I consider myself to be an active, outdoor-loving nerd (or geek, if you prefer.) I'm equally at home hiking a mountain, skiing down it, or diving in the ocean as I am reading science fiction, maintaining web servers, or debating philosophy.

I've moved more times than I am years old, from Las Vegas to Abu Dhabi, and lots of places in between. I've had jobs ranging from driving a resort bus in Colorado, to working for a fortune 1000 computer company in Texas. I have a B.A. in Journalism (from Texas A&M) and have never used it. I'm a very curious person, and I love doing, learning, or seeing new things. As such, I like to travel a lot, read even more, and talk at great length with anyone I can.

I'm too shy for my own good (and especially for my height), and even though I use the internet for most everything these days, I somehow still feel a bit "wrong" having to use it for dating.

I love music... just don't play rap (some hip-hop is okay.) I'm especially addicted to Ska, Celtic/Folk, and Indie/Lo-Fi. I like to fancy myself a fiction writer, but I've never tried to get anything published. I like to build things, be it robots, bookshelves, or dune-buggies. I know how to use an arc welder AND a sewing machine.

I once nearly threw-up after I (unknowingly) ate sheep brains... with my bare hands... at a banquet table with the mayor of Cuddapah, India... while his body guards stood behind him with loaded Uzi sub-machine guns. I didn't flinch a bit... on the outside anyway. :-)

Anyway, I'm here to meet new people, so if you think you might have something in common with me, send a message! Seriously, do it!

I am nerdy, active, and creative

For now, I like to say I'm a techsmith... Like a blacksmith, I basically set things on fire or hit them with hammers until they do what I want. I mostly work with computers instead of iron though.

In the long run, I want to travel a lot, and do things like ski, scuba/sky/high dive, fly private planes, and otherwise menace the populace of small Caribbean islands and remote Swedish valleys. Maybe I'll go back to school and become an English professor. Maybe I'll move to Antarctica. Is it bad if both are equally likely?

Well, that's a tricky one... I tend to get bored easily, so I'm "decent" at a lot of things, but really expert in few. Computers come to mind immediately as an exception, as that seems to be the type of job I keep falling into for most of the past few years, and I know more about the workings of the TCP protocol than I ever wanted to. On the other end of things, I'm also a really good downhill skier.

Of course, what I'd really like to think I'm good at (at least, what I'm most proud of) is my ability to communicate. First, I find that I'm really good at explaining and teaching things to people, and I really enjoy that sense of accomplishment when someone finally "gets it." The other half of it is that I enjoy writing, and in many forms. I love to tell stories most of all, but from time to time I also enjoy writing essays on subjects that interest me, like metaphysics and other philosophy. I used to write a lot more than I do, and keep meaning to get back to it, but life keeps getting in the way.

Well, I'm tall and have a neck like an ox, so that's probably the absolute first. After that, it's that I'm really quiet... and then, once the ice gets broken... that I never shut up. :-P

Oh wow... Books, I love a lot, but most of them are science fiction or fantasy, so I'll just list a few favorites.

Books:
Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson (Comics, but essential reading!)
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
His Dark Materials series (The Golden Compass) by Phillip Pullman
The Uplift series by David Brin
The Firestar series by Michael Flynn
The Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds
The Ringworld series by Larry Niven
The Sholan Alliance series by Lisanne Norman
The Gandalara Cycle by Randall Garett and Vicki Ann Heydron
A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge
The Song of Ice and Fire (aka "Game of Thrones") series by George R.R. Martin

Curiously, the movies I really like are less often science fiction, but they can still be represented by a short list of favorites.

Movies:
Secondhand Lions (Probably my favorite movie of all time.)
Army of Darkness
The Princess Bride
The Fifth Element
The Lion King
Lilo & Stitch
How To Train Your Dragon
Pulp Fiction
Garden State
Elizabethtown
Once
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Titan AE
Planet of the Apes (All 6 originals, and the remake as well.)
Southland Tales (Blew my mind, you have to see it!)
Amelie
Indiana Jones
Star Wars trilogy (The original... the new ones can DIAF.)
Boondock Saints
V for Vendetta
Outlander
Lord of War
Run Lola, Run
Persepolis
Office Space
Pirates of the Caribbean (first one)
Dogma
Braveheart
Jane Eyre
The King's Speech

I think I should include TV in this as well, so my favorites series are below.

TV:
QI (Quite Interesting)
Community
Farscape
Stargate SG1/Atlantis/Universe
Doctor Who
Battlestar Galactica
Babylon 5
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Fringe
Chuck
Coupling
Blackadder
How I Met Your Mother
Torchwood
Scrubs
30 Rock
Community
Red Dwarf
Top Gear
Firefly
Rome
Game of Thrones
The Daily Show
Californication

Food... don't really know what to say, I like most everything that's not a vegetable. Perhaps a quote. "The Carnivore's Creed: 1. Vegetables are what food eats. 2. Fruit are vegetables that fool you by tasting good. 3. Fish are just fast moving vegetables. 4. Mushrooms are what grows on vegetables when food's done with them."

I actually like a fair amount of raw/fresh vegetables. Salads are great, but once you cook a vegetable, my taste for it quickly fades. For import tastes, I like chinese food, and greek gyros. One also can't go too far wrong with variations on alfredo/chicken pasta.

Now music on the other hand... Well, it's been said that "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture." So instead I'll just include an excessively long list of my favorite bands, split up by genre.

