Hello everyone!

Let's see here; my name's Adrian, I'm leader of a small team at an office hidden away in the darkest parts of Derby, and as much as I tend to dislike labels, I'd most readily describe myself as a geek. A genuine computer-programming, web-surfin, rock-listening geek. I even watch anime sometimes.

...If you're still reading, you're probably one of the people who knows that it's possible to be a geek without being a social leper. Yeah, that's right; I'm a geek AND a likeable person, with real-life friends and everything! Honest! I'm trustworthy and reliable, and I live by a simple 2 step philosophy; always try to do the right thing, and accept that sometimes you won't.

What am I doing? Currently, I'm fearlessly leading a brave group of "Information Assistants" to do battle with the forces of paperwork. Apart from that, I'm trying to;

* Teach myself to program worth a damn, so I can move into a proper IT job,
* Pay off the loans from having to move a couple of years in a row, getting ripped off in the middle... Not a huge issue, just a matter of time.
* Trying to find a lady-friend. Yep, I'm now officially in my late 20s and looking for luuuurve.
* Oh God, did I just use the word "luuuurve"? I did, didn't I. Sorry about that. Please keep reading?

Ooooh, let me see; As mentioned above I'm a geek, and therefore I have geek powers, like "setting up that new thing I bought", and "working out why my computer keeps crashing". I'm a naturally helpful guy to have around. Not just in a tech sense; I'm a great listener, I apparently give good advice, AND I'll trap any nearby wasps and throw them outside for you. I'm a naturally knoledgeibl...knowlegab... clever person, and for a lot of people I'm their first port of call when they need help with pretty much anything. I'm capable, and willing to help... friends use phrases like "The kind of guy who'd do anything for you", albeit often followed by "that's why people take advantage". :/

I also know the words to most of the worst pop songs ever, and various childrens TV shows, especially ones I never watched. I have no idea how this happened to me.

They'll probably notice how easy I am to talk to. It's a weird thing... I sometimes feel like I have trouble talking, but everyone else seems really relaxed around me, and it tends to get commented on a lot by people who know me.

Films; Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz are both great, so are Aliens and Blade runner but for different reasons. And Fight Club, GREAT movie. The Holy Grail is fantastic. Actually, pretty much anything Monty Python is.

Books; I used to read a lot of Terry Pratchett, and until very recently I considered myself a big Pratchett fan... but the truth is, his last few books are piling up in my room unread. I don't know if I don't have the time, or if I'm just not into him as much as I used to.

Music; The Foo Fighters are great, and about as mainstream as I get. My taste in music changes every 3 years or so; currently I'm into ambient electronic stuff, but frankly as long as it doesn't involve someone who personally knows either Britney Spears of Ronan Keating, I'm probably fine with it. A lot of random stuff gets thrown in here; Most Indie and Rock, a bit of punk, even nerdcore.

It's not specifically mentioned, but for TV I tend to like cartoons (as in Family Guy, Simpsons, South Park and other more mature stuff), and Sci-Fi (Firefly, you died too young :() Having said that, I don't tend to watch TV except when at a friend's, although there are some shows I "acquire" by other means known only to geekdom.

Bypassing obvious, silly answers like "my keys!" and "oxygen!"...

1. The internet. I could go days, weeks without the 'net, but I find it really useful, and I find I can answer a lot of questions for myself and others with it. It's just a tool, but a very powerful one.
2. My phone. I mean, OK, EVERYONE puts down their mobile phone, and frankly I probably like it less than most... it sometimes feel more like a curse than a blessing, somewhere people can always get you even when you don't want them to... but it's just too damned useful when you need it.
3. My laptop. Ooooh, my lovely little Eee, how did I ever do without you?
4. My coat. This is not a normal coat, ohh no. This is a Scott E Vest 4.0 Tactical System, with dozens of pockets, a lining that lets you run wires and things through it, a complicated weight-distribution system... these are the kinds of coats the US Secret Service use. The perfect item for the geek on the go.
5. Hmm, getting trickier now, really tempted to say "my wallet" and have done with. Ooooh, of course, my friends! It is COMPLETELY mandatory that one of the entries on these lists has to be "my friends", no matter who you are.
6. Screw it; my wallet.

Wow, a tricky one. I spend time thinking about a LOT of things. Some of these things are important in a personal manner, like "how do I make this piece of code work" or "what should I have for tea tonight". Others are more important in a broad sense... I do spend time thinking of whether gun ownership in America is actually bad, or whether it's just been done in a bad way. I think about how anyone could honestly think the Iraq war was a good idea, or how someone should have sued the BBC for the whole "TV Detector van" hoax. Some people still believe those things actually worked, you know?

A month ago, a typical Friday night was spent at a mate's house, playing games and then putting a film on with the intention of watching it, but actually just making jokes about it the whole way through. Now, I spend it wondering what I need to take to my friend in hospital, but hopefully not for much longer!

Hmmm... a coin flip. Heads, it's a joke answer, tails, a serious one.

Heads!

The truth is... I'm just not as geeky as I'd always thought I was going to be. For Gods sake, I can't even make a basic PHP page work with a MySQL database! (And if you know what that means, you are the PERFECT woman. Call me, seriously.)

BONUS ADMISSION; when I first wrote this section, I did the coin toss and got heads, but got mixed up and thought that was the one to be truthful. I decided to go "best 2 out of 3", and got another heads. I got to "best out of 13" before I decided to give up and just say I was pretending it was what I wanted... and it wasn't until I rechecked my profile I realised Heads was for the joke answer all along. Doh!

OK, lets get serious for a minute here. I'm what they call a "nice guy". I haven't had a relationship in a long while, because I get into the friend place very easily. I'm not shy in general terms, but when it comes to being open with someone about how I feel, I stumble, and it's led to me being hurt in the past. So if you're after friendship, I'm sorry, but you should look elsewhere... I've got way too many "just friends" already, to the point I now describe "friend" as the other F word. But hey, at least there'll be no confusion about where I want things to go, right?

That aside, if I sound like the kind of guy you want to get to know better, meet up and talk, then send me a message. In fact, I can simplify further; If you want a guy who will spend the first date very carefully looking at your face instead of your chest, I'm probably the guy for you. What have you got to lose, right?