Linda Christie

2002 was a pivotal year for me on many fronts: I found my soul mate, Mike Jirka; I launched a new commercial Website, and I worked for two months in Europe with a very dear friend.

I "met" Mike New Year's eve 2001 via an email I sent to him in Omaha Nebraska through an online dating service. To make a long story short, after 7 months of visiting online and by phone, we met in early August in Omaha and had a wonderful four days. When I returned from a two month trip to Europe in October, I came back to Omaha and have been here ever since.

Summer 2003 I sold my house in Tulsa and “officially” moved to Omaha. It was tough saying goodbye to my friends and home, and moving away from my grown children, Jennifer and Stephen, for the first time. Fortunately we can all keep in touch via the Internet.

Mike works the 3-11 p.m. shift as a medical technologist for a hospital. We enjoy taking the boat onto the Missouri River. We also took the canoe to Cunningham Lake, a few miles away. Didn’t catch many fish, but loved relaxing in the fresh air.

In March 2003 I launched a commercial information technology website called DoctorVAR.com, an Internet portal for Value Added Resellers: professionals who sell and service personal computer systems for businesses. DoctorVAR.com aggregates up-to-date information technology news, virus alerts, and some of the best articles and resources to help computer value added resellers (VARs) improve their consulting, marketing and management skills. The visitors to the site are steady (60-80/day), but not growing as I’d hoped.

I frankly haven’t spent enough time promoting the site, what with moving to Omaha and other projects, such as writing my book: DoctorVAR’s Complete Guide to Effective Business and Technical Writing. I’m teaching some writing classes at Metropolitan Community College (MCC). I just completed writing an R&D grant proposal for EuroParama in Lithuania. Wrote two earlier in 2003, but they barely missed the cutoff for funding.

Duplicate Bridge, which I took up 6 years ago, is my second passion. I enjoy the mental challenges as well as the competition. Also I've made many friends around the world playing Bridge on the Internet.

I'm very interested in science and nature. I've traveled and camped all over the southwest—Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and up into Yellowstone and International Peace Park—never missing a ranger program. At one time my dream was to purchase a Winnebago so I could travel and write at the same time. 

I'm also the author of 11 books ranging from The ABCs of Microcomputers (1983) to Miracle Babies on infertility. Researching on the Internet is one of my specialties. (See Write Solutions, Inc. for additional career information.)