Programming, Web design, ...

Well, I am interested in programming and most of the other things that I already listed under Skills, but I won't go into those again.

Anime and manga

'Anime' is Japanese animation (cartoons). Anime shows tend to have greater emotional depth, more daring subject matter, and be aimed at more varied age groups than American animated shows.

I've got a fairly large collection of anime shows on DVD. Some of my favourite shows include Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena), Kodomo no Omocha (Child's Toy), Lodoss Tou Senki (Record of Lodoss War), Fushigi Yuugi (Mysterious Play), etc.

I'm also interested in 'manga' (Japanese comics / graphic novels), for similar reasons. So far I'm gradually reading the Sailor Moon manga, but this takes a while because my Japanese is not so good and I have to use a dictionary constantly.

Japanese

Based on the above, you won't be surprised that I'm attempting to learn Japanese. :) Learning another language is a really difficult task, but it's also interesting. And I've been feeling guilty about not knowing any foreign languages (since my mum is quite fluent in French and German, which she teaches, and can get by in several other languages, this is a bit embarassing).

I've been studying Japanese since early 2000, entirely through s'elf-study (which isn't ideal) and am making slow progress, but can't really imagine ever becoming fluent... oh well.

Fantasy fiction

I've been interested in fantasy fiction, and some sci-fi, for a very long time.

I read quite a bit of fantasy (my favourite authors are Weis & Hickman, Terry Brooks, and the ElfQuest graphic novel series author Wendy Pini). As far as sci-fi is concerned, my favourites are C.J.Cherryh and Iain Banks.

Occasionally I try my hand at writing (mostly fantasy). Some of the results are available on the Web.

Music

I have fairly wide musical tastes. My favourite genres, and some of the artists, are probably techno (Aphex Twin), ambient (Aphex again, Autechre, etc.), jungle (Aphrodite, LTJ Bukem), trance, happy hardcore, and rap (De La Soul). But I also like general dance (Moby) and some instances of various other styles; Celtic folk (Heather Alexander, Loreena McKennitt), world techno (Loop Guru), even some guitar music (Moby again, Live).

I also have a small but growing collection of imported Japanese anime soundtrack CDs.

I do have a vague interest in creating music, but never manage to do anything actually worthwhile. (Unless you count 'playing karaoke whenever an anime opening theme comes on' worthwhile. :)

Elves

Yes, I'm interested in elves. :) Mostly this is combined with various of the other interests (especially fantasy fiction).