tl;dr- At the age of 5, I came to the conclusion that Jesus was a Zombie. I've been having strange thoughts ever since.

I often hear people on this site tell me they've seen me around town, but haven't talked to me. I find this sad. Just say hi. Even if we've never spoken before: I like meeting new people!

I am a Pastafarian, Toy Soldier, Browncoat, Humanist/Consequentialist, Gamer, Steampunk, LARPer, Metaphysician. If some part of that scared you off, you're probably sane. If not, welcome to the club!

Interesting fact: I don't hold beliefs. I let each belief stay until another one cuts off its head. Then lightning strikes and Queen plays.

And to answer the ordinary "What do you do?" question: I am a Grad Student in Philosophy at University of Iowa. Asking me to talk about philosophy is asking me to rant for hours about how philosophy teaches people to be systematically bad at understanding things and how I wouldn't be here if I didn't think I could be saving lives.

Oh, and to get this out of the way: My Doctor is Tom Baker, my favorite Mane6 is Rainbow Dash, Captain Blood (Errol Flynn) is the best pirate, and Caine is my favorite Amberite. If you get at least 3 of these references, awesome! If you get at least 1, we have something to talk about.

Finally, I am formally invoking Crocker's Rules. I always have them active anyway, but this way everyone knows in advance. :)

Generally, I am writing papers, teaching classes, bodyhacking, mindhacking, playing RPGs (both tabletop and LARP), occasionally playing other games, learning magic tricks, arguing with people in my department, and laughing maniacally.

Right now? Trying to kick eating again (finals week took a lot out of me) and relaxing. Soon I will be back to writing papers, bodyhacking, and being a general badass. But for now? Taking a couple days off. :)

making really, really awful jokes,
cooking and cleaning (when I have time),
mathematical logic and statistics,
cons, swindles, cheats, and tricks,
being 20% cooler.

Superficially: My somewhat eccentric taste in fashion. Lots of odd vests, slacks, leather and brass sometimes. I only ever really wear t-shirts if I am working out or if it is laundry day.

Once they get to know me: That I really do just think strange things, all the time, and don't stop.

Rather than list a million of each, I thought I'd try to pick out my favorite and a sample of works that, while maybe not my top three, are indicative of the sorts of things I like. (And some stuff is common sense, really: Yes, I like The Avengers, Queen, Walking Dead, and Chocolate Cake. EVERYONE likes these things.)

Favorite Book
Chronicles of Amber
Sample
Godel Escher Bach, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Hole Behind Midnight

Favorite TV Show
Firefly
Sample Platter
Doctor Who, Hustle, My Little Pony (Yes, I am a Brony, but I am not super-obsessed with it.)

Favorite Band
Abney Park
Pu Pu Platter
Jonathan Coulton, AC/DC, Lindsey Stirling

Top Movie
Six String Samurai
Let's go out to the Lobby
Captain Blood, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Malice in Wonderland

Special Category: Online Entertainment
HPMOR
Other stuff online I enjoy
The LXD, There Will Be Brawl, The Guild

Favorite Food
I don't normally eat anymore. Seriously.
But when I eat...
Sake Nigiri, Eggplant Parmesan, Bacon-Chocolate Biscotti

I should probably mention that while I do drink at times, I rarely drink much. I'd rather have a Rum and Coke and sit and chat than go to a wild party, and almost never drink enough to get plastered.

This one is boring and tells me almost nothing about most people. So I am going to replace it with:

My Six Strongest Role Models

Basil of Baker Street
Captain Malcom Reynolds
Sir Francis Bacon
Doctor Steel
Captain Jack Harkness
Edwin Windsor (from "How to Succeed in Evil")

Honorable Mentions: Four-Eyes, The Doctor, Captain Blood, Henry Akeley, Buckaroo Banzai, and Irene Adler. (from the books: it's very, very rare for any adaptation to get her REMOTELY right.)

bodyhacking, mindhacking, socialhacking, metaphysics, philosophy, decision theory, statistics and its relationship to logic, super powers, really awful song lyrics, (DAMN YOU PAUL AND STORM!) and food.

Probably asleep, doing homework, or catching a movie. My Saturdays are usually jam-packed with stuff to do, so I like to relax and get enough sleep on Friday.

I'm actually quite scared when walking in the dark by myself. I am totally fine if anyone else is around, but when I am by myself I freak out a little.

you want to...

... duel with nerf guns or water pistols.
... debate fundamental ideas about life, the universe, and everything.
... play RPGs until dawn.
... figure out how we are going to make a dirigible-powered sky train into a reality.
... argue about whether Captain Blood is a better pirate than Jack Sparrow. (He totally is.)
... chant Cthulhu Christmas Carols.
... start a deadly black ops Dadaist theater group.

or if you are...

... an expert at Mao or Calvinball.
... someone who matches any of my descriptors up top.
... want to experience hypnosis.
... a lover of statistics or mathematical logic.
... an old-school gamer.
... not afraid of me competing with you for the title of Evil Overlord. (You will be... you will be...)
... strange and unusual in any of a myriad of other ways.

If you can deduce why the following is important, there is a >90% chance I want to sleep with you. (Note for mathophobes: the opposite is not true, i.e., there is not a <10% chance I want to sleep with you if you don't know why this is important. But someone who CAN say why the following is important is a huge turn-on, that's all)

P(H)=P(E)*P(H|E)+P(~E)*P(H|~E)
A) if (E):P(H)=P(H|E)=P(H|~E)
then
B) P(H)=P(E)*P(H)+P(~E)*P(H)
so
C) 1=P(E)+P(~E)
as degrees of belief of H make no difference regarding the evaluation of any E, H can be rejected as not providing any information regarding any E, given A.

So for any H where A is true, H can be rejected as saying anything about any E. Which shows...