Traditional Folk (Mostly Celtic):
Grada
Great Big Sea
Gaelic Storm
Solas
Faun
Loreena McKennitt
Enya
Altan
Blackmore's Night (Medieval music with electric guitars, boo yah!)
Garmarna (Yay Swedish Technofolk!)
Medieval Babes
Corvus Corax

Riot Folk:
Neutral Milk Hotel (The weirdest music you'll ever crave)
The Mountain Goats (LoFi Riot Folk you grow to love)
Modest Mouse (Now, with more popularity)
Iron & Wine (Indie folk of the gods)
Sufjan Stevens
Kimya Dawson
Defiance Ohio
Balthrop Alabama
Bright Eyes
Frightened Rabbit
Mumford & Sons

Indie:
Death Cab For Cutie
The Weakerthans (Love it!)
The Postal Service
The Shins
Winterpills
The Weepies
Bishop Allen
The Books
Au Revoir Simone
Tilly And The Wall
Radical Face
Blitzen Trapper
The Thermals
The Rural Alberta Advantage

Punk:
Flogging Molly
Dropkick Murphy's
The Bloody Irish Boys
The Vandals
Authority Zero
Sum 41
Offspring
Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies
Guttermouth

Angry and/or Emo Punk:
Autopilot Off
Alkaline Trio
Rise Against
I Voted For Kodos
Punchline
Plain White T's
Bowling for Soup
Yellowcard
Fountains of Wayne
The Ataris
Weezer (You'd better know them)
Ozma
Brand New
+44
Angels And Airwaves
Green Day

Ska:
Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution (The best band in the world, and never published an album)
Catch 22 (Ska of the gods)
Streetlight Manifesto (Catch 22 part deux)
The Mad Caddies
The Planet Smashers
Five Iron Frenzy
Forces Of Evil
Less Than Jake (SKA!)
Reel Big Fish (SKA! That you've actually heard of)
The Aquabats

Postrock:
A Silver Mt. Zion
Explosions In The Sky
+/-
Do Make Say Think
Godspeed You Black Emperor
God Is An Astronaut
F**K Buttons

Oddball:
They Might Be Giants (Probably my favorite band, certainly my most listened.)
Sons And Daughters (Angry Scots doing pop-folk)
Tiger Army (Psychobilly anyone?)
The Dandy Warhols
The Magnetic Fields
The Raveonettes
VNV Nation (Dark Techno)
DeVotchKa
Cake
Guster
Caesars (You've heard their songs, you just don't know it. Go Swedes!)
Warren Zevon (His hair was perfect!)
Atom And His Package
Eels
Relient K (Catchy, if poppy)
Barenaked Ladies
Carbon Leaf
Chumbawamba

Mountains... I really miss Colorado.

Books... sometimes the things that are fictional are the most true of all.

Music... it's the closest thing we have to an actual window into other souls.

Friends... what good is life if not for other people to share it with?

Science... truth is beauty and seeking it is the greatest pursuit of all.

Platypuses... No matter how bad life may seem, you can always take a step back, and realize the world still contains the platypus, and no universe that absurd should ever be taken too seriously. :-)

Lately, it seems I spend most of my time just trying to figure out what to do with my life... how to make enough money to afford adventures while still maintaining the free time to HAVE the adventures. 40-hour work weeks just don't seem like a good way to spend the prime of my life. :-)

At work. Sunday and Monday are my weekends currently. In the spirit of the question though... an actual "off night" for me would be... Well, since I moved to Houston, it seems about half the time I'm getting dragged around to bars by friends, but other nights I stay home and or try and work on some writing. I also enjoy kicking back for a bit after work and watching movies or TV. I set up a 120" projection screen in my living room, so it's a bit like a private theater. Other times though, I just go get in the car and drive to the middle of nowhere, then stare at the stars for hours.

Sometimes, I'm perfectly content to sit alone in the dark with a case of good beer and watch Disney movies all night.

I'm not too picky, but there a couple things I'm just gonna put out front...

1. No Kids... I like kids, and eventually want a family, but I'm not ready for 'em yet.

2. Carnivore... I eat meat, and never thought that'd be an issue, but I run into a lot of profiles saying vegetarian only, so this is more of a caution. Personally, I don't care what someone else eats, just know I won't be reforming my ways. :-)

3. Smoking... Blech! If you occasionally smoke when drinking or something, not a big deal, even I've done that. But the smell of cigarettes just kills me if it's on a regular basis.

4. Health... I'm not a health nut, but I do try to keep in reasonably good shape. All I ask is that you're the type who does the same. Don't get me wrong, everyone (including me) has a few extra pounds it seems, but just don't be someone who gets winded by a couple flights of stairs. Other than this, I'm really not caught up on looks. I couldn't care less about your hair color, your bra size, what shoes you wear, or if you even have makeup on. Honestly, I find a healthy girl in simple jeans and a t-shirt way cuter than one in high heels and 3-hour make-up job anyway.

5. Personality... What I'd really like is to meet a fellow geek, someone who understands and enjoys the dorky side of life. By that, I don't mean "anime fan" or "video gamer" (though those are okay too), but just things like; if you read for fun (bonus for science fiction and/or fantasy), think science and eduction are important, enjoy learning (and trying) new things, always want to know "why?" and "how?" and "what if?", and enjoy talking about everything under the sun.

At the end of the day, I need someone who wants "to live deep, and suck all the marrow out of life" and longs for someone to share the joy of it all with her. If she knows the meanings of 42 or XKCD then that's just gravy!

So, if you made it this far and have any remaining interest at all, send me a message! I'm always happy to meet new people or talk online, and see if there's a spark there. How else will you ever know? :-)