Skip to main content

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.

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Read more

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...
Read more

Medical care in the US

This is a thought I've had a long time: If you served in the US military and were honorably discharged , you should get medical benefits for the rest of your life . That would drastically reduce the need for Obamacare which is a lousy solution to what's wrong with American healthcare. We have some of the best medical stuff in the world -- IF you're rich. In fact, people travel here to get it -- IF they're rich. Meanwhile, most of our people are left out in the cold and living with stupid levels of stress about the COST of medical care, etc. We should not be putting the health of wealthy foreigners above that of the American people. I mean unless you WANT the world to invade, take us over and etc. The people who raised their right hand and swore to give their life for their country and were honorably discharged should be told by actions, not words, "You are the kind of people America values." Obamacare just plays into this bullshit medical system where money ...
Read more