Carl Sagan is my hero.

I am a recent college-grad. I studied mathematics, chemistry, and computer science mainly -- I'm a nerd. But I work in finance now, so I also qualify as a "quant."

1. Defusing billions and billions of tense encounters with calm negotiations.
2. Arguing trivial matters (especially matters of philosophy).
2.5 I can talk knowedgeably about (or feign familiarity with) too many especially obscure topics.
3. Driving people crazy.
3.5 Playful banter.
4. Motivating my friends.
5. Teaching (especially scientific/philosophical/mathematical/technological/anthropological
/historical matters)
5.5. Enlightening others with pedantic-random-sometimes-interesting facts.
6. Working with computers: programming, playing video games, etc.
7. Ping pong forehand smashes.
7.5 Ping pong backhand chops.
8. Languages (I was raised multilingual) and accents.
9. Tinkering with machines.

0. I look (disturbingly) younger than my age suggests.
1. {Erased}
2. I look like someone you feel like you know, but can't remember.
3. I'm funny and enlightening in an ironical way.
4. I'm cultured, yet incongruous.
5. I look taller and skinnier than I actually am.

There are just too many (I love a wide variety of books, movies, music, and food). But I'll make an effort to list a representative sample.

Favorite books/authors (in no real order):
* George Orwell (1984)
* Orson Scott Card (Ender series, half of the Bean series, other works)
* Frank Herbert (Dune series)
* Isaac Asimov (Foundation series, Robot series, other works)
* J. R. R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings series)
* J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter series)
* G. R. R. Martin (Song of Ice and Fire -- but every time I start liking a character, he/she dies a few pages later, WTF?)
* Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
* Jhumpa Lahiri (The Namesake and other works)
* H. P. Lovecraft (random stuff)
* Steve Pinker (nonfiction/linguistics)
* Noam Chomsky (nonfiction/politics/formal linguistics)
* Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell)
* Neil Gaiman (he can improve his climaxes and denouements)
* Michael Spivak (mathematics)
* Michael Sipser (theory of computation)
* Donald Knuth (pretty much anything)
* Howard Zinn (history/nonfiction),
* Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead -- didn't like the ending too much though)
* Jared Diamond (nonfiction/anthro)
* Richard Dawkins (nonfiction)
* Too many others

Favorite movies (again in no real order):
* Schindler's List
* Gandhi
* Dead Poets Society
* Lord of the Rings
* The Social Network
* Ip Man
* The Dark Knight
* Star Wars Series
* Lord of the Rings Series
* Harry Potter Series
* Agora
* The Matrix
* The English Patient
* Pan's Labyrinth
* Too many others (including many foreign ones)

Favorite music (no order):
* Pink Floyd
* A. R. Rahman
* Coldplay
* OneRepublic
* Freddie Mercury
* Maksim Mrvica
* Diskoteka Avariya
* Sa Dingding
* Yann Tiersen
* Regular pop music including Taylor Swift, Lupe Fiasco, etc.
* Classical music
* Trance/Electronica
* Central Asian/Middle Eastern/Indian music
* Disney soundtracks
* Anime soundtracks

Favorite shows:
* I was always obsessed with anime... and it deserves its own entire section, but there is too much to say, so I will leave it unsaid.
* I love certain classic speculative shows like Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, etc.
* I also like some popular shows on TV such as SNL, House, The Daily Show, Burn Notice, Game of Thrones, Psych.
* I really enjoy some recent British TV shows like Misfits, Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Being Human.
* I like some science documentaries as well: The Elegant Universe, Absolute Zero, Fermat's Enigma, Carl Sagan's Cosmos (if you haven't, you MUST at least see the Pale Blue Dot segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g )

Favorite food:
* Vegetarian food from Italy, India, Middle East, China, Japan, Central America, Ethiopia, Greece, Thailand, and elsewhere.
* Ice-cream.

* Family/friends
* Modern technology -- especially computers and the internet
* Books (on everything)
* Delicious food
* Nature
* Humanity

* The future (my future as well as the future of the world).
* The past.
* Philosophy, science, technology, mathematics.
* The present (my situation as well as that of humanity and the environment).

Being powerful and strong... you know... like Arnold.

I like to think that I am an open book. But if I have to admit something, I guess I will admit that I dislike arbitrary rules and absolutes so much that I often fixate on challenging them (unfortunately, this tendency sometimes leads to my own undoing).

You want to have a conversation about something really random (or not).

If you read this far into my profile without becoming intimidated, you deserve an award so message me and I will give you one.