Breaking news (August 2008): I shaved off my beard in May (for the first time in my life); I got back from a summer-long trip to Europe. December 2008: still back from Europe, still no beard!

I'm a geeky, eclectic, vegan San Franciscan, originally from Western Massachusetts. I've lived in California for over ten years. My native Californian friends are surprised to hear that we had snow days but no earthquake drills in elementary school.

My geekiness is concentrated in technology and computing, but I aspire to be a well-rounded geek. For instance, I love speaking Latin and have gone to a week-long spoken Latin immersion camp as an adult. I'm extremely concerned with what's going on in the world and continue to struggle with some of the questions of how to make sense of it ethically.

My Myers-Briggs type is on the border between INTJ and INTP, but has usually been more INTJ.

I am geeky, eclectic, and vegan

I'm working at a non-profit organization and trying to protect individual rights and civil liberties in the technology world. I'm building up a personal library and taking advantage of some recent opportunities to travel and learn languages.

I'm becoming more of a cycling enthusiast and advocate; my bicycle is my main form of transportation, and I don't know how to drive and have never had a driver license. I also seem to be developing an interest in safety and disaster preparedness activities, including NERT, which I'm trying to get more involved with.

I'm writing a book about computer security, but it's behind schedule.

If I were to make a change, I would probably go back to college, but I don't know whether I would pursue an undergraduate or a graduate degree and in what subject, and I'm not eager to leave the Bay Area. I tend to admire academic attainment.

Trabalho numa ONG que pretende defender os direitos do individual e direitos civis no mundo da tecnologia. Estou colecionando livros e aproveitando umas oportunidades recentes para viagar e para aprender idiomas.

Sou também entusiasta e ativista do ciclismo; a minha bicicleta é a minha maneira principal de transporte, e não sei dirigir e nunca tive carteira de motorista. Além disso, parece que me interesso pela segurança e pelos preparativos para desastres, inclusive o NERT (time de reação às emergências?).

Pretendo escrever um livro sobre seguranção da informação, pois está muito atrasado este projeto.

Penso em voltar à universidade, sem saber o qual curso ou diploma eu pediria (e não quero mudar-me da Área da Bahia). Costumo respeitar as proezas acadêmicas.

languages, Dance Dance Revolution (Heavy difficulty, if my knees co-operate), typing (around 120 wpm), book collecting

I'm an "ex-prodigy" (with apologies to Norbert Wiener) in mathematics and science, and I try to keep up my computer skills enough to be able to read the literature and discuss things meaningfully with computer scientists.

I like to teach, but I could use a little more practice with lesson planning.

My profile details only have space to mention English, Portuguese, Latin, German, and ancient Greek, but I also have a "poor" knowledge of Spanish, Hebrew, and Esperanto, and I can read the Cyrillic alphabet phonetically. My current language-study agenda is to take classes in Spanish, take more classes in German, and try to find more opportunities for periods of Latin and Portuguese immersion.

I have reasonable but not exceptional skill at puzzles, especially language-related puzzles, and have really enjoyed competing at the MIT Mystery Hunt (for three years in a row now).

I usually speak slowly in face-to-face conversation, and I often try to speak nearly as carefully as I would write. I'm capable of speaking quickly, but I don't do it all the time, so people often call me "deliberate". I have a strong (not eidetic) associative memory and fairly eclectic cultural interests. I often prefer long-form communications like long conversations or long letters or e-mails, but I don't usually approach people whom I don't already know to chat with them.

Some people find me eccentric because I have some geeky interests, like computer politics and speaking Latin. I may also initially seem like a Pythagorean because of my veganism, lack of substance use, and love of mathematics. But I do eat beans, so my Pythagoreanism must be imperfect.

Although I don't have much academic training in linguistics (only two college courses), I've studied a number of languages and like learning more and comparing them (and thinking about where vocabulary and grammatical features came from, which is to say amateur historical linguistics). I'm likely to randomly mention facts about language to people, tell them about etymologies, or ask them questions about languages they speak. (And I can argue why splitting the infinitive "to randomly mention" in the previous sentence is not wrong.)

(a) traditionally Gödel, Escher, Bach and The Name of the Rose, but maybe I need some fresh answers for the twenty-first century; I also really admire the work of Jorge Luis Borges and am excited to have seen the original manuscripts of three of his greatest short stories. I collect books and have a bunch of them in my apartment.

(b) I don't make a habit of watching lots of movies; I tend to like documentaries and historical films best, avoid horror and gore, and cry easily during sentimental movies; I also like movies with a conceptual gimmick or plot device (like the garden-of-forking-paths concept of Run Lola Run and Sliding Doors)

(c) Dar Williams, Noe Venable, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and various baroque and classical things (I seem to be moving away from my past love of classical choral works, especially requiems, and toward enthusiasm for contemporary singer-songwriters)

(d) I've been vegan since 2005 and vegetarian since 1987 (and gave up fish and chicken before that); I like Indian, Ethiopian, Thai, Chinese, and Japanese foods -- especially at the spicy end. I also go for Italian and Mexican food where I can get people to leave out the cheese, and I've recently experimenting with some nice soups, salads, and sandwiches. I have a big weakness for carbs (pasta, rice, bread, and vegan baked goods) which I've recently gotten a bit more under control. My comfort food, putting all this together, is probably "spicy carbs" (spicy noodles, injera with kintishara, naan with chana masala, tofu curry over rice, Szechuan tofu over rice, spicy noodle soup, etc.). My favorite bagel is the Everything Bagel.

free/open source software, a bicycle, books, Wikipedia, principles, friends

software livre, uma bicicleta, livros, a Wikipédia, princípios, amigos

copyright law, linguistics, the nature of consciousness, qualia, epistemology, postmodernism, possible justifications for political authority, theistic proofs, metaethics, ideologies, activism, computer security, etymology

having dinner out with friends or at home using the Internet

I'm really bad at body language, in the sense that I usually don't know what nonverbal messages people are sending me and I don't have much ability to send nonverbal messages if I wanted to. I rely on speech and writing to navigate interpersonal situations and relationships, probably more than other people do, and I'm not very aware of the extent to which other people are "speaking" body language at all. This might be a particular problem in dating situations because I don't have an easy way to negotiate things tacitly.

Despite this, emotions, socializing, other people, and caring about people and things are among the most important and salient parts of my life. I am sometimes awed by contemplating the limitations of "ταις γλωσσαις των ανθρωπων λαλ[ειν] και των αγγελων" but "αγαπην [...] μη εχ[ειν]".

I injured myself twice with the Sun: as a small child, I wondered whether a magnifying glass would burn my hand the way it burned a leaf or a piece of paper, and as a teenager I watched a total solar eclipse carelessly.

I used to write paper letters of 40 to 120 pages. I wish I still did.

A friend says I should mention this anecdote, though I don't think it's all that private: at a Latin dinner, someone wished everyone a happy Pi Day and mentioned hearing a radio program about someone who knew 20,000 digits of pi (likely the British savant Daniel Tammet). I said that I only knew 50 (though on reflection, I actually know 54) and then I started to recite them in Latin ("tres punctum unus quattuor unus quinque novem duo sex quinque..."), but someone made me stop.