CURRENT MISSION

I used to always get the Lonely Planet, but now I go for the Tintin guide.

ABOUT ME

I enjoy traveling to new and different places, but I guess that just described most of the people on this website.

OK, here's something. When you ask how I am, I try to give you an honest answer. I know you're supposed to say "fine" no matter what, but I try to be honest.

Don't drink or do drugs. Don't watch sports.
Read books, stay on top of the news.

I try to be laidback. I've got a pretty good sense of humor. For instance, right now I think it would be cool to hire somebody to dress up like a Viking and run into a business meeting.

I try to embrace those hippie values of recycling, nature, benevolence.

Some of the clubs/activities I participate in:
# Philly Grotto caving
# Hash House Harriers - just started this in May '08
# volunteer at local fire department
# Just retired as a Sunday School teacher
# I live in a 108-year old house. Always busy fixing something
# spend way too much time in front of this laptop

PHILOSOPHY

Make the most of where you are and what you have.

Don't be boring.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Not too much these days. I finally hosted someone last winter.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Not much experience with Couchsurfing: 1 local meetup.

Stayed with a host two nights in Tokyo; November 2008. Great experience.

Interests

Reading, travel, music, movies
Current events, literature

• books
• literature
• running
• drinking
• clubbing
• news
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• watching sports
• music
• hiking
• spelunking
• sports
• business
• teaching
• tourism
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

Grateful Dead, and that music genre they call "eclectic" here. I haven't gone to too many shows; it mostly what I listen to when at work.

I now read the books I should have read in school. Just finished a graphic novel, _Pyongpang_ and I recommend that. I'm well known at the library and get a new book about every two weeks.

update in May 08, reading Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy and had to change that interval to six weeks; it was too demanding to try to finish in two weeks, especially when already reading The Week for news and the New Yorker for cultural stuff

Some books I really liked (more important to this profile than what I just read) were the books by Patrick Leigh Foster, _A Time For Gifts_ and _Between Woods and Water_. His autobiographical series of his youth, when he walked from London (well Holland) to Constantinople in 1933. Europe was still villages, aristocrats lived in castles, hunted, gypsies camping and in the background foreshadowing of the war. I loved it, but did find the vocabulary challenging (I was in Turkey at the time and needed my Oxford English Dictionary when I got home).

Also read Eden Express recently (July 08), Mark Vonnegut's (not Kurt, his son) autobiography that described his experiences with schizophrenia. I was mostly interested in his experience in a commune in British Columbia, but that turned out to be incidental. The back cover had a picture of him, his girlfriend and the VW Beetle in the Canadian Rockies and I knew from that image that I was interested in the book.

Book from(Aug 08) was _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_. Didn't finish that.

Now making better progress with _East of Eden_ (Oct 08).

Nov 08: Finished _East of Eden_, and _Invisible Walls_. Started C.S. Lewis's Words to Live By.

Dec 08: Read most of _The Japanese Today_ for my trip to Japan and while I was there, _Dreams from My Father_ and _What is the What_.

Jan 09: Read some William Sloane Coffin essays. Started _Golden Notebook_.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hiked the Appalachian Trail, that's about 3000 km of hiking trails along the Eastern US.

(others)
Road trip to Alaska (via Florida). 3 mos, 20k miles.

Lived/volunteered abroad at a Chilean boarding school.

Backpacked SE Asia for two months.

Burning Man.

Teach, Learn, Share

What do I know that I could help you with? Maybe your computer. I probably have useless knowledge and experience that's hard to transfer. If you had an old car, I could give you some opinions on fixing it, but it's been a while since I've had a car I could do much work on. I can change the oil now, but it's been years since I changed the engine on the 1976 Spitfire 1500.

Countries I’ve Visited

Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kosovo, Laos, Macedonia, Monaco, Montenegro, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Russian Federation, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Chile, United States