I just moved out to the Bay Area this summer (recent transplant from GA) and I'm trying to get out and explore the city in between commutes down to the south bay for work.

In general, I guess I would describe myself as optimistic and passionate. I tend to speak loudly, quickly, and with lots of gestures. I think that's my body's way of trying to keep up with my brain. I get excited about new ideas and new ways to think about old ideas.

Working and traveling - luckily I stumbled into the dream job that lets me do both!

I'm also trying to save the world...with math!

Keeping track of conversations. Seriously, I'll link a point back to something you said 12 topics ago.

Books: The Princess Bride, Little Brother, Anathem, DMZ

Movies: LotR, Almost Famous, And the Band Played On, When Harry Met Sally, and, sadly, just about any terrible action flick out there that features explosions and cheesy dialogue.

tv: Ever since moving out here I've gotten the sense that I'm supposed to be ashamed of liking tv. But I say when you've spent the day thinking incredibly hard, a little white noise never hurt anyone. Particularly enjoyable white noise includes Mad Men, Bones, House*, How I Met Your Mother, Burn Notice**, West Wing
*formulaic? yes. would I watch Hugh Laurie read the newspaper? Absolutely.
**I love the totally serious voice-overs teaching me how to be a spy.

blogs: boingboing, calitics, Ezra Klein, LGM, Sociological Images, Bitch, PhD

music: anything is better live

food: chocolate, preferably, but just about anything that isn't seafood is ok by me. (note: I don't mind if *you* like seafood, just please don't try to convince me that I'll like it, or that my problem is I haven't tried seafood from x location. I have accepted that my taste buds are broken when it comes to all edible things that spend time in water.)

which new neighborhood to explore

how to justify what I'm doing *right now*

how to be a little braver

I used an xkcd cartoon as the cover slide for my dissertation defense. I guess that's not very private, since the roomful of people I proceeded to bore to tears obviously knew about it, but it's a pretty geeky thing to admit right up front.

you're a socialized geek. I spent five years at a tremendously nerdy university, and although I will always have a little place in my heart for the socially awkward, you should be able to hold up your end of the conversation and have a vague sense of social cues.

you proofread your e-mails before hitting send.