My name is Ben and I’m a senior at K-State originally from a small town in North Central Kansas. I am majoring in geography and minoring in history, and I love learning about both those subjects. I also love blues music and host my own show on the university radio station, which is a ton of fun, and I am a leading member of the quiz bowl club. I try and spend as much time as possible relaxing, having fun, and learning about the world.

I am smart, super laid-back, and a surprisingly big introvert for someone my age. That means I prefer one-on-one or small group interaction and I need my own space and free time to feel relaxed, but it also means I give others plenty of room too. I love a good conversation, although if there are more than two of us I may just mainly listen, ask questions, and interject humorous quips. I have a pretty good sense of humor, even though my profile isn’t (intentionally) that funny, and I think it’s important to smile and laugh as often as possible when I’m together with people I like. Feel free to send me a message for any reason.

I am working on my senior year at K-State now, and then I plan to take an extra semester so I can finish my history minor and my honors program requirements. Over that time I will continue to improve and promote my blues show, and I will continue to be an important part of the quiz bowl club. This December I had the great pleasure of handing the presidency of the quiz bowl club over to a younger member. Now I can still help the next president learn his duties and yet also have more time to work on my honors project, an independent study on the geography of the blues that one of my geography professors offered to help me with.

Although I love geography and am really enjoying many of my classes, I really want to have a job related to blues music and my radio show. This summer, I had the opportunity to join a class from Sam Houston State University in travelling to the Mississippi Delta to see some of the key sites in the history of the blues and learn more about the culture of the region. After I graduate, I plan to take a similar trip to see more sites in the Delta as well as the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Then I will apply to a bunch of radio stations and other places where I could have fun working and share my love of the blues, perhaps taking advantage of some of the contacts I've already made online because of my show, and hopefully land a job or two in which I can make enough money to pay the bills while having some potential for advancement.

The next few years will hold some exciting discoveries, and may even take me to some unexpected places. However, within several years of graduating I want to move back as close as possible to the spot in the country near the small town of Clyde where I grew up. I believe that with the internet I can come up with a job description that allows me a great deal of independence and lets me live where I want. And I can always commute to Manhattan or Salina if I need to. I know living in “the middle of nowhere” where “there’s NOTHING going on” (I know, isn’t it great!) may be a deal breaker for most, but I really do love where I live. And my family is pretty cool too.

I have a photogenic memory (inside joke), and I’m an excellent listener. I am very observant when it comes to other people and I pick up a great deal from conversation and reading. I know a ton about blues music and geography and quite a bit about many other subjects. With my knowledge and memory, I’m very good at quiz bowl and trivia. I can find information on the internet like nobody’s business. I’m also a fairly good writer and communicator, and I’m working on improving those skills. It seems like all my talents are mental, but I'm working on adding cooking to the list, mainly because I love to eat. Right now I am an expert on baking desserts, but I don’t practice enough on main courses because I don’t yet need to. However, you can get away with some pretty basic preparations if you know about good ingredients.

It used to be my height. Now it's usually my beard. The next thing would be that I’m pretty quiet. I usually prefer to listen to others in a group setting. That doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to say, but in such situations I think more is being learned if I listen than if I speak. However, one might also notice that I’m generally easy to get along with and I like to smile and laugh a lot.

Books: I love reading. Sadly, I rarely read anything longer than essays and articles now that I’m in college. During high school and my first semester of college, I read a lot of classics for the honors program, with some lighter stuff thrown in for fun. Some of the classics that stand out in my mind are Cyrano de Bergerac, Moby Dick, and Shakespeare, while I have also loved Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and the books of Tom Clancy and Louis L'Amour. However, I have read very few books in the last three years. It’s really a bit depressing, but it is what it is. It’s just really hard to make the commitment necessary to read a book when you just know you’re going to be interrupted by a bunch of B.S. for class assignments and extracurricular activities as soon as you get into a book. Fortunately, this fall I had some enjoyable and accessible reads for a few of my classes. I especially enjoyed The Land Where the Blues Began by Alan Lomax because it gave me a much better idea for the culture of blacks in Mississippi in the mid 20th century.

Movies: Movies are not such a big part of my life, but I enjoy watching them with other people. I like any type except horror. A couple of my favorites are The Godfather and Forrest Gump (kind of a contrast, but both are excellent). I can enjoy pretty much anything that is intelligent and well done, from classics to new films to foreign films, but if I had to choose, I would mainly watch comedies. My favorite comedies include the aforementioned Forrest Gump, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Groundhog Day, and Shrek. I also enjoy when great books are made into great movies, like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and the BBC productions of John le Carre’s books with Alec Guiness. If you want to drag me to a romantic comedy, I will go with you, but I will not go with you to Twilight.

