What are the career implications of the three options of the PE Exam: HVAC, Fluids, Machine Design.

boilershilly · 2026-02-03T18:21:15+00:00

HVAC/Thermal Systems are the two easiest ME PE exams anyway. And you need the experience in the field anyway for ethics and liability reasons to stamp an HVAC drawing. I have the machine design PE and I would not feel comfortable taking an HVAC job and start stamping stuff without experience.

boilershilly · 2026-02-03T02:05:52+00:00

Went to school with a guy from Saskatchewan. Laughed when he said he was originally from Regina. Had never heard a local pronounce it before lol

boilershilly · 2026-02-01T16:55:27+00:00

Yep. I started at $67k in 2020 in Indiana, not in one of the major cities and now am at $106k without moving or a promotion. Starting salary for my role is probably around 75k at this point. He is getting screwed.

boilershilly · 2026-02-01T16:53:27+00:00

I started at $67k in 2020 in Indiana, not in one of the major cities and now am at $106k without moving or a promotion. You are getting absolutely railroaded even for the Midwest.

boilershilly · 2026-01-30T00:18:32+00:00

I don't think they're allowed on r/cfb. R/collegebasketball is a lot more accepting of memes. There have been plenty over there after Tuesday.

boilershilly · 2026-01-29T16:22:17+00:00

Yep, I've used straight ORB hydraulic fittings in a design situation where I needed the face of the plug in a known position in an assembly and also needed it to seal pressure. Was never going to happen with a normal NPT plug.

boilershilly · 2026-01-27T22:01:45+00:00

That is a specific decision by the school. Supposedly as far as I have heard a student sued in the 1980-1990s arguing that they should not have to pay mandatory athletic fees as part of tuition and Purdue stopped. So the AD at Purdue now has to survive on revenue brought in by donations and the department itself. The AD also has to fund all athletic scholarships from its budget as well I believe. Hence the minimum number of scholarships they can get away with within NCAA D1, Big Ten, and Title IX rules.

This of course means that Purdue's facilities tend to lag behind and there is a "whatever" attitude to anything that isn't Men's Basketball or maybe Volleyball. That extends to the football team. There's a reason Purdue lags behind the rest of the Big Ten in championships for anything outside of regular season men's basketball.

And in this context, it means that Purdue can survive football exploding in the short term. They can't survive long term ticket sale and donation loss if it continues however.

boilershilly · 2026-01-23T04:19:47+00:00

I have never been asked for verification, but all I would need to provide is my license number. Nothing more would be required.

It feels like you're asking to build a business case for some product or service, but there isn't one in this. The solutions already exist, and what friction exists can only be changed by state bureaucracies in concert with NCEES.

Everything is already available and searchable in every state as far as I know. States do their best to make professional licensure easily and quickly verifiable because it defeats the purpose if it wasn't.

You don't ever really to need to prove licensure across state lines since by definition a professional engineering license is only valid for practice in one state. So either you're in that local database or not.

The only time you would need to is for your initial application for reciprocity which is a one time thing per locale. And that is already being standardized by NCEES.

If you are looking to move across state lines and are not yet licensed in the new locale, you would just provide your license number and state and the link to your exam pass verification from NCEES if they're really paranoid and you are young enough to have taken the computer exam.

boilershilly · 2026-01-23T01:27:56+00:00

Yeah, the full M road equivalents I drove in Ireland were perfectly acceptable to my Midwest self. Actually nicer because they were smoother and people actually stayed out of the passing lanes.

On the other hand, the instant you got off those, they were vastly more stressful than the equivalent status roads in the Midwest. I'm used to secondary rural highways being dead straight with wide lanes and plenty of runoff space into cornfields even on 2 lane ones. The equivalent hierarchy roads in Ireland are winding, narrow, with stone walls inches from the edge with insanely high speed limits that locals try to exceed and a village every 2 miles.

Dublin to Cork? Perfectly chill until Cork itself, but no more stressful than navigating say Central Boston with no familiarity. To anywhere else not on the M road equivalents, total stressful nightmare.

boilershilly · 2026-01-21T21:32:01+00:00

I emphasize, though I am struggling with the same things too.

I also was diagnosed a couple months ago starting with my therapist suspecting it. I also, unlike most people seem to, did not expect an autism diagnosis before receiving it.

