I am xeric, runcible, quixotic, verbose, and hirsute.
My Self-Summary
This is me in a nutshell: I'm a bit of a nut; I prefer the
Z shell. I've
spent the last several months traveling in Central America and
volunteering at festivals in the western U.S. Now, my options are
open: where will I be and what will I do? I'm open to
suggestions.
I'm a weirdo; I'm gentle; I'm a nerd. (In
parallel, not in
series.) If I send you a message inviting
you to play games it's because you seem like an interesting person
who might like to spend a few hours playing silly card games,
drinking tea, and discussing eclectic topics. The most you have to
lose is a
Gloomy
afternoon, your
Lunch Money, and a few moments where
your brain is in
Fluxx. Friendship is a lot more important
to me than sex. When I send an invitation to a stranger my motive
is intellectual curiosity, geeky fun, or outdoor exercise, not
genital stimulation. Even if I don't turn you on, try something new
and say "yes" or be polite and say "no." In either case, I hope you
have a
spadoinkal day.
Be seeing you.
And now, without
further ado, we bring you the
unabridged ABCs
of
Flwyd.
- Analytical
and also spiritual
- Books I intend
to read line my walls
- Computer
scientist,
programmer,
user
- Dedicated to
whatever project I take on
- Eyes always
looking for the best shot with my digital camera
- Film lover -- silent, foreign, abstract, independent, studio
- Geographical mind; I think in maps
- Hats of all
shapes and sizes don my head
- iTunes
library with over
100 days of music
- Jester in
public
spaces
- Kids are either
fascinated by my actions or scared by my beard
- Love for one does
not diminish by loving another
- Man when I need to
be, inner
child when I can be
- Native of the
American
West
- Obscure
knowledge and facts flow from my brain
- Philosopher, phascinated by
oriental and
occidental
thought
- Questing for
the perfect
pie
- Rivers,
streams, creeks, brooks, and springs put me at peace
- Son of God
and Goddess
- Teaching is a
vocation to which I aspire
- Undressed at
home or outside I
feel comfortable in my body
- Voluptuous women turn me
on
- Xenophile,
lover of the
foreign, the
strange, the
exotic
- Your gender, race, religion, and identity are okay with me
- Zen, Taoism, Paganism, Secular Humanism, Existentialism, and
insights from
many other traditions guide me
Now in Spanish
Comprendo Español más o menos, pero escribole como dificultad.
Quiero hablar y practicar. Mi vocabulario necesita más fuerza.
Now in Chinese
我灾了中国。我说一点点普通话。我想学说和看懂中文。你那?
What I’m doing with my life
Using
energy and
matter to
transform matter into
energy, matter, and waste.
I graduated with a
BS
and
MS in
Computer Science
from the
University of Colorado. I
now work
long
hours writing
Java software and wearing
weird hats. In my spare
time, I bring
eclectic
spice into people's
paradigms. I
like to play
role playing games,
card games and
mp3s.
Recession be damned, I quit my job in April and went to
Central America
for two months. Since then, I've alternated between providing
volunteer manual labor at festivals and chilling out in Boulder.
Now it's time to
context switch. Maybe I'll work for someone
awesome in
Silicon Valley. I might dig the
Pacific
Northwest or maybe the
lack of rain in
Arizona is more my
style. Maybe I'll stay in
The People's
Republic of Boulder. Maybe some
fantastic opportunity will
present itself and
I'll write
code on
the first
moon colony
or something. Most importantly, I want to work on some sort of kick
ass software project.
Since I graduated from
CU Boulder (and until I quit my job)
I haven't spent as much
playful time as I used to. I'm
looking for
friends who like to play card games and walk in
dry leaves. Who like
to
hike and talk
philosophy. Who
like to
eat good food and make
obscure puns.
I’m really good at
The table.
Programming
computers,
being
playful,
being serious,
solving problems,
creating
ritual, providing
unusual perspective.
