James' Workroom
Welcome to my workroom—Linda complains it's too cluttered, but it suits my needs, with shelves full of aircraft reference, and other shelves displaying completed models, and of course the debris of my craft, sprues, scattered everywhere. I'm lucky enough to have my own "men's den" downstairs in our home. I can retreat there with an aircraft DVD or video and model into the wee hours.
You're welcome to check out the books or the models, or just stay and chat. Besides aircraft modeling, I have gotten back into model rockets in the past few years, although it has been curtailed lately. It was a hobby put aside from necessity, but I'm really enjoying it the second time around. We had a pair of friends who loaned us their horse pasture for launches; I'm indebted to them for allowing me to get back into the hobby. Unfortunately they've moved to South Carolina, so we are looking for another location. Supposedly one of the local parks allows rocket launches.
I also enjoy target shooting, aviation and military museums, the Military Channel and the History Channel (when they're not showing ridiculous reality shows like Ice Road Truckers which have nothing to do with history), dog agility trials, bicycling, the game "Chronology" and wargaming, science fiction conventions, and cooking.
For my fortieth birthday, Linda and some of our friends arranged for me to have a ride in a World War II training plane. Read all about it/see the pictures. Nothing so exciting happened for my fiftieth. Maybe someday I'll go again. My ultimate fantasy is to win the lottery and buy a Cessna Citation.
In April of 2003 I was diagnosed with diabetes. This wasn't a big surprise since my dad and his sister were both diabetic. I have a One Touch blood testing meter, which really makes the four-times-a-day "stabbing" not a horrendous chore, and am on Glyburide, which I found suited me better than Glucophage. If you find yourself in the same fix, I heartily recommend the book Diabetes for Dummies as a basic primer and get a good low carbohydrate cookbook. The American Diabetes Association also has newsgroups that can help you adjust. (Once you get stabilized, I also recommend the following: Hershey's and Russell Stover's sugar-free candies—they are actually good, with no aspartame aftertaste, Blue Bunny sugar-free ice cream—made with Splenda—and Splenda itself.)
Oh, yeah, and I have my own blog, but I'm not as good as keeping mine up as Linda is:
The Reference Section
I have been building plastic models since age eight; airplanes are my specialty, but I also do tanks and miniature figures. At some point I hope to have photos of some of my projects on line, but for now visit my Modeling Page and check out the links.
Airplanes have always been my first love, and if you enjoy a good warbird flick as much as I do, check out my High Flyin' Films Page, with reviews of my favorite aviation films.
In the Library: Favorites on My Bookshelves
- Stranger in a Strange Land, Glory Road, Starship Troopers—why not say most of Robert Heinlein?
- Eric Flint's 1632 and sequels.
- Most of Anne McCaffrey's Pern series except the most recent ones
- The first three books in L. Neil Smith's Confederacy books, The Probability Broach, The Nagasaki Vector, and The Venus Belt
- David Weber's Honor Harrington series, beginning with On Basilik Station
- Tom Clancy's novels including his nonfiction Submarine, Fighting Wing, Armored Cav, and Marine
- Len Deighton's nonfiction (Blood, Tears, and Folly, etc.)
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