Near year, new #introduction.

I’m Christie. I’m queer and live with my wife of several years in Portland, OR, USA. We have an older English bulldog named Bertie and a younger grey and white piebald tabby cat named Ursa Minor.

My day job is in #InfrastructureEngineering with a big tech company. I’m the technical lead for a team that provides a virtual compute platform globally for our business unit. I’m really good at it, in terms of people, tech, and process. Lately I've studying #NetworkEngineering. I've got this idea to set up little roaming free e-libraries, to help maintain access to knowledge and culture as society continues to break down. I run our family's websites, homelab, and NAS. We're working to migrate off as many hosted services as possible and bring them in-house. I guess you could say we're into the #IndieWeb and things like POSSE.

I used to be quite heavily involved in open source and tech community organizing. Less so now, mostly because maintaining my health takes a lot of energy. I once worked for Mozilla, a lifetime ago, and you might have heard of a thing called Open Source Bridge.

I have both #MultipleSclerosis and #SjögrensSyndrome and treatment for that involves significant immune suppresion. This means we still mask in public and indoors when with others not in our bubble.

In 2025, we bought an #AdventureVan. Her name is Stargazer and she's the best accessibility tool I've acquired to date. We try to take her out as much as possible to explore and enjoy nature while I'm most able to. While out and about you'll find me #birding, #hiking, and capturing other aspects of our natural world as I'm an avid amateur #photographer.

As time allows, I make art not just with #NaturePhotography, but also #watercolor and pen/ink. I love tabletop games but it's so hard to find time to play them these days. TV brings me a lot of comfort and I’m a big fan of rewatches. Podcasts about TV? Mmm yeah. Tasty. I somehow also read a fair amount, split between audio and print books.

I’m interested in mutual aid and community defense. I’d like to figure out how to be in community in ways that work with my disabilities.

MS has taken a lot from me, but it can’t take away these memories.

I did this shit.

#FuckMS #MS #MultipleSclerosis

I went for a walk this morning as the river is still a bit high for rowing and I needed some extra sleep. I took my walking poles today, and managed another 5km or so. I was limping pretty badly by the end and relying on the poles to walk straight. But hey… done. Got some high ratio 1ks on the erg tomorrow evening, so mustn’t grumble, eh?

#FuckMS #MS #MultipleSclerosis

MS has taken a lot from me, but it can’t take away these memories.

I did this shit.

#FuckMS #MS #MultipleSclerosis

I used to run marathons and now find running incredibly difficult. I do still run (after a fashion), and I row and swim and things. I’m pretty active, and I try to look forwards and to be positive…. But sometimes it’s hard.

#FuckMS #MS #MultipleSclerosis

I went for a walk this morning as the river is still a bit high for rowing and I needed some extra sleep. I took my walking poles today, and managed another 5km or so. I was limping pretty badly by the end and relying on the poles to walk straight. But hey… done. Got some high ratio 1ks on the erg tomorrow evening, so mustn’t grumble, eh?

#FuckMS #MS #MultipleSclerosis

My family has lived paycheck to paycheck for several years now. But now that my spouse is no longer able to work full-time due to their Multiple Sclerosis, we need help staying afloat while they apply for SSDI.

Please consider donating if you can. Boost appreciated! #MultipleSclerosis #MutualAid #MutualAidRequest #DisabledAid #TransCrowdfund

https://chuffed.org/project/kat

My spouse, Kat, has Multiple Sclerosis, is no longer able to work full-time, and is applying for disability. Since social security generally takes 6-8 months to make an initial decision, we need help staying afloat financially during the waiting period.

Donate here: https://chuffed.org/project/kat

Please help us spread the word by boosting and/or sharing. Thank you!

#TransCrowdfund #MultipleSclerosis #DisabledAid #Disabled #MutualAid #MutualAidRequest #BegPost #TransMutualAid

Please boost: My spouse, Kat, has Multiple Sclerosis, is no longer able to work full-time, and is applying for disability. Since social security generally takes 6-8 months to make an initial decision, we need help staying afloat financially in the meantime.

Here is the shareable link (full story here): https://chuffed.org/project/kat

Please consider donating and/or boosting. Thank you.

#TransCrowdfund #MultipleSclerosis #DisabledAid #Disabled #MutualAid #MutualAidRequest #BegPost #TransMutualAid

Hi there, I am asking for help sharing out my family’s fundraiser.

My spouse, Kat, has Multiple Sclerosis, is no longer able to work full-time, and is applying for disability. Since social security generally takes 6-8 months to make an initial decision, we need help staying afloat financially in the meantime.

Here is the shareable link (full story here): https://chuffed.org/project/kat

Please consider donating and/or boosting. Thank you.

#TransCrowdfund #MultipleSclerosis #DisabledAid #Disabled