I'm first and foremost a nerd and a backpacker, not necessarily in that order. I'm not a geek, though I think I have some geek-cred from my obsessive adoration of Neil Gaiman.

I graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in philosophy, probably because it was the least practical thing of which I could possibly think.

I love to travel. I spent a summer teaching English to refugees on the border of Thailand and Burma, and spent the summer before that backpacking solo through Europe. For a while I taught English to elementary schoolers in Yeongwol, South Korea. Then I joined the Peace Corps and taught Math in Tanzania, Africa for another year. I think being a world-traveling squatter-bum would be the awesomest life ever.

But for right now, I'm back in America, in Pittsburgh to be specific, going to grad school to become a librarian!

I'm a high school dropout. I'm also a middle school dropout, come to think of it. Oh, plus I dropped out of college once, too. But I ACTUALLY FINALLY FINISHED OMFG.

I am quirky, intellectual, and spontaneous.

Well, I just got back from over two years living on two vastly different continents from my home (that would be America). Now I'm starting a grad school program to become a librarian. I'm aiming to be a digital systems librarian of some sort; basically, not really work at a traditional library, but manage computers and virtual systems.

I would love to spend my life just traveling, anywhere and everywhere. Maybe I'll defeat the odds and support myself as a writer and just spend all my time going from place to place (and writing about it). If not, then my calling is definitely third world aid. I want to ultimately work either for the UN Human Rights Department in Geneva or an NGO somewhere in Europe, though I want to spend a lot of time in the field too (in whatever third world countries I'm trying to help).

I think I want to end up doing something for the push for democracy in Burma.

I'm really good at finding my way around a completely unfamiliar place. I can just kind of wander and end up where I mean to go.

Haven't a clue, ask someone who's noticed something about me.

(a) Ender's Game, Portrait of a Lady, A Trip To The Stars, Good Omens, anything by Neil Gaiman, especially the Sandman comics and American Gods, Amphigorey, House of the Spirits (b) Rocky Horror Picture Show (I was in the Chicago cast, but haven't joined the Pittsburgh cast yet), Pan's Labyrinth, V for Vendetta, The Phantom of the Opera, Labyrinth, Saved!, Silence of the Lambs, Star Wars (IV, V, VI), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Mirrormask (c) New Pornographers, The Fratellis, The Smiths, David Bowie, The Libertines, Death Cab for Cutie, Cake, Matt Nathanson, Saint-Saens, Mike Doughty, Dirty Pretty Things, Muse, Vivaldi, Pink Floyd, Rainer Maria, Sister Hazel (d) Indian food is great, as is Mexican; so spicy is good, but I also really like subtler things. Sushi is great. Anything but fast food, really. I'm a hopeful future wine snob. :)

This is tough because when you get right down to it, there isn't a lot that I really couldn't give up if it were required. So I suppose: Friends, books, food, enough clothes to cover me, travel, and ability to communicate.

You'll note I didn't list "internet." Folks, it didn't exist until twenty years ago. Humans existed for hundreds of thousands of years before that. You can live without the internet.

All sorts of things. Friends. Philosophy. Major world events. Plotting novels and thinking about my characters. Considering things that have happened and may happen. Social network theory. Kink, and sex, and how they relate and how they don't. Mathematics. Planning my next trip (though never intending to stick to any plan!). Random books I'm reading. Art. Astrophysics. Love.

This varies a lot based on where I live, how many friends I have nearby, and how long I've been living there. (The last two tend to correlate.)

Right now I'm new to Pittsburgh, so I don't really have a hoppin' Friday night yet.

Sometimes the split infinitive in the introduction of "Star Trek" bothers me.

You're intelligent and interesting.

To give you an ideal: "The ones for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars." - Jack Kerouac

...but I'll forgive you for the occasional yawn. ;)