What do you study or do for a living? How did you come to do that? What do you like or dislike about it?

I have studied quite a few things. It took me quite some time to settle down on something, and even then, I likely would have tried a few more options if I had the choice.

I currently am a engineer-in-training. I studied mechanical engineering and just graduated this past spring. I enjoy being able to sit down and hammer out stuff, working continuously on projects. I enjoy doing the "calcs" and I especially enjoy working on engineering drawings. I can just "zone" out and work feverishly towards putting together what I am working on.

I also enjoy my coworkers. I am in a very small office and everyone has their quirks. I feel at home with these people and I get along with them all fairly well. There is office drama but I wont get into that.

What I do not like is dealing with clients. Phone calls.. Not a fan. Meetings, please no. Site visits with contractors are a nightmare for me. I do them though, I understand their importance and I suck it up and get it done. I get anxiety thinking about some of these things, but I just try and avoid thinking about it and I know that when the time comes I will get through it fine.

What are your values, and why?

I'm not sure, honestly. I'd say the only consistency in myself has been my love for animals and my desire not to hurt them. I've been a vegetarian, of my own choice, since I was a small child and I always had an affinity for nature.

I would say I value not hurting others, but I've hurt others a lot in my life. I'm fairly inconsistent in my views, I think.

What else do you do on a daily basis? What are your interests and hobbies? Why do you do them?

 I don't do a lot. I mostly go to work. I go on reddit during my lunches and read about the collapse of civilization or, lately, socionics. I eat. I watch tv shows. I relax. Me and my partner cook dinner together every day. I like to play video games as well.

I'm typically fairly tired after working all day and when I get home I just want to chill.

Describe your relations with family and friends. What do you like and dislike about them?

 I don't have a lot of friends. I tend to be overly anxious about my relationships with others and feel like people don't like me. Which I rationalize to be true. I also don't seem to really want friends that much. I don't like the effort typically required to maintain relationships.

I am marginally close with my parents and one of my siblings. But I have very different views than them and I find their perspectives to be extremely aggravating. I typically feel like I can't express my opinions fully to them for fear of causing dramatics. COVID-19 has been a trigger point in these relations. My more distance family (including siblings) I don't really have much of a relationship with. Like with friends, I just find it far too much effort to maintain those kinds of relationships.

What do you look for in friends? In romantic relationships?

 I mostly look for someone who likes me, and who I can be free to be silly with. I am a very very silly person. I love joking around and just acting a little haywire. I like dancing around, making faces, laughing. I have a hard time opening up like this with people and I am much more mechanical in more superficial relations. I feel really uncomfortable around people I don't feel close to. Even people I have known for years.

What conflicts have you encountered recently with other people? Why did they happen? Which kinds seem to happen on a regular basis?

 I have conflicts with my partner usually for one of two reasons: One: he does something a way I think is wrong and I tell him to do it my way. Two: We get in a argument of opinion where neither is willing to concede and I start getting heated and emotional.

I can't say why I get emotional, I just get frustrated I think.

How would your friends describe you?

 Depends on if you mean my current friends or past friends.
Current: probably silly, smart and helpful.
Old: probably silly, smart, MOODY and a bitch.

What do people generally see as your strengths? What do you like about yourself?

People tend to think I am smart. I do well academically and I pick things up relatively easily. I'm pretty good at doing things. Like a lot of stuff comes really easily to me.
Honestly, I like that I can be silly and enjoy life for the most part.

What are your weaknesses? What criticism do you often face from others? What do you dislike about yourself?

 I'm not good at remembering things, in my opinion. I can learn a lot but I can forget that information easily. Like, in engineering we learned about electronics somewhat. I really forget it all by now.

I'm also pretty shit at friendships and relationships. Lots of people have disliked me in the past, not quite sure why. Sometimes I don't think before i talk and I can say some insensitive stuff.

In what areas of life can you manage well on your own? In what areas of your life would you like help?

I don't know, I do pretty well in most ways. My biggest struggles are in cleaning and like normal living stuff. I can be pretty apathetic about mess and my house could honestly get disgusting.

What things do you dislike doing? What things do you enjoy more than others?

 I dislike having to get up when I'm relaxing. I dislike when I am really struggling to understand something, it gives me anxiety. I dislike having to clean for extended periods of time.

