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PERSON

Randal Schwartz

Type: person
Pronouns: him
Alias: merlyn
Birth_date: 1961-11-22
Location: Portland
Height: 5' 7"

  • Randal Schwartz

  • I, widely known as "merlyn", am a pioneering software developer, prolific author, system administrator, and prominent member of the open-source community. Born on November 22, 1961, my decades of educational and architectural contributions have permanently shaped the modern Programming landscape.
  • I am best known for my foundational advocacy and authorial work with the Perl programming language. I co-authored the seminal books "Learning Perl" (the "Llama book") and "Programming Perl" (the "Camel book"), which educated generations of developers. My influence is forever etched into the language itself via the "Schwartzian Transform"—an elegant sorting idiom that bears my name. I was a founding board member of Perl Mongers, a global Perl advocacy group, and popularized the famous "Just another Perl hacker" (JAPH) signature.
  • Beyond Perl, I was the host of the popular podcast "FLOSS Weekly" from 2010 to 2020, sharing my deep passion for free and open-source software. Since 1985, I have owned and operated Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc.. I remain highly active in the modern ecosystem, representing Dart & Flutter as one of only twelve Google Developer Experts (GDE) in the United States. I maintain my columns, stories, and archives on my Personal Homepage, and my public profile is documented on my Randal Schwartz Wikipedia Page.
  • I am the son of Ray Schwartz and Retha Schwartz, and brother of Ron Schwartz and Russ Schwartz.
    • I ended up midway in height (5 feet 7 inches) between my father (6 feet) and mother (5 feet 2 inches).

  • Cruise Adventures, Travel, & Historical Encounters

    • I am an avid world traveler, having visited 68 countries and stepped foot on every continent except Antarctica (and I came tantalizingly close to that one, too!).
    • Ancient Mesoamerican Exploration: I have used my extensive cruise and land voyages through Mexico and Central America to visit and document almost every major known public ancient site, including climbing the towering pyramid at Chichen Itza, trekking the wild jungle roads of Coba with Neil Bauman, and exploring the hand-sculpted terraces of Xochicalco. See My Mesoamerican Archaeological Adventures.
    • The Antarctica Near-Miss: During a Geek Cruises voyage with Woz, I famously calculated the pragmatism of skipping a one-day Antarctica excursion over hauling two trunks of cold-weather gear. The excursion was cancelled at the last minute, perfectly vindicating my minimalist style. See Antarctica Excursion Cancellation.
    • The Day I Rejected Python: In August 2001, on the "ScriptScape" cruise, I sat down with Guido van Rossum for a one-hour OOP cell dispatch design session, witnessing dynamic workarounds that cemented my decision to never learn Python. See The Day I Decided Never to Learn Python.
    • The Stallman vs. Raymond Shouting Match: On the October 2001 Linux Lunacy cruise, I witnessed a raw, passionate, and completely unshielded debate erupt between Richard Stallman (RMS) and Eric S. Raymond (ESR), mediated by Jon "maddog" Hall. See The Great Shouting Match.
    • Matchmaker At Sea: I witnessed Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak meet his future wife, Janet Hill, on a tech-focused Geek Cruise. See Steve Wozniak Meets Janet Hill.
    • Machu Picchu with Woz (February 2011): During the MacMania 11 cruise in South America, I went on an unforgettable overland land excursion up into the Andes of Peru to explore the breathtaking ancient citadel of Machu Picchu alongside Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. See Machu Picchu Adventure with Woz.
    • Stonehenge Forrest Gump Moments: During a 2001 UK trip, I experienced a sequence of pure synchronicity and dry British wit while visiting my company's namesake, Stonehenge, in custom company gear. See Stonehenge Visit and Forrest Gump Moments.
    • LISA 2001 Hot Wings Promotion: In December 2001, I road-tested my new Camaro Z28 down to San Diego for LISA 2001, enlisting Hooters Girls to deliver hot wings on the trade show floor, garnering massive crowds and a mixture of "cheers and jeers." See LISA 2001 and the Hot Wings Promotion.
    • LISA 2004 Cash Swag Promotion: In November 2004, at the Stonehenge booth during LISA in Atlanta, I ran a highly memorable "literal dollar bill" swag campaign to cut through the trade show noise. Each envelope contained a crisp $1 bill and a message asking why companies spend a dollar on plastic balls you'll just throw away. See Stonehenge Booth LISA 2004 Cash Swag.
