Ever met a physicist and science teacher who sings both Renaissance choral music and rock-n-roll classics, who dances swing, waltz and international folk dances, who plays D&D (the real-person table-top kind), and who is an all-around nice guy? Now you have. :) Hi, I'm Tom.

Up front: I'm divorced and have two sons from that marriage who live with their mom in Arizona. I see them whenever we can connect. But I don't want any more children.

I'm a study in contrasts. I'm good natured, but cynical about human behavior in general. I work as a scientist for our nation's defense, but I don't always defend our government's foreign policies or overseas actions. My values are more liberal than conservative, but I'm for fiscal responsibility and I don't really trust any political party. I am an atheist, but I have a moral code and I attend a Unitarian church. (I was once LDS/Mormon, and I have no desire to visit that territory or anything near it again, including evangelical Christianity.) I am male, but not especially masculine; I am somewhat androgynous, but not gay. (Yes, I wear both trousers and dresses/skirts in those photos, but I'm not trying to look like a woman, either -- except when I'm in costume, which I think is great fun.)

I identify with the alien in the original 1951 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still: I am impatient with stupidity (including my own), and I'm afraid when I see people substituting fear for reason. I love to hang out one-on-one or in small groups with intelligent people; I'm not into partying late or lots of drinking -- but I'll do karaoke or folk dancing any day. I'm into physical touch and quality conversation; I'd also love to have an exercise partner to force me to get my skinny body into shape!

I absolutely love international folk dancing. The variety is incredible, and the motion and human contact are both exhilirating and therapeutic. The dances come from everywhere: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Israel, Egypt, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Greece, Sweden, Hungary, Russia, Kenya, etc. -- and of course, the good ole USA!

You can find a few more tidbits at my Myspace, where I am dancingphysicsmaster. More pictures are at tomwof dot myphotoalbum dot com.

And I write way too much in my profile. :)

Scientific computing by day, part-time teaching college physics & astronomy by night, and dancing, singing, playing D&D and hanging out with friends on the weekends. Often looking for places of true solitude in which to enjoy nature and just be.

Singing, dancing, smiling, writing, and making you think I understand quantum physics. :) I'm also good at examining the underlying assumptions beneath ways of thinking. (Just don't ask me to remember anything or to think *quickly*.) I also give a pretty decent massage. I'm a very sensual person and I love physical touch -- giving as well as receiving. (Unfortunately, I don't have a very good sense of smell.)

If I'm wearing a dress, that's the first thing. If I'm not, it must be either my perpetual smile or my shiny head. Once we get talking, people find that I'm very easy to talk to and confide in.

This could go on for a while.

Music:
Actually, the one tune I composed myself isn't bad. I'll have to find a place to post it sometime. It's an instrumental piece titled, "Lady With the Auburn Hair." It's style is somewhat blues-rock, but oddly enough, I composed it on the alto recorder.

I like lots of music; I just don't remember a lot of specifics. My favorite modern music is by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra; I saw them in concert for Christmas 2007 (totally rocked!). My favorite orchestral concert recording is one by Mantovani, which is completely unlike all his other recordings (which sound like sleepy elevator music). I love the Adagio for Strings and its choral arrangement (Agnus Dei) by Samuel Barber, but not much of his other music. My brother's music project, Abusing the Muse, is quite eclectic. I also like Mannheim Steamroller; rhythmic Celtic/African/world music (such as Stomp and Gaelic Storm), some classic rock, folk rock and blues (notice I don't know many artists), certain kinds of folk & country (Dixie Chicks!), baroque and classical instrumental, and lots of choral music--I sing in a Renaissance choir called Quodlibet. I do occasional karaoke--Bob Seger, Elton John, Billy Joel, Extreme, classic rock. Recently met a local goddess-rock musician whose "essential eclectic groove" I enjoy: Dianivy. I also like musical comedy a la Paul and Storm and Davinci's Notebook.

