I am a warrior for freedom. My weapons are intellectual: I'm trained in journalism, law and philosophy.

With my jacket and tie and cowboy boots, "perhaps I do not strike you as a geek." But I am.

I sing, immerse myself in books, and write all sorts of things; I enjoy working and playing with computers (coding, when the task calls for it), and you can often spot me commuting to work on a recumbent trike. The compliments I get on it tell me how much the world has improved in my lifetime.

I work in Washington, writing, editing, etc., for liberty.

I do a lot of reading, writing, and rereading: from deep intellectual arguments on fundamental moral questions to Harry Potter fanfiction, for work, for education, or just for fun. I especially like great Romantic novels.

Back in Philadelphia, I was dubbed McGillin's karaoke idol. I'm still looking for the right place to sing in Washington.

Writing.

Thinking.

Singing.

Making serious arguments and witty remarks in classrooms and Facebook threads.

They used to say I looked like Harry Potter, but now I just look like me.

Fiction: "Les Miserables"; "Atlas Shrugged"; "The Fountainhead"; "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress"; "Friday" and probably a few other Heinleins; and "Harry Potter." Nonfiction favorites begin, but certainly do not end, with the Nicomachean Ethics and Rand's volumes of essays.

Movies: Oliver Stone's "Alexander"; "Serenity"; "How to Train Your Dragon"; "Dangerous Beauty"; "The Shawshank Redemption"; "Galaxy Quest"; "Spartacus"; "My Fellow Americans" ... and need I mention a certain series of films concerning a young wizard?

Over the past few years, I've become a Joss Whedon fan, for two main reasons: he creates strong, feminine women, and he shows that they still need men worthy of the name. Also, because Firefly episodes stand up to repeated viewing as if they were movies.

My favorite singer-songwriter is the geekish Marian Call (whose "Nerd Anthem" I quoted above); my favorite vocalist, Lea Salonga, of Broadway and Disney fame.

Among living composers, my favorites are John Williams, Vangelis, and my friend Mike. (I'm not kidding. Ask me for links to his work and judge for yourself.)

I enjoy Handel, especially the Fireworks Music, Bach, especially the Magnificat, and Beethoven, especially (big surprise) the Ode to Joy.

On the other hand, I also like folk music, especially Irish and Scottish. And I'm a big fan of making a familiar piece one's own, for example by adapting rock or folk songs for an orchestra or performing a theme written for orchestra on electric guitar.

When I sing, it's about half show tunes (favorite musicals include Les Miserables, 42nd Street, Man of LaMancha and Cabaret, and I enjoy Andrew Lloyd Webber's melodies greatly) and half a broad spectrum of all sorts of other things. On a good night in karaoke, I'll do "Music of the Night" or "To Where You Are," just for the vocal fun of it, but I may also do "One," "Whiskey in the Jar," "Hava Nagila," or even "Toreador." On one very special occasion where I was at the time a karaoke regular, I sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" to an utterly silent bar.

I enjoy the cuisines of Japan (especially sushi, but also teriyaki, tempura and other things), China, Ethiopia, India and Italy.

First, my own good character. That implies reflection and good action, but those are more acts than things, so I won't count them toward the six.

Second, my computer.

Third, my smartphone.

Fourth, my glasses. Actually, these should probably be second on the list, as items two and three wouldn't do me nearly as much good without them.

Fifth... hmm... how about the Constitution of the United States?

And sixth, I will suspend metaphysical concerns about calling them one (and a thing, no less!) and, in a daring move with only about a few hundred thousand precedents on OKCupid, include my friends and family.

Ethics (theoretical and applied), politics (ditto) and law. Journalism. Movement-building. Things I will, or might, write--which sometimes do and sometimes don't coincide with those subjects. Manliness, gentlemanliness and chivalry. What art to put in my apartment.

If I'm not at my desk or riding my trike or the Metro between one desk and the other, I'm probably at a restaurant, perhaps with friends. But I might be at a performance, or I might have found a place to sing. (This is true of the other nights of the week, too.)

Most of my friends are beautiful women.

...you think we'd enjoy getting to know each other.