It was suggested to make a sticky with a little about me and my interests. So here one is!

About Me

I'm an American (half-Venezuelan) currently living in China. I'm hoping to move to Japan soon, but...who knows. Historically I'm a programmer, though I've been on an "extended sabbatical" focusing on intensive language learning. It's been an incredible ride, but the time has come for me to...have an income again!

I love sharing in the passions of others, even when (especially when?) I don't know much about them. Like to info dump? I enjoy that! What matters is good faith and respect. I try to extend good faith to everyone I interact with—if I don't think someone is acting in good faith, I try not to interact with them (especially relevant online). That said, I promise I will treat you with respect, an open mind, and good faith. Life is too exhausting otherwise.

I can come across as a bit intense sometimes, but that's just because I am a very curious, very sincere, very earnest person. I'm better about not overwhelming people these days, but still, my goal is always to find people who are happy to set aside the irony and jadedness of so much of life and just share in the things that bring us all joy, whether it's media we love, art we love, interesting ideas, and so on...I just want to try and find peopel to share the interesting and beautiful things that make life beautiful (especially in a world that can overwhelm us with the things that do not make life beautiful).

I am staunchly pro-LGBT. I myself am bisexual. I try to make it very clear that T is a part of LGBT: I want nothing to do with LGB rights that throw anyone else under the bus (I mention trans rights here but of course this also includes asexual people and all others as well!). I'm not saying I'm perfect, of course...I'm doing my best, but I believe deeply in the beautiful diversity of people, and believe that people should be able to pursue their most honest happiness as their most honest selves.

If I ever say something thoughtless, stupid, or ignorant, I hope you will extend me good faith. I promise you it is most likely out of ignorance, not malice.

Someone once said I used paragraphs where others make do with sentences and...that is very true. I am not a concise person, especially online. Ah well!

I suppose it should be said that when it comes to NSFW stuff, nothing will phase me (as long as it is consentual, of course!). I almost certainly won't be sharing NSFW anything, but if your account has NSFW stuff, I absolutely will not care. It's nice that cohost doesn't show others our followers, eh?

Interests

I thought it'd be worth listing out some interests of mine. If you share any, I'd for you to follow me and I will probably follow you back! As someone else here said, unfollowing is easy, so especially in these early days, I'm trying to be a part of building a cohost we can all enjoy.

Programming

I haven't been as involved in programming as of late, but it's my career, and I do enjoy it. Even outside of the context of tech, it's a very useful skill!

My particular interests are in programming languages and functional programming. I realize there are a lot of FP fans who can be real jerks--I try not to be.

Professionally I've generally worked in data engineering, and it has provided a pretty great space to leverage ideas I find interesting while providing high quality solutions to users. FP is a great match for so many data engineering problems!

The bulk of my experience has been in Java, Scala, and Python. I've dabbled in other languages, but am particularly interested in getting more into Rust (though I have a long-term desire to spend more time with Haskell, Coq, Agda, and so on). I'm alost pretty interested in digging in on the WebAssembly project.

Language Learning

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart."

Did you know that Nelson Mandela didn't actually say this? it's a shame though, because it cuts straight through me, and is a beautiful sentiment I've spent way too much changing. Nothing has been as fulfilling for me than being able to meet native speakers in their own language. Growing up as a native English speaker in America, I took it for granted that everyone learned English. I took for granted that I had perfect facility with this global lingua franca, even if other people didn't. Language learning has been humbling, it's been beautiful, it's been extremely fulfilling...it's also been deeply frustrating at times!

The last ~5 years of my life have been spent intensively studying first Mandarin and then Japanese. I can also speak Spanish, which I learned in the idiosyncratic way people learn language in middle school, high school, and college (capped with living in Uruguay after I graduated). My own language study has been idiosyncratic and intense, but while I have a lot of ideas of how we can be "efficient" when studying languages, I always try to meet people where they are and respect people's own language study journey.

I'm conversational in all 3 languages, but most conversational in Spanish. My accent in Mandarin and Japanese is...fine, but not particularly beautiful. Ah well.

I'm literate in all 3 languages, but most literate in Mandarin. I've spent a lot of time (too much time!) grinding long-tail passive vocabulary in Mandarin. I can read news and stuff in Spanish, but books can be pretty rough.

My writing in all 3 languages is abysmal. I'm more than happy to speak with anyone in any of the languages I speak, but I hope you'll be nice if my grammar isn't perfect!

Anime/Manga

Yes yes, I am a huge nerd. But hey, since I've learned Japanese, I can just convince myself that watching anime is "language study."

I really enjoy anime and manga, but I try not to be one of..."those" fans, you know the kind. I try not to fetishize Japan, I try not to fetishize Japanese people or Japanese media. I basically try not to be weird about it.

But I do like anime and manga quite a bit. So it can be hard to find spaces to enjoy anime that can balance being really into it without being weird about it. Heck, if anything, that has been the social struggle of my life in all areas: finding people who are really into things, but aren't weird about it, aren't jerks about it etc.

Since this account is tied to my professional identity I'm not quite sure how much I will be posting about anime (maybe I should make an alt?). But I would absolutely love to connect with other fans and chat about what I like and what you like. I promise I will not be judgemental, and am always glad to find fellow fans who are passionate about what they love, while hopefully being reasonable, nice people.