Shows: When I was younger I used to watch lots of educational shows on PBS, but for some reason I stopped. Now when I'm at home I hardly ever watch TV. I prefer the internet for mindless entertainment and my family for substantial engagement. However, in my dorm I watch more TV because I have my own room with a TV five feet from my bed. I usually only watch TV at night to relax before bed. In the past I've watched a lot of Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, and My Name Is Earl, but right now I mostly watch ESPN. I'm definitely only a casual fan, but sports are fun to watch, have good, real storylines, and are easy to slip into and out of watching (and you feel much better than you do watching the news). I'm developing an appreciation for a wider range of sports, but my favorite thing to watch is still the MLB postseason, followed by the NFL and K-State football and basketball.

Music: I love the blues, and I also like classic rock, but I am open to all styles. My favorite artists include Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ted Nugent, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Howlin’ Wolf, Pinetop Perkins, B.B. King, Jonny Lang, Ronnie Earl, Beau Jocque, Corey Harris, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and many more. My recent favorites include Trampled Under Foot, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Tab Benoit, Samantha Fish, Joe Bonamassa, and the Tedeschi-Trucks Band. The main things I like about blues are the simple form, the honest emotions, the wide range of improvisation, and the intensity that is present in all its great performers. Although my profile name, which I would rather like to change, sounds like a corny reassurance of my fidelity, I actually got it from the title of a song by Darrell Nulisch. Hey, it was five in the morning when I signed up for this site!

Food: As much as I like music, food is my favorite form of art. I love all kinds, but I especially like pasta and deserts. My favorite meal is spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce, and my favorite desert is saskatoon cobbler. I bet you’ve never had saskatoon cobbler, but I would be happy to make you one if I get to know you. I am spoiled because my mom is a great cook and my dad raises lots of vegetables and fruit.

Free time, my music collection, the internet, good food, learning, my family.

Some of my thinking, especially when classes are in session, involves things to do: promoting my radio show, keeping the quiz bowl club on the right track, procrastinating on assignments, squeezing in as much free time as possible plus a little bit more. I have plenty to do, but I enjoy having nothing that needs to be done because then I can be creative. More general thoughts include wondering about my future, exploring new blues music, enjoying simple things when I can. I haven't been bored in years, except for the occasional time when I’m trapped in a situation where I’m waiting for something and I can’t escape into my own thoughts. I can keep myself fully engaged very easily because I enjoy thinking about all kinds of things.

Reading, messing around on my computer, listening to blues, watching TV, etc. It probably sounds boring to most of you reading this, but I enjoy it. When I do get out, I may be hanging out with my quiz bowl friends, seeing a great blues concert, going to a quiz bowl tournament, or doing something with my family. I still try to spend some weekends at home with my family, doing things like having a nice dinner, watching a movie, or playing a game.

I have an Okcupid profile. You already know that, but I haven’t told anybody I know yet, except for one friend who also had a profile on here.

Also, I have never been in a relationship. That's not private, but it fits better here than it did in my summary. Starting a relationship with me at this point in my life would require some patience because I’m so used to being single, but on the other hand I won't be demanding at all. I think the best way to go about it is to get to the point where we are comfortable talking with each other about just about anything, and then see what happens after that. But would I really know now? I guess we’ll have to find out sometime.

Well, the most important thing to consider is whether or not you want to. If you are interested in a relationship, it would be best if we shared similar interests and had compatible goals in life. If you just want to talk, then all that’s important is whether you think we could have an interesting conversation together.

Some good reasons to message me include:

You want to trade mixtapes (or mix-mp3 email attachments).
You have a question about geography or a similar interesting subject.
You want to talk about great food.
You want to have a conversation with a bit more depth and breadth and intellectual curiosity than what you might encounter if you walked up to a random stranger on the sidewalk.

In case you skipped over some of the other sections of my profile and want a quick-and-dirty cheat sheet, or if you just want a refresher because it was so long, you might be more likely to enjoy my company over a longer period of time if:

You love to have at least a couple hours of alone time each day, and look forward to those days when you have absolutely nothing that you need to do for anyone else.
You are interested in learning about whatever, whenever.
You aren’t worried about me being able to keep up with you.
You would be fine with living in the country near a small town eventually.

I look forward to hearing from you and reading what you have to say.