The Mèçkäñìç™  Update: May 7, 2004  Please Note: All Photographic pictures are Copyright (c) 1986-1998 Vortex Research Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any opinions here are mine only and do not represent the opinions of my kids, dogs, associates, clients or any other entity.  I am an older guy I guess, trained initially in architectural and mechanical drafting, self taught in engineering, analytical chemistry, analogue/digital electronics, software development and physics. Most people that meet me seem to think I am kinda scary, I really don't know why though. When you first meet someone, you don't know their history or what's really behind that facade. Whatever agenda's, what demons or angels, killers or saints might sit laying in wait. What is behind the mask is generally anyones guess and it always takes time to find out. I am normally pretty reasonable and try to be a nice guy, but when pushed, lied about or attacked, well, that's another story. It is not wise to test the resolve of an unknown quantity, sometimes you never find out how much they really know until it's far too late.  I have been working since 1973 in a variety of engineering and scientific disciplines. My work has taken me halfway around the globe to Holland, Belgium, Kenya, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Bophutatswana (Sun City), Zaire, Angola, Namibia and the Congo. My longest stay in any one place apart from Canada was South Africa (called SA in this text) for 4 years, 1986 through 1990. South Africa is an incredible country! Pity about the politics....  I now live in Canada, a socialist experiment, go figure, home of the SHEOPLE and the bleeding hearts, and reside just outside of Toronto, Ontario. I can be the bane of the politically correct, I see so many things wrong in Canada and voice my opinions, but that is all it is... my opinions. I normally have very little tact, none that I  deliberately excersize anyway, except possibly for court. People should say what they think, if they didn't, how would anyone one know when anything has gone wrong? I have very little use for politicians or their pet dogs, to have utility, they would have to be worth something first. I would really like to see a politician prove me wrong and actually do something that provides benefit to the people they were elected to represent in the first place, rather than bloody business (and yes I know all the arguments). I generally speak my mind and let the cards will fall where they may, if you're offended, walk away, or tell me I'm pissing you off, maybe (probably) I'll stop, unless you continue it. Just make sure you do something, I hate hearing about or from whiners later. There are couple of pic's here for your viewing displeasure.... (I had to help with a wedding, I was the bouncer....LOL....suit supplied by Penguins R Us...btw, I am about 40 here, Picture shot at a park near Lake Ontario. Had to do the same again a little later in the year for one of my brothers (have 2), who is a really nice guy, the other brother, for all intents and purposes, technically doesn't exist <shrug>, he must not, my kids don't even know who he is or he, them, which is really kinda sad.)  I have had a very 'different' kind of life, one that for much of the time forced me to operate on adrenaline and conflicting internal stresses. I have been shot, stabbed, poisened, bitten by a black widow/button spiders, had great incidents with scorpions, once some ass put a bomb (in luggage) on the plane I was travelling on (747 in europe, held us up for 2-1/2 hours waiting to get the bomb off, was interesting seeing all these guys wearing body armour and the huge armored circular tank for depositing the bomb), I've been in planes during emergency landings (airports and dirt fields) and again in a plane when the doors were blown open at 12,000' over Nelspruit in a twin turbo Piper Chieftan (do you hear wind Andy?), there was $18,000 damage to the doors and surrounding area (I don't like to fly at all anymore and go out of my way to avoid it!), almost blown up on mined roads on the borders of Zimbabwe and Mozambique, shot at in and above the Limpopo Valley (Zimbabwe border), Kruger Park (Mozambique border) and at the Etosha Pan, had major confrontations with embassy staff and other IMHO spineless slimy belly crawling political entities (good thing I keep tapes and records).... it'll all be in the book...  And yes I always carried a gun(s) when in Africa. My first was a CZ-83, 9mm Browning, nice piece, good balance, heavy for its size and it never jammed, was very reliable. Rounds were a little small though. My second unit was a CZ-75 9mm Parabellum, very nice gun, heavier charge, but after I used it for about 6 months it started jamming. I did target shooting twice a week, one indoor range and the other outdoor, but then bullets were only about 21 to 24 cents per round for the 9mm flavour (100 rounds for about 21R). Eventually got rid of the CZ-75 and bought a 'mans' gun, a Desert Eagle 44 magnum. This was my favorite, had it purlexed, geez it was a pretty piece, heavy, hard to conceal (I had a CC license) but very accurate! and the rounds were of an excellent size for making interestings er....effects....  