Personal

About

This page is about my interests, hobbies, and personality outside of academics and industry. In particular, I wouldn't call this page "professional", the language is a bit more loose and cheeky. Some of my hobbies tend to impact my research interests at some level and some of my research approaches can be soon through these activities. Almost all of my passions have some level of thinking or deeper meaning involved, I blame the N in my personality type.

Speaking of, I'm an ENTP personality type!! I like to think I have a similar personality to the 10th and 11th doctors from doctor who (at least sometimes) and most people say I look like the 10th, David Tennant [which is a massive compliment shoutout to those people who say that :)]. The easiest way to describe my personality is in 4 words that are almost all contradictory: adventurous, sporty, musical, and nerd. I also have some hipster energy, really love nature, hike often, and try to live a very earthy all-natural lifestyle. Did I mention I'm a computer scientist and love technology?

Seems contradictory until you open your third eye. I can be highly logical, yet I would consider myself fairly creative especially when making stories (I'm very visual, so these often become entire TV dramas in my head that I wish I could express in the real world), drawings, and music. But this is only the start to the contradictions. In reality, these ideas aren't actually contradictory, they all share some core ideas or overlap that might surprise you and its those things I cling onto!

Since Laura Albert made a whole website about it, I'm not afraid to admit it. I'm punk and I'm proud. I wanted to say emo but punk just fits better there. If you can't tell, I'm emo/punk but photos proving that are saved for twitter. The guitar section might convince you though. MyAnimeList: MAL.

Intellectual Pursuits

I'm almost dangerously curious at times and think about almost anything. Usually, I think about psychology, human behavior, philosophy, science, math, and pretty much anything else. It helps that I know many people who study these fields and can ponder things with them. I really like getting to hear people's unique perspectives on topics rather than just googling answers. Sometimes I'm bored and my curiosity causes me to press buttons on a microwave at random to see what happens. Then, my roommate is disturbed to find I've discovered a secret childproof mode from my experimentation. If you want to ponder random or interesting topics with me please don't hesitate to reach out! I especially like to find patterns and connections in seemingly different fields.

Drawing

I really love to draw. Its pretty much the best way I can pull the crazy visuals in my head into reality, though I'm not good enough yet to get my exact visions. Most of my better work are video game characters or anime characters throughout the years. I really like making nature scenes, but those aren't really cool enough for this page. The actually really good one is by my friend, but I hope to get to that level one day! Many of my friends do digital drawing, but those are so good I don't dare even put them near my basic at best drawings. I'm hoping they rub off on me one day, but, in reality, I just have to commit to drawing more.

Music

I originally was a drummer, but my family sold my drums when I was younger and gave me a guitar. So, now I play guitar! I have both an electric and acoustic. I tend to play poppunk and rock songs but there's plenty of pop, emo, and classical songs I play as well. My favorite band is Mayday Parade. Naturally, the new genre of math rock excites me but nobody got time for that. I really love learning music theory! One day, my backlog of guitar covers and original songs will be uploaded to youtube, but, until that day comes, enjoy this picture of me playing guitar that in no way proves I can actually play anything ;)

Basketball

Ironically, the peak of my athletic prime was during my first year of grad school. You might be wondering how I had time to do this instead of research. The trick is I'm a large part kinesthetic learner, so my best ideas unironically come while I'm playing basketball. Lucky me you might think, other than this means I'm terrible at reading. Anyway, I'm a shooting guard but have known to play point guard and even power forward when needed. I'm highly competitive and love analyzing opponents to find the best move (my interest in game theory I suppose). But I also love the teamwork aspect and coming up with great plays on the fly. Sadly, I doubt any footage of me balling will ever surface on the youtube channel.

Graphics/Video Editing

I had a let's play channel way back in the day. It's pretty cringe so I won't link it. But you could probably find it. That was the beginning of my photoshop and video editing career. I still do video editing on a smaller scale for academic purposes, but I'm sure I'll be doing more of that soon. As for photoshop, maybe if I have time, but it so much easier to ask my graphic design friends for help :)