That was a really interesting read, it brought back memories of the summer I worked for EMCO High Voltage. The owner had similar peculiarities.
Irl, I've always worked in the engineering world
In what capacity? I'm not trying to discredit you or anything, I'm just wondering what you do for a living.
My day job is quite unspectacular, I work for an engineering and architecture consulting firm as an electrical engineer. Most of the time there's very little science in what I do, it's mostly just product application, codes and construction methods. In my free time I enjoy a broad range of electrical tinkering and nerdery. I've really taken a liking to Microchip's PIC 18 series microcontrollers, makes me wish I'd have taken an embedded systems course when I was in school.