Hi, my name is Alex. I have already rewritten this self-summary at least a dozen times, and I'm not sure what I am supposed to say about my self.

I am a buddhist, but my practice isn't as focused as it used to be. I no longer meditate regularly, and I only study the dhamma occasionally. School and work keep me pretty busy, and I haven't found the time (or motivation) to continue a strong practice. I believe that being compassionate and mindful makes me and everyone around me happier, though I often fall short of my own expectations in this regard.

When I first meet people, they sometimes see me as aloof or distant. In reality, it just takes me a long time to feel comfortable around new people. Around my friends, though, I am more open and fun. I don't take myself too seriously, and usually laugh at my own mistakes.

I spend much of my day on my own computer or a computer at school, and waste hours surfing the web jumping randomly from one topic to another as things catch my attention.

I am smart, funny, and kind

I am attending Minnesota West Community and Technical College in Worthington, MN. I just changed my major today to an A.A. in Computer Science that transfers to the Computer Science, B.A. program at SMSU in Marshall, Minnesota. So, if everything goes according to plan, I'll be moving there for my junior year in 2011.

In my free time, I watch a lot of movies that I download from torrent sites. Sometimes I play classic Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Sega Genesis games on emulators on my computer. Over the summer, I am studying Ruby (the programming language). I often spend hours just daydreaming, though.

I am also trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with my life in the future. Stay tuned.

...writing college essays, helping my friends and family with their computer problems, baking peanut butter cookies, playing Mario on my TI-84 during class, being an uncle, driving, tying my shoes, ummm... I can't really think of anything else right now, but I'm sure there's more.

The first things people notice about my personality are my shyness and silence ("You don't talk very much," is the most common thing I hear about myself). I'm not sure what people notice about me physically, but I've been told I have nice eyes.

books: any of Dave Barry's essay collections, Me Talk Pretty One Day and When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris, and a lot of other books by humor writers. Mostly, I read popular nonfiction on topics ranging from physics to psychology.
As a radical teen I used to read anything by Chomsky, and anything on anarchism.
I also read a lot of books on Buddhism. I'm working my way one sutta at a time through an anthology of Buddha's discourses selected and translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi.

movies: Dumb and Dumber, Tommy Boy, the "man with no name" trilogy ("My mistake. Four coffins."), 30 Days of Night (or almost any vampire movie), 28 Days Later (or almost any zombie movie), Die Hard, Roger and Me, Psycho (the original, Anthony Perkins IS Norman Bates), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Blade, The Muppet Christmas Carol (my favorite adaptation), I recently watched Weird Science again (it's much funnier than most teen comedies today) too many to mention...

music: I mostly listen to classic rock like AC/DC and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. One of my favorite bands as a kid was Rage Against the Machine, and I even like some hip-hop if it has a positive and/or leftist message (like Dead Prez and The Coup). Really, I like anything that makes me happy, and this depends on my mood and what's playing on the radio, and includes a lot of pop and country.

food: I like anything spicy, esp. Mexican and Chinese food. There are so many types of food I've never tried, but would like to. (There's an Ethiopian restaraunt nearby, but I've never been.) I like ice cream, cheesecake, and almost any kind of dessert that doesn't have mint or raisins.

I wasn't sure where to put it, but I love listening to/watching stand-up comedy. I recently watched a DVD of Daniel Tosh and I think he's hilarious. "... it's fuckin' heaven." Unfortunately, I've never been to a live show, but I hope to go someday.

Saying I could never do without anything seems wrong to me, because I really don't need most of the things that I've become attached to. It might even be good for me to live with less. But that doesn't tell you much about my likes and dislikes, so here's a list of things that I really enjoy having in my life.

1) solitude
2) time to daydream
3) my computer
4) dessert
5) my pillow
6) my nieces (3) and nephews (2)

... trying to be a better, more compassionate person. Also, death, and how to win friends and influence people.

Really, when my mind is not occupied by some specific task, it's wandering. The topics of my daydreams vary widely, but usually involve my attaining some higher status or achieveing something remarkable and admirable: what I would do if I were president; being a kung-fu master; winning the lottery and becoming a well-loved, famous philanthropist; becoming a monk who instantly attains enlightenment and dispenses wisdom in witty, pithy phrases and koans; meeting the woman of my dreams in some dramatic, romantic fashion, then selling the movie rights to a Hollywood producer and retiring with her to a private island; etc.

... either working or studying. Sometimes I watch a movie that I've rented or downloaded.
About once a month, one of my nieces or nephews will spend the weekend with me, and I take them out to eat,to play at the park, or to buy new toys.

I place way too much stock in the judgement of an automated algorithm. When I'm searching for tests on the site, OKCupid will inform me that some tests have been hidden due to my maturity rating.
Sometimes I wonder what those tests are like, but I'm a little worried what I might find, so I never click on them. I also like the thought that I'm more mature than the masses, even though that's not very egalitarian of me.

In a related update, I just received an email from OKCupid's server telling me that I'm more attractive than the average user. I'm embarrassed to admit how much it delighted me. I don't know how they figured that out. Apparently it involves click-throughs and Quickmatch ratings. The attraction must be more of a quiet, artistic appreciation from afar.
If the OKCupid server ever gains sentience and comes to life (a la Skynet, without the anti-human violence), I hope it's a woman. (Can a computer have a gender?) She would be my perfect match.
For the record, I don't think I'm more attractive than average. I'm probably right in the middle of the bell.

You should send me a message if you think we could have something in common and would like to get to know me better.

I am open to discussing anything, including religion and politics. Learning about other people's worldviews is always intriguing to me.