With apologies to the late, great, Douglas Adams:

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

Personally, I’ve evolved a just smidge more; I think that Android smartphones and self-cleaning cat litter boxes are even neater ideas. Still, Adams’ jab is still squarely directed at the likes of me. So be it :)

This planet has—or rather had—a problem, which was this: most of the people on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

I am a very happy person, but I suspect I might be even happier with a slightly fuller social life. If you’re here perusing profiles on OKCupid you’re in the same boat, right? Besides, the usual (offline) places to meet people are so terribly random; you waste countless hours talking to all the wrong people while the ones you'd really like to meet walk right by. I've answered a bunch of questions, taken quizzes, and so now I'm curious to see if all the numbers OKCupid crunches will actually result in interesting (good) matches.

And so the problem remained; lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches.

Despite the fact I do not own a digital watch, I am neither mean nor miserable.

Enjoying the heck out of it. Maintaining the delicate balance between acting like a responsible adult when circumstances require it without actually growing up and losing my sense of wonder.

I feel the need to populate my life with interesting experiences.

In practice, this means that given the opportunity to do, eat, see, learn about, experience, and/or discuss something I haven't before, I am very likely to jump at the chance. I often quote the above line like a mantra to those around me before dragging them, sometimes against their better judgment, into an adventure.

I’m an avid gamer. I play chess whenever I can find an opponent; I used to play competitively in school. I’ll give almost any board game, card game, or video game a shot. I love story-driven, dice & paper roleplaying games. I also play World of Warcraft. That having been said, I do not engage in any of these activities to the point of obsession.

I try to stay in at least reasonably good shape. Usually, my self-torture of choice is weightlifting, although I enjoy tennis (and even bowling) when I can find partners.

Professionally speaking, I spent eleven years as an attorney with a large firm in Baltimore practicing complex civil litigation (cases involving multiple plaintiffs and defendants). Apparently, practicing law wasn't making my schedule quite crazy enough, so I ran a web design business on the side.

Somewhere along the line I realized that I'd rather just be in business for myself (and perhaps sleep every once in a while). Life is too short to wonder about such things, so now I just do web design and I couldn't be happier. I thrive as my own boss, enjoy the opportunity to be creative, and tend to get most of my work done in the middle of the night, leaving me more time to do fun things when the rest of the world is awake. Despite only working one job nowadays, I still don't sleep very much.

I am very happily married, not here to cheat on my spouse. If this seems odd, in light of the fact that I'm listed here as available, I'd be more than happy to explain.

Communication, although I suck at openings when I'm talking to a complete stranger. I'm more comfortable discussing just about anything than I am making random smalltalk about nothing.

While conversation is probably the category of communication most people think about first, it's far more than what people say or write. Physical contact is a profound form of communication.

I'm not sure. People don't wander up and say "hey, so I noticed..." I imagine it's something visual; a few people have mentioned my dimple. As long as it's not spinach between my teeth or that my fly is down it's copacetic.

Books: I read virtually everything. My taste in fiction trends toward science fiction and fantasy, but not exclusively. In the realm of non-fiction, everything is fair game although I particularly enjoy psychology and economics (the two aren't all that different, really).

A few favorites: Ender's Game & Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card, A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, The Servant/Daughter/Mistress of the Empire series by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts, Magician Apprentice/Magician Master by Feist on his own, Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkein. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson, and Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

Movies: American Beauty, Grosse Pointe Blank, Four Weddings and a Funeral, LA Confidential, The Matrix (but not the sequels), The Princess Bride, Groundhog Day, Real Genius, The Terminator (1 & 2, but not 3). Semi-recently I watched (and really liked) a couple of lesser-known flicks: Cash Back and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Music: If my taste has a "center of gravity" it probably lies around 1990. My playlist is full of 80s and early 90s songs; Depeche Mode is a particular favorite. The Cure, The Smiths, Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, The Psychedelic Furs, The Police, and Tears for Fears would also make the short list, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. I like a fairly wide range of music, although I'm generally less interested in heavy metal, rap, and country. Even within those genres, there are plenty of exceptions: certain NIN, Metallica, Ton Loc, and Kenny Rogers songs come to mind.

I've set up a Pandora Station if you'd like to hear for yourself what I listen to.

Food: I'll try almost anything once and enjoy most of it. If I'm splashing out large sums of cash on something edible, it's most likely good sushi.

1. My wife. Ok, technically not a thing, but still #1. If you knew her, you'd understand, she's just that cool. The question isn't literal anyhow, or every honest person would be forced to include "air, water, food, temperatures in the human habitable range, and sleep" and the answer wouldn't reveal anything interesting.

2. Humor. Without it, life would be unbearable and not much fun. I am a humor-omnivore, happy to consume it in all of its flavors: wordplay, slapstick, lighthearted, dark/macabre, absurd, visual, lewd/crude, stand-up, ironic, sarcastic, satire/parody, and more. That's not to say that every attempt at humor succeeds, but there are gems to be found in all genres.

3. Technology. I've been playing with computers since I was about seven years old, back when a machine with 16KB of RAM was "bleeding-edge." Technology is also how I make my living these days. I'm always on the lookout for cool gadgets.

Um, I'm not sure there are six. I'll add more as I think of them.

Search engines. One of the most interesting aspects of my job is trying to build web pages that not only look good to human beings, but also rank well on the major search engines (these days, that primarily means Google). Doing this ethically, without employing subterfuge, is challenging but satisfying work.

Sex. For every person who owns up to this there are probably dozens who think about it every bit as often but are afraid to admit it.

Oh, and those items weren't necessarily in order by frequency, I'm just saying.

Hanging out with my wife and cat "Meow." (How many cats do you know who can introduce themselves by name?)

I'm neither religious in any traditional sense nor am I an atheist. Something like "spiritualism" or "agnosticism" sounds close, but I'm not entirely sure either label is a perfect fit.

It's not that I don’t care about spiritual matters. To the contrary, I care deeply. They strike me as the most important questions any of us could ever ask.

I’ve just never let my desire for answers devolve into the self-deceit that I have discovered them (despite a depressing lack of evidence). I always remember, and will admit, that I’m guessing. I suspect that it is my willingness to accept that my own ideas on the subject are probably wrong (aka “a lack of faith”) is what separates me from religious people.

Nevertheless, I think religious doctrines often provide valuable insight into moral philosophy. A few concepts I've even embraced à la carte because they appeal to me on an intellectual/moral level, but not because "the supreme being(s) commands it."

In the end, I try to enjoy my life, make those around me happy, and avoid hurting anyone in the process. I’ve got a moral compass and know how to follow it.

Anything here made you think you’d like to talk to me. I’m really happy to chat. Making new friends is full of win!

Bonus points if you’re local and a gamer. I’d be especially happy to find a local role-playing game.

If you’re a single (or otherwise available) bisexual girl who is interested in something a little unconventional (or just curious and want to chat). I know, this is unlikely, and far from the only reason I'm here. Still, stranger things have happened and the only way to give it a chance is if I come out and say it, so there it is.

On a related note, I do not to initiate contact in that last case. It’s not due to lack of interest, but rather because my wife has a profile on this site. As a result, I well understand how many unsolicited overtures single/available bisexual girls receive here. I figure if you’re interested in that sort of thing you’ll let me know.