Life doesn’t have a narrative structure, so I’m not going to try to tell you a story here. Here are the first eleven relevant facts that come to mind:

1. I’ll take whisk(e)y over wine any day of the week.

2. I don’t naturally have much of a middle gear. The only forms of exercise I can stand are intense lifting or long, relaxed walks around the city, and that sort of dichotomy shows up all over the place. I’ve definitely learned that there are times when it’s better to aim for a moderate intensity, but it still feels a little bit odd.

3. I love bars of all sorts, but I don’t go to clubs without a damn good reason.

4. My favorite button-down shirts are all brightly colored and plaid. I have to just stay away from Hawaiian shirts, or I’d go nuts.

5. My most valuable friends are the people who’ll tell me when I’m making a mistake. I generally manage to listen to them.

6. I can honestly say that I’ve been bitten by a tiger.

7. I’m a sucker for confident women.

8. I don’t like it when people say that they can’t do something that they just don’t want to, or shouldn’t do. Knowing your own limitations goes both ways.

9. I’m allergic to cats. I like them just fine, but I’m not really wild about what their dander does to me. I’m allergic to horses too, but that’s almost never an issue.

10. I’ve spent most of my life in the suburbs, and I absolutely love being in the city. My absolute favorite part is that I don’t have to have a car.

11. There are only a few things that I take very seriously: my friends, my family and my career. That’s not to say that I’m irreverent; just that I know what’s important to me.

At the moment, I’m mostly looking to meet new people and see a bit more of what the city has to offer. I’m not actively looking for anything more, but it wouldn’t be so bad if I found it.

I’m working on a PhD in a technical field, which I really like but don’t always enjoy. Right now I still have enough time left that I don’t have to worry about what happens next, and I kinda like that.

I’m also putting some serious effort into getting into shape right now. I lift, I walk, and I try to eat reasonably well. It’s going slowly, but I am making progress.

Sounding like I know what I’m talking about. Really odd trivia—not the sort of stuff you’d see at a bar quiz. Noticing things around me that other people tend to miss. Seeing connections between seemingly very different things.

My eyebrows. I had very light blonde hair when I was a little kid, and it all got dark except for my eyebrows. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else with the same physical quirk.

Books: The Hitchhiker’s Guide, The Princess Bride, Breakfast of Champions, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, random short works by Samuel Beckett and James Thurber. The next book on my reading list is American Gods, and after that maybe The Name of the Rose. For what it’s worth, I very strongly preferred 1984 to Brave New World.

Movies: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Nightmare before Christmas, The Evil Dead trilogy, The Fifth Element, Billy Madison, Groundhog Day, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Gremlins, Stop Making Sense (and True Stories!), This is Spinal Tap, and similar not-so-intellectual fare. I love a good horror movie—my favorite by far is Poltergeist—but I can’t stand gore for gore’s sake. I never liked any Star Wars movie except the original.

Shows: Not much. I liked Babylon 5 back when it was on, but either it hasn’t aged well, or I’ve outgrown it. I have all three seasons of Metalocalypse on DVD, and some of the Muppets, but that’s about it.

Music: If I had to pick five of my favorite albums to showcase what I like, I’d go with Clutch’s “Pure Rock Fury”, Lacrimosa’s “Fassade”, Portishead’s “Dummy”, Satyricon’s “Nemesis Divina”, and Ace of Base’s greatest hits collection. There’s more, of course, but that covers about 90% of my tastes, and I’d have to list a lot more to get even to 95%.

Food: I’m much more interested in variety than any particular cuisine, and I’m pretty adventurous. Philly’s a great restaurant city, and I’m enjoying it as much as I can afford to.

A decent rye Manhattan, random YouTube videos, JSTOR, a cleaning service, a smartphone to remember things so I don’t have to, and an interesting problem to think about.

Pretty much whatever random thing catches my attention at any given minute. You know the xkcd comic about nerd sniping? That’s totally me.

Not doing anything too wild and crazy. Maybe at a bar, maybe at a party, but probably just relaxing after the week.

I watched pro wrestling back in college, and I loved it.

You’re interested after reading all that and you’re up for meeting reasonably soon.