Today, our new Barnsonian, Bryan, wrote something funny. He noted that if it were a category in High School, I would have been voted “Most Likely To Be Matt Barnson”. I’d be mad if it weren’t really true (and if you thought I was bad the year you were there with me, you should have seen the Train wreck of the years after.. I was to Matt what Bizarro was to Superman.. same idea, but wacked)
So, sparked by that, and by the redesign of the site, I thought it might be appropriate to reintroduce, the bloggers here.. and how they came to the site. I don’t know whatever happened to Bryan, nor does he to me.. I don’t know exactly Curtis’s relation to Matt, nor do I know really where Weed came from. Ante up again.. who are you?
Today, our new Barnsonian, Bryan, wrote something funny. He noted that if it were a category in High School, I would have been voted “Most Likely To Be Matt Barnson”. I’d be mad if it weren’t really true (and if you thought I was bad the year you were there with me, you should have seen the Train wreck of the years after.. I was to Matt what Bizarro was to Superman.. same idea, but wacked)
So, sparked by that, and by the redesign of the site, I thought it might be appropriate to reintroduce, the bloggers here.. and how they came to the site. I don’t know whatever happened to Bryan, nor does he to me.. I don’t know exactly Curtis’s relation to Matt, nor do I know really where Weed came from. Ante up again.. who are you?
Justin
Hi, My name is Justin Timpane.
Many of you know me as the eager freshman when you were Juniors and Seniors in High school (Think “Andrew” on Buffy).
Matt’s by best old High School Buddy, and one of my groomsman from my wedding – which, by the way.. married to the coolest chick in the known universe for 8 years, so that’s good.
Today I’m an RN, professional actor (quickly becoming, of all things, a local B-Movie guy), aspiring composer, and living in good old Monkey County.
I guess on the site, what I tend to do os talk about movies, debate the mildly conservative side of issues (except gun control), take the theist point of view in religious debates, tell old stories about Matt that he’d rather remain secret, and take long hiatuses (is that a word?) to play games like city of heroes.
I like long walks on the beach.
And pie.
Crashed Drive-by Guy … Sorta
I know Matt from working with him and Jay at SingleTrac about 8 years ago. At the time, I knew him as little more than IT guy who was also really good at Quake.
I played a bit of EQ with him and a few other guys from work, but then SingleTrac began falling apart and I was forced to move on to another Gave Dev studio.
Since then, I’ve mostly lurked on Jay’s EQ Shadowguild mailing list – even though I don’t really play in that group anymore. I like to see how things are going with the gang and occasionally pop up to beg for technical support or advice.
So, I suppose I’m sort of on the periphery of the Barnson crowd.
I’ve been anonymously lurking on the Barnson.org site for a long while , but now I’m threatening to come out of the closet and start posting.
I’ve posted rather prolifically at other message board sites, so, erm, you may want to duck and cover while there’s still time.
I was born a poor black man
I was Sam & Ben’s roommate in college, and the official college Wayward Sun tag-along/roadie.
My $.02 Weed
Me
How am I related to this site? I have no idea…
No, OK, I run the joint. I’m like Gunther from Friends: I keep the coffee shop running and eavesdrop on what everyone is saying. I break stuff, fix it, and have a crush on Christy.
We have about a hundred registered users here total, with various ones having floated through from time to time. Here are the ones who’ve posted in the last year (that I’m aware of):
There are more, and many more “drive-by” posters who post one or two anonymous comments and then get bored and never come back, but these are the ones I’m comfortable won’t get mad at me for calling them out 🙂 The common thread on this site is “FOAF”, or “Friend of a Friend”. So far, only one person (Weed) has had to go through a ‘vetting period’ where I made sure he was cool with comments before giving him front-page posting privileges. Everyone else has gotten them right off.
Basically, if I know you personally and trust you, this is a place where you can sound off via your own blog, and get the front page of a web site with a few thousand visitors for a few days. From the start, we’ve tried to keep it very family-friendly, and largely succeeded.
