Oy, a self-summary, wherein I babble to the world about myself, telling you everything you need to know about me. Or something. So for lack of a better place to start, let's go for some labels. I'm a polyamorous pagan geek. Specifically, by day I've got a job in software development (in a library OMG SQUEE!). By night I hang out with friends playing games, attending discussion groups and indie music concerts, or even just relaxing alone or with a sweetie, tinkering on my computer or reading.

By profession I'm a computer programmer for a University library, mostly in web development. I love that it lets me contribute materially to the state of the human condition (through education) and still excites the part of me that likes to play with nifty cutting-edge toys. The prospect of taking advantage of the partial tuition benefit and going back for a degree (or several) takes it from wonderful to downright dreamy. I haven't decided precisely what I want to study, but it'll likely be chosen from the other interests I exercise away from work right now, like linguistics, religion, classics, sociology, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and sometimes even mathematics. If money and time weren't issues, I'd probably find a way to study all of them.

I'm not working or reading all of the time, though. Honestly, even more than reading I like to spend time out with my friends. I moderate a discussion group. I've been known to sing in a community choir. I also spend a bit of my free time tinkering with computer programs or working on a website for a nonprofit religious organization I'm a member of. I enjoy games ranging from board games like Chess, Go, and more modern ones like Settlers of Catan. And given a chance, I'll gladly pick up my dice collection for some table-top role-playing games. Sometimes we'll even catch a concert in town, though I definitely prefer the smaller independent bands over the stadium-fillers.

When I manage to find time between work and study and friends and games and music, I'm saving up for travel. I've visited Tuscany and will be going again as I'm able. Also on my travel list are Greece, France, Ireland, and probably parts of Austria, Germany, and Spain. Probably more if I put a little more thought into it. Given the choice between a whirlwind trip through all of them or spending a whole month exploring just one, I'd easily pick the latter. It broke my heart to have only a few hours to spend in Florence when I was there: I love taking the time to really get into a town deeply and understand what makes it tick.

I consider myself well above average at understanding complex systems. I've been told I have a very nice singing voice -- I even studied as a classical tenor briefly in college, and I sang with the DeKalb Choral Guild until scheduling conflicts got in the way. I nibble on languages -- both human languages and programming languages -- in my spare time. When I asked my girlfriend for something else that I'm good at, she suggested cunnilingus.

I'm told people usually notice my hair first. It's shoulder-length, and somewhere between wavy, curly, and just generally wild. Some people call it my mane.

After that it's usually my coat. I've got a black wool overcoat that I wear everywhere. All the time. Even in summer. Some of my friends theorize that I've got a symbiotic relationship with my coat. I can neither confirm nor deny these rumors.

I'm horrible at favorites. There are so many different qualities to appreciate in any of these. We'll see what we can do with it anyway....

Books. Wow, broad range. For fiction humor value I'd have to cite Douglas Adams. For work-related factual information, the work of W. Richard Stevens. Intriguing classical study? Well, lately I read and loved Williamson's Sappho's immortal daughters, and I cycle through other classical studies texts as I have time. And of course I can easily lose myself for hours in the sheer wealth of information on Wikipedia, even if it's not technically a book.

Movies. I haven't seen a ton, honestly. My movie selection tends to range from geek standards like The Princess Bride and Monty Python through whatever standard summer blockbusters happens to be out. I'm curious about arthouse films, but I haven't really made time to explore the field much yet.

Music. Unfortunately, prior to about two years ago, my music knowledge was even more embarrassingly small than my movie knowledge. I didn't know much after the 18th century, and not a ton before that time either. In the past few years, though, my tastes have opened up considerably. I certainly still enjoy my Mozart, Liszt, and Saint-Saëns, but on top of that I've added a good bit of more recent stuff. Generally I find I have a taste for indie music, and particularly modern garage rock and garage punk, though I find my tastes expand pretty broadly from that core. I will not miss The Dirtbombs when they come to town. I adore Radiohead and wish it were conceivable for them to play a venue smaller than a small city. I recently was directed toward Liars and love them. I enjoyed seeing The Von Bondies and Sonic Youth when they came to town, and I particularly enjoyed their smaller opening bands This Moment in Black History and Double Leopards respectively. VHS or Beta put on a good show. I enjoy the early albums from The White Stripes, but not so much their later stuff or Jack White's lyrics from his recent bands. I like some older stuff, too, particularly classic punk standards. I enjoy pulling out old albums from The Damned, The Stooges, The Ramones, and occasionally The Clash, The Sex Pistols, and some Dead Kennedys. I like The Muffs and The Dead Milkmen. I like The Decemberists, Fiona Apple, and Neko Case. Regina Spektor is both cute and wonderful, though for her too earlier is better than later. Lately I've been obsessing over Patti Smith and Mazzy Star, and I always love me some Scout Niblett. And yes I even like some nineties alternative standards like Nirvana. A million more, honestly; these are just the ones that have popped into my head while typing this out. Oh, and Beethoven, of course.

Food. Food is another category that I've grown into a bit over the last few years. I grew up pretty unadventurous, but nowadays I'm a big fan of anything spicy, especially Thai food. I'm a monster for basil chicken. I will kill for an opportunity to eat at a good Brazilian steakhouse. I'm still experimenting with Indian food and Japanese food, but I haven't really broken into sushi yet -- I've had a severe aversion to seafood since childhood, and it's taking some time to overcome.

Thinking. Feeling. Music. Friends. Cuddling. Understanding.

I can't think of much that I don't think about, honestly. If we restrict it to the things I think about most, though, then among that top list would probably be languages and linguistics, people and who they are underneath it all, societies and how they grow and change, religion and its place in the modern world, deep math, and games. Oh, and sex. Yeah.

Hanging out with friends and sweeties, gaming and/or socializing. Sometimes just tinkering with my computer.

... if you want to babble with someone about the meaning of life, about languages, music, gaming, about Unix and networking and programming and the Web, about math, or about philosophy, sociology, or religion, or even just about random goings-on. Especially if you like babbling about these things in person. If you think you'd enjoy hanging out with the type of person who likes thinking about that stuff, even if not much babbling actually happens. If you enjoy physical or emotional intimacy, irrespective of whether or not you enjoy plumbing the depths of the universe along the way.