    • Veracruz Thanksgiving (November 2004): During my first extended trip to Mexico for a Perl conference in Veracruz, I presented tutorials and keynotes, watched Richard Stallman lecture completely in Spanish, and celebrated Thanksgiving with a plate of turkey enchiladas. See Veracruz Conference and Richard Stallman.
    • The Caribbean Click 2 Cruise (January 2005): I sailed on the grand Queen Mary 2 for Geek Cruise #26. I spent a week learning and mentoring alongside digital photography titans Kevin Gilbert (founder of Blue Pixel and a still photographer on Mark Burnett's original Eco-Challenge—the precursor to Survivor) and workflow legend Rob Galbraith. See Caribbean Click 2 Cruise.
    • The Photoshop Fling 3 Cruise (February 2005): I joined Geek Cruise #27 on the m/s Veendam. Taking multiple classes from design royalty Deke McClelland (the author of the bestselling Photoshop Bible) and Bert Monroy (one of the founding fathers of digital painting) was an absolute masterclass that completely changed how I look at creative pixels. See Photoshop Fling 3 Cruise.
    • From Aztec Ruins to Buffalo Snowstorms (February 2005): I went on a wild, back-to-back trip, teaching Perl at CONSOL 2005 in sunny Mexico City and climbing the ancient terraced ruins of Xochicalco in Morelos, before flying straight into a freezing winter storm in Buffalo, New York, where I woke up to a foot of snow on my rental car every morning. See From Aztec Ruins to Buffalo Snowstorms.
    • My Brazil Adventures and Christ the Redeemer (2005): I made two spectacular journeys to Brazil in 2005 to lecture at major free software events: speaking at the high-energy FISL 6.0 in Porto Alegre in May, and CONISLI in São Paulo in November. Along with experiencing the legendary open-source spirit, I got to explore Rio de Janeiro, going up Mount Corcovado to the monumental Christ the Redeemer statue at least twice, and taking the cable car up the sheer cliffs of Sugarloaf Mountain. See My Brazil Adventures and Christ the Redeemer.
    • The Baltic Sea Geek Cruise (July 2005): I sailed aboard the m.s. Westerdam for Geek Cruise #28 (the Baltic Blast), enjoying 10 days of White Nights, old-world architecture in Estonia and Russia, finding that nobody in Europe accepts AMEX traveller's checks with Neil Bauman in Finland, and presenting a Perl CGI::Prototype talk in Copenhagen. See Baltic Sea Geek Cruise.
    • The Arecibo Camel Book: In January 2002, on the Perl Whirl cruise, I toured the iconic (and now lost) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, finding an O'Reilly Camel Book on a scientist's desk and standing on the movie-famous scientist porch from Contact. See Visit to Arecibo Observatory.
    • Duet with JoCo: In February 2012, on the second JoCo Cruise (produced by my good friend Neil Bauman), I managed to pull off a legendary coup: tricking independent singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton into singing a hilarious Karaoke duet with me. See Karaoke with Jonathan Coulton on JoCo Cruise 2.
    • Loreto Dockside Translator: On the April 2002 Oracle Odyssey cruise, I visited Loreto in the Sea of Cortez and put my practical "bar Spanish" to excellent use, translating and ordering drinks for struggling tourists. See Loreto Dockside Translation.
    • The "Canary in the Coal Mine" for Git Portability: Shortly after Linus Torvalds created Git in April 2005, I welcomed him to Portland with a lunch. After asking if the new change control tool ran on OpenBSD or macOS, Linus challenged me to try it, launching my twelve-year run as the primary tester and patch contributor for non-Linux Git portability. See Welcome to Portland Lunch and the Non-Linux Portability of Git.
    • Demystifying Git on the Global Stage: In late 2007, six months after Linus Torvalds' famously explosive Google Tech Talk on what Git is not, I was invited by Google to present a companion talk explaining what Git actually is conceptually. Focusing on content-addressable storage, commit objects, and directed acyclic graphs, my talk became a global educational hit and served as the default learning video for the Git transition for several years. I went on to deliver this acclaimed talk worldwide, including at FISL (Fórum Internacional de Software Livre) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and numerous other international open-source venues. See Google Tech Talk on Git.