And here I should probably gesture at my statement above on NSFW stuff. I truly do not care. There is a complex conversation to be had about the treatment of various problematic themes in anime or manga, but suffice it to say, I will not mind if you show your weird. As long as we are all nice and respectful, you know? I think that media, especially drawn media where there are no actors potentially being exploited, is where we can (and should!) explore problematic things. There is so much complexity and nuance and texture to human reality, and I think art can and should reflect and explore that—-as long as we're all cool about it, you know? I promise I'll be cool about it.

Specific Interests

I tend to enjoy all sorts of shows, but of course there are a couple specifics that tend to draw me in. I like Slice of Life, CGDCT, Idol Anime (yes yes I am idol loving trash but I promise not to be weird about it ok?), shows with spectacular action, and really anything with interesting or memorable characters.

I guess I should share some shows I like, eh? Here is a smattering that I think represents the various types of shows I enjoy

• Cowboyb Bebop
• Kill la Kill
• A Place Further Then The Universe
• Symphogear (I'm listening to the soundtrack as I write this! Watch Symphogear!!!)
• Bofuri
• Dragon Maid
• Mob Psycho 100
• Gosick
• Shine Post
• Jujutsu Kaisen (マイ・ベスト・フレンド!)
• Vivy
• Kaguya-Sama
• Thunderbolt Fantasy (not technically anime but absolutely fantastic)

But again, I can enjoy all sorts of different things and am certainly happy to chat about anything. There is just so damned much that I want to watch ;_;

Tatsu from Way of the Househusband is, unironically, my role model for the sort of loving husband I want to be.

Comics

I don't read as many these days but I really like western comics as well (and Chinese comics, maybe I shouldn't have split it this way, ugh ontologies are difficult). Sandman is a work of brilliance and I highly encourage you all to read it.

Chinese Media

As part of my Mandarin study I ended up finding a lot of really amazing Mandarin-language media. These days I've been focusing more on Japanese language media, but still, there are pieces of media I care really deeply for. I think a lot of people who aren't familiar with Chinese media can have a tendency to write it off...the nature of censorship in China certainly has an influence on what can and cannot be written (something which never ceases to sadden me), but still, creators find a way and some really beautiful, moving stories have been told. If you aren't familiar, give them a try!

cdramas

There are a lot of great cdramas, but my favorite tend to be historical chinese fantasy (古装), though there are different takes on that (wuxia, palace dramas, xianxia, and so on).

My two favorites are probably The Untamed (陈情令) and Nirvana in Fire (琅琊榜). I'm trying hard not to write a long essay on them here, but suffice it to say, they're very very good. Some other shows I like:

• Joy of Life 庆余年
• Ancient Detective 侠探简不知
• Hikaru no Go 棋魂 (I ugly cried, realllly ugly)

wuxia 武侠

If you've ever seen classic kung fu movies (think Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Shaw Brothers, etc), they bear the mark of wuxia (though I wouldn't call them wuxia per se). I'm going to avoid dumping a wikipedia entry into here, but suffice it to say, wuxia is a very exciting genre of martial medieval fantasy that often deals melodramatically with themes of honor, personal integrity, getting power, what it means to have power...as well as duty to family, to one's country, to one's martial sect, etc etc. There are a bunch of classic wuxia TV adaptations (TV tends to be a better medium for adaptations than movies IMO, though there are some pretty great classic wuxia movies). I fell in love with wuxia while studying Mandarin, though it played on a lot of pre-existing interests: kung fu movies, battle anime, melodrama, etc.

Somewhat confusingly, wuxia is used on the English internet often to mean what on the Mandarin internet would be called xianxia. A good rule of thumb is cultivators means it is not wuxia in the Mandarin sense. The website wuxia world should be called xianxia world :P

danmei 耽美

This is the term for Chinese BL (boy love ie gay). The Untamed above is the TV adaptation of The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (魔道祖师). I had a phase where I listened to a ton of radio drama adaptations of various BL works. As of late I haven't been listening to as many, but there is a bunch of great stuff here. In particular I'm dying to get more seasons of the Heaven's Official Blessing (天官赐福) anime, and have been following the manga. I really should get arround to reading the novel itself...

Books

Reading is the best. Does anything beat finding a nice cafe and spending all there with a good book and a nice cup of coffee, enjoying your book along with the other patrons as they come and go, enjoying how the light in the cafe slowly changes as the sun makes its way through the sky?

I enjoy anything good, am open to anything of any genre but these days I've been mainly enjoying sci fi and fantasy. My favorite series as of late is the Cradle series...it's a ton of fun. If you like fast action with memorable characters, I highly recommend it. I also have really enjoyed The Green Bone Saga (Jade City, Jade War, Jade Legacy), fantastic if you enjoy martial melodrama inspired by Asian media.

I love to read, but there is so much great content these days that it can be hard to choose where to spend my time. I am always listening to audiobooks while going on walks or doing chores, but my more dedicated media time has largely been going to anime or manga as of late.

18xx

This is a series of no-randomness board games which emulate rober baron capitalism and happen to be some of the best financial board games around. https://18xx.games is a really good implementation...if you like heavy board games, you should check them out! If you play there you'll likely see me around! If you're intrigued (and maybe confused?!) I'd be happy to explain more!

Other

This is already way too long. But I like lots of things, this is just an attempt to give a sense of what sort of person I am, and what sorts of things I find interesting. But ultimately I like connecting with interesting, nice people who enjoying sharing their passions with me.