MetaFilter

What's the deal with your nickname? How did you get it? If your nickname is self-explanatory, then tell everyone when you first started using the internet, and what was the first thing that made you say "wow, this isn't just a place for freaks after all?" Was it a website? Was it an email from a long-lost friend? Go on, spill it.

Mefi Orientation | Jabiru tutorial for Mefi chat | Frist Psot: A Tutorial for posting an FPP on Metafilter
Choice is the Camelot for Women Thanks to divined by radio for posting it in Anitanola's MeTa obit.
A concept you need to know, especially if you are a woman: Emotional Labor
Join other mefites in live chat on ChatMe
Chatter is a metafilter spin-off women's discussion site.
_

I was born in Columbus, Georgia in 1965. I attended public school for K-12. I was one of the top three students of my graduating high school class. I gave up my National Merit Scholarship to a status-y state university and, instead, I attended the less status-y local college for 2 years. I then was a military wife for a lot of years and homeschooled our two sons for some years. I attended college on and off during those years as well. During my divorce, I got a job at a Fortune 500 company.

I was a few classes shy of a BS in Environmental Resource Management when life got in the way. I have a total of about 6 years of college, including an AA in Humanities, a Certificate in GIS that is the equivalent of graduate school lever work and a technical certificate related to the insurance industry.

So, for 46 years, I had a very rich life. Then I became homeless. Not long thereafter, a kind soul gifted me a membership to MetaFilter to help me sort out my personal problems. And it has been enormously helpful. Unfortunately, some people seem unable to see me as anything but "homeless" and seem to have an incredibly negative view of homeless people, as if having no housing currently means I never had an education or a life or could possibly be competent at anything.

I dearly love MetaFilter. It also makes me crazy at a times.