CURRENT MISSION

To connect with cool people on their way through my world, and enjoy whatever areas of overlap we find amongst our various interests.

ABOUT ME

I'm verified, bona fide, and chicken-fried worldwide. Actually I just don't have it in me to sum myself up all over again right now.

PHILOSOPHY (Apparently I chose to populate this field with a smattering of Bertrand Russell quotes in the first place. Not particularly original, but I'll allow it. They all seem pretty legit still.)

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.

Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man.

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.

There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so.

Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.

About Me:
The preceding are courtesy of Bertrand Russell; the following, Khalil Gibran:

To be able to look back upon one's life in satisfaction, is to live twice.

What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you?

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

Cast aside those who liken godliness to whimsy and who try to combine their greed for wealth with their desire for a happy afterlife.

Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.

What do the nationalists say about killers punishing murderers and thieves sentencing looters?

When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.

The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.

For what is it to die, but to stand in the sun and melt into the wind?

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

[End of Gibran]

Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name! Every fool, from king to policeman, from the flatheaded parson to the visionless dabbler in science, presumes to speak authoritatively of human nature. The greater the mental charlatan, the more definite his insistence on the wickedness and weaknesses of human nature...

John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities?

- Emma Goldman, "What is Anarchy?"

It was play rather than work which enabled man to evolve his higher faculties -- everything we mean by the word 'culture'.

- Herbert Read, Anarchy & Order

The main question ... is not what motive inspired the law, but what it will be possible for men of bad motive to do with the law ...

The student of Liberty must constantly endeavor to disassociate his imagination from sanguinary dramas of assassination and revolt. - Benjamin R. Tucker

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've surfed a couch and shared a ride, and finally at long last actually successfully hosted my first surfers. I've also forwarded that message about how CS is hiring to a list I'm on where someone was trying to find a job for their codemonkey cousin or something. Also been using the groups to network and browsing profiles of locals as part of my attempt to inhabit my landbase more fully. Living way out in the weeds these past couple years has hampered my availability for actual hosting, but I'm looking forward to making up for lost time once I move back into the city (soon, soon).

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I thought I just did that...?

Interests

0-point energy, 0 pop. growth, Accents, analog synths, anarchism, anti-credentialism, anti-theism, asbestos, bass, bats, beer, bees, biocentrism, bio-regionalism, blasphemy, body art, books, bowling, bromance, cassingles, cohousing, commensalism, communalism, constructive chaos, cowbell, deep ecology, Deutschland, direct democracy, Discordianism, divorce, DIY, Dub, economic indicators, efficiency, duct tape, emceeing, entrepeneurialism, entropy, environmental economics, evolutionary biology, extirpation reversal, fair use, food allergies, Free Love, da Funk, futarchy, glyphs, Gnosis, grafitti, hation, herbal remedies, Hiphop, iconoclasm, illegal numbers, indigenism, industrial ecology, instant runoff voting, intentional community, inventing, irrational numbers, Jaeger, Jazz, Kabbalah, land ethic, liberation, liberty dollars, linux, Local Living Centers, masculism, men's lib (=/= MRA), mental mapping, Metal, metaphysics, mixtapes, monkeywrenching, microloans, music, native plants, neo-tribalism, new urbanism, natural landscaping, non-monogamy, open source, optical illusions, P2AD, P2P governance, parenting, peer production, Permaculture, philosophy, pithy slogans, Pizza, political science, population reduction, post-civilization, predator reintroduction, Punk, radical relativism, rationality, rCredits, reason, Relocalization, ridonkulism, Reggae, resistance, runes, sabotage, sedition, self-determination, sentience, Soul, string theory, subversion, survivalism, tardigrades, topfreedom equality, trombone, unschooling, voluntaryism, Waldorff schools, web2.0, weeds, white russians, Witzensucht, woodblock, xeriscaping, your mom, Zydeco

• animals
• arts
• culture
• books
• acting
• beauty
• body art
• diy
• dancing
• causes
• dining
• beer
• movies
• magic
• music
• jazz
• bowling
• biology
• ecology
• economics
• teaching
• law
• political science
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

This section is overdue for an overhaul. These answers are super old and only dimly reflect my current favs.

