[Photo of Jenni]

All About strawberryJAMM

(aka Jenni A. M. Merrifield)

[ Mouse with Strawberry ]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

General Info & Personal Statistics:

From birth to 18 a girl needs good parents. From 18 to 35, she needs good looks. From 35 to 55, good personality. From 55 on, she needs good cash. I'm saving my money.
-- Sophie Tucker 1884-1966

Statistics

  • Handle: strawberryJAMM
  • Full Name: Jennifer Anne (Mott) Merrifield
  • Eyes: Blue
  • Hair: 'strawberry' blonde
  • Height: 5'3" (157cm)
  • Birthday: March 15, 1968
  • Astrological Sign: Pisces
  • Marital Status: Married to Ron
  • Parental Status: One Son -- Nathan
  • E-Mail: strawberry@jamm.com
  • Home: Burnaby, British Columbia, CANADA

"So, why do you call yourself 'strawberryJAMM'?"

Well, the name came about when I first got into computers and old-fashioned 'BBS' systems. On a lot of these systems, you needed a 'handle' or 'pseudonym' to participate. So, I originally came up with the name 'strawberryJAM' for two reasons. The first reason is that my initials spelled 'JAM'. The second reason was because I thought it would be nice to be a particular type of jam, and since I have 'strawberry' blonde hair, strawberryJAM seemed appropriate. Later, when I was smart enough to marry a man who's last initial was ALSO 'M' I tacked it on to the end to become 'strawberryJAMM'.

Happiness is Having Someone To Snuggle With...

Speaking of getting married, I am life-partners with a very wonderful man named Ron Merrifield. He is my best friend, my truest companion, and my warm-fuzzy-wuzzy. He is romantic and charming and has this uncanny knack of making me smile for no other reason than just because I happened to think about him.

Our Wedding was on August 26, 1995 and it was one of the best parties I've ever been to! We went to Maui for a week and Disneyland for a week on our Honeymoon (and we wanna go back!) Eventually, we hope to live in a sprawling house, with a large back yard, have the standard 2.4 kids, and live as happily ever after as we can get away with.

sigh, ain't love grand?

Ron's main hobby is Mountain Biking. He particularly enjoys riding the trails on Burnaby Mountain, Seymour Mountain and Whistler Mountain in BC, Canada. He doesn't really have a web page yet, but he claims to have plans to create one with information and maps on all his favourite biking trails in the space I've provided for him. However, you could email him at if you wanted to talk to him about Mountain Biking in and around Vancouver and Burnaby, British Columbia, CANADA.

Motherhood

Speaking of having 2.4 kids, we've already acquired our first bundle of joy -- a son named Nathan. I'm thououghly enjoying the job of being a Mom, and Ron seems to be taking to Dad-hood like a fish takes to water. Nathan's still a bit young for his own web page, but I've set up a site with his stats and some photos if you're interested.

Related Links:

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Work and Education

I remember summing up what I took to be our destiny, in conversation with my best friend at Chartres, by the formula, "Term, holidays, term, holidays, till we leave school, and then work, work, work till we die."
-- C. S. Lewis, 1898-1963 [Surprised by Joy (1955) ch.4]

My Career

I currently work for a local High-Tech company, NCompass Labs where I truly have my ideal dream job. I am a User Interface Design Engineer -- i.e., I design the "look and feel" of our products with an emphasis on Usability and User Interface Design and Evaluation. This is perfect for me since Computer-Human Interaction was the area I specialized in during my Computer Engineering degree (See below for more information on my Education and Undergradate Thesis Specialization).

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Perma-Student Status

I have been told by many of my closer friends that I am (or at least was) a "Perma-Student" -- You see, first I spent four years at the University of British Columbia (in Vancouver), graduating in May 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classical Studies, then I took a year of Unclassified Studies (also at UBC) and most recently spent another six years at Simon Fraser University (in Burnaby), graduating in May 1997 with another undergraduate degree, this one a Bachelor of Applied Sciencedegree in Computer Engineering.

