Wow, I just pushed the 'edit profile' button, and for a moment I thought I had written that I love dancing, portobello mushrooms and French film. Then I thought I must have had a psychotic break, because I really don't think the latter two are great enough to write in a profile (though I do love mushrooms). Glad I was just totally off base.

I'm a nice, funny, stuffed-with-way-too-much-trivia kinda guy. I think of myself as kinda average, but I think that's because I'm around myself all the time and am used to myself. If I had to compare myself to a vegetable (I have no idea why I'm comparing myself to a vegetable, but that's another issue), I'd most likely be an onion. No, let's make it a shallot. I don't smell or make people cry, but I have lots of exciting layers to discover.

I'm looking for that guy we all want. You know, the one who's funny, witty, attractive, smart, engaging, spontaneous, dreamy, blah blah blah. . . I think that being strange, quirky, and open to unorthodox ideas and experiences are great qualities. Perhaps this is because I often find myself stuck in my head and pondering things that may seem odd to others. There's also something charming about introverts, possibly because I find them more mysterious. Aside from spectacular brilliance and creativity in a guy (I'm being half facetious), I have a thing for prominent noses and glasses, but none of these are obligatory, of course. I tend to be shy at first, though my friends consider me quite gregarious. I think I fall in love more slowly than most people, but once it happens, I'm loving and loyal.

Exploring my options. No, that's not code for "unemployed." But perhaps it should be...

writing beautiful things -- though this profile cleary does not count, thinking, cooking, growing things, languages, but clearly not making lists

That I look unintimidating and naive. Random Medicare-compliant lesbians in rural Wal-Marts tend to ask me about my tattoos, which I find strange, so if you're an old rural lesbian, that's probably what you'll notice first, I'm guessing.

A: Preserving the World's Cities, 1491, The Space Between Us, anything about the Byzantine Empire, the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire, vampire-themed trash novels. Yes, I'm weak! Or have no taste.

B:

C: New Order, Siouxsie & the Banshees, FSL, Orbital, Gorecki, Lil' Kim, anything classical from 19th or 20th Century Russia, the random things my friends give me.

D: Japanese, Turkish, Italian, Sichuan, Hunanese; by food items: mushrooms, fish roe, cheese, tofu.

Plants, Chapstick, Friends (this is all in no particular order), New Frontiers, Curiosity, .... crap, I need another....

Traveling, History, Ruins, Byzantium, Maps, the Future, Love.

Eye Liner makes the World a better place.

I often intimidate people, although I really don't mean to and look like I shouldn't be able to.

Oh, and I've always wanted to date someone who's deaf. (um, obviously *not* a requirement!)

You'd like to. And if you're nice. I'm really over mean people these days.