Hi there! I've been in Waterloo for about three years now pursuing my PhD in Philosophy at UW. As is often the case with grad school, a lot of my friends recently are graduating and moving out of town for jobs or the next level of their education. So I'm on this thing mostly to widen my circle of friends and meet some interesting people.

A bit about me: Well, not surprisingly, I'm a big philosophy nerd. In order to voluntarily be in school for this long, you kinda need to be able to embrace your nerdiness at a level that is probably both unhealthy and a wee bit disturbing. It's like a Zen thing. A nerdy nerdy Zen thing. Of particular interest to me is the philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Specifically, I'm interested in questions about the nature of beliefs.

Other stuff about me: I'm a large supporter of free speech, which means I'm against hate-speech laws. We can't lock people up just for having opinions we think are hateful or offensive. Even if they are complete douchebags. I like all different kinds of music, and I have a rather eclectic taste in TV shows. Particularly: Family Guy, Smallville, Scrubs, The Colbert Report, Lost and any Fox Special a la Worlds _____iest _______.

My accomplishments in life: I can pat my head and rub my stomach (sometimes even both simultaneously). I have an undergraduate degree in Journalism and Philosophy, and an MA in Philosophy. I also have the uncanny ability to alter the earth's gravitation pull with nothing but the power of my thoughts... that or I can eat like a pound of sushi in one sitting. I forget. They're both good powers.

I spend a lot of time thinking about: Philosophy, politics, religion, society, world events, whether or not we have free will (we don't), whether smoking should be banned entirely (it shouldn't), whether a gorilla could beat an octopus in a knife fight (it could).

Wrestle alligators while skydiving nude in winter. Although that would probably be hard to top for a second date. I suppose I could always try juggling chainsaws…