Interrogation of Rising_Dusk

That is the most ambiguous question I have ever had to answer about myself.

I'm a space systems engineer who went to college for engineering physics with a focus in magnetohydrodynamics (look it up on wikipedia!). I currently have both my BS and MS, and work for a physics laboratory in the wondrous land of Maryland. But, I actually think that California is a prettier state.

I just checked the math and I'm apparently 23 years old, too.

DougJustDoug. No, really.

I actually thought Smogon was a 'whatever' website prior to hopping on IRC to ask a few questions in CAP, which was the only part of Smogon I actively followed. Doug was on and talking up a storm like he usually does, and I outright disagreed with him on a few points about the nature of CAP.

I'll never forget his response; it was "Who is Rising_Dusk?"

We shortly became really good friends who shared similar visions for CAP and Smogon, and he convinced me to try to involve myself elsewhere on the site. Thus began my involvement in the Smogon website.

Well, I actually can't tell you all of what I do because that would get me fired, but I can tell you that I work to lead a team of engineers from different fields and try to coordinate their work into a final piece, generally something small. That's systems engineering in a nutshell. Right now, my work isn't anything to write home about because I've only had a little bit of field experience, but eventually I hope to lead teams in the creation of major research satellites like the Cassini project.

This gives me a lot of programming experience, but more importantly forces me to be extremely capable in using the English language. Technical report writing is the bread and butter of my job, more or less.

It was fluid, really. I had experience writing for sites before, and I knew enough about competitive Pokémon to not make an ass of myself like so many other young C&C members.

C&C was the natural place for me to become better known on Smogon and was (and still is) an enjoyable outlet where I can lead the pack in writing intellectually stimulating, but classy and enjoyable to read, analyses.

I'd like to think that in my waning days of C&C contribution, I have made a significant impact on the way the project operates and stylizes its work, and that C&C as a whole is better because of it.

Everyone forgets that my first badge was actually the RMT badge, hah!

But yes, there was a period I fondly reminisce upon as the rise of dusk. I think these sections of the site were actually pining for help in organization and leadership. That and I fit into their IRC communities without issue, which probably eased the transition substantially.

Let that be a lesson to newer users trying to get involved and help out with big issues on Smogon—work your way into the community and the community will nudge you upward at an almost alarming rate. Of course, being handy with a figurative pen is very helpful as well.

My first big project in programming was actually programming >30,000 LoC for a game that I made in the Warcraft III engine. I actually did this twice for two different games, one a prequel of the other in story. Eventually I'd like to author a book series about it.

As far as my career-based projects go, one of my most attractive programs is an n-body solar system simulator. Did you know that it is very difficult to get a system of 5 equal mass stars to maintain a stable orbit while traveling through space at several thousand meters per second?

Took days to make a system that was stable for a year. I've also contributed to the programming of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulators in IDL, which predict the motion of plasma in electromagnetic fields. They currently get used in really awesome research!

But I digress, I'm nerd rambling...

Bars and breweries without a doubt. I actually make it a point to visit practically every brewery in a city I'm visiting to try the local flavor. If anyone cares, my favorite beers are wheat ales and stouts. If I said I liked Allagash Black, would you know what that is?

WELL, now that you mention it, there is one thing I'm particularly proud of... I've been as close to space as you can get without being an actual astronaut, which involves microgravity and, you know, floating around weightless.

One of the projects where I was engineering lead, focused on the study of fuel slosh nutation in cylindrical and spherical spacecraft fuel tanks. The project was titled FuSSION, Fuel Slosh Simulation of Induced Oscillatory Nutation, and was an experience that I will remember for the rest of my natural existence and beyond. Basically, if you take a spacecraft and spin it up about its long axis, you have it in a very high energy state, which is unstable. Fuel sloshing removes energ—

Okay, no one actually cares about the details, suffice to say I FLOATED IN SPACE!

Tradition, really. My name is actually an unintentional anagram of a character's name in the book series I want to eventually write. The underscore is important because my first excursion into the world of internet website contribution years ago didn't support spaces in usernames. The underscore was the most attractive alternative, and it's become as much a part of my name as the Rising or Dusk.

Scizor is my favorite Pokémon, and was so long before it was really good in competitive Pokémon. Platinum just made me bubbly with the addition of Bullet Punch. My favorite cutemon is Manaphy, and you'll be pleased to know that I geeked out with Jumpluff over getting a Manaphy plushy a year or so ago.

Scizor's my favorite because when I was a young kid playing GS, my only shiny encounter was a Scyther that I thought was a glitch, so I chucked my Master Ball at it. I hated the thing until I discovered that it evolved, after which golden Scizor became my in-game best friend. I loved it as much as Ash loves his Pikachu.

Wait, what?! No, that's not right. Stop this interview right now, something is wrong.

There's no way my childhood memories are lies. There must be something! How... How did I get my shiny Scyther then? I don't remember using a Game Genie, but I owned it and usually played with it in... This is crushing.

This is insanity!

I must've used a Game Genie to figure out what a shiny was and picked a Scyther since I liked it in RBY? And then not understood?

I'm not a liar, my memory is just reconstructed incorrectly..

Noooo!