Freedom from Infectious Commercial Software

About me

With Opera, I feel like I have come home!!!

I began in computers on a WANG word processor in the non profit sector (mostly arts), then got hired as an electronic publishing consultant at an insurance company in 1982. So began my love affair with computers as it was my job to learn PageMaker 1a on IBM for the combined purpose of teaching others in the company how to use it, how to prepare text and graphics files for its use alongside the traditional processes in the printing department.

I taught myself -- by asking an r&D guy at the company for a few pointers when I'd get stuck -- how computers work. My primary internal customers were the design guys and I succeeded in getting this all IBM (no clones!) company to buy Macs for them and the print dept. The design guys considered me a junior level designer (although most of my career had been in writing and editing) and the outside consultant who guided me in the choice of which systems to buy told me I was one of the most knowledgeable in the state and on the bleeding edge of the technology. But I wanted to learn Quark! I went to work for a printing company and also freelanced in production. And my second child had just been born when I took all this on.

Anyway -- I think from extended sleep deprivatin and genetic factors, I got mentally ill and lost my active connection with the technology. I've only been getting back into it in the last 15 months, but I describe myself now as a mini geek (with all due respect to majorgeeks.com). But you see I only have this dell Pentium II with 128 RAM and it isn't up to speed for the interactive animation stuff that two of my classes depend on. SO...after not being able to access the net for an online test and then not being able to access Office XP the next day, I went into overdrive -- manic -- again. I got the thing as researched as I could (I think I reformatted and installed w2k about 5 times before I got the answers I needed and wanted and went 4 days with only 9 hours sleep in chunks of an hour or 2. I had to drop the 2 classes and therefore have added an additioonal year to my education, but I am getting much better overall. I hadn't done anything full time until August 2005 in over 12 years so at least I'm basically back up and running thanks to meds, good health oriented therapy and the spiritual support of AA, Church and friends and have reclaimed my family of origin. My overall goal is to get my MSN in psych/mental health nursing and help others to recover (12 years ago I truly was vegetative) from their disability.

Only since the beginning of this fall's semester have I been able to have a life primarily of my own. My 21 year old son is majoring in business and finance at Springfield College, has already been guaranteed a job in his field on his graduation, and has generally recovered from the insanity of his family life and a high school senior year assault which ended his sports career -- his skull was fractured -- and that had been his whole life (you wonder why it's so easy for me to refer to myself as a geek?) Ah, but my 18 year old daughter has far to go yet. Please pray for her!

This spring I rediscovered vegetable gardening once my landlord cut down the hedges and he said OK to my plans. I like to scour yard, tag, or garage sales for future antiques and for things to help set my kids up when it comes time for them to set up housekeeping, as we used to say, and I have even started collecting a few kids books and small classic kind of toys like those made out of wood, for my as yet still unimagined grandchildren. I'm a Hospice volunteer and am in training for the eastern part of the state's sexual assault crisis center volunteers. I've never been in a chat room and never plan to go there, but I like forums now that I have discovered them -- and, as I said at the opening -- I feel like I've come here!

My work

My life and helping others.