bio

I started out in help desk & teaching Microsoft Office to the technology-challenged in 1997. From there, I learned what "FTP" and "HTML" meant, made a little intranet, some online company newsletters, uploaded a few weekly files and eventually found myself with the title of Web Technologies Instructor & a few Macromedia (now Adobe) certifications (Instructor, Dreamweaver Developer, and Flash Designer). A 3 year stint in Prague (Czech Republic) teaching English showed me that I love teaching but technology was my long-lost lover. I returned to both the States and technology.

Now, still Certified with Adobe, I primarily teach ConnectPro & Presenter for Brookwood (from my home in Seattle), and do a bit of web development on the side.

I'm a genuine geek, especially as far as "girls" go. I live this stuff and I spend an obscene amount of my spare time in front of my laptop - playing with code, tweaking wordpress, brushing up on software, reading about new technology and best code practices. I offer up blogs and websites to all my friends, because, quite frankly, there's nothing I enjoy more than sitting here with my iPod, coding away.

Along with technology, I'm also a very loud & pushy home birth advocate and am working towards a career as a birth educator & postpartum doula. The birth of my son in November 2009 opened my eyes to a whole new world and made me realize what a disaster maternity & birth are in the United States - but don't get me started. Read more here about my experience with home birth and what led me to it. I used to think that home birth was something that dirty hippies did. No pain medication? And at HOME? Crazy, right? Then I learned a thing or two, started researching, and discovered that it's actually the safest, healthiest option for normal, low risk birth and that's just what we did. (Go ahead, ask me about it.)

I'll continue to work on web development & training on the side, but my focus will be on birth. Personally, think it's a fascinating mix - birth and technology - and not something you'll find very often. Originally, I kept very quiet about the fact that I have a child, because let's face it - if you're a woman and you want to work, never ever ever mention children. I'm not one to follow rules, however, and feel extraordinarly lucky to be able to loudly & publicly combine the best of all worlds.

I love yoga, raw milk, whole food, and am fantasizing about getting a couple of chickens by the end of this year. I make my own chicken stock, a mean brunch & chocolate cake and I'm probably the only person in the world who moved to California and STARTED to eat meat again. After 21 years of abstaining from the red stuff, I've now eaten veal. There's no going back.

My favorite movies are sci-fi / action / horror / adapted from graphic novels or video games, have lots of car chases and people with guns, or female assassins. (My latest favorite movie is The Midnight Meat Train.) I listen to Japanese trip-hop, French electronica and rap in foreign languages. I don't do chick flicks. Or chick music, for that matter. That's not to say I don't appreciate other things - there are a whole bunch of wonderfully sweet & introspective Czech films that I love, along with many other foreign films.

When not watching House or craptastic movies, I love to travel and take a lot of photos with my Sony a100 DSLR - probably the best gift I've ever gotten. In Prague, I had started the official Prague Stitch 'n Bitch. (That means I knit. I'm nothing if not well-rounded.)

I believe, firmly, in bagging my own groceries.

Oh, and before you ask, no, that's not a typo and no, my parents weren't trekkies - It is Nichelle with an N, but you can call me Nikki.

Some of my favorite sites:

I'm an ex-everything Renaissance person who's perfected the high art of the permanent identity crisis. My attitudes and opinions change daily, so please don't try to nail me to the facts. I like to smoke while jogging, sip martinis with my brown rice, and skim Shakespeare while watching reruns of "Roseanne."