The Yee Family
Most people in Turlock, CA remember Wah-Q Restaurant, previously located on Golden State Boulevard, which was owned and operated by several generations of the Yee Family, however there's much more to this family than Chinese Food. As Patrick learned, there's also a big difference between what Americans refer to as Chinese Food, and what the Chinese eat as their native dishes. American Chinese Food has a lot of fried foods, whereas native Chinese food is a lot healthier and eccentric. One of Patrick's favorite things about the Yee's was their pets - their fish, their dogs, and their birds. One of the birds, owned by Amy Yee, was an African Grey named "Pepper". It was amazing - it could say its own name "Pepper, Pepper!" and even make noises that sounded like one of the family's telephone calls - complete with dial tone, dialing, and conversation!
The Cimoli Brothers
Michael and Mark Cimoli are true nerds, introduced to Patrick by DeLynn Bettencourt from the #somewhere channel on EFNet - back in the days that people used IRC to communicate. They've stayed in touch over the years. They were friends with one of DeLynn's friends, Dan Reshatoff, and Patrick knew DeLynn from High School. She was the valedictorian of her class, which was one or two years ahead of Patrick's. Mark Cimoli has bad headaches like Patrick. Michael Cimoli got married a couple of years ago, and works in Project Management in a hospital. He's even talked about moving to New Hampshire or Maine someday - who knows? They were also friends with Bobbly, who spoke with Patrick over HAM radio numerous times while Patrick was in high school.
Donald Combs
He used to be the CIO of a company that did encryption schemes for foreign governments. He also served in Iraq for two tours. He's a highly intelligent inventor, that is pushing for a United Space Dock, in order to build larger spaceships above Earth. He's also developed other invention concepts, though he'll refer you to his attorneys if you try to talk to him about any of them. Patrick first met him in COMP 425 in the Fall of 2016, which was one of Patrick's first classes in his M.S. Information Technology degree at UNH Manchester. He was also in COMP 815, Information Security, with Patrick in the Summer of 2017. Patrick hopes someday they can work on something together - they're both really intelligent with regards to computers and programming.
Beth Fischer
Beth has been a great leader for non-profit activities in Dover, NH, including at Dover Main Street with projects such as the Joe Parks Garden and Faces of Dover. She has the interests of Dover, NH in mind all the time, and she's made a real difference in the development of Patrick's social circle in New Hampshire, including in politics on both sides of the aisle. She's currently working to help improve the Woodman Institute Museum in Dover, NH - something Patrick has done in the past when he was still volunteering. They built a garden behind the Whitehouse Library in the Keefe House, and have digitized the contents of the museum which will eventually be available online. She's been a true friend to Patrick since 2006.
Todd Van de Meulebroecke
He studied in the Marketing Management program with Patrick at Daniel Webster College, and has gone on to get a Master's degree in Business Analytics. He was helpful with various marketing projects that we worked on in our classes, including the Advertising class in which we came up with an advertisement for a Mattress company. Todd came up with so many great ideas for a TV commercial, in which we were creating a story line. Unfortunately we could only use one of the ideas, however Patrick still has the ideas saved. One idea he came up with was to take the mattress down to the river, and use it as a boat, or something like that - although there was a much more complex story line to it.
Andry Del Toro
Andry has helped Patrick with numerous projects at UNH Manchester in their Information Technology classes. He also serves in the U.S. Army. Patrick and Andry took the lead on the MeAndYou project from their Object Oriented Programming class, in which they developed a social media website that runs off of a LAMP / XAMPP environment. Andry was pivotal in getting the server to work properly, and they both later configured their own servers using Linux instead of Windows Server 2008 to run the website, added some programming tricks of their own. Andry got his B.S. in Computer Science, and has worked in the IT industry for numerous years.
John Vey
John is a very talented professional photographer that Patrick met in their Object Oriented Programming class at UNH Manchester. He's majoring in Technology Entrepreneurship. He's currently working on a project for the U.S. Army that uses brainwaves for artwork therapy purposes. John also took the latest professional photographs of Patrick McElhiney at UNH Manchester. John has a big heart, and cares about his friends. He stays up on all of the latest things pertaining to technology, like cryptocurrency and hacking. He was also in the Information Security class with Patrick during the Summer of 2017.
