I was born Gilana Mia Rosenthol on October 3, 1969 (which makes me a Libra) in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. I was brought up Orthodox Jewish, and while I'm now just kinda unorthodox, I am still pretty religious. Click here if you're really interested in some of what I went through during that change. I went to Israel with my family during the summer of 1993 - click here to read my trip journal. More recently, in the fall of 1999 my grandmother took me on a Hawaiian cruise -- you can see my trip journal and loads of photos here.

I moved to Boston in 1987 to attend Boston University. I graduated in 1991 with a degree in psychology and spent the next three years working as office manager for Congregation Eitz Chayim, a small synagogue and Hebrew school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I worked as database manager (using 4th Dimension) at Mass General Hospital in the Neurology Department from May of 1994 through January of 1995. After that I was worked with John Romkey and Lang Zerner as president of the Nonprofit Outreach Network, Inc., a nonprofit organization devoted to putting other nonprofits on the Web. In '97 I was doing some graphic layout and other stuff for Virtual Music Entertainment, a really cool multimedia game company, and now I'm working at MIT at the Lean Aerospace Initiative as their graphic specialist.

I spend most of my free time reading, playing with computers (especially my beloved Palm Pilot), answering pointless surveys on Survey Central, hanging out with Tim Reynolds, the Hawke family (Jack and Sandro and their children/my godchildren Gregorian and Boudicca), hiding up in New Hampshire with John Romkey, or over at Rancho Apocalypse. On Dinner and a Movie nights I can usually be found asleep on a couch at the Ranch.

One of my favorite local bands was The Story, until Jennifer Kimball and Jontha Brooke split up. They're both pretty good solo, but nothing like as amazing as The Story was. Peter Mulvey is another amazing local-gone-big - I strongly encourage you to check him out, if you don't already know his stuff. And Kris Delmhorst is fabulous -- words can't begin to express. Just go see her.

I like reading, especially science fiction and fantasy (like Spider Robinson), historical fiction (try Diana Gabaldon), and the occasional trashy romance or mystery (I recommend Dana Stabenow.). I'm a big fan of Winnie the Pooh. I don't watch much TV, but my favorite TV show ever was probably The Muppet Show. I also must admit to being addicted to The Simpsons, and once you get past the title, Sports Night is the best thing on TV. I was one of the founding patrons of alt.callahans; you can still find a story I posted there in their classic posts page. I used to be involved with the Society for Creative Anachronism, but I haven't been active for a while. Lately I've been doing a lot with SpeakOut (formerly the Gay Lesbian & Bisexual Speakers Bureau) - in addition to having served a stint on the board serving on the board and as newsletter editor, I go out and speak to schools, synagogues, and whoever else will have us about what it's like to be bisexual. I played Janet in a Boston cast of Rocky Horror for a short while in 1988, which, come to think of it, may have been a precursor to coming out as bi.

That's all I can think of to say about myself that I can link to other cool things, and after all, what's the point of putting something on a web page if it doesn't go anywhere? ;)