I weigh about 135 pounds. My favorite color is blue. My turn-ons include skepticism, absurdism and joyous nonsense, chocolate, urbanism, integral theory, interesting technology and good design--including, of course, bikes. My turn-offs include drama, intellectual and political purism, my own laziness, excessive exclamation points, and bad breath.

I love Chicago. Maybe not the greatest city in the world, but certainly the best.

Mastery of things is a core aspect of my personality. I can demonstrate some mastery in writing, cooking, programming, and probably other things. I like to be good at things I do, and I set high standards for myself.

I won't talk about how smart or funny I am here. Read my profile and judge for yourself.

I don't give a hell of a lot of credibility to Myers-Briggs, but ENTP describes me really, really well. I have a lot of social circles, and every circle knows a side of me, but no one knows everything about me. I'm a long conversation. I like to make things with my friends.

My techie friends might know I'm Buddhist, but won't know much about it unless they ask. My Buddhist friends know I'm a techie, but won't know much about it unless they ask. Most folks know I'm car-free, but won't know much about it unless they ask. My bikey friends know I go to Burning Man, but... you get the idea. It's not like I have a bunch of secret lives, I'm just not that interested in talking about myself. Tell me about you.

I am geeky, but 'hacker' is probably a better description for me than 'geek'--hacker in the original sense of the word, someone who monkeys with technology. Science fiction is like porn to me: diverting, but I'd rather do the real thing.

Oh no, they're retiring awards! Here's the one I care to keep. Robotic_Exo gave me The Great Date, awarded Jul 6: “Mexican wrestling, illegal parties, bike rides, backyard cookouts/parties, fireworks and access to soldering gun action! Without fail, always a fabulous meandering adventure.”

Writing code for big companies. Spending too much time on Facebook and email. Developing interesting technology in my free time. Trying to rebrand my career. Hanging out with friends. Cooking. Making stuff at the new Chicago hackerspace Pumping Station: One. Always looking for interesting problems to solve.

Writing, editing, coding, cooking, learning, naming things, starting projects... not so good at finishing them.

Making people say things like, 'I never thought of it that way.'

Bringing clarity: 'So what you're trying to say is [x].' 'Yes, that's it!' Asking the right question.

Making connections: 'I know someone you really should meet.' All my social circles come in handy sometimes.

Ordering at restaurants. You will want what I'm having.

I have a very, very good brownie recipe: dark chocolate, mixed with marmalade--ideally bitter orange marmalade... mmm...

Online, you may notice the lack of pictures of my penis in your inbox. Not that I'm particularly proud of knowing better, but from what I hear from women I have met, it might be a remarkable thing on OkC. I'm also potty trained.

If they're trying to engage my ego with this question, well, people are immediately struck by my penetrating brilliance and subtle wit. But first they notice I'm a total spaz. A sexy, sexy spaz.

You might also notice I respond to bullshit questions with bullshit answers. It's definitely more fun than saying 'I dunno, ask them.'

Food: chocolate, hummus, sweet potatoes, Thai food, sushi, Indian food. I love the restaurants along north Western Avenue, especially Thai Spoon and Opart Thai. I make a good glaze for chicken or salmon, or tofu if you're veggie: combining apple cider and miso paste. I love the combination of sweet and salty. I'm not vegetarian, but I am meat-light.

Movies: I Heart Huckabees, Waking Life, Memento, Young Frankenstein, Lost in Translation, Pi, The Fountain (Requiem for a Dream doesn't belong on this list, but Aronovsky is a genius), Brazil, Happiness, Henry Fool, Something About Mary, Pan's Labyrinth, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Spinal Tap, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich (again, Charlie Kaufmann, genius), Idiocracy (Brawndo--it's got what plants crave!)

Music: Lyle Lovett, Bach, John Coltrane, The Breeders, The Pixies, Mozart, Beck, Bjork, Johnathan Richman, Stuart Davis, TV On The Radio, Lcd Soundsystem, Radiohead... did I mention I'm eclectic? Oh--Jackson 5-era Michael Jackson! 'Stop: the love you save may be your own' is one of my favorite songs. Maybe through 'Off the Wall'... the rest doesn't do much for me. De La Soul's 'Three Feet High and Rising'--best album of the eighties, hands down. More Jim DeRogatis than Greg Kot.

Books: most of Johnathan Lethem, but favorites include Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude, and The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye--yes, I was reading him in the nineties, Susanna Clarke's Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Christopher Alexander's The Timeless Way of Building, Taleb's The Black Swan, most of Tufte. Hofstader's Godel, Escher, Bach--how can you not love translations of the Jabberwock into French and German? Paul Tough's Whatever It Takes. Ken Wilber's The Eye of Spirit. Greg Bear's Blood Music.

I spend more time in my feed reader than reading books these days, so here are my favorite sources: NPR's Planet Money, Core77 design blog, Make Magazine's awesome blog, Bruce Schneier will beat your plaintext out of your cyphertext with his fists, Ars Technica has the best damn science and technology coverage on the web, Fafblog, xkcd, Scanwiches, Savage Love podcast--Dan Savage is the bomb. I usually listen to This American Life as a podcast. My newest fave: Miller-McCune. Research-driven journalism FTW.

Coherent thought-- I'll probably never have a bad drug habit, because I find the sensation that I can't trust my thought process deeply unsettling.
a regular meditative practice
chocolate
a decent bike--fear the Bike of Steel! Would your pansy-ass fixie take you through a Chicago winter, or would it cower in a corner of the basement, begging for springtime? Yeah, that's what I thought.
friends & family
interesting problems to solve.

Things I could be doing. I have about a million projects going on, besides work. Some folks do sudoku, I pick random four digit integers and try to find their prime factors in my head. Give me one, see how I do.

Hard problems, like how money flows in the economy. Technological change and its consequences for people. The coming desktop manufacturing revolution. The way human beings develop over time. The tension between 'human' and 'animal' aspects of our nature. The tension between individual and collective aspects of our nature, and healthy and unhealthy responses to those aspects.

It's hard for me to think of a 'typical' Friday night. Sometimes I'm at home, sometimes I'm out with friends, sometimes I'm riding with Critical Mass (on the last Friday of the month), sometimes I'm at the hackerspace...

I look younger than my age, and like a lot of single folks in their 40s, I socialize with a younger crowd, but I really am 45. My version of adulthood may include a healthy amount of play, but I'm still a grownup.

That said, I've discovered a new compulsive behavior: untangling piles of cables. Got a big, gnarly pile of cables sitting in a drawer? Give me half an hour, and I'll have them all neatly separated and tied off. Happy as a clam.

...you like smart or geeky guys;

...you are a brownie connoisseur;

...you are secure enough to own your insecurities. If you understand that insecurity is part of being human. If you are open to the ups and downs of a human life;

...'Her mystery not of high heels and eyeshadow:' Some might say that as you get older, you lower your standards. Others might say you develop as a compassionate person, and learn to appreciate less obvious charms. I'm not devoid of superficiality, and I don't expect you to be. But if your compassion is incompatible with your sexuality, my interest will not be deep and abiding;

...you enjoy intellectual conversation, but you don't get lost in it. I love it too, but emotionally it doesn't lead anywhere. I'm finding I bond best over intimacy, sharing the details of our lives. Maybe that was obvious, but I'm the kind of guy who had to learn it the hard way;

...you are a city-dweller... I don't rule out meeting suburban women, but being car-free, I'm just not sure how that would work. I'm close to Berwyn and that area, so close-in western suburbs can probably work. Outside that, either live in the city or come with some ideas about how we will make it work. That don't involve me buying a car.