Hey there...wassup? First: a little about me. I'm pretty much your average intelligent freethinking free-spirited nerd who's wandering through life looking for ways to change the world. I'm as likely to quote Invader Zim as Thoreau, Whitman or Darwin in casual conversation; I'm a perpetual student, a teacher, an explorer, botanist, philosopher, musician and at present a bartender/gardener/forager/beginning cook at a classy joint.
I've been called "weird but adorable," and I'm a bit of an introspective chatterbox...I tend to ramble (fair warning). Sweet, scatterbrained, occasionally thoughtless but never cruel. Big fan of life in general, including good music of all varieties, thoughtful books over a cappuccino or hot tea, growing my own food or knowing the people who do, hiking the wildernesses of national parks and urban malls, knowing why, listening to you, attending occasional wild parties at which drunkenness ensues, associating with people who have their eyes open, cuddling, being encyclopedic, being surprised, being ever so slightly nomadic, etc. Vive la vie boheme!

I like people who are uncomplicated, but complex. I think that Alton Brown is kinda sexy (God help me), and that God can be a very useful (and beautiful) superstition. I may be wrong. At any rate, I'm pretty idealistic about YOU, despite any doubtful evidence. You should be proud.

Good question. Current plan is to save up money while earning my sommelier cert, hitchhike the world and then find someone willing to pay me while I earn two or three science PhDs. Then I shall write a best-selling book on the chemistry and experience of aroma (smell: the scientific red-headed stepchild of the senses), with an emphasis on ethnobotany, and use the proceeds to effect a coup d'etat in a small South American country. After being ejected from office (there's always another wannabe dictator...), I will flee to Vancouver (or maybe Sydney), marry the boy of my dreams, and we will--happily ever after--make our adopted children squeamish with our constant (but never inappropriate) displays of affection.

That is all.

Really good? I dunno, I'm kind of a general klutz. Awkwardness has always been my forte; however, I do have fun gardening, playing around on the piano, and contemplating questions of science, philosophy, politics and society. And writing. stuff. And remembering trivia that somehow comes in handy later. People say I'm smart, but I'm not a good enough debater to argue the point. Plus I can make an awfully tasty beverage, according to the contest judges.

I'm not much of a first-impression kind of guy; I'm dreadfully unassuming at first glance, still overcoming the crippling shyness of my youth, a horrible interviewer, and I've been told time and time again by close friends that they thought I was a terrible bore, a simpering lackey, a colorless wallflower, a comp-sci major, and probably a Mormon the first time they met me. On my good nights, I've been accused of charming good looks, a sharp wit and impeccable sense of both humor and modesty, but I blame the observer more than the observed for those observations. :)

Thankfully first impressions aren't everything.

Anyway, apparently my constant good-natured grin makes a big impression, though, followed by me being too darn sweet for my own good. I'm not one to initiate conversations with people I don't know usually, and in most public settings I'm pretty quiet...but if we start talking, you'll notice my occasional inappropriate utilization of excessively abstruse vocabulary, balanced teeteringly against frequent, uh, whatchamacallit, uh...beflustered! use of the word "whatchamacallit." Q.E.D.

Plus lately people have been noticing my "hard physical labor" muscles a lot. Heh heh. Who'd a thunk?

(a)oooooh you would have to ask that. I'm reading a lot of ethnobotany and classic bartending manuals these days; cooking-related encyclopedias and floras of various parts of the world are also high on the list. Vagabonding by Rolf Potts is helping fuel my wanderlust, and Cornucopia II: A Sourcebook of Edible Plants will keep me from starving wherever in the world I end up. Mediterranean Vegetables by Clifford Wright and On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee will help me make any of those random wild foods tasty. :) Also Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins has been holding my attention for a remarkably long time. Well, on the fiction side, gotta mention Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. Gotta love British satire. And Shakespeare's pretty darn cool, too. And Walt Whitman. Gotta love Whitman.
Last time I updated this I was in a popular-science kick, and very much enjoying Stephen Jay Gould's various essay collections. Stuart Kauffman's books on complexity theory (Especially At Home in the Universe) are also worth reading, as is the eminently accessible The Quark and the Jaguar, by Murray Gell-Mann. And Cavalli-Sforza's Genes, Peoples and Languages. Um...I'll leave it at that.

