Here, let me help:

The serial comma is elegant, necessary, and useful; I love it.

How's that?

oooh, Amy. Talk punctuation to me!

I feel like there's a "show me your dangling participle" joke there, but I'll restrain myself.

Because I was on TT at Salon where the RULES said to use your real name. Clearly, SOME PEOPLE don't follow the rules.

I remember there being (and maybe it was only for a while) the codicil that if you can't/won't use YOUR real name at least use A real name...

Which is how I picked Trudy Booth...

Which is an old joke from when we studied Wordsworth in High School...

And what could be more Buffista than that?

And what could be more Buffista than that?

Somehow wedding it to a serial comma?

The serial comma is elegant, necessary, and useful; I love it.

Oooh, I'm weak in the knees...

Hello. I'm Matt, my real name, which you could probably tell from the name above (points upwards at blue text). Unlike the Elizabeths, who are mighty and large in number, we Matts are few - I know of but one other Matt posting here - but we make up for it with canny wit or convincing imitations thereof.

I'm Buffista-by-marriage, longtime lurker, and very occasional poster, having discovered the board (and any number of v v wonderful humans) through the good offices of beth b, who I've known since second grade and have been married to for mumblety-mumble years, which is close but not quite yet twenty. This also explains my first board name, Beth's DH, since changed to a more mundane but rather more accurate moniker.

BtVS good. Yes, I've read Season 8.

Firefly? Great. Dr. Horrible? Amazing. Want.More.Jossverses.

Like Beth, I'm originally from Connecticut, where I grew up got older through graduate school. To help defray expenses, I taught English to first-year students and realized why the serial comma had gotten a bad rep, let alone the semicolon. I attempt to use both correctly, as they've suffered mob-style hits commited by generations of students.

Despite having three strikes against me - being a graduate student, English teacher, and geek - Beth married me, and we lived in a tiny house cabin hovel in the woods, and that's a whole long story in itself.

After a visit to CA, we realized that winter was optional and decamped to the (relative) warmth and good weather of the East SF Bay Area. We now live in an overvalued house with a talkative, long-haired, vaguely orange cat, several redwoods, assorted tools, and a large collection of music noise-making paraphernalia, some of which require two people to carry, and which can get rather louder than is really needed. But there's no permanent hearing loss. Really.

Say again?

(those of you who have heard me play live will appreciate the above. Those of you who haven't, good for you!).

I spend altogether too much time trying to figure out how to automate my job via generating code, usually perl, shell, and various flavors of C, though python is making slow inroads. People are difficult to manage using perl but hope springs eternal.

For fun, I play jazz and fingerpick guitar in local restaurants, make objects out of whatever materials are handy, and attempt to befuddle the cat. At least one of these activities periodically feel like a futile endeavor, but I persevere doggedly out of conviction that it's better to be futile than bored.

I've had the good fortune to meet many many Buffistas while travelling for previous jobs. B and I attended the LA and SF F2Fs, the latter of which became Significant when Juliana introduced the concept (and, IIRC, ethanol-fueled Significant Consumption) of Fernet, which now occupies a significant place in present deponent's worldview. And therein lies an uncharted Buffista opinion horizon - Fernet yes/no? I suspect that the answers will open important chapters in Buffista philosophy.

I believe the one true scotch is Macallan 18.
Beth believes that the one true scotch is Laphroig.
Despite being a mixed marriage, we live harmoniously.

Positions on other important buffista topics:

muffaletta: Good with or without olives, because it implies being in N'Awlins, which is by no means a bad thing.
serial comma: yes, absolutely, and without question.
cilantro: yes.

So there you have it. I'll come out of the woodwork once in a while but mostly stay safely corralled in music, code, or math discussion areas, and, like the Spanish Inquisition, show up when least expected, with the soft pillows.

ETA: dear doG, that was long.

He forgot to mention that he is cute

He really is. Especially when he's geeking out about Arts and Crafts furniture. ::nods::

Hi, Matt!

We have exceptional lurkers.

Schmacky/Smacky the Manpony, wasn't it?

I had completely forgotten that, though I did harrass him with it frequently at the time. He'd just turned 17 when I joined the board. He's now almost 24, living with his girlfriend, working and trying to figure out life. That he will someday attend college is my hope that springs eternal.