Okay, let's keep this page short, I'm probably already starting to bore you. Besides reading fantastic fiction, watching Anime, performing as a Show Assistant in the MOB, and designing my own History of the Galaxy, I have several other hobbies. In fact my goal is to one day have so many hobbies that I can be occupied 24 hours a day while still spending exactly 0 time on each individual one.

Television

Yes, it's pretty much a wasteland, but rewarding oases can be found in the desert if you look hard enough. Here are my picks for wortwhile TV shows:

Quantum Leap:

This was an outstanding drama series with a science fiction premise that ran for 5 years before undeservedly vanishing. Sam Beckett is a Nobel-prize-winning physicist who devised a theory of time travel that would allow the time traveller to "Leap" into periods of history withing his own lifetime. But when Sam stepped into the accelerator, something went wrong and he found that he had Leaped into another person's life, a test pilot in the fifties. It soon became clear that a Higher Power had taken control of Project Quantum Leap-- God, Time, or Fate was the usual phrase-- and was determined to use Sam's Leaping to "put right what once went wrong," saving the lives (or souls) of people who, when history went forward the first time, were lost.

 

Doctor Who:

The longest-running science fiction series in television history, this BBC series follows the adventures of the Doctor, an eccentric wanderer in time and space who travels inthe TARDIS, a time machine shaped like a police telephone box. The series ran in half-hours episodes in a serial format, with each story running 4-6 episodes. Thanks to the title character's ability to "regenerate" when injured, taking on a new physical appearance, eight different actors have played the Doctor, each bringing his own distinctive style to the character. This turnover, combined with the infinite settings available to a series with all of time and space at its disposal, kept the series fresh and interesting for a 27-year run. The series' uniquely quirky blend of humor and sci-fi adventure are immensely enjoyable from year 1 to year 27.

 

Star Trek:

Well, you knew I'd pick this one, didn't you?.

 

Honorable mention:

NYPD Blue

ER

The X-Files

Arrested Development

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Angel

Firefly

Currently on the air:

24, CSI, Lost

Model Railroading

This is a hobby just resuming after a long pause (while I lived in an apartment too small to have a layout). I've worked with HO, N and Z scales in the past, and I'm currently deciding what scale to use in my next layout.

Video Editing

I have a pretty substantial set of video editing tools, which I use to make Anime "highlight" reels, polish up my family's home movies from time to time and (most time-consuming) I write, direct and edit the annual Show Assistant Video for the MOB.

Computers

Professionally, I do my research mostly via computer simulations, as well as writing software tools for population genetic calculations and education, which has been my main project for the past several years. See my Goodnight Software page for more on my professional software.

I also program recreationally-- I used to be a regular reader of Scientific American's "Computer Recreations" column and tried out most of the things described there, as well as making up my own projects to play with. Besides programming, I enjoy computer graphics and have quite a few image applications. One of my favorite to play with is Metatools' Bryce 3D. I'm probably attracted to it because designing its fully-rendered landscapes recalls the "sub-creation" I'm so fond of in fiction (see the "Fantastic Fiction" section on my Reading page).

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