Hey!
Hi there if I had a magic wand that would mean that I am a wizzard and I would go to ilvermorny
I see. I think I would rather be a sorcerer. I'd like to be a little different and sorcerers often have familiars too, I love pets.
me too i have 3 cats
Oh really? That's probably fun. Are you strictly a cat person or do you tend to associate with lots of different animals?
I like all kinds of animals. The cats came with my wife haha If I wasn't married i would be a falconer I love birds especially birds of prey
Haha oh I see. Did you find it difficult to acquire housing with pets? I swear almost every place I look at has a no pet policy or huge fees instead
it was nearly impossible we found this facebook group where people would post new listings and we were on there constantly looking for one that would allow pets we got really lucky originally they were only going to allow us to have 2 but agreed to 3
Yeah it seems to me like it is a pretty big hassle.  I can understand where a landlord is coming from, but I think there should be more options for pet lovers. What do you think your landlord would say if you asked him/her if you can bring a falcon to your apartment? Haha I bet that would be a funny conversation
haha that would be interesting. They're pretty cool and would likely be down for it. honestly i'd probably build them a shed/hutch in the backyard.
That sounds nice. I've only seen a falcon up close at the zoo before.  Birds of prey seem a little intimidating to be honest. Very powerful creatures.
That's what I love about them. I've been obsessed since I was a child.
Does your love of birds extend to other winged creatures like bats?
It did when I was younger. I still like bats but I like birds more. I think it's because of the feathers. I like to draw and feathered wings are one of my favorite subjects
I see. Interesting. So it's not just the ferocity of the birds, but also their beauty? Have you ever seen "The Birds" by Alfred Hitchcock
and their sharp eysight, speed and precision through the air. no I haven't seen that one.
It's a scary movie, made in the 1960s I think.  But it's all about birds that start attacking people. How do you feel about birds that can't fly, like chickens?
I can appreciate them.  Roosters look cool. With birds, It's all about the aesthetics. Some flightless birds look really cool and I like them. Some flying birds look ugly.
That makes sense.  Natures is really incredible and it is always nice to take some time to appreciate the beauty that can be found in everything, even in subtle differences.
I agree do you do anything artistic? or creative?
I guess that depends on how loose of a definition you mean for creativity. I like to program which can require innovative thinking but it's not like drawing or music.
Totally counts! I'm taking a programming class this spring and i'm really looking forward to it. I took AP CS in highschool as well.
Oh nice, so I bet you're already super prepared for that course. Any idea what programming language you will be using? Java, Python, C++?
C#, javascript and not sure what else. Java is the language my CS highschool class focused on what do you program with?
In school I have primarily done Python, but I used to work in PHP and JavaScript. I've also had some work experience doing Java for an investment bank.
Thats cool! At my old job, I did some basic VBA to help optimize some of our processes.
Yeah it has always been a big part of my life. The other day I made a script that could search for and download YouTube videos for me. Now technically I'm only allowed to download videos that I have posted or that I have rights to, so it has some limited use but it was way fun to write!
sweet! that's something I could use. I"m a bit of a youtube junky.
I think everybody could be considered a YouTube junky lol.  I always listen to my music from YouTube.
I don't do that because I have to leave my screen on (though I am considering a Youtube Red subscription)
Oh yeah, that's always the worst. I don't do it on my phone for that same reason. I do it when I'm at work or at school coding on my computer
Ah I see. I used to listen to music a lot but for some reason I don't do it as much anymore.  I still like a lot of music but I tend to fill the void with podcasts and such instead of music sometiems it makes it hard to focus on what i'm doing though, tbh perhaps I should pick up music again lol
Yeah I was about to say that. I would be completely and utterly distracted if I was listening to a podcast while trying to get things done. They are definitely great though, I have listened to several episodes of Freakinomics, or TED talks, but yeah while trying to do work it can be a huge distraction.
agreed. I have really enjoyed listening to RadioLab
Oh? I'm unfamiliar with RadioLab. What kind of podcast is it?
