The deer, briefly

Where I turn up

I spend my time in the furry fandom, in workshops, at conventions, and in group chats at hours that are hard to defend. Most of what I do involves a tool of some kind, and the rest of it involves talking about the tool.

The through line is building things. This does not mean building them well the first time. It means building them, taking them apart, and working out why the second version is better. Most of what is on this site started as a question that was easier to answer with a soldering iron than with a search engine.

What I do when I am not doing this

I study materials science and engineering at a large public university in Florida, which is part of why half this site is about how things fail. The degree is a mix of metals, ceramics, polymers, and the electrochemistry that sits underneath batteries.

Outside of class I work on battery materials. That means anode powders, electrode coatings, and the coin cells you build to find out whether any of it worked. There is lab work on the research side as well, which involves composite anodes and a lot of careful sample preparation. Most of that job is patience and record keeping, which is the same lesson the workshop page keeps arriving at from the other direction.

I am not going to name the company, and I am not going to post anything that is not mine to post. What I will say is that the cells in the flashlights on the workshop page and the cells on the bench at work are the same chemistry held to different tolerances. Knowing the second set makes the first set a lot more interesting.

The fandom part

The furry fandom is where most of my social life happens. This means conventions, helping run things behind the scenes when there is a gap to fill, and a local community that meets on a regular schedule.

It also means costume construction, which is an underrated engineering hobby. Patterning, foam carving, fur tufting, and sewing reward the same patience that electronics does. However, the mistakes are fuzzier.

I go to several conventions a year, sometimes as an attendee and sometimes from the other side of the badge. Running events teaches you more about logistics than any class does. This usually happens at two in the morning.

What I am like

I am cheerful, curious, and a bit of a menace with a flashlight. The picture at the top of this site is accurate. I am floating in low gravity, I am waving, and I have packed a deck chair for a moon that does not need one.