After growing up in the hussle and bussle of Minneapolis, I ended up going to college in the wee town of Madison, SD (population ~6500) and hung around a few more years before taking a job out here in Redmond last year... leading to my moving away from the upper-midwest for the first time which has lead to a little problem... I know no one around these parts and need to change that.

I'm more drawn to functionality and usefulness than form or pomp... which ends up making me a horrible consumer because I know exactly what I want (most of the time) and how it should work and how much I want to pay for it... the trick is finding something that meets my criteria.

What do I want? In a professional sense for now I'm happy just working as an software developer with my sights on more of a lead developer role in future, perhaps even for myself in future.

In a personal sense I'd like to meet someone who isn't a pushover (and could kick my rear if I got out of line), someone who has her own values and ideas and will rationally fight for them when necessary. Call me crazy but if a person can't rationally quantify why they believe what they believe and why they think it is important they need a serious reexamination of their ideals.

Rather than the traditional house with the picket fence and 2.5 children... ideally I'd like a plot of land with a house on it (picket fence is optional) for actual (medium scale) agricultural use along with perhaps a kid or three, a hunting dog, and a certain degree of self-reliance and tranquility.

Despite being a bit of a geek who likes technology, overall I'm really just a simple guy.... I've never been much of a partier or drinker (although I do enjoy a good beer), instead I enjoy a nice casual walk and talk or sit and talk, a few tv shows and podcasts and contemplation (and discussion) of most topics under the sun.

I am non-creative, evil, and objective

I just moved (in March 08) from small town South Dakota to the big Seattle area (Redmond to be exact) for a job at one of the local software development houses to work on a product I'd fallen in love with the first time I'd heard about it the year before.

Understanding complicated issues and reducing them to simpler concepts for dealing with and explaining.

Listening

Hunting

Constitutional law (What can I say? I get bored from time to time)

Being a 6'4" guy... my size. Previously it was both my height and width that were equally noticeable from great distances (even without image magnification) later the width was been reduced by ~200 lbs so far over 2.5 or so years (no surgeries involved)... later a few of those lbs decided to return over the last year... also prompting the occasional comment from someone who knows me and doesn't mind pointing out uncomfortable truths.

Otherwise my smile often gets noticed and complemented (at least online as being full of 'compassion and understanding' as one person once put it).

Movies: Dark City, Red vs Blue, Power of One, Clay Pigeons, 13th Floor, Big Fish, Free Enterprise, Clerks and almost everything by Kevin Smith.

TV Shows: Current: Dexter, Mad Men, Penn & Teller BS, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Mantracker, Big Bang Theory.

Of old: Arrested Development, Farscape, Dilbert, LOST, 24, Scrubs, The Sopranos, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Stargate, The IT Crowd.

Books: Atlas Shrugged and anything by Ayn Rand, CLR via C# (or anything by Jeffrey Richter), The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy most Tom Clancy & Vince Flynn, Enders Game, Startide Rising, The Uplift War, most things by Dinesh Dsouza or Robert Spencer (even though they aren't fans of each other) and many many more.

Music: Almost anything under the sun except for rap and country... but to name some... KT Tunstall, Weird Al, GWAR, Carl Orff, Corrs, Hans Zimmer, REM, They Might Be Giants, Colin Hay, The Killers, Gaelic Storm etc. I must confess that over the last few months I've come to fall in love with the work of one Natalie MacMaster... so much so that if not for her husband, I might try to woo and run away with her.

Foods: Pizza, I lived on the stuff during college and it's amazing I haven't become sick of it yet... however it doesn't quite fit well into my diet. I've also developed a thing for McDonalds vanilla ice cream cones which are pretty much devoid of anything.

1. My iPod - How could I have survived my old hour commute without it?
2. Chess - I challenge you to a battle where all you bring with you is your wits and skill
3. Red Wing footwear - The one name brand of clothing I wear just because they are so comfy
4. My Pontiac Aztek - I fit well in few cars... and this thing does very well for that, hauling my crap around as well as for going deer hunting
5. An engaging job - When not well engaged I tend to get bored and lazy
6. Money - How else can I support my vices of... well... I think I need to find me some good expensive vices.

Trying to figure out what the (*&% is wrong with my hands.

The short version is ~18 months ago I began to have some pain/stiffness with my hands and wrists that has defied medical explanation (9 specialists and one surgery later) and has lead to typing and other hand related activities occasionally being rather unpleasant.

These days... at work (voluntarily) as most of my things are still in storage (oh how I miss my 360 and my books), I'm not a fan of the bar/club scene and don't know anyone around here or much of what there is to do on a typical Friday night.

I'm anti-environment... and think we must do everything we can to beat it into submission and rule over it with an iron fist. Sometimes I feel guilty that my gas grill doesn't emit very much carbon into the atmosphere... so I make it a point to burn charcoal off to the side to offset the non-carbon footprint of my grill.

Serious? You be the judge.

You should write me if you you would like to get to know an interesting person who recently moved to the area from South Dakota and spent the better part of the last 8 years living in a town of 6500 and who now knows nothing of what is around him.

You should write me if you too are an interesting person who is not bored and looking for someone to entertain them.

You should write me if you've got some extra time on your hands and don't mind spending it with me.