James Moreda
James is a talented electrician that Patrick met when he lived in California. James lives in Sonora, which is up in the mountains on the way to Yosemite. He owns R.J. Summit, Inc., and Patrick met him both as he worked for The Seasons Catering in Modesto, and also through friends in Turlock when they were having a party. Patrick went up to his house once. Patrick really liked the XM Radio system that James had in his truck, so he purchased his own - only to find that the system didn't work very well in the mountains. James has also expressed an interest in Patrick's invention concepts, such as an automatic stock trading system that Patrick thought up one evening. Hopefully they can work together in the future on some projects.
Robert Pacheco
Robert owns T.N.T. Productions Disc Jockey Service, or TNT Productions, Inc. in Modesto, California - which was Patrick's company's first client since 1999. Patrick really liked dancing at school dances starting in Jr. High School, and he met Robert Pacheco when he was providing the DJ services for most of those dances. He would let Patrick dance up on a table in front of everyone, which made Patrick very popular among women at school. Patrick has a lot to thank Robert for, including training him of how to establish his own business with real paid work, and the many references that Robert made for Patrick over the years. Patrick managed all of the marketing for TNT Productions, in addition to fixing the computers until Patrick moved to New Hampshire in 2006.
The Schimpf Family
Rose, Ernie, Peter and Maria, and John Schimpf are all friends of the family - they grew up in Stockton, California, and had us out at their place numerous times, in addition to Rose and John visiting us in New Hampshire occasionally. John Schimpf did work with Patrick on the Downtown Studios website, and is an expert sound recording and editing engineer. Rose was a vibrant Hillary Clinton supporter when Patrick worked on Hillary's campaign from 2007-2008. John went to school with Patrick's sister, in which they met by John accidently hitting Crystal with a bean bag he was playing with in the Music Department.
Janet Greene Dendy
Janet is one of the greatest people you'll ever meet! She's just a fun person to be around. Janet used to play with hand puppets with Patrick when he was younger, and she visited with Connie Labrie, Patrick's Aunt, multiple times when Patrick lived with his parents in Turlock, California. Patrick has helped to maintain Janet's computer over the years, helping her pick the new computer out every 4-5 years, and helping to teach her how to use her computer. She famously had a "No Puffin" anti-smoking campaign that she lodged against Patrick's father - and she even gave Patrick a hard time when he smoked for a brief amount of time. She truly cares about other people, and she has had multiple award-winning Schnauzers, including Natalie, her current companion.
Lorena Daniel
Lorena is a retired Air Force Secretary whom Patrick met through the Merced College Cisco Systems Regional Academy in California. She helped Patrick's instructor with organizing his office from time to time, and attended the Cisco classes. She's very smart, and Patrick would commonly go out to lunch or dinner with her at Perko's, among other restaurants, to discuss topics ranging from school to women. He also communicated with her by e-mail after he moved from California. She has been a very valuable resource to help Patrick develop in his personal and professional lives. Patrick even fixed her computer once at her house, and he got to meet her numerous kitty cats! *meow*
The Debutts Family
Krystyna and Chris Debutts have been great friends at our new home in Barrington, New Hampshire. Patrick has helped them with fixing their computers, and Chris has been ever so helpful with snow blowing the driveway at 84 Nuthatch Loop after the bad storms. Patrick is really happy every time he and his mother don't have to shovel themselves out of the snow, because both of them have had injuries and have fallen multiple times doing it in the past. Chris works at the local power plant, and he maintains their parking lots and walkways for a living, so we think he really enjoys helping out in the neighborhood that we all live in. Patrick has also provided color printing services to Krystyna, who is an entrepreneur in the Essential Oils business with Patrick's 2nd cousin, Elaine Howard.
Bill Walls
Bill was more than just a teacher at the Cisco Systems Regional Academy - he was a true friend and mentor that really helped Patrick understand the essentials of computer networks, several times even allowing Patrick to stay at his house in Atwater when Patrick didn't have the energy to commute back from a night class and forth the next day for the same class that started the next morning. Patrick also rode with Bill up to CSU Fresno, where he also taught, and Patrick attended an Engineer's club that Bill had been a member of. Patrick also created an elaborate business card design for Bill for the Cisco Academy that trumped what Merced College provided him. Patrick also liked to buy lunch or dinner for Bill during their Cisco classes - they traded off paying for each other's meals.
