CURRENT MISSION

Building furthur artistically.. misspelling intentional.

ABOUT ME

I've been told by a bartender I snuck up on that I needed a catbell. I told him I'd be a cat who gets around her bell. ;) I love coffee, tea, horses and bicycles, (but not at the same time, -not coordinated enough)...I hate humidity, tempermental technology -(read ALL), and the phrase, "team player". Get rid of it and go ahead and be an INDIVIDUAL. It's more interesting and this world needs people who think.
I left the Corporate States of America fifteen years ago and I can't go back to living there. I'll go back to visit. Beautiful country and I have lots of friends there..

PHILOSOPHY

At the end of my life I want to have done a lot. I don't need to have a lot. What I´ve most wanted to do is see the world. I might wind up living on a park bench when I'm old and burning my travel photos to keep warm, but I'll get to be different. I can look back and say, "I wish I woulda stayed home and worked some more.." But I don't believe in 'security'. I don't think it exists. I don´t think it needs to. If you actually want to have freedom in this life, you have to give up some of the things you were told you liked. A quote by William S. Burroughs: "You face death all the time and for that time you are immortal." ...

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

In meetings, greetings, hostings and sleepings.

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Map Legend: 24%, 65 of 263 Territories
Maroon

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COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I couchsurfed in Europe and Africa and hosted ppl in Dublin. I met fabulous ppl doing so. I've stayed friends with many of them and plan to meet them (have met some) again.! I've met many couchsurfers that I've had an absolute blast with from the first moment. Some of my best friends in Dublin I met thru CS. Some of my favorite places I visited in my travels are rather favorite people I stayed with couchsurfing along the way.. -If you use CS properly it´s not at all about saving money on accommodation, it´s about spending it better elsewhere - out with new friends.

Interests

horseback riding, chess, sailing, cycling, running, swimming, painting, metal work -sculpture and jewellery, writing, hiking, camping, traveling, meeting new people, music, more music, dancing, reading, photography, learning languages, getting lost in strange places -constantly..

• cats
• horses
• writing
• photography
• dancing
• coffee
• running
• walking
• pub crawls
• boating
• technology
• chess
• reading
• traveling
• painting
• survival
• music
• cycling
• equestrian
• hiking
• camping
• sailing
• swimming
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies:
Down By Law. Mic Macs. In the Name of the Father. Killing Fields. Black Cat White Cat. Delicatessen. Twelve Monkeys. Brazil. Once Were Warriors. Pricilla Queen Of The Desert. Traffic. Trainspotting. One Flew Over the Cukoo´s Nest. I heart Hukabees. What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Midnight Express. American History X. LÃ¥t den rätte komma in -(Let The Right One In). Slingblade. Bladerunner. Any Coen Brothers flick. South Park The Movie (- I want one of those tee shirts..) And for a great little documentary on Dublin, I recommend Adam and Paul..

