I'm a pile of apparent contradictions. I'm an academic-type and studied philosophy, but like to wrestle around and train in boxing. I'm incredibly shy around people I don't know, but love to talk with people and become an enthusiastic conversationalist with very little prodding. Friends have described me as 'priestly' or 'monkish' despite having no religious sensibilities. I'm a homebody who never made the two hour drive to Canada but hopped a plane to Fiji for my first trip to another country. I worry about money all the time, but took time from my job to waste money in eastern Europe. Probably some other stuff.

So I'm not sure that I make a whole lot of sense, but do consider myself a first-rate Nice Guy, and have a lot of energy for meeting people and trying and learning things I haven't tried or learned before.

I think life is good or bad mainly depending on the existence or absence of fulfilling, meaningful, and present personal relationships, and think that modern life urges us too strongly to consider people as secondary to career or experiences.

That's a very good question. I've spent the past few years alternating between trail work and working with high schoolers. Maybe I'll go on and actually do what it takes to become a real teacher. I don't know, it would take the right program.

In the meantime, I fled to Eastern Europe.

Finding the funny side
Moon-walking
Hugging (I get comments, even)
Talking about pretty much anything
Getting small children to accept me as one of their own
Explaining the proper way to choke a larger person unconscious
Back rubs
Self-deprecating humor
Heating up Tony's Original Crust frozen pizza

is how bad I am at reading what people notice about me. You would have to ask them.

I would say that people's first impression of me is either that I'm extremely shy or extremely outgoing, with very little in-between, and it's entirely dependent on the circumstances of our meeting.

Right now, my favorite books are those by Malcolm Gladwell, but really that's a cop-out because that's what I'm reading right now and I can't figure out a better answer.

My favorite movies include (but are not limited to) Terminator 2, Dr. Strangelove, Braveheart, the parts of King Kong that actually involve the ape, and Batman: The Dark Knight. They used to include the original Star Wars before George Lucas killed my childhood. I'm still kind of upset about it.

I'm strange in that listening to music is not something I go out of my way to do, so I end up listening to whatever other people have on. I am strongly tempted to cop out and say 'a little bit of everything', which is true, but I do tend to like older music like Louis Armstrong or music without words, like classical or techno. But I don't even use an iPod.

I fought this for a long time, but my favorite food is pizza. I used to think I should pick something fancier, like lobster or filet mignon, but it's honestly pizza. If you take bread, heat it up, put stuff on it, and then maybe heat it up again, I'm very happy. That describes almost all of my favorite foods. With the exception of pasta. But pizza is king.

My water bottle (with caribeener attached so that I can clip it to my belt-loop)

A back-up water bottle in case my first one runs out

Floss

Friends

A computer

A little space of my own

The big stuff, like death, love, our place in the universe, whether we can reach long-term sustainability without violating human rights that we take for granted (and whether we should anyway if the answer is no).

I like people that I can talk casually and half-jokingly with about that sort of thing, but also sometimes need people to drag me back down to the moment and have fun immediately.

At boxing training

I've recently tried night-clubbing for the first time in my life in the Balkans, and still don't quite understand how it actually works. So far, I usually just get bored.

You like to have half-witty conversations but also like to act like a monkey from time to time.

If you're committed to not being 'done' (meaning "I am what I am and I know what I want and I don't have time to try anything else")

If you're smart, fun, fit, attractive, and have a sense of humor.

If you take other people more seriously than you take yourself.

If you're mature enough to know when it's cool to be immature.

If anything I've said seems at all interesting to you.