Tammy and I first spoke on a computer sometime in the Summer of 1996. That's Winter for you Southern Hemispherians out there. The two of us were, and are, crazy about the animated TV show "The Simpsons". So much so that it became an obsession, where we lived, breathed and ate the show, and where quotes from it were part of daily conversation. I had written a fictional Simpsons script as a hobby, and posted it on a very popular website for the show. One fan from Melbourne, Australia found it and decided to take the time to e-mail me and tell me how much she liked it. I hadn't received too many positive comments on it (most of them were of the "your script sucks" variety), so I thought I would politely answer her. So I wrote her back, and that was it. Or so I thought. A couple of months later we were delighted to discover that we were in the same Simpsons chat room together. So we began talking... and talking... and talking. I stayed up until probably 3 or 4 in the morning that night. We enjoyed each other's conversations and began to make a nightly habit of speaking. However, we paid the price -- she got in trouble for spending too much time in the computer labs at school, and I began oversleeping for college classes.  Next >>