I'm basically a happy-go-lucky nerdy person. I like reading (sci-fi, social sciences, YA), being outside (short hikes, bad tennis, snowshoeing), and talking to interesting, open people about real stuff. I am a feminist.

I have a lovely boyfriend in a semi-open relationship who knows about this profile.

I have a great job doing technical stuff at a consulting firm in the energy industry. I'm also in college part-time, trying to finish my seemingly endless bachelor's degree. After this, I want to do a master's program online. (I want to take math classes forever, basically.)

I'm great at telling my own secrets, persisting at math, listening, and developing complex models of how other people's brains work.

I read with understanding.

I can write a passable essay about any piece of literature.

I know how to make a white sauce.

I am fantastic at using all kinds of computer software to accomplish data-related tasks.

I actually have no idea. I imagine most people's first impressions of me are completely wrong.

Books:

I love reading about linguistics (Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things is a favorite), natural science (anything by Dawkins, or for instance lay books about chaos theory), and psychology (for instance Pinker's How the Mind Works, though I suspect he's wrong about it).

I love to read sci-fi, especially if it's about first contact or if it's by Orson Scott Card (talk about a guilty pleasure for this feminist atheist). I got a giant kick out of From the Legend of Biel, the whole Ender series, Hyperion and its sequels, and many others.

I also love some books just for the joy of reading - the kind of books where it takes a long time for anything to happen, but reading them is interesting. I have in mind Les Miserables, the Gormenghast novels, and the one I'm currently reading - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I think I like Dickens in this way too, but it might be just that I secretly love moralizing.

Movies:

I like most of Hal Hartley's movies. I like movies where people have a lot of interesting conversations and the plot is (at least for me) secondary. I enjoyed Juno a lot in that way. I'm finding it really difficult to process movies as a category in order to think of more "favorites", so, yeah, stopping that for now.

Music:

I like stuff with clever lyrics, generally in the alternative vein. I can do a little bit of country if it's alternative. I like some hip-hop. I indulge in Moby as a guilty pleasure (I love that formula where you include increasing layers of different rhythms and sounds).

A quasi-random sample of my favorite artists might be They Might Be Giants, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Robert Earl Keen, Blondie, and Peter Murphy.

Food:

Spicy and rich. Indian. Mexican (though I've found it hard to adapt to Colorado-style Mexican). Thai. Vietnamese. I'm kind of picky about things I really love, like Indian or Thai, but not at all picky about things that are just OK for me, like hamburgers or Italian. But I'm happy eating almost anything.

conversation, spicy food, books, Internet access, the color green

Honestly, I spent a lot of time obsessing over my beautiful boyfriend and the exact details of our relationship. What are the rules? What are the axioms? How should this or that be handled, managed, advanced?

I also think and read about politics and economics a lot.

Most Friday nights I am recovering from my work week by eating something spicy in a restaurant, looking forward to staying up late and sleeping in the next day.

Not much, honestly, but I'm a lot more open in other venues.

you like games*, intentional power dynamics, and being dangerously honest

(*not the kind where someone tries to fuck with your head, or doesn't know what they want - the fun kind!)