Breaking News (as of 07/07/2025):
So, I meant to post this last night but got lost in Tamriel. :-p Just FYI--I will be back with a new episode of my podcast, "I Was An Internet Pioneer (And All I Got Was This Lousy Story)" this Sunday, July 13th.

I kinda forgot it was the 4th of July last weekend and eventually I just decided to give myself a small break... maybe catch up on some things I've been neglecting. I already had the 6th episode written, though, so I'm already ahead of schedule for this week. :-p

Hey there! My name is Jen and fair warning: I've lived a bit of a unique life. Long story short(ish):

Born on December 25, 1974 in Baltimore, Maryland - where I continue to live to this day - I had a fairly conventional childhood. When I graduated high school in 1992, though, I have to admit to feeling a bit lost.

While traditional college was not in the cards for me, I did attend the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University for three semesters of piano lessons. In addition, I spent those early years working a variety of jobs in food service, retail, and offices.

Then in 1995, shortly after moving in with my now-husband Dave, he suggested posting some nude photos of me online.

It was just for kicks - it's not like anybody made money on the internet back then - and I said, "Sure, why not?"

That first posting on Usenet was incredibly popular and events snowballed in a way we never could have imagined. Within a few months, Dave and I were running our own online business, full-time, at Jen-Dave.com.

It was a crazy but amazing experience that lasted several years. As they always do, though, things changed over time... especially once I gave birth to twins in 2005.

On top of that, when the twins were around 18 months old, my stepkids (who were 13 and 15 years old at the time) came to live with us full-time. It should come as no surprise that I was pretty lost in the fog of motherhood for several years.

That said, I did try to keep the old business going, too, as best I could. I also tried my hand at some new projects such as designing websites for others and "mommy-blogging." Despite all my efforts, though, my income dwindled more and more with every passing year.

Dave had already returned to the workforce a couple of years before the twins were born and, when they were finally old enough to not need daycare, I decided to try and do the same. However, my own job hunt proved to be somewhere between difficult and impossible.

I have done some other work here and there including retail, helping to manage an elementary school cafeteria, redesigning a haunted attraction for a local farm, and serving as a marketing consultant for a property management company, but I recently decided to hit the reset button, so to speak, and am currently taking some time to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.

For one, I recently turned 50 and all my kids are now grown: The twins are in college and one of my stepkids even has two little ones of her own. (Note: They are the only ones allowed to call me "Granny.")

Suffice it to say, I find myself in a very different phase of my life now. While I am now in the latter or "P.M." portion of it all, I like to think the best is yet to come.

If you'd like to follow me for whatever comes next, here's where you can find me posting these days: