UPDATE: I will be in San Francisco and the Bay Area from May 11th to the 24th, and I am looking for interesting people to talk to and hang out with!
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I'm a thinker. I try to be more extroverted than I feel. I try to read new ideas everyday, and stay up to date with the latest technology. My interest in science saw me through uni, led me on to engineering, and keeps me motivated to keep improving myself and the world around me. I am training myself to think things through more thoroughly using rationality techniques to overcome my cognitive biases.

Apart from the fact that I have put some thought into my long term goals, I actually don't come across as all that serious in real life. I like dumpling bars, quiet drinking spots, and making new friends. In fact I didn't even know most people in my current friendship circle 9 months ago! The quirkiest thing about me is my hobby for Astrophotography and my glow in the dark ceiling stickers.

I want to make an effective difference. This doesn't mean randomly choosing something impressive to do, but actually finding the optimal use of my abilities to work on a problem I enjoy. Since there are sufficient important problems out there, my current challenge is picking the best one. Step one in my plan is surrounding myself with interesting and intelligent people. This may involve a trip to California in the near future [EDIT: Right now!].
Meanwhile, my day job as a public transport technology engineer keeps me busy until I can implement my plan to save the world using effective altruism. I feel passionately about causes and do a tiny bit of volunteering with a climate think tank as a high speed rail researcher.
I'm also trying to start a share house in Melbourne for intelligent and social students or young professionals.

Finding ways to improve things. Taking weekends off and going Skiing. Putting in the extra bit of effort to make events I host super awesome. Saying "Yes" to new things. Building and maintaining PCs. I would like to add photography to this list but I know there is so much about it that I haven't mastered yet.

I hope that I generally come across as a friendly and welcoming guy. I make a sincere effort with everyone I meet to understand them, so I hope you don't mind if we skip to the challenging life questions instead of the usual small talk.
I'd much rather discuss astrophysics (decently), philosophy (poorly), or the things that you are interested in.

Favourite book: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. (anyone interested in cognitive science or incredibly well written fiction absolutely must check this out). Previously I have been a big fan of sci-fi including Arthur C. Clark, and Orson Scott Card. Recently I have put my fiction collection on hold to have a go at the classics and the non-fiction genera that I ignored for too long. At the moment this includes The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant, and Les Mis. The man that mistook his wife for a hat is next on the reading list. Find my Goodreads profile here: http://goo.gl/U6qml

Movies: Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino with individual movie shout-outs to Children of Men, How to train your dragon, The Matrix and Avatar. I prefer watching movies with others and even though I love them I haven't seen many lately.
I cannot stand what passes for free to air TV in this country, with an exception for some ABC or SBS, so every good show I watch is from the net. The Wire, The West Wing, and Game of Thrones are at the top of the pile, with Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog a favourite.

I have only recently discovered Pandora Radio, which is opening up a world of Music to me. I have never been adventurous when it comes to my musical tastes. Mike Posner Please Don't Go is my station of choice as of today. But if you press me: Maroon 5, Monsters and Men, Mumford and Sons, Black Eyed Peas, etc.

I enjoy picking the most extreme recipe I can find, regardless of my lack of skills at the basics. But hey, it usually turns out great!

The Internet, my family, my telescope, a source of inspiration, a higher purpose to strive for, and other people to walk alongside.

What would happen if I was transported back in time and I had to teach and re-derive the entire body of human knowledge to a civilisation of hunter gatherer homo sapiens. Yeah.
Where I should be going in my life. Where Humanity is headed. What we could be doing better. How could I be having more Fun. I'm becoming more familiar with rationality, transhumanism, and machine intelligence, and I think these fields are the most promising that I have found so far.

Playing board games while discussing rationality and philosophy over pizza with LessWrong friends. Adding things to a list of things I need to optimise. Optimising intake of alcohol to maximise list making abilities.

People form close friendships by knowing private things about each other, and the reason most people don't make close friends is because they're too embarrassed to share anything really important about themselves.
You will quickly realise I am very honest, and I hope you are too.

If you know a cool place to hang out in Melbourne in a socially relaxed setting, with or without others, then I'm in! If you went to Melb uni we probably have Facebook friends in common too. I'm always looking for something to do in the evenings and on weekends.
(Or if you can think of a good way to reduce the likelihood of a hypothetical early human civilization giving a hostile welcome to a modern time traveller, then I'm all ears.)