Hi everyone!

I'm Bliss (otherwise known in the 'real world' as Rachel) and I'm a part time local government officer and part time web designer/developer. I'm 36 and live in Derbyshire in the UK. I spend most of my time glued to the screen, but tend to spend a lot of time in and out of hospital. I was born with a mild form of spina bifida and have a number of long term health problems. I'm stubborn though, and it doesn't (often) stop me. Slows me down at times, but I keep plodding on.

Most of my spare time's spent at the computer. I've been doing web design for about 6 years now, after I accidentally got into it after I volunteered to do a website using Frontpage for a voluntary organisation I worked with, little realising what was involved. My first attempt at a site was judged "okay for a first attempt" on a web design forum I joined, but being rather a perfectionist the site was only on the server for about 3 weeks before I decided to start again from scratch and learn HTML and CSS.

After jumping in at the deep end and launching straight into CSS layouts, I did a series of Open University courses (HTML/CSS, ASP, PHP, database design and server management) and got myself a certificate in web design (and nearly drove myself round the bend with all the assignments).

For the past few years I've been running a medical support website and forum, but recently gave that up to concentrate on setting up my business. At the moment I run a site and forum for my cousin who runs a BMX cycling club, and I've just started a site for a charity bookstall my mum and a friend run.

I love music and photography, and writing. I write some poetry, and I'm still writing (on and off) a novel I started when I was 18 - one of these days I will finish it! My other big passion is all things western and Brokeback Mountain, and a couple of years ago discovered that there are communities of Brokeback fans out there on the internet (yep, there's a forum for just about everything out there on the web! ). A member of one of the Brokie forums I frequent (which is the technical term for Brokeback addicts) once described Brokies as similar to Trekkies, except that Brokies are usually found wearing western gear rather than pyjamas and dressing up as small furry creatures.

So, that's just about me in a nutshell....geek girl, slightly crazy (yep, about a year ago I shocked my work colleagues by turning up for work in a cowboy hat and western boots, but they've got used to it now ), weird sense of humour, and me and Diva, my computer, spend more time online than we do offline...addicted, moi?