CURRENT MISSION

To find my way.

ABOUT ME

I'm very down-to-earth and I enjoy meeting all kinds of people.

I love to travel. Particularly I love living out of a backpack, getting rides with strangers to every corner of the United States (or sometimes just walking everywhere). I love meeting people at coffee houses and truck stops and Navajo Nation and Kansas. I love people-watching at places like the bench on the sidewalk of Rodeo Drive. However, those days are most certainly over.

On February 14, 2010, I kicked off a coast-to-coast walk by dipping my feet in the Pacific Ocean beside the Santa Monica Pier. 211 days later, on September 12, after carrying my backpack 3,463 miles through extreme heat and extreme cold, as well as almost every other kind of pain and discomfort, I stepped into the Atlantic Ocean at Coney Island, NYC. (I bought my last pack of cigarettes in Brooklyn a few hours before I finished the walk.) I received almost no media attention during my walk (because I didn't seek attention), but here's a story about me from the Columbus Dispatch: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2010/08/08/man-didnt-need-reason-to-start-walk-across-u-s-.html.

I'm also passionate about pizza, so I've spent many years teaching myself to make the best pizza you can get anywhere. (Pictures of some of my pizzas: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/media/set/?set=a.1839700430948.2101618.1193661908&type=3.) More about pizza below, in "Teach, Learn, Share."

People tend to think I'm about 7 or 8 years younger than my actual age, which is very cool once you reach age 35 and start wondering how you aged 15 years in what felt like three weeks. I attribute this youthfulness to being young at heart. I'm a kid, and I'm always gonna be a kid. I firmly believe that's one of the secrets to enjoying life, especially because most of my high school classmates look much older than me. Many of their Facebook posts sound like they don't remember how it feels to be a kid or to think like a kid, and that kinda weirds me out. (Please kill me if I ever get like that.)

My friend Jeff's description of me: "Intense yet cool guy to hang with. Will do what he says. Very honest..."

I used to be a very good drummer, and I was semi-proficient with guitar. Haven't played in a long time, though.

PHILOSOPHY

I don't pretend to be anyone I'm not. Nothing good results from dishonesty.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

As of mid-November 2013, I haven't participated much. I have done a little surfing, but I am about to do a lot of hosting, now that I may finally be able to.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

All the couchsurfing I've done was in the Los Angeles area with several hosts, in March 2012. (Hollywood, Inglewood, Culver City.) Considering the vagabond life I led over the previous several years, there was nothing remotely exotic about the couchsurfing experience.

Interests

Traveling, hitchhiking, making pizza, meeting people

• dining
• coffee
• running
• walking
• traveling
• socializing
• guitar
• backpacking
• surfing
• communications
• hitchhiking

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Idiocracy, Forrest Gump, Donnie Darko

Music: Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, System of a Down, CAKE, Frou Frou.

A whole bunch of other stuff, too.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I walked across the United States, from Santa Monica, CA to Coney Island, NY. (Yes, this is amazing enough to mention more than once.)

I've bowled 300 twice. Never an 800 series, though. My high series is 771 (298, 247, 226).

I've met the most interesting people you could ever meet by traveling all over the United States with almost no money, living out of a backpack.

Teach, Learn, Share

I would love to teach you at least a little about pizza, and then serve you the results, which I guarantee you will want to reproduce. I understand pizza, and I love sharing my passion for pizza. To see more of my work than is shown in the link at the top of this page, just google "aimless ryan" and "pizza" together. Or even better, google "snarky prick" by itself. (Seriously, just try it.)

If you're gonna stay with me, let me know a couple days in advance which of the following styles of pizza you may like:

NY style
(http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,28803.0.html)

Malnati's style deep dish
(http://ryanspizzablog.blogspot.com/2012/10/best-yet-malnatis-style-deep-dish-pizza.html)

Giordano's style stuffed pizza
(http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,25774.140.html)

Tommy's (laminated cracker style from Columbus)
Reply #313 (http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,12446.msg278598.html#msg278598)

Shakey's style
Reply #303 (http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,12446.msg278160.html#msg278160)

Pizza Hut thin
(http://ryanspizzablog.blogspot.com/2012/09/pizza-hut-thin-crispy-clone.html)

Donatos (a different Columbus pizza)
(http://ryanspizzablog.blogspot.com/2012/10/donatos-clone.html)

I can make all these styles and more, and mine is probably even better than most of the originals. I'm not bullshitting. Eventually my repertoire will grow.

One easy way to show me that you did a little research before sending me a couch request is to ask me for pizza (in your request). If you don't bring it up on your own, I'm gonna ask you what style of pizza you want, because making pizza for people is one of the things that keeps me ticking. Due to health concerns, I have to limit my pizza intake to almost none, but I still need to make pizza as regularly as possible so I can learn from it and share what I've learned with everyone who wants to know.

I have a ton of cool stories from the road. Some of these stories are about: Running into a long-lost dear friend (who I figured was probably already dead from heroin addiction) hundreds of miles away from the city where we once knew each other; the Navajo family that caught up with me four consecutive days as I walked through Monument Valley and away from Mexican Hat, bringing me food and companionship each of those days; spending three nights in jail just for knowing my Constitutional rights when I was harassed by cops after walking 2,600 miles from Santa Monica to Indiana...