things you don't want to hear when the dentist looks at your tooth...

"Oh, wow!"

"You must really be in pain..."

"We need to do an emergency root canal."

Ugh.

So I'm on 'cillin to try to quash the infection, painkillers to sleep, and am scheduled for drilling Tuesday.

Don't be surprised if I'm in a bad mood.

:/

Three Cups of...crap?

http://humanosphere.kplu.org/2011/04/ten-points-from-three-cups-of-deceit-starting-in-seattle/

http://www.byliner.com/

I missed the 60 Minutes special on this, but you have 72 hours to freely download John Krakauer's "Three Cups of Deceit"

Decide for yourselves.

I read Mortenson's first book and was inspired (duped?) by his story. It is a shame that an inspiring idea can be so corrupted. Too sad.

Happier Day

Congratulations on successfully earning your national EMS certification.

Certification documents will be mailed to the address provided in your account profile by first class US Postal service within three business days.

National certification is not a license to practice. You should contact your state EMS office for information on licensing requirements.

Brandon James Renkin (1993 - 2011)

Brandon left us peacefully on Thursday, April 7, 2011, in his mother's arms, and was surrounded by people who helped care for him. This was the end of a lifelong struggle with congenital muscular dystrophy.

Brandon was born on Jan. 18, 1993, to Roy and Diane (Ihle) Renkin. He lived his whole life in, and was embraced by, the Gardiner/Mammoth community. At the time of his death, he was a proud member of the 2011 graduating senior class of Gardiner High School.

During Brandon's preschool years, it became evident that he could adapt to any challenge he faced. He mastered the art of operating a power wheelchair at age 3. Brandon demonstrated a tremendous amount of inner strength, energy and maturity that would help him succeed throughout his school years. He also met many influential people in the medical community, and began to build social friendships that lasted for the rest of his life.

School was important to Brandon. He took advantage of the environment to excel academically and demonstrate he could be everyone's friend. He earned the love and respect of his teachers and schoolmates. Despite his challenges, physical education was his favorite class. Brandon became a member of the National Honor Society in 2009, and received the 2011 "Yes I Can!" award from the state of Montana which recognizes academic achievement among students with diverse abilities. He was accepted to attend Montana State University, where his goal was to earn a degree in computer science.

At the age of 6, Brandon joined the family of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). Through his participation in summer camps, telethons and other MDA-sponsored events he met many supportive, loving, and caring people. Brandon served as the 2000 and 2001 MDA Goodwill Ambassador to the state of Montana. In 2000 he received the Brett French Memorial Award presented by the Montana Professional Firefighters for the camper "who had the most fun." He leaves behind many lifelong friends in the MDA community.

Brandon's favorite pastime was hanging out with friends, playing video games, listening to music, and socializing on Facebook. In his earlier years he enjoyed dressing up in costumes (especially Batman and Zorro), camping, carrying his sword, and playing hide-and-seek. Brandon's first job as a movie critic had the townsfolk eagerly awaiting his weekly reviews. Later he enjoyed board games, poker nights, school dances, Steelers football and Penguins hockey, summer camp, and going on summertime "walks."

Brandon was preceded in death by his paternal grandfather, Roy Renkin; and by his maternal grandparents, Homer and Charlotte Ihle.

He is survived by his parents; sister, Caitlin; paternal grandmother, Lucille Renkin; very special friend, Jennifer Palecek; and many close friends and relatives.

Everyone who came in contact with Brandon developed a unique and lasting relationship. He was as much a teacher and role model as he was a student and friend.

Cremation has already taken place. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Brandon Renkin Memorial Scholarship Fund established at First Interstate Bank, P.O. Box 810, Gardiner, MT, 59030.

A Celebration of Life will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 23, at Gardiner School.

Brandon was truly an amazing and inspirational young man who will be sorely missed by all.

Condolences and memories may be shared with the family atwww.dahlcares.com.

Published in Bozeman Daily Chronicle on April 13, 2011

The Forecast (this one's for you, sis)

Forecast for Gardiner:

And for Yellowstone Lake:

Still excited? Hehe. Soak up that sun while you can!

The Tuck man goes camping & fishing

One day, one fish...
Camping on the bayou...

