[quote=bearishgurl]ucodegen, pardon me if I missed it but, are you a civil engineer? You seem very knowledgeable.[/quote]
My father was a general contractor. I put myself through college by building houses (4 of them) in an earthquake zone (near Tujunga, CA). I also helped with maintaining and modifying(additions, etc) the house I grew up in. I guess you could say I was a technically precocious kid (did my first unsupervised water pump replacement on a 1963 Buick Skylark at 12yrs old).
I have an EE/CE degree, though I also have a fairly strong Physics background (was originally going for Physics – but changed majors mid-way).