I'm a Boulder native. I'm a software engineer at a company you've probably heard of. I enjoy debating philosophy and discussing the finer points of programming languages, but I also like hiking and taking pictures of dead trees. Sometimes I create absurdity in public, other times I stay at home and listen to good music. I like meeting new people, especially if card games or board games are involved. I've met some of my best friends on the Internet, but there's always room for more interesting folks.

And now, without further ado, we bring you the unabridged ABCs of Flwyd.

• Analytical and also spiritual
  
• Books I intend to read line my walls
  
• Computer scientist, programmer, user
  
• Dedicated to whatever project I take on
  
• Eyes always looking for the best shot with my digital camera
  
• Film lover -- silent, foreign, abstract, independent, studio
  
• Geographical mind; I think in maps
  
• Hats of all shapes and sizes don my head
  
• iTunes library with over 100 days of music
  
• Jester in public spaces
  
• Kids are either fascinated by my actions or scared by my beard
  
• Love for one does not diminish by loving another
  
• Man when I need to be, inner child when I can be
  
• Native of the American West
  
• Obscure knowledge and facts flow from my brain
  
• Philosopher, phascinated by oriental and occidental thought
  
• Questing for the perfect pie
  
• Rivers, streams, creeks, brooks, and springs put me at peace
  
• Son of God and Goddess
  
• Teaching is a vocation to which I aspire
  
• Undressed at home or outside I feel comfortable in my body
  
• Voluptuous women turn me on
  
• Xenophile, lover of the foreign, the strange, the exotic
  
• Your gender, race, religion, and identity are okay with me
  
• Zen, Taoism, Paganism, Secular Humanism, Existentialism, and insights from many other traditions guide me

Comprendo Español más o menos, pero escribole como dificultad. Quiero hablar y practicar. Mi vocabulario necesita más fuerza.

我灾了中国。我说一点点普通话。我想学说和看懂中文。你那？

I am xeric, runcible, quixotic, rupestrine, verbose, and hirsute

Using energy and matter to transform matter into energy, matter, and waste.

I took much of 2009 off to visit Central America and several festivals in the western U.S. Now I'm back in Boulder with an awesome job and an intention to do lots of fun things. I'm always interested in an adventure.

Update 11/2010: I've been in a relationship for a couple months now. While we're not actively pursuing new partners, my girlfriend and I are in principle open to honest and communicative polyamory. Really, I see romantic relationships as one end of the friendship spectrum, and I'm always open to new friends at various points along the line.

For several years, I didn't spend as much playful time as I did in school. I'm looking for friends who like to play card games and walk in dry leaves. Who like to hike and talk philosophy. Who like to eat good food and make obscure puns.

making obscure references.

Programming computers, being playful, being serious, solving problems, creating ritual, providing unusual perspective. Being a great former boyfriend. Philosophy arguments and non-verbal ritual. Running around and sitting still. Twisting language into puns and fractured phrases. Cuddling, snuggling, tickling, and supporting. Seeing the whole picture and seeing the little pieces. Wearing costumes and being naked.

I'm good at giving but I often struggle to open myself for receiving. I'm good at doing things on my own but I often struggle at delegating or asking for help. This means I'm good at equal opportunity: I rarely ask anyone to do something I would not be willing to do myself (assuming I were able).

I have a ridiculously long attention span. My mind is really good at playing by itself. I am fond of stratagems. I concoct cunning plans that remain perfect because they don't leave my mind. I've written programs, taken road trips, had relationships, and won sporting contests without leaving my cerebral cortex. In my imagination, I even started a philosophical rock band (called Exit Visa) and worked out several concept albums and a Youth In Asia tour.

My screen name's lack of vowels. If I were properly pseudo-Welsh, it would be Fflwyd.

I am a statistical outlier in many ways; which one you notice says a little about your own cultural context.

In China, the first things people usually noticed about me were my Caucasian-style light skin and my Caucasian-style giant mass of facial hair. To answer their three most common questions: I am American; yes, my beard is real; and yes, I can use chopsticks, though I use an "incorrect" technique I developed when I was six (and had much less hair). But noticing depends on context. In China, I'm 胡子 (huzi), "That white guy with long hair and a beard." But at a gaming convention or a hippie/pagan drum circle, that's simply insufficient for distinguishing me from other participants.

胡子! 胡子!

Informative, beautiful, visceral, tasty.

• Asian food from Lebanon to Japan, Russia to India, and the Yangtze to the Mekong
  
• Books about science, nature, and eastern and western philosophy
  
• Computer documentation like language reference and O'Reilly guides with their endearing covers
  
• Dairy products negatively affect my mental and physical faculties
  
• Existentialist works like Cool Hand Luke, The Seventh Seal, Run Lola Run, Kafka, and Nietzsche
  
• Fiction authors like J. R. R. Tolkien, Alexandre Dumas, Douglas Adams, Mark Twain, Jorge Luis Borges, and Edgar Allan Poe
  
• Guitarists like John Fahey, Jimi Hendrix, Django Reinheart, and Ali Farka Touré
  
• Home-cooked pies; I've made several tasty curry quiche variants lately
  
• I Ching is both mysterious and well ordered, fascinating me on multiple levels
  
• Journalism of quality like National Geographic and Scientific American
  
• Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Orbital, Thievery Corporation, trip-hop, and other electronic music that doesn't just go thump-thump-thump
  
• Legume products like hummus and peanut butter and mixed nuts (people and food)
  
• Music made for its own sake like drum circles, traditional ethnic songs, and the blues
  
• Noncommercial radio: KGNU (88.5 FM, 1390 AM), KVCU (1190 AM), NPR, BBC
  
• Organic food, sounds, and ideas
  
• Pianists like Bruce Hornsby, Booker T. Jones, Scott Kirby, John Medeski and Stevie Wonder
  
