I consider myself normal, and it's everyone else who's weird and/or interesting.

I enjoy video games, TV drama, sci-fi and comedies, movies, musicals, Shakespeare plays and novels both prose and graphic as entertainment.

I like sitting around being with friends, without pressure to be amusing. Those're the times when I can be most amusing, I think.

I'm honest to a fault, and can take a while before I'm willing to open up and relax with new people, but once I do I tend towards the ribald and direct.

I'm risk-adverse and frequently contrary, but once a decision is made, I'll follow it through as best I can.

I'm a video games programmer, and a linguist-in-(perpetual-)training. My career and most of my entertainment revolves around computers, but less so my social life.

I'm fond of just sitting comfortably on the couch with someone special.

I am a member of Linux Australia and the Independent Game Developers Association and have been a member of Mensa, the Australian Computer Society, Association for Computing Machinery and the ANU Anime Society.

I tend to end sentences with ellipses.

I love foods with chilli, also foods without chilli. Particularly dark chocolate. There aren't many foods I don't like, although I am picky due to a food allergy.

I think through nearly everything I say right before I say it. Doesn't stop me saying stupid things, but I generally realise I'm saying them.

I am smart, shy, and funny

I've wanted to be a video games programmer since I was six, and six years ago, I became one. Happily, it turned out to be everything I hoped it would be, and so I'm set, career-wise.

I've recently realised that I want to be Tim Schafer when I grow up, except that job's already being filled (by Tim Schafer...)

I lived in Canberra, Australia for most of my life, but recently moved to Hanoi, Vietnam for no particularly good reason. I managed to keep my job over the Internet, but I'm enjoying the new experiences of daily life.

Spelling, tests (ie educational institution-type things) and pretty much anything to do with computers.

I once was reasonably good at martial arts to which I turned my hand, but I haven't practiced in a long while, and may not still be so. I did a stint of Iaido training recently, but haven't had the time to keep it up.

Giving amusingly unhelpful advice. Like demonstrating the contrast between "you're" and "your" by putting them in front of the word "sheep".

I've never asked anyone about it, although I was once told it was inappropriate to ask "How's this friendship going?", so that might be for the best...

Favorite book is The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Oddly enough, I'm mainly reading paranormal (Kelley Armstrong and Kim Harrison) and sci-fi (David Weber) these days, although it's largely dependent on what's shiny at whatever bookstore I'm at. I've been enjoying the Fables graphic novels recently too. I used to read a lot of manga but I am no longer allowed to buy more manga until I finish my Japanese course. I will someday buy the last few volumes of Strangers In Paradise and see how Katchoo and Francine's journey ends.

Favorite movie is The Princess Bride. Blade Runner is a close second. I like to collect gangster films, both eastern and western, and some musicals and some Bollywood. I have a big pile of DVDs I haven't watched yet. And I should mention the Indiana Jones movies. And Star Wars although I don't actually own 'em on DVD.

Favourite TV series would have to be The Games. I've recently enjoyed Doll House, House MD, Dexter, Southland, Defying Gravity, NCIS, Johnathan Creek, Castle, Stargate Atlantis and probably others that've slipped my mind. Such as Red Dwarf. I've enjoyed lots of anime in the past, and some J-drama too, though time for such things has been a little scarce recently. I did manage to make time for the UK version of Life On Mars and that's also my favorite. And I just rewatched Arrested Development on DVD, and it's really truly a favourite. I've recently borrowed Dead Like Me Season 1 on DVD and enjoyed that.

Favourite music is... tricky. I love pretty much everything Queen did, and get very eclectic from there. My total play list is only 22 songs at the moment. I recently saw Avenue Q and have gone through the cast recording album twice this week. I actually like to listen to Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar radio recordings on long walks, but only because reading while walking makes you a traffic hazard.

Favourite food is a toss-up between laksa, pizza, gyoza and chinese-style pork buns. The winner of this toss-up turns out to be dark chocolate. (~70%, or less with nuts or flavour)

Favourite video game is probably Grim Fandango, although Monkey Island, Full Throttle and Brutal Legend are all jostling for position. As is Portal, Harvest Moon and Arma 2. And Lego Starwars. Actually, this list could go on. I'll play any game once, and most never again, sadly. Kinda goes with the territory, thank goodness for tax deductions.

I suspect I'm missing the point of having _a_ favourite thing, but life's like that for me. I like almost everything, and really like a lot.

My mind. Although how would I know?

My hands. I'm a fidgeter.

Something to amuse me when waiting. A novel, my Nintendo DS and whatever I'm playing at the time, my mobile phone with a solitaire game.

Other people. I go a bit weird when left alone. Although I do get stuff done when left alone long enough... The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings, if you know what I mean.

My mobile phone. Actually, just the calendar-alarm function. Without that, I would never get anywhere on time, and frequently forget to show up at all, if I sleep between agreeing to something and that something happening. (This is normal. Ask a lawyer about it. ^_^)

Somewhere to be or people to be with. I feel out-of-place a fair bit, but without the safety net of somewhere else to go or people who I'm there with, that feeling would probably become overwhelming panic.

everything. I overthink things all the time, from conversations I might have, to what I should do with the next ten minutes. That often turns out to be what I did with those ten minutes.

If I have to name a particular topic, it's probably video games.

Or whatever I've just been doing. So probably video games.

Or my job. So definitely video games.

Lately, a lot of my thinking has been about how to say what I want to say in Vietnamese, as I'm trying to learn Vietnamese.

Cowering in my room. I haven't established an active social life in Hanoi yet.

is that I'm generally willing to answer any personal question put to me, partly because I like the feeling of someone's interest, and partly because I'm trying to be scrupulously honest, to make up what I can towards mistakes I made in my youth.

Also, I think people who write "u're" are secretly subverting the text-speak form with a punctuated contraction, but I'm not sure enough of that to actually acknowledge this when people do it, in case they are actually just that illiterate.

you don't hate video games with a passion; have hobbies or interests you like to talk about at great length; and/or think I might be generally fun to talk to or spend time with.