Summaries are for machine parts, a full page cannot describe me in all my glorious complexities and egregious shortcomings. I'd like to think of myself as a spectrum of colors and moods though to a casual onlooker, it might all be a monochromatic melange. Ask me questions about myself and you'd still find I suck at answering. The only way to know me is to know me :)

On my day job, I work as a Broadcast Engineer (I always struggle to explain what it is I do to people unfamiliar with the TV industry).

Outside work, I am usually training for some marathon/triathlon. Running is a personal passion and goes a long way to keep me fit. I did briefly delve in kickboxing but got the crap beaten out of me repeatedly and decided it wasn't my thing :)

Computers, Table Tennis, Cooking

I am not very tall (5 ft 7 in.) by Dutch standards where men top 6 feet frequently, I guess that is noticeable ;)

Right, this is going to be a big list.

Books first, I can't live without them and have to read at least one every week. Some of my favorites include :

"The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran

The C Programming Language by K&R (the best and most succinct literature on the language. Told you I am a geek.)

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Crichton's sci-fi stuff (for the sheer freshness of thought and disruptive ideas, some of them dangerously close to reality)

A Brief History of Time (brilliance of Hawkins, science made gripping)

As the Crow Flies ... (heart warming and heart wrenching at times, Lord Archer's pie'ce de' resistance)

Gödel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R Hofstadter

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.Tolkien (fantasy at its absolute best. eminently readable if you ignore the liberal doses of poetry sprayed all over the book).

1984 by George Orwell (the future is scary, ain't it)

Watchmen by Alan Moore (one of the best graphic novels of all times)

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Harry Potter series - J.K.Rowling (it's not just for kids, its a fun read for all ages)

.... and many many more ...

Music ::

I am a big classical music buff. My favorites include Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Handel, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky (Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker ah !), Richard Wagner, Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus (better known to most of us as Mozart), J.S. Bach (the senior Bach), Pachelbel, Brahms, Philip Glass, Verdi, Bizet ... - once you actually start to understand the charm of classical music, everything else starts to sound unimpressive and pale in comparison.

I am a bass addict. Metallica, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, System of a Down, Green Day, Rammstein, Children of Bodom, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Nightwish, Linkin Park, Van Halen, Megadeth, The Who and AC/DC for pulsating sounds that keep me pumped up.

Yanni, for operatic music that lifts the soul. Nostalgia is a personal favorite. I am really beginning to like Ludovico Einaudi and Yiruma amongst contemporary classical musicians.

Other artists I love : Dire Straits, Phil Collins, Coldplay, Billy Joel, Enya, Celtic Woman, Westlife, Bryan Adams, John Denver, Hayley Westenra.

Movies ::

The GodFather (the best English movie ever made), Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Matrix trilogy (I didn't really like the third part ...), A Beautiful Mind, Apocalypse Now, The Ring, A Clockwork Orange, The Omen, Swades, City of God, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Schindler's List, The Queen, Cast Away, The Terminal, The Day of the Jackal, American History X, Fight Club, V for Vendetta, Ocean's Eleven, The Butterfly Effect, Sixth Sense, Forrest Gump, Star Wars, Taare Zameen Par, The Illusionist, Seven, Der Untergang, The Devil Wears Prada, Silence of the Lambs, No Country For Old Men, When Harry Met Sally, Groundhog Day, Pirates of the Carribean, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ...

Food ::

I am not so fussy about any cuisine or genre of food, though I am partial to Italian food in general and lemon tart in particular.

Books, Classical Music, Google, Cell Phone, Oxygen and my freedom.

I don't space out all that often but when I do, its usually reminiscences of what happened that day (I prefer to call this "chewing the cud").

Chilling off with a beer or wine at home, reading a book or watching the telly or out with friends in a pub.

I like listening to sappy, sweet songs sometimes though I would never admit to it if you ask me ;)

You are keen to have intellectual companionship ... I have a well defined world-view and would like to hear yours if you can articulate that.