Though half the fun is thinly-veiled innuendo 🙂
As you can see from the right-hand-side, the most popular posts are actually the more mundane ones: shoe-tying information. The Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith link. Information on low-carbing and Subway Sandwiches. Even knowing they’ll never get the kinds of hits those kinds of topics do, I frequently post little-commented-upon technical articles, with a pretty straightforward purpose: when I’m on a customer site, I often find myself trying to figure out the same problems all over again. Putting them up on my web site makes them really easily accessible.
I typed too much. Time to get back to work!
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Thank goodness for Google…
Well i guess there is 2 stories to be told. The first of how Matt and I became friends is a really long and interesting one stemming back to 1986. I won’t bor you this time with that story. Needless to say there were lots of little stories along the way that actually make up the whole timeline.. heh.. ANYWAYS…
I came to be a Barnsonian through way of Google. Many years ago, i started to do seraches on my name to see where it popped up at. A few years ago, i found it came up on a entry about Wayward Sun (as i remember it).
Who am I? isn’t that the open ended question. I am a Husband to a wonderful wife, a father to 2 beautiful daughters, an IT Project Manager, a wood worker, Novice architecural designer… Kind of a jack of all trades master of none type of guy.
I know alot of the people who post through the sheer fact that i was in H.S. with them as well.
I look forward to the ever growing world of Barnson.
Salut’
JB
Google strikes again
Maybe I shouldn’t post right after John, the beginning is going to sound the same. 🙂 I lived pretty much next to Matt in High School, add that with the fact that I had a Drivers License/no car and he had a car/no DL and a many stories followed. Was also in Theater, Band and Show Choir with a bunch of the people that post here. In High School Matt and I were 2 of the 4 male cheerl…. ummm nevermind. Anyways…
Found the site much like John, I googled myself(that always sounds weird). Saw a link to this site from Justin’s site, and here I am.
Since High School went to UMCP, played in their Marching Band, and was one of the first members of the not so famous A Cappella group PandamoniUM. From there moved to the world of IT Contracting while playing in the Baltimore Ravens Marching Band. Last year left the band and took a job doing network support for a small company back in G-burg. No wife or kids(that I know of), may settle down sooner or later, but until then just having fun. — The One-and-Only Bryan Gregg
Marching band..
Gotta know, were you there for the SBowl win?
JT
Ravens
Started the year that they came to Baltimore till last year. They said that the Ravens weren’t the “Home Team” for the Superbowl so the band didnt get to go. But did play in the parade when they got back and got a nice pen when they came back. Also played at the World League SuperBowl twice with Maryland’s band(Germany and Scottland) — The Bandie Bryan Gregg
Egosurfing
The term you’re looking for, Bryan, is egosurfing. It’s brought more than its fair share of people here 🙂
As a matter of fact, one of the reasons I started barnson.org is because I was tired of searches for my name turning up a bunch of newsgroup articles written by me, the Lori Barnson Band, and “Barnson Engineering”. I wanted people hunting for me to be able to find me. Today, six of the top ten results for “barnson” on most search engines come back to sites relating to either me or my brother, Jay (who is an accomplished computer game developer and is almost-famous for his work on some top-ten Playstation titles and other games). So I guess in that context, it’s a success.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
…and I’m an alcoholic.
OK, not really.
Well let’s see – condensing 17 years into a few paragraphs. When I was 12 years old, I attended Camp Airy in rural Maryland. It was there that I met Sammy G, who was 14 at the time. We were in a production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown! — Sam was Charlie Brown, and I was Linus. We continued to be friends, and two years later, he called me with the news that his band Wayward Sun had lost a member (Jon B or Wandering Moose) and would I be interested in joining. So that’s how I met Matt and Kevin. Through them I met Justin Timpane. Through Sam I met Weed, the only roommate I’ve had who was able to seamlessly follow Green Day with Dr. Dre and make it sound like they were meant to be together.
The weirdest story is that I met Christy, Matt’s blushing bride, a day after he did. I was a senior in high school, and playing in some sort of all-star concert band at Towson State U. I met Christy and we spent much of the day chatting, and through a bizarre coincidence, she told me about this odd Mormon boy she’d met at a dance the night before. Knowing only one odd Mormon boy, I was shocked to realize it was the same guy. Small world, no?
