I "think different". I can do all sorts of things you might not expect. While I have a PhD in astrophysics, I'm also the most energetic dancer to '80s retro synthpop or goth industrial you'll ever meet, and had some success as a stand-up comedian in the Boston area.

I'm a research scientist studying black holes and neutron stars, but also have diverse and eclectic interests. My interest in science is mostly for the wonder of nature, to be inspired towards surprising and new visions of the world--such as relativity and quantum mechanics inspired.

I love music and reading. People describe me as kind, gentle, and patient, but I can also be a very persistent debater. I am the strong contemplative type, kind of like Ferdinand the Bull. I follow politics: I'm a liberal Democrat who thinks the $3 trillion the US is spending on the Iraq war could have been far better spent on other stuff.

On personality type tests, I usually score INTP ("the architect"), and I tend to be a "system-builder"; I'm always developing my personal philosophy. I'm not a restless adventurer--though I'm curious and playful and enjoy food and travel--as much as I'm desirous of putting together for myself a picture of the world. Recently I've been scoring INFP ("the healer"), more feeling than thinking--maybe I get more emotional at times of political change.

I'm quite physically fit. I take a lot of care with my diet (I've spent decades as vegetarian, fish eating otherwise vegeterian) and at 41 can keep up dancing into the wee hours with anyone. I keep up with the latest news on nutrition and medicine and healthy supplements.

Although I've just turned 41, I feel in many ways I'm still getting started in life. I have credentials and experience in my field and though I'm not the effervescent bubbly type, I make friends and allies without too much trouble, and after moving around the country from school to school and job to job (OH to CO to MA to DC to OH to CA to MA to IL to NY to MA) I've met and learned from many people.

Yet I've also been kind of hoarding my creativity and initiative. I'm always thinking and questioning stuff beyond what I'm doing at work. A colleague in grad school called me "Mister Secret Concept Man".

I've taught astronomy, physics, and math at colleges and a university and I do research using data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray telescope. Mostly I study neutron stars, which are stars that have collapsed so that each cubic centimeter contains more mass than every human who has ever lived.

On the side I puzzle over big issues in science and philosophy.

I keep a LiveJournal.

Thinking (philosophy), creativity, playing piano, reserving judgment, obscure humor, writing, remembering obscure things for a long time, and dancing.

My big blue eyes that contrast with my thick eyebrows and beard, that I have a quiet and gentle bearing.

I have a medium-slow quiet mellow tenor voice.

My features are probably somewhat unusual, although a Russian relative told me over Thanksgiving that they may be more common over there (my ancestry goes back to Latvia.)

For a nerd (Ok Cupid assures me I am a nerd rather than a geek), I'm actually quite nimble and coordinated, which helps when dancing.

I'm quite a good cook on some dishes. My specialty is spanakopita (learned to cook it from an ex)--but also Tunisian couscous, Kaluha chocolate cake, hummus, Thai coconut curry, cranberry/barley malt pancakes, herbed salmon, etc.

(a) obscure science fiction like Stanislaw Lem, Olaf Stapledon, and Greg Egan

Classics like Shakespeare and Tolstoy.

Playful modern writers like Italo Calvino and Milorad Pavic and James Joyce and Isaac Bashevis Singer

Philosophy (Lucretius and Epicurus, and Spinoza and Leibniz and Bertrand Russell)

Popular science books (Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, etc.).

Right now I'm reading Philip Roth's "American Pastoral".

(b) almost anything with Alec Guinness or Peter Sellars: The Horse's Mouth, Doctor Strangelove, etc. Across the Universe

(c) I have unusually eclectic tastes. People might say, "but these kinds of music are so different", but I might feel about them the same way. Beethoven--I love to play the Appassionata and Hammerklavier, Schubert, Bach--I love to play the Well-Tempered Clavier, Mozart, '80s New Wave, Talking Heads, Brian Eno, Throwing Muses, Radiohead, Neko Case, Blackalicious, Conlon Nancarrow (strange mix of modernist and ragtime programmed onto a player piano that goes faster than any human piano player), The Beatles

(d) Vegetarian, Sushi, Indian food, Thai food

1) electronic piano 2) cats 3) green tea 4) library card 5) box of letters from friends 6) bookshelf

Is the Universe discrete or continuous?

Why does it obey mathematical laws?

What is information? Can it really be pinned down or is it some kind of flexible pattern? Is the Universe different from the information in it?

Is there a right and wrong and is that different from good and bad? Is this something anybody can really know?

Will Obama unfuckup the nation Bush and Cheney have been fucking up?

I keep a blog for my cat.

You exist. You exist as described in your profile. You are female. You are literate. You are not an evil dictator or mass-murderer. (And, I should add, you don't have plans to become one--merely adopting the trappings of such is ok--petting a cat while putting your pinky to your mouth and cackling like Dr. Evil or something). You think for yourself. You can write something that will make me laugh or think or both. The "I spend a lot of time thinking about" section of your profile should interest me. Either that or you list classical music or similar obscure popular music in your list of favorites.