GirlGeek of the Week
November 1999

Julie Brinkman

Throughout my childhood I messed with computers. Starting with my dad's Commodore 64. It was when I moved back to the states after a year overseas in 1993 that I truly enveloped myself in all of the digital glory. My dad purchased the family a 486SX/25MHz with a 210 meg HD.

That computer came with a 2400 modem, of which I didn't understand yet but used to connect to Prodigy and rake up a huge $200+ bill after the first month. My online days were over until I saw the movie Sneakers, looked up Bulletin Boards in the phonebook...and I was back online as Nightingale...later a SysOp of my own BBS.

During junior high I was pretty much the dork of the 8th grade class made up of only 80 or so students. The teachers used me to help them with the computers, and the students asked me for help too. One time a student changed the Windows wallpaper of a computer to a blood-dripping X, so the teacher asked me if it was a virus and thought I'd put it there because I'm the only one that would know how....wha? My junior high nickname was, "Don't even think about it."

In high school life was better, the school had computers in every single classroom. By my sophomore year, all of the computers had Windows95 and a club had formed, the "Cyberspace Construction Company". I learned HTML using Word and saving the files as DOS.txt files. The class became known as "0 period" and Web design was my thing.

In 1997 I entered the ThinkQuest competition as a requirement in 0 period. My partners were two German students and we created a site on a marshal area near their hometown. We became finalists, and before I knew it I was on a plane to Washington D.C. to meet my partners face-to-face on a free round trip to compete for the big scholarships.

Since high school, the peak of my Web days seemed to have leveled, just about anyone can do it these days. It's still my hobby and I feel obligated to maintain my site just the way it's been for the past 2 years....forever.

When did you first discover your love and/or obsession with computers and technology?

Probably around the same time I was having dreams in text, just like the chat room on a BBS I frequented. Or when I'd skip hanging out with friends just to go online or play games.

How do you earn a living?

I am currently doing web design for a young business-to-business ISP.

Do you consider yourself a Geek?

Julie is to Geek as snail is to slow.

What is your favorite Website?

Other than my own at amabilis.net (heh heh heh), I really love the girl pages out there...there are too many to list.

What do you do when you are not working?

Think about doing my homework, watch WWF rasslin, and collect Pokemon toys! I'm also a blackbelt in Goju karate and teach a weekend class.