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Suzanne Lanoue

CURRENT STATS: I am married, no kids. We are celebrating 25 years together this July 2007. We live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama I love my house, and my husband loves his job.  The people at the university are very nice, the weather is great most of the year, and it's very pretty and green here.  The city is a little too small for my tastes; I grew up in a bit city.  But we do travel a lot. My mother-in-law moved in with us summer of 2006 and that is working out great. We also have Bugs, our dog, to keep us company and round out our family.

GROWING UP: I was born into the working-class McGlone family in 1961, in Fairfield, CA which is in the northern part of the state, but I grew up in San Diego, far south. I have three brothers, Pat, Stephen, and David, who are all older than I. Pat and his wife Laurie and their kids live in North Dakota. Stephen and his wife Zina, live in Carlsbad (near the beach, north of San Diego).  David lives in downtown San Diego but goes by the name Leo.  My beloved nephew Jeremiah died in June 2006 in Iraq. You can see pictures of my family here.

My mom died when I was 10. In 1976, I moved to middle-class Carlsbad, CA to live with a family called the Kennedys in a foster home. This was due to neglect by my dad, who was an alcoholic. It was here that I met my husband and his family. I never got to know my extended family very well; they are mostly in Northern California. My dad passed away Spring 2004.  I was sad that we didn't know each other very well because he was not very communicative. We usually visit San Diego at least once a year.

EDUCATION: I graduated from Carlsbad High School in 1979 and attended community college off and on, and had odd jobs. My husband and I dated and then lived together before marrying in 1982. He was accepted to graduate school at the University of New York at Stony Brook, so we moved there; I finished my undergraduate degree there as well.

MOVING AROUND: After four years on Long Island we moved to El Paso, where my husband had a one-year job; I completed the last year of my B.A. in Liberal Arts at the University of Texas, although my degree is from Stony Brook. Then we moved to Normal, IL where I worked and went to school at Illinois State State University. I started a graduate degree in music, then tried to start an education degree as well. That was a mistake, so I left the M.A. program. We only lived there two years because we hated the weather and living in the middle of nowhere. We did make some good friends, though. I enjoyed working there for Dr. H. Tak Cheung in the Biological Sciences Department. It was at ISU that I first learned how to use computers and quickly took to them. I also had my best voice teacher there and it really improved my voice a lot.

TEACHING: In 1988 we moved back to Southern California (Riverside). I continued working on my teaching credential while I taught for a few years (one year in a private school and one year in a public school with an emergency credential, as well as subbing). When I couldn't get another teaching job I worked at office jobs, since I type very fast and have an affinity for computers. But I got bored easily, so I quit when we no longer needed the extra money.

OTHER JOB HISTORY:  I was almost through with all of the state and Cal State University requirements for teaching, with only student teaching left to do. However, every time I signed up for it, I got put into a school that I felt was too dangerous to work at, due to gangs, guns, etc. That is one of the problems with teaching in Southern California, unfortunately. So I decided not to pursue the credential. I meant to go back to it eventually, but now it's been too long and I'm in another state.   I would have to take all of the courses and requirements over at this point.  But that's okay. I loved teaching, but it was also very stressful.

I worked for Ask Jeeves, Inc., developers/owners of Ask Jeeves, which was a great search tool, from 1996 to December 2000 (I was laid off along with 200 others). I was their first employee, in fact.  I did a variety of deeds, including work on their early web pages, test the software, and enter sites into the database; my main job was to answer users' email; I was the Customer Service Representative.   I really liked my job, which paid well and allowed me to work at home.  After the management changed, I no longer knew any of the people in charge, and I guess they decided to include me in the list of people to lay off.  I'm not bitter. I got a lot of money out of it, including from stock options.  I think most of the people who work for the company are great, and I hope for their sake that things get even better with the company, now called Ask.com!  I'm not likely to find another job as wonderful as that one.   I was not able to find a job I liked in either Lubbock or Tuscaloosa, so I gave up.

I have become a full-time Webmaster on my website The TV MegaSite, Inc. which is now a business and makes a little money.  It is great being my own boss now, working at home, and making my own hours.  One day I hope to make a lot more money from it. The internet has been very good to me.

You can see my full resume.

HOBBIES:  In my spare time, I watch t.v., sing, and play on the computer, travel, and many other things. For more about my hobbies and what I like to do, check out the rest of my webpage. I seldom have much time to work on my personal site any more.  

I've always been into singing and for the last 15 years I've done a lot of karaoke.  I have really improved my voice a lot so that I am usually one of the best singers in any given karaoke bar.  I plan to start a band one day.  You can hear me sing on my singing page.

COMPUTER/NET: I had friends that were into computers in the 80's, mostly with Commodores, but I was not all that interested in them at first.  I worked for a professor who was into them while at ISU, and I learned how to use databases, and then I started entering my business cards into a database (it was on a DOS machine).  Later, in 1991, I learned how to use a Mac at an office job I had.  The owner of the business was very into computers but not yet online.  This helped me a lot later, though, when I got my first Windows 95 machine because it was almost exactly like using the Mac.

I've been online since 1994 when I got a used computer from our friend Barb and then bought a 2400 baud modem at Sears. I first joined a local BBS, then Prodigy and then Delphi, both of which were text-based online services at the time (I didn't have a graphics card or hard drive on the first DOS-based computer I had), then later I got a better computer and was able to join AOL, and then around a year later got a computer with Windows 95 that had "everything" plus a 28K modem! Woo hoo! My friend David Warthen gave me that one so that I could help him with Ask Jeeves (see above), as well as suggested I learn HTML. I started my first personal website with a list of my videotapes so that I could trade more tapes. I had previously to that emailed it to people, but it got too large to email, so I put it up on my website. The rest is history! Now I have four computers, two of them laptops.

TRAVELING: My husband and I like to travel, which we do a lot. One of our favorite vacation spots is Las Vegas.  We always go to a different state for our anniversary (it's our weird tradition).  We have been married for almost 20 years, so we've taken a lot of interesting trips.  We don't have kids but we do travel, so that's our thing.   Mostly we travel in the US, but we have been out of the country a few times, too.  We also move a lot.   We have been living in Tuscaloosa since 2001.

POLITICS:  I am a life-long liberal Democrat.  I don't know yet who I will vote for in 2008 or even the primary. I am leaning toward John Edwards.  I am pro-choice and pro-feminist.  I strongly believe in civil rights for everyone, regardless of creed, color, gender, or sexual preference.  I strongly believe in the separation of church and state. I belong to the American Humanist Society and agree with their philosophy.  I do not go around telling people how they should believe or who they should vote for, and I hope they treat me the same way.  Where I come from, it is rude to talk about sex, religion, or politics with people you don't know very well. 

HEALTH:  I'm on a diet and trying to lose weight...I have recipes listed on my site.  I found out in 2004 that I am diabetic, so I am working hard now to lose the weight through diet and exercise.  In 2005, I found out I am allergic to wheat and other grains, which is horrible, but I am adjusting. 

Official address for me or for The TV MegaSite:

P.O. Box 865201, Tuscaloosa, AL  35486-0047  cell phone:  205-310-5844