Being a
great former boyfriend.
Philosophy
arguments and
non-verbal ritual.
Running around and
sitting
still. Twisting
language into
puns and
fractured phrases.
Cuddling,
snuggling,
tickling, and
supporting. Seeing the whole
picture and seeing
the
little
pieces. Wearing
costumes and
being naked.
I'm
good at
giving but I often struggle
to open myself for
receiving. I'm good at doing things on
my own but I often struggle at delegating or asking for help. This
means I'm good at
equal opportunity: I rarely
ask anyone to do something I would not be
willing to do myself (assuming I were
able).
I have a ridiculously long
attention span. My mind is really
good at playing by itself. I am fond of
stratagems. I concoct
cunning plans that
remain perfect because they don't leave my mind. I've written
programs, taken
road trips, had
relationships, and won
sporting
contests without leaving my
cerebral cortex. In my
imagination, I even
started a
philosophical rock band
(called
Exit
Visa) and worked out several
concept albums and a
Youth In Asia
tour.
The
funny
little icons at the bottom of this profile may claim I'm "less
spontaneous."
What I'm actually really good at is
planning for and setting up situations
of
enhanced spontaneity. So
while I'm unlikely to suddenly decide to change plans, those
plans may well
involve
sudden
change.
The first things people usually notice about me
My screen name's lack of
vowels. If I were properly
pseudo-Welsh, it
would be Fflwyd.
Two legs. Two arms. Circle at the top. Facial features. Jim, I
think it's
human.
My distinctive appearance. How do you not notice the guy with
long hair, a
beard, and silly
animal
hats? The
bumper sticker on my door says "Honk if you think I'm
Jesus." People do. My friends
appreciate that I'm easy to spot in a crowd.
Those who know what an
Aspie is may notice some signs. I might
qualify, but on the HF end of the spectrum. If you don't know what
that is, you'll just notice that I'm a rather colorful nerd.
In China, the first things people usually noticed about me were my
Caucasian-style
light skin and my Caucasian-style
giant mass of facial
hair. To answer their three most common questions:
I am American; yes,
my beard is
real; and yes,
I can use chopsticks,
though I use an
"incorrect" technique
I developed when I was six (and had much less hair). But noticing
depends on context. In China, I'm 胡子 (hu zi), "That white guy with
long hair and a beard." But at a
gaming convention or a
hippie/pagan drum
circle, that's simply insufficient for distinguishing me from
other participants.
Please
send
me a message and tell you what you notice about me from a
first glance
at my profile.
My favorite books, movies, music, and food
Informative,
beautiful,
visceral,
tasty.
- Asian food
from Lebanon to
Japan, Russia to India, and the Yangtze to the Mekong
- Books about science, nature, and eastern and western philosophy
- Computer documentation
like language
reference and
O'Reilly guides with their endearing covers
- Dairy products negatively affect my mental and physical
faculties
- Existentialist works like
Cool Hand
Luke, The Seventh Seal, Run Lola Run,
Kafka, and Nietzsche
- Fiction
authors like J. R. R. Tolkien,
Alexandre
Dumas, Douglas Adams, Mark Twain, Jorge Luis Borges, and
Edgar Allan
Poe
- Guitarists like John Fahey, Jimi Hendrix, Django Reinheart, and
Ali Farka
Touré
- Home-cooked pies;
I've made several tasty curry quiche variants lately
- I Ching is
both mysterious and well ordered, fascinating me on multiple
levels
- Journalism of quality like National Geographic and
Scientific
American
- Kraftwerk,
Tangerine
Dream, Orbital, Thievery Corporation,
trip-hop, and
other electronic music that doesn't
just go thump-thump-thump
- Legume products
like hummus and
peanut
butter and mixed nuts (people and
food)
- Music made for its own
sake like drum circles, traditional ethnic songs, and the
blues
