The Scoop on Jette

I hate writing bios but I also hate visiting personal Web sites that don't have an "about" section to give me some background on the person and the site and what the hell is going on, so I suppose I'm stuck.

Hi, I'm Jette.

I live in Austin, Texas. I have lived here since 1991, when I came here for grad school. In 2001, I bought a house here, so I suppose I'm stuck.

I live in my cute little house with my cute boyfriend, aka The Beau. We do not have any adorable pets at this time, so don't expect any amusing cat or dog photos.

I work as a technical writer because no one will pay me to stay home and write all day long about movies or colorful family adventures. I suppose I'm stuck.

I started writing weekly essays for a site I created on Tripod in early 1998. In October 1998, I started keeping an online journal. It's changed names and URLs several times since then, and now it's more of a movie blog with the occasional personal interlude or rant.

When I started my online journal, almost no one I knew was aware that I was writing it, and I felt I could be very revealing. Nowadays, everyone I know seems to have the URL, including coworkers, excluding my family, so I don't write about anything that I wouldn't discuss in public with my friends.

I like watching movies. I like reading about movies. I like writing about movies. People ask me what my favorite movie is, and I have no idea. That could change by the hour. Plus I probably have about 50 favorite movies. At least.

Here is a list of 10 movies that I really really like as of this moment:

Brazil, Bringing Up Baby, Holiday (1938), Charade, The Wild Bunch, Junior Bonner, Breaking Away, Some Like It Hot, Midnight (1939), Army of Darkness.

I just thought of 10 more. Damn.

A Fish Called Wanda, The Palm Beach Story, The Philadelphia Story, Pat and Mike, Emma (1995), Lone Star, A Foreign Affair, Rebecca, Notorious, Twentieth Century.

And I'm thinking of more still, but I'm stopping now.

I like Muppets and Sesame Street a whole lot and often talk about them, particularly Cookie Monster.

I like Harlan Ellison and Florence King (although I disagree with her politics) and Jane Austen and Terry Pratchett and Noel Streatfeild and Dorothy Parker and Molly Ivins and Carl Hiaasen and a lot of other authors I can't remember right now. I need a new bookcase. I always need another bookcase.

I grew up in the New Orleans area. I went to an all-girls Catholic high school. I'm still recuperating. I don't miss New Orleans but I do miss po-boys and fried softshell crab and boiled crawfish sometimes.

I am a Southerner. Southerners like to tell stories. They never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Bear this in mind while you're reading my stuff.