I get along well with my parents, for the most part. I relate best to my dad. I can talk with him about just about anything. When I have been thinking a subject through (religion, politics, policy, etc.) he's very easy to talk to. I also talk with him when I'm trying to make a decision. I tend to talk to my mom more about practical type stuff having to do with taking care of me or my things.

Dad usually "gets" what I'm talking about or trying to say. Sometimes my mom does, too, but it's often from a different viewpoint that throws me off.

My mom is the one who takes care of everything around the house, like yard work, house repair, cooking, laundry, cleaning, etc. My dad is pretty much useless in those areas. He doesn't like to take care of things, so sometimes I get frustrated when he won't do something as simple as put the DVD in the player for himself.

He can also be a little bit controlling and protective (which annoys my sister). But he's usually easy to reason with and he never really asks for something that makes no sense. He just tends to worry about his family's safety. If you can convince him that you understand the danger and that everything'll be okay, he lightens up.

He volunteered to fight in the Vietnam war, not because he really wanted to, but because then he could choose his area of specialty, electronics. Evidently you couldn't do that if you were drafted. He really didn't enjoy his time in the military. "The army and I didn't get along that well."

His career has always involved computers in some fashion or another, mostly programming. Right now he's more of a project manager. In the last few months he's introduced a new way of managing projects, one that is a lot more flexible and gives team members a lot more ownership than the ways that most companies and governments do things. He's pretty enthusiastic about it and people seem to be liking it.

Speaking of making changes, about ten years ago he discovered that he loves lobbying at our state capitol. Not just for any reason, but for a good cause, namely home school rights. He and my mom were early members of the movement and are involved in a state-wide leadership board. He got chosen as their representative to state officials because he had some previous political experience (in fact, my entire extended family is pretty into exercising their right to involvement in government, but that's another story).

My dad says he feels like a duck in water when he's at the capitol. And not because he's a slime-bag. Far from it. He's one of the most genuine-hearted people I know. He likes finding out what each side wants and finding ways to meet both sides' needs. He's good at finding compromises without giving up his principles. He's also good at making people trust and like him. I think he also gets a sort of perverse pleasure out of getting (making?) people to be nice and do what he wants.

Another of his strong traits is that he asks for advice or input a lot. Whether it's print, online, or a friend, he like to get alternate opinions and expertise. He's always bringing home articles on safety/health that he found and printed out. Every couple of weeks or so he'll go over to my grandparents' and talk with them and my aunt about whatever it is that he's working on or mulling over. He asks for my opinion a lot, too, which sometimes bothers me. I feel like he's putting too much importance on me. He likes to bounce ideas off me.

He's a good communicator with my mom. She's never complained that he won't take the time to listen to her. Sometimes he gets impatient with her (usually for the same reasons that I do), but he always feels bad about it tries really hard to be patient and loving even when he doesn't feel like it. He's actually much nicer and patient than I am in general. I have a lot to learn from him.

His favorite book of the Bible is Proverbs, because it talks about dealing with people wisely. (He even wrote a program for it that does extensive cross-referencing.)

Let's see... what else? He's good at logic, and I can trust him to iron out many of the wrinkles in my thinking. For example, when I asked him some of the questions that I was getting in the religion thread, his answers made more sense and were simpler than many of mine.

One big difference between him and me is that he loves mathematics and statistics, whereas they bore me to tears. Fortunately for me, though, he's also an excellent teacher. I don't think I would have gotten through all those required math courses without his careful tutoring. He's good at taking those concepts and making them visual, which is exactly what I need.

Umm, so that's all for now. What do you think? Identical? Please put not only what you think but why. I know, writing out detailed explanations is a little time-consuming, but they really help.