I was, until recently, a graduate student (I teach writing and study whacky intersections of psychology and religion), and I remain a particular kind of geek. I'm deeply interested in popular culture, and I'm an obsessive fanboy when it comes to my interests. I'm a bit of an information junky, which is a blessing and a curse.
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I'm a transplanted Southerner. I'm from the part of Georgia where the Allman Brothers (I lived a block away from "the big house), Little Richard, and Otis Redding are from. Also Honey Boo Boo Child. As a result of growing up in the South, I'm somewhat snobby about food and music, but I make an effort to get along.

I love bars, and I'm a regular at a couple of places in town. I love live music and plan some of my life around seeing shows, particularly European extreme metal.

If you know what my profile name is a reference to, you should say hello. Or if you know who Varg Vikernes is (and don't like him). Or if you want to shoot the breeze about politics. Or if you play the mandolin.

(That's incidentally, not a particularly flattering picture. I can be a pretty goofy dude, and it's probably good to put that up front, so it stays.)

I just got my PhD. I'm in that awkward transition between a degree and a job right now that many academics go through. I will be in IA for a while still, but I don't plan to be here permanently.

I'm also. . . . and this is less complicated than it seems. . . . living through the end of a marriage. I amicably broke up with my spouse last summer. (It won't be legally over for a while yet.) We plan to remain in each other's lives, and we plan to stay a part of each other's families. We're housemates and buddies now.It's not "complicated," as the kids say. We're family, but we are not in any way a couple. She's my little sister who lives across the hall.

Writing. Procrastination. Running my mouth. Being obsessive about trivia and being obsessive about things that matter.

Among people I don't know at all . . . . I've been mistaken for a bouncer/doorman on quite a few occasions when I've stood in the wrong place, so I guess they notice that I'm a big man who wears a lot of black t-shirts.

Among people I'm getting to know. . . . I'm a funny guy.

Books: The Sound and the Fury, Moby Dick, Our Band Could Be Your Life, If I Forget Thee Jerusalem, Ulysses, Live From New York (an oral history of Saturday Night Live), Sleazoid Express.

Movies: The Big Lebowski, Re-Animator, Glen or Glenda, Blood Feast, I Spit on Your Grave, Pink Flamingos, Blue Velvet, Dawn of the Dead (the original), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original), Winter's Bone.

Shows: The Wire, Community, Parks and Recreation, Arrested Development, Deadwood, Mr. Show.

Music: Heavy metal (Scandinavian black metal, hipster sludge metal, non-generic grindcore), Americana (Townes Van Zandt, Mississippi John Hurt, Guy Clark, CeDell Davis), Jazz, although I don't keep up with contemporary stuff (Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday)

Food: Southern food (A.K.A. "soul food"), Thai, British/Irish. I'm not picky. (I should note that I've changed my diet radically during the past few months, and I eat a lot less that I have for most of my life. I'm not the eater I used to be. We all like food though.)

1. Friends and family. The line between the two can be blurry for me. In the South, close family friends get called "Aunt" or "Uncle."

2. Conversation. I need some contentious arguing where it's a sparing match and some harmonious bantering where it's a waltz.

3. Sexuality. I didn't say "having sex with another person," although that can be the most powerful expression of sexuality.

4. Music.

5. Strange popular culture.

6. I could certainly do without alcohol, but I do like it.

Man's inhumanity to man, man.

At a bar, a show, or a party.

I'm willing to "admit" lots of things that might seem creepy if I did so in a public forum, so I'll refrain. I'm a grown ass man, dawg.

. . . you want to for any particular or general reason? I'm not desperate hook up with (or "hook up with") anybody, but It's time to see what's out there. I'm newly single after a decade long relationship, so I'm up for anything, romantic or not, that doesn't involve settling down. It would be really exciting to date somebody, but it would be exciting to meet interesting friends. If any of my idiosyncrasies match yours, say hello.