- Noncommercial radio: KGNU (88.5 FM, 1390 AM), KVCU (1190 AM), NPR, BBC
- Organic food,
sounds, and ideas
- Pianists like Bruce Hornsby, Booker T. Jones,
Scott Kirby,
John Medeski
and Stevie
Wonder
- Quirky movies
like Amélie,
Pi, Sunset Blvd, Eddie Izzard, and The Marx
Brothers
- Raw fresh
fruit like Colorado peaches, mangoes, mandarins, apricots, and bushes full of
berries
- Silent films like The Great Gold Rush and
Metropolis and
wordless films like Modern Times, Koyaanisqatsi, and The Triplets
of Belleville
- Thoughtful lyrics by The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, folk musicians, and
socially conscious
rappers
- Used CDs, DVDs,
books, food (leftovers), furniture, jeans, and other durable
goods
- Vocalists like Joan Baez, Blind Boys of Alabama,
Bono, David Byrne, Cesara Evoria,
Bobby
McFerrin, Jim
Morrison, Dolores O'Riordan, Tom Waits, and Dar
Williams
- Whole
grains (eat
them at most meals)
- Xishuangbanana pancakes
(just ask)
- Youthful live performances of bluegrass, jazz, old-time,
traditional, tribal, and other music with deep roots
- Zymurgy
products like ale,
cider, lambic, mead, stout, and wine
I think burned CDs are a nicer gift for a date than cut flowers
that die after a few days. If you
share your music, I'll share
mine. Even if you don't, I may
send you a
recommendation anyway, especially if you
woo me.
When I was a kid, I was really into
sports. I invented new leagues, held
drafts, made up statistics. I've been a
St. Louis Cardinals fan
since I was six and a
Denver Broncos fan since I could
watch TV. These days I don't play sports (though perhaps I should)
and mainly watch postseason
baseball and football and the
occasional
college
game hoping for an upset of a ranked team. I love the
Winter Olympics; I
think
speed
skaters are hot, I love the
scream of excitement when a
medal is won, and I wish
curling wasn't only on cable.
The six things I could never do without
Yin yang yin yin
yang yin.
Technically,
with the
right level of
granularity, the
Earth is a single thing. I'll take one,
please.
Internet -- my
second
brain since
1993; how did we ever live without
hyperlinks and
markup?
Sunlight -- the
sun is a mass of incandescent gas.
Music -- I bring 8
CDs to work every day
and measure productivity by how many I get to listen to.
Wholesome
food -- if you are what you eat, I'm slowly becoming
Asian.
Humor -- there are
three
secrets to
aging
gracefully: first, you have to
laugh at yourself; second, you have to
laugh at yourself; third, you have to laugh at yourself. -- Len
Baron
Organic funk
-- the good things in life come about naturally and are funky
through and through.
Water -- running
rivers,
reflective pools,
hot springs,
green tea.
Public lands
-- from
Burning
Man to
Rocky Mountain National Park to
concerts at
Red Rocks to
camping in
isolation, my mind is restored by
places owned by
We the People.
Exceeding published
limits -- if I had more time, I would have written a shorter
letter. -- Blaise Pascal
I spend a lot of time thinking about
The
answer to this
question.
Things which are
better with bacon.
Lately, particularly at
festivals, I've done a lot of
experiencing without thinking. It's one of those great
Taoist/
Zen states that's harder to do if you
try, but really easy if you just slip into it.
Geography. I
love staring at
maps.
I write
GIS (
Geographic
Information Systems) software. I like
hiking up the
foothills and looking over the
city. I can explain
how
legal
descriptions work.
I muse about the relative merits of
anonymous inner classes
and
lambda
functions, come
up with clever
design and
programming solutions in the shower, and architect
software
systems which I never get around to
coding.
I believe that
loving one person does not (or at least
should not) diminish one's
love for anyone else. I believe there are
many ways
of loving someone and having some ways not activated should not
prevent people from exploring the other ways.
