User:Rob

My first choice, Sidfoqbix, was taken, so I'm Rob. Hi.

By day I'm a mild-mannered USAID contractor. By night I'm a mild-mannered father of two living in Silver Spring. I'm pretty mild-mannered generally.

I have a lot of interests and focus is not my strong suit, so I tend to know just enough about a lot of things to be dangerous. With a class 4 laser, nozzles extruding hot plastic, and spinny cutty things, HacDC seemed like a really good place to be dangerous.

I have been a platonic amateur radio operator since 2006: I know the PTT button but we aren't intimate. I dig bikes. And Japan. I recently counted my passport stamps and determined that I've been to Tokyo 17 times, each never for much more than 24 hours, which is a weird way to get to know a place.

I follow North Korea like some people follow Star Trek. When I post to Facebook about North Korea -- which is pretty frequently -- my friends don't tell me it's tedious; they don't have to. But that doesn't stop me, hence the Trekkie analogy.

I speak Arabic and enough Japanese to confirm for Japanese people I speak to that foreigners are barbarians. Sorry about that. I also like to think that if I was dropped in Central America for two weeks enough Spanish would come back to me to be useful, and it might even be true.

There is still time to get in on the ground floor of following me on Twitter.