Entertainment for the Restless Mind...

I have a number of hobbies, some of which are relaxing and some ... aren't. Nevertheless, I do think that it's important that we engage in things outside of our normal day-to-day work, so here are a few that hold my interest:

Rebel Legion

My main hobby right now is costuming for the Rebel Legion. The RL provides Star Wars characters for charities and visits to children's hospitals and the like, as well as support official LucasFilm events. Costumes have to be scree-accurate and made to very exacting standards, so it is something of the pinnacle of the costumer's hobby. I got interested in costuming as part of the SCA, where I have made a number of period costumes. Making a screen-accurate Star Wars costume is every bit as difficult as making a period Renaissance outfit, so I enjoy the challenge. My current costume (Obi-Wan from season 3 of The Clone Wars animated series) was made completely from scratch -- I even created my own pattern.

I have created a complete sewing tutorial for a generic Jedi costume, which you can find on my "Dreycon Dell" page. I've also got images of my lightsabers up as well. I've since taken parts of my Obi-Wan costume to make a generic Jedi costume (for when I don't feel like wearing the beard). Once it is approved by the Legion, I'll post pictures.

Flying

I was a Naval Flight Officer in the Navy (until I was medically retired due to losing my hearing from meningitis), and really loved being in the air. I had dreams of becoming an astronaut -- I chose VQ-4 as my squadron because at the time they were based at NAS Patuxent River, MD, next door to the Naval Test Pilot School. My logic was that the Navy was more likely to give me the shore tour I wanted if they didn't have to pay to move me. I never got to test that theory, though. In spite of my hearing loss, I was still able to get my private pilot's certificate (it's not technically called a "license," by the way, though I generally do anyway). I learned to fly in a little two-seat Cessna 152 (see below), a plane that was so small my instructor and I couldn't even fill it up with gas or it would be too heavy to get off the ground! After learning the usual stalls, maneuvers, and navigation techniques (pretty easy for a Navy navigator), I was awarded my certificate in January 2005. I got qualified in the Cessna 172SP (four seats and a lot more power, so as to bring the family along), and started on my instrument rating before deciding to quit my job at NASA (and so dried up the extra money we had).

I've since accepted a full time position teaching astronomy, so while we've got the money, it's still fantastically expensive to fly. In fact, it's cheaper to buy a commercial airline ticket than it is to fly a private plane. Someday I'll pick it back up again.

Cessna 152 -- N5436L
The plane I flew for my first solo

Fidchell

When I was active in SCA, I participated in an Arts and Sciences competition in the period games category. I chose to research and recreate the rules to fidchell, an ancient Celtic game. You can find the paper I wrote, along with the rules of the game, here. It's a quite fun and challenging game! The rules are simple, but the strategy is extremely complex.

The Exodus Project

My first website was for my Exodus Project series of science fiction stories and games. While I still have the domain name, I decided to go ahead and move that site over here. Feel free to check it out for a lot of info on realistic science fiction!

But wait, there's more!