...and comatose this morning lol

Monday

"One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am-a reluctant enthusiast... a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there. So get out there and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to your body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards.”

Ed Abbey (I think)

Friday Funnies

OK, here is why you should not expect "docile" wild animals to stay that way & why you should worry about what someone else did to piss off that bison before you got there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3ubCxi9T_E

Really, people, they don't like to be slapped.

Oh, and I updated my facebook as to how happy I was that spring was finally here. Then the sun came up - it's snowing again.

Let it...oh...

The calendar may read 22 March, but spring is a fickle friend here in Yellowstone. Lloyd will be bouncing off the walls, no doubt, with all the white stuff coming down, but the poor plow crew will be back-clearing roads (and I will have to wait even longer for admin access - there are buildings out there I need to check!). Worse still, getting into the backcountry this year is going to be crazy - I doubt some areas will be clear until mid-July. Sigh. Maybe I'm just ready for the winter to be over. I miss the smells of spring.

WE ALL PASSED!!!

We had our practical exam to qualify for the National Register of EMT's (NREMT) on Saturday. Despite a horrible sinus headache, I managed to make it on time and get through the day. Best news - ALL OF US PASSED! Everyone worked really hard, so this was a big deal. Next step - computer-based written test in Bozeman (not sure when I'm going to be able to do this one, but want to do it soon before I forget all this...)

When I pass that portion, then I can get registered in Montana & in the park.

the winter blahs

Just another day in paradise - new snow of a few inches in the GMGM, but the sun is shining so there's a good chance of melt later.

Took the first of three final exams in my First Responder class last night - the whole class passed! Hooray! We're getting together Friday night in Bob's garage to study for the practical portion. That test will happen Saturday. After that we can register for the NREMT computer-based adaptive test in Bozeman. Then the real work begins. Learning how to drive the ambulance, learn how the Mammoth folks work. Dealing with the summer season. Seeing how I deal with a real emergency...it will be interesting.

Boss is away at a conference this week, so we are getting a lot done here in the office (lol) - just trying to get ahead of the curve before summer, or if they decide to shut the government down.

The plow trucks are making fabulous headway through the park. Bob says that they are having to cut very little ice. We continue to get storms, though, so keeping those roads clear is going to be a continuous chore. Roads aren't yet open for admin travel, so some of those buildings will have to wait to be GPS'ed.

Feel like I'm coming down with something, but other than that just a regular old week here in wonderland.

tsunami info - our friends in American Samoa should be fine...

Pacific nations evacuate coastal areas

Updated 10 minutes ago

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii has reduced the number of countries on its tsunami warning for the Pacific Basin following Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan.

It lists Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, French Polynesia, Pitcairn and Antarctica.

Several other Pacific states were initially on the list, as was New Zealand and Australia, but have since been removed.

The centre says sea level readings confirm that a tsunami has been generated which could cause widespread damage.

Samoa media report the tsunami warning there has been lifted and there had been no reports of inundation.

In American Samoa, officials said a 40cm surge was recorded in Pago Pago Harbour at 4am on Saturday and a 50cm surge an hour later.

The authorities in New Caledonia have lifted the tsunami alert for the territory and for Wallis and Futuna.

In Tonga, thousands of people in the capital Nuku'alofa sought refuge at the King's residence, which is on elevated land.

Radio Tonga was reporting shortly before 6am (NZT) that the marine office had not yet reported any significant wave activity.

The government of Kiribati called off its tsunami warning on Saturday morning just minutes before the wave was due to arrive.

In Nauru, a 20cm wave has been recorded, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.

Radio reports from French Polynesia say tsunami waves reached 30 metres inland on the island of Ua Pou in the Marquesas Islands, but caused no serious damage. An official says the wave measured about 50cm.

Reports from Tahiti say at waves inundated beachfront gardens at the Papenoo surf beach.

Northern Marianas, Guam

Thousands of residents in low-lying areas on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota in the Northern Marianas were evacuated to higher ground.

However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre reports that initial readings showed waves of only 66 centimetres hit Saipan.

Radio New Zealand International's correspondent in Saipan says people had filled up their cars with petrol and stocked up at grocery stores but everyone kept calm, and there was little evidence of panic.

