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Here you can learn a little more about each of our team members.
Eric Ludlam thought about building his first siege engine in 1985 as part of a history project. His dad ended up building it, which suited him fine at the time. When he bought a house with wife Amy, the siege engines followed. In 1996 Eric and his brother Greg were inspired by the small devices, and built Trebuchet Jr. over the course of several weekends. As Treb Jr. is unique, and there were no resources to draw from that we knew of at the time, it took a lot of experimentation, and old scrap pallets to figure out how the silly thing was supposed to work. In 1997, Eric and Greg started work on Juggernaut, Team Tormentum's traction trebuchet. It was modeled after a machine seen on the Internet at the Gray Company Trebuchet Site. Juggernaut required a large team to operate, and it soon attracted the first few members of Team Tormentum. While attempting to perfect this machine, Eric discovered the World Championship Punkin Chunk web site, and decided that we just had to go.
In the real world, Eric and his wife Amy live in Framingham MA. Sons Trevor (here in Eric's backpack) Owen, and Ian served as inspiration for creating poetry. Eric works at The MathWorks Inc. as a software engineer, and has even written a nifty volume visualization tool in the companies flagship product. In his other spare time Eric writes software for Emacs which helps developers write more software. Eric enjoyed his first television appearance when he was on an episode of Modern Marvels with a very silly quote. (Trip report).
Eric enjoyed even more fame when Mista Ballista was featured on the
TV show Man Moment Machine during our 2005 Punkin Chunk, we got a call from producers of a show called CGI : 1078 CGC : I+D+++T++B+++G+++C++AV-W+++P+
Roger's past time of choice is a mix between bicycle racing, and back packing up winter frozen peaks for long weekend excursions. He also managed to get hooked into Siege Engines in 1996 when I first showed him Treb Jr. He has been a valuable and exuberant member ever since. Roger was our inspiration for building the Pumpkin Putter. This machine was designed to harness his bike racing prowess. Using his own cycling power, he has been able to power a pumpkin up to 45 mph with a distance of 150 feet. When Roger isn't coming up with new ways to injure himself , he works for Brooktrout designing software for voice over IP gateways. Roger enjoyed his first television appearance when he was on an episode of Modern Marvels with a nice description of our building practices. (Trip report). CGI : 605 CGC : D++T++B++C++A+V-W+++
Kevin Johnson was first lured into the folds of Siege Engineering in 1996 while we were building Treb Jr. He immediately volunteered his time as counterweight, and soon after, his engineering skills to prevent the machine from falling on him. Kevin digs technology, and has been the team videogropher since its earliest days. He captures video onto his computer, and has provided them for this website. A side effect is that the best vantage point for taking video has necessitated that he be fleet of foot as projectiles head his way.
Kevin feeds his technology habit working at MÄK where he manages a software product that simulates battle situations for the military. Kevin's video footage made a television appearance when the pumpkin putter was featured on an episode of Modern Marvels. (Trip report). CGI : 515 CGC : D++B++G-C++A+V-W+++
Dave is a collector of tools useful and esoteric. His appetite for catapults was first whet when Amy Ludlam took Juggernaut to a corporate picnic when she worked with Dave at Concord Communications. In 2000 Dave started helping us design the Pumpkin Putter. Dave's greatest contribution to Team Tormentum is bringing us into the iron age. Eric took welding lessons with Dave, and Dave's wide range of tools have helped us create sturdy and more accurate parts for our machines. When Dave isn't siege engineering, he's shopping on Ebay, looking for new tools at auctions, or adventuring with his wife Andrea. Dave feeds his tool habit by working at Concord Communications and manages a software engineering team designing network management software. CGI : 485 CGC : ID+B+G+C++A+V-W+++
Jeff is no stranger to engineering or construction, and met Dave at a meeting of the New England Model Engineering Society. Jeff couldn't resist an opportunity to visit a farm field full of pumpkin throwing devices, and joined our team in 2001.
Jeff appeared on the TV show Junkyard Wars (back when it was Scrapheap Challenge on BBC.) as the NERDS team. You can see his team's site here.
For more on Jeff, see his NERDS bio. CGI : 684 CGC : D+T+B+++G+C++A+V-W+++P+Vi+
While Amy would not claim to be a part of Team Tormentum, as the captains spouse, she puts up with more than your average wife. Amy enjoys playing with Trevor, Owen, and Ian. (Here Owen is helping Amy carve a pumpkin.) Her hobbies include quilting, (and managing the guilds web site), and cross stitch. As a quilter and knitter, she has made pouches for our trebuchet and onager. Amy is always making us brownies, or preparing something for the hard working team to fuel up on. She also made all our T shirts, and takes the annual Team group picture. In a pinch, she subs in for missing team members when a siege event comes up and others can't make it. She's tried her hand at launching almost all of our machines, and has even made a weld or two with us. Nifty! Amy used to work as a database consultant for I.P.S.O Inc.. These days she is a stay-at-home mom, is home-schooling the boys and owns two home businesses. Her first is a cloth diaper making online store at Tushietoppers.com. Her second online store sells everything you need to make your own cloth diapers at Sewshoppe.com. Amy's businesses sponsor and manage Siege-engine.com.
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Team Tormentum is made up of several people who all
contribute to construction, engineering, historical research and any
other important tasks needed.
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Contact: Team Tormentum Copyright © 2000-THISYEAR Eric M. Ludlam All rights reserved. Twas' brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe... | Last Modified: 02/10/08 |
