I'm a delicate balance of intellectual, playful, irreverent and warm. A renaissance man mixed with inspired engineer, if I may be so bold. I like thinking about what makes people and societies tick. I read a fair amount, both fiction and non-fiction, and seek out anything with creative ideas and/or beautiful language. I usually have three or four books going simultaneously (albeit slowly - I even drifted backwards in one).

I like adventures and have spent some great time overseas, as a professional dancer (very briefly), surfing, playing marimba and public speaking. Yes, I sometimes get nervous, but it's fun.

I'm physically active and health conscious. I started as a disciple of the 'fat free is guilt free!' school of nutrition in college (lots of jellybeans), but have modernized since then. I love soccer, though a pulled hammy has kept me in the gym or surfing recently.

Montage of seasonal concepts I love: falling asleep to rainfall, dew on the grass, moss on the trees, jumping in leaf piles, pumpkin pie, making snowmen and snow angels, snuggling up in big fluffy comforters, hot cocoa before a fire, driving in snowstorms, ice skating, walking outside in the perfect silence after a snowfall, thunder and lightening, cicadas, swimming in lakes, frogs and iced Manischewitz.

Some other pleasures: a casual glass of wine, witty banter, peppermint shower gel, sleeping on sailboats, starting on hills in a manual car, black&white cookies, reading by candlelight, watching frogs by a pond, engineering and math, reading anything on evolutionary psychology, sit ups, drawing, reading the introductions of books, stepping to avoid sidewalk cracks, ginger, dark chocolate and of course singing in the shower.

Professionally, I'm a software engineer. I work in a large software company on a project I started a few years ago with a few friends making a big bet on some cool new algorithms. I'm looking around at startups and may jump into that world soon.

I've been visiting Boston a few times recently - it's a fantastic city I think it would be fun to live in some day.

I'm pretty empathic, which I know is surprising for an engineer.

I'm also really good with mechano-electrical systems. I don't know quite why, but I grok anything with a moving part or electricity in it. It's uncanny.

My deep, melodious voice? I tend to brighten up rooms and am outgoing. I find people either laughing or looking at me with very puzzled expressions.

Ginger - seriously, it really is ambrosia. If I could vote it into office, I would. All right, all right. Cornbread and smoothies are also mighty tasty.

Great fiction I've read recently includes David Copperfield (Dickens), Snow Crash (Stephenson) and Winter's Tale (Helprin). For non-fiction, I recently finished 'The China Study' (about diet and health), 'The Bottom Billion' (about development economics), and 'The Emergence of Probability' (story of where the crazy notion of probability came from). My favorite book of the past, say 5 years, is Seeing Like a State (Scott).

A Dictionary
My orchid plant which promised it will finally flower this year
My kitchen faucet - for watering said plant
An internet connection
Nature
Water (lake or ocean) nearby

How to parallel park without backing up a second time..

OK, and sometimes I also think about the commonalities between different religions and science. It'd be fun to write a book comparing, for example, traditional psychology with new-age mysticism. They have a lot in common.

Got a crew I get dinner with every Friday. Our mission is to sample all the Mexican places in the south bay. After that sometimes a wine bar for a glass, or often home to relax with a book.

I haven't had sex since the Clinton administration. :P

You are smart, thoughtful, questioning, witty and athletic.