CURRENT MISSION

Keep my head above water and my eyes relatively clear.

ABOUT ME

With the exceptions of a few solitary mountain adventures in NZ, the highlights of my travel so far have been conversations with locals that give me a much greater insight into their lifestyle and society than I could possibly get in a tour group or at a souvenir store.

PHILOSOPHY

Empirical skepticism as far as I can practice it. I am open to reality proving me wrong and find those are often the most interesting lessons. Overall, trying to make some sense of a complex and chaotic world or at least enjoy the process of finding out.

Swings and roundabouts.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

drinks, hiking, and other group activities.

Interests

I am a geek about technology, economics, history, and politics. I'm interested in science but I don't have much background. I enjoy hiking and photography, play the guitar (and pretty much anything else as long as no one minds it being bad). I like beer.

• photography
• beer
• drinking
• politics
• technology
• traveling
• guitar
• hiking
• economics
• history
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

I read quite a bit of non-fiction (Hoftstadter's "I am a Strange Loop" most recently) with the occasional scifi (Stephenson, Gaiman, Doctorow) or contemporary (Eggers) novel to break things up. I read James Joyce's Ulysses before I left NZ (and finally finished it).

I listen to all sorts of music (though I do avoid pop), particularly jazz (Coltrane, Monk, Miles, McLaughlin), funk (The Meters!, Parliament, Fela Kuti), rock (particularly heavy [Sepultura, Mastodon, Clutch] or early [Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix] rock), traditional (african, middle eastern, indian, native american -- I really dig the scales and intonations that sound strange to my ear), and electronic stuff that is groovy (Four Tet, Bonobo, Aphex Twin at times) and most anything that strikes me as authentic.

I prefer quirky, mind-bending or thought provoking movies though I do enjoy a good comedy or a movie with explosions.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hiked to Macchu Picchu and arrived at Intipunku [sic] (sun gate) with a crowd. Climbed Wayna Picchu while I was there that day then stayed in Aguas Calientes that night and got to Macchu Picchu before sunrise the next morning. Got to watch sunrise from the sun temple with one other person. Spectacular!

Teach, Learn, Share

I am a technology professional interested in learning more about pretty much everything.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Italy, Norway, Peru, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

New Zealand, United States

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