I bounced up and down the eastern seaboard while growing up, and I split my time for college and grad school between New England, Florida, Singapore and New York. I settled down in NYC for three years while working as an event planner (and I loved every minute of it).

In 2009, I found myself in Ithaca, living amid natural beauty instead of skyscrapers-- appreciating nature while missing the hustle of the city.

Back to NYC for a bit, and the two months there made me want to stay again. I shipped off for Southeast Asia once more in February 2010, and I came back to NYC in early June. During the interim, there were lots of places that I had to explore (and lots of adventures to have). (I'm racking up those frequent flier miles. Good times! Maybe I'll earn a free trip on Singapore Airlines eventually.)

More information about me: I like wandering around new cities. I like getting lost. I like sampling a place's culinary scene. I prefer dogs to cats (but I'm allergic to both). My Myers-Brigg score pegs me as an ENTJ-- but I used to see myself more as an ESTJ.

I'm figuring out how to balance my professional life with my personal life. I have a single overarching theme that has guided me so far: I like to make people happy. I work in an industry that encourages that mindset (hospitality).

I've spent a fair amount of time traveling recently. I think I may be a rarity-- a white boy who grew up in the southern US and has spent more time in Asia than in Europe. For some reason, I've found myself crossing the Pacific with surprising regularity (and for increasingly long stretches of time).

I've got goals. Watch if you're smart.

I've picked the winners of "Top Model" and "Project Runway" after the first episode in each of the past few seasons.

Update: My pick for a long-past cycle of ANTM came in second. I had a good run until then. I always knew that petite models would be my un-doing one day.

Some people say that I'm good at editing and proof-reading. Wouldn't they be surprised to read an online profile of mine? Surely this one has several errors.

My eyes maybe? I'll have to engage in an awkward conversation with the next person that I meet for the first time, "Hi, you. So what do you notice about me? What about me jumps out at you? (pause) My awkwardness, eh? Ok. Good to know."

Favorite Books:
The Great Gatsby, A Separate Peace, The World According to Garp, The Catcher in the Rye, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Eats Shoots and Leaves, Setting the Table, The Goal

Favorite Movies:
American Beauty, Shakespeare in Love, Mulholland Drive, Moulin Rouge!, Election, Fight Club, Requiem for a Dream, Pulp Fiction, Closer, Magnolia, Paris is Burning, Donnie Darko, Harry Potter, Lost in Translation, Far From Heaven, Brokeback Mountain, Inglourious Basterds

Favorite Music:
Madonna, Alanis Morissette, The Killers, The Postal Service, Scissor Sisters, Death Cab for Cutie, Ben Folds Five, The Magnetic Fields, MGMT

Favorite Food:
Cracklin' Oat Bran, steak tartare, pineapple, coconut, spicy Thai, creations from the kitchens at Danny Meyer's restaurants. A few days ago, a friend took a survey of a few people. He asked us to rank our order of preference for bread, cheese, chocolate and mushrooms. My order: chocolate, bread, cheese, mushrooms. I like mushrooms a lot, but I like chocolate more. (Is there some sort of creation like a chocolate-covered mushroom served on toasted brioche with Gorgonzola?)

Favorite TV Shows: (for extra credit)
Simpsons, South Park, Law and Order: SVU, Project Runway, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Dexter, RuPaul's Drag Race, America's Next Top Model. (In December 2009, I watched Lost from the beginning because I wanted to be a part of the conversation that people had while the final season aired. I didn't get into the show when it premiered. And I didn't really get into it later either.)

Oh, wow, six things? I already live such a Spartan existence.

My red Mickey Mouse shirt. (I've had for so long that I don't remember what it was like to live in the pre-red-MMS period.)

Some sort of climate control. (Really, who likes to sweat when sitting in the house?)

Access to ridiculously trashy American TV. (Hulu really should have "Top Model" and "Project Runway" so that we don't have to fumble around with the sites that the CW and Lifetime run.)

Innovative cuisine. (Bring on life's gustatory pleasures!)

Nailclippers. (Rarely does a day pass by when I don't need nailclippers.)

Allusions to previous conversations. (Show me that you were paying attention two weeks ago during lunch :)

The meanings of words (connotation and denotation). Emicism and anti-emicism.

I think about thinking. And I think about the meta-thinking. And then I think, "Oh, how post-Modern." Shortly after, "Is that what 'post-Modern' means?"

On a typical Friday night, I'm happy to have completed another week and looking forward to the next one. And probably seeing some friends. Or wishing that I was.

Or I'm shut up inside my room. Curtains drawn. Surrounded in darkness. Pounding back a bottle of Jack Daniels. (I'm kidding of course. I prefer vodka to whiskey.)

I'm a big fan of board games. Trivial Pursuit? Cranium? Celebrity? Bring it on. (Well, maybe don't bring on Risk and Diplomacy. Ok, maybe Risk and Diplomacy too.)

Also, I was walking through the hills (which really felt like small mountains) in Southern China with a friend. He had a bunch of candy in his back pocket. He turned around to talk to me and a monkey pick-pocketed him. He was visibly distraught (the friend, not the monkey)-- having been outsmarted by a monkey-- and so I feigned sympathy. Really though, I just wanted to laugh uncontrollably. Later that day, I did. (Maybe I'm not as nice of a person as I'd like to be. Still, pick-pocketing monkeys are pretty funny, right? You know what might be funnier? Pick-pocketing a monkey.)

You should message me if you have something to say. I like to listen to people talk about their passions. Or just share something about yourself. Or about someone else. Or about something. Ready? Break!