Mark and I, February 2005

The Basics

My name is Lynda and I'm 26 years old.

I live in Atlanta, GA and I like it okay except for the traffic.

I was married on November 26, 2002 to Mark. Mark and I met online in 1999 through our online journals. He lived in Texas at the time and moved to Georgia to be with me in April 2000. We've had our ups and our downs and we both still have a lot of growing up to do, but he's a wonderful, caring person who loves me more than I even know.

I work as a Data Quality Analyst for a large (and cool) dotcom company that shall remain nameless. I like my job and I really feel like I have a career, not just a job. It pays well, treats me well and is relatively close to home. Can't ask for much else in a job.

I enjoy photography although I'll be the first to tell you I'm not spectacular at it. Every once in a while I take a really nice photo that blows me away. I live for those rare moments and that's the sort of thing that keeps me clicking. I try to take pictures every day and if I do, you'll also see some photos in my entries. In almost all cases, clicking on the photo will take you to the Flickr page with a larger version.

More

Whenever I write a journal entry with more bio-like information about myself, I'll try to remember to post it here.

• 100 Things I Love (especially nice for me to come back to on a grumpy day)

The Pets

I have three cats and two cockatiels.

Harmony

Harmony is the oldest. She came into my life when I was a sophomore in high school (1994). She was terribly sick as a kitten. So sick that the vets basically told us we should start looking for another kitten. Harmony got past her illnesses and is a perfectly healthy, chubby cat. She is beautiful and sweet and soft and as much as I hate to admit it, she is without a doubt, my favorite.

Leah

Hialeah (or Leah, for short) probably has more personality than any cat I know. She's a very social cat and loves to be around people and loves to be in the midst of whatever's going on. She is also very curious and causes a bunch of trouble. Mark got Leah as a kitten shortly after he moved to Georgia, so I'm hoping with old age she'll calm down some. She can be sweet sometimes, but likes to bite and scratch a bit too often.

Cindy

Hyacinth (or Cindy, for short) was found as a cold, wet, abandoned kitten outside Mark's apartment. We theorize that she was the kitten of one of the strays in the neighborhood and perhaps the stray mother got hit by a car or something. We took her in and for the longest time she was very distant with us. She's a very skittish cat, but she had barely warmed up to us. After we got her fixed, however, she was like a whole new cat and completely loves love.

Kizzy

I grew up with cockatiels and really wanted to get one in my adult life. Mark and I went to a 2nd chance "shelter" for birds in March 2001 and found Kizzy. She's an orange-faced cinnamon tiel and not much about her past is known. Kizzy means "cinnamon" in Hebrew. She's very sweet to me, but doesn't really like Mark at all. She's calm and will sit on my shoulder for hours on end.

Marty

We got Marty in August 2001 because we thought perhaps Kizzy would like a companion and since Kizzy didn't like Mark, Mark wanted a tiel of his own. That didn't work out too well either way. Marty and Kizzy don't really care for one another and Marty is scared of Mark as well.

Domain and Site

The first true website I had was built in 1996. It didn't really contain any frequently updated information and was completely boring. In March 1999 I decided to create a personal website that would be frequently updated. I updated once a week. As many others, I thought the idea was pretty novel at the time. It didn't take very long before I found a slew of online journals and the journal community. A new online journaler was born in that moment!

In April 1999 I registered heavysigh.com with Network Solutions (as it was the only registrar available) for two years for $70. (Consequently, I now use GoDaddy for $9 a year.) I pre-purchased two years of webhosting with Dreamhost and went from there. Before the two years were up, I grew tired of updating my site. I had Mark and didn't feel the need to journal anymore. So I stopped updating my site completely.

In April 2001, before the heavysigh.com domain ran out, I decided I wanted to get into journaling again. I wanted a website that would be more than just a journal. I don't really remember where I came up with the name digitalwoe, but it seemed appropriate enough. I let heavysigh expire and it got gobbled up by porn site after porn site and portal after portal. I really wish I would have renewed the domain, but Network Solutions probably would have given me a hard time about it anyway. If you ever see that it's available for purchase, let me know!

My site is hosted with VerveHosting and I couldn't be happier. They are just about the best hosts on the planet. I had a brief stint with Aletia, however the whole thing was a nightmare, so I came back to Verve. If you're looking fr a host, they're really the place to be!

I'm currently using Expression Engine to manage my site. It's awesomely powerful and the possibilities are nearly limitless especially if you have a good understanding of PHP.