A Japanese/Computer-Science/Bioinformatic­​s kind of person. Currently I'm a PhD candidate, struggling to balance the paper writing with the researching with the keeping the lab running. It's tricky, but I enjoy it. I'm nerd enough to enjoy this sort of thing. That said, I also treasure my play-time for finding cool new/old movies, playing games (on boards or otherwise), and whenever possible hanging out with friends.

こんにちわ～
生命情報の大学院生です。学部生の時にカーネギーメロンでコンピューターサイエンスを勉強して、今「比較ゲノム」という分野で巨大な遺伝子データを解析するアルゴリズムを研究してるので、一日ずっとパソコンを見ている日が多いですが、パソコン以外の世界も好きですよ。友達と遊びに行ったり、写真を撮ったりするのが大好きです。スノーボードも好きだけど、マイスノーボードはまだアメリカにあります（もう４年以上日本にいるのに！）。

I am happy, easily addicted, and idealistic

In a nutshell, I went to school in the US in Computer Science, then got into Japanese, studied abroad in Japan for like 8 monthes. After spending another 1.5 years at back in the US, I spent my final year doing some more study abroad to buff up on Japanese skills before forgetting them all. But I found out that there's actually a lot of cool computer science-heavy bioinformatics research going on in Japan, so I applied to grad school here, and got in! Coooool.

Currently I'm working on my PhD. The research is is actually pretty cool. It's very awesome when your algorithms actually work (and do useful work at that!)

Ideally someday I'll be one of those inspiring professor types who leaves everyone they meet in awe. I can't imagine that gets old.

元々カリフォルニア州生まれのアメリカ人ですけど、たくさん引越してきた（アイオワ州、ユタ州、ペンシルバニア州）。アメリカでコンピューターサイエンスを中心にして勉強したけど、日本語も２番目専攻にしたので、「日本語を完全に忘れる前に、少しでも使いたいね」と思って日本に留学してきた。留学している間に、日本は結構素敵な生命情報の研究していると気づいて、大学院に入って、いつの間に４年が立ちました。

いつか教授になりたいと思うけど、どこで教授になりたいかがまだ自分で分からない。

Getting my work done under pressure with no sleep >_<;;;

締め切りがある時に眠らず仕事すること。

しかし締め切りがない時には結構マイペース　＊＾＾＊

That I'm up at weird hours of the night not sleeping. 'course, if they're noticing that, then usually they are too ;)

「外人だ！」
「日本語しゃべっている？本当だ。」

First movies, as they're generally my favorite of those...But there's a bunch, couldn't really pick a single "best"... Persepolis, Tokyo Story, Love Actually, Welcome Back Mr. McDonald, Tanpopo, Lilo and Stitch, Fight Club, Pirates of the Carribean, Go, Best of Show, Shrek, Anything-Pixar, Moulin Rouge, Trainspotting, A Clockwork Orange, Kevin Smith - Anything (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, etc), All About Lily Chou Chou, Monty Python's Holy Grail & Life of Brian, High Fidelity, and Triplets of Bevelle are all excellent. And yeah, gotta include Evangelion.

I used to listen to a lot more Japanese stuff than I do now, but my current jpop-ish selection has a lot of Shiina Ringo, Tokyo Jihen, Maaya Sakamoto, Yoko Kanno, Fantastic Plastic Machine...stuff like that. Recently though I've been on a piano (Debussy is awesome) and jazz kick (Oscar Peterson, Hiromi Uehara, Thad Jones, Tin Hat Trio, Chic Corea, Miles Davis, Dick Ellswood). Also getting more into electronica/ambient stuffs like Kaya Project, Takagi Masakatsu, William Orbit, De / Vision, Chicane, Hybrid, Imogen Heap, and the new Erasure stuff. I was so sad when Pandora got shut down =(

Ok since I guess I'm answering all of these anyhow, what were some good books and authors? Me Speak Pretty One Day (David Sedaris), Good Omens (Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett), Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams), Dave Barry stuff including Big Trouble (uh, Dave "Quotation Marks" Barry), The Code Book (Simon Singh), Yotsubato (Azuma Kiyohiko), Kitchen (Yoshimoto Banana), Separate Ways (Ichiyo Higuchi (does that count as a book? It's more like a short story...I dunno, but you should read it!) - but hey, she's on the 5000 yen note now!), and sure, Harry Potter (She Who Cannot Be Named).

Foods? Always such a tricky question...Yakiniku (yeah! go meat!), all sorts noodles (tantanmen! pad thai! ramen! soba! grandmother's spaetzle! mmmm!), all sorts of curry (japanese curry rice! thai curry! indian curry!), Takoyaki! Okonomiyaki! Exclaimation marks! mmm what's some "american" foods....Pizza! Spaghetti! grilled cheese with tomato (mmm its really good!), I really miss Mexican food! Heheh, I'm really not too picky ;)

Friends, Computers, Games, Camera, Good wine, Fiber-to-the-home!

友達, コンピューター, ゲーム, カメラ, おいしいワイン（コンビニで売っている「おいしいワイン」じゃなくて、本当に美味しくて、興味深いワイン）, 光ファイバー!

All the stuff that needed to get done yesterday/last-week but didn't, and how I'm going to find time to do that. Yeah, lately I'm a bit of a work-aholic...Need to relax more.

先週やるべきなのにやっていないこと。最近忙しいな。。。もっとリラックスをする時間を作らなくちゃ。

Finishing some project, then partying with friends.

何かのプロジェクトを終わらせて、そして友達と遊んでいる。

I'm usually the one to go try crazy stuff that no one else is willing to do. Especially if a friend is doing it with me, then I'm invincible! Hahahaha! It might hurt the next day, but, it's almost always fun at the time ;) here i'm thinking of the time a (slightly drunken) friend charged at me while wearing a football helmet, so i charged at him despite my not having a helmet. I won't try that again =P

酔っ払っている時に非常にバカなことをやってしまって、怪我したことある。特に他の友達も一緒にやってくれる時に、勇気がついて、やってしまうことはまだ時々あると思う。 もちろん他の人を怪我させないけど、酔っ払っている時に自分を守る本能がよく弱めてしまう＊＾＾＊

s/ if:/!/

i wonder if anyone on here gets that...

anyway messages are fun! they distract me from work, which is always welcome ;)