Well, if you made it here then I guess you are looking to find out what makes Buzz tick. Well, let's see, I am in my early thrities now and am employeed at Lockheed Martin Space Operations at NASA Kennedy Space Center (click here to check out some nifty pictures from work). It was a long road to get here filled with many, many potholes and roadblocks.

     I was born on the day Man landed on the Moon, July 20, 1969. Ever since I understood what that day meant I made it my goal to work at NASA when I grew up and I am one of the lucky few who actually got to realize his dream. I grew up tinkering with everything that I could get my hands on. I would take everything apart and TRY to put them back together again in an attempt to learn how they worked. My first experience with electronics was in the sixth grade when I taught myself how to repair my Atari 2600 after it broke from me and brother using and abusing it. Then I started fixing other 2600's from around the neighborhood and found that I had a knack for it. I also played with model rockets and dabbled in the Anarchist's Cookbook and the Poor Man's James Bond. Like many other kids I was picked on for being a geek and a dork. I would love to see some of those fools now >:-)

     I have been somewhat of an artist since I was four years old. Usually just pencil and paper medium but I would occasionally dabble in other things and now I do most of my artistic expressions via electronic medium. In high school, my best friend and I started a commercial art company (DL Art) and we did that until we graduated and then went on to do our own things. I went to college to become an aerospace engineer, then I wanted to be a game developer so I changed majors. Then I wanted to to do computer engineering and I changed again. Now, I am working on my Mechanical Engineering degree.

     I have also owned a custom car stero shop and used to participate in IASCA competitions. I have been a DJ too for a bit. I also have enjoyed rock climbing (and Aussie rapelling), bike racing, camping, roller blading (back in the mid-80's before it became so friggin' popular :-p), I used to be a skate punk, I did flatlanding (bmx street), I was also a street performing magician at The West End Marketplace in downtown Dallas one summer, I worked for the Dallas Cowboys, was a CAD draftsman for a research and development company, was an architect for a while (even had a few of my houses built), worked every possible postion in a restaurant (from dishwasher up through management), travelled the states as a computer systems integrator with TGI Friday's, and travelled around the world as an installer and programmer for Hard Rock Cafe, Intl. I have done just about everything you can imagine because I have this one simple philosphy, "There is nothing that you cannot do until you prove to yourself that you cannot do it." So, what can I not do? I proved to myself that I can't throw a baseball faster than 60 mph and that I can't throw a football farther than 40 yards. Well, you get the idea. Basically, I get interested in something and do it until I get tired of it (which is usually a couple of months) and then I drop it like a bad habit. I am very passionate about everything that I do and therefore can get burned out with things that do not really interest me for an extended time. Robotics is one of those things that I have stuck with for a long time (relatively speaking).

     There was a period in the winter of 1990 that I found myself homeless and living under a bridge and eventually in an abandonded van in a field. It was a time of serious introspection. Prior to that time I had a bit of a struggle with depression. I didn't get along with my family and was always picked ona and ridiculed in school. Since then have been on top of the world because knowing you can go through something like that and come out of it a better person has quite an empowering effect. My views on the world around me changed as well. I was never able to acurately describe it until I read about Animism. You probably won't find information about it too easily but I would highly recommend reading a book called Ishmael by Daniel Quinn to get a much different picture about the world around you to see what I mean. I just found out about the book a couple of months ago.

     Now, I practice Wah Lum Tam Tui Northern Praying Mantis Kung Fu at Si Gung Pui Chan's Wah Lum Temple in Orlando, Florida. I also like to ride my RoadStar 1600cc V-Twin whenever I get the chance. I am also a member of a gaming clan Team [MHz] Megahurtz who get together on occasion to have lan parties (We were ranked 14th in the world on the Tribes OGL). I am an avid gamer but prefer FPS games and driving sims the most. I also do web development (this site and several other). That and robots and volunteering my time at local schools is pretty much it in a nutshell (Okay, so I am leaving out a LOT of stuff, but if you get to know me you'll probably hear it anyway :-p).

     I am also one of the referees for BattleBotsIQ and am the referee and announcer for all SECR robotics events. I am also one of the technical experts on a new television series being filmed for the Do-It-Yourself network (The other technical expert is my good friend, Brian Nave of Team LOGICOM). The working name of the series was Robot Warriors because it is similar to one of their other shows, Warehouse Warriors. The new and final name is Robot Rivals and it will start airing on the DIY Network in the Spring of 2003. The premise of the show is to have two teams of college students go head to head in a competition to build a robot to perform a specific task. The challenging part is that they only have eight hours in which to do it and much only use parts provided to them in the studio. And, to make things even more interesting, they must incorporate at least one part of a suprise household into the robot. Brian and I filmed the pilot episode in which the teams had to build a robot that would autonomously detect and extinguish a fire that resided behind a barricade. Click here to see some of the pictures that our friend, John Autry took of us on the set.

     And, above all, I absolutely love spending time with my beautiful wife, Alexia who just happens to also be a teammate :-)

     Here are a couple of things that I just have to include here because they just crack me up. The first is a great flashfile of some serious Kung Fu action. Click here to see it. The section is a great video that someone made using Half Life Opposing Forces. It is one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time. Click here to see it.