CURRENT MISSION

Based in Toronto, with frequent jaunts abroad for fun or work. Working on my Green Card for the US, which has taken a hilariously long time. My life is an ever-expanding adventure of many worlds. I get energy from this. When I'm old, I want to be Gandalf and then a Culture Ship, but until I grow a sufficient beard, I aim to be Doctor Who.

I've lived in San Francisco, Redmond, Bangalore, Cambridge UK and Toronto. I love immersing myself in other cultures, whether the differences are major or minor.

So, I've caught the travel bug in a vicious way and it's here to stay. I've traveled a ton in the past, but I'm sicking of being transient at the moment. My goal in 2018 is to sign a lease somewhere, especially where I can host people on my couch.

PHILOSOPHY

2 things:
Interesting experiences are the fruit of life.
Other than that, the only thing worth pursuing is creativity, the proliferation of new combinations of stuff.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I just joined couchsurfing after I moved to the UK because a friend recommended it as a way to meet locals wherever I was. When I'm visiting a new place, I really like to explore the nooks and crannies, so getting it through locals is the best way to do it.

Back when I had a place good for hosting, I hosted many people. Unfortunately, it's been a couple years since that's been possible.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Surfed through France and Finland. Hosted a ton of people when I got back to Toronto.

Interests

I'm really into biking and comedy theatre. I have a scuba diving license, too. I'm also into interactive art. I like spending days in art galleries with people I like.

I like adventuring. I like adventuring by walking. When I traveled overseas to Southeast Asia for the first time in 2007, my friend brought his GPS. At the beginning of a day's adventures, we would always mark our hostel location with the GPS, then throw it in our bag and forget about it in case we got lost. We never had to use it, and often made it up to 20 km/day! I like exploring the flow of spaces on foot.

I drink my weight in Guinness every few months.

In January, I started taking pictures of a new beer I was drinking for the first time, indexed by time and, when possible, GPS location. If you think this is awesome, then we will get along wonderfully:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/albumMap?uname=106198729651554627750&aid=5599626922150117457#map

• arts
• culture
• writing
• books
• beer
• walking
• drinking
• traveling
• cycling
• scuba diving
• computer science
• mathematics
• science
• tourism
• road trips

Music, Movies, and Books

BOOKS
Catch-22, The Road to Mars, The Salmon of Doubt, The Catcher in the Rye, Time and Again, Telempath, Impro for Storytellers, Godel Escher Bach, Name of the Rose, Dr. Seuss, Fables, Sandman, Cryptonomicron, The Diamond Age: A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, Perdido Street Station, Y: The Last Man, Neal Stephenson
AUTHORS
Umberto Eco, Neal Stephenson, Spider Robinson, Greg Egan, China Miéville, Neil Gaiman

TV AND MOVIES
Arrested Development (all seasons - I am actually a HUGE HUGE Arrested Development nerd)
Mr. Show (all seasons)
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
Fight Club, Primer, Dead Poet's Society, Wet Hot American Summer, The Life Aquatic, I Heart Huckabees, Adaptation, Shortbus, Bon Cop Bad Cop, The Fountain, Grindhouse, Spinal Tap, Resevoir Dogs, Grosse Pointe Blank

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Spent two weeks simulating a mission to Mars in this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Desert_Research_Station

I love road trips, and have driven across Canada 3 times. I once drove from Vancouver to Kingston in 47.5 hours, taking turns with Red Bulls with one of my closest friends. As far as I know, Montana is only night.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm a freelance programmer in virtual reality, novel hardware and machine learning.
I can teach effective contract negotiation
I can ride a unicycle.
I have performed improvisational theatre since 2001, and taught high school students for several years. I teach improv workshops occasionally still.
I have basic handyman/electrical skillz.

I want to learn:
Everything. I made a goal a while back of being really good at a few things, and a little good at almost everything else.
Japanese
French
How to play Go (I'm pretty bad, like 19 Kyu at the time of writing)
How to drive manual (ughhhhh.)

What I Can Share with Hosts

Teaching, Learning, Sharing!

Countries I’ve Visited

Cambodia, Colombia, Finland, France, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, India, United Kingdom, United States