I want friends, not "a special someone." Grown-up, neighborly behavior - not teenage-style dating or coy "courtship rituals." I don't play wooing games.

Secure confident people give me pleasure, people who enjoy being exactly who they are and not desperate or seeking a "Mister Right" or a "soul mate" to make them complete. I hope you enjoy being real and being yourself and are already complete. Needy people who want a rescuer are not my thing.

Some things I used to do look pretty dumb when I look back, it was kid stuff, and now I want life to be more and more satisfying. Right now I would like to find somebody to go to the opera with.

Not into possessiveness. Some guys aim to bed somebody, get their rocks off and leave in the morning. I don't do that stuff. I can enjoy your company with or without chasing any goal at all.

It doesn't freak me out if people are gay and I am not afraid of people who stand apart from the mainstream. In fact, I like nonconformists. I admit to being a bit cynical and am quite capable of sarcasm.

I respect you as my equal. I admire women (and men too) who won't be doormats. I will go halfway to meet anybody. A free man. Self-defined. I do not pander to anybody who expects me to plug into any ready-made role.

I think every day is a chance to be born all over again. "The world's great age begins anew; the golden years return. The earth doth like a snake renew her winter weeds outworn. ..."

I am an artist and lover, not a hunter. I don't pursue people or look on any human being as prey, a prize to be won in a contest, or a pet to be owned.

I don't dominate or "keep" people or submit to being dominated or "kept" and am neither a servant nor a master, "Equal, unclassed, tribeless, and nationless, Exempt from awe, worship ... the king over himself; just, gentle, wise: but passionless? No, yet free from guilt ... this ... is to be Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free; This is alone Life, Joy, Empire and Victory."

I respect people who have desires and ask directly for what they want, who hold opinions and express them. You can let others have their opinions whether or not you agree with them.

I listen to exactly what you say right out in the open. Assumptions suck. I do not try to second-guess you or "read between the lines." When you have a desire and express it I listen to what you actually say and respond with a yes or no, not "maybe" or "don't know," and I want the same courtesy and grown-up communication in return. So no teenage-style coyness, please, and don't expect to be coaxed for anything because I am not into persuading or trying to make a sale, just responding honestly to expressed desires and hoping you respond honestly to mine. Let all people be free to say what they want, to have desires, to make choices, then to accept consequences.

If I call you I hope you call me as often as I call you - why not? I refuse to be pushy or to pursue, and am wary of relationships in which one party takes initiatives while the other just reacts. Let me repeat: I will meet anybody half way as an equal. I am dismayed to see how many otherwise attractive older women still think they can't call men yet sit back passively waiting to be called: a red flag signal of a lousy basis for a relationship starting out with imbalance from Day One.

I like to be around people who are always learning - and I will be pleased if I can learn things from you.

This is 2008, not 1958, folks, and you don't have to live by antiquated gender-role assumptions. I don't. You are what you choose to be, not what your parents said you "should" be.

A homebody, I don't enjoy driving around, and prefer to find pleasures close to home, so I set the PoF filter for five miles from my zip code. Most things I want are close by so I sold my car recently and don't regret it (much). Big fan of beautiful Balboa Park and live near it. If you like we can meet there for a snack, just to enjoy meeting, with no expectations except courtesy and respect.

I get along well with most people. Avoid smokers (yuck) and creationists and Scientologists. Like being around people at peace with themselves.

Enjoy old-fashioned romantic poetry. Blake, Yeats, Rupert Brooke and Rudyard Kipling and (who would have guessed?) Shelley.

Absolutely won't watch disaster-and-pain movies, and don't like to witness suffering. I do like creativity - Salvador Dali, Cristo, and the weirdly original artists like Tim Hawkinson who stir the imagination. I love to hang at LACMA and the Gettys.

Not into movies that pander to the sentimental fantasies of children and garbage like "Titanic" or Mel Gibson's "Passion" or degrading stuff like chainsaw massacre movies or glorification of murderous scumbags like Bonnie and Clyde. I like real life and I have grown up and hope you have too. I intend to remain healthy in body and mind. I consider "2001: Space Odyssey" the greatest movie of all time and love Arthur C. Clarke's SF stories and movie scripts.

I don't expect people to be anything they don't choose to be. I think it's fine for people to do whatever they like so long as they don't inflict costs on others.

I love the ocean, desert, the High Sierra, warm sabayon, downpours of rain, tuna noodle casserole, Baja California, people who are survivors of challenges, toasted quinoa with seasoning, long train trips and voyages on ships. Hate flying, avoid airports. Enjoy emailing, not much for text messaging, threw away my cell phone and totally dislike telephoning unless it is Skype with video so you can see facial expressions and nonverbal communication.

Was a wild kid, into fast motorcycles. Now into laughing, thinking and writing. Moved by beauty and compassion as well as elegance, creativity and courage. Refuse to sink into bingo-playing senior citizen conventionality or go quietly into that dark night, and intend to end standing upright with boots on, so I respect women who kick butt, wear purple if they feel like it and join the Red Hats.

O.K., that's enough. So who are you? Have you figured yourself out? Let me know; I'm listening. Yes, I admit this is an inordinately long profile - that's by intention; the length weeds out any readers who have short attention span like children. If you're still reading, I want to meet you.

- Chat at a coffee shop.
- Stroll in Balboa Park.
- Laugh at the fundamental absurdity of life (If there's a God she must be a comedian who created human beings for a joke.)