I live in Portland, Oregon. I am generally content. Like you, I am made of meat.

I'm not just a little bit cynical. A bit back, when a friend suggested the possibility of an Obama/Clinton ticket, my first reaction was a violent no--too many people would freak out at a black man/white woman ticket. Horrible, but pragmatic. That is how my brain works.

But I'm also very relaxed and easygoing in day-to-day things. When homeless people ask me for money or a cigarette or whatever, I address them respectfully. I tip well and don't mind busing my own dishes. I yield the right of way in traffic. I avoid political talk when having pleasant conversation with Republicans. In short, I keep my sarcasm and innate gutter-mind on a short leash around people who'd be sensitive to it. I let fly when it seems safe.

For hobbies, I like fixing and building things. Even planning a project makes me all giddy. A while ago I spent about a month reading about all aspects of housebuilding and planning my dream house. I love my library system.

This last part is corny but true: when in doubt, I tend toward respect for my fellow man. You should, too.

Here, sauce.

I currently work in the wonderful world of custom short-run packaging production. This involves a lot of woodworking (NOT fine woodworking, which annoys me, though many of the techniques translate) and polyethylene foam. It is not what I want to do when I grow up; that's something different and I think I know what it is now. I have BAs in biology and English already, but an Associate's is involved in this goal.

I'm paying down my debts and wondering how best to pull off getting an Associate's degree in engineering technical work, the first commodity job category I've ever heard of that pays well and doesn't make me throw up in my mouth a little. I'm also struggling to get back into writing, something I haven't done in years. It will be difficult. Luckily, I've got a good two-person support crew, consisting of my brother in law and my favorite bartender (update: who recently moved to Portugal, which is sad)(update: she came back, which is happy). It would be more effective if they knew each other and worked as a team. Such is not the case.

I've been car-free for the last six months. I don't plan on keeping up this lifestyle, but it's been nice knowing that I can live without a car. I had an '85 Volkswagen for years and years, lovingly maintained. My next car will be a Subaru wagon. For now, though, it's all about the Univega. The Univega with the super-hot commuter-geek blaze-yellow fenders.

Figuring things out, from mechanics to politics. You've heard the army saying, "don't tell someone what to do, tell them what you want and let them amaze you with their ingenuity"? I'm good at amazing people with my ingenuity. Or at least amazing myself with my ingenuity. If I can do both at the same time, that's when I feel great and sleep well at night.

If I can do it for a living? Aw, hells yeah.

About once a month for the last several years I've been told by complete strangers that I look like Warren Beatty. I'll take it.

I'm not inclined to spend a lot of time updating this, just so you know.

**BOOKS**:

_Terminal Cafe_, Ian McDonald; _Invisible Cities_, Italo Calvino; _Starfish_, Peter Watts; _Dark Side of the Sun_ and _Reaper Man_, Terry Pratchett; _Fight Club_, Chuck Palanhiuk; anything by Charles Bukowski; _The Barnum Museum_, Steven Millhauser; anything by John Varley; _The Audacity of Hope_, Barack Obama; anything by Scott Westerfeld; _Let the Right One In_, John Ajvide Lindqvist.

**MOVIES**:

_Spiderman 2_ (cried me some full-on man-tears at the train scene); _Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight_; _Waking Life_; _Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior_; _The Goonies_; _Full Metal Jacket_; _Ghost in the Shell_; _Macross Plus_; _Vampire Hunter D_; _The Professional_; _Legend_ (European version); _Blade Runner_ (director's cut); _Tru_ (American Playhouse one-man performance about Truman Capote); _Bound_; _Meet the Feebles_; _28 Days Later_; _The Dark Crystal_; _The Sting_; _Amelie_; _Lost in Translation_; _Daughters of Darkness_, _V for Vendetta_, _Let the Right One In_.

**MUSIC**:

Tom Waits; Bif Naked; Moby; Stereo Total; Fatboy Slim; Chumbawumba; Pig; Neil Diamond; The Nimrods; Poe; Nick Drake; One Dove; Muppet music; Social Distortion; Air; The Magnetic Fields; The Killers; Regina Spektor; Gnarls Barkley; Fever Ray.

**FOODS**:

Zachary's ridiculously deep-dish, upside down pizza (Berkeley, CA) is my favorite food on earth. Apart from that, anything rich and/or spicy is welcome in my belly. And TOAST.

Pocketknife, good pair of shoes, Tillamook cheese, Powell's Books/public library, my ability to transmute lead into single-malt whiskey, a body of water near where I live.

Politics/economics, how people's minds work, how things were made, how things work. How direction, acting, writing, editing, and cinematography affect films in their own different ways.

I could be watching a movie, reading, hanging out somewhere, bodging something, or cleaning my apartment. I don't have a regular habit, just whatever strikes me.

I can't. Grow. A beard.

You think you could cover my back in the event of a zombie attack. Are you capable enough to really be able to cover my flank? Are you trusting enough to let me cover yours? Are you stable enough to keep it together in the face of unspeakable grossosity?