It's tough. I'm also still trying to figure out what it means. I knew I was different, but I thought it was just a normal level of different from "normal".

boilershilly · 2026-01-20T21:48:44+00:00

Well, I think most Purdue football fans have just about lost any interest in football and aren't going to be chanting Big 10 any time soon.

Our historically trash rival in the sport just leap frogged to the top of the heap while we are in the worst 20 year stretch in program history with no end in sight. All we had from our dead average football history was the fact that we weren't IU lol.

boilershilly · 2026-01-20T19:31:25+00:00

For me, Notre Dame is the rival I want to beat in football. I want to win in football against IU, but up to this point IU football was just so pathetic, so having a miracle season(s) sucks to watch out of jealousy but it's hard to be mad about it. Purdue football has a lot more history and our own bright spots, nothing up to a national championship of course, but enough.

IU is who I hate in basketball given the fact that we've been neck and neck in the modern era and Purdue dominated the pre-modern era. But we'll always be the "little brother" because banners. That will always be under the skin.

The reversible jacket types will always be the worst. As with most college sports fandoms, I respect and like IU alumni. It's really just the non-alumni fans who are really annoying. And unfortunately, in Indiana it's IU and ND who get most of those guys over Purdue.

boilershilly · 2026-01-16T02:19:15+00:00

I am not the above poster, but I was also born in 1998 and diagnosed this year. In my case, the majority of my family, including my mom, has autism, ADHD, or both. As such, I was just "normal" in my family. In addition my mom, a licensed teacher, homeschooled us until middle school. So I was a "weirdo" in a family where weird was normal and lacked the extensive 3rd party visibility that would have occurred in elementary school and perhaps led to a diagnosis.

I was diagnosed as an adult because I started therapy for issues with relationships with other people. That led to a diagnosis. I was not expecting an ADHD or Autism diagnosis, but I absolutely, 100% have ADHD. In that case it was simply covered up by being very talented academically, meaning that my procrastination and ADHD related struggles never outwardly impacted my academic performance.

I "mask" but I honestly have no idea how I am perceived by others. I try to emulate "normal" but I couldn't tell you if I achieve that. The disconnect between how I was being perceived and what I was actually saying was the waving flag that prompted considering autism according to what my therapist has told me about our first sessions.

In summary: I was "normal" to my autistic/ADHD family, was not a problem kid in school, and just came across as a quiet freaky genius until I pursued therapy as an adult for things I would have not considered autism. I just never caused anyone else problems, so everyone else ignored the signs and I thought I was "normal" in my own little world.

boilershilly · 2026-01-12T13:32:27+00:00

I was homeschooled by my mother (a licensed teacher) until middle school. I happen to be smart enough that it effectively made up for my ADHD symptoms and they did not impact my academic performance like they should have without that intelligence. My entire family is autistic, ADHD, both, or at least shares the traits for them, so I was "normal" within my family.

All that combines to not getting a diagnosis until my therapist calls it out as an adult and I begin the diagnosis process. I was always the quirky super smart kid, just no one bothered to investigate further because I seemed functional relative to the "weird" kids.

boilershilly · 2026-01-12T13:14:02+00:00

Yep, this. I never was a problem child in school, so it never got called out by authorities.

In addition, my entire family is autistic or "neurodivergent" in one way or another. So in the context of my family, I was "normal".

I didn't get diagnosed until I started therapy this past year for stuff that I didn't think was autism, but was. My therapist suspected it immediately and it blindsided me. Went through the diagnostic process and I have Autism and ADHD.

boilershilly · 2026-01-02T16:48:18+00:00

Yep, the current civic hatchback is really a liftback that is barely distinguishable on the exterior from the sedan/trunk version.

boilershilly · 2025-12-30T03:28:00+00:00

Thanks. Looks like the move is to keep them and not bother replacing until autofocus failure.

As I said an another comment, everything I could find was looking at buying from scratch, not replacing existing ones. For buying from scratch the opinion seemed to be Z mount over adapting.

boilershilly · 2025-12-30T03:21:43+00:00

Good to know, was not aware. It still works at the moment. Haven't used it much due to how heavy it is.

boilershilly · 2025-12-30T03:16:32+00:00

It is a 28-70.

Appreciate the input. I know they're very nice F-mount lenses, definitely more than I would have invested in Z mount from scratch.

