In a crowd, I either stand out or am invisible, depending on your point of view. I'm the guy who sits in the corner by himself, writing in his journal about the people he sees around him. I'm the guy who reads philosophy on the train and plays his DS in the restaurant. I'm the guy who wears all vegan fair trade clothing and goes to work everyday as an activist, trying his best to make the world a better place. I'm the guy who spends fourteen hours in front of a computer screen working on social media for a nonprofit and then unwinds by playing an rpg on his iphone. I'm the guy who submits papers to academic journals for fun and writes creative nonfiction on the side that never gets published.

Yeah. I'm that guy.

I desperately want to make the world a better place. Right now, I accomplish this by being the webmaster/social media guru of Share Our Strength (strength.org), a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring no child ever has to go hungry.

In the future, I have vague ideas of teaching at a small liberal arts college, or moving to a developing country and starting a school, or otherwise doing something awesome that will positively affect the world.

I may be good at many things, but the items I'm most proud of generally have to do with my analytical ability. I love to learn new things, and figure out how those new items fit in the scheme of the world as a whole.

I guess this makes me the kind of person who enjoys lighthearted argumentation, and thrives on puzzles of various stripes.

The first thing people usually notice about me is how quiet I am.

I'm rather shy in public. I tend to stick to myself, write in my journal from a distance, and observe/learn/think.

When one on one, however, I get the chance to open up quite a bit more. I can be very talkative if I feel comfortable with whomever I'm with.

For a full list, go to EricHerboso.com. There you will find links to my profile on Last.fm, LibraryThing, and other social media sites that give an excellent overview of my tastes.

Favorite books include Ender's Game and Mission of Gravity for fiction, A People's History of the United States and Godel, Escher, Bach for nonfiction.

Favorite movies include Adaptation, Life is Beautiful, Fight Club, and Kiki's Delivery Service.

Favorite music includes Bach's Tocatta & Fugue in d minor, Glen Miller's In The Mood, Jared Hudson's Uncaptured Jewel (an interpretation of Yasunori Mitsuda's original), The Dresden Dolls' Girl Anachronism, Neutral Milk Hotel's Two-Headed Boy, Enon's In This City, Los Kjarkas' Ave de Cristal, Josef Zawinul's Birdland, and Thelonious Monk's Straignt, No Chaser. (In other words, all over the place.)

As for food, please note that I am vegetarian and in preparation to go vegan for ethical reasons.

Please forgive the obtuse writing style of this section, but once asked a question like this, I cannot help but to answer honestly.

The official list of things I cannot do without changes over time with me. But there are a few extra-special items that always remain on the list, no matter what. These special few items are listed below.

First: human interaction. Preferably live interaction, but at times I've had to make do with only reading the words of others and responding to them in my personal journals. This is of prime importance to me.

Second: books. Human interaction by itself is quite fine, until you really want to delve into a topic. Then most people are poor substitutes for a good book. Perhaps it is a form of escapism, but when life really starts to grate on me, I generally turn to books.

Third: writing implements. Reading is all well and good, but it is naught but a monologue if you can't respond to what input you receive. Even when I read fiction, I love going over what I've read and exploring the universe time and time again in my mind. But since the authors aren't usually present (nor others who share my literary tastes), I tend to write my thoughts to a nameless 'somebody', of whom I know not the identity. Perhaps I am writing to 'the one', or maybe I am writing to no one at all. But I strongly suspect that I'm really just writing for myself.

Fourth: good bedsheets. I know that sounds silly compared to the above, but once you've gotten used to high-quality bedding, switching to the coarse sandpaper they sell at Wal-Mart just doesn't cut it. Even on a blow-up bed, I always use high thread count sheets.

Fifth: the internet. What's strange is that I was introduced to the internet in 1993 on AOL 1.0, and so for much of my life did in fact live without the internet. Yet whenever I am away for longer than a couple of weeks, it starts to get to me. My social interaction level is very low compared to most people, but I make up for it by doing things online. If that makes any sense....

Sixth: nature. I adore going out into the wild to enjoy it for its own sake. If I were for some reason unable to do so any longer, I don't think I'd be the same as I am today. Nature relaxes me in a way that few other things can.

I should mention that although masturbation was not mentioned in this list, were the number extended to a few more items, it may very well have made the cut. Still, I credit myself for realizing that my bedsheets are more important to me.

How to justify what I feel should be true using a method that would convince others with similar tastes.

Why dimensional symmetry doesn't seem to be as robust as I used to think it could be.

Whether others are as concerned as I am over somehow, some way, finding a comfortable group I can spend time around.

Who in their right mind could actually be proud of Palin as a VP pick.

When the world allows me to relax enough to not stress out over deadlines.

What I can do to make a well-designed cascading stylesheet for my blog.

Where others go when they "go out to have fun".

Reading. Or writing. Or maybe playing a video game. I don't really schedule out these things. Sometimes I work pretty late, too.

But if I'm lucky, maybe I'll have gotten up enough courage to actually go out and meet someone new through crazyblinddate or something.

But probably I'm just watching a TED.com video.

Who I am today is not who I once was. I used to have opinions and do things that I now consider quite abhorrent. If you have a problem with the fact that I'm a real person with a past and everything, then you probably shouldn't talk to me.

Also, since most people consider contact info to be private, I guess I'll put that here as well. My preferred contact method is by e-mail at EricHerboso@gmail.com -- if you want to send me a message, I'd prefer receiving it there than here on OKC. You may also call me at 202.368.5365 anytime over the weekend; I love speaking to new people, so please, go ahead and call me.

If IM is more of your thing, I'm generally online only through GTalk (EricHerboso) and AIM (EricHerboso), though on occasion I'll rarely sign into other services as well.

Of course, if you'd rather stalk me first before initiating contact, I suggest reading my occasionally updated blog at EricHerboso.com, or checking out my oft-updated twitter account at twitter.com/EricHerboso. You can also find a list of articles I've written on various other sites at http://ericherboso.com/about-me/.

For additional info on me, please feel free to do a search on "Eric Herboso" in google. As far as I know, I am the only person with my name that's findable online, so every search result you get will be of me in one form or another.

...you've read this far. Honestly, if you're the type of person who hasn't already clicked off to another page, then I probably would like to hear from you.

That said, I am looking for the following people in particular for platonic reasons:

* Someone who plays Go or Shogi and would be interested in doing in-person gaming.

* Someone who works downtown between Farragut Square & Dupont Circle and would like to go out for lunch every couple of weeks or so.

* Someone who is a rapt museum-goer, and would like someone to accompany them from time to time.

.

Also, believe it or not, I use OKC to find potential romantic interests. What I'm looking for in a romantic interest includes:

* Someone who cares deeply for the Good.

* Someone who enjoys thinking deeply on topics of all kinds.

* Someone who works either for a nonprofit or other institution that accomplishes good in the world, such as a teacher or theoretical physicist.

* Someone who is open-minded enough to not be freaked out by some of the more unusual tenets I hold to. I am, for example, politically anarcho-syndicalist, religiously agnostic to the point of pseudo-atheism, ethically pacifist even to one's own detriment, philosophically polyamorous, and sexually deviant when it comes to frequency, if nothing else.

.

I should also mention that I do NOT use OKC to find 'random play'. If all you're interested in is just sex, then I'm probably not going to be terribly interested in you. That is, unless you're really, really, really smart. Then I might have to make an exception. (Intelligence = SEXY)