About the Authors and Their Cats

Kevin spends his working hours making the world safe for 8051-based microcontrollers as a Senior Applications Engineer for Dallas Semiconductor Corporation, (now a subsidiary of Maxim Integrated Products) in Dallas, Texas. He is extremely happy with his job, and is not currently seeking employment elsewhere. (This is included for the benefit of the headhunters who may come across this page, so don't ask!) Kevin attended both the University of Cincinnati and the University of Houston, receiving the Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the latter. (Cum laude even!)

Kevin was for over ten years a contributing editor for IEEE Spectrum magazine. His bi-monthly column "Technically Speaking" is a commentary on technical language and culture, both within the scientific/engineering community and the general public. Past topics have included the bioelectric properties of Miss America contestants, proof of intelligent life on Earth, history of the metric prefixes and the origin of the word quark. Some samples of his writing are buried in the "Things Secular" section of this site.

In addition to IEEE Spectrum, Kevin has written for a number of other publications, including Proceedings of the IEEE, Omni, and America Today. He has been heard extolling the virtues of the engineering profession on Public Radio International's Marketplace program. Kevin has also flipped McBurgers, been an apartment superintendent, carpenter's assistant and oyster washer. Go figure.

(Elizabeth) Lee has completed the Master of Divinity program at Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University. She is a fully ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), concentrating on work involving spiritual formation/development and pastoral care. She has also served on the staff of the Pastoral Care and Training Center, a nationally recognized pastoral counseling center located on TCU campus. She has worked as a chaplain at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and serves occasionally as a guest preacher at local churches. A former drama teacher, Lee has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Cassy (the brown one), a.k.a. fuzzbutt, a.k.a. the brainless wonder, spends most of her day inventing new annoying whiny noises to greet us with when we return from work. This is to punish us for locking her in the house with no playmates. We are working slowly to break the news to her that there is another cat in the house! Cassy's favorite game is to let herself be locked in closets.

Max (the non-brown one) wandered out the door one Spring day and has not been seen since. We remember him fondly; he was (in politically correct terminology) a cat of substance. We nicknamed him the "black hole of love," because he never seemed to get enough attention. His most endearing characteristic was a tendency to slobber on himself during heavy petting sessions. But then that's probably more than you wanted to know about us...

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