The authorities on the United States island territory of Guam in the western Pacific also ordered the evacuation of low-lying areas.

Residents were told to move to ground at least 15 metres above sea level and 30 metres inland.

Copyright © 2011, Radio New Zealand

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/70401/pacific-nations-evacuate-coastal-areas

so I've been real tired lately

But hey, what else is new? Right?

Work, grad school, EMS classes, trying to work out on a regular basis - I should be tired.

But, then again not this tired.

Blood work = anemia + hypothyroidism (the latter is a given, since they nuked my thyroid)

So I'm not crazy after all.

More pills.

Should have more energy and not feel like sleeping through every weekend.

Yay!

Hire more feds to shrink the deficit

No, really. You should read this.

Read the full article here: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2011/1103.gravois.html

...

he average voter may imagine federal bureaucracies as overstaffed, full of people leaning on their rakes and sharpening their pencils. But the truth is, most agencies are, if anything, understaffed. The government has grown tremendously in its spending and scope since the 1960s, and the population of the nation has grown by a margin of 100 million people, but the size of the federal workforce has remained remarkably static at about 2 million. Since coming into office two years ago, the Obama administration has bumped up staff levels by about 100,000, in part through “in-sourcing”—bringing back into the civil service inherently governmental work that had been farmed out to contractors. If this leads to better management, it could well mean a stanching of some of the cost overruns and regulatory failures that have been causing the government to bleed red ink. Today’s mindless demands for austerity, however, could reverse this trend.

This is not to say that there aren’t big bureaucratic reforms that need to be made that could lead to people losing their jobs. Many agencies, for instance, exhibit excessive layering in their management ranks (think job titles that start with “deputy-” or “under-”). And if Congress and the administration could agree to lift some of the outdated procedural requirements and redundant reporting demands that are the bane of the average civil servant’s life, it might be possible for agencies to fulfill their mission as well or better with fewer people.

But reforms like this almost never happen. Instead, what you usually get are demands like what we’re now seeing in Congress for across-the-board cuts in the workforce. This is often accomplished through attrition and incentives for early retirement. But the people most likely to walk away in those cases are the ones most confident of their ability to land a job in the private sector—in other words, often the best employees. Another method is to leave decisions about cutting up to the leaders of the agencies themselves. But as some veterans of Reinventing Government learned, that can have the effect of simply consolidating inertia in the managerial ranks. “Headquarters isn’t ever gonna cut itself,” says John Kamensky. “Headquarters cuts field.”

Ideally, the White House ought to be able to keep agencies from playing such games. But just as agencies lack the manpower and expertise to oversee their contractors, the White House strains to oversee the rest of government. The Office of Management and Budget is meant to be the eyes and ears of the executive branch. But with its staff of about 500, it is simply incapable of knowing what’s working and what’s not out in the labyrinths of the federal bureaucracy.

The paradox, then, is this: if the aim is to reform the civil service in order to put a lid on federal spending, what we really need are targeted increases in the federal workforce. A wise first move would be to double the size of the OMB. More and better staff at revenue-producing agencies like the IRS would also make sense. The SEC will need a big boost in personnel in order to fulfill the new demands of last year’s financial reform legislation, which wisely calls for the agency to oversee derivatives trading and other potentially destabilizing aspects of the financial world. And our best hope for controlling the burgeoning costs of Medicare and Medicaid—the biggest drivers of long-term federal deficits—lies in new, yet-to-be staffed bureaucracies whose founding is authorized in last year’s health care reform law.

But of course, Republicans have not only vowed to block funding for the financial and health reform laws, they’re also making demands to cut the federal workforce by as much as 15 percent—all in the spirit of so-called fiscal responsibility. “The idea that we’re somehow going to balance the budget by cutting the workforce is absurd,” says John Palguta of the Partnership for Public Service. It’s absurd for a number of reasons, but the biggest one is that, in today’s government, cutting civil servants is bound to prove an exceedingly expensive way to be thrifty.

---

I find myself thinking

Yep. I was thinking today.

