CURRENT MISSION

To encounter new things, and be changed by them; to share even when I have nothing; and to be kind to everyone.

ABOUT ME

Was a grad student/researcher. One day realized if I kept on the same path I would be doing the same thing for at least five years without much chance to see the world beyond the university, so I left. Now traveling around for a while, reconnecting with old friends and meeting people and places.

PHILOSOPHY

The Japanese Zen master Bankei lived in the 17th century. One day another Zen master's students came to him and said, "Our master has a mantra that gives him the power to perform many great miracles. What miracles can you perform?"

"My miracle is that when I'm hungry I eat, and when I'm tired, I sleep," Bankei replied.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Not enough...yet! I did go to a few group meetups when I was in California, though.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Not enough.

Interests

Ecology, slow transportation, farming (especially permaculture), reading, writing. Meeting people, hearing (and telling) stories. Live music of any kind. Playing chess and other strategy games. Eating and drinking. Yoga. Riding bicycles in cities. Clambering over rocks. Deserts. The wind and the rain. Bananas. Cheese. Humidity. Walking.

• writing
• performing arts
• cheese
• yoga
• modeling
• walking
• drinking
• chess
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• live music
• sailing
• ecology

Music, Movies, and Books

Virgil, Aeneid; Herbert, Dune; Gibson, Burning Chrome; Euripides, The Suppliants.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I sailed south from Honolulu on a 100-foot double-masted schooner with 30 other people. Over the course of five weeks we visited the equator, Kiritimati and Tabuaeran in Kiribati, and Palmyra atoll before sailing back to Honolulu (almost entirely without motoring!).

It rocked pretty hard. I may have thrown up a few times, but still.

More recently I drove across the United States in a beat-up 1985 Ford Ranger with a dude I met on the internet. The truck wouldn't start in the morning, so he would spray starter fluid in it and off we would go. We stopped in Utah and climbed up big rocks.

Teach, Learn, Share

Bicycle riding and basic repair; zen stories; yoga; mathematical modeling; MATLAB/Octave; programming with Ruby, Rails, Java, JavaScript; critical theory; ecology; computing skills; how to write an academic paper; Wittgenstein's Tractatus; linear algebra; theory and practice of environmental sustainability.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bolivia, Kiribati, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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