[Things have changed, as they will, and I'm not doing the internet-dating thing. For starters, I'm dating someone and don't really have time/energy to date anyone else, but also I'm going to be teaching English in Chile for all of next year, so...]

Highlights: I spent a few months in Mexico. I used to be a semi-professional singer. I play guitar. I can do basic bookbinding, ceramics and blacksmithing. I collect books. Some of my proudest moments are when my boss smiles and tells me, "You are the definition of an unmanageable employee."

I'm pretty smart. I think growing up kicks ass. I'm different, and I was born that way. I'm not very excitable, so if you need a bubbly, bouncy person, that'd be someone else.

I think everything and everyone is whole and complete as they are. I think life is its own meaning and its own perfect expression. I've been realizing I'm actually a social democrat: I think food, water and health care are basic rights, and that the first priority of society should be to secure those basic rights for everyone, instead of making money first and pretending everything else will take care of itself.

It's important to be able to laugh during sex.

I've been doing aikido for more than 7 years, and doing Zen practice for a bit less than that. I'm not a vegetarian: right now, my body needs meat to function well. I use ayurveda to keep myself healthy, with just food and the occasional herbs.

I'm a big fan of curiosity, decent punctuation, awareness, snark, and a quick wit that spends more time responding than laughing.

I tend to go for "tough and resilient" rather than "dainty flower" (c.f. Tough Chicks). Good in a crisis, knows how to balance wisdom and compassion. Someone I can work with and can handle herself when the restless dead awaken and the Zombie Apocalypse comes.

I work as a software engineer, I do aikido, I play my guitar, read books, watch TV, visit my friends, amuse myself however I want. I practice Zen, and most of my time these days is Zen and aikido. I tend to read about science, history, and religion, but am easily sidetracked by things I find at the library. (Mmmmm, the library.) Every week I go to the farmer's market to buy raisins and sausages and mushrooms (peppers, apples, onions, green beans, pears...). I really enjoy grocery shopping, and cooking for myself and people I like.

I'm spending most of next year teaching English in Chile. After that, while my stuff is already in storage I might do a practice period at Tassajara. Then, unfortunately, I'll probably have to get a job.

I seem to be finally teaching myself some French. And I've always wanted to be able to run, so I'm doing that too, and I'm up to running a couple miles, which is more than...ever.

software; aikido; singing; guitar; most other things I get interested in. I'm a decent cook and I seem to be okay at metalwork. I like learning stuff, so I guess you could say dillettantism is my main hobby, and Understanding Things is my primary gift.

I'm good at being kind to strangers.

Oh, you know. I look normal to the untrained eye.

What people see depends as much on them as on me, I think.

Seriously? I'm only going to do this once, it's too boring to keep up to date.

Christopher Moore, Steven Brust, _The Princess Bride_, _A People's History of the United States_, _Dropping Ashes On the Buddha_, _A Book of Five Rings_, _Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs_ (I know, it's a nerd book, but it's an absolute work of art in its clarity and expression--a brilliant textbook). _Guns, Germs and Steel_, _Collapse_, _Godel, Escher, Bach_ (yep, all of it, but only once). Other books. I've read lots of books.

The Princess Bride, The Blues Brothers, The Mark of Zorro (1940), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), The Legend of 1900, Office Space.

A little bit of TV (online or on DVD, since I don't have cable): BSG, Firefly, Doctor Who, Burn Notice. Babylon 5 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer in my dark past. I'm a huge fan of the new Doctor Who. I'm kind of a whore for the idea that the universe's most advanced spaceship is a British police box.

Tori Amos, The Orb, Lemon Jelly, Brian Eno, Orbital, Ani diFranco, Catie Curtis, Paul Simon, Guster, Banco de Gaia, Bach, The Weepies, Deltron 3030. Um, lots of other stuff.

Indian, sushi, Ethiopian/Eritrean, random nice restaurants.

my friends; aikido; music; books.

in practice, I'll do without whatever isn't available; because really, what are your other options?

What I'm doing right now.

Training at the dojo, making dinner after a busy week, visiting with friends, off on a road trip somewhere--it's kind of a crapshoot, week by week. I will likely not be at a bar, club, or concert. I don't like dancing much, but I'm trying to say "yes" to things these days, so if you look cute and talk a good game I can be roped into all sorts of unsavory things, at least once.

I'm an introvert, though most people can't tell, because I have excellent social skills and I genuinely enjoy people. Just...in limited doses.

That's not terribly private, but let's not give everything away at once.

You probably shouldn't, unless you just want to tell me I'm awesome. I've got a lovely and well-suited girlfriend, and I'll be teaching English in Chile for most of next year, and quite possibly spending 3 months in a Zen monastery after that before I come back to town.

That said, I love mail, and I promise I'll respond.