I was thinking about the great friends I have, and this crazy place that brought us together. I think about E, and Em, and Kendra, and Doug, and Troy, Nit, Urk, Nick, Shannon, Julia, and all the others who have scattered to the wind over the years.

I miss them all and wish them well.

Sidewalk for Stone Street?

http://www.parkcounty.org/departments/COMMUNITYDEVELOPMENT/Special%20Projects/Gardiner%20Sidewalk%20Project/Gardiner%20Sidewalk%20link.htm

So I have a thought, lets put speed bumps on Stone Street and route the kids down Main - there's already a sidewalk there and I'm sick of people speeding through the intersection at 3rd & Stone.

back pain and medical weirdness

So it seems I pulled some muscles in my mid-back last Thursday. So things seemed to be getting better, until I went to the clinic Tuesday. There, the doc put me through gymnastics to see what causes the pain. It worked. The pain returned. Now I'm on muscle relaxants in addition to the ibuprofen.

Small problem. Seems when I take the relaxants I turn into a very mean person. And I have had some wacky violent dreams (if I remember correctly, one where I threw a pint glass down in the middle of a party at my house and yelled at everyone to leave) so I'm not going to take those any more.

I think I'll give a massage a try.

Just business as usual.

Misc. map crap for the day

No real news from here, winter continues, I tweaked my back (will find out how badly this afternoon) so I thought you all would enjoy some links:

National Broadband Map

http://www.broadbandmap.gov/technology

United States Map of Shame

Every state is bad at something, let's celebrate it!

http://pleated-jeans.com/2011/01/24/the-united-states-of-shame-chart/#more-6203

Oh, the government may shut down:

http://fcw.com/articles/2011/02/18/potential-government-shutdown-ssa-furloughs.aspx?s=fcwdaily_220211

And they want to take freeze step increases as well

http://fcw.com/articles/2011/02/17/issa-rokita-amendments-to-continuing-resolution-bill.aspx?s=fcwdaily_180211

Canada is looking so lovely to me right now.

Edicts from on high...

No bison can be released in or moved through Montana for 90 days.

http://governor.mt.gov/news/pr.asp?ID=878

Shoot wolves at will in Montana:

http://governor.mt.gov/news/pr.asp?ID=880

May you live in interesting times.

my VERY brief nod to a day in which I don't believe

Geek love: Two-techie couples make it work

When nerds collide, true love can be twice as nice

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9208559/Geek_love_Two_techie_couples_make_it_work?source=CTWNLE_nlt_thisweek_2011-02-14

Geek love: Two-techie couples make it work

When nerds collide, true love can be twice as nice

Tracy Mayor

February 11, 2011 (Computerworld)

Geeks aren't very good at love.

At least that's what the mainstream entertainment industry would have us believe. Consider the Academy Award-nominated movie The Social Network, wherein über-nerd Mark Zuckerberg invents Facebook after getting dumped by a pretty Boston University undergrad (or driving her away, depending upon your point of view). Or the popular CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, wherein geeky physicist Leonard needed two seasons to win over the girl next door, but then lost her within half a season.

In real life, though, many geeks find romance -- often with other geeks. To celebrate the triumph of the techie in matters of the heart, Computerworld sought out couples who have successfully merged romantic love and tech love.

We tracked down five two-nerd couples to get their take on what works, what takes work, and what advice they have for the lovelorn techies in our midst. Their responses have been condensed and edited for clarity and brevity.

Diane and Gerard

Diane Chapin Cerchio, 54, managing partner, CircleSoft LLC
Gerard Cerchio, 58, managing partner, CircleSoft
Hometown: San Francisco
Years together: 15

Diane Chapin Cerchio and Gerard Cerchio

How they met

Gerard: We met on a geeky expedition in the South China Sea to view a total eclipse of the sun. The expedition included an astronaut, the head of the Griffith Observatory, and Sir Patrick Moore, the world's first televised science populist.

These are not the types of cruises where people get drunk and pick up chicks. Most of the day is taken up with scientific lectures. But I got lucky when I started talking to Diane. We married two years later on a different solar eclipse cruise, and the wedding was reported in Sky and Telescope magazine.

The best thing about a being in a two-nerd relationship is...