It's time to start thinking about exactly what kind of software I
want to write and where I want to do it. To further that end, I
suppose I should start working on social networking skills.
On a typical Friday night I am
Thirty years
old.
Back in
school I
found that Friday nights were a great
opportunity to get
homework done. And some of the
best
code I've
written at work has been in an
uninterrupted block from
10am to 11pm on a Friday (when
nobody calls). I make it to open
Pagan ceremonies when I can.
Now that Colorado is smoke-free I should go to more concerts and
try to find a good pub or two. Perhaps I should establish Fridays
as a regular
movie
night.
If you think a
typical Friday night (or
just
next
Friday night) should include
playing games,
send me a message. On a
typical second or fourth Friday night I am playing card games at
Witches Brew
coffee shop near Lakeside Park.
The most private thing I’m willing to admit here
I have
millions
if not
billions
of
y-chromosomes.
I can tell I'm an open book: my spine is stressed.
中国不是我的母语.
I have more traits typically associated with yin/
feminine than a lot of guys
do.
I've never fellated a warthog.
I don't believe there's a wrong way to
dance. In practice, that can lead to some
awkward
moments when I try to dance with a
partner, who typically ends up
leading.
I've never smoked marijuana.
I often enjoy imagined sexual intercourse more than the real thing.
But real cuddling is always preferable to make believe.
I did not kill a man in Reno, nor did I watch him die.
I'm willing to admit anything to people who are interested. If I
can't admit doing something to the world, I shouldn't do it in the
first place. For instance, I hang around the house
naked,
body hair proudly on display; I love
the way bare skin feels after submersion in water. That's private
but not secret.
I've never fallen into a pile of elephant dung.
I think I have a kink, but I don't know what it is.
I've never eaten brie.
I
firmly believe
that naked and sexy are two different concepts
disjoint as often as they are
conjoined.
I've never been to Delaware.
My favorite
sound in
the world is the
shrlchk of
dry leaves 'neath my feet or
bicycle tires.
That's personal, but not private.
I've never slept with your brother.
There is some private
information I will never share, even
with family.
Passwords, mostly.
You should message me if
... the universe contains an odd number of atoms.
... you'd like to know either where I am or how fast I'm
going.
... you're better at kissing than you are at math... but you're
really good at math.
Try the
woo
hijack: send me a woo and I'll send you a
random quote and an
Elizabethan
curse. If I can glean your musical tastes from your profile
I'll also suggest an artist or two.
If you'd like to view the world through
cactus-colored glasses.
If you
read something
interesting at
flwyd.
livejournal.com. If you'd
like to go for a
hike
or a
bike ride.
If you have a fiendishly clever
pun you just have to share. If you think
Pie Night sounds
like a fabulous idea. If equations like e^(i*π) + 1 = 0 turn you
on. If you want to know why such equations
should turn you
on. If you'd like to know about the "
Other" in the
Religion category and why I'm
laughing about it.
I'm a
computer
geek with a minor in
philosophy. A
fantasy gamer who hasn't played a
computer game in years. An
athiestic
religious practitioner. A libertarian
communist. A do-it-yourselfer who's always willing to help. A
political activist who has issues working with people. A
UNIX-advocating
Mac user.
Gregorian chant and heavy
metal fan.
Nudist
with a great
wardrobe. A busy procrastinator.
Straight but not narrow.
Jesus with a shark
on his head. If any of these
yin-yang pairings interest you, let
me know.
You should
massage
me if you are good... or want to get better.
You should message me if you want to play a game, have a
conversation, or explore a park.
I often leave my computer unattended (it's old enough to be out on
its own) while I'm logged in to
OKCupid. If you send me an instant
message and I don't respond, I'm certainly
not paying attention, not
ignoring you. Since I won't see what you wrote if I'm
idle for more than an hour,
please follow failed message attempts with other forms of contact.
It should be a
simple exercise for you to find other
instant and
delayed mechanisms of contacting
me through
the
Internet. I make myself easy to find.