CURRENT MISSION

after a lifetime of training my mind and hands to create, finally getting down to creating something worthwhile

ABOUT ME

You know when you're in a situation where you're asking yourself, "Should i do this? Maybe i'll get a good story out of this?"I'm the little guy on your shoulder that says, "Yes. Yes you should."25 and supposedly qualified in many ways but hesitant to go down any of those paths. Constantly finding self walking out the door not really knowing where I'm going. I've held jobs ranging from farming to set construction to teaching. The list goes on.Right now i'm an educational researcher with a grant to study adventure playgrounds in berlin. It is more or less the perfect, harmonious union of my interest in art making and my love of working with children. All I do all day is play with kids and nuture creativity. It's a pretty nice job :)

PHILOSOPHY

I guess I'm always oscillating between two poles: an irrepressible lust for the new and the tendency to be a homebody. I guess at worst I am hedonistic and at best just a person who is very at ease with almost anything.

I also have this sort of self-mandated if-then clause programmed into me which is if I find myself afraid of doing something then I am therefore obliged to try it.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Well, I've only recently become a CouchSurfer but I love to meet new people, to tell stories, to laugh together to show people my favorite restaurants, to cook for people, and to go to concerts and exhibitions.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have CouchSurfed before, back when I used to have a joint account. Now will be the first time I'm striking out on my own though.

Interests

brains of kids, teaching kids, fixing bikes, riding bikes, critical theory, fresh water aquarium fish, cooking, eating, restaurant-finding, sleeping, driving, traveling, not flying, hiking, brunch, looking at art, making art, people watching, riding the subway, bargain hunting, long aimless walks, street food

• fish
• aquaria
• arts
• concerts
• dining
• cooking
• cheese
• walking
• flying
• traveling
• drawing
• woodworking
• cycling
• fishing
• hiking
• hunting

Music, Movies, and Books

books:
immortality, a lover's discourse & other barthes stuff, the lacan i've read, the foucault that i've read, the zizek that i've read, the borges i've read, another country, (ehhhh im really bad w/ names not associated with strong mental images...sorry very visual person...going to have to stop here. i also have a very selective memory of what i read...like i steal ideas for synthesis later w/o bothering to attribute them to anyone)

movies:
let the right one in, my winnipeg, anything herzog/coen, wild at heart, sans soleil, kung fu panda, the incredibles, moon, paris texas, night of the hunter, dead alive, how to get ahead in advertising, dog day afternoon, most cronenberg, the road to wellville, sherman's march, for some reason i cry like a baby at movies w/ kid related sentimentality aka hook, home alone 2, etc.

food:
new american (aka whatever the fuck you want), chinese (in all its authentic and bastardized goodness), japanese (as downhome as possible), any kind of central american or south american (big soft spot for peruvian chicken), indian, polish/czech.

music:
do make say think, flying lotus, yeasayer, t. rex, dinosaur jr., dirty projectors, bonnie prince billy, louden wainwright, robbie basho, built to spill, the stars, tilly and the wall, neil young, michael hurley, john prine, jason moran, neutral milk hotel, salem (again plagued by the same problem i have w/ book titles)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Well...I'm not sure if it's as much amazing as it is just plain dumb. One time a Dan and I hiked in the Austrian Alps for 4 days, reaching about an altitude of 3900 meters, all the while vastly underfunded and badly equipped. I'd say there was probably 100 euros between the two of us, no first aid kit, and two foil thermal blankets. Food was a bag of raisins and peanuts, two small wheels of cheese that were practically bitesize, a small jar of honey, a dried salami, and a loaf of bread. The takeaway here is that while you can't always depend on the kindness of strangers, it does exist and it is a beautiful thing. I'm not sure if we could have done it or lived to tell the tale if it was not for the wonderful people we met along the way.

Teach, Learn, Share

Knife skills, cooking, bike repair, basic welding skills, woodworking, blacksmithing. also if you'd like some basic art lessons ie. how to draw people

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Iran, Morocco, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Poland, United States

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