Life for me lately is a serendipitous and ever-changing adventure, which has been a lovely chapter following my childhood and adolescence.

I am an idealist, an optimistic pessimist, a student, a worker, a politicker, a person, a world cohabitant, a pragmatist, an INTJ in Myers-Briggs typology, an independent spirit, a sardonic observer, a reader, a technology-crazed buffoon, and a friend.

You should account for some bias in my own self-description, but I tend to be a very friendly but shy and agreeable person who tries to avoid confrontations. I have extremely strong political convictions, but it may not be readily apparent because I like to hear and observe the ideas of others more than I like to share my own. I enjoy obscurity and do not have ambitions for fame or anything like it, but every once in a while, I do attract attention somewhere. I think I'm relatively independent for my age, and I really appreciate the responsibilities it demands.

I recently departed from my suburban roots and a restaurant job I truly loved, because of the staff and the customers, to seize the opportunity of living in the lovely city of Minneapolis.

Between Minneapolis Community and Technical College and the University of Minnesota, I am working toward majors in at least one of the following: political science, sociology/anthropology, and language/cultural studies (French, Finnish, Japanese, or Spanish). I am still very much at the initial stages of my tertiary education, which is why my studies are somewhat tentative.

I volunteer every once in a while for a nonprofit or political organization. During the last election cycle, I made donations and devoted some of my time to working for campaigns, though I do not think I will do it again any time soon. I discovered that I prefer nonprofit over partisan.

I bicycle to my workplace and to whichever places I need or want to go. Only in the most frigid days of winter do I plan to use public transportation. Fortunately, Minneapolis is one of the most bike-friendly cities in the country and the world.

Unfortunately for me, I sometimes give an appearance of knowing how to do something skillfully, when I really do not. A prime example is offered by xkcd, a webcomic I read, on the topic of technology: http://xkcd.com/627/

I enjoy listening to and observing people, news, information, and blogs, and then sharing what I find out— so much, in fact, that some of my friends claim that I'm their "source of news".

I am pretty good at maintaining organization among my possessions and all that I do.

I like to play violin and piano and sometimes write music, but I am neither terrible nor am I a prodigy.

I like to think that, when it comes to languages, I am a little like a sponge, but like a sponge, I have to keep wet, or my knowledge dries up.

I am proficient in technical writing, I would say, but when it comes to fiction, I become a bit incoherent.

1—
"You look like Dexter, from 'Dexter'."

2—
"You look like George, from 'Grey's Anatomy'."

3—
"You look like Tobey Maguire."

4—
"You have pretty eyes."

5—
Perhaps the most obscure,
"You look like a young Gore Vidal."

Books—
Bible, The (whenever you feel like it)
Free Culture (2004)
God Delusion, The (2006)
Harry Potter Series, The (1997-2007)
Hitchhiker's Guide of the Galaxy Series, The (1979-2001)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
Jurassic Park (1990)
Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, The (1993)
Lost World, The (1995)
Metamorphosis, The (1915)
Next (2006)
Prey (2002)
Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969)
State of Fear (2004)
Things They Carried, The (1990)

Movies—
28 Days Later (2002)
28 Weeks Later (2007)
Across the Universe (2007)
Akira (アキラ, 1988)
Alferd Packer: The Musical (Cannibal! The Musical, 1996)
Amadeus (1984)
Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, 2001)
Au Revoir, Les Enfants (1987)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
Departures (おくりびと, 2008)
Devil Wears Prada, The (2006)
Doubt (2008)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Fantasia (1940)
Funny Games (2008)
Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa (劇場版「鋼の錬金術師シャンバラを征く者」, 2005)
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
Harry Potter (all years) (2001-2007)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
I Am Legend (2007)
I Heart Huckabees (2004)
Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)
Juno (2007)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Lord of the Rings, The (all parts) (2001-2003)
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
Milk (2008)
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
No Country For Old Men (2007)
Phantom of the Opera, The (2004)
Prestige, The (2006)
Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫, 1997)
Producers, The (2005)
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Simpsons Movie, The (2007)
Spanish Apartment, The (L'Auberge Espagnole, 2002)
Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し, 2001)
Star Trek (2009)
Star Wars (all episodes) (1977-2005)
Steamboy (スチームボーイ, 2004)
Stranger than Fiction (2006)
Sweeney Todd (2007)
Up (2009)
V for Vendetta (2005)
WALL·E (2008)

