My Interests
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What are my interests, after all? Why would anyone else care? Don't you think it's really arrogant when people post their "interests" on a web site, as if the whole world wants to know? Is too much introspection a bad thing?

Well, if you are interested, here's the stuff I'm interested in or like to do.

  • Software Designing and writing software is what I do for a living. I'm blessed that I also enjoy it. I write some software just for fun, but less than in the past. I just don't have time anymore, unfortunately. Most software I write these days is for some professional project or another. This project is one for which I did the architecture, wrote a bunch of the code, and enjoyed a lot. I'm happy and proud that it's gotten a lot of use in the "real" world. I'm currently working on this project as a consultant.

  • Gaming I spend some time playing various games, mostly role-playing and strategy games. I don't play online games at all. I've spent way too much time playing Neverwinter Nights, but I don't seem to get tired of it. The Neverwinter Nights community has enhanced the game so much that there always seems to be something new to look in to. I also like the Age of Empires games, and the MechWarrior series, but I haven't played them much recently.

  • Reading Reading expands one's horizons. From the time I was quite young, I've read most anything I could get my hands on. These days I read lots of "blogs" that comment on law and politics. My fiction reading tends toward "hard" science fiction. I remember when admitting that would get you a free ticket into the geek penalty box. I also like a lot of the "classic" sci-fi and fantasy, like Heinlein, Clarke, Herbert, Tolkien. There are lots of other authors whose writing I enjoy, so I won't try to list them, but one deserves special mention - C.S. Lewis.  His writing has played a major part in my growth as a Christian, plus he just tells an engrossing story. While I was in college, I once stayed up all night and read all of the books in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe series. I couldn't put them down, even though they're supposed to be "kids" books. His Mere Christianity ought to be on every Christian's reading list.

My non-fiction reading tends to be stuff I need to read professionally or books about other topics that are listed here.

  • Robotics I don't know all that much about robotics, but I find the whole subject fascinating. A couple of years ago I got the Lego Mindstorms kit. For the first time, I could actually build a robot, for a reasonable amount of money, without having to have a machine shop at my disposal - or mechanical and electrical engineering degrees. It might seem kind of childish for a grown man to be playing with Legos - and it might be - but I enjoy trying to build cool stuff with them. The Mindstorms Legos (and some of the other, more advanced, kits) really aren't aimed at youngsters. You should see some of the things that people have built!

  • Electronics Robotics has gotten me interested in electronics, as well. I'd like, someday, to build one or more robots without using Legos, but without some skills in electronics, that's pretty much impossible. So, I've endeavored to learn some electronics, beyond what I had to know for my M.S.C.S. degree. Along with this, I've done some embedded software programming for PIC microcontrollers. Fun stuff!

  • Science/Engineering I have a "Master of Science" degree, so I'm supposed to know more than the average bear about science. I suppose I do, but that's hardly saying much. What I know is barely a raindrop in the ocean. Science (and it's more practical brother, Engineering) covers so much that there's always more. Ten lifetimes wouldn't be enough to learn it all. From my perspective, that's good news - it means that I'll never be bored with it! A lot of the scientific literature, especially from areas outside what I've formally studied, is over my head, but I enjoy reading the lay publications that explain the topics so that I can understand them.

Let me just add a comment here. A lot of people think that science and religion (in my case, Christianity) are in conflict. I don't agree. I find that I can quite comfortably be a Christian and also be a scientist (meaning, in this instance, someone that reads, believes, and knows something about science). I believe the Bible is true. I also believe that evolutionary theory is correct. The evidence for it is overwhelming. I don't have the inclination to explain fully how I reconcile the two now, but I'll point you to this for some background. In short, I believe that when science has fully elucidated evolutionary theory, and Christians fully understand God's plan for the Universe, we will find that the two are in complete agreement. How could it be otherwise? Scientists are striving to understand the Universe by observing how it works. Christians are striving to understand the Universe through God's Word. As a Christian, I cannot accept that the two are somehow incompatible; after all, I believe that God created the Universe. The Bible says that God did. So, my conclusion must be that any perceived conflict between science and my Christian belief is due to a lack of understanding on my part. As we understand science and our Christian faith more completely, I believe we will find them more and more in agreement. It's happened before. Ask Galileo about it.

Professors of philosophy scorned Galileo’s discoveries because Aristotle had held that only perfectly spherical bodies could exist in the heavens and that nothing new could ever appear there. Galileo also disputed with professors at Florence and Pisa over hydrostatics, and he published a book on floating bodies in 1612. Four printed attacks on this book followed, rejecting Galileo’s physics. In 1613 he published a work on sunspots and predicted victory for the Copernican theory. A Pisan professor, in Galileo’s absence, told the Medici (the ruling family of Florence as well as Galileo’s employers) that belief in a moving earth was heretical. In 1614 a Florentine priest denounced Galileists from the pulpit. Galileo wrote a long, open letter on the irrelevance of biblical passages in scientific arguments, holding that interpretation of the Bible should be adapted to increasing knowledge and that no scientific position should ever be made an article of Roman Catholic faith.

...Despite two official licenses, Galileo was summoned to Rome by the Inquisition to stand trial for “grave suspicion of heresy.” This charge was grounded on a report that Galileo had been personally ordered in 1616 not to discuss Copernicanism either orally or in writing...Galileo produced a certificate signed by the cardinal [Bellarmine], stating that Galileo had been subjected to no further restriction than applied to any Roman Catholic under the 1616 edict. No signed document contradicting this was ever found, but Galileo was nevertheless compelled in 1633 to abjure and was sentenced to life imprisonment (swiftly commuted to permanent house arrest).

"Galileo," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2003
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Of course, Galileo was absolutely right, and the Church was wrong. I think as Christians, we must be exceedingly careful when we argue against the truth of scientific theories, especially those that are well-established by physical evidence and experiment. At the very least, we must ask ourselves if perhaps our understanding of God's Word is less than perfect.

  • History In the past few years, I've started reading and enjoying history and historical novels. I especially like military history - the Age of Empires games all contain a fair amount of historical information on the cultures and battles represented in the games. That and some of the fiction books I've picked up have gotten me interested in military and cultural history. I'm no expert - no one would confuse me with a real historian - but it's all really interesting.