CURRENT MISSION

My current mission is to be sincerely kind to all that I meet. I grew up in a place where the way that you treat someone to their face can be very different than when their back is turned. I want to not be part of a world of casual degradation of others

ABOUT ME

I am kind of tall. People tell me I'm tall, but I don't really feel tall. I think it's because I used to be fatter than I was tall. But I do occasionally get things off high shelves for people. I am a fan of frisbee related activities as well as bicycling and fishing. I like to cook and brew beer, and have at some point done both professionally. I do not like corporate things, most especially Wal Mart, because they make me feel like a soulless drone. Chain restaurants make me cringe. I unfortunately think I had my last Waffle House experience recently. Too bad, I thought I liked that place. I listen to music almost constantly and love Belgian beer.

PHILOSOPHY

Positive energy...I'm pretty sure it's a fact that the most sure fire way to make someone smile is to smile yourself.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I think and hope that I feed mostly positive energy into the world. I contribute my fair share of sarcastic remarks, but like to think that I can have a fairly serious, meaningful conversation just as well.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have crashed on many a couch, floor, front or back porch even, and can't think of a bad experience. All my official couchsurfing experiences have been stellar. Hosting and surfing alike.

Interests

Bicycling, frisbee tossing and disc golf, snowboarding, cooking, brewing, environmental history/philosophy, pond fishing, live music. I like making things with my hands too, but the things vary from day to day and week to week: sometimes art made out of old rusty stuff, sometimes cold process lye soap.

• arts
• cooking
• beer
• homebrewing
• music
• live music
• fishing
• kayaking
• surfing
• snowboarding
• golf
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

Arcade Fire, Deer Tick, Black Keys, Dylan, Neil Young, Bill Callahan, The Head and the Heart, Fleet Foxes, etc.

Pulp Fiction, Eternal Sunshine, Anything Coen Brothers or Wes Anderson, especially Royal Tennenbaums, Mr. Fox, Rushmore... well just all Wes Anderson. I will watch and enjoy almost any well done movie, but I find it hard to start watching serious movies. I always end up liking them though.

Don't read as much as I should, but I read Tina Fey's Bossypants recently and it was very amusing. Currently reading Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer and Bob Dylan Chronicles: Volume One. I also like books about being outside, specifically Encounters With the Archdruid and A Walk in the Woods.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Jumped off of a thirty foot cliff into a glacial lake after catching trout for dinner in Glacier National Park.

Teach, Learn, Share

When brewing beer, keep it simple. When you start getting really "creative" and putting stuff like rose water or cinnamon oil in beer, you're just making it bad.

On a semi related note, whenever you are mixing chemicals with water, add the chemicals to the water, not the other way around. This is a good safety tip.

I've always regretted not learning how to roll a kayak when I had the chance.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States