CURRENT MISSION

Learn

ABOUT ME

Back in the day I was a backpacking, canoeing guide. Then I moved to a 900-person village in Japan in my mid-twenties where I taught English for a few years. At a dancing/barbecue party on my birthday I met my wife Yumiko. I've been working on my writing most of my adult life and after teaching English I decided to go for it and applied to eleven schools and got into Iowa's MFA program. I just finished up this spring and now we're down in Denton for my PhD. I plan to write and teach and read and drink beer, in that order. I want a kid someday, but maybe only one. Or maybe we'll adopt a second.

The four things I love the most are my wife/partner, conversations with neat people, traveling (including in the outdoors), and reading/writing.

As you'd expect with a writer/PhD student, I try to read whenever I can. With writing I tend to have many projects going on at once and my task is now learning when to let ones go and when to nurture others. I am a nonfictionist or literary journalist or essay writer and so tend to do lots of research but in a very meandering way. I don't write in the classic journalistic pyramid form. Occasionally I'll dip into memoir, but one of my chief loves with nonfiction writing is I get to learn so much about the world as I'm writing.

PHILOSOPHY

It`s good to be flexible, but it`s good to have a plan.
Learn as much as you can before you open your mouth.
First, crack a joke.
Love with skepticism and acceptance.
A little dirt or rain never killed anyone (unless it's a landslide or a flood, but then that isn't a little).
Try this: walk into a used book store and let whatever book strike you, I mean really hit you, like a first-love sucker punch, not a "well, I guess I should read that" and buying the thing and walking away with it before second guessing yourself.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

While I was living in Japan and I met some wonderful people through CS, both as a traveler and as a host.

Now I sometimes host, sometimes travel and pass the CS word on to good people.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My experiences with couchsurfing have been impressively positive. All hosts and surfers have been very pleasant.

This is just funny, but I did have had one person look at my profile and e-mail me (without a photo) to see about the "true love connection shared between us" and all the "glorious time we can share in this life together" It could have been a scam. Anyway, I sent the person a curt, very definitive "na uh." Which by the way, I'm a little weirded out by people who use couchsurfing for dating or sex hook ups. I mean isn't that what craigslist is for?

Interests

As mentioned, backpacking, writing, canoeing, snowshoeing, doing my laundry, walking around anywhere, reading, thinking about living sustainably, gardening, jotting notes, eating partially burnt food, studying Japanese, and culture.

I once helped start the only environmentalist group in my hometown, Lubbock, but have since shied away from outright activism. I guess I feel I want my efforts to be more subtle, underground. My writing is my way of protest. But I still completely respect anyone who walks onto a picket line. Generally I respect people who can make firm decisions but be strong enough to back off them when compelled. I'm usually either too stubborn or lackadaisical.

• pets
• cats
• culture
• writing
• books
• dancing
• dining
• beer
• bbq
• walking
• partying
• drinking
• gardening
• reading
• traveling
• magic
• outdoor activities
• backpacking
• canoeing
• snowshoeing
• journalism
• languages
• tourism

Music, Movies, and Books

Amadeus - great movie. Also like more uplifting, squeaky movies like American Tail and Pixar movies. I know they're mainstream, corporatized, artless fluff, but I can't help it. At home, I tend to watch documentaries and feel smarter. Really into Ken Burns (aren't we all?).

I'll read most anything that seems interesting or useful or grabs me.

Books: Anything almost John McPhee, esp Coming into the Country. Anything by Annie Dillard esp Tinker Creek. Frazier's Cold Mountain, Swan's Way, The Quiet American, John D'Agata's About a Mountain, anything by James Baldwin, Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses, Anything by Barry Lopez, Luis Urea's The Devil's Highway, anything by Ursula K. Le Guin, Borges's short stories, Mary Oliver's poems, Wendell Berry's poems, Alexander Hemon's stories and essays, Mishima's Spring Snow, Rebecca West's Black Lamb, Gray Falcon, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, Stephen King's On Writing.

Music: currently into low-key, non-lyric focused music, so classical (Tchaikovsky obviously, etc). and jazz, and trance, chill techno. I find music is essential for my joy in life. When I go too long without thinking about it I go as stir crazy as if I hadn't traveled or talked to another human being in a long time.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I taught a half-dozen Chinese kids magic tricks and card games on the night train from Nanjing to Xian without us knowing each other's languages.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can share what I know about writing, publishing (as little as that is), teaching in college and teaching creative writing, Japan, Japanese language, and having worked at an outdoor program and being interested in the outdoors - I can share what I know about outdorsey stuff. I'm learning about the English language and writing and editing and can hopefully offer some tidbits about that. For your grammarians out there that controversial "hopefully" was thrown in there with full knowledge and intent. I can also offer advice on the time-consuming process of applying to MFA and PhD programs in creative writing.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I feel like, ahem, I'm a pretty laid back but interesting guy. I foster delightful conversation. I compliment freely. I joke voraciously (entertainingly). I willingly pet other people's cats and water plants. I'm willing to take you out to dinner (really!). I'm not a mooch. Not a slob. I laugh at other people's jokes. I care about how people feel (ok, enough self-promotion).

Countries I’ve Lived In

Japan

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