Personal: I am a model railroad hobbyist and author.  I have written many articles and book reviews for Garden Railways and Light Iron Digest magazines, and my comic strip, Rich & Amos, appeared in GR from 1997-1998.  I am currently Technical Editor and a columnist for Garden Railways.  I am interested in the history of the steam locomotive industry, large-scale model railroads, Western Swing and Brazilian music, comics as an art form.  I play guitar in a folk-rock band and at Sunday afternoon bluegrass jams..  I am married to a professor of Portuguese and Spanish at the University of New Mexico. We have one son (also a guitarist and live steamer) and a couple of Cornish Rex cats.  

Business: My business card says " Unix and Linux Technical Specialist ". I'm basically a tech-weenie in a suit, which is a nice way to pay the bills for my hobbies.

What is this "Flint Hills & Permian Basin" business? It's the name of my model railroad, which hypothetically runs from the Flint Hills of Eastern Kansas to the Permian Basin of West Texas. I've had the idea for years, but later discovered the history of the "Kansas City, Mexico and Orient" railroad, which ran along more or less the same route and on into Mexico. And it turns out that my wife's grandmother spent her childhood in Chihuahua, Mexico, where great-grandfather moved the family to oversee the lumber operations supplying ties and materials to the KCM&O's Mexican affiliate, the Chihuahua al Pacifico.  The KCM&O was bought out by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe in 1927.  Knowing the history of the road, we felt obligated to move to Albuquerque to be near the new corporate owners!  I'm tending FH&PB's live steam engine No. 3 in the photo above.