I'm a California native that enjoys technology, wordplay, photography and intelligent conversation. I'm passionate about figuring stuff out, exploring and building better mousetraps (figuratively).

I moved to San Francisco to enjoy an oasis of intelligent, friendly people, good food and art. I tend to enjoy nerdy thinker-types, which this city provides in spades.

I am an ENTJ.

Work-wise: I study how people use mobile devices. It's fun, and I get to think about ways technology is changing how we interact with each other. I'm very interested in how tech can make the world better. More recently I've been tasked with taking a more public role at work- this means press interviews, writing whitepapers and presenting research.

Leisure-wise: I'm an adventurer and tinkerer by nature. Recent projects include learning to roast my own coffee, helping to found and get a new non-profit off the ground, learning how to not get killed riding my bike on Market st.

Cartography & data visualization. I'm a sucker for a clean design and well presented data. Bringing simplicity to complexity, order to chaos.

Saying what I think. Some would call me forceful in my opinions, but the truth is that I enjoy a good spirited conversation because I want to debate and understand your viewpoint.

I have lots of freckles. If freckles were contagious, you'd get them from looking at me from a distance of 30 yards.

Personality-wise, I tend to be fairly reserved until I get to know you- my good friends would describe me as anything but shy.

Authors:
Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, Paul Theroux are a few of my favorites.

Indian, Thai & Mexican are my fave cuisines- but I'll eat about anything that doesn't contain avocado. For the record, I'm fully aware of the irony/personal tragedy involved in being a Californian that hates avocados.

Movies / TV:
Some of the films I've seen recently that I enjoyed- Moon, District 9, The Parrots of Telegraph Hill, When We Left Earth, Breaking Bad, Mad Men. I also try and watch NFL football but I wouldn't consider myself a big sports fan.

Music:
I like lots of different types of music- other than excessively twangy country or really cheesy pop it's hard for me to find music that I can't appreciate on some level. Recently I've been listening to a fair amount Pandora- I'm past the days when I wanted to spend an inordinate amount of time tweaking playlists.

As a side note- If we share some common likes or dislikes with respect to this category- great, but it's probably not a deal breaker either way. If you met somebody with the exact same taste in books, movies, music or food that would be pretty boring, right?

I'm on the fence about this question - 95% of the time it's not very telling.

Most people like coffee, sex, their phone, friends etc. I do too.

Some folks take a more literalist approach and list basic prerequisites for life - air, water, food, etc. I also couldn't live without those things.

At it's best, I think answers to this question are more aligned with the little things that make you happy and are special to you. Here is a non-comprehensive list-

The absolute 'so happy I'm losing my shit / teenage girl meeting the beetles' reaction I get from my shared-custody dog when I see her. It's hard to have a bad day after that.

The rush of accomplishment after a run or a project that was an unexpected challenge.

Connection to information. I think this is why so many people put 'I love my phone' in this field. I'm inquisitive by nature so I tend to look people, places & things up quite a bit.

Playing with my nephews & nieces

I'm a bit of a news junkie. A few of my faves are the Economist, PBS, NYT and the WSJ. I'm not a big fan of the 24-hour news outlets on the left or the right... too much editorial and ego masquerading as news. I am, however, a big fan of the McLaughlin group; mainly because I like to see people yell at Pat Buchanan.

I'm passionate about personal freedoms and (air-quotes) freedom of information. I'm a big proponent of net neutrality, social freedoms (pro gay marriage) and the decriminalization of drugs (although I don't partake). I believe strong public education is critical in a democracy. I wish more people used technology for good rather than LOLcats (although I do appreciate a good lolcat). I vote, but I also feel that participatory democracy can be taken too far (a la the CA proposition system).

I'm a data visualization junkie. Sites like informationisbeautiful.net and chartporn.org (which is not porn), are interesting to me.

How to keep the crazy ride of founding a non-profit with an old friend going. We got our IRS approval and finished a round of funding. I'm starting to think of this project as a child I need to teach to walk, fend for itself and eventually watch from a distance as a proud parent.

More recently- I just got back from a brief visit to Detroit, and I can't get it out of my head. I don't think a place in America exists that is more tragic yet uplifting at the same time. I guess I just have Motown on my mind...

It really depends on how the week went- dinner & drinks with friends most Fridays.

In highschool I rolled a car 3 1/2 times while listening to 'Jesus built my hotrod'. I was and still am an atheist.

You are sharp and resourceful
You are a hacker / maker type
You're fiercely independent but you need a creative foil