Books:
My top three are Sunshine by Robin McKinley, Enchantment by Orson Scott Card (I also like his Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus), and The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell

Other favorite authors: Terry Brooks (Running With the Demon, A Knight of the Word and Angel Fire East). Ann Rice (nearly everything!). Katherine Kurtz (all the Deryni-related books). J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings, Silmarilion, The Hobbit). Christopher Priest (The Prestige--a mindbender). Dan Brown (Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, Deception Point). Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita). J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter!). Madeleine L'Engle (the Time Quartet). George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones and sequels in the Song of Ice and Fire sequence: intricate and fascinating). Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl). Susan Cooper (The Dark Is Rising sequence, which actually starts with Over Sea, Under Stone.) Lloyd Alexander (Prydain Chronicles). Brahm Stoker Dracula. Many others.

I also like books about science and the history of science, such as The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics by Max Jammer and The End of Physics by David Lindley, and some biographies and personal essays, such as A Beautiful Mind (biography of John Nash), Disturbing the Universe (autobiography of Freeman Dyson), and The Things They Carried (personal essays about the Vietnam War by Tim O'Brien). I've read biographies about several physicists, including Einstein, Richard Feynman, Heisenberg, and Schroedinger.

Movies: lots, but not as many as you might think. Good memories from the '80s, but some more recent stuff, too.
Shortbus! (Wow, what an innovative idea. You would never see this come from Hollywood. Using sex, not for titillation, but to tell deeper stories about human connections. It was even touching in some moments. Adults only.) All the Star Wars movies. All the EVEN-numbered Star Trek movies. Princess Bride. Abyss. Sneakers. The Fugitive. Labyrinth. The Last Unicorn. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Better Off Dead. Bulletproof Monk. Daredevil. Electra. National Treasure. Mission Impossible (only the 1st and 3rd ones!). Several James Bond and Pink Panther films. Little Women (remake w/ Susan Sarandon). Cutting Edge. Betelgeuse. Sister Act. Amadeus. Lord of the Rings (all three). The Harry Potter movies. Hero. House of Flying Daggers. Lost Boys. "Brahm Stoker's" Dracula (not exactly faithful to the book, but a good movie). Secret Things (erotic French film that reads like a morality play). Orlando (you think I've got gender issues?). Many others. I'm not much into lots of gore or stupid humor, though I can handle some, and I enjoy many vampire movies. In comedy, I LOVE Eddie Izzard and Bill Cosby.

I don't watch TV, but I did recently watch all the episodes of Babylon 5 on DVD. Excellent show, very thought-provoking.

How 'bout this category: favorite places I've been?
Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater, AZ. The Very Large Array (got to use it, too!). Crater Lake, OR. Mt. St. Helens, WA. Redwood Forest, CA. Miami Beach, FL. Epcot Center in Orlando, FL. Santa Monica and Malibu, CA. Various mountains and forests in UT. London, Bath and Castle Warwick, England.

Gotta mull this over for a while. Dancing has to be one. Reading another, music a third, caring people a fourth.

Why people think and do what they do, and why they don't think about certain things. Gender identity and social norms. Personal chemistry -- why it works and why it doesn't. Consciousness as an emergent property of a complex interacting system. How to peacefully but dramatically decrease the human population. (Pure fantasy, but I do believe there are too many of us, and we're consuming too much -- I'm as guilty as anyone.) How I'm going to get across the more arcane principles of physics to my students. And of course, how I'm going to challenge my D&D players and keep my character alive while trying to be useful.

Pick one: folk dancing, reading a book, playing D&D or playing a computer game.

Privacy? It still exists?! OK, actually, it's this: I've done some serious exploration of gender identity in recent years, including cross-dressing and presenting as a woman, using a female persona. I've now settled into a comfortable androgynous place: the man with feminine side (the degree of which fluxuates) that you see in the pictures. But no, I'm still not gay: even when the femme side is at its strongest, I'm attracted to women.

You think you have anything in common with me, and you care more about personality, intelligence, sincerity and honesty than you do about finding a hunk who sweats testosterone. But when it comes to dating, I'm interested in slender-ish, educated, thinking, more-or-less liberal women. If you're also a geek or a dancer, musician or artist of any kind, you've probably just captured me. (So I'm a little ambitious....)