The final months of grad school seem to have ground me into il_hamster butter. It will be over soon, and I hope to emerge, blinking, into the summer sunlight, and regain my life. In such a golden age, I'll put my bike back together and use it to find the ice cream. I'll also owe my guitar a series of elaborate apologies: lately I've been playing with experiments and TeX more than it. How can I explain myself!?

School wasn't so bad. Actually, it was great. I took my time, smelled just a whole bunch of flowers, and made a lot of lasting friendships. I learned several dead languages very poorly and got my activism on. I drank innumerable beers. What a blast!

So why end it? I can drag the ABD out for as long as I like, right? I guess after a while grad school ended up being like real work. I'd have morning meetings and presentations to prepare. And then one day, as the alarm jangled me awake just in time for me to hear one of my crappy student roommates in my crappy student housing head to our one bathroom with his laptop, there to camp out for half an hour, I realised it was time to go and get started on this job thing. Also money. Money can and will buy a private bathroom for me.

I'm looking for a partner who's excited about both giving and receiving affection, willing to talk openly about what she thinks and how she feels, is really engaged in the world, and is competent and proud of it.

I am joyous, reasonable, and proud

Finishing my Ph.D. I start my damn dissertation this weekend and will defend probably around May. I have also, sagely, taken on a job with Intel, which has left me surprisingly busy. The job is in Champaign at the moment, but the great thing about Intel is that they're everywhere, and I can work from home most of the time.

I've got big plans for when I graduate. I get an expenses-paid trip to Beijing to present at a conference in June, and that will be terrific. Soon I'll have the time to travel again: one of my favorite things. This summer, I plan to go visit friends in Chicago every chance I get. When here in town, I'll lounge on porches during long summer sunsets, drinking beer and playing guitar, before retiring to watch movies and eat pizza. I'll find hikes for the weekends and theater for evenings.

If OKC means "What I am doing with my life today," probably going to the gym.

Playing folk guitar.

Also, I know a lot of words and etymologies, can type fast, can program, and I have a killer music collection. I'm not really good at reading Sanskrit, but I'm sure better than average.

I want to be good at chess. but I'm not really.

I'm getting better at drinking wine.

I'm really good at reckanizing how great GoatMasterFlash's profile is.

I've got red hair.

a) I never am without a book, and sometimes have a couple going. The Secret History. Hyperion and its sequel (the SF novel, not the poem, tho I am fond of Keats). A Distant Mirror. Anything by Geoffrey Bibby. All Neal Stephenson. I have loved Plato. Shakespeare owns me, both read and seen. The Master and Commander series is a trip. I like historical fiction. Scott Turow writes entirely decent lawyer novels. I'm quite fond of Science Fiction, but I'd rather the characters be believable than the science. I damn love This American Life and have admired many books by TAL commentators. I have recently been positively transported by The Poisonwood Bible, and branching out into other Barbara Kingsolver works has been rewarding. Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke, H. P. Lovecraft, Eric Schlosser ...

I found 'The Da Vinci code' wretched, I'm sorry to say.

b) Oddly, among the most memorable movies to me is The Long Runner. Recently, I have also admired A History of Violence. I really like Miyazaki, and totally love Kubrick. I'll eagerly look forward to a new Christopher Guest, Wes Anderson, or Coen brothers film. Superbad, Napoleon Dynamite, and especially Juno had me grinning throughout. Jim Jarmusch. The Dollars Trilogy.

I am something of a film slut, though, and will find something to enjoy in nearly any independent film or foreign film good enough to make it here, and in many a hollywood film too -- particularly if I can see it with my dad. Basically, I love watching films, go often, and generally have a grand time.

c) I am not a music slut. Some music going on now: Belle and Sebastian, The Shins, The New Pornographers, Manu Chao, The Decemberists, Rilo Kiley, Aesop Rock. Andrew Bird, The Magnetic Fields, The Flaming Lips, The Mountain Goats, The Go-Betweens, Tullycraft, They Might Be Giants, Billy Bragg, Neutral Milk Hotel, Mark Knopfler, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Iron and Wine, Sufjan Stevens, MC 900 ft. Jesus, is he still around? Morcheeba, more. I am twee. I love the Katamari Damacy soundtrack.

Of bygone days: Nick Drake, Yes, The Smiths, Dire Straits, Jethro Tull, Cub, Violent Femmes, Elliott Smith, Led Zeppelin, early Pink Floyd, The Doors, and so forth. Queen makes me so happy! Everybody likes The Beatles.

I love folk! Pete Seeger and his sister Peggy Seeger, her husband Ewan MacColl, Simon and Garfunkel, Equation, Bill Frisell, Peter, Paul, and Mary, The Kingston Trio, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Townes van Zandt, and otherns besides. I listen to and sometimes play Irish music.

I have a real passion for Folk Baroque or English folk revival, a particularly English variety of folk that was happening from the late 60s to the 80s. Pentangle, its guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Martin Carthy, Davy Graham, Dave Swarbrick, and the incomparable Nic Jones are all favorite examples.

I like real Baroque too. J.S. Bach is my man: my new project is trying to learn the lute suites. I also love John Dowland, Gaspar Sanz, and Robert de Visee. Vivaldi shows baroque isn't cold at all!

d) I love cheeses, especially blue ones, and bread. I'll try anything without meat, and nothing with meat. I am vegetarian.

I'm passionate about great beer and single-malt scotch whisky. I'm also getting into wine.

Everything good was made by microorganisms.

Also) Achewood, Leisuretown, Dinosaur comics, Perry bible fellowship, mnftiu, girlsarepretty. Nova, Frontline, British comedies including Look Around You, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Obviously friends & family. My pet, the awesome hamster Potato.

Then, a good small guitar, my music, the internet, and a source of good things to read.

Also please don't take away my electric blanket.

People and how we work.

My friends.

How I can fix the things that bother me.

Finishing the Damn Dissertation.

The future.

My future.

Drinkin with friends, going to a movie, walking with friends, seeing a show, or perhaps staying in and reading or playing on the internet. If I have time before it closes i might go to the gym. Often I'll drop by the Juicebox.

Used to be I spent some Friday nights working on conference submissions. NO MORE! Screw this Ph.D!*

*If you're getting a Ph.D and you're not jaded, tell me about it. That'll be refreshing.

* Kicking back with some alcohol and Star Trek often sounds nice to me.

* I used to be pretty fat. Becoming not-so has been the greatest thing I've done aside from learning to play guitar.

* I love the hell out of hamsters.

If you would write me, first make sure you're not a bot. I don't respond to bots. I also think propositioning me for sex is pretty unclassy, and for both our sakes I'll pretend you didn't do it.

I'd like to hear it if anything in my profile struck a chord. I want to hear about music or authors or movies I might like. I also really like stories, like the one about the rope bridge you crossed in Peru or how your old car used to roll its own windows down.

I love Scrabulous. Write me if you want a game.