Diane: I never have to explain myself. Other boyfriends would see all my stuff -- my science, religion and philosophy books -- and that would be the end of it. When I first saw Gerard's place, with every corner crammed with books, I felt like I was walking into my own house.

Gerard: We fly an aircraft that we built ourselves. We have lifetime subscriptions to Lord of the Rings Online. We run two technology companies together [CircleSoft LLC, a software consultancy, and OB1Net LLC, a boutique ISP]. We have two weather stations on the roof of our condo, and we broadcast our data [at OceanBeach.org]. We have two of every type of high-tech gadget.

Diane: Well, we only have one mass spectrometer.

And the most challenging part is...

Diane: Typically in a relationship someone -- usually the woman -- is supposed to do all those social niceties like remembering people's birthdays and socializing and entertaining. With two nerds in the house, that just doesn't get done.

Have your say

Share your own true tales of geek love!

Gerard: You know that old joke, "May God bless and keep our families... far away"? That would be us.

Advice for others looking for geek love

Diane: When people tell you that you need to do things that are outside your normal sphere, they're wrong. I tried to go out dancing and those other things, adult education classes. If what you want to do is play Dungeons and Dragons, you should.

Gerard: If you're a nerd and you look the part, I would advise you to avoid bars. They're full of guys who are more socially adept than you are. Try a museum instead.

Jonathan and Laura

Jonathan Lassoff, 22, operations engineer at Square
Laura Khalil, 30, tech writer, chief nerd herder at Dorkbyte.com
Hometown: San Francisco
Years together: 1.5

Jonathan Lassoff and Laura Khalil

How they met

Laura: We met at our local hackerspace, Noisebridge. I was there learning Python, and he was making cool objects on [the] 3D printer. I also taught French at Noisebridge, and he came to one of my French movie nights for the class.

The rest is history. Seriously, I can't imagine anything nerdier than a man and woman falling in love over an evening of hot solder and a soldering iron.

The best thing about a being in a two-nerd relationship is...

Jonathan: We can share our experiences doing the things that we both enjoy. It's a great feeling to be able to experiment and build things together.

Laura: We get to do all the things we both love together -- from building a kinetic chandelier out of junk, to making robots, going on puzzle hunts, playing with amateur radio and lugging our telescopes around California stargazing.

And the most challenging part is...

Laura: Deciding who gets to use the soldering iron first, arguing over minutiae related to the Star Trek universe, and competing to see who can type more words per minute on a Dvorak keyboard.

Advice for others looking for geek love

Jonathan: Find what you truly love to do. If you enjoy getting into the details of technical pursuits or just enjoy geek culture, live it and love it. Then, find outlets to connect with people that share the same interests. Hackerspaces, shared workspaces and hobby shops are a great place to meet people that love what you love.

Roger and Colleen

Roger Pence, 57, education director at ASNA San Antonio
Colleen Pence, 40, principal, Social Media Mentoring
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
Years together: 10

Roger and Colleen Pence

How they met

Roger: We both worked at the same software company. I was the education director, and Colleen was the marketing director -- though now she's in social media.

Part of my work included writing corporate collateral such as case studies, product documents and white papers, so I had to work closely with the marketing department. I am at my core an introverted, cynical geek -- I'd much rather write code than schmooze at a cocktail party.

Still, I found myself drawn to this beautiful, smart and funny marketing person. For whatever reason, she saw qualities in me that were attractive to her. She was known in her circles to be a little wild and crazy, and I was known not to be. Our friends dubbed us "the Freak and the Geek."

The best thing about a being in a two-nerd relationship is...

Roger: We're on different sides of the tech spectrum. She's into all the social media and all the new devices -- the iPad, the iPhone, the Mac. I'm a card-carrying nerd. I have an eight-year-old phone that doesn't do anything but make calls, and all I want to do is write code.

Still, it's someone in the same field. With two nerds, one isn't pulling the other all the time saying, "take a break."

Colleen: We never get bored. We've always got plenty of fodder for passionate arguments -- I mean, conversations -- to keep us interested. We can talk endlessly about the latest tech trend, hot social networking sites, what Apple's going to do next, and why Microsoft is better. (It's not, but don't tell Roger that.)