I enjoy relaxing, reading, drinking tea, taking showers, watching tv, curling up in bed. I like to indulge.

What goals, aspirations, or plans do you have for the future? How did you come to have them?

 I don't have huge goals. I'm pretty content with fairly little. I'd love to have some children, buy a nice house a little bit out of town with a nice yard to do some gardening. Maybe a pool.

If you had enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life without working, what would you do with your time?

 Easy. Play video games, cook, read about things, read novels, watch movies, go for hikes, go swimming every day in the summer. That would be awesome.

What traits do you find endearing that others might dislike? What traits are considered positive/neutral by others but tend to annoy you?

I like when people get silly and let their freaky side show. Talk a lot? I love it.

I don't really get annoyed by people that often, I think I'm pretty tolerant. If anything, I get annoyed when people are too selfish and don't think at all of other people. Like not wearing a mask or hanging up the phone without letting the other person say goodbye. But those aren't considered positive.

What kinds of things do you do to manage and/or beautify your environment (your room, your house, etc.)? What do you think of daily chores?

Honestly, I'd love to have a nice looking place but I don't think I have a great sense of design. I got a nice big fluffy pillow I like a lot and tons of blankets. I also have lots of plants.

I dislike chores but I know having a clean house makes me feel better inside, so I try to do them often enough that things don't get too bad.

How do you behave around strangers?

I'm a little anxious around strangers, I stay fairly formal and try to be polite. Tend to keep to myself and don't pitch in to conversation unless I have something real to say.

How do you react to conflict? What do you do if somebody insults or attacks you?

This doesn't happen often, but if it did I would likely react poorly. I could get heated and harsh. I'd stand up for myself.

What is one common misconception that people have about things? Explain why it is wrong.

I think most people think our climate problems will be solved by new technologies and that it isn't very serious. Life will continue as it has been and everything will be alright. I don't think most people realize how interconnected all our systems are, food, energy, transportation, productions, etc. Its all so wrapped up in everything else that we would need a complete and utter reconstruction of our entire world all together to fix the mess we've made. Simply reducing our emissions wont be enough, because its all falling apart together and no one is willing to lose their standard of living.

What did you do last Friday?

 Last friday... I worked, obviously. Ohh, I bought a roomba and it came in the main. We were setting it up and then we went to Walmart to buy from shitty food to deep fry for a nice easy meal. Then we probably watched the show we were watching at the time.

What is your biggest accomplishment?

Probably my biggest like "normal" accomplishment was graduating in the mechanical engineering program with cum lauda. I mean I did have pretty good grades.

Really, I think my biggest accomplishment is getting away from a lot of my unhealthy thought patterns. I was definitely my biggest enemy in the past, and I've really learned to accept myself as a flawed human.

What is something you regret?

 There are some particularly mean things I've said that I do regret. Typically, I don't live my life with a lot of regrets. My choices brought me to where I am now, and whats the point of regretting it?

Who do you admire, and why?

 I don't really admire anyone. We're all just people will different experiences and abilities.

What's been on your mind? Has anything been worrying or concerning you? What problems have you encountered lately?

 My workplace has been pretty chaotic lately. We're reaching the slow season and Covid has really hurt our business. My boss is becoming especially stressed out and has acted irrationally at times. It has made it difficult to deal with at times, when he acts out towards a coworker in ways that I think are pretty unfair.

The way he reacts to hardships is pretty unsettling and it makes me worry about the future of our company. I really enjoy the work and the people, but I don't want my professional reputation being hurt by being under an irrational person. For the time being though, I am just waiting to see what unfolds.

What are your religious or spiritual beliefs and why do you hold them?

I do not have any religious or spiritual beliefs. It does not make sense to me that there would be anything outside of current reality. I can see how it may be possible that there is something else, I mean I don't know everything. But I don't see how there is any benefit to holding these beliefs. And how could you hold yourself so firmly to a belief that there is no way of proving in any realistic way?

What are your political beliefs, and why? To what extent do you care about politics?

I'm not sure really. At one point I would say that I was liberal, I've always been concerned about animal treatment and the environment. I went through a period of thinking I was definitely conservative. I saw the positives of encouraging economic development for your community.