They cover all kinds of things. sometimes its news, or politics, or science. they do stories on whatever they want but they do it in a very immersive way. When I go back and think about some episodes, its as if I watched them as a video.
Oh nice, what was one of the most recent episodes you watched about? And are they 20 minutes, 40 minutes?
They did a spinoff called more perfect about supreme court decisions that is also really good
Wow that does sound interesting. I haven't thought about any court cases since back when I took a U.S. History course
episodes are anywhere from 20-90 min. it depends on how long it takes them to cover the story.
I guess it would probably be good for me to try and stay on top of some of the latest things happening in the world lol
yeah i have been trying to do that too recently. my own life gets so busy, its hard to make time for everyone elses. radio lab recently did a 3 part story on the border. I remember it was a big issue during the election but I hadn't heard much of it since.
Yeah that's so true. I actually just watched a documentary on Donald Trump that is on Netflix. It did a pretty good job of telling his story as life prior to Presidency. They were fair about doing a bit of both sides, people that think he's a genius and people that really dislike him because of certain actions, etc.
what was it called?
Trump: An American Dream
I'll have to look it up something else I ran into recently was about the hole in the ozone layer. do you remember that thing?
It was 4 episodes, each about an hour. Perhaps a bit too long, but at one point they actually addressed the idea of the wall as a campaign issue and  why they focused on it I haven't heard/read anything recently about the ozone, but I know what you're talking about. Ozone depletion is a real problem but I think things are looking good for it now
yeah they are as far as the ozone goes. It was a big deal in 2008 or something like that and I rmember all of the scary news coming out about it. but since then I hadn't heard any news
I took a general chemistry class this past semester and we had a guest speaker who came to talk to us about atmospheric chemistry and he told us a lot about the ozone problem.
turns out we knew/figure out what was causing it and stopped using it in products around the world and the ozone is nearly 1005 already 100%*
Yeah! One of the biggest problems was the chemical used in refrigerators historically. Something known as Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) was about one third of the problem So now we don't use that chemical in refrigerant, but as a result fridges are not as good as they used to be because HCFC was incredibly effective at cooling things.
yup thats what I learned crazy they don't tend to report on positive things like that much
Yeah it's true. News is all about the scare story to try and get us animated about things like that. But it's fun to learn all about this kind of stuff at school. What are you studying in school?
I'm applying to the IS program this summer. Hoping to go into the MISM program
Awesome! I have a friend who is starting his 5th year right now. From what I can tell he really enjoys it. He likes all of the networks and setting up servers and data centers, that sort of thing. Basically the complement of computer programming haha
haha yeah it's like the business version of CS what are you studying?
I actually just graduated! I studied Applied Mathematics, which is basically a hybrid of Mathematics and Computer Science.
Oh awesome! When I started I wanted to do CS with an animation focus My aunt has her PHD in theoretical mathmatics and teaches at byu. or at least she used to.
Oh boy, that would have been way cool but also so hard. Being an animator feels almost like an exclusive club, there aren't very many of them. I bet your Aunt was a total genius! Lol.
Yeah she's a little bit crazy haha I would love to be an animator. it's like my love of computers and art combined. its still a backup plan if i don't get into the IS program perhaps go into game design and incorporate my love of games too who knows it's early on
Yeah that's true. If you love game design you can always get started on your own with Unity and Blender, no reason to wait! There are tons of awesome tutorials to help you figure out how to piece it all together too.
good point
My friend and I were just looking at some earlier this week because we might try our hand at it. I'm not good at model design but he is. And I'm learning how to throw it all together to create movement and such Look up: Character Creation (E07: Unity character controller) by a guy named Sebastian Lague.
is that on youtube?
Oh, yes it is. My bad. It's like a 20 minute video though where he shows how to make a character that he built move around. And I think the earlier episodes are him using Blender to put the character together, I haven't watched those yet so I can't exactly say for certain
sweet! i'll definitely look into that!