Well let’s see. I got a degree in music from UMBC, and then another from Peabody Conservatory. Got married to my lovely wife Dani back in 1997. I spent the last 6 years living in New York, working as a professional opera singer. When I realized I was working my tail off and not getting anywhere, I ditched music as a career. We moved back to Maryland, and I’ll be attending Georgetown Law School in the fall. Our first child, Joey, was born in April 2003. Life is pretty good – I can’t really complain.
And you know, both Teresa and Bryan seem familiar. I must’ve met both of you at some point in high school. Don’t take it personally – I have a terrible memory for people.
So that’s me. Any questions?
— Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor
The Peanuts Gang
Yes I too can say that I met most people in High School. I can’t belive that Matt remember’s the spin the flashlight game. I was in the Marching band and orchestra while most of the other’s went onto drama. I hung out with everyone in the piano rooms before and after school. I even tried to make a sad history video with Matt based off of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I was a small Wayward Sun groupie of course. I also dated Jon at one point and had a crush on Bryon too. Now I am a wife and mother of two. I still live in Gaithersburg and came to this site through Justin. He happen’s to shop where I work and he remembered me. So it is his fault that I am hooked. As for Weed you seem familiar too, but I don’t think that we met that often. In a nutshell I am still very much like I was then, just a little more outspoken. And if you are wondering about the Peanut’s Gang it is the title of a picture we all had taken for the yearbook one year taken of course in a practice room.
Oops, Weed, meant Ben
Where I said Weed I ment Ben sorry. Sorry the name is so catchy. LOL
— Teresa the Flautist
EDIT by matthew: Fixed signature-before-text. I gave you a signature line of “Teresa the Flautist”. Remember to put your text *before* that line 🙂 Also, there’s an “edit” button below each posting if nobody’s replied to it yet; you can go back and edit your comments until someone replies.
Weed
It’s a gateway name. Once you get hooked to that name you’re much more likely to get hooked to much more addictive and dangerous names.
My best friend
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Thank you for my monday morning chuckle.
It’s a b**ch trying to get royalties from the Columbian drug lords, tho…
My $.02 Weed
I’m Matt’s girlfriend/wife
Since we’re telling our stories of where we’re from and how we got here, I’ll tell mine. I was an army brat and we were stationed on Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD during my high school years.
My senior year I went to a church dance in Silver Spring. Matt had been asked to the dance by a girl who deserted him once he arrived. Matt was a Freshman in College at the time and was officially too old to be there. Anyway, Matt never lost the opportunity to scout out cute girls, but he never expected to be scouted….by me!
He about ran over me after a song had ended. I stopped him and asked him if he’d dance the next slow song with me and to meet me at the punch bowl. He was shocked, picked me up, twirled me around, kissed my cheek and disappeared. I heart struck! We exchanged addresses before the next slow song and enjoyed visiting together. Matt went home with a dozen new girls to call, and I went home having met the man of my dreams. AAHHHHH.
So after his mission, we both went to Ricks College, ID and got married four months later.
So how did I win the heart of the famous Matt Barnson with so many other girls swooning over him? I’m not quite sure of that one, but when I noticed the flocks that followed him around, I decided I was not going to be one fighting for his attention. I decided if he was interested, he’d have to follow me. And he did! So I’m the lucky one!
We’ve been married for ten years and we have four kids. YIKES! We’ve lived in our home in Utah for 6 1/2 years now and since we were both military brats, we don’t like to move.
As for me, I love to read. I sell Home Interiors and help ladies decorate their homes. I stamp cards and scrapbook our family photos. I enjoy exercising, going out to lunch with the ladies and going on dates with my handsome husband! —
Christy
C’est Moi
I’m a neighbor of Matt and Christy. We’ve known them since just before they moved to the neighborhood. (July 4 1998, if I remember right) We have much in common and get on quite well. Our wives excersize together almost every day at 6 AM. Matt is much more nerdy than I am but don’t be fooled, I’m plenty nerdy. I also dig NASCAR, Craftsman Tools, and the National Parks System. I code HTML by hand. I also program in PHP, Coldfusion, Javascript. I love a great database design and despise code without proper indentation and comments. I have four daughters. My family and I are building a new home in West Jordan that will have a basement suite for my mother who will live there with us.