJournal - 1 person
As of this writing, it says I have 72 "friends" on LJ, not counting deleted accounts. Exactly one has posted in the last 6 months.
kylecassidy is Kyle Cassidy is a photographer and author hailing from Philadelphia, I met him when catvalente and justbeast got married. He also was the one who said " my friend Eliza Rickman needs someone to host a house concert between Chicago and Philadelphia" which ultimately led to hosting her house concert in 2011, which led to me hosting a total of seven house concerts. So that all turned out well!
Cat & Dmitri and the People I Met at their Wedding - 6 people
catvalente is New York Times Best Selling Artist Catherynne M. Valente.
justbeast is Dmitri.
I met both of them through theferrett and zoethe around the late 2007 time frame.
They got married in 2009, divorced somewhat later. I still talk to Dmitri occasionally, but lost touch with Cat along the way.
At their wedding, I met a bunch of other people basically who I followed, none of whom post anymore. Besides kylecassidy, they were:
yagathai also lived in Philadelphia. caudelac was out of the Raleigh area. Both actually stayed at my house for the wedding as many of us offered up crash space for people who were on a budget.
roomette was another wedding guest, confusingly also named Cat (I think), who I met possibly even more briefly than Kyle Cassidy. Lovely writer though.
tithenai was still another wedding guest. She is Amal El-Mohtar, writer and occasional radio personality.
Other People I Met Through Ferrett and Gini - 15 people
I met theferrett (aka Ferrett Steinmetz and zoethe (aka Gini) through the Monday Night Movie Club back in 2005. Specifically, after a showing of Murderball, which means I met them on August 8, 2005. They are still dear friends.
Through them I met a lot of other people through various means. First the people I still keep up with.
susitna was their daughter Erin, who was briefly in one of our gaming groups for a while.
khiron1416 was Ian, who I met somehow through Ferrett and Gini. He was part of our gaming group for quite a while.
jackofmany was Todd, who I met at a Rock Band night at Ferrett and Gini's back when that was a thing. He and I go to concerts and movies together from time to time.
hooloovooo was Shannon, who I believe knew Ferrett via livejournal and then met him in person when she moved to Ohio.
babymonkey was Tiffin and mishamish was Mischa who I met at a party at Ferrett's, or maybe at Dmitri's? I don't remember anymore. Most memorably, I hung out with them in Barcelona.
aiela was Angie, who is a close friend of Ferrett and Gini.
bart_calendar was Bart, one of only two people I ever followed on Livejournal who I hadn't met at least once in real life, however fleetingly. I met him because he was commenting regularly on Ferrett's journal. I then met him in person when I was in Europe in 2015.
And now the ones I don't.
tylik was Catherine, the other person I ever followed on LiveJournal who I hadn't met at least once in real life. Again, met her because she was commenting regularly on Ferrett's journal. Met in person for a few meals along the way.
celticcowboy68 was Shannon's then husband Jonno, who I don't keep up with anymore.
bec76 was Bec, another friend of Ferrett's. She took my ex's side when I got divorced, more or less.
zodarzone was Bec's partner, Jer. Huge comics fan, really nice guy. Also lost in the divorce.
moominmuppet was Sarah, Bec & Jer's roommate. She dog sat for Tulip a couple times.
Radio People - 9 people
Way back in the day, my custom signature on my email included a link to my Livejournal with what was purportedly a Bob Dylan quote saying "I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.". I may have been a bit pretentious back then, although I still like the quote. Anyway, a small number of from my radio station people followed. Remember, LiveJournal was popular back then.
pussygalore66 was my friend Elise. We met when she was dating a guy in my quad freshman year. She and I hosted a show together was back in Spring 2004, but went to innumerable gigs and restaurants together even after she moved away from Cleveland.
fadat was my friend Tom. He and I even hosted a show together in the Spring 2017 semester, even though I'm supposedly his nemesis.
ron0 was my long-time cohost Ron.
mikhailalterman was my metalhead buddy Mikhail. Honestly, I think he created an account just to comment the first time I got engaged and never used it again.
pianodan was my friend Dan, who had a show adjacent to mine for several years - he was at 2pm and I was at 4pm.
And while she wasn't specifically a radio person, drdingbat was Dan's wife Leigh, who lured him away from radio to live in another state. To be fair, pretty much any rational person would have made the same decision, since Leigh is pretty cool.
undertheivy99 was my friend Patty, the last woman standing from my Spring 1998 training class.
lipitup was Tran, a ska kid at the station back in the early 00s. I hear she went to Asia to teach English or something.
ayche was Harold, aka "Ayche". The last time I saw him was the night I saw Dolly Parton. He passed away within that week, as I recall.
Coworkers - 5 people
There aren't a whole bunch of these since I normally kept that pretty segmented.
rshruti was my friend Shruti. I went to college with her four years and never met her, but we did have friends in common. We've now worked together for well over a decade.
herpdaddy was my friend Tim, one of the few people who has been at my company longer than I have.
jmartenstein was my friend Justin, who technically could have been listed as a radio friend or a college friend. He was working at my company when we started, but didn't stay long as he and his then spouse moved to Seattle. I'm still vaguely in touch with him.
nein09 was a woman named Melinda (I think) who interned at my company. We had a lot of friends in common and stayed in touch via LiveJournal for a few years.
eldan was her spouse, Eldan. I met him through one of my roommates in Little Italy before I actually met her.
Family - 1 Person
tigerlily_blue was my sister, Rachel. She lurked here for quite a few years before starting her own journal in 2005. Also, her presence here proves that I didn't prioritize these people in any coherent order!
The Ex Games - 6 People
xhollydayx was my first wife, Holly. This is the first time I've referred to her as anything but "the ex" since 2011, but she was a big part of my LiveJournal life from 2005 to 2011 so it seems dishonest not to list her here somewhere.
teriel was Taylor, a friend of my ex. lupagreenwolf was Lupa, who was at the time married to Taylor, Both were at our wedding.
aspasia93 was Marie, another friend of my ex.
inastateofhope was Erin. She was one of my ex's best friends and the "Lady of Honor" at the wedding.
onabus was Tony, who was dating Erin at the time and was therefore at the wedding. I kept him in the divorce, so in some ways he's the best thing to come out of my first wedding besides Tulip, which is appropriate because he was one of the first people to meet Tulip.
That's the first 43 people, which just misses being a fortuitous number. I'm vaguely confident that I can knock out the remainder in a second part. We shall see. And once I've done that, I'll have removed yet another procrastination reason that keeps me from tagging all my old posts.
EDIT: Added a few people as I reviewed the list and realized that I'd missed a few in these categories. All were added shortly after posting though.