Patrick Coston's web site: Pivotal People and Moments

This page is dedicated to those people who inadvertently caused my life to spin off in a new direction
(whether they meant to or not). It's all connected. It's also dedicated to those moments that define my life.

Without Mom and Dad, I wouldn't have been born and I wouldn't have gone to Monmouth College
Without Brian at Monmouth College, I wouldn't have gone to grad school at Lehigh to study Artificial Intelligence and met the unknown guy
Without the unknown guy at Lehigh, I wouldn't have gotten a job at the Children's Television Workshop
Without Gina at the Children's Television Workshop I wouldn't have met Judith nor gotten a job at Prodigy
Without Judith, I wouldn't have moved to Washington and gotten a job Microsoft and met Sean
Without Sean, I wouldn't have met Crystal
Without Crystal, I probably would not have left Microsoft
Without Nicole, I would have never gone on a road-trip across America
Without Eli, I would have never stopped in NJ to work on a web page and met Patty
Without Patty and Angie, I would never have met Kelly from Malaysia

The Story behind each person

Brian Simone - The Story: I bumped into Brian right after I had signed up for classes at Monmouth College. He convinced me drop one of my courses and sign up for this Artificial Intelligence course. I did and fell in love with AI and ended up going to grad school at Lehigh University to study AI.
The Unknown Guy - The Story: I was working at the Multimedia Lab at Lehigh University when this guy I hardly new dropped in and handed me a sheet of paper he had printed out from the Internet. On it was a job description for which I was prefect for. The job was for the Children's Television Workshop in the Interactive Media dept writing Multimedia software for kids. It was my first interview out of grad school and I got the job.
Gina Covington - The Story: Gina worked with me at the Children Television Workshop. She worked very hard to convince me to go to her party, the Booze Cruise. She also convinced her other friend Judith to go. Neither of knew each other. Neither of us wanted to go, but Gina insisted. I met Judith at the Booze Cruise. They played the entire Pearl Jam album and at the time, it was our favorite album so we bonded over that. I didn't see Judith until I got a job at Prodigy where she worked. As my one-year contract at CTW came to a close, Gina told me about a job opportunity at Prodigy. It was my first interview leaving CTW and I got the job. While working there, I started to run into Judith more and more we soon started dating.
Judith Bruk - The Story: Judith and I started dating while I was at Prodigy. After two years, she moved to Washington for a great job at Microsoft. I soon followed and got a job at Microsoft as well.
Sean Thayer - The Story: After Judith and I broke up, I moved out. I ended up living with Sean. Sean met Crystal and invited her to our party. I met Crystal and we became friends. Sean and Crystal got involved briefly then moved on. I didn't see much of Crystal for a while until I had a C++ class in the building she worked. We ended up having lunch a few times a week, which led to hanging out after work. Eventually we started dating.
Crystal Morelare - The Story: I lost a lot of sleep dating Crystal. It's not her fault. I just couldn't say no to partying and staying up late. My work suffered. I had been trying for years to get out of software testing and back into software writing. I found that I just didn't have the time to dedicate to programming in order to find the jobs I wanted. On top of that, my lack of sleep was killing the remaining enthusiasm I had for my current job, so I left Microsoft with the idea that I was going to take a year sabbatical to figure out what I wanted to do next.
Nicole Germain - The Story: I purchased two tickets to Burning Man with the hopes that someone would join me. Nicole said that she wanted to go. As the date approached, I realized that I was supposed to attend my friend's wedding during Burning Man. I screwed up because I had plans to meet my friend Heidi a few days before the wedding in CT then we were going to drive down to NY and attend the wedding, then hang out for a few days before I flew back to WA. I cancelled plans with Heidi deciding not to attend the wedding because I had tried to go to Burning Man about five years in a row and I was determined to do it this time. A week before Burning Man, Nicole cancelled on me, so I decided to go to the wedding. I called Heidi but she had already made other plans. I didn't feel like spending all that time by myself, so I decided to go to Burning Man alone. And since I was driving to NV, I might as well continue on to the East Coast and back because I always wanted to drive cross-country. So I did, except that I bumped into Eli Nerts who asked me to stay and help with a web page. Two years go by and I'm still here in NJ. If Nicole had gone to Burning Man with me, I would have gone to NV and returned to WA and never done the road trip. If Nicole had never accepted to go to Burning Man, I would have gone to the wedding in NY and returned. But because Nicole screwed up my plans, I ended up living in NJ for the past two years.
Eli Nerts - The Story: I was on a road-trip across America when I crossed paths with Eli in NJ. He had asked me in 1995 to quit my job at Microsoft and move to NY to help him with a web page. I declined. Suddenly in 2000 we were both available to do the web page.
Patty and Angie - The Story: While working with Eli I met Patty online who introduced me to CamFrog chat. If Angie from Indonesia had never instant messaged me, I would have never started to chat with women in Asia. Without Patty I would never have met Kelly online at CamFrog.
Kelly - The Story: I met Kelly on CamFrog chat, fell in love, moved to Malaysia and we got married and moved back to the US
Don - The Story: I had not worked as a web developer for 1.5 years (long story) and it felt as though my career was over since I'd apply to jobs but get no interviews. The company at which my friend Don worked needed someone with my skills, so Don reached out to me. I interviewed and got the job.

Pivotal Moments in my Life since college:

Jun 1992 - Graduated from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Oct 1992 - Got a job at The Children's Television Workshop in New York, NY
Aug 1993 - Got a job at Prodigy Online Services, White Plains, NY
Oct 1995 - Got a job at Microsoft, Redmond, WA
Mar 1999 - Quit Microsoft
Aug 2000 - Drove across the USA from Issaquah, Washington to Holmdel, New Jersey
Apr 2005 - Moved to Phoenix, Arizona
Jul 2005 - Flew to Malaysia (Teluk Kumbar, Penang)
Dec 2005 - Got married to Kelly
Sep 2006 - Flew to USA (Holmdel, New Jersey)
Dec 2007 - Got job at International Institue for Learning
May 2007 - Moved to Guttenberg, New Jersey
Oct 2007 - Laid off from International Institute for Learning due to the bad economy, New York, NY
Nov 2007 - Drove across the USA from Holmdel, New Jersey to Los Angeles, California
Jan 2008 - Started working at The Walt Disney Company
Jul 2009 - Laid off from The Walt Disney Company due to the bad economy
Nov 2009 - Flew back to NJ and got a job at Merrill Lynch
Mar 2015 - Laid off from Merrill Lynch

Pivotal People and Moments in my Life