Webmaster Talkin'
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Whatever
I am, like most of you I am made up of a bunch of complex,
moving parts. But one thing that makes me. Bud Kraus, Class
of 1971, different is that I must be The World's Leading
Authority on What Ever Happened To...that OHS Grad?
Since 1997, when, and under the ok from the OHS Alumni
Association, I got this site going I have been collecting
your names, email addresses, year of graduating, where you're
living, what you're doing and your messages.
That it grew from nothing into this mountain of information
that is useful only to the 3,000 living graduates (my guess)
of OHS is not astonishing but there are some observations
I have to share.
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- The first wave of people to sign in were largely graduates
of the 1940s. That was a surprise and I thank them all for being
the earliest adapters!!
- As the years roll on I don't see new names from the '60s and
'70s anymore, And the aging boomers don't update their info
either. While the '80s, '90s and '00s were late in arriving
they are here in full force telling one another about the site
and updating their information.
- There is no way I could possibly no of all the long lost
friendships being rekindled as a result of this site and that's
fine with me. But I know they have taken place.
- I've gotten a kick out of the email some of you have sent.
It's usually been about this site, looking for a long lost friend
(boy or girl - things happen these days you know), or to say
"Hey, that guy never graduated with our class."
On A Personal Note
It shocks me that I've taken on this task much as I've come to
enjoy doing it when time permits. I was not the most outgoing,
popular or rah-rah guy around in the early 1970s. I was pretty
shy in those days even though my class mates voted me Most Talkative.
It wasn't until I went to college - Ohio University - that I got
to know and really like a lot of my OHS classmates who were in
Athens, Ohio with me.
I remember teachers saying, "Years after you've left Orange
what you're going to remember are your teachers." How true,
I can barely remember classmates names but the impact that many
teachers had remains.
Speaking of teaching, I've done a fair amount of that too in
the last few years. I've taught countless people the fundamentals
of web site development and design. Graphic artists, programmers,
project managers, web developers, career changers and writers
have all come under my spell in class and online.
If that's something that interests you be you a novice wannabe
creator of web sites or someone who needs to brush up on rusty
skills then consider my 12 week online workshop, Joy
Of Code.
Site History
You already know about the humble origins here. I've preserved
the Classes of the 1940's page as the site was originally designed.
Late in 2003 I started with a major make over of the site that
will continue indefinitely. If I may say so - and who's to stop
me - I love those montages at the top of each class page. Each
decade is represented by images I found poking around the web.
For all the other pages I pasted together images I could get from
the school, scans from yearbooks or pictures I took during a trip
to Cleveland.
For whatever reason I've loved montages since I did my first
while a junior at OU. Being able to put things together in different
ways gave me a method into looking at the world in new ways. I
seem to need to mix up pop culture, news, sports and the like
in ways they weren't intended to be looked at.
Help Wanted
We could use a programmer to help us create a searchable
database with logins for updating profiles.
bud@joyofcode.com
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