Because of an excellent job opportunity for my wife, we moved to Colorado in late 1997. Surprisingly, I was unable to locate any wildlife work there, so I was forced to change my career path. I ended up in computer programming (boring mainframe stuff), which almost drove me insane. Anybody see the movie Office Space? Yeah, it was like that. Fortunately, that job was terminated, and I finally found a way back into my chosen profession. Too bad I had to move to do it; I really liked Colorado. I worked as a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in the San Joaquin Valley of California for three years, but was not happy with Fresno. (As a very famous philosopher once said, "I didn't think is was physically possible for something to both blow and suck at the same time." Well, ok, that was Bart Simpson.) In late 2002, I found an opportunity to leave California, and I am now with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Florida, working on the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan .

As for hobbies, I tend to spend a lot of time on the computer, either working on this website, playing games, or writing fiction. Other sedentary pastimes of mine are reading (science and nature, sci-fi, military fiction and history), wine tasting (drinking, actually), and the obvious modeling. When I get cabin fever, I like to hike and birdwatch, which shouldn't be surprising, considering my background. I also practice Korean, Philippine and Japanese martial arts, and if I ever get around to having my camera fixed (old Pentax MG - 35mm SLR), I am an avid shutterbug (here are some of my favorite photos: Alligator / Anole / Pasque Flower ).

I am a huge Monty Python fan. Some of my favorite films are Kelly's Heroes, The Seven Samurai, Best In Show, Ladyhawke, and of course, the best movie ever made, The Lord of The Rings - The Fellowship of The Ring. I listen to many types of music, including New Age, Celtic, Classical and classic Rock. I am just beginning a budding interest in Blues. Some of my favorite musical groups/artists are The Alan Parson's Project, Rush (their earlier, pre-1990 stuff), the Eagles, Vivaldi, Leahy, Kodo and Kitaro. I enjoy good food, especially international recipes; I like it hot and spicy. As my brother once said: "you aren't truly eating, unless your arms are sweating." I have a strong interest in things Japanese (food, history, culture, etc.).

In the mid-'90s, a coworker of mine got me interested in model building once again. I started with only modern jets in 1/144th scale, thinking that building only tiny models would keep my wallet relatively full. Ha. I then gradually progressed into the larger scales too. Slowly I got pulled into WW II aircraft, and ultimately armor, and now I have come full circle, and am again hooked on 1/72nd scale armor modeling. I do, however, still have a very large collection of aircraft models, with which I like to dabble on occasion. My main modeling interests (aside from the obvious) are WW II Japanese and Italian aircraft in all scales. I also have about two dozen 1/35th armor kits, as well as a handful of ship models. If I go a long time between updates of this web site, it is likely because I am building in one of my other genres of modeling.

I certainly do not enjoy giving poor reviews to kits. In fact, I toyed with the idea of not posting any negative previews at all. My mom always taught me that if I can't say anything good about something, then don't say anything at all. But I never really listen to my mom very much. I figure that the manufacturers are big boys, and I decided against such a policy. These pages exist for two reasons: 1) to help spread the word of available kits, thereby helping the manufacturers, and 2) to let modelers know about poor kits, so they do not waste their money on those items, which in the long run, would hurt those companies even more. I try to be very fair in my reviews, and I hope the criticism is seen as constructive. I do not want to discourage manufacturers from producing new kits, I only want to point out areas which need improvement for future releases, thereby hopefully increasing their future sales.

Most of you can probably tell that I am a novice web designer. I primarily use Front Page Express to set up my pages, with hand-edited HTML as well. You may also notice a lack of flashy graphics, frames, forms, and annoying little Java applets. This is intentional. My feeling is that if it doesn't add something useful to the site, I won't use it. Sure, flashing lights, spinning text and animated GIFs are nice to look at, but if it takes five minutes to completely load a page, then I am going to lose viewers.

Finally, for best viewing of this site, I recommend 1024 x 768 resolution.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you enjoy my site.