2007

I am a thirty something liberal arts major turned computer programmer that currently lives in Alpharetta, GA. I was born and raised in Opa-Locka, FL which is part of Greater Miami. I left FL at the age of 22 when I transfered to UNC Chapel Hill as junior. From there I went back to FL where I was living with my life-partner-boyfriend-guy, Unfriendly, in the hell that is Boca Raton FL.

We could no longer tolerate South FL, so we moved to Michigan because I though I wanted to go to grad school at the University of MI. That never came to fruition, but I lived in Washtenaw County in MI for 7 years. Four and half of those years were spent living in Ypsilanti. (Ip-sih-lan-tee) . The last two and half were spent living in Ann Arbor.

I worked in Ann Arbor for all 7 years. I started off as a receptionist for a project management consulting firm as a temp. I was hired on full time to coordinate staffing and hiring for MI and the UK. I got terribly bored after a couple of years. I did not want to pursue anything related to my English Lit major. I loved my linguistics major and wanted to continue with that but also gravitated toward technical things. The program at U of M (the U) was not as fleshed out as their literature expressed (this was before full fledged info could be found on web sites and schools mailed info to your home.. the dark ages) so I was depressed. I complained incessantly to Unfriendly who bore it well. I finally did something about it.

I read up on different types of linguistics and thought that Computational Linguistics seemed like a fit. Yet...I would have to take computer programming courses at any school that offered a degree. Programming? Yech! No! I took a course in Haskell at UNC and thought my wee little brain was going to explode.

I signed up for a C++ course at WCC and fully expected to HATE it. No one was more surprised than I was when I found I loved it. I found something I enjoyed. It was hard work, but very satisfactory because I am one of those types that needs to be intellectually challenged. This is what balances out watching E! News and the occasional episode of Dr. 90210.

I ended up finding my first programming job in 2003. I worked for the U until Unfriendly at I moved to GA in May / June of 2006. At that job, I learned COBOL and worked in several main frame related languages. I also learned PL/SQL and Unix scripting. We moved to GA because I decided that I wanted to pursue a Masters degree in Artificial Intelligence.

I am glad to be in a climate that rarely gets below freezing. If it does get that cold, it isn't the high for the day. Michigan winters and I do not get a long.

After my initial 2 months of unemployment and job hunting, I found a job 20 miles away in Marietta that I ended up hating. The only comforts surrounding that experience were that I discovered that I did not enjoy programming in T-SQL and that I was not alone in hating my job. No one there really likes it.

I quit in April and started my new job. I am programming in PL/SQL again. I am happy. This semester I will work MWF for 10 hours a day and go to school on the other days.

I have two cats - Diva (Pumpkin) and Loki (Pooky). They fill my life with joy. Diva likes being outside, but hates her leash. Loki was diagnosed with CRF and juvenile renal failiure last December. He is my little baby, and is currently doing very well. He's a bit of a maniac, and I love him and Diva very much.

I am also crafty. Well..that, and I like crafts. My current obsession is knitting. I seem to be good at it.

That is all. And if you've read this far, congratulations. I have nothing to give you but a well meaning nod of encouragement. Thanks for stopping in.