And the most challenging part is...

Roger: I can get so wrapped up in what I'm doing and not want to back out, I can go 62 hours without saying hi to her.

Colleen: We could both be better at knowing when to shut off the screens so we can have fun together and enjoy each other. Right about now, Roger's shaking his head because it's probably me who needs to learn to live with less screen time. I am having a wild and crazy affair with my iPhone, and Roger begrudgingly accepts that.

Advice for others looking for geek love

Colleen: If you're lucky enough to work with a hot geek like I was, that's the easiest route to go. Barring that, I'd recommend finding and following people who have interests that are similar to yours using Twitter and Facebook and other social media.

Ask your friends to connect you online to people they think you'd like to meet. If you start conversations online, see if you can take them offline through tweetups and other social network gatherings.

Donna and Roy

Donna Richardson, 37, service desk supervisor
Roy Richardson, 43, SAP Basis administrator
[The Richardsons declined to say where they work.]
Hometown: Greenwood, S.C.
Years together: eight

Donna and Roy Richardson

How they met

Roy: Donna and I met at work. She was on the company's outsourced help desk, and I was a system administrator for my company's Windows environment.

I was loosely in charge of the help desk as well, so when it came time for a huge PC replacement project, I was placed in charge as the project manager. Donna was assigned to the project to assist me.

We fought like crazy. She didn't like my approach, and I was not happy with hers. Ultimately the project was completed successfully, but it's still true that we don't work well together on tech projects. On other projects, such as our kids, we do pretty well.

The best thing about a being in a two-nerd relationship is...

Donna: Being able to understand each other's work stresses and sharing our excitement over new gadgets.

Roy: Having somebody who can relate to what you're going through. Some days you just have a horrible day, and it's great to have someone who knows what you're dealing with at work, who can say "I know what you mean" and really mean it.

And the most challenging part is...

Donna: Getting in each other's way when something needs to be fixed. He does it his way, and I want him to let me do it my way, even if that is not the way he would recommend. And Christmas and other gift-giving occasions can get expensive when you both like electronics.

Roy: We both have a lust for whatever the latest and greatest tech is. But we've got four kids between us, and one of those is in college, so in this economy, the gadgets have to wait.

Advice for others looking for geek love

Donna: Be true to yourself. If you do what you enjoy and be honest with yourself, love will fall in your lap.

Deborah and Jeff

Deborah Young, 49, administrative assistant, Oncology and Hematology Dept., Cayuga Medical Center
Jeff Young, 41, IT manager for Hospicare and Palliative Care Services of Tompkins County, N.Y.
Hometown: Ithaca, N.Y.
Years together: 10

Deborah and Jeff Young

How they met

Deborah: I had a new job as the administrative assistant for the IT department at an architecture and engineering firm in Albany. I had been there a week with no computer.

I'd finally had enough and went downstairs to ask the receptionist who I had to see about getting a computer. She told me "Jeff Young," and pointed down the hallway. I walked into his office and there was Jeff, leaning back with his hands behind his head, listening to music.

For the life of me I still don't understand why I did it, but I sashayed around him, sat on top of his desk and said, "What does a girl have to do to get a computer around here?" He looked at me, shocked, and said, "You're not from around here, are you? Are you from down south?" And I said, "Yes I am." And he said, "Then a jug of sweet tea." He got his tea, and I got the computer the next day. That's how it started.

The best thing about a being in a two-nerd relationship is...

Jeff: We're both very level-headed and like-minded. We can talk things through analytically and not hold a grudge.

And the most challenging part is...

Jeff: With two technical-minded people, you're both going to have strong opinions about the right way to do things -- home decorating, child-rearing, cooking. There's a potential to butt heads there.

Have your say

Share your own true tales of geek love!

Deborah: We spend a lot of time online. We'll sit next to each other in bed with our two laptops and say, "Did you see this? Did you see that?"

Advice for others looking for geek love

Deborah: Growing up in the south in particular, I saw a lot of people lose out on some great dating opportunities because they had some bad connotations about this one or that one being a geek. People are missing a chance to have a great relationship. You have to go beyond the stereotype.

Tracy Mayor is a Computerworld contributing editor.