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Bio

I'm a former military wife and homeschooling mom. In 2001, I was diagnosed with a mild variation of a deadly genetic disorder. Getting a proper diagnosis after a lifetime of being treated like a hypochondriac was very empowering and I've grown healthier in the years since.

I run various websites. I joined Hacker News in 2009 and changed my handle to DoreenMichele in 2017. I run thirty-some-odd reddits under the same handle.

My full legal name is Doreen Michele Traylor. Here is the explanation for why I'm using Doreen Michele as my default online identity.

I am an environmental studies major with a concentration in housing with:
  • AA in Humanities
  • Certificate in GIS from UC-Riverside
I was Director of Community Life, lead moderator and in charge of diversity for The TAG Project during a time when they were trying to become an officially incorporated non-profit, an effort they later abandoned.

I spent a few years as a divorced single mom processing accident claims at the insurance giant Aflac where I got to soak up the award-winning design work of their wholly owned subsidiary Communicorp.

I've been interviewed via phone or email a few times over the years and quoted in a few books and articles.

I have a multi-cultural background (German/Irish/Cherokee), so I never quite fit in anywhere.

In spite of being American, I have been car free for over a decade.

December 2023.

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Me and Languages

My mother's mother came from a low level German noble family. Mom was born and mostly raised in Danzig, a very cosmopolitan freistadt (independent city state), except for the years that the family spent in the country during World War II to try to safeguard everyone as best they could. When the war ended, she found herself in the newly created communist East Germany where she was required to take Russian in school, which is why I know a few words of Russian. She left East Germany to return her sister's baby to her , so she was a young illegal immigrant in West Germany when she met my father at a party. She spoke extremely proper High German. His American accent plus the fact that he mostly learned German from farmers, meant she couldn't understand a word he spoke and she asked someone what language he was speaking. My older sister was born in Germany. Her first language was actually German and she translated for my parents while she was a toddler. So I grew up in a bilingua...
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L'Histoire

I'm basically a total fucking loser. I was one of the top three students of my graduating high school class, along with my Korean best friend who was number two and some guy who was number one. I had a raftload of impressive academic credentials for a high school student from the "backwater" state of Georgia, including State Alternate for the Governor's Honors program, a residential summer enrichment program for gifted students. That means in tenth grade, only two other people in the state of Georgia outperformed me (likely both were older than me) for applying to the program in a specific subject area and had one of them failed to be able to participate, I would have taken their place. I achieved that placement after somewhat flippantly choosing some subject or other (maybe journalism) as my area of interest because unlike most of the other gifted kids in my school, I didn't have some stand-out area of strength. I was someone doing well overall and it was essen...
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POV

1953 – 2025 U.S. Relations With Iran Deeply unpopular among much of the population, the shah relies on U.S. support to remain in power until his overthrow in 1979. I turned fourteen in 1979. Navarre likely turned 31 and perhaps was finally released from prison. We didn't really speak much of it, so my understanding of those events and how that impacts his life is limited. My understanding is he spent three years in prison for his political activism and got married at age 28. I'm guessing he was newly married when he got locked up for reasons I was never told. Of his release, what I know is that he learned French in prison and was about to start studying German "when they let him out." I infer that he was expecting to remain in prison and his release was a surprise, so I'm guessing the 1979 revolution is likely the explanation for his seemingly sudden and unexpected release from prison. I saw two headlines today and didn't click into the articles. One said Isra...
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