Hello! My name is Xiaolei Qin(秦啸雷), but if you found it
difficult to pronounce, just call me Orion! (Find out how to
pronounce:
Xiaolei Qin/Orion)I am 25 years-old, and I am born and raised in
Kunming, Yunnan, a small and lovely city in China. I have never spent over a
month in a different city until I went to college, and it is a
big leap for me--go to a college not only in a different city,
but a college on the other side of the planet. Now I am a
first-year master student at
University of Texas at Austin
majoring Information studies with a specialization on HCI and UX Design,
and with my previous experience as a Design engineer at Visa Inc.,
I am eager to bridge the gap between engineers and designers.
Computer and technology fascinated me since I was young, but I
have never truely get in touch with it until high school.
However, Every typical family has a nerd who "knows"
everything about technologies and do a lot of geeky stuff, and
I am the one in my family. I am facinated by the technology
and how it affects our lives is astonishing. Without all those
cool tech that builds around us, none of this would take place
(At least you wouldn't see this webpage designed by myself).
Easy Going
I enjoy getting along with most of the people who
shares different opinions with me, as long as they are
not trying to hurt the others.
Curious
New/Innovative things are the best, aren't they? I am
attracted to new concept and objects and I adapt them
very quickly.
Detail-Oriented
Things can be imperfect, but details that most people
did not notice will make great changes to the user
experience and feelings.
Most of the time, I consider myself easy going and
funny(sometimes I can get
sarcastic), and I enjoy hanging out with the people I like. As an
introvert, you may find me very quiet and boring at the
beginning, but after I found out a connection between us, I will
show a more interesting side of me! Also, I am curious and
usually get attracted to new things, especially visually new
things. I love creative work, and I think they bring us joy and
share ideas in a most personal way.
I am raised by my mom and dad who love me very much and I grew
up surrounded by lots of good friends and families, and who I am
now cannot ignore their constributions thorughout my life. I
have made a few life-long friends in high school and in college
and we have witnessed our growth and helped each other ever
since. But that does not stop me from making more and more new
friends in the future, including you! I cannot to wait for more
people to share ideas(good or bad) with me and hang out!
Hobbies
Have I mentioned that I am curious about a wide range of stuff? Well, there are lots of things I would do if I am not studying or working, but I think there are a few highlights I would like to mention:
Photography
This is on the top of my list, and if you are
interested, I am making a
photography website protfolio
now! I started photography beacause of my dad, who is a
great photographer and showed me the power of
photography. I started photography when I was in high
school, first using my dad's camera, and later I got my
own first camera--Sony Alpha7 II. I use this camera to
captured dozens of good photos and memories, and some of
them even tells a good story.
In my opinion, a good photo not only brings the asthetic
of the object in the picture, but sometimes also
provides a powerful visual message to the audience, and
occasionally the message that we see from the image is
more poweful than a long paragraph of text; that is the
beauty of photography: we feel what we see, and the
feeling we have is either given from the object in the
picture, or from the artist themselves.
Traveling
Ever since I was young, I was lucky enough to travel to
different countries to experience different cultures,
and this is also one of the key factors that I love
photography. There is one old Chinese saying: reading
ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten
thousand miles. Personally speaking, reading book is
awesome, but see the world with my own eyes is more
starightforward.
Traveling to places really leaves me thinking about the
people and their lifestyle, and we are not that
different. Even the Internet "connected" everyone, there
is still a huge misunderstanding and prejudice among
people. Many people even still hold an unwelcoming
thought towards different groups of people. My
advice--if you have the ability to travel around, go see
for yourself, and try to ignore the "false image" that
social media and the internet painted for you, and most
importantly, don't forget to invite me!
Fencing
Fencing is one of the not many sports that I played and
loved. When I was young, I was accidentally bump into
this amazing sport. From third grade to first year of
college, I was spending times with fencing and it has
been fun! I was mainly playing
Foil
beforehand, and I breify learned
Sabre
in the first semester of the college. This may look like
a type of sports that is elegant and useless, but trust
me, it is a healthy and full-body exercise you would
enjoy! It is a shame that I was too busy to spend more
time on fencing nowadays, however, if there is a
freindly invitation, no doubt I will make myself
available!
TV Shows, Movies
Who doesn't love watching some mystries, Sci-Fi or
comedies during their free hours? There are excellent,
good and bad TV shows and movies I enjoy: Some streaming
comedies and Marvel films provide excitments and
laughters when we just get a day off; Classic films
brings the nolstagic feeling to us on a rainy day; all
those BBC documentaries show us the majesty of mother
nature; Stand-up comedies on the other hand, is trying
to tell us something serious in the format of jokes; and
despite all the ratings from the media, some DC movies
and other mystries insinuate the dark side of the human
nature.
My hobbies is definetly not limited to what I have above! There are too much to talk about...let me make a list: listening to music, cooking (Chinese and others), drawing and do some simple graphical design, and playing video games, etc. Of course there are no priority on the list, and I'm happy to talk about each one of them with you! I will also share some of my feelings/photos on my Instagram. Please, feel free to connect me at the bottom of the page!