According to Google, I am:

* a fan of: Products, Celebrities / Public Figures, Music, Services.
* a freshman.
* a migratory beekeeper.
* affiliated with a 4 star hospital.
* a German cyclist.
* a member since 04/11/2004.
* offline.

Most of those are probably true. I dunno, I don't really remember the past decade all that well.

Grad school. Math. I also play trumpet a little.

... every time I think I'm good at something somebody better comes along. I'm coming to realize that all my gifts and talents are in fact parlor-tricks.

Parlor-Tricks? Parlour-tricks? How do you spell that word? I guess maybe it depends upon whether you happen to be British. (I'm not.)

So far since moving back to my hometown for grad school, I've had three people I've known for over fifteen years walk past me without any recognition. Then I went to a lecture by a guy I'd taken one class with several years ago -- we didn't hang out on the weekends or anything; I literally saw him for three hours a week -- postpone his lecture for a few minutes to tell everyone in the room who I was and how we'd taken a class together this one time.

So apparently, most people don't notice me, but when they do, they notice *a lot*.

No, I'm not sure where I was going with that either.

To understand an Updike protagonist is to understand me fully. If, like me, you're not interested in digging through an entire novel, at least work your way through "A Sense of Shelter." It's only ten pages or so.

* Dr. Pepper
* Firefox
* J. S. Bach
* LaTeX
* Scotch and cigars
* Sylow's theorem
* Wikipedia

I'm gonna throw all my categories here.

math (maths, mathematics): algebra (abstract algebra) algebra group theory galois theory topology algebraic topology set theory number theory game theory music: classical music bach debussy ravel stravinsky jazz bebop postbop louis armstrong thelonious monk charlie parker (bird) mingus earth wind and fire (ewf) literature (english literature, english lit): chaucer shakespeare william blake coleridge john clare oscar wilde (wilde) john updike seamus heaney david sedaris

Free.

I'm actually living with my parents right now, after having had my own places in L.A. and Philadelphia. It's no fun.

... you want to. I won't hold it against you, or bite. Well, not hard, anyway.

My stance on "woos" -- I notice that a lot of people use this space to complain about a perceived lack of content arising from the use of the "woo" button. I would believe just the opposite. Most people, regardless of what they say, place a large amount of value on physical attractiveness. Certainly, you may like someone for having a good personality, but chances are -- especially on an internet dating site -- that you might not be willing to spend a lot of time talking to someone who doesn't meet your personal standards of attraction. The idea of composing a relatively long comment to a complete stranger only to have them reject you immediately after looking at your picture seems a little silly. Of course, other cases come up as well -- one party may be interested in dating/talking to someone of other religions, while the other may not reciprocate such a belief. The idea of exchanging a "woo" on each side before dedicating time and effort to more serious correspondence seems prudent. Indeed, much of the information in the first letter is probably already available on the public profile, so the amount of content lost is somewhat negligible.

Or maybe I'm just trying to rationalize away my laziness and justify sending them myself. Who knows?