About the Creator of Nightstar
PersonalWorkEducationPersonal (as Opposed to Career) InterestsOrganizationsContact Nancy
Age? I'm just past 40 and I don't care who knows it! I wouldn't be younger than 30 again for anything. Womanly skills? I have a total of four "traditional" (as defined by men through the ages) "womanly" skills: I can braid hair creatively and attractively, wear scarves in wondrous ways, arrange flowers, and wrap presents so gorgeous that the recipient can't bear to open them. I have the following core womanly skills: I can tell crap when I hear it, I can successfully do four or five things at once (what we programmers call "multi-tasking"), I can stand up for myself and for people who need my protection, and I can negotiate without either compromising my principles or dropping down to the other guy's level (well, I can do it, though I don't always manage it!). Childhood? I had a marvellous childhood. Sometimes I played with Barbie (Solo in the Spotlight), but mostly I climbed trees, read books, and made up imaginary realms to wander in or to rule. I was a tomboy who loved to read, and I could always amuse myself in one way or the other. My family had a succession of houseboats (later yachts) on the local lakes, and in summer I fished in the morning and late into the night for sunfish and croppie and catfish (then cleaned what I caught so we could have them for super), swam half the day in the dark water, took the runabout with its Evinrude outboard motor out for private trips, hunted for arrowheads on the low banks where the water sometimes exposed them, and lay in peace and solitude on the deck under the stars drinking in the night sky until the dawn came to spoil it. My favorite toy was a Lionel train set. (I wish I had known when my parents gave it away while I was at college, though who knows, I might not have valued it enough then to care.) As I said, it was a marvellous childhood. Home. I live where I have almost always lived, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which is in the middle of the most beautiful place on earth. Yes, I've been to the Alps, to the Bahamas, to the Rhine Valley, to the California coast to Key West, to the highlands of Scotland... But nothing can compare with the Appalachians and their foothills, especially those of the Great Smoky Mountains (see my page of Smoky Mountain beauty and resoruces). Don't laugh until you've been here, especially in the spring or the fall. I share my house with the aforementioned feline companions: Kadar, Sasha, and Lichen (not necessarily in that order).
EducationI am a proud product of the Oak Ridge School System, which in my day (and maybe now too---who knows?) was the envy of all other school systems in the Great State of Tennessee. I started out (Kindergarten through 6th grade) at Elm Grove Elementary School, which is gone now (torn down to make a playground, for god's sake) but fondly remembered. I went on to Jefferson Junior High School (grades 7 trhough 9), which for the first two years I attended was in the old Oak Ridge High School (also gone now!) above Blankenship Field and the last year I attended was in the current Jefferson Junior High School building. It was a very bad trade---the "new" Jefferson was falling apart the first year it was inhabited, which was my last in junior high school, and it had no windows, no playing fields to speak of, no graffitti...no fun. Still, the education was good. Then I went to Oak Ridge High School (grades 10 through 12), graduating in 1972.My next, and probably overall best, stop in the educational system was at Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky. I got a wonderful, solid, serious education there in only three years (and with no summer school either!), graduating in the Class of '75. It was socially my best time too (at least while in the educational system)... The late nights drinking on the tomb of Constantine Rafinesque, the rowdy meetings of the International Relations Club; the general rebelliousness of being a God-Damned Independant (GDI); the spring of '74 when we streaked from the outside of the library, across Broadway, and up into a certain person's room in Davis Hall... Lord, how it all comes back! The crisp autumn nights walking back from a huge antipasto salad and an illegal drink at Columbia's, idle afternoons in Grag (okay, Gratz) Park speculating about the exact relationship between those two nudie statues in the park's fountain, strange hot afternoons breeding for grey "teddy bear" hampsters in the Brown Science Building's animal lab... I wonder who's in my room in Forrer Hall now? See my Transy Memories page. After that, my graduate work at the University of Tenenssee, Knoxville, was a come-down and a bore. What can I say about UTK? State school, huge and impersonal, instutiuonalized to the core. Yuck! Since then, of course, there've been various computer-related classes, including some Oracle classes. One thing you have to say about Oracle's classes---they may cost a bundle but the facilities are fabulous!
WorkI've done several different things...been a journalist in the days when Woodward and Bernstein were seen as the Defenders of Democracy...been a corporate hack writing and editing publicity material and software manuals...been a project manager for ungodly sums of the taxpayer's money...been a programmer, a GUI designer, and usability expert...and now I'm an internet technology specialist. In May '96 I became a Martyr of Corporate Betrayal, so I started my own business. Maybe it's been a long, strange trip thus far, but I'd make few, if any, choices differently---and at the moment that's my definition of having a good life.
Personal (as Opposed to Career) InterestsWhere to start? I'm interested in computers, programming, and all internet applications. I'm interested in finding a way to work at home and make more money, and hopefully both. I'm interested in helping women get into and excell in technical fields. I'm interested in helping women get on the internet and help shape its development and its future. I'm interested in helping girls maintain their self-esteem and their interest in math and science during and past those deadly teenage years when our patriarchial society does its best to reshape them into pliable, insecure, vulnerable dodos. I'm interested in promoting tolerance. I do not believe that hate is a family value. I'm interested in protecting all rights set out in the Constitution, especially (at the moment) the right of free speech. I'm interested in finding a cure for Alzheimers, AIDS, cancer, and every childhood disease known to man or woman. I'm a night person, and I'm interested in making the Daytime Tyrants understand what that means and in getting society to be flexible enough to allow night people to flourish instead of just scrabbling by. I'm an animal lover, and I'm especially enamoured of Manx cats. I'm interested in cultural anthropology. I'm a bookworm, and I read almost everything I can get my hands on. Right now I'm on a mystery kick. I'm interested in unmarried persons having the same rights, treatment, and respect as married persons. I'm interested in language and how it shapes our perceptions of the world. This list is getting long, and I keep thinking of more and more things to add. I don't think I could ever make it comprehensive. How about if I try listing the things I'm NOT interested in? I'm not interested in sports, except ice skating and ice dancing, archery, pool and billiards, horse racing and jumping, and men's diving (and the reason I'm interested in that last is purely prurient---in the sense of "immoderate" rather than "unwholesome"). I used to like basketball, but that was long ago, back when the players were short enough that getting the ball into the hoop was more of a challenge than standing by the basket and just dropping the ball down into it. I'm not interested in religion, though I believe anyone has the right to practice any religion as long as it does not interfere with the rights of other people NOR violate the Constitutional principle of the separation of Church and State. I'm not interested in pornography, though I believe any adult has the right to access it if they choose. I believe that it is the responsibility of a child's parent or guardian to monitor and control ALL of that child's activities, including who he or she associates with, what he or she watches on TV, what he or she gets in the library or on the internet, and what values he or she is taught.
OrganizationsI support a lot of organizations, but it costs too much to belong to them all, all the time! So some of them I belong to now, some I've belonged to in the past, and some I want to join when I get funds. For now, though, take a look at the Nightstar-approved groups and don't hesitate to join the ones of your choice too!
Contact NancyYou may use this form to reach me. If your browser does not support forms, e-mail me at nlp@star.org. |
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