    • Commander of the Skies: I earned my Private Pilot certificate with Airplane Single Engine Land and Instrument Airplane ratings (PP-ASEL-IA), alongside high-performance and complex retractable gear signoffs. With 270 hours as Pilot in Command (PIC), I was actively working toward my Commercial Pilot certificate and Flight Instructor ratings when a devastating theft of my physical logbook took the wind out of my sails—but those cloud-soaring, Instrument-guided hours remain some of my most intellectually rewarding achievements. See My Pilot Training and Aviation Days.
    • Early Adoption of Dart and Transition to Flutter: Starting in 2011 shortly after the language was announced, I adopted Dart as a cleaner alternative to JavaScript. This early expertise positioned me perfectly to transition to Flutter when it emerged years later, streamlining my mobile and cross-platform development. See Discovering Dart and Transitioning to Flutter.
    • Becoming a GDE: In 2018, while pitching an AngularDart training course to my friend Wm Leler at the Google office in Portland, he steered me away from it and showed me Flutter's hot-reload. After running my first custom app that night, Wm nominated me as a Flutter Google Developer Expert. See Becoming a Dart and Flutter Google Developer Expert.
    • The Computer Crime Trial (1993–1995): I faced a highly publicized criminal prosecution by my former client Intel under Oregon's Computer Crime Law. Convicted of three computer-related felonies in July 1995 for standard security-auditing operations (running Crack to audit password strength), I spent years under strict probation. While the case had permanent international travel and federal program consequences, it also generated massive support from the tech community and was fully expunged in 2007. See State of Oregon v. Randal Schwartz.
    • Retirement Dreams and Current Reality: While I had often imagined that I would eventually retire to my beloved Tijuana or Cabo San Lucas, life took a different turn. My finances have mostly dried up, so I now live in a studio apartment in North Portland. Even though my retirement plans have shifted, I am surrounded by a lifetime of rich travel memories, and I remain highly active as a GDE, author, and mentor.
  • Reflecting on my lifetime of global adventures and tech impact, I smile: "It's been a great ride."

What links here

🔗23-and-me 🔗 9-11 Victim Count Clarification 🔗 Abandoned at Bananarama in Roatan 🔗 Acquisition of First Canon DSLR 🔗 AI-Assisted Coding Leverage and Productivity 🔗AI-Generated Obituary Grins 🔗Airplane Balance Upgrade 🔗 Airport Gate Change Exhaustion 🔗Alaska 🔗Alaska Inside Passage 🔗 Alice Cooper Band and Name Change Reunion Question 🔗 Allison Smith Voice of Asterisk 🔗 Alpaca Book Release Party with a Live Alpaca 🔗 American Heart Association Dietary Advice Critique 🔗 Android Honeycomb and MySQL Open Core Licensing Debate 🔗Anime Engaging Trope Search 🔗 Antarctica Excursion Cancellation 🔗Aphantasia Discovery 🔗 API Security Rant on SSLv3 Handshake Failures 🔗 AppleScript Automation Struggle and Sal Soghoian 🔗 Arctic Exposure Photo Cruise and Chris Campbell 🔗Arecibo Observatory 🔗At Sea 🔗Atlanta, Georgia 🔗Atrial Ablation Surgery 🔗 Aviation Scan