randomly accessed memories

How does one write a few paragraphs about oneself? The conventional approach is one way. Let’s try that and see where it goes…

Hello World, I am Amy. I am 40 years old and live in Canada. I grew up in southern Ontario in a pretty generic white middle-class family. I have now settled in Ottawa, Ontario. I do government computer-related work; I am a huge nerd.

There will be stuff here about my cats, as I decided to lean into the whole crazy cat person thing. (I only have two cats though… for now. But they are my life.) I have a lot of other podcasts and links and computer game-related things to share, so I hope I can make ywing.net a reflection of who I am as a person once again, after nearly 15 years of it sitting idle.

I’m obviously quite different at age 40 than I was at 25, plus social media mostly killed the “personal website” paradigm… but a big reason I’m doing this is because I miss the early internet. In the early 2000s, I was in university, and I remember the internet feeling much less… corporate. Today it feels like our capitalist overlords make these big sites for us to use, and in exchange they get to use our data to sell us things. But back then, everything felt more… free, I guess. It was nice. People wrote their own HTML and CSS. Amazon only sold books. Google was the brand new search engine that actually gave you relevant results to your searches, and didn’t overload you with ads. (Oh how things have changed.) Netflix was a DVD borrowing service using snail mail. (I don’t know if it ever was available in Canada though.) I spent my time writing in my Livejournal and posting on old school forums. I made many internet friends, some of whom I still talk to today. Back then, the internet told me that it was ok that I was female and loved Star Wars… I wasn’t the only one! (RIP starwarschicks.com) My own worldview was expanded quite dramatically, as I met people from different countries and backgrounds. My own simple black-and-white view of the world was being challenged, so it was a rough time for me from one perspective, but it was a very important time as well. I learned new things by reading and talking to people. I adjusted my own beliefs as I detached from my parents. My best friends were my siblings: I have a brother who is a year younger than me, and a sister who is 3 years younger than me. I was extremely socially anxious, but not receiving any therapy or support – both of which were non-existent back then for people who otherwise could do life “ok” – so I tended to think it was my fault. I was good at school; I got a degree in Computer Science. I was obsessed with the clone commandos from Star Wars, and in 2006 I created a very popular website clonecommandos.net, where I poured all my hyper-fixated passion. I moved out of my parents house at 24 and got my first real job as a PHP programmer. I got my first cat, Alpha.

I’m going to “yada yada yada” most of the next part, because I really don’t want too many details on the internet. But I got a new job, my dream job. At work I met a boy – my first relationship. I was 26. We married in 2010. But 6 years after that, it was over. Our breakup was amicable so it could have been worse. He’s a good guy, but we were both so young. (Yes, I was a “late bloomer”. Also, he is 4 years younger than me so we actually matched pretty well in maturity and life stage.)

This is turning out to be WAY longer and in depth than I expected. I’m going to have to rethink this “about” page, because I didn’t really intend to write my whole life history. Oh well, I’ll leave it like this for now!

Alpha is my oldest cat, my first pet ever, my sidekick and constant companion. I got him as a 12-week old kitten in 2007 and he’s been the most constant thing in my life since then. (My parents took care of him during the times I was away for work for long periods, and he loves them too!)

He is very social. He will greet visitors to the house, and likes getting head pats from everyone. He is almost always in the same room as I am. If he is sleeping but I get up and go somewhere else in the house, he will usually follow within a few minutes, if not right away.

The expression “curiosity killed the cat” is Alpha personified. (Except for the killing part!) He is the most curious and nosy creature.

He sleeps on my bed beside me for most of the night.

He tends to overeat, so I have to feed him and Omega a specific measured amount of food in order for him to not gain weight.

Alpha is mean to Omega sometimes. It took them months to get to the point where they are now. They aren’t friends, but they tolerate each other for the most part. They take turns lying beside me on my bed. Sometimes Alpha chases Omega all around the house, but Omega will hiss when he’s had enough and Alpha will back off.

Alpha HATES the vet. He becomes a completely different animal – a snarling fur-ball of “don’t come near me or you’re dead”. It makes giving him his yearly shots very difficult. The vets will either knock him out, or get me to drug him ahead of time so he’s sleepy — though the last time his adrenaline won over the drugs and he was still a handful, apparently (I wasn’t allowed to go in with him that time) but they got it done.

This is my baby kitty Omega. (He’s not actually a baby, but he’s just over half the size of Alpha and very skittish, so I’m over-protective of him.)

I got him in November 2016, when he was estimated to be 2 years old. He was a street cat living in a feral cat colony, but when captured by a group who spays/neuters the feral cats to keep the population under control, they figured out Omega wasn’t actually feral. He was shy but clearly had been around humans before. So they turned him over to the SPCA and that’s where I adopted him.

I wasn’t particularly looking for a new cat. My marriage had recently ended and I was living by myself for the first time in 8 years.

Omega is very skittish and jumpy, even with me. If anyone else if in my house, he will hide. He will run out of the room if I move too quickly, or sneeze. It took him months to be able to approach my roommate for pets. But he can show bravery and dominance when he needs to. He’s very fast, agile, and silent. His favourite place to sleep is on the high shelf in my closet, because Alpha can’t jump up there.