User Profile

This started out as a joy and gratitude journal. Think of a cross between the simplest Good Things, and the magazines Real Simple and Yankee. Think of the Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift From The Sea. Think Amish, Shaker, Craftsman, and Mission furniture styles. Think naturalist, humanist, feminist, Unitarian, Quaker, Wicca, Druid, and Pagan living. I'm including recipes, poems, essays, nostalgic memories, and ideas that I've tried, or am trying out, to make my life better. I'm including little tidbits and tricks that I've found make my daily life easier or happier. When I started this journal in 2002, I'd decided that it was time for some positive vibes in my life.

Additionally, I make some posts about making a difference. Part of feeling good about ourselves is making a difference in things we care about, things we feel are important. So I also post information about volunteer and charity opportunities, and some activism.

This journal consists almost exclusively of public posts. Anyone is welcome to friend this journal at any time. And hey, if anyone reading this knows me offline? Drop me an email. I promise not to call you a geek for surfing LJ. *grin*

I use the LJ memories function to keep track of all sorts of things. Perhaps most notable are my posts recommending books, music, places, poetry, restaurants, and videos.

Hmm. I suppose I should say something more about me, huh?

I'm a generalist science geek. Grew up in Indiana, came to Pasadena for college and have been living around Los Angeles ever since. Started out studying math or physics, changed to chemistry, figured out I liked writing and talking about research more than I liked doing protein chemistry, changed to geology and then learned HTML and got a work-study job at the computer center. Ended up with a bachelors in geochemistry and marketable IT and communications skills and a social network of Blacker Hovse, chem department and geo department alumns of various vintages. Worked as a webmaster/marketing organizer at a tech/telecom startup company for a bit, and then came back to my alma mater as IT staff: webmaster, documentation guru, Unix sysadmin, project manager, accounts wrangler and knowledge manager. In the summer of 2005 I enrolled in Claremont Graduate University part time, working toward an MSIS degree. In the late fall of 2005 Caltech did a major reorg of their IT departments and laid a bunch of folks off, which efficiently derailed my graduate studies; I contracted for six months and am now staff at USC doing IT project management, and filling in an internal-use wiki for IT documentation. In 2007 I was part of a group recognized by the departmental peer awards for excellence in collaboration for pulling rabbits out of hats in getting the Unix Enterprise data center moved to our new building, and the feeling of being part of something and being appreciated for my work was overwhelmingly wonderful (and I don't know why I've let myself go for so long without trying to find that feeling in the past).

My resume is here, and I'd eventually like to relocate northward along the west coast of the US to find a more hospitable climate, so if you're in Washington or Oregon and would like to hire me, I'd love to talk to you.

I volunteer with the Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships each year talking about Caltech and SURF to visiting prospective students and their parents.

I'm feminist, environmentalist, and care very much about equal rights for everybody regardless of gender or skin color or sexual orientation. I'm intolerant of intolerance. I'm a member of the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Nature Conservancy, The Sequoia Natural History Association, Descanso Gardens, the International Webmasters Association & HTML Writers Guild, USENIX, the System Administrator's Guild, and perhaps most importantly career-wise, LOPSA, the league of professional system administrators. I'm a workaholic and a perfectionist striving for better work-life balance.

I find gardening cheaper and more useful than therapy or organized religion. I find peace and solace in open spaces full of growing things. I believe humanity needs to explore beyond our planet to have a better perspective on ourselves and our universe. I believe that no single religion has all the answers, nor even all of the questions. I believe that America and our world deserves better than the mess made by megacorporations and politicians. And I believe that each individual person can make a difference.

See also Democracy For America.

I enjoy cooking, camping (day-hiking, car-camping and backpacking wonderful wild places), writing, crochet, knitting, dancing, tatting, sewing, reading, needlepoint, quilting, quilling, gardening, going to farmers markets and flea markets, Shakespearean comedies, music of many many many different types, science fiction, educational television, mythology, marking the passage of the seasons, road trips, learning about ancient cultures, enjoying good food with good friends (when I'm not in the mood for being a hermit).