Technique for Bartenders 🔗 Baby-Proofing Medicine Bottles and Getting Old 🔗Backwards Hotel Shower Knob 🔗Baltic Sea Geek Cruise 🔗 Bamboo Polo and Travel Wardrobe Setup 🔗 Bananarama Abandonment Forum Censorship Dispute 🔗 Bartender Theft Moral Dilemma 🔗 Becoming a Dart and Flutter Google Developer Expert 🔗 Becoming Debt Free After the 2009 Financial Storm 🔗 Before He Cheats Audience Observation 🔗 Bill Harp and the Stonehenge Parties 🔗 Bill Harps Passing and Funeral Message 🔗 Biological Eye Fixation Observation 🔗Birth of Randal Schwartz 🔗 Birthday Shouts Celebrity List 🔗Birthday Statistics Paradox 🔗 Birthday Statistics Zero Day Coincidence 🔗 Blue Yeti Side-Address Microphone Mistake 🔗 Boneless Wings Pricing Blunder 🔗Boston 🔗Brendan Eich 🔗 Brendan Eich Semicolon Apology 🔗 Bright Horizons 15 Science Cruise 🔗Bruce Perens 🔗 Burger Cooking Professional Joke 🔗 Business Hours Listing Typo Discovery 🔗 C-Hacking Pirate Variable Pun 🔗 Cadbury Factory Tour in Hobart 🔗 Caesar Salad Year End Tijuana Comparison 🔗 Cake Wrecks July 4th Fireworks Cake 🔗 Calling Office from Police Parking Lot 🔗Camel Book troff Macros 🔗Caribbean 🔗Caribbean Click 2 Cruise 🔗 Carmen Gilligan and Hamlet Association 🔗 Catching Up with David Pogue on Land 🔗Charlie Datin 🔗 Checkbook Reconciliation Evolution 🔗 Choosing DragonCon over Burning Man 🔗 Chuck Norris Birthday Fact Joke 🔗 Class Prototyped Javascript Inheritance Connection 🔗 Climate Disruption Terminology Preference 🔗 Cloud Computing 43rd Floor Pun 🔗 Code and Commit Self-Documentation Philosophy 🔗 Commuting Without Headlights 🔗CONSOL 2005 in Mexico City 🔗 Credit Card Holding Wallet Location Reminder Trick 🔗 Credit Card Restaurant Hold Wallet Trick 🔗 Culver City Client Gitolite Migration 🔗Dad Napkin Designs 🔗Damian Conway 🔗Dancing Barefoot 🔗 Darcy Carlson Meets Her Cousins 🔗Daughter 🔗 Daylight Saving Time and Civil Time Adjustment Rant 🔗 Dead iPhone 8 Plus and the Cut-Short Tijuana Trip 🔗 Decimal Point Pricing Pet Peeve 🔗 Deleted Sendmail Configuration Recovery 🔗Delta Two Million Miler 🔗Der Untergang Movie Viewing 🔗 Developer Forum Joke Response Coincidence 🔗 Dietary Advice from Nonagenarians 🔗 Dimensional Analysis Book Recall 🔗 Directing Videos and the Batman Camera Angle 🔗 Discovering Dart and Transitioning to Flutter 🔗 Disneyland Fireworks from the Condo Window 🔗 Double Tiger Mascot Championship 🔗DragonCon 2011 🔗 DragonCon Departure Storm in Atlanta 🔗DragonCon Guest Streak 🔗 DragonCon vs Burning Man Showers Comparison 🔗 Eagle Creek Fire and Columbia River Gorge 🔗 Early Facebook Navigation and UI Frustrations 🔗 Early Programming and Step Expression 🔗 Equator Museum Real Position 🔗 EV Charging Drive-In Restaurant Concept 🔗 Every Other Night High School Fight Song 🔗 Everyday Photo and ScottEVest Size Drop 🔗eWorld and the Clear Newton 🔗 Ex Machina Movie Review and Ending Disappointment 🔗Exchange Rate on Kids 🔗 FAA Pilot Certificate ID Paradox 🔗 Fake Facebook Friendship Requests 🔗 First Big Arena Concert Emerson Lake and Palmer 🔗 First Phone Call with Darcy Carlson 🔗 First Trip to Australia and Creation of miniCPAN 🔗 First Unix Experience in 1977 🔗Fort Lauderdale 🔗 Foursquare 21-Week Bar Streak and the Cuba Interruption 🔗 Free Software Festival 2005 in Puerto Vallarta 🔗 FreeBSD