Shortly after my ex-wife and I split up, I ended up describing myself a lot to women that I met on the net. I decided to try writing a complete description/sales-pitch once, rather than having to write it over each time.

I was born in September of 1960 (if you can't do the math to figure out my age, we probably wouldn't get along) and enjoy my career as an engineer, I'm athletic, intelligent, literate and have all of my own hair. Some might argue that I even have more than my share. My alcohol consumption averages one or two drinks a week, mostly at a monthly wine tasting class I've been going to since 1989. I do not smoke, but am usually tolerant of it in others. I'm attracted to women that are intelligent, articulate, and whose idea of fun extends beyond the TV set.

What am I looking for?
I would say that the three biggest turn-ons for me are intelligence, self sufficiency and strength of character. I find myself most comfortable around women with whom I can have intelligent, literate conversations on a wide range of topics.

I am not looking for someone that needs to be taken care of, nor do I want someone to take care of me. When I do settle down to a serious relationship, it will be a partnership, where we each help the other and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

I am not intimidated by strong women. On the contrary I am attracted to them. I am very strong willed and need to be with someone who is strong enough to stand up to me when it is important to her, but who is willing to let me have my way when it is important to me.

I am also attracted to women who "have a life". I am usually bored by people who live life vicariously, just watching other people do things on TV.

The two physical characteristics that I most appreciate are:
Femininity, I like a woman that looks and feels like a woman. Women are naturally softer and more shapely than men. If I wanted to date someone built like skinny adolescent boys, I'd date skinny adolescent boys.
Physically fit, Note that being thin and being fit are not the same thing. While few physically fit people carry tremendous amounts of excess fat, being able to dance a fast polka or go on a thirty mile bicycle ride doesn't imply absolutely no visible body fat.
Yet there are many physical forms that I find attractive. I can find two women with totally different appearances both stunningly beautiful.

Personality:
I am a nerd. I've been one since long before it was popular. When I first started college, I tried very hard to not be a nerd. I eventually realized that it was inherently part of my make up and that being a nerd does not necessarily mean being a wimp. One of the nice things about being a nerd is that I really enjoy a career that pays very well. If I raced cars for a living, I'd program computers for fun.

I enjoy adventure and trying new things. The list of my interests is long, and constantly growing. Unfortunately, I only have time to pursue a couple at any given time, which means that old ones are constantly getting pushed off the bottom of the list. It also means that if I meet someone who does something that I've always wanted to, or used to enjoy doing, I'm usually very willing to give it a try, or go back to it.

I have a very strong sense of personal honor. I rarely give my word on something because when I do, I do my best to keep my promises. One of the hardest lessons I've ever learned was that the honorable course of action is not always the "right thing to do". I strive to be painfully honest. It causes a lot of short term discomfort, but prevents a lot of long term discomfort.

I consider words to be my personal toys. I love word play in almost any form: puns, flirting, clever insults. I usually try to edit myself and only make jokes that are at least a little bit clever. I don't always succeed. Especially if I'm tired.

Appearance:
Appearance seems to be the first thing people notice in real life, yet very difficult to convey via text. Until I actually get some pictures of myself, and get them digitized, I'll just have to make do with a verbal description.

I was born Sept 6, 1960, am 5'8 tall and weigh about 190 pounds. I have long, wavy, reddish brown hair and a brownish red goatee. I have deep brown eyes but without my glasses my vision is somewhere between "what chart?" and "what wall?". I have enough body hair to tell that my ancestors evolved from apes, but not so much that one wonders if my ancestors decided that evolution was just too much bother after all.

Despite the numbers, I'm not particularly fat. If, like me, you enjoy words, "mesomorphic" is a good adjective to describe my build. For the less lexicologically inclined, "husky" will also work. While I am not a "bodybuilder" it is fairly easy to tell that I do work out.

Flirting:
One of my peeves is people who don't understand the difference between flirting with somone and hitting on them. Flirting is a game that I very much enjoy. While I often flirt with people that I am sexually interested in, it is often the most fun when there is nothing at stake but the fun of clever banter. It's no harder to come up with a clever compliment than a clever insult, and people generally enjoy being complimented more.

Active Interests: (want to join me?)

Dancing
I enjoy almost all forms of dancing. In some types I even approach competence. Most of my dancing lately has been Swing, Contra, Historical Ballroom, Celtic and of course Rock and Roll.
Here are some dance links.

Auto_racing
I've been road racing cars since 1988, and teaching performance driving since 1990.

Writing
I've written, and received rejection slips on, several science fiction short stories. I also wrote the textbook for the National Auto Sport Association's driving school.
I also dabble in fiction. None of my more serious efforts are ready for public view, I'm still trying to master such things as plot and pacing.
Click here to read some of my writings.

Bicycling
I enjoy both road and mountain biking.

Motorcycling
I have a bike that I use mostly for commuting. I can, however easily be talked into going for a ride in the mountains, or to the beach.

Working_out
While I prefer getting my exercise from activities such as dancing and bicycling that just happen to be strenuous I often enjoy a good workout at the gym. The trick is getting there in the first place.

Good_Food_and_Drink
I love to eat well prepared food. I am also a very good, self-trained cook. I can't think of any ethnicity of food that I dislike. I'll eat anything from meat and potatos to nuclear hot Thai. I prefer red wine, dark beer and single malt scotch.

Dormant Interests: (want to remind me of how much fun I had?)

Martial arts

I first started studying Aikido when I was twelve years old. Since then I have dropped out and restarted many times, so despite starting in September of 1972 I am still only third kyu. But I'm a bluebelt with about ten years of "mat" time. I also studied shotokan karate for a few months. Over the past eighteen years, I've also done broadsword fighting with the SCA for several periods of time.

Historical recreation:
I got involved with the Society for Creative Anachronism in Sept of '78, shortly after my eighteenth birthday. My level of participation has fluctuated since. Once I started roadracing cars, I've only been averaging about three events per year. I also worked the Novato Renaissance Faire in 1990 and 1991 in St. Brigid's, the recently disbanded Scots Guild. In the winter of 1995 I also danced with Fezziwig's at Dickens Faire in San Francisco.

Blacksmithing
Some friends and I used to get together once a week to pound on hot iron. I very much enjoyed it and specialized in scooplery. I have a small forge, anvil, hammer and tongs. One of my goals is to set up my own smithy, and to use it.

Rockclimbing
I started technical climbing in high school and became fairly serious in college. I even taught beginning rock climbing through Outdoor Adventures at UC Davis. At my best I could lead a solid 5.8 and follow 5.9 and even got dragged up a few 5.10s.

Photography
I used to have a darkroom which I practically lived in. I still enjoy shooting photos, but didn't do much until visiting Singapore. I've been taking a lot more photos since I started seeing the world.

Horses
I used to ride fairly regularly from the time I was eight through highschool. I'm beginning to rediscover that horses mean more than hauling hay and shoveling out stables.

Animals
I've always gotten along very well with animals. I even considered a career researching animal behaviour and linguistics.

Lapidary
I grew up in the lapidary hobby. Some of my fondest memories are of rockhounding trips up and down the west coast.

Contact info

Last modified 08 Feb 2001