CURRENT MISSION

Happiness to the world! and pirate another season of Dexter

ABOUT ME

This world is so weird, I think I'm in the wrong one!

I'm curious whether it would be possible to become a modern-day Paul Erdos, the most prolific mathematician ever to live on this planet. A practically homeless, brilliant, odd man travelling from one scholar to the next, sharing ideas, questions, and solving countless longstanding problems. Although Erdos was an eccentric but well-received star, I am only a fly swat on the academic radar. I wonder whether couchsurfing could be a solution to do research on the feet. Only a secret aspiration for now, don't tell my boss ;).

flabbergasting afoot...

Mysteries all about. One that is not is the meaning of life (as it is contingent values alone): happiness to the world (integrated over time in expectation). Whether with a banner, notebook, or a pack of cookies. I fail miserably to reach this goal though - spending a tad of my time on productive pursuits, most of my time just goofing about and the remainder trying to figure out what the lollipop I'm doing with all the time.

I was recently born in Sweden in some unnameable location followed by, I'm convinced, fantastic adventures out of this world! What do I know... all I can remember is a cat climbing curtains and taking a spin in the dryer. Anyhow, following a regular geeky upbringing making particle simulations and point-and-click adventures where you rob banks and hijack planes (prior to 9/11, I hope it didnt become a training program!), I got a too high, naive, opinion of myself and set out to "correct all the mistakes Einstein made". I soon figured out that I didn't really know what I was talking about and spent eleven years of my life studying a plethora of subjects which I have virtually no use of in my work, but it was fascinating to learn at least :).

I love new experiences, ideas, and friends - the more original and honrst the better. While not using the sleeping bag in my office, I entertain myself with animal and human rights activism, often stay out just a tad too late, join random events to test them out, clean.. if I have to, and geek out with the PC way too much.

Traveling, I love to challenge my own cultural biases and everything I stand for; I'm not so much for "the sights". Rather, walking about in an unexplored area without a clue, meeting plenty of interesting people, and divulging in random items in my bailiwick. I really like to meet people on my journeys to chat and make silly jokes with, that can show me a bit of the life and how people think in another region. Hopefully I can learn to import some of the nuggets :).

PHILOSOPHY

Utilitarianism - maximize the total happiness of the world (in expectation integrated over time). To do so, we cannot play all of the time (we would die out) nor can all of us work all of the time (only spoiled persons who love their work would experience any happiness). For the sake of future generations, you better take your role of happiness cereally... terruble humor.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Through various contacts, I had the opportunity to host a self-proclaimed Indian philosopher and a few symphony players. Elephantastic, I thought, the space did not go to waste and the company was most entertaining. Naturally, I joined CS to keep the ball rolling. My first visitor, a Russian fugitive, was a bit unexpected and put me off CS for a couple of years. A meet-up in New York and the following "Alpsian" surfer changed my mind. CS is great, provided one has a speck of character judgement :).

Interests

Volunteering and informing, breaking conformity, using surrealistic art as Rorschach tests, contributing to the robot enslavement of mankind, walking around for hours trying to find vegan restaurants, wishing I had Gollum's stunning looks, simulating zombie invasions, solving brain teasers, go, mahjong and poker, working until the sun comes up, pretending to be Scottish, being sarcastically serious and seriously sarcastic; and most importantly, meeting&entertaining new curious creatures.

Present nerd pet subject: neuroscience (anyone got a spare brain?) and prior to this -gasp- geomorphology, the subject of turning every nature walk into "this is so weird, why does it look this way?" (seriously, do glaciers make U-turns?).

• animals
• pets
• cats
• arts
• human rights
• vegan
• walking
• flying
• traveling
• socializing
• poker
• rock climbing
• neuroscience
• philosophy
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

As with people, I can find something to appreciate in most everything, except country. For the hair-raising experiences, I prefer bands that mix different genres and e.g. symphonic metal such as Epica, Sonata Arctica, or The Birthday Massacre (lovely names). It might just be the contrast of metal with sweeter-sounding female singers though. Metal and rock in general makes me happy and fills me with energy. I also enjoy classical, house, rock, and a fair amount of the 'popular music'. To name a few bands(/composers): Blackmore's Night, Bloodhound Gang, Bo Burnham, Bullet Boys, Corroded, Edvard Grieg, Emelie Autumn, Foo Fighters, Fools Garden, Groove Coverage, Guns n' Roses, Hollywood Undead, In Flames, InsideOut a Cappella, Machinae Supremacy, Mindless Self Indulgence, Muse, Puddle of Mudd, Rise Against, Weird Al Yankovic, Yedi Mind Tricks, Queen.

re screening media, I like comedies, parodies, mystery, sci-fi, and fantasy (someone claimed this implies im a dark sad person, possibly with his own torture chamber). E.g. Dexter, Fawlty Towers, House MD, How to Train a Dragon, Life of Brian, Louis C.K., Minority Report, Tucker and Dale vs Evil, and most popular movies.

I read a lot of technical books, my favorite being George Polya's "How to Solve It" (Steele's "The Cauchy-Schwarz Master Class" is a close second and written with a similar focus on the intuition in mathematics). Among novels, I mostly like ones with a strong morale - such as Huxley's "Brave new World" - comical ones - e.g. anything Terry Pratchett - or ones involving strategy and tactics... uhhh brains... - such as the manga "Death Note" - or ones that are dark, psychological, involve pain, suffering, and torture (ok maybe i should get a torture chamber after all) - such as Hobb's "Farseer Trilogy".

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Tough one. Well, watching the HOME Project makes you think everything is pretty amazing? :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU

Countries I’ve Visited

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Sweden, United States