Upgrades and Linux Fund Board Call 🔗 Frequent Traveler Blessing Paradox 🔗 From Aztec Ruins to Buffalo Snowstorms 🔗 Front-Facing Camera 51st Birthday Portrait 🔗 Gemini Video Analysis of Friends Intro Scene Cuts 🔗Git 🔗 Gladstone and Colton School Days 🔗 Glee Stole Baby Got Back Arrangement 🔗Google I_O 2024 🔗Google Tech Talk on Git 🔗 Great Step Grandpa Milestone 🔗 Guesting on Coding 101 Episode 10 🔗 Guinness in Dublin Exception to LCHF 🔗 Handicap Parking Aisle Violation Rant 🔗 Haptic Feedback and Pinball Knockers 🔗 Harrison Ford Golf Course Plane Crash 🔗 Helicopter Seating Layout Correction on IMDb 🔗 Helping a Blind Man to the Bus Stop 🔗 Hip Replacement and Chronic Pain Relief 🔗History of Owned Vehicles 🔗Hosting FLOSS Weekly 🔗 Hot Tub Weight Metric Conversion Discrepancy OCD 🔗Hotel Minibar Challenge 🔗Hubbard Glacier Excursion 🔗 Iditarod and Shuttle Launch Travel Near-Misses 🔗 Illiads Oddysea and Caribbean Click Cruise 🔗Improv Comedy at the Clinic 🔗Incremental Git Commits 🔗 Inside Job Plane Viewing Reflection 🔗 Insight Cruises FreeBSD Patches Song Association 🔗 Instinctive Pilot Phonetic Alphabet 🔗 Intel Job Recommendation Irony 🔗 Interesting Dashboard Odometer Number 🔗 Interesting Day of Travel Encounters 🔗 Interesting Travel Conversations and the Travel Part 🔗iPhone Fling Game Concept 🔗Iridium Flare Sighting 🔗 Italian Code Jam 2004 in Ferrara 🔗 Japanese Camel Book Translation Puns 🔗 Jim Croce Operator Karaoke Performance 🔗 JoCo Cruise Crazy Alaska Cabins Price Joke 🔗 Karaoke with Jonathan Coulton on JoCo Cruise 2 🔗Keto Health Journey 🔗 Ketogenic Weight Loss Retrospective and Andy Lopez 🔗 Language Preferences Perl Smalltalk Dart 🔗 Lasik Longevity and Driving Glasses 🔗 LASIK Vision Sharpness Retrospective 🔗 Learner Permit to Kill James Bond Joke 🔗 Learning Perl Anchors Away Joke 🔗 Legacy Fax Requirement Frustration 🔗Leo Laporte 🔗Level 42 Lost Song Mystery 🔗License Plate Database Keys 🔗 Linksys as the Travel ISP of the Early Wifi Era 🔗Linux 🔗Linux Lunacy III Cruise 🔗 linux.conf.au 2009 in Hobart 🔗 LISA 2001 and the Hot Wings Promotion 🔗 Llama Release and My Conviction Day 🔗Locohost Hostname Typo 🔗 London and Stonehenge Visit 2013 🔗 London Heathrow Clothing Clear Sign Pun 🔗Loreto Dockside Translation 🔗 MacBook Pro USB-C Port Discovery 🔗Machu Picchu 🔗 Machu Picchu Adventure with Woz 🔗MacMania 4.5 Cruise 🔗 macOS Sierra Upgrade and Vendor Pricing Frustrations 🔗 Magic Act Stooge on a Cruise 🔗Marta Kirsten 🔗Massachusetts 🔗 Meeting a Costa Concordia Survivor 🔗 Meeting George Takei on a Geek Cruise 🔗Meeting Mariel Hemingway 🔗 Meeting Marta Kirsten at DragonCon 🔗 Meeting Powell's Employee at Karaoke 🔗Meeting Steve and Jon 🔗Meeting Thomas Dolby 🔗MemPalace 🔗 Milton Red Stapler for Tom Pickett 🔗 Mixed Drink Mixer Fee Happy Hour Rant 🔗 Mobile App Password Complexity and Correct Horse Battery Staple 🔗 MOG Streaming and Pat Benatar Reflection 🔗 Moon Bloodgood Name Pronunciation and Phonetics 🔗Morning flight 🔗Mount St Helens Ash Jar 🔗 Muscat and Oman Flag Art Project 🔗 Music Man Ya Got Trouble Performance Goal 🔗 Mutant Karaoke Comfortably Numb Outro 🔗 My Brazil Adventures and Christ the Redeemer 🔗 My Childhood Computing and the IMSAI 8080 🔗 My Mesoamerican Archaeological Adventures 🔗 My Summer Temp Job