Now that I've graduated (for the second time) and I'm working full-time I do plan to keep working for a time before I venture back into the world of Acadamia. Never fear though, I will return eventually. I have vague hopes to get a Masters in Communication, specializing in the area of "New Media" -- otherwise known as the Internet. We'll see.

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The SFU REMOTE Project

The SFU School of Engineering Science requires that their undergraduate students complete an Undergraduate Thesis project. For my Thesis, I specialized in Usability Issues and User Interface Design and Evaluation and was responsible for the design and evaluation of the User Interface for The REMOTE Project -- an experiment in interactive on-line teaching -- which was proposed to combine interactive and static media using the World Wide Web as a means of providing remote access to a traditional engineering laboratory. The main intent was to prove that this kind of remote laboratory access was physically possible and could provide a means of offering courses that traditionally have a laboratory component using remote methods. Because of the educational nature of the REMOTE Project, the usability of the user interface was considered to be a high priority. My role in the initial stages of the project was to carefully design and evaluate the user interface of the prototype system using established Human Computer Interaction methods.

If you are interested in finding out more about this project or my role in it, please feel free to download a copy of my Thesis document.

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Out on the World Wide Web

If you keep waiting for just the right time, you may never begin. Begin now! Begin where you are with what you are.
-- From "P.S. I Love You", Compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Web Page Design

I've been doing personal Web Design for some time and because of my handle, I originally called the site strawberryJAMM's Web Site. In these pages I have included information on several of my interests and hobbies. I enjoy web design, and try to keep the pages of my site interesting and up to date. In particular, one section of my site, known as The Strawberry Facts Page received almost 60000 visits in its first two years of life and has won several Web awards.

Web Design is always fun for me, but it can also be time consuming. However, I've learned to make the job easier by referring to the various HTML References that are out on the World Wide Web, and by using the HoT MetaL Web Editor.

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strawberryJAMM Designs

Finally, in an attempt to follow the words of the quote given above, I started a Web Site and Software Design/Consulting business in January of 1996. (My philosophy is: Since I love doing HTML, why not get paid for it?) My company is called strawberryJAMM Designsand, as my résumé will attest, I've been doing okay so far. I do contract work for individuals and businesses who have a server but want someone else to maintain their web site, and I also provide my design services and web site storage to businesses and individuals who don't yet have a Web Presence and don't have the time to do it themselves. For more information, check out my commercial web site listed below.

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Personal Interests and Hobbies

Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?
-- Henry James 1843-1916

Societies and Clubs

It's always great to do things with people who share many of your interests. This is why I try to stay involved with one or two societies and clubs, especially now that I've left school again.

While At UBC I joined a womens social fraternity, the Alpha Phi Women's Fraternity and I am still involved as an alumna to this day.

While I was at SFU I discovered the Vancouver Enterprise Forum, and attend their talks from time to time (It's a great way to network in the high-tech industry)

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Fantasy Fiction & Creative Writing

I love to read (and write) Fantasy (and low-tech Science) Fiction stories. I'm really not that picky, enjoying all types of fantasy from serious works (i.e., Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series or David Eddings Belgariad) down to the slightly tongue-in-cheek works (i.e., Douglas Adams' itch Hiker's five book "trilogy" or Robert Aspirin's Myth Series).

In fact, I like Fantasy Fiction so much that I'm in the (slow) process of attempting to write "The Great Canadian Fantasy Fiction Novel", tentatively called The Names Of Power. My co-author, Derek Adam, and I have been developing the universe, society, plot and characters for our story for some time now. It's a long, slow, process, but we will finish someday, so keep an eye open for "Adam & Merrifield" on the Fantasy shelf!

I also do some creative writing for my personal "pleasure". For some time, I've been involved in the creation of several email Round Robin Stories. I've also started The Round Robin Storybook as an archive of the stories-as-written-so-far. If you're interested in reading or writing almost any genre, please consider taking a look. In fact, if you too are the 'creative writing' type, we invite you to join in and play with us!

