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My interests are flamboyantly geeky: I'm heavily into video games, techy stuff on computers, and all things SciFi. I write code for a living and crack esoteric references to my associates while doing so. Barrel of laughs, me. (Well, probably not, unless a slightly British-inspired, dry sense of humor tickles you.)

I also love collecting and reading books; while my library is small by some standards, it is larger than most own, and I am always adding books to it. Not a night goes by when I've not got my nose buried in part of my collection.

I'm very reticent and introverted, in person; while I can write long, semi-coherent missives, and even carry a conversation electronically, I do not fair as well in real life. Usually, though, if you know me well (Catch-22, anyone?), or pour a few drinks down my throat, my tongue loosens dramatically.

I've been progressively embracing a somewhat aggressive form of atheism. While I don't go proselytizing, I'm not against riling up a good argument with theists whenever they happen to (at times, unwittingly) broach the subject. I do not believe that religion has anything to do with morality (certainly, if history has anything to say about it, an inverse relationship appears to exist in the West), and I have issues with the lack of a wall of separation between church and state in the US. I'm not nihilistic, but I can be misanthropic.

I would love to live forever. (Just as long as I don't shrivel into a prune, or have my head severed from my body and stuffed into a jar.)

I am Geeky, Eccentric, and Taciturn

I'm currently doing the start-up thing, which is allowing me to spend time practicing my profession in an atypical, non-corporate setting; this also gives me a lot of time to spend on my hobbies.

I like to think that I'm rather good at designing and implementing quality software. I also, occasionally, butcher English grammar something terrible when I need to brain-dump.

Hurray! I think I qualify as, quite possibly, the most boring individual on OkCupid! Wunderbar!

I've a fairly long beard and really long hair. And I'm overweight. If people even bother to notice me, they probably exclaim something to the effect of, "Egad!* What the hell is that furry, blobbish monstrosity!?"

* (Well, nobody really says "egad" these days. Substitute for something terribly more offensive, to taste.)

It is hard to state what my favorites are: they are legion, unfortunately. That said, some highlights: Robert Heinlein and Terry Pratchett are two of my favorite authors, and I am getting rather excited by John Scalzi, Karl Schroeder, and Charles Stross. I've been slowly cataloging the books in my personal library over on GoodReads; should you be interested in seeing about a third of what I own (and what fascinates me as a reader), check out my profile at: http://www.goodreads.com/profile/joshuabowers.

With few exceptions, I'm generally not terribly critical about the movies I see; as long as I'm not offended by the premise of a film, chances are I'll be a staunch supporter of it. (Exception: I have issues with Jackson's Lord of the Rings, even though I would be the first to admit that he did hit critical plot points rather well.) In accordance with my geekdom, science fiction movies are always welcome (although they typically end up being nothing more than action movies with large special effects budgets), and I can enjoy the occasional zombie flick every now and then. (As that really is nothing specific, here, should ye still be reading, is a couple of movies I saw recently that I thought were excellent: Sunshine, Stardust, MirrorMask, 3:10 to Yuma, 28 Days Later, Sweeny Todd, and I Am Legend (which I thought was much better than Charlton Heston's Omega Man).)

My musical tastes flutter all over the place, but some of my favorite groups are Pink Floyd, Goldfrapp, and NIN. I generally like aurally complex music and so tend to shy away from most older stuff. I've been recently getting into Porcupine Tree, and am an on-again-off-again fan of Sigur Ros; Rammstein, Marilyn Manson, and KMFDM flow on my playlists, but I don't quite care for all of their music. The most abrasive stuff I have would probably be either Ministry or Combichrist. I also really dig movie and TV soundtracks, so if I happen across one that sounds good, I typically pick it up; Danny Elfman is probably my favorite movie soundtrack artist. Also, while exceptions do occasionally exist, I absolutely abhor Country, Pop, and Rap. Contrariwise, I'm a rather big fan of the Gorillaz, "Weird Al" Yankovic, The Doors, and Iron Butterfly. My library also contains My Dying Bride, The Cure, and a little Modest Mouse. Finally, I love Orff's Carmina Burana, adore Ravel's Bolero, and enjoy Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique

I, most unfortunately, love food a bit excessively: I'll pretty much stomach anything put in front of me, so long as all the wobbly bits have been properly taken care of. I really like spicy food (even though really spicy stuff tends to give me hiccups), and am always down (assuming my wallet is not running dry) for a sushi run. Oddly, I'm not terribly big on sweet-stuff; I tend to reserve sweets and chocolate for exceptional occasions.

Reading material (preferably books);
music;
video game entertainment;
a fast internet connection;
software creation utilities;
I dunno: cheese?

World domination.

Er, I mean: books I'm currently reading; problems with software I'm writing that I'm trying to solve; how overrated the Wii is; whichever game I'm currently engrossed in; whichever socio-political issues I've stumbled across on the net; sleep!

After using a particularly cliche phrase, I occasionally find myself wondering about the actual semantics of the phrase. Seriously, who or what the hell is "it"? There are a lot of crazy gaps of missing words or sub-phrases in spoken English, which most speakers are extremely comfortable with, but these gaps often result in phrases which are extremely vacuous!

Trapped in my own world, an unenviable existence of boredom and misery of my own devising.

Songs I find especially poignant can occasionally bring me to tears, a somewhat embarrassing fact which is only exacerbated when the songs in question have not been on my play-list for some time.

(Private thing number 2: Despite having a large library, I feel I'm not as well read as I should be.)

(Private thing number 3: I know absolutely nothing about music theory, which I feel would probably help me to appreciate my collection even more.)

Find me interesting? Let me know about it.