Kevin Hisel's Homepage
Mr. Hisel's Portrait

The Obligatory Bio

I was born January 27, 1956 in Kankakee, Illinois (rated "Worst Place to Live", 1999). I graduated from Kankakee Westview High School in 1974. I moved to Champaign, Illinois in 1976 and later joined a local rock band called The Rave. I couldn't play but the others in the band were so talented that no one noticed. In 1981, I had to get a straight job so I got a part-time position as a phone-order taker at a fast-growing local mail-order company named Tower Hobbies which sells radio-controlled models. A few years later I bought a Commodore VIC-20 computer and later got hooked on the C-64/128 and joined the local user group, CUCUG. I then moved on to the Classic Amiga. I am now primarily a Windows and Unix kind of fellow.

After 25 years I have one of the coolest jobs in the world as Vice President of Tower Hobbies. Since one can never have too many hobbies, I took up learning to fly airplanes (the real kind) but fell a few hours short of getting my "ticket". Here's a little page I use to see if it's okay to go flying today in Champaign.

Read our latest press release.

Sites I am responsible for maintaining

The Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group
The local PC and Macintosh user group of which I am a charter member.
Tower Hobbies
My employer's home page. We sell radio-controlled models. This site pretty much takes up most of my personal and professional life. We have a great team which has made this site very successful.
The R/C Web Directory
The most comprehensive guide of R/C-oriented Web links in the world.

Photo Albums

Hisel Get-Together
Wilma and Delmar invited the Hisel gang to their house in Bourbonnais on June 8, 2003. Here are some pics!
Millie's 100th Birthday
My grandmother turned 100 years old on April 10, 2002. Here are some pics of her birthday bash!
Christmas '99
A fun time was had by all at Susan and Charley's house.
Cammy's Gang's Memorial Day Outing
CB's friends had a good time, again at Susan and Charley's place.
My Picasa Web Album
Another collection of photos hosted by Google's Picasa (a great and FREE application).

Favorite Links

Font Sizes on the Web
If you design web pages or know someone who does, this page should be required reading.
Actual Time
What time is it? This very accurate web-based clock will tell you the exact time. Your tax dollars actually at work.
Fark
A nutty collection of links to weird stories and other oddities on the web. Updated daily. Possibly not safe for work.
Best of the Web
James Taranto's daily blog of primarily political stories from around the web. From the Wall Street Journal.
Amazon Wish List
Okay, this is a rather selfish link to list but I figure if you want to buy me a gift, this is the best way to find out what I want and do not already have!

Cool home pages of some of my pals

Martin Mott
Motley member of the Monticello Motts, Martin's marvelous mottnet.com masterpiece is a mighty map to the morld mide meb.
Jim Oldfield
Jim is a legend from the early days of Commodore computing. A founding member of CUCUG and publisher of the Midnite Software Gazette, Jim is just one of those great people you're happy you know.
Jake Slichter
Jake is a good friend of my old band, The Rave. Now he's in a real live, famous rock band himself, Semisonic. Way to go, Jake!
Brian Junker
One of the smartest people I know! Brian is a stats whiz, specializing in psychometrics: the measurement of quantifiable psychological traits.
Rick Winkel
Rick is another Kankakee native now living in Champaign. Please don't hold the fact that he's a politician against him.
Randy "Mynch" Lynch
Mynch is an old Big Ben buddy and noted music expert. This really isn't his home page, but a virtual tour of some of his old stompin' grounds that I found on the 'net somewhere.


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