CURRENT MISSION

Make music. Be free.

ABOUT ME

I'm a forty-something computer programmer living in Poole, south England, UK. I love connecting with like-minded people and being in the moment. I don't travel enough and need to push my boundaries more.

PHILOSOPHY

Openness and letting go. For the first part: keeping an open mind, accepting what comes, facing the world head on and with a smile, always favouring truth, and always expecting the best of situations and people. For the second part: knowing that all things pass, trying to flow around the negative when it happens, and aiming to cultivate detachment (in the positive yoga/buddhist sense, not a negative nihilist sense).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Can't host at the moment... Hopefully when I'm a bit more settled!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

None surfing yet - was going to do some in Barcelona in late July 2008, but that trip got aborted (I went to Dance Camp Wales instead, which was amazing). But several times I've met people through CS (e.g. in Berlin and Minneapolis) and that was very positive.

Interests

I'm something of a hippy. I'm into yoga, singing, dancing (five rhythms and biodanza, that kinda thing); I used to regularly play African drums in a community group but not so much these days. I want to make music a bigger part of my life.

I don't have a TV, and I'm not particularly into sports, particularly competitive ones. I like getting out and walking, especially on cliffs and beaches, and in forests. I've rock-climbed a bit, but I think I prefer scrambling, i.e. actually getting somewhere! I've done a bit of barefoot running, but these days most of my attention towards my health is directed at yoga and diet.

Professionally (if anyone cares!), I'm into formal languages, programming language theory, tools for support of specification languages, and how to apply all of that stuff to user interface design. Exciting stuff! ;-)

• singing
• design
• dancing
• yoga
• dieting
• running
• walking
• partying
• tv
• traveling
• music
• drums
• camping
• surfing
• sports
• computer science
• teaching
• languages
• mathematics
• science
• software
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

I love a wide range of music - anything that moves me physically or emotionally, I guess. I used to be a bit of a prog-rock head, and then was more into goth and industrial; that led to dance music, electronica, ambient, etc. and then a huge widening where now I'll listen to all of the above, world music, folk, and anything eclectic, I guess. Actually folk's become a biggish thing lately, especially Welsh stuff - and I've been running a small but beautiful folk-ish night in Swansea. I'm not a pop fan, and have never nurtred a love of classical, although when I see friends perform I'm always blown away. I love dancing, and have recently been learning how possible it is to dance to _anything_! A not-quite-random selection of favourite bands might include Gorky's Zygotic Mynci (if I could only listen to one band, this would be it), The Knife (oh yeah!), Lamb, Locust, Orbital, Orb, Underworld, Chemical Brothers, Brian Eno, Gabriel-era Genesis, Nine Inch Nails, 1 Giant Leap, Afro Celt Sound System, Tinariwen, Davey Graham, Femi Kuti, Aphex Twin, ...

For movies, I tend to prefer arthouse and comedies to blockbusters and action (although I suppose fantasy nonsense is OK). I'm also bit of a girl, I suppose (see list below). Quite like anime but haven't seen enough to be completely sure. Some favourites: What's Eating Gilbert Grape?; Russian Ark; Withnail and I; In The Mood For Love, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Room With A View; Sans Soleil; Lovers Of The Arctic Circle; The Illusionist; The Painted Veil; Orlando; Magnolia; 8 and a Half Women; Fear and Trembling; Solaris (the remake); Cinema Paradiso; The Ladykillers (original); Cradle Will Rock; The Big Lebowski; Ridicule; Alice In Wonderland (Jonathan Miller version); When Harry Met Sally; This Is Spinal Tap, The Big Bus, Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistlestop Cafe, Bugsy Malone, the list goes on... I'm a big fan of Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the ever-defiant Edward Norton: www.brandonbird.com/defiant.html

Books? Contemporary fiction, especially if you have to really concentrate just to work out what the hell's going on (eg Umberto Eco, Salman Rushdie, ...); easy-to-digest sci-fi/space opera (but only quality stuff like Alistair Reynolds, nothing trashy); cyberpunk and offshoots (esp. Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson); misc classics of 20th century and before; some biographies, some travelogues (esp. mountaineering stuff, eg Bill Tillman). Fairly avid; have recently discovered bookmooch.com

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I spent five days walking on the Great Wall of China in 2001, with a group of 70 people ranging in age from 16 to 74. Amazing place, amazing people, and all for a good cause.

Had an entirely amicable divorce which we rounded off with a party with lots of friends; other people seem more amazed by that than me though...

Teach, Learn, Share

I spent five years lecturing in computer science, and could certainly share knowledge of that subject, and help with programming or maths homework. ;-) (But, while I might be able to help, I'm no expert at actually fixing computers - especially if they're running Windows!). I'm particularly into programming, programming languages, techniques, etc. though.

I can drum a bit, though I have no idea how good a teacher I would be. :-)

Countries I’ve Visited

Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain

Countries I’ve Lived In

United Kingdom

•