Half-Swedish/Half-Norwegian. Originally from Minneapolis, MN. Left to escape (1) the cold, (2) Scandinavian food and (3) scenesterism (punk/rave/(insert subculture here)). Survived two years in the...scenic part of the midwest (aka Indiana) whilst finishing a M.S. at Purdue, before moving to Houston (to work at Johnson Space Center), then L.A. (to work at JPL), then Houston again (Rice). Repeat x3.

I'm currently attempting to add "Ph.D." to my name at Rice Univ. during the school year (in electrical engineering), and working/surfing in L.A. in the summer. I spend my free time standing on various moving boards (mostly skateboarding, and snowboarding when I'm near the mountains, and surfing when in L.A. or when the waves in Houston are respectable), running (planning to run the Austin marathon this year, up to ~14 miles so far) and (regularly) imbibing beverages of the caffeinated variety during the day (see: Antidote, Catalina, Waldo's or the pavilion at Rice), and (occasionally) the Belgian variety at night (see Poison girl, Petrol station).

Making computers obey. Avoiding writing papers. Losing my keys. Detecting absurdity. Sarcasm, Shenanigans. Strategies. Being stealthy.

If I'm being stealthy, I usually go unnoticed (if I do it right).

(I think that's what I'll go with for this question, because anything else sounds egocentric, which is a rather strange quality to advertise).

Book-age: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Diary of a Drug Fiend, Dermaphoria, Angel Dust Apocalypse, Naked Pictures of Famous People, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Mother Night, Snow Crash, A People's History of the United States...and a vast array of textbooks about artificial intelligence/machine learning/signal processing.

Author-age: Hunter S. Thompson, Welsh, Sedaris, Neal Stephenson, Kerouac, Philip K. Dick, Lovecraft, William Gibson, Vonnegut, Craig Clevenger, Douglas Adams, Richard Dawkins, Bukowski, Hemingway, Howard Zinn, Chomsky

Movie-age: Blade Runner, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Factotum, The Big Lebowski, A Clockwork Orange, The Royal Tenenbaums, The 9th Gate, 30 Days of Night, Memento, The Vengeance Trilogy, Trainspotting, The Shining, Snatch, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Music-age: Dillinger Four, The Appleseed Cast, Explosions in the Sky, The Gaslight Anthem, This Will Destroy You, Planes Mistaken for Stars, A Global Threat, Mono, The Murder City Devils, Sparta, Of Sinking Ships, Misery Signals, The Hope Conspiracy, Bad Religion, Engine Down, Glös, Sigur Ros, The Editors, Hell is for Heroes, Proem, Aphex Twin, m83, Heiko Laux, Cari Lekebusch, Aesop Rock, Autechre, Squarepusher, Tube, Sage Francis

Food-age: Sushi in most forms, Late-night Tex-Mex, Pastafarianism (both the religion and the cuisine), and damn near anything you can buy at Trader Joe's (chilispicedpineapplesomg). I also like to read about the ingredients in Bimbo's cakes and Jamaican soda, but not to actually consume them.

Moving boards to stand on in various circumstances. Iced coffee. The Ocean (preferably the Pacific). Numbers (the concept, not the venue). Absurdity.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make things think (no, really, I do).

I spend an equal amount of time trying to figure out why things that already can think often don't do so particularly well (see: politics).

As a consequence of thinking about US politics occasionally, I often ponder moving to another part of the world. France was kinda great. London was also great, but I don't know if I could cope with the weather.

I also think about why I haven't finished school and moved back to California yet.

In Houston: drinking iced coffee/tea at Antidote, skateboarding, wandering around Montrose, looking at the Gulf surf reports whilst wearing a sad face.

In L.A.: wandering around Silver Lake/Echo Park/Hollywood, driving to Orange County/sleeping so I can get up early to go surfing.

Anywhere: damaging my hearing, watching film-age, or working on research.

My favorite color is clear.

If you want to argue about whether or not clear is a color. Or if you've read this far and haven't come to the conclusion that I'm too weird to interact with. ; )

I like people that don't take themselves too seriously. If you're too cool to laugh at cartoons, then we probably won't get along particularly well.

On the other hand, if all you're doing with your life is sitting around and watching cartoons, that's not all that great either.

Important: Religious zealots and neocons need not apply.