Billy Avery
Though they haven't talked much since Patrick moved from California in 2006, Billy has been a great friend in the hobby of computer repair! He taught Patrick's CompTIA A+ class at Merced College, and referred some of Patrick's first clients to his business. Patrick was always fascinated with all of the gadgets that Billy got through various sources, such as a tablet (which looked like a gigantic Gameboy at the time) that had wireless connectivity, before wireless Internet and tablets came out in full force. The tablet was probably 4" thick, and had terrible battery life, however Patrick was still fascinated. Billy also introduced him to one of his friends that programmed in Microsoft FoxPro. Patrick was always up to learn more, and Billy is an expert in computers.
Leonard Harrington
Leonard has been a true friend since high school, when he used to buy Patrick a tea everyday, because he thought it helped his migraines and helped him to function. Leonard is the son of the car dealership owner of the former Turlock Auto Plaza, and always had so much knowledge about cars in general. Leonard now has a girlfriend that they both dress up in cosplay, like giant dinosaur lizards, or giant cats - it's so cool! Leonard is now a server room administrator, and has been working on developing a new type of data center cooling. Leonard was a member of ENTECH, or Engineering Technology Club, at Turlock High School, in which Patrick was also a member. They would often play games together at ENTECH night out, run by Robert Hoskins.
Lauren Iscoff
Patrick has been friends with Lauren since she worked at the Doubletree Hotel in Modesto, California. He met her through his Public Speaking class at Modesto Junior College, in which he introduced the concept of his company entity to around 30 students. She was also the friend of Laura Townsley, whom Patrick was also friends with from knowing her as a fellow student at Turlock High School. Patrick once took Lauren's stuffed monkey as a joke, however he gave it back after she explained that her father gave it to her and it was special. Patrick, Lauren, and Laura often hung out in Modesto, CA in 2005-2006, including at the Hookah Bar on J Street. She is now married and lives in Oregon.
Laura Townsley
Patrick enjoyed the entertainment of Laura when they hung out, mostly at her house, after high school. She threw Patrick's 21st Birthday Party there, and she also helped Patrick with his office work for his company, MCE123, for about a year off and on. She helped with the accounting for numerous years, organizing receipts, invoices, and deposit slips into neatly kept plastic boxes. She also made deposits for Patrick's company for some time. She was a true friend that really cared about Patrick. She famously got mad at Patrick for not being present for most of his 21st birthday party - even though there was plenty of alcohol there. Patrick once tried to impress her by cleaning her bathroom.
Josh Pope
Josh is very talented with video games, which he played with Patrick during high school, such as the original StarCraft, and possibly Warcraft as well. Josh was known as "WaRmAcHiNe" in StafCraft, and our team, which also consisted of Shawn Nelson, usually won against other teams at ENTECH night out, which was formerly known as VICA night out. Josh sometimes connected to Patrick's server, which he had in his room, via dial-up connection to play StarCraft against up to 8 computer generated robotic players. Josh now has a family of his own, and works at a video game store in Modesto, CA.
Shawn Nelson
Shawn is a very talented video game player, who used to play StarCraft and other games with Patrick and Josh Pope, including at ENTECH night outs. Shawn was known as "assman", the alias he got from the Seinfeld episode. Shawn married his sweetheart, whom he met at the Ryker Ct house where Patrick lived with Shawn, Dwonne Chon, and Jason Couto, among others. They would basically go out drinking at local bars such as Tracks, and play video games all the time. Shawn was pretty good at StarCraft, and usually played with the Zerg race, whereas Patrick would usually play Protos, and Josh would play Terrain.
Jason Couto
Jason was the 'head of household' at the Ryker Ct house, where a lot of our friends would hang out playing video games like World of Warcraft and StarCraft, in addition to Xbox games. Jason was very ambitious and started a website known as NorCalHotSpot, that he promoted at dance clubs, including those on J Street in Modesto, CA. He got restaurants and other companies to pay for advertising on the website, which he had a friend develop for him. Jason threw multiple parties at the Ryker Ct house, that sometimes attracted all sorts of different people from all over Turlock, CA. Jason and Patrick sometimes double dated women, though Patrick never met anyone that interested him out of the process.
Donn Bradley
Donn went to school with Patrick's sister at California State University, Stanislaus where he was studying music and theatre. He is very animated, and hung out with Crystal and Patrick numerous times, at concerts, and camping / sailing trips with John Schimpf and his family. Donn is a professional actor in the theatre business, and has played multiple characters, including at shows at the Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto, CA. Donn has also done voice overs for "MaximumCat", among other things. He used to refer to Patrick as "Crystal's brother", though Patrick had to correct him and let him know to just refer to him as "Patrick".
