Note: Still slow, but I'm actually here now!

I am a scientist, engineer, farmer, musician, entrepreneur, and so on. I do not need or even really desire most things money can buy, but when I do seek something my standards are high.
I am a builder and fixer of things, systems, people, and ideas. Of course, sometimes I break things too. But I do my best not to, and I certainly build and fix more than I break.
I get along with just about everybody, though I only give praise where I truly think it is due. On the other hand, I must think some praise is due more often than most. I get along with myself, too, though sometimes I can praise myself more quickly than others, in my own mind.
I am a player. No, not that kind of player. A tinkerer, a joker.
I am a traveler and a storyteller, a host and a story-hearer. I sometimes succeed at listening.

I have a tendency to generate information overload, which you may get a feel for if you make it to the end of my profile, or even before.

This profile, like myself, is an ongoing but sometimes paused work in progress. I spend a lot more time working on myself than on the profile.

Hoho! Well, if I were to tell all the details, it'd give away my identity and places of work, which is probably a bit rash. Though I may do that here eventually. But, I will give you this:
My overarching personal goal:
Fulfillment and happiness. For myself, and everybody else, in perpetuity.

I've essentially finished a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, but really it's biorobotics. Official degree granting is in January.

It's become apparent to me that fulfillment of my overarching goal will be much better served by a career in agricultural R&D, with the purpose of turning agriculture into a nondestructive enterprise. I am already vice president of the company, and am settling in to the role and new surroundings.

It is not a necessity, but it is likely that I will be settling down in rural MN/IA. Living in the country, where I can see the stars and share them with my family, is important to me. Stars are not the only thing you can see more clearly in the country. A vibrant community is also important to me; in some ways my desires there are now fairly urban. There are a few places around where both sides of the bread can be buttered.

There's a good chance that I'll be among the most off-the-grid-savvy guys you'll ever meet. Seriously, I just fixed the wiring for most of the DC loads in the greenhouse.

Having a fulfilled and happy family is a big part of what I plan to do with my life. I want to have my own biological children, but that in no way excludes others.

There's a lot more detail, of course, but I'll save that for personal communication : )

Hum, I seem to have covered this in other statements about myself. Apparently I'm good at saying what I'm good at? But here are some more/different things.
Singing. Laughing. Seeing when other people don't understand each other, and helping them do so (including when speaking different languages). Seeing the "right" (most effective, most efficient, longest lasting) way of doing something. Thinking abstractly. Operating in the long term. Acting within the broader context (maybe this is "outside the box"?)

Building things, fixing things, spontaneous art. Growing things.

Sleeping in. Cooking whatever there is to be cooked. Actually I'm less good at sleeping in and better at cooking these days.

Lullabies, apparently

I'm probably not the best source of this information! But- people seem to notice both my intelligence and trustworthiness quickly. Somewhere in there is that I am ordinary in very few ways. Or maybe, from the perspective of the other person, "a weirdo". All the same, people actively trust me very quickly; much more quickly than I usually think they have any real reason to do so.

Physically, I don't know really. I'm tallish and strongish, my beard is distinctive in some settings. My walk is apparently distinctive.
It's funny- I'm only mentioning the following because so many people say "my eyes" in this space. But apparently there was a group of ladies working at the Swarthmore cafeteria who really admired my eyes (mostly the color, I think). I learned this through my ex-wife, who was told about it when said ladies learned of our engagement. I have no idea if this was the first thing noticed about me though : ).

The ancient-looking proprietress at a local country store used to say of my brother and I; "You have such nice curly hair. Shoulda been girls."

Another tidbit overheard that might do with first impressions (though this is rather a while ago): at Boy's State, someone from a different "town" said, essentially "man he looks mean" or "scary" or something like that. The fellow from my "town" rejoined (after having known me for about two days) "No, he's the gentlest person I've ever met". Or something similar but stronger. Been a while, and memory does fade.

This is a little difficult, because I like just about everything. I'll put something here eventually.

