I'm finding more and more often I really don't fit into anyone's categories. Looking at me, I look like a fairly normal, somewhat conventional geek, but I feel like my life's gone too many places for "conventional" to describe me. Or maybe I'm just deluding myself, and I'm just as normal as anyone is. I don't think so, though.

I'm cynical, but hopelessly romantic. I really don't think should go together, but yet they do.

I am geeky, quiet, and unconventional

Finishing up a second master's degree and thinking about what I'm going to do with it, fixing up my house, hanging out with friends, playing on my computer, fiddling with various electronic gadgets, fixing everyone's computers, thinking way too much.

I've recently started working hard at living healthier. This doesn't mean I don't enjoy sacking out on the couch and watching a movie...but I'm finding myself more interested in going out and doing something. I love good food, so I can always make an exception for a good restaurant, but I have little interest in hitting "crap" food joints any more. Maybe it's just a sign of getting older, but dammit, I want vegetables with my meals, and french fries don't count.

Part of my motivation is my discovery of cycling. I have no intention of racing, but I really do love spending hours riding the countryside, and challenging myself to push up that next hill, go a little faster, make it through that next mile. I've never been exceptionally athletic, but this has really captivated me.

Finding information, remembering odd details about people that I really have no reason to remember, grasping complex systems without understanding minutiae, and remembering geographic directions. I think my brain is really cluttered with the latter.

My hobbit-like proportions....minus the furry feet. Lots of people say my eyes, but I think they're just trying to be polite.

Authors: George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Kate Bornstein, Paulo Coehlo, Lawrence Lessig, Jonathon Stroud, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Bruce Schneier, Alan Moore.

Movies: Love Actually, Lord of the Rings, Heavenly Creatures, Night Watch, Woman of the Year, Serenity, Sean of the Dead, more as I think of them

Music: Almost anything. I tend to favor punk, but my ipod contains everything from Rob Zombie to Sarah McLachlan, and I've got a pile of cds I'm waiting to rip still that includes Regina Spektor, the Decemberists, Mozart's Requiem Mass, and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. I'm also a big fan of Flogging Molly in concert. It's about the only time I will happily dance around like a fool for several hours.

Food: Any good cheese. Unsweetened mint tea. Fresh grouper with mango salsa. Anything with taco sauce. Chocolate Meringue pie. A good steak. Beer and chile con queso. French onion soup from Flaherty's. There's more, but I'm getting hungry.

(assuming basic necessities are met, etc)

my dogs

my laptop

Internet access

my iPhone

A large bath tub

Good stories, whatever form they come in

Why computers don't work as expected, and what would make them better?

Why is system security so complicated, and what would make it more usable?

What do I want to be doing with my life?

If I'd called hearts as trump instead of passing, would we have won?

What is my dog barking at now?

How can afford to go on another trip?

How do people find enough time to do everything that they seem to do?

Working on my thesis, catching up on housework, vegging with my dogs, playing on the computer, biking to someplace nice for dinner. Sometimes I'm out of town visiting friends. I tend to go out less than I used to-most of my friends are getting to the "settling down and having kids" phase of life, and I'm enough of a homebody that I usually won't go out unless something's going on. I guess there really is no typical Friday night...

I enjoy World of Warcraft. I know, I know, the stereotypes of WoW players are horrible, and that makes me reluctant to admit it. It's not my life, but when I have free time, it's something I enjoy playing.

You like being outside of normal, and you've got something interesting to say.

You want to go for a bike ride, or a hike, or some other get-moving sort of activity that doesn't require lots of coordination.

You know a place where the food is good and the pretention minimal.