I read a lot. I've read a lot of science fiction and fantasy books, such as the Wheel of Time series and Harry Potter. And of course some science books. Also my parents' books, at TortugaBooks. I suggest Cells, Gels, and the Engines of Life by Gerald Pollack. I also love Ayn Rand's books.

I like to program. I like html, C, C++, MatLAB, as well as any other simple coding scheme I can find, like the simple ones that come with software packages, macro-type languages. It is all fun.

I love Star Trek, as any self-respecting engineering must. My parents watched it when I was little, so I was raised on Star Trek. The original was great, with original plot lines, great actors, and important issues. The Next Generation added great special effects, but the plots were drastically inferior, many of the best ones were just duplicates of the original anyway. Deep Space Nine attempted a new twist on the concept, but only got really good when the Defiant came along and the crew could actually go somewhere. Then it ended. Voyager was almost pointless. They brought back the ship, which was required for the show to be picked up, with a decent premise, but then they decided on a female captain. I'm not against a female captain by any means, but Janeway just didn't work. She never did make up her mind, would she be the leader or the person next to Chakotay? Although it was sad to see another Star Trek go by, I was happy to see it end. And so we come down to Enterprise, which is by far the best since the original. Now at the end of its fourth season, this is Gene Roddenberry's vision fulfilled. Talented actors, great writers, fabulous special effects, and (finally!) good plots. Enterprise ended after four seasons, unfortunately. I don't know why.

The oldies were goodies, too. Remember Scott Bakula in Quantum Leap? How about The Greatest American Hero? Buck Rogers? War of the Worlds? Alien Nation? Oh, yeah!

Recently a colleague has gotten me hooked on the new Battlestar Galactica, which co-stars one of the stars of Quantum Leap (once a sci-fi actor, always a sci-fi actor, eh?). Now, of course, following these shows is a lot easier. I bought all episodes through iTunes and watch them on my iPhone.

Yes, I'm afraid I'm a Mac fan now. I used to tease my husband, who was always a Mac fan, "how can you compute on fruit?" But it is a more stable operating system, and that really is the most important thing. I have no problem paying extra for Apple products when I know they'll give me far less headache that the comparable Microsoft-based brands.