I've been trying my hand at cooking, since I love to eat. I'm getting pretty good at Chinese food and chocolate desserts. Dinner anyone? If you have any good recipes, email them to me. Thanks! (Maybe you'd like to check out some of the recipes that I have... I've added new ones!)
I also like to read and listen to music. I've read almost all of the Tom Clancy novels, and I like spy stories and books about Watergate. Of course I enjoy some good sci-fi any day. When I read I'll turn on classical music (no piano concertos please!), but when I'm in an "up" mood, I'll put on some Rush. (Click here for a nice picture of Rush.) When I'm in a mellow mood, I like Dire Straits, Alan Parsons Project, or maybe even some Yanni. And I must admit that after all these years, I still like to listen to the Bay City Rollers. Do you remember what they look like?
I'm also a Star Trek fan, so I'll sit through most ST, STTNG, and STDS9 reruns until the anti-time anomaly kills us all. Star Trek: Voyager has had some decent episodes from time to time. I think think I could be as a good a captain as Kate Mulgrew! Speaking of television shows, I have become very addicted to The X-Files. (Click here for The X-Files official web site.) And if you haven't checked out Babylon 5, please do. It's quite good.
Speaking of B5, I've had the opportunity to meet a few of the stars at various scifi conventions. Here's a picture of my mom (taken by me, on her birthday) with actor Michael O'Hare (Commander/Ambassador Sinclair) at the SciFi Dreamin' Convention (May 1996).
At the Galactic Entertainment convention on August 29-31, mom and I met many scifi stars, including Richard Biggs, Jason Carter, Marjorie Monaghan, and Michael O'Hare from B5; Anthony Daniels who played C3PO; Majel Barret-Roddenbery of all STs; Roxann Dawson from ST Voyager, and many others. I met Rick and Jason at the big dance Saturday night, and another fan, John Wilson, was kind enough to take a pic of us. (Here's a collage of pics from the convention. Click for the text version with clickable pics, since the collage may take a while to download.)
I recently attended Rising Star 6 in Roanoke, Virginia, and met up with Rick Biggs and Marjorie Monaghan again, along with Richard Hatch (Captain Apollo from Battlestar Galactica). Here's a few pictures from Rising Star of me with these actors.
My favorite movie is Three Days of the Condor (starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway), with The Hunt For Red October (with Alec Baldwin) running a close second. I don't know if I have a favorite comedy, but one movie I never get sick of watching is Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
In May I went on a vacation to Hawaii. Click here to check out the web page for my trip.
A while back, I found a lovable furry feline, Isis. Can you guess how I picked that name?
A few years ago, I went on an observing run to Cerro Tololo, Chile. I even got to drive one of those infamous white VW bugs! (And I found a scorpion under my bath mat. Ack!)
Click here for some Engle History, complete with old pictures.
"You can do a lot in this lifetime, if you don't burn out too fast..." -Rush
"Be yourself, no matter what they say." -Sting