Okay, just a couple of things for each category.; just what occurs to me at the moment:

Books:
Tolkein, Thurber, Asimov, my highly-annotated copy of Gulliver's Travels (every sentence in that book is satirizing somebody!). It's been nearly two decades, but I've read and enjoyed the complete Laura Ingalls Wilder. Also back there is Earnest Thompson Seton.
Recently finished a translation of The Odyssey, given to me in celebration of the defense of my dissertation.

Movies (mostly just the less usual favorites):
Tuvalu, The Twelve Chairs (the book is also great), Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet, Holiday Inn, The Snowman, Crash. Into Great Silence (Der Grosse Stille) had a strong effect on me at an important time.

Music:
Just about anything, but most rap, a considerable amount of modern country, and just about all modern "christian" music drive me bananas. The current charts usually contain a lot more crap than the stuff that's been filtered through, so I do default to older/oldies stations a lot when listening to radio. That and indie; happily there is now an indie-ish station in Decorah. My Pandora account (which is rather new) has stations with seed artists: Handel, Debussy, Chopin, the Beatles, Regina Spektor, Joni Mitchell. Beethoven's sixth. Creedence Clearwater Revival. My friends the Gregory Brothers. Honestly, a lot of my favorite music is "music being sung with other people" -i.e. participatory.

Food:
I will eat pretty much anything. Really. They were impressed in China- though there was one dish I only had one bite of. I deeply enjoy good, real food. In basically two categories: good basics (i.e., good plain bread, well-prepared fresh vegetables, etc.) and good gourmet; food that has had real thought and skill applied to it, and which tastes good from the first instant to the aftertaste, with an appropriate progression. I like spicy food spicy- Mexican, Indian and some Chinese dishes I have only rarely had with "appropriate" heat to my taste, here in the upper midwest.

This one is pretty hard for me! Though I set high standards, the minimum I actually require is pretty minimal.
1) Physical necessities are what occur to me first (food, clothing, tools, insulin) But honestly, if I had insulin and a good sharp knife, I could get by in a really broad set of circumstances. Other things can be made or acquired.
2) My own presence of mind. It is the most valuable thing I have. I could survive without it, but that would really expand the list of other things I would need.
3) Love of some sort, both outgoing and incoming. Happily, there are a lot of people who love and care for me, and vice versa.
4) Down time. Though I am laid back in presence, my life is pretty intense. I absolutely need time for personal maintenance, a little of which needs to be "alone".
5) A sense of presence and purpose. I am here, and this is why I am here. Now we're getting to things I can actually do without, but without which I am much less of a whole person.
6) Learning. There is always more to learn, and it always has to potential to better myself and others. And it's fun!

And yes, to clarify, I do list insulin because I am a type I diabetic. On the one hand, I would probably die within a week without it. On the other hand, I have lived with it for over twenty years with no measurable long-term effects. It does not restrict my activities- just ask the porcupine I saw on my week-and-a-half solo backpacking trip in PA. It's just my Achilles' heel, in terms of hardcore survival. Until I learn how to make and use a setup to extract insulin from animal pancreases, I'll be dependent on advanced civilization. Perish the thought! Seriously though, if you know how to extract insulin, let me know. It isn't that easy to find documentation. I don't think I'll really need it, but I like having backup plans.

I should point out that if I wanted to hide it, you probably wouldn't know I was diabetic for months or more after meeting me. Sometimes you can't even tell from my bloodwork. But I'm not the type to hide things.

Learning from my past failures. Systems of intelligence and wisdom. The survival of the human species. Cultural and societal dynamics. Agriculture. How to fix things that need fixing. How to build things that won't need so much fixing. How to make a difference and still maintain the well-being of my self and those close to me.

I spend a lot of mental (and physical) effort these days working on the turnaround of fortunes for the business and family in Minnesota. It is doable, but it will take a lot of work.

In the past few weeks I'e been spending a lot of thought on harvest, and also on what sort of apartment to acquire, and whether I'll have the energy to bike back and forth to work like I did in the city.

Relaxing. Can be out with friends at bars/parties/events, can be at home cooking, reading, watching a movie. Likely talking and/or dining with family.