Right now, I would say that I really have no idea what to think. Everything is so complicated, I can see pro's and con's to the different sides. How do I put myself on one side or the other? I'd say I care about politics more in how it affects our world, and less on the games played by the government figures.

Would you ever be interested in starting a business? Why or why not? What role would you play in it? What kind of business would it be?

I would NOT like to start a business. I see the hassle it is organizing employees, budgets, payroll, etc. etc. It all seems like way too much work.

I currently work for a very small business (<10 employees). I'm just a workhorse who helps push projects to completion. Obviously, its an engineering consulting business.

What kind of work environment do you prefer? What do you look for in a job?

I like work environments that aren't too serious. I like when we can joke around and have a good jovial time. I like when I can work on projects on my own in my own time. I look for a job where people aren't too serious but still take their work seriously (I mean, we can't fuck up our projects). Having a good time with my coworkers lighten the whole day, even if it only is 10 minutes of fun.

What is or was your favorite school subject and why?

I really enjoyed most classes when I was younger. Art class was especially enjoyable for me, but that was probably because it was more social. I got to chat with my friends the whole time and just be absorbed in whatever thing I was making. I liked math and the sciences a lot too, I found the content interested and I did well with little effort.

In my engineering degree, I really liked the courses that had fun problem solving aspects to them. Like for example, I really enjoyed robot manipulation. In this course we would spend our time finding matrices that expressed the location of the end effector of the robot using the joint angles. It was a real challenge but satisfying figuring out how the system worked and applying it to different robots.

How do you approach responsibility? What do you tend to expect of others?

I am a pretty responsible person. If I know its my job to do something, I will do it and I will do it well. I expect others to live up to their responsibilities too.

However, thinking about my time in engineering... I basically expected no one to do their part in projects and I just took the initiative to do everything myself.

Where did you go on your most recent vacation? What did you do there? How did you like it and why?

I don't really take vacations. Seem like a waste of money and resources. My partner's family has a camp on one of the great lakes. We go there a handful of times every summer. Its pretty nice, I like to relax and read books. Go for lots of swims (did I say I LOVE swimming?), have bon fires. Pretty nice.

What were you like as a kid? How have you changed since you were a child?

As a kid I was more extroverted and kind of a dick. I really didn't care about other people or their feelings. I was much more talkative, where now I am more reserved. I was more opinionated and liked to play devil's advocate a lot. I was really into debating and imposing my opinions on others.

I'm a lot more private about my own thoughts now. I just don't see the value in having my opinions fought with others anymore. Theres no reasoning with people and I get too heated.

What was your high school experience like?

I was kind of a loser in highschool. I had a small clique but we were mostly misfits. I hung out with the black/native boy with an afro, the fat nerdy ginger, the tall shy guy, the arrogant indian guy and my two female friends, one was one of the two asian girls and the other was so shy she couldn't talk in class. We didn't hang out with other kids very much, mostly chilled alone and would play cards. I was friends with the music teacher, art teacher and philosophy teacher. I smoked weed every night at home and would dissolve into the internet. Honestly, I gave way too little fucks.

Talk about a significant event from your life.

I went through a really dark period of time after losing most friends. I spend a lot of time on the internet doing things that I would prefer not to admit. I was one of the admins of a "tinychat" room where our main goal was getting girls to show their bodies on cam.. Pretty shameful but I didn't give a fuck at the time and was really depressed. I was drinking a lot and just overall being a really shit person.

Do you like kids? Why or why not?

I think I do. I mean, I plan to have some. I haven't really spent a lot of time around kids, but I see videos online and it seems like they can be a real joy in your life. I think kids are different when they're yours and in your house and a reflection of yourself rather than some random human you see in passing.

If you were to raise a child, what would be your main concerns, what measures would you take, and why?

I struggled a lot with my self-esteem and self-worth growing up. My main concern would be trying to instill better thoughts in my kids, I want them to know they're good and valuable people no matter what. I don't want them to get sucked into the internet and social media and think they're not good enough because they've made mistakes or they're not skinny enough or whatever. I just want them to have good mental health. I want to do that by trying to really talk to them about whats going on and how they're feeling.

I'm gonna read some books first though, see if theres some good ways to raise kids.