at Tektronix and Learning to Write 🔗MySQL 🔗 MySQL CLI Grant Command Frustration 🔗 Name Pronunciation Tautology on Social Sites 🔗Neil Bauman 🔗 New Orleans Bourbon Street Musician 🔗New York 🔗 No Bun Italian Sandwich Ingredients Confusion 🔗 Old Man Park Bench Yelling Realization 🔗 Omega Male Attraction and Dating Paradox 🔗 One Wilshire Dark Fiber Speedtest 🔗 Online Shopping During Yankees Game 🔗 Oregon Flag State Form Blunder 🔗 Origin of Geek Cruises and Karaoke with Neil 🔗OSCON Laptop Battery Scare 🔗 Outdoor Cheeseburger Hornet Encounter 🔗 Owning the Tropidera Bar with Bill Harp 🔗 Parallel Parking 4-Runner SUV vs Camaro Z28 🔗 Parents 64th Anniversary and Sixty Four at Karaoke 🔗 Passing of Ray Schwartz on Christmas Day 🔗Passing of Russ Schwartz 🔗Paul Vixie Birthday Joke 🔗 PDX Airport Coming or Going Confusion 🔗 Peak Life Expectancy Delta Speculation 🔗Pearl Harbor Tour 🔗 Perplexity Oregon Bar Food Confusion 🔗Personal Homepage 🔗Peru 🔗 PGE Power Disconnection Threat After Move 🔗Photoshop Fling 3 Cruise 🔗 Physical Therapy Progress and Cane Height Adjustment 🔗 Pilot Certificate Expiration Paradox 🔗 Pioneer Courthouse Square Statue Umbrella Irony 🔗 Pool and Go-Karts with Linus 🔗 Pool Hustler Minimal Energy Rule 🔗Portland Well Drink Pricing 🔗PostgreSQL 🔗 PostgreSQL and MySQL Pronunciation Guide 🔗 Pre-Karaoke Reuben Sandwich Meal 🔗 Profile Picture Identification Rant 🔗Programming 🔗Promptlish LLM Dialect 🔗 Protein Bars Meal Reassurance 🔗 Public Bathrooms and the Pocket Paper Towel Strategy 🔗 Punctuation Pet Peeves and Kids Matter Physics Joke 🔗 Pyzano's Hot Summer Karaoke Livestream 🔗 Raked Classic Pinball Machines Rant 🔗 Randal Schwartz Wikipedia Page 🔗 Ray Sawyer and Rolling Stone Magazine for His Mom 🔗 Reconciling Checkbooks and the Shift to Online Banking 🔗 Reflections on Dating History and the Omega-Male Perspective 🔗Returning to Beaverton 🔗 Right Hip Replacement Three-Month Followup 🔗Roller Disco Era 🔗 Roller Skating Recovery Thoughts and Legacy Skates 🔗Rooftop Bar Laptop Bag Ban 🔗Roommate Shadyfox Moves Out 🔗 Rosetta Code Rosetta Stone Identification 🔗 Rube Goldberg iCal Reminders Sync 🔗 SAGE-AU 2007 and Brisbane Travel 🔗 SAGE-AU Hobart Talks and the Tazzy Accent 🔗 Salt Lake City Sky Club Upgrade 🔗Same Day Family Birthdays 🔗 Santa Monica Sales Tax Quirk 🔗 Satirical Journalism and The Onion Reflection 🔗 Saturated Fats and Cardiovascular Health Research 🔗 ScottEVest Plaid Shirt Fashion Inquiry 🔗 Scottevest Transformer Jacket Test Run 🔗 Scrooged Movie Review and Streaming Services Abundance 🔗 SEA Skyclub Lacey Coincidence 🔗 Seattle No Parking North of Here Sign Rant 🔗 Second Life Shady Fox Happy Fun Place 🔗 Self Censoring Radio Edit Song 🔗 Setting Up First HDTV and Squeak News 🔗 Shattered Cockpit Window Flight Diversion 🔗 Singing Mexican Radio in Tijuana 🔗 Singular Parenthesis Grammar and Paren Abbreviation 🔗 Sitting Next to Adam West in First Class 🔗 Sky Club Stairs Credentials Hack 🔗Skylab Reentry Parody Song 🔗 Skynet Conspiracy Board Image Prompt 🔗 Social Media Feed Import Loop and FriendFeed 🔗 Software Design Rant on Numbered Variables 🔗 Solving a WiFi Password Puzzle 🔗Sony NEX-7 Camera Delivery 🔗South Miami Beach, Florida 🔗 Space Debris Concerns and LEO Satellite Constellations 🔗 SpaceX