Music—
All-American Rejects
Apocalyptica
Bach, Johann Sebastian
Baker, Chet
Beatles, The
Beethoven, Ludwig von
Bernstein, Leonard
Biret, Idil
Borodin, Alexander (Александр Бородин)
Chopin, Frédéric
Copland, Aaron
Daft Punk
Debussy, Claude
Decemberists, The
Dvořák, Antonín
Eurythmics
Fratellis, The
Glass, Philip
Gnarls Barkley
Grieg, Edvard
Halstenson, Michael
Handel, George Frideric
Holst, Gustav
Jackson, Michael
Jacobson-Larson, Nicholas
Kondō, Kōji (近藤 浩治)
Kronos Quartet
Lalo, Edouard
Larson, Jonathon
LCD Soundsystem
Mademoiselle K
Mahler, Gustav
Mika
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
Muse
Mussorgsky, Modest (Модест Мусоргский)
Nash, Kate
New Pornographers, The
Orff, Carl
Piazzolla, Ástor
Prince
Prokofiev, Sergei (Сергей Прокофьев)
Queen
Rachmaninoff, Sergei (Сергей Рахманинов)
Radiohead
Ravel, Maurice
Richie, Lionel
Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai (Николай Римский-Корсаков)
Rossini, Gioachino
Saint-Saëns, Camille
Shostakovich, Dmitri (Дмитрий Шостакович)
Sibelius, Jean
Sigur Rós
Sondheim, Stephen
Stravinsky, Igor (Игорь Стравинский)
Styx
Tchaikovsky, Pyotr (Пётр Чайко́вский)
Tiersen, Yann
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Uematsu, Nobuo (植松 伸夫)
Värttinä
Voltaire
Waits, Tom
Webber, Andrew Lloyd
Winehouse, Amy
Wonder, Stevie
Zen Café

Food—
Cilantro
Feta
Pizza
Pesto
Curry
Fried plantains
Fresh fruit (banana, orange, tangerine, clementine, grape, pluot, apricot, peach, pear, plum, passion fruit, pomegranate, apple)
Coconut

Television shows—
Avatar: The Last Airbender
American Dad!
Colbert Report, The
Daily Show, The
Doctor Who
Family Guy
FLCL
Futurama
House, M.D.
Iron Chef
Iron Chef America
MXC
Robot Chicken
Simpsons, The
Saturday Night Live

♫ These are a few of my favorite things. . . ♫

Alphabetization (haha, no, that's just a self-acknowledgement that I do it to make my life easier later)
Friends and their friends
Healthy food and drink
Money for the bare essentials
Music
Sanity
Self-actualization

I think about what I did, what I could have done, what I should have done, what I am doing, what I should do, what I must do, what I can do, and what I will do, mostly the extreme latter. I also like to have vicarious daydreams from other people's ways of life, as contrived as it may sound. I think about sexuality and relationships. I think about how much is completely crazy, in both good and bad ways, about the universe in which we live. Lately more than ever, I think about the health insurance that I do not have.

On Friday nights I am usually working at the restaurant, after which I may go home to a rich glass of wine or find something to do with friends.

I regret not going to see my great-grandmother on her deathbed.

You might as well give messaging me a try if you think I'm at least mildly interesting and that your personality and beliefs are at least mildly compatible with my own, which OkCupid tends to let you know (if you can't tell somehow).

Disclaimer: If you choose to message me, do not be surprised if you experience sarcasm, my playing hard-to-get, or a steady trickling of spontaneous, incoherent, or self-referencing questions and babbling.