Name: Melinda

Handle/Nickname: nil8r, nil8r13, BlueMel, dangerous_toyz, Mel, Mena, the blue-haired freak... among others

Eyes: Hazel or whatever they feel like

Hair: I alternate between marketing friendly black, auburn, mahogany, or chestnut with occasional streaks of anime red, plum, purple, blue, black and whatever else I can sneak past the suits.  I still miss the all blue, of course!

Kids: None. However, I have a cat named Zelda (combining the literary and gaming reference) who is spoiled, and her kitten-ness is the closest thing to children that I plan on having. 

Job: Once,  I temporarily sold my soul to the Evil Empire, in order to play games. Actually, I was an Associate Site Manager for Xbox.com. In past lives, I've been a Beta Coordinator, QA/Software Test Engineer, Computer "Inside Sales" Girl, bookstore shiftless lay-about, fast-food extraordinaire, slacker, student, and unemployed geek.

Currently, I work for the prodigal son of the evil empire (Expedia). In fact, my soul was revoked the moment I was re-org'd into the marketing department. Specifically,  into the email marketing channel where I handle the operational aspects and technical implementation. It's actually a great gig, where I can do left-brained and right-brained activities on any given day.

Major: I'm back on track and enrolled at Washington State University, finishing my B.S. in Information Systems. In a dream world, I'd be a music major.

Interests: Computers, gaming, reading, sleeping, shopping, music, knitting, French and Japanese cultures, anime, Buffy, Angelina Jolie, camping, cats, drinking, dancing, sex, comics, spontaneous excursions, sci-fi, cyberpunk, Camelot/Arthurian lore, cooking, movies... but, not necessarily in that order.

Music: Well, like most of you who'd be reading this, I have eclectic tastes. Obsessed with-- Depeche Mode, Wolfsheim, Tori Amos. Totally groove to-- a lot of 80's retro, Garbage, some hip-hop and rap, Cake, INXS, Brandenburg Concertos (#3 being my favorite), VNV Nation, a number of techno/electronica one-hit wonders, The Cure, various nostalgic-inducing hair bands, Covenant, Beastie Boys, Apoptygma Berzerk, Madonna, Green Day, Moonlight Sonata, Velvet Chain, Beborn Beton, Delerium, "old-skewl gawth", Stained and the other sound-alikes, Sinatra, Paperboys, Toccata and Fugue in d minor, "You know, that one song?" ... among a gazillion other things.

Spoken Languages: English (in theory) and the cobwebs in my head that represent the remnants of French.

Future Goals: Someday, I want to be eccentric. The key difference between that and crazy is simply the amount of cold-hard cash you have. I need a lot of money to furnish the lifestyle my friends and I have grown accustomed to. If I can swing it, put those vocal cords to use and front a band. After music, computers were my first love... it was always a toss-up between working for Apple or Microsoft. I was 9yrs old when I came up with that brilliant plan. Once upon a time, I wanted to be a fashion designer. Nevermind that I can't draw, there were tools for that. I just decided that it was a bit too shallow of an industry for me. Not that the tech industry doesn't feel like Hollywood at times. It's not so much about your "mad chez-geek skillz" as it is who you know.

IM Nicks: E-Mail me for it. If I've met you before or had some friend-type connection you'll probably get it, otherwise it depends.

E-Mail address: bluegirl@nil8r.net

Anything else you'd like to know?

Email with suggestions.