I knew someone with severe burn scars she got as a child, but I never experienced that as repulsive, on the contrary, I thought she was beautiful as did many. It's also a matter of perspective, her wounds healed over and left scars, mine won't.

I really liked, no, loved building, adapting and repairing that union between Human and Machine. The interpersonal contact wasn't always easy though. How to deal with emotions when all you know is machines? What do you say to a 29 year old quadriplegic who walked home instead of getting behind the wheel drunk, only to be stuffed in a wheel chair for life by another drunk who made the opposite decision? How to tell a mother she needs to back off when I need to communicate with her child, the paraplegic wheel chair pilot. There are no books..

The only thing I couldn't take was being on call 24/7 for a 3 state area with no end in sight and an employer whose only motivator was profit and more interested in me selling parts rather than solving problems.

Yes, eye contact is most definitively a good thing. The oxen are slow, but the earth is patient. Confucius perhaps?