Back in the day in Cleveland, it could be jamming with eclecgen down at the lab, or talking with my flatmate sublimating. I intend to start the music up again around here, but it may be a little while.

The reason this is a hard question for me is that there are very few things that I keep secret, that don't actually NEED to be kept secret for one reason or other. I'll think about it.

Okay, here's a stab at it: things that I might keep secret, were I someone else, because they're embarrassing or (almost the same) they are things I'd like to change about myself:
I used to have a serious computer game problem; now I just don't play them. I still spend too much time reading web comics, though some of them are actually worth reading I think. Most secret: I have watched quite a few episodes of the TV show "life", downloaded on iTunes and watched late at night.
Honestly, all the secret-like things I can divulge here are pretty lame.

Aaaaand, this is the point at which I finally realized that "private" and "secret" are not necessarily the same thing. I'll think about it some more.

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Okay, maybe I've got one. Prepare yourself for a glimpse into the depths.

A few years back, I played a DVD party game (with a group of good friends in Cleveland) called "AtmosFEAR", where there is of course a lot of other rigamarole, but basically everybody writes down the thing they fear the most, and later other people will try to guess whose fear they have found. I've only played this game the one time.

I have a tendency to take things seriously. I'll admit that this includes myself. I think it pays off, and I generally don't carry it so far that it costs me the fun of being silly. I mean, just ask college friends about my gorilla impression. But, to continue. It so happened that my then-wife picked out my fear: "Death before accomplishment", and correctly guessed it was me. She was pissed off about it for days, I think, or maybe still. I believe part of the problem was that her own fear (not in the game, mind you) was that I would place "accomplishment" ahead of her, or perhaps even myself.

Given my own personal and family history, this is a valid fear to have. I have known this to be a problem of mine for some time, and have always meant to work on it. I think a large part of the final failure in that marriage was that I did not realize how "right now" I needed to work on it, from her point of view. I am a long-time-constant kind of guy. I've been working on it very hard over the past couple of years, and making a lot of, and perhaps even sufficient, progress- but that's another story.

However, there is another part of this misunderstanding. "accomplishment", to me, means leaving a lasting useful legacy, maybe even to be remembered by for a while, with love and honor. To me, it is obvious that this includes family, which it is obvious also includes the spouse. To be sure, this is not all I am aiming for, but it is certainly a very important part of it.

And that is probably the most private thing I will admit here. It's not that long, but this isn't really the place for the hours of discussion that could come of it.

Obviously, if I have messaged you : ). Also, I do always reply (though often delayed) so just go ahead.

I'll be particularly interested if:
You are serious about being silly. You appreciate a drive to change the world for the better, even if you don't feel that drive yourself. You can handle openness. You enjoy discussing what wisdom is. You enjoy a snowball fight. The idea of meeting me in person doesn't scare you. The idea of meeting me in person scares you, just enough.

You are (a) looking for the kind of life people write books about. Good books, that open your mind to new possibilities for what the world has to offer. It's not that I have anything against being normal, it's just that life with me can only be so normal. You are ready to live, on purpose.
Or, you are (b) interested in short-term dating fun, and are fine with me seeing other people. I do not equate "short-term" with "meaningless"! I find, and generate, meaning wherever I go.
Maybe best, some combination of (a) and (b).

And just to clarify, you don't have to meet all or any of the above to message me; it just helps speed up my replies, and increases chances of romantic involvement.

I suppose this is as good a place as any to say why I am here (on OKCupid, not on Earth. Different discussion). A bit over two years ago my ex-wife and I separated, and we finalized our dissolution last year. I was not at all happy about this– it was naturally not all my fault, but I consider it the greatest failure of my life to date. The two years following that separation were a crucible of coping, self-examination and change, and now I am ready for companionship again.

I am fine alone, but I would rather not be. I am currently seeing more than one person at a time, in order to safeguard a bit against my propensity to fall deeply/helplessly in love. I do want to do that, but figure this time I should make a more serious effort at selecting the best raw materials before making a more refined attempt at building something to last.

Was that too up-front? Tough! ; )