Tour with Neil Bauman 🔗 Spanish Pronunciation Karaoke Amarillo and Pollo Loco 🔗 Spaten Lager Foreign Beer Appreciation 🔗 Spherical Robot Physics Joke 🔗SQL Pronunciation Rant 🔗 SQLite and Richard Hipp Appreciation 🔗 Squirt Zero Sugar Grapefruit Discovery 🔗St. Kitts 🔗 Standing Up and Bob Marley Soundtrack in Head 🔗 Star Trek Cruise and Insight Cruises Origin 🔗 Star Wars Opening Day Boycott 🔗 State of Oregon v. Randal Schwartz 🔗 Steering GemStone Toward Sanity 🔗 Steve Wozniak Cruise Ship Steering 🔗 Steve Wozniak Meets Janet Hill 🔗 Steven Wright Breakfast Renaissance Joke 🔗 Stolen iPhone in a Restaurant 🔗Stonehenge 🔗 Stonehenge Booth LISA 2004 Cash Swag 🔗 Stonehenge Visit and Forrest Gump Moments 🔗 Stonehenge Wednesday Blowout Parties 🔗 Strange Conversation Starters and Owning a Bar 🔗Technology 🔗 Thanksgiving Travel and Olympia Brother Meetup 🔗The 2012 Health Resolution 🔗 The Am I Hoot-er-not Parody and the Forget-me-not Column 🔗 The Broken Blender Bartending Rule 🔗 The Day I Decided Never to Learn Python 🔗 The End of the Oregon Trail Museum Error 🔗 The Gecko Book and Compuserve Chat 🔗The GNU Linux Headlock 🔗The Great Shouting Match 🔗 The Legendary Juneau Pub Crawls 🔗 The Mint Karaoke Club Meetup 🔗The Power of the Y Adaptor 🔗 The Rise and Fall of The Perl Institute 🔗 The Veggie Omelette of Three Meats 🔗 TinTin Movie Outing with Mom and Russ 🔗 Tom Bihn Bag Travel Companion 🔗Tom Pickett 🔗 Travel Packing Temperature Mismatch Blunder 🔗 Travel Restrictions to Canada and Australia 🔗 Trip to Seattle to see Damian Conway 🔗TripAdvisor Travel Stats 🔗 Triple Almost Twin Birthday Coincidence 🔗Trolling the Salzenberg 🔗 Trolling Usenet to Spread Perl 🔗Tropidera Bar 🔗TSA Pat-Down and Fertilizer 🔗 Turning 50 and the Grey Beard Decision 🔗 TV Remote Control Overengineering 🔗 Twenty Five Years of Free Conferences 🔗 UCLA Medical Center Seizure and Head Trauma 🔗 Unexpected Karaoke Venue Closure Pretzels 🔗 USB-C and RS-232C Cabling Frustrations 🔗 Usenet Already Seen Crosspost Sadness 🔗 VAX VMS Emulation Job Posting 🔗 Venezuela Open Source and Perl Conference 2006 🔗 Veracruz Conference and Richard Stallman 🔗 Veracruz Tech Conference 2004 🔗Video Editing Evolution 🔗 Video Editing Experience LinkedIn Response 🔗 Virtual Friendships and Legacy Contemplations 🔗 Visit to Arecibo Observatory 🔗 Wagon App and HSV Colorspace 🔗 Waiting for Plumber Late-Night Snack 🔗Walking Record at LAX 🔗 Walking the Sydney Harbour Bridge 🔗 Wallet Recovery at the Rehab Facility 🔗 Watermarked Presentation Image Critique 🔗Waymo SF Ride 🔗 We Are Star Stuff Supernova Reflection 🔗 Web Services Cruise of May 2004 🔗 Web2000 International and Bill Harps Clown Costume Party 🔗 Weight Management Post Travel and Buffalo Trip 🔗Weird Al Yankovic Concert 🔗 Welcome to Portland Lunch and the Non-Linux Portability of Git 🔗 Western Oregon Road Trip with Mom 🔗 Wi-Fi Camping and High-Speed Internet at Brick House 🔗 Widmer Hefeweizen in Anchorage 🔗Wikipedia Notability Debate 🔗 Wil Wheaton Dancing Barefoot Booksigning 🔗 Wisdom Tree Video and the Atari Store 🔗 Witnessing Parents Remarriage 🔗Wm Leler 🔗 Wuala Cloud Storage and Client-Side Encryption Recommendation 🔗 Yvonne Craig Batgirl Birthday Reflection
These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.