I have a lovely boyfriend and am not looking for another one, but my best friend did move away recently so I'd love to expand my social circle a bit.

I'm a bit of a bon vivant and a part-time intellectual that aspires to a lifestyle of learned decadence. That might seem more in keeping with the cultural environment of 17th-century Venice than contemporary North America, but then again the Venetians didn't have the internet or modern medicine, so I guess I can't complain.

I'm a bit of a geek, particularly when it comes to TV shows, anime, and science fiction. I especially enjoy JRPGs and a few other genres of video games. My other main hobby is cooking, which is convenient since I experience a strange compulsion to eat food every day.

Professionally, I'm finishing a PhD in musicology, which more or less amounts to the acquisition of numerous tools to discuss and analyse the culturally elevated music of dead people. Couple that with utter ignorance of nearly all of the music people actually listen to today, and you've pretty much got it. This often leads to incredulous stares when I mention that I have never heard of [insert extremely famous band with international reputation here]. Sorry, it's really nothing personal! I do like most things on being exposed to them, though. I'm also involved in the Skeptical movement and write occasionally for a blog.

Oh, and I'm INTJ if you're into that sort of thing. I can also be a major introvert, and it can take some coaxing to get me out of the house to social events, especially to meet new people. Once I get familiar I relax considerably.

Gradschooling. Gradschooling. Gradschooling. I'm ABD, though, so there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Eventually looking to go the route of the college professor. What other job gets you permanent job security and four months off each year? I mean, really.

I've written two relevant tests on this matter, if you care to test your skills, but sometimes the youtube links break.

The Undergraduate Music History Survey I (800-1750) Test

The Undergraduate Music History Survey II (1750-2000) Test

Procrastination, and, um, I'll finish the list tomorrow.

Oh, and internets. I am good at internets.

You'd have to tell me. Probably that I seem a bit distant and standoffish, but once you get close to me you'll find I'm rarely without an opinion or relevant factoid.

a) La Physiologie du Gout, The Man Who Ate Everything, The Debt to Pleasure, Orlando, Il nome della rosa, Gli indifferenti, Fashionable Nonsense, the Portable Atheist, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli, and yes, Harry Potter.

b) Just a few: Orlando, Moulin Rouge, Fellini Satyricon, Das Leben des Anderes, The Secret of Kells. And for TV (now a superior medium in my opinion), Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Futurama, Firefly, Boston Legal, The Wire, and Nip/Tuck (Ryan Murphy's good project).

c) (Western Art Music) Monteverdi, J.S. Bach, Louis Couperin, Solage, Saint-Saens, Dukas, Ravel, Fauré, Wagner, Hindemith, Barber, Vaughan Williams, Shostakovich, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Mamoru Fujieda (Highland Bagpipes!) Wolfstone, Wicked Tinkers, Skyedance (Italian Folk Music) le Launeddas, Fiamma Fumana, La piva dal carnèr, BEV (Other Folk Music) Accordions, Gamelan, Gagaku, Galician Bagpipes (Video Game Music) Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda (More Popular Stuff) Kimya Dawson, The Magnetic Fields, and the amazing Joanna Newsom, to whom I cannot stop listening. EDIT: several years and one album later, I still can't stop.

d) Anything I make, including but not limited to Gateaux St-Honoré, various kinds of hand-rolled pasta, and my newfound passion for Japanese home cooking.

Chef's knife, the internet, caffeine and other life-enabling substances, a comfortable couch, cheese, and warm, cushy socks.

Whatever I have been watching or reading lately, the importance of critical reasoning, or (most likely) what I'm going to make for dinner.

Probably on OKC, looking to meet that special someone who also doesn't go out on Friday nights.

Or replaying classic console RPGs like Chrono Trigger and Suikoden.

Or replaying a modern classic like Persona 3 and 4.

Or playing a free adventure game someone has made with AGS.

Or watching DVDs of Arrested Development.

Despite the inclinations of the generation that has come of age with Web 2.0, I don't think the internet is an appropriate venue for the broadcasting of one's private life. That being said, I'm enough of a voyeur not to mind when other people do it.

...you find me interesting.

...you think I'd find you interesting.

...you like food.

...you like video games.

...you speak Italian, or want to learn it.

...you speak Japanese, and want to help me learn it.

...you speak Latin or Greek, and wouldn't mind me living my dream-life as a Classical philologist vicariously through you.

...you think trendy post-structuralist-inspired scholarship is overly-embraced by the academy.

...OKCupid thinks we are a good match.

...you want to.

*You should probably NOT message me if...*

...you believe passionately in alternative medicine, anti-vaccine pseudoscience, fluoride conspiracy theories, or Bigfoot. Well, maybe I could tolerate Bigfoot.

...you think friendship/a relationship requires that people enjoy the same music.

...you have serious, non-medical food issues that you feel morally obligated to impose on other people. (Go ahead and be vegan if you want, but please don't try to convince me to change my lifestyle. It's tiresome and I'm better-educated on the issue than you might think)

...OKCupid thinks we are a low match (<60%). I really believe in the site's system.