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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.

After several years of lurking, I've finally bought an account to become a member of this fine community. My deepest thanks to the many members of MetaFilter - most of those years spent lurking occurred after I was left severely ill, physically disabled and brain damaged by an over-prescribed, already-dangerous medication. Reading the Big Blue and (mostly) the comments helped me regain cognition, awareness and intelligence, while keeping up on the Best of The Web. I have ever been impressed with the gathering of talent, intelligence, imagination, and cleverness I've found at MetaFilter. (No, you can't use that for the commercial!) I may not always agreed with what I read, but I've always had my mind activated!

No, I'm not actually a Pagan. I've had that nickname since I was a teen and, no matter how hard I've tried in the past, my friends will not let me get rid of it. I use it for many internet identities because I'm not on-the-spot clever; I can remember this user name. The nickname arose after my best friend's boyfriend propositioned me and my smart-mouth reply told him he could look but not touch. He answered, "What, like some kind of pagan goddess?" After I answered affirmatively, he gave me my nickname and it quickly took hold in our group (probably because most of the females my age are also named Jennifer and her boyfriend died half a year later.) It seems that anyone new in my life picks it up from the current batch of friends. I've been told it's because they think it's 'cute'. It was a few years later that I then began to take an interest in paganism, which I followed for some time.

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From me you'll hear about my 80s deathrock teens, my crazy alt/goth friends, what kind of parent I was like to my now grown daughters, my college course-work in anthropology and religion, my omnisexuality and low tolerance for hate, an high curiosity for altered states, with some fashion design/construction questions and tips. I'll complain a lot about how poverty sucks, disability isn't as fun as it looks and my struggles with depression, epilepsy, brain damage, and fibromyalgia.