Facts

Here be
...Facts
.....that not everyone knows,
.....that distinguish me from
........the rest of the great swirling mass of humanity
...........that live and breathe, ten billion souls strong,
.....that can be expanded on so you learn more about them
........(in some cases).

The List of Facts

1. I am left-handed.

2. I am allergic to nuts (and also to fish).

3. I do not eat mammals.

4. For the last few years, I rarely drink alcohol. Probably not for the reasons you expect, though.

5. I was born in London, England, on April 22, 1967. If I believed in astrology, I would be a Taurus. And therefore, I would drive a Ford Taurus. Since I don't believe in astrology, I drive a Ford Mustang. Black, convertible, fast, expensive as hell to insure. I bought it off my sister.

6. My eyes are blue, and my hair is light brown. I am 5'8" tall, and I weigh 165 pounds. I'm fairly pale (I don't tan -- I simply burst into flames). I used to suffer from eczema, the most common skin irritation condition in the world. I have excellent vision. At least eight random strangers and ten friends and acquaintances have told me that I look like Dana Carvey.

7. I come from a large family.

8. I have lived in Berkeley, California for most of the past ten years. In October '96, moved back to my parents' house in Saratoga to help take care of my mom, and when she got better, I moved to Mountain View to be closer to work. I graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1990. I started out with English, then switched to Computer Science, but became discouraged with both and so settled on Linguistics. I enjoyed Linguistics a lot (it was fun, like solving puzzles, and I was hooked from the first day of Linguistics 5 when Professor Matisoff declared that, "Linguistics is the most rigorous of the humanities, yet also the most humanistic of the social sciences") --but I hardly remember any of it now, ten years later. I currently work for TiVo.

9. I am an agnostic (although I was once an altar boy: I was a confirmed Episcopalian). I firmly believe that: I don't know.

10. I was scratched by a squirrel once, but lived to write about it.

I Approve

Favorite Things

1. Love. Everything about it; I am wholly in favor.

2. Music by certain female vocalists, especially Tori Amos. "Modern" or "alternative" music in general.

3. Reading and writing. It used to be that I couldn't go to sleep without reading for at least an hour. Now I can't keep my eyes open. I still read a wide variety of stuff, including magic realism, short stories, Generation-X novels, weekly newspapers, and backs of cereal boxes. I've especially enjoyed books by Charlotte Brontë, John Crowley, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gene Wolfe, Kim Stanley Robinson, Douglas Coupland and E. Annie Proulx; my favorite author in high school and college was the late Roger Zelazny.

4. The Internet. It's been good for me for fifteen years now. I like the Web (duh), Usenet, and e-mail. I'm not keen on irc or chat. I hate the current commercial land rush, and despise unsolicited commercial e-mail.

5. Food. It was a good idea, whoever invented it. Especially: apples, seafood, hot French bread, fruit juice (ooh, blackberry juice), pasta, avocadoes, Chow Fun, quesadillas, vegetarian pot stickers, artichokes, and warm blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream.

6. Sleep. How can you not love sleep? I love sleeping in on a Sunday. But I'm a night person; I enjoy staying up until 4 am, talking with friends and playing strange games, or sitting on a hillside, watching distant city lights.

7. Driving, really late at night, when there are no other cars on the road, and you are not in a city. Added pleasure: if friends are in the car with you; if you are on vacation; if there is a full moon; if there is fog.

8. Games: I play all sorts. I love card games (bridge, hearts), board games and party games; I sometimes play computer or arcade games, when I have the time. I hate war games. I like to play certain sports: basketball, frisbee, volleyball. I hate watching televised sports, unless it's Cal Bears basketball or the Olympics.

   

9. Martial Arts. I'm a brown belt in Hapkido (a Korean self-defense art that I'm not practicing right now) and I've taken some Judo and Wing Chun as well. Right now, I teach self-defense classes for women: for the last few years, I've worked on the side as a male instructor for Bay Area Model Mugging.

10. Nature. I miss it (since I haven't been camping or hiking as much as I would want to lately). I love to hike and sleep under the stars. I also love swimming in the ocean (I'm immune to the cold). And watching for meteorites. My favorite park is Redwood National Forest, up near Oregon.

You can always request more facts about me.