Books:
1984. A People's History of The United States, by Howard Zinn. Grapes of Wrath. Cold Mountain. Red Poppies. Anything by Noam Chomsky. Stupid White Men. Freakonomics. Anything by Flannery O'Connor -Queen of Dark Tales. The God Of Small Things. Monsignor Quixote. All Quiet On The Western Front. Malaria Dreams -because it´s absolutly hilarious. The brilliant Trilogy of Four that is the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Music:
The first song that ever stopped me in my tracks and dragged me into a life of music was Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones. Some favorite voices = Layne Staley, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, PJ Harvey, Sandy Denny, and Jeff Buckley. Eons ago I worked in a cool little record store in Pennsylvania where my boss would let me leave for festivals. I was crew @ Festival au Desert in Timbuktu, Mali in 2007 and saw Tinariwen, Habib Kiote, Afel Bacoum,- stuff from out of this world. I make an effort to go to Electric Picnic each year. A SMALL sample of music I like,.. Death In Vegas, Sigur Ros, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Bloc Party. Herbie Hancock, Tricky. The Jesus Lizard. Alice Donut. Soundgarden. Massive Attack. Radiohead. Sonic Youth. Verve. Daft Punk. Primal Scream. Erol Alkan. Soul II Soul. Dinosaur Jr. Grateful Dead. Jerry Garcia Band. Aphex Twin. The Nomad. Thievery Corporation. Pendulum, Zap Mama. Zappa. Tosh. Marley. Babatounde Olatunji. Hamza El Din. Mutabaruka, Tones on Tail, L&R, Sisters of Mercy, Metallica, Jimmy Cliff, Dreadzone, Goldfrapp, Alabama 3, Joy Division, Ellen Alien, Kruder and Dorfmeister, The Whitest Boy Alive, Soundtracks to Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Freida, and Jesus Christ Superstar. Suga´Hill Gang, Tribe Called Quest. Public Enemy. Cypress Hill. Fugazi. Talking Heads. Police. Blondie. Jello Biafra. Spearhead. Joe Higgs. Boney M, The Waterboys, Camper Van Beethoven, Alice in Chains -(&Mad Season), Hendrix, Temple of the Dog, Mother Love Bone, Nirvana, QOTSA, Starsailor, Pink Floyd. Boards of Canada. Bonobo. Nightwish. Aretha Franklin. R.L. Burnside. Marilyn Manson, Iggy Pop, Neil Young. And The Flaming Lips are deadly live.. Also Tori Amos live is mesmerizing..

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have hardly sailed at all so I put my name on a list to crew boats and ended up on a 56 foot sailboat sailing with 2 others from Dublin to a more southern part of Ireland, then supposed to go to Cornwall (England).. but we hit a storm at 4:30am.. and I was asked to drive cos the captain wanted to change our course and the other guy was sick. I spent an hour driving in the wavering finish of this dish-destroying storm (they fell all about the place) with dawn just approaching and dolphins jumpin about in the waves of the boat and it was exhilirating. Loved it. We emergency landed in Milford Haven, Wales and the not sick 2 of us took a dinghy to shore where most of the town was surrounding a bunch of older musicians with fiddles, guitars, etc. down at the local pub. They loved us there cos we'd literally just drifted in with the tide. We continued to Cornwall the next day. I'd do it again.

And more impressively, I've seen frogs do a rain dance in Ghana.

Teach, Learn, Share

****Does anyone know how I can make the camel in my photo be one of those scratch and sniff thingys?? I´ve tried asking the couchsurfing staff, but they´ve been really secretive about how to install this feature.

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***** IMPORTANT: HOW TO RESUCITATE A GOLDFISH. (This may be too graphic for some, so please monitor children and sensitive types.)Sinead, -one of our goldfishes, must have been feeling suicidal.. and jumped. I found her behind the cabinet, out cold. Incredibly, she survived. Here is her real life tale of survival: It was a bright and sunny day, December 28, 2007. I was walking thru the living room when I knew something was wrong. I looked at the goldfish bowl and there was only one where should have been two (scary music please). Frantically, I searched and found her as before mentioned. Time was critical at this point. When I first put her in water she just floated and rolled, mouth closed, a glazed look in her eyes. There wasn't time to call for a medic. I had to be brave. I put her between 2 fingers and pulled her backwards in the water to force water thru her gills and get her mouth to open. It worked and I could then push her forward and she could get water coming in the correct direction thru her mouth and gills. She still didn't move for a suspenseful few minutes!!. Finally she started to move on her own! Just a twitch but it was life! I kept at it and eventually she could wobble unsteadily along on her own. Her fins were crinkled up and stuck to her like dried weeds... it was awful. She has since recovered all of her fins, but lost the fragile parts of her tail. A few days on now and she is back to her old self, but minus a tail which will grow back I believe. Man, that was a close one!! I don't know how long she was out of water and she doesn't have anything to say about what she saw out there.. beyond.. But anyway, I'm glad she's back and hopefully you'll never have to use this information but at least you'll have it.

***EVERYONE !! It is Ookaay to dislike Bryan Adams. Really. As long as you are not a Canadian who's native language is English, you will not be declared "unpatriotic."

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Togo, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ireland, South Korea, United States

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