CURRENT MISSION

Experience different cultures: the places, the people, the food, the activities

ABOUT ME

I student (going to be senior) at University of Wisconsin-Madison studying Computer Engineering and Computer Science.

I like to go new places and try new things. I have never been out of the country (USA) but will be going to Costa Rica in a couple of days! I am really excited to see another country and culture.

I was born in South Dakota (USA) but my family moved to the Madison, Wisconsin (USA) area when I was around two. I grew up on the West Side of Madison (Verona) and go to school in downtown Madison. I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area (California, USA) working as an intern for a software company called Intuit.

PHILOSOPHY

There is a time for war and a time for peace. I don't go halfway on things. When I am working, I am working. No instant messenger, little to no talking, total focus. When I am having fun, no work, I want to totally relax. I don't work too much but when I do work, I work at 100% of my capacity and usually until what I need to get done is done, this allows me to complete work very quickly.

I used to be too serious and stress out about school work and such all of the time. Only when someone I truly and deeply cared about abandoned me because of the no-fun worrying machine that I had turned into did I realize the life I was missing out on. Now, fun is a high priority. I work to afford fun and get to places that are fun that I can enjoy (such as a summer internship in California).

"Time"
I really don't like the way this word is often used. When someone talks about "wasting time" (I am sure I do to) it doesn't really make sense. We don't have time, time is something that is part of the mathematical landscape of the universe. Mother nature or god or whatever has time. We don't. We only have life. "Time" has seemed to become a euphemism for "life". Wasting "time" doesn't seem to bad but wasting "life" is what we are really doing and it seems a lot worse.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am new to CS. I have some friends who have surfed and hosted and have met some of the people surfing with them. I think that it is a really cool idea. It seems that there are three main reasons people couch surf: meet new people, save money, more fully experience the culture (through locals). For me, more fully experiencing the culture and meeting new people are most important to me. Saving some money through free lodging, though it would be nice, isn't as important to me. I don't buy many cool gizmos and gadgets so I can save my money for trips (though I haven't been out of the country, I have been to much of the US). I hope to eventually host couch surfers but right now I can't (I am living at my parent's house for a week, going to Costa Rica and then living at my parent's house for another week before school starts). Once school starts, I might be able to, but we'll have to see. (I am living with three girls so it would be up to them for obvious safety concerns and maybe we would only be able to host girls. I'll talk to them about it.)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

So far, just surfing friends' couches and floors. Them surfing mine.

Interests

Traveling, the ocean, surfing, building things (mainly software). Figuring out ways to help computers save you life (see philosophy below).

• culture
• architecture
• dancing
• dining
• marathon
• running
• traveling
• surfing
• track and field
• computer science
• engineering
• science
• software

Music, Movies, and Books

I like almost every movie once.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The fact that this is blank is why I need to go visit another country.

Teach, Learn, Share

I know a decent amount about running. I ran cross country and track pretty seriously in middle school and high school. I can give you tips about training, common injuries, etc. I also just finished a marathon. It was my first one and I did it with not a ton of training. I say that not to be cocky; I mean that I did a good job fitting my training around my life, not the other way around and I can give you advice on how to do the same.

I am a very good programmer (mainly: C#, javascript, XSLT, C++). I also know a decent amount about web architecture so I can give you advice if you are designing a web app or such.

I would like to learn how to dance. Dancing is undeniably fun.

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