An Introduction to Richard

In some conversations and e-mails this week, I've realized that a large portion of my family and friends (most of which don't live in Virginia) have never met Richard, or perhaps only briefly. So this is for y'all: I will attempting to answer that, "So tell me about this guy..." question.

First, the obvious questions. Richard is a (civilian) computer scientist who works for the Navy on missiles and other Navy stuff. He has some sort of security clearance, though I've only run into the "I can't really tell you that" wall once. Maybe I'm not very curious about missile defense. He grew up in Pennsylvania with a younger brother, Ben, and younger sister, Christine. Both his parents and Ben have chemistry degrees (if you count chemical engineering as chemistry, which most chemists decidedly do not). In high school he was an avid wrestler, but his current sports are whitewater kayaking and mountain biking.

A word about his sports versus my sports: Richard's sports seem to be all about the obstacles ("and risking your life" said one of my friends). Those obstacles tend to be rocks, though they are also frequently trees/strainers or cliffs/waterfalls. My sports (road biking, swimming, triathlons) are about continuity and endurance. Two rather different mindsets there. Richard has "encouraged" me to take up his sports, which has expanded my mind in the form of pure terror. I have also sucked him in to doing triathlons, although I'm not sure it's a fair trade. He did, however, describe swimming across the lake near his house as "torture." Here is a picture of Richard with his transition area before his second triathlon, the olympic distance one.

Richard actually trained for this race, and the result was that he was much happier during the run portion. For the record, there are a number of sports we both love, like dancing and hiking. (Which is not to say we're any good at dancing; we just enjoy it.)

As for Richard's personality and character... I first described him to my girlfriends as "quiet but intense." He's extremely thoughtful, loves to serve, and several of our early dates involved some sort of volunteering. (We should really do that again.) He is a focused, linear thinker, a first-rate geek. My guess is that his Meyers-Briggs personality type is ISTP, far on the I and T side. (I am an ISTJ. Grad school converted me to the superior J side. Find out your type.) He's willing to try most anything. He doesn't do things half-heartedly; he really goes for it. He reminds me of my dear friend Elaine that way.

Oh, and a description of Richard is not complete without mentioning that he loves programming so much that apparently the Navy deal is not enough for him. He has a little side project he's working on, which he would love to tell you about. And just to add a few random facts, Richard is left-handed, red-green colorblind, and his superpower is that he is impervious to tickling.