Jeff's
Home Page

Hi!

Welcome to my home page. Here, and in the pages that follow, you can learn a little about me and my interests. I hope that you can find something of interest here, too.

This site is very much under construction, so feel free to check back in a few weeks (or years) and see what's new.

Thanks for visiting!


Jeff

Below are some links to my other pages.  They represent some of my many and varied interests. If they interest you, just click on the picture for more information. I hope you enjoy them.

LASIK Eye Surgery

Way back in 2000 I underwent Lasik eye correction vision. While the information today is dated, I maintained a detailed diary of my surgery and some subsequent vision problems that resulted. Click on the eye above to read my diary and to see how I am doing. There are also some links to some other sights for information about this form of refractory eye surgery if you are thinking about having it done though, again, those sights might be a bit dated now. The technology has changed a lot since then and might even be to the point where the visual problem I was left with can be corrected. I am not sure, but I will be checking it out.

The Carpenters

I love the music of Karen and Richard Carpenter. Many scoff at them, which is unfortunate, as they created some of the most wonderful and enduring music ever to be recorded. I believe most people who dislike their musical style never really listened to them, or were brainwashed into thinking the Carpenter's were not "cool" as they refused to conform to the rock and roll movement. Though songs such as Sing resulted in their being skewered in the press, their later work reached new heights of maturity and that were simply beyond the comprehension of the drug-stoned DJ's and music critics. Though the untimely death of Karen silenced her voice, Richard has kept her alive through the issuance of previously unreleased material and the issuance of numerous compilation albums. 

In May 1998 I got to go to Downey, CA, where I had the opportunity to drive by the famous Newville Avenue home, where the Carpenter's lived in the 70's. This home was featured on the cover of their Now and Then album. I got to drive by Richard's current home, too, and I visited Karen's crypt at Forest Lawn in nearby Cyprus.  I took pictures at each of these sites, and I have included some of them for you to look at. Clink on the above picture to view those pictures, as well as to find other links to some other exciting Carpenter sites.

Aviation

Another passion I have is flying. I first soloed back in 1971 and once flew round trip from Lawrence, Kansas (home of the University of Kansas Jayhawks, where I went to college) to Santa Monica, CA in a Cessna 172 with two other friends.  That was quite an exerience, and remains a highlight of my life.  I am not an active pilot now, having last flown as pilot-in-command way back in 1981 with just over 182 hours total flying time. 

I have had a lifelong ambition, well, since I was about 10 years old, to build my own airplane. With my children nearly grown, it is time for me to finally get serious about this. I am now in the very beginning stages, and the plane I am currently focusing on building is the Falco, shown above. It is not a fiberglass airplane -- it is build from wood and offers very good performance. Click on the picture to enter into my world of homebuilt aircraft! FONT>

Astronomy

I also have a love of astronomy. There is nothing more humbling than to sit out under a clear night sky out in the boonies someplace and to gaze upwards into infinity. I have built a 10" Dobsonian telescope, which I am currently rebuilding. As I rebuild, I willl post pictures and details of its reconstruction. Click here for that information and well as for some amateur telescope building links.

The above picture is of a variable star - one that dims and brightens periodically. I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't -- I shamelessly copied it from another person's site. I would give him credit, but I lost track of where I got it from, and I feel it is too cool for me to delete in the meantime. I will keep trying to find out where I obtained it so that I may give the man his due.
Woodworking

 

I love the smell of freshly cut wood, the way wood feels, the beautiful patterns that the grain of a fine wood makes.... ah!  I have a fair collection of wood working tools and with the construction of my new, dedicated workshop, I will soon be creating loads and loads of sawdust and, hopefully, a few pieces of fine furniture. I must admit that I am also a collector of wood. Yes, I will buy a piece of wood just to be able to look at it and dream of what, someday, I just might make out of it.  Yes, I am a bit strange, but I am not the only one!  I got together with a fellow wookworker and acquired a large stockpile of various hardwoods from which, someday, to make things out of. Click here to see some of my projects (well, don't do it now as I have nothing to show, but in the future I will have pictures), and to find links to other woodworking sites.

Audio

Finally, I like to engage in audio engineering activities, mostly audio power amplifier design. Being an electrical engineer, I have studied audio amplifier design and hope to someday design and build the ultimate amplifier system. Arr, arr, arr! Of course, by the time I get around to doing it, my ears will have lost half of their frequency response and it will all be for naught! The power amplifier that I use I did buid from scratch but I used the design of Professor W. Marshall Leach from the Georgia Institute of Technology. I built this amp right after graduating from college, and I credit it with helping me to gain a more practical understanding of amplifiers in general. Click the picture for some links to Prof. Leach.

Personal

This is me and my kids, celebrating my youngest daughter's sixth birthday in March of 1988. (Yikes! I need to do some updating here.)

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I can be contacted at symetrics(at)yahoo.com , but you must replace (at) with @. I hate spam!

This page last modified on October 31, 2006.