Interview questions
answers for jameel
1. You're Charlie, obviously. Choose any three fictional women to be your Angels, and explain each choice.
1) Kitty Pride (aka Shadowcat) because one of them should definitely be able to walk through walls.
2) Oasis from Sluggy because the group needs an ass kicker.
3) Lucca from Chrono Trigger because every group needs a mad scientist who can make time machines.
2. You're up on the old time machine! You can make any three changes to your undergraduate experience at CMU without paradox shredding the fabric of space and time. What are they, and why?
I can't think of any really major regrets I have from my undergraduate days, no horrible individual events, and major mistakes. I'm assuming you are referring to making changes of things I actually had control over, so I suppose I'll just pick a few small changes:
1) Get off my lazy butt and join the Cam as a freshman instead of as a sophomore. That way I'd know all you freaks for one more year, and it would have made my freshman year more fun (not that it was particularly bad).
2) I might rearrange my classes some to better suit the directions I actually went. Not taking a couple of classes that I've mostly forgotten and don't really do anything for me, and add some other things, either for interest, or for better knowledge. In particular I would have liked to learn a couple other computer languages during the course of my classes. I have a hard time motivating myself to devote the time on my own. It's different when part of a class though.
3) Try harder to get interesting summer research jobs here at CMU rather than going home and wasting my summers in boring ways.
3. What's the best thing about working where you went to college? What's the worst thing about it?
Best thing: Still seeing a lot of friends around, especially at lunch. This is getting a bit less true since most have graduated, but it still persists as an advantage.
Worst thing: Occasionally running into people I know whom I find annoying.
4. Why do you have a beard?
The honest answer is laziness. Many years ago, during the summer when I was 17, I lazed about and basically did nothing of consequence. As such I stopped worrying about such pesky things as "shaving regularly." One day, I decided that I had let the stubble grow out enough that I should see how I looked with an actual beard. I settled on keeping it because I decided that I looked better with it, and it is lower maintenance.
5. If you could build a friend from scratch, what would this new friend be like?
This isn't something I can really answer well. I can perhaps describe a few qualities, but not nearly enough to describe a person. I've found over the years, that I (and I think that this is true of most people) don't necessarily know what I actually want. The friend would certainly share interests with me (probably gaming, sci-fi, etc), enjoy my company (always a good clause to put in there), be intelligent, witty, etc. But these are all just the general qualities that most people would want, not anything specific enough to design a person. Thus I don't think I can really answer the question.
Or I could just give a silly answer, such as "Shodan", or "a mad scientist with steam-punk mecha and other gadgets." I think that I'll settle on that last one, my new friend shall be a Mad Scientist, complete with all the physics breaking, but working, engineering designs.
1. You're Charlie, obviously. Choose any three fictional women to be your Angels, and explain each choice.
1) Kitty Pride (aka Shadowcat) because one of them should definitely be able to walk through walls.
2) Oasis from Sluggy because the group needs an ass kicker.
3) Lucca from Chrono Trigger because every group needs a mad scientist who can make time machines.
2. You're up on the old time machine! You can make any three changes to your undergraduate experience at CMU without paradox shredding the fabric of space and time. What are they, and why?
I can't think of any really major regrets I have from my undergraduate days, no horrible individual events, and major mistakes. I'm assuming you are referring to making changes of things I actually had control over, so I suppose I'll just pick a few small changes:
1) Get off my lazy butt and join the Cam as a freshman instead of as a sophomore. That way I'd know all you freaks for one more year, and it would have made my freshman year more fun (not that it was particularly bad).
2) I might rearrange my classes some to better suit the directions I actually went. Not taking a couple of classes that I've mostly forgotten and don't really do anything for me, and add some other things, either for interest, or for better knowledge. In particular I would have liked to learn a couple other computer languages during the course of my classes. I have a hard time motivating myself to devote the time on my own. It's different when part of a class though.
3) Try harder to get interesting summer research jobs here at CMU rather than going home and wasting my summers in boring ways.
3. What's the best thing about working where you went to college? What's the worst thing about it?
Best thing: Still seeing a lot of friends around, especially at lunch. This is getting a bit less true since most have graduated, but it still persists as an advantage.
Worst thing: Occasionally running into people I know whom I find annoying.
4. Why do you have a beard?
The honest answer is laziness. Many years ago, during the summer when I was 17, I lazed about and basically did nothing of consequence. As such I stopped worrying about such pesky things as "shaving regularly." One day, I decided that I had let the stubble grow out enough that I should see how I looked with an actual beard. I settled on keeping it because I decided that I looked better with it, and it is lower maintenance.
5. If you could build a friend from scratch, what would this new friend be like?
This isn't something I can really answer well. I can perhaps describe a few qualities, but not nearly enough to describe a person. I've found over the years, that I (and I think that this is true of most people) don't necessarily know what I actually want. The friend would certainly share interests with me (probably gaming, sci-fi, etc), enjoy my company (always a good clause to put in there), be intelligent, witty, etc. But these are all just the general qualities that most people would want, not anything specific enough to design a person. Thus I don't think I can really answer the question.
Or I could just give a silly answer, such as "Shodan", or "a mad scientist with steam-punk mecha and other gadgets." I think that I'll settle on that last one, my new friend shall be a Mad Scientist, complete with all the physics breaking, but working, engineering designs.