FAQ

You have questions? I have answers. I am all-seeing and all-knowing, and I know exactly what you are thinking.

Cut it out.

You're just you, right? What makes you think you need an FAQ?

Because its fun?

I had a personal FAQ in the very first version I did of this page in 1994. I removed it in the 2001 version because it didn't feel...professional enough. A home page? Professional? What was I thinking?

Do you really look like that cartoon?

Well, no. I'm not that pale. I also have two eyes. And actually I don't look a thing like that. You try drawing a self-portrait of yourself as a comic book character and see how close you get.

I originally drew that cartoon in 1999, and then promptly cut off all my hair and dyed it dark brown. Since then I went through six or seven hair colors, and only occasionally have had purple hair in that style. Right now my hair is shorter and blonde, but I don't feel like updating the cartoon, so the purple hair remains.

Why aren't you writing books anymore?

One of these days I will write the big whiny rant with all the real reasons why I gave up writing computer books. The short version is that I burned out and went nuts. I have every intention of writing books again someday, but it will probably not be in the same way that I did it before.

What do you do now?

I'm a contract technical writer in Silicon Valley. I write programmer documentation, mainly. See the work link over there on the left.

Are you related to General Curtis E. LeMay?

Yes. Distantly. He was from the branch of the family that still capitalizes the "m." General LeMay, for those who don't know, was a WWII Air Force general who also founded the Strategic Air Command. He was very much of a cold war hawk who is best known these days for wanting to bomb Vietnam "back into the stone age."

Where do you live?

I live in the Santa Cruz mountains just south of silicon valley. Before that, I lived in various suburban towns in the valley itself. I spent a couple years in Pittsburgh when I was at school, but I'm originally from Boston.

You don't have a Boston accent.

My god, you're the first person ever to point that out.

Where did you go to school and what was your major?

Lots of people seem to be really curious about this, even though its really quite dull. I went to Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. I graduated in 1989. I did a self-defined major, which means I designed my own curriculum, wrote a proposal, and then had to argue it to the heads of all the departments that it touched. My degree title was "Writing and Computers," but what it was really was a degree in software technical writing. I took equal amounts of courses from the English department, the School of Computer Science, the Graphic Design department, as well as a smattering of classes in cognitive psychology (the science of how people learn things).

I told you it was dull.

Weren't you the one with the Redhead, Drummer, Geek signature?

Yes, that was me. This was it:

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Laura Lemay                                lemay@lorelei.sun.com
Redhead. Drummer. Geek.
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Weren't you the one with the signature that said "go away"?

Yes, that was also me. This was that one:

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Laura Lemay                                    lemay@netcom.com
bitchy vampiric technogoth                              go away.
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I think I flamed you on Usenet once.

I'm not at all surprised.

"Bitchy vampiric technogoth"? You're a goth? You don't look goth.

I was a goth once. But these days I am old, I have other interests and I just have too many other things to do with my time. I am no longer goth.

For a while when I was goth I had a page up on this site titled "what is goth." It was a joke. This was obvious. But I hadn't realized that along the way as goth got more popular had it become very very serious. I started getting a lot of nasty email from people who just didn't get the joke. Who was I to say what goth was, you don't speak for the community, goth is so much more than that, how dare you, blah blah blah. I got really tired of it and I took the page down.

Are you single?

Nope. Sorry. Happily married for ages and ages.

Will you go out with me anyhow?

No.

Will you send me dirty email?

No.

Will you post nude pictures of yourself?

No.

Are you interested in buying viagra at 50% off?

NO.

When are you going to write more stuff on your web site?

See the blog.