I'm slowly closing in on the big Five Oh, and I figured, why not try this one more time before I am half a century old?

(And you know you are getting old when you can reasonably start expressing your age as a fraction of a century.)

On one hand, that's half a century we've not known each other, but on the other... the second best time to plant a tree is today, so I say let's aim for the next half-century or so, shall we?

I have posted before. So far, all I found were some good friends (hi there if any of you read this, you're awesome), a disconcerting number of one-line messages, and also the occasional but inevitable Reddit nutjob.

This post consists of 90% recycled characters and was created using 100% renewable energy (on my end, anyway).

Me:

• I'm a functional nerd.
• I have my shit together.
• Not stupid (I took the tests).
• 6'3/190cm. 49 years old, medium-gray-ish hair, trimmed beard, brown-ish eyes, glasses.
• Pasty white German, living in Berlin.
• I manage a lab for a large IT company.
• I see the world in 2d (really).
• I don't smoke and I rarely drink (alcohol, you smartass).
• Atheist, but not really interested in making others see the error of their ways.
• Despite being German I do have a sense of humor. (I am such a rebel.)
• I am single. No kids and no ex-wives. I'd like to keep it that way.
• Vaccinated. Five times. Caught COVID despite all precautions last year. Survived it. I shall now be invincible. (Well, probably not, but since my plan of being the last human not to catch COVID failed, we'll call this "plan B".)

I do keep up with TV shows a bit more than I used to, and now that the pandemic is over, I actually go out and meet friends again from time to time. I took a voice acting class. I play some video games, but pretty casually at this point. I dabble in writing and drawing (not good at either). I am thinking of getting into podcasting.

I walk as much as I can fit into my schedule, and have almost doubled my daily average compared to 2023.

After not getting around to anything but a few short trips since the pandemic, I could really do with some actual, long-distance vacations. I'm... less optimistic for 2024 than I was a few months ago, but hey, maybe we can be travel buddies?

I should probably add that, while I live in Berlin, I do not intend to stay here. (Or Germany, if I can help it.) No solid plans yet, but I figure I should mention that in case you're one of those "Berlin is the best city in the world why would you not like Berlin you monster" people.

You:

• Please have a brain or something you use for one.
• You can hold your end of a conversation.
• Speak decent English.
• Drama free.
• Not a "Berlin is the best city in the world why would you not like Berlin you monster" person.

You live within reasonable commuting distance for anything relationshippy.

That's more or less it. I mean, bonus points if you're tall, have an accent, and are not a pasty white German, but that really doesn't matter much.

We probably definitely won't get along if you're a political extremist on either end of the spectrum, think Putin is a great person, cheer for Hamas, intend to vote Trump, or engage in self-righteous outrage. That stuff is just tiring.

Conversation Starters:

• What's your plan for the inevitable zombie apocalypse? And if you don't think that's coming, you've never been to downtown Berlin.
• What do you think is the most likely (and/or most fun) cosmological model, and why?
• Who will win the epic battle of pirates vs ninjas, and how are they going to do it?
• Why does Ross, the largest friend, not simply eat the other five?

Please send a PM, not a chat request. I'll reply asap (I am still not logged in 24x7. Shocker, I know).