Emerson's Niche

Interests & Hobbies

Emmo has always had a lot of interests and hobbies. Too many, in fact. Instead of going into all the old ones, which no one probably cares about, let's look at his current hobbies (in no particular order):

Science Fiction Anime (Japanese Animation) Lego(tm)
Computers Electronics Photography

Science Fiction

Science fiction has always been a major part of Emmo's life. From his very first memories he can still pick out brief glimpses of 2001: A Space Oddysey, as seen when it was out in the theaters, and the Apollo Moon Landings of the early 1970's, it has been an integral part of his life. His father maintained a fairly large collection of science fiction novels and a constant supply of magazines such as Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact.

Now, with excellent television series such as Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, Space: Above and Beyond, and mind candy such as Star Trek, he is happy that its popularity is catching on with the American public, which is usually thrilled with the dregs of creativity, such as sitcoms.

Similarly, science fiction's popularity in film cannot be denied. Multi-million dollar successes such as the Star Wars trilogies, Jurassic Park, the Star Trek films, Close Encounters, and countless others, have ensured that science fiction will certainly stay a major part of the entertainment industry

Anime

Emmo discovered anime (Japanese Animation) at a little science-fiction convention named "GeneriCon," held sporadically at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. While he was preparing to leave for dinner, a friend of his named "Birdy" stopped him and asked if Emmo had seen what was playing in the room at the end of the hall. When told no, Birdy recommended it, as he knew that Emerson liked cartoons. Well, despite the hunger pains, Emmo wound up staying in that room until dawn, fascinated by gorgeous imagery and the skill of storytelling in a language he could not understand.

The height of Emmo's anime fandom brought 7 trips to Japan to buy what was still rather scarce in the U.S. However, despite taking Japanese language classes at UCLA and another community college, his interest lagged, due to the fact that it was hard to follow the majority of stories, and harder to find translations. Now, despite a lot of work as a staffer at the yearly Anime Expo, he is pretty much out of the field. Perhaps, when domestic companies improve their translations and audio/video transfer quality, he may return.

Lego(tm)

Okay, go ahead and laugh. After a 10 year absence, Emmo's interest in Lego(tm) brand bricks (hereafter termed Legos for ease of reading) has returned. Not just any Legos, however...the Technic Line. Amazingly advanced mechanical designs can be built with this line of Lego, including pneumatic pumps, working 4-speed transmissions, powerful cranes, huge cars with 4-wheel steering, independent suspension, and all-wheel drive. The next big kit Emmo is eyeing is the Lego Space Shuttle, with micromotors and fiber optics.

Another fascinating line of Lego is the Dacta educational line. While harder to get than the Technic line, Dacta offers some incredible capabilities, including computer interfaces, optical and positional sensors, and more! Emmo is awaiting a chance to purchase some of these and experiment.

Computers

At first fiddling around with his father's computers at the University of Hawaii, Emmo finally got his own in 1982: A TRS-80 Model I. Anyone remember those? It came with an incredible 16K of memory, and a screaming clock speed of 2+ MHz. While the cassette tape mass storage was ALWAYS a pain in the rear, the computer was a lot of fun. Emmo quickly boosted the speed to 4MHz, and eventually got the 32K memory expansion, the lower case chip, and some 5 1/4" floppy drives. It was an incredible machine!

Unfortunately, the Model I met its demise on the way to college, and Emmo, after valiantly trying to resurrect the poor thing, wound up buying a Model IV TRS-80...the last of the line. Not nearly as much fun as the Model I, it nevertheless served him well until he left college, moved to Los Angeles, and bought a 486DX33 PC with 8MB of RAM, and a 200 MB hard drive. What a leap in tech!

Now running a mix of AMD64's and Intel Core 2 Duo machines, he is thinking of downsizing his home network, because frankly, with the speed PCs have reached in the past few years, there's really no point in having so many around at once.

Electronics

Photography