MacKenzie Allyn

*Cough* At the Risk of Making This All About Me…

Due to the awesome MMO, Glitch, closing, I am currently looking for my next great employment opportunity.

For the last couple of years, I worked at Tiny Speck, where we worked to bring Glitch to the world. Glitch was a wonderfully whimsical, if slightly preposterous MMO, which was closed on December 9th. My responsibilities included player and community support; customer service, including billing support; and quality assurance (QA) (among other things) — so I worked as a bridge between the user experience and the very talented tech team who built Glitch. Everyone who contributed to Glitch is awesome and has been committed to making the best MMO experience on the web.

Before…

Quite unrelated to gaming, I'm a licensed aesthetician and spent time learning about the use of specialized equipment and methods, such as lasers, microdermabrasion, and chemical peels, specific to the field of medical aesthetics.

I've also studied gemology (a branch of mineralogy involving the study of gemstones and related materials), as well as worked as a barista. Yep, a weird mix of stuff and I'm leaving a few things out. Please visit my LinkedIn profile for some additional details.

There was also a period of time that I was unable to work due to late-stage Lyme disease that went undiagnosed for more than ten years. Due to the difficulty of diagnosing Lyme so long after the initial infection (and the controversy surrounding the issue itself), it took quite a while to eliminate the other possibilities. My family insisted that Lyme had never been properly eliminated as the likely cause of my illness, but the doctors we saw were not willing to consider the possibility. Finally, with the aid of a “Lyme-literate” doctor, the proper tests were ordered, revealing I did in fact have Lyme disease and the co-infection of Babesiosis. Thankfully, the aggressive treatment provided by my specialist has effected my recovery. Feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss Lyme disease. I'm happy to share what I've learned.

BTW:

I love reading—it’s my favorite pastime. I’ve been an avid reader my entire life; in fact, when I was a child, my parents would restrict access to reading rather than television, as discipline, because I valued reading so highly in comparison. Some of my favorite authors are Michener and Clavell, but my all-time favorite books would have to be Gone with the Wind and the Harry Potter books.

My love for video games, which started with Zelda and Donkey Kong, and my ability to quote Monty Python ad nauseum, have certified my nerd status. I also have a passion for baking and tend to photograph the results of my time in the kitchen. My adorable pup, Koda, loves to lurk in the kitchen, hoping I'll drop something he can snag. I've been working to document my latest exploits in the kitchen and they may end up in a blog on this site in the future, so stay tuned.