Since I was doing somewhat different and sometimes rather dangerous work, I was fortunate enough to recieve lots of interesting training, some of which was in evasive driving and small arms ammunition modification (one of my favorite pastimes... or was). The drug stores (chemists) there were well stocked, they carried mercury, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, HCL, DMSO, magnesium and phosphorus powders (geez I miss those SA chemists) and with my chemistry background and lab... almost all the things I needed, to keep myself busy and out of trouble... yeah that's it, out of trouble. Was in the neighbourhood watch as well, that was a hoot in the beginning. It got boring fast though, nothing ever happened after the first week, I wonder why?  All the training however, was a bit of a waste, I never really had to use it.... much. The places I did have to use it are in the book I finished recently. The training was precautionary and appreciated... trust me, it is wise to be prepared in a foriegn land! I had friends there and people who worked for/with me, that somehow managed to get themselves into dicey situations almost once a month. In some ways I was fortunate, in others not so... I feel a certain kinship with the situation of the character Roy Batti (a Nexus 6 genetically engineered pseudo-human) in Blade Runner.  I have many regrets about some of the things that I have had to do, but sometimes you are forced to choose between the lesser of two or sometimes three, evils. I chalk up a lot of my actions to being socially responsible, "the good of the many", it's the best I can do. But, I had to purge my conscience somehow and I figured writing about what I was doing in SA might be a means to an end, all the gory details are in the book. (This was taken during my 'Dark Days' .... shot on auto timer and in this years assigned mechanics/contractors fashion, sporting all black shirt, pants, hat and glasses plus the traditional leather shoulder holster complete with CZ-75 9mm Parabellum plus 2 clips and CZ-83 9mm Browning in the ankle holster with 1 clip. Picture shot in the backyard of my house in Suid Afrika in 1989. I am in disguise here, no skull and crossbones on my cap..LOL, the Colonel remembers....)  The things I enjoyed shooting the most in SA, were the animals... and always with my camera. I had lots of opportunity to hunt and take trophies, but I just didn't feel right about killing innocent creatures, it wasn't like I was hungry and you do have to eat what you shoot. The scenery and wildlife in SA are absolutely incredible. Whenever I was travelling or going on site to military base or border, I always carried my camera because you could never know what you might see. I enjoy photography, I've shot models, scenery, wildlife, done advertising and special effects. I intensely dislike photographing models even though I did have a little fun treating them like 'meat' and they always let me, but I stayed professional and didn't get 'involved'. You can take pictures of people or a nice piece of ass anywhere, scenery and wildlife you only get in certain places, so why waste film on people? unless they are really important to you, like lovers, friends and family (would never put my kids up on here though, keep those in the wallet). That might be why there are not a lot of people pictures here.  I have a few companies, 3 of which are active in Canada. These companies specialize in two different areas. one is the practical research, development, construction and prototyping arm for concepts and ideas. The other is an 'idea' house, a consulting company that generates potentially workable concepts and solutions. The last and most recent is a recording studio which produces everything from live artists to Karaoke CD's.  As from the above (way up there) you can see I am fairly well travelled On a lighter note I have vacationed or visited Jamaica, Mexico and many places in the United States and Canada. The only main ocean I have never seen I guess, that I want to, is the Pacific Ocean. Of the others though, I prefer the Indian Ocean. It has beautiful colour, an intense green blue and is always warm. The coast between St. Lucia and East London (the Wild Coast) in South Africa, is the most incredible I have ever seen and the people in Durban are great!!!! Basically a mix of Zulu, Asians and Europeans working together pretty well. I really miss Durban. I can still taste the salt air, see the people, hear the sounds of the ocean and the markets. God, I miss Durban.  There are two places I would really love to go, Egypt and Australia. Egypt because of the history and I find the culture intriguing. Of course the only problem is, you can't do your own archealogical digs. Australia, mainly because of the coastal areas. I think it would be great to play with the dolphins to the north, but I would also like to travel the mountain ranges and see the desolation of the Australian Outback. I once planned to sail from Durban, SA to Perth, Australia via Croetze and New Amsterdam (islands), but never managed to pull it off . My hobbies are limited to canoeing and fishing in the summer, and sometimes snowmobiling in the winter, computers, photography, collecting old weapons (swords and knives), samurai's, spanish, english, etc. and older weapons, and restoring/modifying specific late model cars year round. I play keyboard (synthesizer) and have been teaching my daughter keyboard/synth since she was 3 years old, some of the MIDI based sequencing we produce was performed by my daughter. As I mentioned, I have been writing a book which is about 600 pages long based on 70 pages of notes 1986 onward. It's has an interesting story line. Jakes, a friend in South Africa once said, "The truth may hurt, but it can never be a lie" and how true that can be.