My name is Peter (nickname TDU) and I am a  50-something year old 1st year uni physics dropout.

My first electrical "wow" experience was perhaps at 8-10 years old when someone brought a big old fashioned dry cell to school. These were about the size of a drink can and had screw on terminals. He hooked a wire across the terminals and it glowed red. It was a magical moment burned in my memory.
Later my Dad introduced my to crystal sets and an electronics kit...

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This was my first electronics kit from the late 60's. Actually mine is long gone but this is the exact same one from eBay and a very sentimental find.  I still remember many of the part numbers.  From this I made my first electronic project, a portable radio, when I was 12. High voltage followed a few years later in the course of developing some science projects like this.

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High voltage 1972 style with twin ignition coils. Since then almost nothing happened for 25 years (a regret of mine) due largely to work. 

In  the last 5 years I have had more time to pursue the holy art of electrickery. This has been aided considerably by the internet and sites including those in links.

I currently live on the outskirts of a small coastal city in Western Australia on a one acre block. It is rural enough to have kangaroos coming up our drive occasionally and more importantly, neighbors are distant enough not to be bothered by noisy Tesla coils. My shed is below. 'A clean shed is a sign of a sick mind', I think someone said. (Actually the quotation was from Einstein "If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, of what then is an empty desk a sign?".)

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When not working in the shed, I cycle (my best effort 340 km in 24 hours in April 2006).  And I have a day job as well which mostly involves collecting pens (see below). 

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This is 336 of my best pens collected over 10 years which I made into a display in August 2004 with a laser pen and LED light pen hardwired in the display. Two pens are the same - on either side of the airplane . It makes a bit of a change from watercolors for the office. It made the back cover of an Australian magazine and won me a case of wine.

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Look into my eyes.. deep into my eyes. (my retinal shots from my optometrist).  The white disk is where the optic nerve comes into the back of the retina.  The dark blurred area is the macula where your prime focus is and has the greatest discrimination. The retinal veins are the larger red vessels and the arteries are paler but thinner and follow roughly the same course.

 

Current time and temperature in Perth, Western Australia