By the old three-word scheme that used to be the norm here, I think I'd go with: Unconventional, loyal, and compassionate.

In more words, I tend toward being quiet and reserved, but friendly. (I am aware of the contradiction, yes.) That quietness, however, should not be mistaken for a lack of passion - for things and people I care deeply about, I can be quite the little firebrand. I'm very interested in social justice (equal rights, opportunity equality, and the like) and in environmental advocacy and do a lot of work with local environmental advocacy groups, usually as a field volunteer. It's an awful lot of fun, though often tiring as heck.

I enjoy trying new things (I'll try almost anything once) and learning about stuff. I'm a hands-on person who likes getting into the middle of tasks and pitching in. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I like doing arts and crafts stuff (origami and sewing mainly, with a little bit of pottering around drawing.) I'm only really good at the origami, but enjoy it all, including learning new crafts.

I'm a loyal friend, and always willing to help out in a pinch, though I'm not so good about accepting help or admitting that I need it. It's something I'm working on.

I'm also a bit of an Anglophile, a nerd, a SCAdian (is that redundant with the nerdity? I dunno), and am fond of wordplay, puns, and jokes (perhaps too much.)

Oh, and I now has a little black kitty.

As far as what I do for a living, I'm a project/test engineer for Boeing - I basically help make sure airplane stuff gets tested before it gets put on airplanes. Working for Boeing has sent me to some interesting places - China, Israel, and most recently Japan (for three months!) In general, the travel was fun, both for the sake of seeing new things and getting to meet new people (and getting to entertain people with my bumbling attempts to speak Chinese, Hebrew, and, most recently, Japanese), but I won't deny that it always felt good to come home.

Outside of that, I spend a lot of time volunteering with environmental concerns around the Sound, helping to make the Sound a healthier place for wildlife, and especially salmon. It's really neat watching a work site evolve over the years and turn from a field overgrown with blackberry into a fledgling forest, with trees and shrubs and everything. I'm seriously thinking about going back to school and getting an environmental degree and working for an environmental nonprofit - this sort of thing means a lot to me. I'll talk your ear off about the importance of riparian wetland and estuary habitat if you let me (or want me to.)

I also play in the Society for Creative Anachronism, and am a pretty good hand with sword and bow (though not both at once.)

For relaxation, I like to read and do craftsy stuff with origami if I'm not doing stuff with friends (going to a show, having a meal together, or just chillin'.)

Cooking and baking. Making bad puns and well-timed rejoinders (or entendres.) Pitching in to lend a hand. Giving reasoned advice and being a devil's advocate. Entertainingly, apparently being upbeat even when I'm being grumpity.

I also enjoy singing and being sarcastic (especially songs that let me be sarcastic). And cats seem to generally like me - I've had several experiences with "unfriendly" cats who'll wander up to me and start headbutting my hand.

Usually it's my hat, I think. I've got several.

Favorite books: The Discworld series for their humor and deft skewering of Roundworld (this one). The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire. Dostoevsky's in there too, along with Dumas, Austen, and Anne McCaffrey. For non-fiction, I tend to read a lot of histories and political discourses.
Favorite movies: Anything by Jean-Pierre Jeunet or Hayao Miyazaki will get my attention. Miyazaki will probably turn me into a dreamy five-year-old, though, to my eternal shame, I have not yet watched My Neighbour Totoro. Stardust and The Princess Bride are high up there too.
Favorite shows: I don't watch a lot of telly, actually. I've got Babylon 5 and Firefly on video, though. I still have to watch Season 1 of The Office (a friend got it for me for a present) - it reminded me too much of work to be anything other than painful. I'm slowly getting back into anime, as well.
Favorite music: I'm pretty eclectic, really, though my tastes run to J-pop, classical music, and a lot of Canadian indie bands.
Favorite food: Again, I'm kinda eclectic here too, though I've a weakness for Mediterranean food as well as Japanese. And thank goodness for all the wonderful local cheeses.

Good company (good friends, if you like), I think, is the one thing I couldn't do without.
Nice to have:
Being close to nature, and especially the water (oceans or rivers).
Music, live or otherwise.
Good books.
Lately, a pack of origami paper.

Trying to figure myself out and what I want to do with my life - working for Boeing certainly isn't in the long-term cards. A degree in environmental science and public policy (or maybe renewable power?) seems like a good idea right now - if I'm going to make a career change, I might as well choose a field I believe makes a difference, right?

Lately, I've been considering making another thousand origami cranes to send to Hiroshima as a wish for world peace.

I'm oddly sentimental.

If you enjoy wordplay and silliness. If you think that what each of us does matters in the greater sense of things, and think it's worth trying to make the world a better place.