I am ambitious and creative. I'm a full time IT professional, and teach tai chi part time. I'm also a writer, mostly for magazines but working on video scripting and have plans for my first book. I'm also an event promotor who produces martial art conventions, workshops and seminars. Teaching and helping people gives me a great sense of fulfillment.As a teacher of the Chinese arts, Chinese culture is a serious interest in my life. I am a student of Daoism, and try to walk the Daoist path as best I can. My spiritual side has led me to find more questions than answers but half the fun is in the discovery. I have a keen (sometimes wicked) sense of humor, best described as "Dave Barryish", and a gentle and kind nature. I am a sucker for sentimental movies and chick flicks (I always seem to get something in my eye during the sappy parts, though I also love a good action/adventure, sci-fi and even an occasional western. I love animals. In fact I have been head of the serving staff for my cat, Lillybud, for last 5 years, ever since she was kind enough to adopt me. Family is very important to me. My dad is my best friend. I also love children and would like to have a few of my own someday. I try to eat healthy most of the time but occasionally indulge in a night out at a good Chinese buffet. I can also go "fast food" if circumstances call for it. My tastes run to the carnivore side of the food spectrum (probably not a good prospect for you vegetarians). I am also a proud member of the "Cult of The Single Malt Scotch Drinkers."I love nature and wide open spaces. At the same time, I clean up well for a night out which can include the simple (dinner and movie) to the slightly more upper crust (broadway show or night at the symphony). I'm also good with just hanging out (side walk cafe, browsing books at Borders, drive-in movie). I like long car rides to nowhere. I enjoy camping (including nudist camping for you adventurous ladies, fishing, archery, target shooting and the like. At the same time, I also enjoy my "veg" moments. I am a TV watcher (got about a dozen of my favorite shows videotaping every week - "Lost" anyone?). I also keep up with news and current events.****************As for what I'm looking for. As my headline implies, friendship is very important to me. Sex is great but the conversation before and after is just as important. I want a woman who is attractive, intelligent with a good sense of humor and a gentle nature. She should be looking for a man to compliment her, not complete her. She should be health minded (exercise and nutrition) without being obsessive about it (not too good for occasional barbeque or fast food). She should also have an inquisitive nature about spirituality and the "big picture." She should be a complete person with her own interests, though also with a willingness to explore new things. Family should be important to her - hers and whatever family she may start with a special someone.I also want someone who is just as happy in an evening dress for a night out, as she is in a comfortable pair of jeans on a camping trip while we make breakfast together over the camp fire. Open communication and sharing should be important to her. Her sexual passions should tend towards the open minded and she should not be above being a very bad girl when the mood suits her.It should be noted that I can be pretty kinky when the mood suits me, although I'm not entirely comfortable going into that area of myself in this forum. I suppose part that comes from the fact I can sometimes be a bizarre mix of modestly conservative and strikingly liberal. Too, my parents are still alive. For now, lets just say that I'm not a stranger to alternative lifestyles, I have enjoyed "group participation" in the bedroom, and I still keep in touch with a few circus midgets from the old days. If you have a kinky streak yourself, great! If you're a bit more on the conservative side, that's fine as well. This is only a very small facet of who and what I am, and irrelevant for the purposes of making online friends.One last note - I am family minded. Just sayin. WHAT I'M DOING WITH MY LIFEThoreau once said "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." That said, I spend my days working diligently to sing a symphony!I'm always striving to learn new things. I'm presently teaching myself the Final Cut Pro suite in preparation for shooting my own educational video's in tai chi. I train on a regular basis and work to make breakthroughs in my tai chi practice. I also run an annual convention, and weekend workshops for tai chi and the related arts. On the day side of my life, I have to keep abreast of new technologies for my day job and am presently wading through "Everything You Always Want to Know About Windows Server 2008, But Don't Really Care Enough to Ask, Unless Your Day Job Depends On You Knowing This Crap" .. I know, I was amazed at how long the title of this book was too.My eventual goal is to launch a successful tai chi school, growing it to the point where I can quit my day job and teach for a living. I am much more fulfilled helping people than being an office drone.