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Fantasy Role Playing Games

In a similar vein to Fantasy books, I love to play Role Playing Games, TSR Inc's "Original D&D" in particular. I especially enjoy playing with characters in the Fantasy World Setting known as Mystara

The "Original D&D" and Mystara lines have officially been cancelled by TSR, but its use and ideas live on among its fans. In fact, there is even a very healthy mailing list called Mystara-l where current fans of the Mystara setting discuss many different aspects of fantasy gaming in this particular setting. There is also a "Message Board" maintained by TSR for Mystara, which can be reached by the Web or using an internet news reader. This board is one of the most highly used, depite its being for a line TSR has cancelled.

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A Little Bit Of The Unusual

Some of the things I like to do or am interested in are a little bit unusual by some people's standards. "Like what?" you might ask.

Well, I know how to read Tarot Cards for one thing, and enjoy using them to help clarify current life situations for myself and my friends. However, I don't necessarily think that there is anything "mystic" about the cards. Instead I recognize that each card has historically been assigned one of many archetypal life events and/or emotions, such as "A painful ending leading to the possibility of a new beginning" or "True and lasting love". Since each of these things occur in everyone's life, the cards and their arrangement simply provide a method of coming up with suggestions for a different direction of thought about a life situation. The cards are a great tool for making you more aware of points of view that you might not have thought of before.

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In Conclusion...

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
-- Sir Winston Churchill 1874-1965

That's All Folks!

And that pretty much sums up strawberryJAMM! (At least, that is all I can think of about myself at the moment ...) I hope you found this description of me and some of my personal pursuits interesting. I also hope you take the time to visit some of the sites that I've linked in here, just to get a better idea of what I like, and what I'm all about.

This file should get updated every once in a while, so please feel free to come back another time to find out more about strawberryJAMM!

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This personal file is maintained by
strawberryJAMM (Jenni A. M. Merrifield) : strawberry@jamm.com

© Copyright Jenni A. M. Merrifield. All Rights Reserved.

File History:

Date:           Comment:

Dec. 19, 1998   - Updated contents

Nov. 11, 1997   - Minor Corrections

                - Added info about NCompass

May  27, 1997   - Updated Academic Status

                - Corrected some URLs

                - Reorganized contents of  page footer

Feb. 08, 1997   - Corrected spelling to British/Canadian

                - Added WIDTH and HEIGHT tags to images

Dec. 21, 1996   - Spelling corrections

Oct. 19, 1996   - Modifications for Move to 'www.jamm.com'

Jul. 03, 1996   - Changed Wheel of Time Link to Archive page

                - Changed REMOTE link to actual REMOTE server

                - Removed single-cell tables from around Link groups 

Jun. 10, 1996   - Addition and Reorganization of Hyperlinks

Jun. 06, 1996   - Initial Creation

This personal file is maintained by
strawberryJAMM (Jenni A. M. Merrifield) : strawberry@jamm.com

Pages Created with HoT MetaL

Endnotes:

  1. Endnote 1:
    Classical Studies -- For those of you who are going ?*huh*? with regards to what, exactly, Classical Studies encompasses -- It is the study of ancient Rome and Greece: History, Literature, Art, Architecture and Archaeology. Not very useful in today's job market, I realize, but it was loads of fun to do!

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  2. Endnote 2:
    REMOTE -- Really Exciting Method Of Teaching Experiments ;-)

    Return To Text Reference

  3. Endnote 3:
    Round Robin -- A Round Robin story is one where there is a variable number of authors, all of whom take sequential turns writing the story. Rules are agreed upon between the authors which specify the number of lines/paragraphs/words that each author must contribute before passing it on to the next person in line. Other rules may be set that stipulate the theme of the story, the character types in the story, the genre of the story, etc. Usually, each writer will leave the story at some kind of cliff hanger that the next author must resolve. Since none of the authors actually knows where the story is going, each and every plot twist between contributions is always interesting and occasionally frustrating. Its a great way to give your imagination a work-out!

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