I grew up on a small farm in a relaxed corner of New Zealand full of hippies and tourists (also on a yacht!). I went to university to become a mad scientist, but I got sidetracked into programming. Now somehow I've ended up as a corporate tool at Microsoft on the other side of the world. Life is crazy :)

I work on the data visualization team for Microsoft Excel, a program which I have no idea how to actually use. I like writing data visualizations though.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm making a couchsurfing account because I've been invited on a road trip with some current couchsurfers. This site seems like a pretty cool idea!

Interests

- programming (especially graphics and music visualizers)
- my work (which is luckily also programming)
- reading (mostly non-fiction and sci-fi, but my favourite author is Terry Pratchett)
- hiking + misc outdoors activities
- philosophy, rationalism, ethics, politics, socioeconomics....

• writing
• ethics
• yachting
• politics
• reading
• music
• outdoor activities
• hiking
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Before university, most of the music I had was cassette tapes from the 70s... These days I listen to pretty much everything. Two of the artists I have liked for the longest are Morcheeba and Massive Attack.

I'm not that into movies, but my favourite is the director's cut of Donnie Darko. My other favourites are also mostly complicated psychological thrillers.

I read fantasy novels almost constantly growing up, but these days I mostly read non-fictions, blogs and news articles. I've read every discworld book, and re-read most of them a couple of times.

My favourite thing I've read recently:
http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I haven't really done much yet... but there's still time! I'd love to contribute to something that I feel actually helps the world, maybe in the energy sector...

What I Can Share with Hosts

I have a pretty good (I promise!) joke that you haven't heard, so I could share that I guess

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Tonga

Countries I’ve Lived In

New Zealand, United States