A) 12 Monkeys, The 40-Year Old Virgin, A Hard Day's Night, A Scanner Darkly, Adaptation, Air Bud, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy, The Animal, Apocalypse Now, As Good As It Gets, Barton Fink, Being John Malkovich, Beerfest, Benchwarmers, Better Off Dead, The Big Lebowski, Bill and Ted's 1 & 2, Black Cop/White Cop, Blazing Saddles, Brain Candy, Canadian Bacon, Catch-22, Children Of Men, Citizen Kane, Chinatown, City of God, Clerks 1 & 2, Coffee And Cigarettes, Dazed And Confused, Disorderlies, Donnie Darko, Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, The Fifth Element, Fight Club, Flight of the Navigator, From Dusk Till Dawn, Gattaca, Ghostbusters, The Golden Compass, Good Night and Good Luck, Half Baked, The Harder They Come, Hellboy, Help, The History of White People In America 1 & 2, Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Honky Grandma Be Trippin, The Hot Chick, The Hours, How High, The Hudsucker Proxy, I Heart Huckabees, Into The Wind, Kill Bill 1 & 2, Knocked Up, Krush Groove, Labyrinth, Ladies Man, Lola Rennt, Lost In Translation, The Magic Christian, Magical Mystery Tour, Marjoe, Marty, The Matrix Trilogy, Moonwalker, Napoleon Dynamite, New Jack City, Night At The Roxbury, Office Space, Der Krieger und die Kaeserin, The Princess Bride, President Homeboy, Rockers, Run Ronnie Run, Scarface, The Science of Sleep, Short Bus, Six String Samurai, Super Troopersuperbad, TMNT 1-4, Triplets of Belleville, V For Vendetta, The Warriors, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Wedding Crashers, What About Bob, Where the Buffalo Roam, Who's The Man, Wild Style, Yellow Submarine, I actually watch a lot of (animated) Disney movies by virtue of being a dad. Pixar is big with kids. In case you didn't know.
B) PRINCE, Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, James Brown et al, P-Funk, Michael Jackson, Victor Wooten, Dungeon Family, BDP, Juice Crew, EWF, The Roots, AD/Speech, El-P/Co.Flow, Mos Def, Spearhead, Deltron Z, Automator, UGK, Dr. John, eels, Tortoise, 16HP/Woven Hand/Lilium, Bad Religion, Herbie Hancock, Robert Randolph, Roy Ayers, Fishbone, Cornershop/Clinton, Cracker/CVB, The Residents, Social D, Electric Six, Spank Rock, Grant Lee Buffalo/Phillips, The Coup, Blackalicious/Gift of Gab, Luther Allison, Shuggie Otis, Commodores, Curtis Mayfield, Barry White, Kool & The Gang, Dinosaur Jr./J. Mascis, E-40, Da Backwudz, Ray Brown, War, CSN&Especially Y, Todd Snider, Jamiroquai, Fela Kuti, Tony Allen, Spin Doctors, Blues Traveler, Blind Melon, Beck, Johnny Guitar Watson, Zappa, Steely Dan, My boy Taki76, LOA/Collective Efforts, My Morning Jacket, Ultramagnetic/Kool Keith/Dr. Octagon/Dr. Dooom/Matthew/Mr. Gerbik/Pissy Pete, Mantronix, Stetsasonic, PM Dawn, Dead Prez, Clarence Carter, OZOmatli, Mingus, Ron Carter, Ray Brown, Santana, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Albert King, Bar-Kays, Funk Brothers, Booker T. & the MGâ

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

4 rows back from Prince at the Tabernacle will be tough to top. But the PDC out in Kerrville was amazing too, plus, you know, births and milestones and special moments with my kids.

Teach, Learn, Share

I need to return to this when I have my links-machine in full effect status.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I don't always do so well with super-open-ended questions. I've got some cool movies on my laptop, I can do dishes, and I enjoy geeking out on a wide variety of topics. I'm a people person, damnit!

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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