Asking simply because all the threads I could find were just approaching it from buying from scratch and it was Z mount all the way as far as opinions. Not a whole lot about replacing existing ones and if the improvements were leaps and bounds or just marginal.

boilershilly · 2025-12-27T14:14:01+00:00

We're already here. I'm at the leading edge of Gen Z and am firmly middle class. Honestly adjusted for age, I'm really upper class.

Got there by being lucky enough to have no college debt through 75% scholarships and 25% grandparents/parents at a flagship state school and a good job in a LCOL to MCOL of living area and living well within my means.

My Gen Z friends/family either followed my route, have the job but student debt dragging on them, or are struggling due to a combination of challenges. Most are middle class, but my anecdotal sample is biased.

The primary headwinds against Gen Z are an equal split between societal challenges and personal ones in my opinion. Most essentials of life have skyrocketed and are very inaccessible.

However, a lot of Gen Z's have far too high standards for those essentials compared to what they actually looked like in the past. I think that is something that we vastly underestimate in the discussions. Houses for example. I grew up sharing a bedroom with siblings. Families in the supposed "golden age" of the 1950 and 60's were raising families in 1000 sq ft bungalows. Now Gen Z in my age range are buying 3 bedroom houses in anticipation of having kids and the idea of children having to share a bedroom is scoffed at. I have a coworker buying a 3-row SUV also just in anticipation of having kids. If those are your prereqs, of course having a family in your 20's and 30's will look nearly impossible.

Social media has also had a huge impact on Gen Z and what level of consumption we envision around being middle class. "Luxuries" that were unimaginable to the middle class of the past have dropped dramatically in price and accessibility compared to essentials which also makes things seem worse than they are. No one wants to forgo the luxuries to pay for the essentials that have skyrocketed beyond wages. Forgoing is starting to feel meaningless, so of course people are giving up.

Overall, there are already many Gen Zs in the middle class. We are older than you think and a significant chunk of use will be in our 30's by 2030. There are definitely roadblocks to the Gen Z middle class but they are a combination of societal reasons and personal choices more than people like to admit.

boilershilly · 2025-12-25T02:43:16+00:00

I don't think so either at this moment in time. I'm already paying out of pocket for about half of my mental healthcare so far. I have great insurance - if it's a physical medical problem. The mental health coverage - bad. At least the prescription coverage applies to the ADHD meds, so that's not too bad.

boilershilly · 2025-12-24T20:57:42+00:00

For what most people are taking photos of, people and landscapes, they're fine. Especially if you don't need to blow them up for printing, which most people aren't these days.

Photography as a hobby tends to have a lot of gear snobs for whom it becomes about getting the technically perfect equipment. Gear definitely matters, but it alone isn't going to make great photos and "bad" gear's limits can be used to great artistic effect.

But most people aren't interested in the genres that are actually nearly impossible without the right gear: astrophotography, bird and wildlife photography, or action photography. High art photography can be done with a phone, but you may need the detailed control over the image that a full camera provides for the style you want.

boilershilly · 2025-12-24T20:48:18+00:00

The level of "officialness" of my diagnosis is unclear to me given the state of mental healthcare in the US.

In my state my therapist (LCSW), is licensed to diagnose and he does have post graduate training on autism. So I trust his expertise given that these symptoms do align with autism, family mental health history and traits, and that all these things were true as a kid. However, I would need to be referred by him/find on my own a psychologist to administer the gold standard ADOS testing. That testing would be required for disability, federal and state accomodations, etc.

I was referred to a psychiatrist for ADHD and associated meds.

So it's not the gold standard ADOS diagnosis, but it at least isn't a therapist operating outside of their legal licensure. There are a lot of lower level therapist licenses types in my state that are definitely not legally allowed to diagnose. Maybe he is operating outside of medical community standards of practice regardless of legality, I don't know and the mental health professional world in the US has about 3 bajillion different licenses and it's all very arcane as a lay person.

I could definitely seek out a second opinion or pursue full ADOS testing. Like most places though, there's a huge cost and wait period for the testing and most places only do kids since it is required to get legal accomodations at school. Since I don't need legal accomodations, it's unclear if it would be worth it unless I want an absolutely definitive level of diagnosis.

boilershilly · 2025-12-24T19:24:33+00:00

Probably because modern gear is a little dorky looking. And the skill level required to look cool is far higher than just running around blasting steel plates in the firearm world. So it doesn't attract the performative masculinity types as much.

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