(b)I have the hardest time picking favorite movies...perhaps because I have the hardest time remembering them? I generally recall them more based on who I watched them with than on their content, unless their content includes cute guys and/or deep thoughts... I do watch a lot of cartoons, given the opportunity; and I have enjoyed Memento, Brokeback Mountain, I Heart Huckabee's, bad kung fu (and bad action/B movies in general), and lots of offbeat comedies. Thrillers are okay as long as there's somebody's lap to cringe in. Heck, anything's okay as long as there's somebody's lap to cringe in.

(c)I likes it all! Huge collection. When I'm not listening, I'm creating (or at least making the attempt). Classical, punk, techno, bluegrass, classic rock...you name it. I have a hard time relating to hip-hop/rap or finding any actual musical quality in contemporary Christian or a lot of recent country music, but I can appreciate talent in any genre--and I'm always excited to hear genres that are totally new to me. Current infatuation: String Theory.

(d) Foods? Well. I love to cook, and I love variety more than any specific dish. Italian, Mexican, Texican, Thai, Australian, Mandarin, coffeehouse; wild berries, barks, roots and greens...I try to eat healthy, and avoid having the same thing twice. I usually invent something every night based on what's in the fridge and pantry (and field and forest), and it's usually pretty darn tasty.

(e) Visual art! Because why ISN'T it on this list? I thoroughly enjoy impressionist paintings (Monet's garden at Giverny was/is amazing), classical Chinese landscapes and Japanese minimalism, and expressive portraiture. The value of good public sculpture to give a sense of place and a feeling of human scale can not be underestimated. Stephen Meyers, however, is probably my current favorite artist: he uses x-ray photography to produce amazing, stark yet delicate botanical prints.

1. My brain. Seriously. I mean, how else am I supposed to think and feel and generally be human?

2. Glasses! or some other form of refractive eyeball-enhancing ...stuff.

3. Books. I mean, how else is somebody in the small-town midwest supposed to gain any depth and breadth of knowledge and perspective on the world and the human condition?

4. Food. It keeps me going. You, too, for that matter. Unless you're one of the cold-fusion-powered robots from the heart of the galaxy that is stalking me for no apparent reason? Seriously, you guys, lay off. That is so not cool.

5. Oh, friends and family belong on here, I suppose. :P They'll forgive me for relegating them to number 5, if only because I'm easily distracted by shiny things (ooOOooh shiny) and they're all far, far away. Darn growing up...I miss you guys.

6. The next thing around the corner. What is it? Who knows? I don't care. What matters is that it's there, waiting, ready to pounce and make life the neverending adventure that it should be. Like Hobbes. Good ol' C&H...

Generalized evolutionary theory, particle physics, and complexity science. family, friends, and people I haven't met yet. Music, botany, and wild mushrooms (No, not that kind. The kind that's tasty in chowder and quiche.). Religion, memetics, and the questionable death of the Enlightenment. Boys, love, or loneliness. The perfect omelet, the perfect herb combo, the perfect drink to make you a little happier on a day like today. Words. Like "tasty." Tasty is a cool word (although not quite as cool as hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia).

making cocktails like there's no tomorrow. Trying to keep everyone happy and entertained, and hoping that I have enough energy left to go out for a drink and a bit of socializing at the end of the night.

My stuffed dog Pooch is usually at my side when I sleep. I kind of missed him while I went backpacking across Europe last spring...

you feel like it. Hey, who am I to stop you? I mean, you seem pretty neato, at least from what I know of you. From here you appear to be an intelligent, inquisitive, artistic, articulate, enthusiastic and impassioned person with ridiculous quantities of charisma just oozing out your pores. You were, no doubt, too cool for school. :)