CURRENT MISSION

To get a better view - of everything.

ABOUT ME

I'm an aging hipster, I guess, but I'm forever out of place wherever I'm living. I like to think I'd fit in better on either of the U.S. coasts, but life hasn't sent me there yet. I get by through being a collector of awkward experiences and a student of human interaction. No matter where you're living, there's always something interesting going on.

I was a nurse at the Mayo Clinic for 5 years, and that was interesting, but ultimately I decided that being a professional caregiver was not my calling. So now I'm cutting a new path for myself, and hoping someone will someday pay me to just think a whole lot. I'm also hoping that new path will put me somewhere other than the midwest or deep south, since I've gotten a pretty good feel for both of those regions, and would like to broaden my living experiences.

PHILOSOPHY

After losing my religious drive to live in my late teens, it took me a long time to find a sense of purpose. In the end, I decided that the aphorism, "it's not the destination, but the journey," gives me all the purpose I really need. As a result, I've become what I call an "experientialist." My version differs slightly from the common philosophical definition (only through experience can one attain true knowledge), in that I believe that ultimately all experiences bring something beneficial to the person experiencing them, and that there is nothing so damaging to the growth of the individual as succumbing to fear such that it prevents you from having vast and rich life experiences.

This philosophy often manifests itself in my jumping into all sorts of things with very little question, sometimes with mixed results. Some people say they admire my "whimsy" and love having me along for their adventures, because I'm usually game for anything. Others, like my mother, just think I'm reckless and have little regard for my own wellbeing. I don't really argue either point of view, because I figure what people think of me has less to do with me, and more to do with them, and at the end of the day, I'm most accountable to myself.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've donated money to the CS2 Project, and I have hosted couchsurfers. I've recently started attending events as well.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Unfortunately, I've not had much luck couchsurfing with people through this website. The only times I have tried to use this website for couchsurfing were both in NYC, and both times, the 4 people I'd set up to surf with were MIA when I arrived in NYC. On the first trip, I ended up sleeping on the subway two nights in a row. On the second trip, I slept at the Big Apple Hostel.

My better experiences have been through impromptu arrangements with people I've met online through chat clients, or through friends of friends.

Being that I've been a traveler for my entire life (thanks to my restless parents), I've also had plenty of couchsurfing experiences throughout my life. The majority of the time, I've stayed with people I already knew, or friends of friends, but I'm really liking this idea of meeting entirely new people through a project that seeks to maximize the safety of its participants.

Interests

In list form:

community, human connection, conversation, physics, philosophy, politics, travel, foreign language, history, neuroscience, musical instruments, television, movies, filmmaking, polyamory, queer community, internet, pursuit of happiness, personality types, good food, living well, green living, public transportation

• film making
• dining
• drinking
• politics
• movies
• traveling
• fencing
• history
• neuroscience
• nursing
• physics

Music, Movies, and Books

I can only list a few in each category, because a comprehensive list would take me hours:

Movies: Shortbus, I Heart Huckabees, Adaptation, Donnie Darko, American Beauty, Pi, Me and You and Everyone We Know, The Hours, The Fog of War, A Brief History of Time, Why We Fight, Who Killed the Electric Car, The End of Suburbia, The Smartest Guys in the Room, The Usual Suspects, Easy, Mifune, Close My Eyes, LOTR trilogy, Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Music: The Cardiacs, Sword of Exactly, Noltey, Imogen Heap, Sneaker Pimps, Beck, Muse, Simple Minds, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, NIN, Turtle Island String Quartet, Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Aphex Twin, TV on the Radio, XTC, Collide, Tegan and Sara, Skindive, Elliot Smith, Sam Roberts, Rufus Wainright, Jeff Buckley, Massive Attack, Placebo, Scissor Sisters, Radiohead, PJ Harvey, Bjork, Stereolab, Yann Tiersen, Susheela Raman

Books: Fight Club, Possessing the Secret of Joy, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed Along with Our Families, The Man Who Tried to Save the World, A Tale of Two Cities, The Count of Monte Cristo, Smilla's Sense of Snow, The Stranger, Jitterbug Perfume, anything by Douglas Coupland, The Hours, The Inner Circle, Harry Potter Series, His Dark Materials series, The Giver series, trashy gay-boi novels, Collapse!, The Climb, Spell of the Sensuous

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I, along with my parents, climbed an undeveloped portion of China's Great Wall. With the help of a local, we bribed Chinese military with snacks to let us through a military checkpoint and crawled through an unofficial hole in barbed-wire fencing at the base of the mountain where the area of the wall we were to explore was located. Once we got to the top, there were villagers who had climbed up the other side of the mountain, which was much steeper and even less "official." They had brought cold water and soft drinks to sell to western tourists (such as ourselves) who had gotten wind of the non-touristy experience of the Great Wall of China. We bought tons of goods from them after that climb!

Teach, Learn, Share

I want to learn a foreign language (proficiently) and about other cultures.

I have a little knowledge about a lot of things, and I'm happy to share what I know with anyone. Other than that, I have laid-back, friendly company to offer.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, United States

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