I learned some things from previous relatinoships.  One is that I pretty much need a few months to fall in love.  If you want to date me lets just be friends first and do somethings together for a while.  I'm sure there's a one in a million girl that I could fall in love with at first site but on the otherhand I don't trust that kind if feeling.  I want to be with someone who is my best friend, who I love to talk to and share everything with.

I'm looking for someone to be in love with and to share a lifetime of friendship. I'm looking for someone to be my best friend and the person I share all of my experiences with. I would love to go to plays and fancy restaurants and weekend getaways and travel but my ideal image of those activities has my best friend and lover as a large part of them.

I'm not sure what kind of woman I'm looking for exactly but here's my best guess. I'm looking for an intelligent woman near my age give or take around 4 years.. Someone who preferably likes some of the things that I do (computers and/or video games and/or Japanese) so I can share that part of my life with her. I don't want one of those relationships where the woman spends all her time with her friends and the guy with his and all they really share together is the bills and the bed. That doesn't mean I'm only interested in female programmers though. In the video game industry the ratio of men to women is probably as high as 30 to 1 so it's really hard to meet people. Fortunately the internet seems to be getting more women at least marginally interested in computers. I know a few husband and wife teams in my industry and I have to say it looks rather appealing but that's not something I expect to happen.

I'm not looking for a model but I do need to be physically attracted to her. The most important physical attribute to me is a good smile.

When it comes to relationships I like to follow rather than lead. I'm an extrovert trapped in the body of an introvert. A have a very strong desire to be crazy outgoing but I find that I really need some support behind me to do it. I'd like someone else to make the social calendar, travel plans and things like that. If you take me to a bar or a dance club expect me to be a little nervous as I'm out of my element and don't know the social customs expected of me. If you're looking for the aggressive dominate male that's not me. At least not with women. In my career it's another story.  This is actually part of me that I'm working on.  As I've been making more outgoing friends I've been becoming more outgoing.

As for sports, I'm always amazed at the stuff I read in the profiles at Match.com.   There are so many women that seem to be into rock climbing or hiking or biking etc.   One women even said she was training for a triathalon!  Me, I don't do any regular athletic activities.  That's not to say I don't want to but not enough for me to organize things.  If somebody asked me to play tennis or go biking or roller blading I would most likely say yes.  As for watching I mostly don't like to watch sports nor do I keep up with them at all.  Maybe a couple of times a year I'll watch gymnatics or ice skating on TV.

Speaking of TV I'm not a sit infront of the TV kind of person.  Of course I can waste a Saturday afternoon with the Discovery Channel or the Learning Channel on.  I also used to like to watch X−files and B5.  I never got into things like Friends or Seinfeld.

As for 'ethnicity' I'm a mutt. Hawaiian, Tahitian, Chinese, Portuguese, English, Irish and Dutch. My family taught me mostly about my Hawaiian heritage as my Dad's parents are both from Hawaii and my Grandfather and many of his brothers and sisters are entertainers (read: show offs 😊 My 'ethnicity' also means I was introduced to many kinds of food (sometimes as in "you're not leaving the table until you eat it") I'm glad my parents did that because now I like all kinds of food and love to try new things.

My current obession is learning to speak Japanese. I've been studying for about 3 years but it's really hard. Especially because it's totally embarrassing to talk to people when I'm not sure how to say what I'm thinking. Fortunately I have several good friends that speak it.  I went to Japan for 9 months to study and practice.

If you're curious where 'anon.echidna' comes from then check out 'What is an Echidna anyway?' Also, my main web page is at http://www.greggman.com where there's lots more stuff.

I suppose you'd like to see some pictures.  You could browse my pages.  You might find a few there.  How about these from elsewhere on my webpages.

Favorites?  If you put me in a CD store expect me to buy 3 or 4 before I leave.   My absolute favorties are Pizzicato 5 and Depeche Mode.  Lately I've been listening to lots of swing music.  I think it would be fun to learn to swing dance.   I like old Prince (or as my friend says "the artist formerly known as good")  Nate King Cole and Natalie Cole.  Lounge music catches my ear fairly often.  I gravitate toward music with a beat though.  I'm always looking for more good techno/ambient or dance tracks.  I've got about 600 CDs and I think you'd be hard pressed to find a common theme except you'd find there is no country.

Movies?  Blade Running, Brazil, Swingers, Dark City, Say Anything, Moonstruck, Rasing Arizona.  I really like to see almost anything except movies about failed relationships.

There's a dating service called 'It's Just Coffee'. Their belief is that if you meet someone you'll know within the hour whether or not you want to see them again. So what do you think? Write me here and lets discuss it over lunch.