Really all I require in someone I'd like to get to know better is a similar moral outlook: Social justice should play a central role in your long-term plans and daily decisionmaking. The ultimate conclusions matter less to me than the honesty of your journey. I'm from Western Massachusetts and lived 9 years in Houston so if you have connections to either of those places, or to New York or Paris, or really just about anywhere else, we won't have difficulty making conversation. I believe in being productive, staying active, and giving people the benefit of the doubt. For my part, I spend most of my time learning new things, exploring new places, finding new and exciting things to cook or teas and wines to drink, and tracking down as many opportunities as I can to sprawl out in a field listening to live music.

I'm spending my third and final year of law school studying in Paris, thereby closing out my J.D. at Hastings and simultaneously earning an LL.M. in European Law. Yes, it is a sweet deal, and I'm not ashamed of being fairly comprehensively proud of myself for the first time in a while. This isn't to say I'm usually down on myself, but only that I've been told by several people I trust that I'm a talented person and should not waste my potential. After graduation and a bar exam (woo!) I'll explore options practicing international commercial law, and then do my part to bring about sustainable economic development, build goodwill among the nations, and provided everything goes according to plan -- or even if a few things go awry but I have a few minutes and some duct tape -- save the world.

Brutal honesty. Persuasion. Dismantling feeble arguments. Explaining the other side of the story. Compassion. Forgiveness. Pessimism of the mind and optimism of the will. I've heard I'm an excellent writer, an excellent singer, and a decent cook. Music knowledge. Baseball trivia. All forms of history. Maintaining a formidable jazz collection. And after a six-month career driving a taxicab back in Houston, I'm fabulous with maps and directions.

I read voraciously. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, Long Time Passing by Myra MacPherson, Woody Guthrie's autobiography Bound for Glory, The Dream Songs by John Berryman, and everything by Christopher Hitchens and Jack Kerouac.

For film, I'll watch almost anything classic, foreign or indie, and I have an insatiable appetite for documentaries. In summer '08 I finally made it all the way through the AFI Top 100 (woo). Also down for Linklater, Spike Lee, "16 Years of Alcohol," and the lesser works of Sam Peckinpah.

I love most forms of jazz, once ran a "world music" show for a college radio station, and have often reflected on the important insight that there are only two types of music--country, and western. Fela Kuti, Coltrane, Mingus, Bill Frisell, Randy Weston, Hugh Masekela, Nina Simone, Wilco, Dylan, James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone, CCR, Janis Joplin, The Faces, The Allman Brothers Band, Meshell, Rebirth Brass Band, street musicians, house bands, bar bands, cover bands, open jam participants, and friends.

Wayo Sushi on Van Ness and Bissap Baobab in the Mission. Lately I've been eating lots of seafood and vegetables, but I'm not religious about it. I love to cook and look forward to every trip to the grocery store as an adventure. In my mind it is perfectly normal, natural, and moreover exciting to eat Indian, Thai, Burmese, Vietnamese, Sushi, Mediterranean, West African, or Ethiopian food every day of the week.

Love, blueberries, rainstorms, existentialism, New Orleans, and oolong tea.

what the fish said when he crashed into the cement wall.

Also, what the problem is, why everyone got so mad, and what we can all do about it right now so everyone can calm down, no one goes away feeling too completely hurt or offended, and everyone gets home safe. Then I try to figure out a way to make sure it won't all fall apart again the next time. Blessed are the peacemakers...

You care enough to have an opinion about something, whether it's hunger and homelessness, continuing education, single-payer health care, our decaying public infrastructure, peace in our time, saving the whales, mark-to-market accounting, factory farming, political correctness, cubism, anti-bacterial soap, the Second Vatican Council, nuclear power, amnesty for Mexican-American laborers, the designated hitter rule, the open source movement, European integration, Dylan going electric -- really anything will do.

Bonus points if you declined to list your cell phone or laptop under "The Six Things I Could Never Do Without," and extra bonus points if you've found your way to Paris! :)