Hello, I'm J.D. Udall. I am an Electrophysics Engineer living in Seattle, WA. I have an Associate's degree in General Education (studying Illustration), a Bachelor's degree in Digital Media Production (basically a digital film degree), a second Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering, a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, one dog, and one cat.
I grew up playing with Transformers, reading comic books, fantasy & sci-fi novels, and playing Nintendo games. I don't read many comics these days but I do play video games quite often, and I buy Transformers regularly (only the good ones though; nothing associated with the trash-fire Micheal Bay movies).
Even my toys have their own toys!
When I was a kid where I would come up with my own Transformers stories. My sister and I would set up our own bases and
sometimes go on adventures with the Ninja Turtles, Voltron, and other
toys in the playroom. I still transform and pose my figures these days,
but I do the voices and sound effects less
often.
I have scaled back my collection these days to just the best (i.e. most expensive) Transformers toys that come out. It's rough on the wallet, but I have found that I get more good vibes from one excellent figure than a dozen of the more simple or less thoughtfully designed figures. Its kind of funny how much joy I get from just looking at the figures on the shelf. I have them displayed near my television in my apartment so I can always glace at my favorite figures.
My best friend's name is, Rosie. She's a sweet little pit/boxer mix who
love treats and licking people's faces. She also likes to sit and stare
at you if you are eating anything other than vegetables. She loves going
on runs and taking walks. She likes going to the beach but does not
like to swim. She mostly loves running at full speed in the sand and
barking at waves. She also hates all other dogs. Nobody's perfect.
For a short time I was really a huge believer of VR. I had the HTC Vive , the PSVR, and the Samsung Gear VR for my Galaxy Note 8. I think the technology will eventually get to where it needs to be to be but right now it has made me really sick on a number of occasions. The newest Oculus 3 headset is quite a bit better, but is still missing something.
I also have always been obsessed with cosmology and astronomy, especially black holes and general relativity. I fall asleep many nights thinking about how a journey between Earth and Alpha Centari would look when traveling at light speed. Space travel is one of my favorite topics so expect to hear a lot about that here.
Along with Transformers I also have an obsession with robots in general and someday I hope to build my own - at least a robot arm. When studying for my electrical engineering degree from Portland State University I dreamed of someday make a robot arm for a research project, possibly as part of a masters degree in engineering. I never got that chance, but I did make a VR program that attempted to test how long it would take for users to identify a robot arm in VR as their own.
I'm also a huge atheist and have some strong ideas about theism (so be wary of those kinds of articles on of this site if religious talk makes you anxious). Though I am a very firm non-believer these days I was raised in a very religious Mormon home, so I have a strong religious background. I also know how difficult it is to leave a entrenched world-view behind. Unless you go through some sort of existential crisis it is difficult to entertain the notion that god is just a very compelling fiction, especially if you rely on religious rites and rituals for emotional coping mechanisms. I try not to engage too strongly with people about religion if they don't want to discuss it, so please feel free to ignore my atheistic and more philosophical posts if you are just here for the video game and toy reviews.
I have no children and I am not married, but I do have been privileged to have relationships with some wonderful women in my life. Having no children allows me a bit more disposable income, but also makes it easy to feel less like a grown up than some of my married friends who have a more complex domestic life. My sisters may have children but I have all the toys I ever wanted and a sweet computer that can run VR! So there IS some balance in the universe I suppose.
That is a lot about me. If you have read all the way here you are officially awesome!
Note: My previous blog was It's All Geek-Speak To Me. I decided to move to IntenDojo as my interests in philosophy and science made the "geek" brand feel a bit too constraining.
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