This will be a continuous "work in progress", as I add tidbits to help (I hope) give a little bit of context to my writing.

First things first:

Bomb : a projectile, ... generally designed to be dropped from an aircraft.
MeatBomb : a bomb made of meat - OR - slang term for 'skydiver'.

See also: skytrash, meat missile.

Tidbit: My first "real" job was in the Canadian Army. I was a Weapons Systems Technician, working on tank turret systems, missile turret systems (like ADATS, just google it), and radar-slaved AA guns. Funny how a career as a "grunt/gun plumber" can land someone into the wonderful world of robotics...

Tidbit: CDs currently loaded in my car: AC/DC - Back in Black; GWAR - We Kill Everything, Carnival of Chaos; Rammstein - Sein Sucht; Cannibal Corpse - Gore Obsessed; Ministry - Filth Pig, N.W.O.; Twisted Sister - Love Is For Suckers; Megadeth - Risk. Just some quiet, "easy listening" for the daily commute...

Favorite Authors A-Z: Isaac Asimov, Tammy Bruce, Tom Clancy, Davner, David Eddings, Alan Dean Foster, John Gardner, Alfred Hitchcock, Henrik Ibsen (OK, he's a playwright), D.F. Jones, Stephen King, Mercedes Lackey, Elizabeth Moon, Grant Naylor, George Orwell, Edgar Allen Poe, Spider Robinson, Matthew Stover, Harry Turtledove, Leon Uris, Eric Van Lustbader, H.G. Wells, R.J. Zelazny.

RED RUBBER BALL:
~A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer were all given a red rubber ball and told to find the volume of the ball.
~The mathematician carefully measured the diameter and evaluated a triple integral.
~The physicist filled a beaker with water, put the ball in the water, and measured the total displacement.
~The engineer looked up the model and serial numbers in his red-rubber-ball table.

You Might Be An Engineer If...
~your favorite James Bond character is "Q".
~you see a good design and still have to change it.
~you still own a slide rule and you know how to use it.
~your family haven't the foggiest idea what you do at work.
~you are better with a Karnaugh map than you are with a street map.
~you think the real heroes of "Apollo 13" were the mission controllers.
~you have owned a calculator with no equal key and know what RPN stands for.
~you make four sets of drawings (with seven revisions) before making a bird bath.
~you have trouble writing anything unless the paper has horizontal and vertical lines.
~you can take a measurement with a micrometer that doesn't have a digital readout.
~you know how to use the Vernier scale.

About my fics:

Chobits: Care & Maintenance of a Heart Soul (In Progress)
My first 'serious' attempt at writing. Anything. Started off as an exercise in examining the technology of persocoms, then completely got away from me. Turned into sort of a Sci-Fi/Drama/Romance story that's growing beyond anything I intended. I'm having a blast writing it, too. I will be cutting it 'short', and continuing the story in a sequel, after a little hiatus from the Chobits world.

Rosario + Vampire: Stranger in a Strange World (Complete!)

My own twisted take on the whole "what if Tsukune wasn't human?" theme. Much better received than I thought it might be when I started.

Oh! My Goddess!: (Title Undecided)
Summary: Keiichi has pledged to stay with Belldandy, no matter what. After she falls to the demon angel during the battle with the Angel Eater, and becomes a demoness first class, unlimited license, Keiichi learns that “no matter what” is easier to promise than to endure. This will be a little dark.

Sneak Preview
Finally freed from her prison in the Angel Eater, Holy Bell launched herself toward the unconscious form of Belldandy, eager to return home. Only meters from her destination, she pulled up short, with a look of horror marring her normally beatific features. The demonic familiar was poised over the goddess’s unmoving body like an enraged cobra, with bat-like wings outstretched, and claws and fangs unsheathed, challenging Holy Bell to try to enter. Holy Bell regarded the terror for an instant, and then glanced around in a desperate search for help or refuge. Finally, her gaze fell on the only entity not currently engaged with the Angel Eater.

Keiichi was still sitting on the ground, recovering from Lind’s extraction of Cool Mint when he looked up, and saw the glowing form of Holy Bell streaking toward him. She latched her arms around his neck, sobbing her heartbreak and loneliness into his shoulder, and knocking him onto his back. Unsure of what to do, or how to comfort the disconsolate angel, he tentatively reached up, encircling her in a comforting embrace. Feeling his sympathy and tenderness, Holy Bell raised herself to look into his eyes. Keiichi regarded her curiously, now aware that she was communicating with the innermost vaults of his mind, as her eyes implored his. His gaze softened from surprise to understanding as he gave her an almost imperceptible nod, and braced himself. Holy Bell again wept into his shoulder, now shedding tears of relief as she sank into his body, and disappeared from sight.

Rosario + Vampire: (Working Title: "Best Served Cold...") (In Planning Stages)
Tsukune hates monsters. Ten years ago, after the deaths of his parents at the hands of a clan Shuzen vampire, Tsukune is adopted and trained by a fanatical shadow order of monster hunters. Now twisted and bitter, he enters Youkai Academy as an agent of destruction, bent on the annihilation of all monster kind. Can the girls shatter the hardened shell of a trained Hunter, without smashing the gentle soul hidden deep inside? Will Moka survive the revelation of her family's sins against lethal and vengeful young man?

Sneak Preview

Two years ago...

Moka gazed across the sports field at the single dim light in the darkness that was her second year of middle school. This Tsukune...something or other had transferred into her class two weeks ago. The next day, after a particularly nasty bout of teasing and harassment from her classmates, he shocked her by sitting unannounced beside her on the sports field bleachers, where she always ate alone. Silently, he offered her some food from his bento box. When she hesitated, he simply said, "They're fools, all of them. They tease you for believing in monsters, and religiously close their closet doors at night to hide the empty darkness that they know, down deep, isn't really empty. Go ahead, I have too much anyway."

Looking at him in shock, she absently took a small piece of food that looked safe, placing it on a napkin on her lap. "You believe?" she asked.

He still hadn't looked directly in her eyes. "I believe a great many things; some of them may even be true," he quipped.

They ate the rest of their lunch in mutual silence.

Over the next two weeks, the ritual repeated itself, with the two teens talking more and more. Moka was intrigued by this seemingly stoic and sensible young man. He was always pleasant and supportive of her, but she could feel he harbored some dark secret, some hidden source of soul-deep sadness. She vowed to herself to become this strange human's best and closest friend, repay many-fold the simple act of kindness and support that started their friendship. She also came to fear for his safety. He unerringly gravitated to the concealed youkai at this human school, befriending them as easily as he did her. If he learned their secret, they would not be understanding or forgiving; they would kill him, and she would be powerless to stop them. The thought crossed her mind that he could be some sort of monster himself.

Two days later, three of Tsukune's six monster friends were reported missing, with no trace. The following day, Tsukune disappeared with the other three, also without a trace. Ultimately, none of the students were ever found, and it wasn't too long before monster circles spoke in hushed whispers of a Hunter operating in the area at the time, and rumors that all of the boys had fallen to the Hunter's sword.

Moka fought the urge to cry as she absorbed it all.

Teenagers. Harmless young boys, monsters though they were, cut down ruthlessly by a Hunter.

And Tsukune. She was sure now that he had been some kind of monster. He was too kind and friendly to be a human, and disappeared right along with the rest of his youkai friends.

Just why do you think we despise the humans?

Chobits: The Pursuit of Happiness (Sequel to Care & Maintenance - Coming...Later)
Persocoms can develop emotional awareness and a sense of self, now. Can they be guided to happiness and autonomy by our heroes? Before they're ordered to be reformatted by a fearful and suspicious government?