I like to think and talk and need to keep a constant eye on how pretentious I might become.  I’m reflective, sometimes to the point of inaction.  I believe in non-violence, but love action films.  I believe in neo-classical economics, but hate the untrammeled power of the free market.  I like taking the opposite side of an debate just so I can see what people will say.

I like people who have deep beliefs, but who distrust dogma; people who are intellectual, but who dislike snobs; and people who know the difference between “debate” and “argue”.  It is cliche, but I really admired my parents.  They married, built a life, worked hard, and loved their son and each other until death did they part.  Combining all of that seems to be increasingly rare these days.  I also deeply admire Prof. Dierdre McCloskey - my grad advisor and my personal example of dedicated humane scholarship and personal courage.

I watch a lot of TV and I refuse to apologize for that.  I worship at the altar of Whedon: Buffy, Angel, and Firefly.  I’ve loved many shows that died within a short time.  The most recent example is Drive.

I’m a big movie fan as well.  Well-made historical epics are at the top of my list (”Gandhi” for example).  I’ll watch pretty much anything with a spaceship in it (see “scifi nerd”). I prefer drama to comedy, but I like both.  For sheer popcorn joy I like action/adventure films and scifi schlock.

I read a lot, though less than I did once upon a time.  However, it seems like I’m starting to read more these days.  All-time favorite fiction authors include Robert Heinlein, Stephen Donaldson, J.R.R. Tolkein, Patrick O’Brian, C.S. Forester, Poul Anderson, William Gibson.  I’m a major sci-fi/fantasy nerd.  There are great authors whose art I admire, but I’m sticking to what I LIKE here.

As to music, I spend more time listening to R.E.M. and Steeleye Span than any other music. Other performers I enjoy include 10,000 Maniacs, U2, Clannad, the Sundays, the Innocence Mission, many more.  I like a variety of classical composers, but not many from after the mid 19th century.

I’m also fascinated by all the cool and terrifying new technologies around us, by how people talk and how that relates to what they mean (to be more pretentious; rhetoric and hermeneutics), and above all by the history of our funny little human race

I think I’m still a work in progress.

I hope that is true until I die.