My day job is as Systems Administrator for the LA County Office of Emergency Management, a job I've held for the past 11 years. It's actually a fun job, but completely unpredictable. From an activity standpoint, its similar to what Chuck Yeager described about being a fighter pilot -- long periods of boredom accentuated with brief periods of stark terror. Most of my time is routine, but then there are the "events" -- fires, mud slides, earthquakes, protests, terror threats, etc. -- which call for the staff to activate the EOC to deal with managing the event and the related incidents. BTW, I'm actually only malevolent to those who try to compromise the IT interests of the OEM staff.
If you've seen the movie "Volcano," that command center is a real building and I work there. I'm still waiting for my fully-outfitted Suburban like Tommy Lee Jones had, though. Guess I'll be waiting a long time.
My hobby that consumes my surplus time and income is model railroading. I'm a charter member of Angels Gate Hi-Railers Model Railroad Club (O Gauge) in San Pedro. We're located at Angels Gate Park -- the old upper reservation of the Fort MacArthur Military base. There are other park tenants including the Belmont Shores Model Railroad Club (N Scale,) the Fort MacArthur Military Museum, the South Bay Young Marines, the Izaak Walton League (a nature conservancy group,) the Korean Friendship Bell and several art studios. The park overlooks the ocean (great view) and the Port of Los Angeles.
I'm also a frequent poster on the O Gauge Railroading Magazine Forum (handle AGHRMatt.) My interests extend to assisting with layout design issues, and various topics related to O Gauge/O Scale model railroading and real trains.