• Quirky movies like Amélie, Pi, Sunset Blvd, Eddie Izzard, and The Marx Brothers
  
• Raw fresh fruit like Colorado peaches, mangoes, mandarins, apricots, and bushes full of berries
  
• Silent films like The Great Gold Rush and Metropolis and wordless films like Modern Times, Koyaanisqatsi, and The Triplets of Belleville
  
• Thoughtful lyrics by The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, folk musicians, and socially conscious rappers
  
• Used CDs, DVDs, books, food (leftovers), furniture, jeans, and other durable goods
  
• Vocalists like Joan Baez, Blind Boys of Alabama, Bono, David Byrne, Cesara Evoria, Bobby McFerrin, Jim Morrison, Dolores O'Riordan, Tom Waits, and Dar Williams
  
• Whole grains (eat them at most meals)
  
• Xishuangbanana pancakes (just ask)
  
• Youthful live performances of bluegrass, jazz, old-time, traditional, tribal, and other music with deep roots
  
• Zymurgy products like ale, cider, lambic, mead, stout, and wine

When I was a kid, I was really into sports. I invented new leagues, held drafts, made up statistics. I've been a St. Louis Cardinals fan since I was six and a Denver Broncos fan since I could watch TV. These days I don't play sports (though perhaps I should) and mainly watch postseason baseball and football and the occasional college game hoping for an upset of a ranked team. I love the Winter Olympics; I think speed skaters are hot, I love the scream of excitement when a medal is won, and I wish curling wasn't only on cable.

The Internet – my second brain since 1993; how did we ever live without hyperlinks and markup? Google is part of my cognitive process.
Sunlight – Apricity is one of my favorite feelings.
Music – I have over 600 days worth of digital music. I love to share interesting, fun, and obscure tunes.
Wholesome food – if you are what you eat, I'm slowly becoming Asian.
Water – running rivers, reflective pools, hot springs, green tea.
Public lands – from Burning Man to Rocky Mountain National Park to concerts at Red Rocks to camping in isolation, my mind is restored by places owned by We the People.

The answer to this question. Things which are better with bacon.

Lately, particularly at festivals, I've done a lot of experiencing without thinking. It's one of those great Taoist/Zen states that's harder to do if you try, but really easy if you just slip into it.

Geography. I love staring at maps. I like hiking up the foothills and looking over the city. Getting lost is part of the fun and there's nowhere better to wake up during the summer than a tent in the mountains.

I muse about the relative merits of anonymous inner classes and lambda functions, come up with clever design and programming solutions in the shower, and architect software systems which I never get around to coding.

I believe that loving one person does not (or at least should not) diminish one's love for anyone else. I believe there are many ways of loving someone and having some ways not activated should not prevent people from exploring the other ways.

Thirty-one years old.

I'm a Happy Thursday cruiser ride devotee, but I don't have a Friday routine. I'd like to see the International Film Series more often. If you think a typical Friday night (or just next Friday night) should include playing games, drop me a line.

I have millions if not billions of y-chromosomes, but I have more traits typically associated with yin/feminine than a lot of guys do.
I don't believe there's a wrong way to dance. In practice, that can lead to some awkward moments when I try to dance with a partner, who typically ends up leading.
I've never smoked marijuana. I've never eaten brie.
I'm pretty good at cuddling. I'm not as good at sex. I might have a kink, but I don't know what it is.
I love the way bare skin feels after submersion in water. That's private but not secret.
My favorite sound in the world is the shrlchk of dry leaves 'neath my feet or bicycle tires. That's personal, but not private.
There is some private information I will never share, even with family. Passwords, mostly.

I tend to verbosity, so over five and a half years, this profile got imposingly long. I archived my old answers if you're really curious.

... the universe contains an odd number of atoms.
... you'd like to know either where I am or how fast I'm going.
... you're better at kissing than you are at math... but you're really good at math.

Try the wink hijack (formerly woo hijack): send me a wink/woo and I'll send you a random quote and an Elizabethan curse. If I can glean your musical tastes from your profile I'll also suggest an artist or two.

If you'd like to view the world through cactus-colored glasses. If you read something interesting at flwyd.livejournal.com. If you'd like to go for a hike or a bike ride. If you have a fiendishly clever pun you just have to share. If you think Pie Night sounds like a fabulous idea. If you'd like to know about the "Other" in the Religion category and why I'm laughing about it.

I'm a computer geek with a minor in philosophy. A fantasy gamer who hasn't played a computer game in years. An athiestic religious practitioner. A libertarian communist. A do-it-yourselfer who's always willing to help. A political activist who has issues working with people. A UNIX-advocating Mac user. Gregorian chant and heavy metal fan. Nudist with a great wardrobe. A busy procrastinator. Straight but not narrow. Jesus with a shark on his head. If any of these yin-yang pairings interest you, let me know.

You should message me if you want to play a game, have a conversation, go for a hike, watch a film, or explore a park.

I often leave my computer unattended (it's old enough to be out on its own) while I'm logged in to OKCupid. If you send me an instant message and I don't respond, I'm certainly not paying attention, not ignoring you. Please follow failed message attempts with other forms of contact. It should be a simple exercise for you to find other instant and delayed mechanisms of contacting me through the Internet. I make myself easy to find.

I'm not a big fan of the "Guys should pursue, gals shouldn't" dynamic. I think people should pursue anyone they find interesting. So if you'd like me to chase you, take the initiative and make the first move. I may be up for the chase, but couldn't come up with a clever opening line. Plus, I'm attracted to assertive women.