CURRENT MISSION

One-year scholarship studying ice hockey around central and eastern Europe

ABOUT ME

I'm a wannabe writer/academic with an occasional (unintentional) bent toward snobbery--I don't mean to :-P I like life a lot, and it seems to me that every day is a new chance to learn, do, and notice exciting things everywhere. I'm adventurous but grounded, and I like exploring and otherwise indulging my inner curiosity. I'm hardly typical, but not altogether strange either. So you're simply going to have to take my word for it.

Interests

Learning, New Experiences, Culture, Leadership, Good People, Good Times, Theatre, Art, Russian Culture, Hockey, Pool, Climbing, Literature, Strategy Games, People, Music, Languages, Junk Stores, Thrift Stores, Lambda Chi Alpha, Academics, Travel, Carpentry, Electrics, Writing, Lateral Thinking Puzzles, Languages, Parties,

• arts
• culture
• writing
• books
• literature
• dining
• cooking
• partying
• drinking
• thrifting
• traveling
• billiards
• puzzles
• music
• rock climbing
• hockey
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

Music:
:
Alice in Chains, Tori Amos, Anti-Flag, Bad Religion, Beastie Boys, The Carpenters, Charlie Parker, the Chemical Brothers, the Clash, Claude Bolling, Claude Debussy, Collective Soul, Cypress Hill, Daft Punk, the Damned, Dan Fogelberg, David Bowie, Dead Kennedys, Dead Milkmen, Deftones, Diana Ross, Dire Straits, DJ Shadow, The Doors, Dropkick Murphys, Antonin Dvorak, Elton John, Enigma, Enya, Fiona Apple, Fischerspooner, Fleetwood Mac, Flogging Molly, Frank Black, Frank Zappa, Frederic Chopin, George Benson, Guster, HUM, Igor Stravinsky, Jane's Addiction, John Fahey, Joe Strummer, K.D. Lang, The Killers, The Libertines, Lower East Side Stitches, Mad Season, Marilyn Manson, Massive Attack, MC Chris, Miles Davis, the Misfits, Moby, Modest Mouse, Neil Young, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, NOFX, Orgy, Patsy Cline, Paul Simon, Pearl Jam, Perfect Circle, Pixies, the Police, Public Enemy, Rachmaninov, Radiohead, RATM, Rancid, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Reverend Horton Heat, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Robert Miles, Royal Crown Revue, Saint Germain, Samiam, Simon and Garfunkel, Sin Interprete, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Sublime, Tchaikovsky, Tool, Twelvetrees, Type O Negative, U2, Velvet Underground, Violent Femmes, Wallflowers, Zoltan Kodaly...the list goes on.

Books (a brief selection):
:
Crying of Lot 49, Flag for Sunrise, Omon Ra, Underworld, Pale Fire, A Child's Night Dream, War and Peace, Paradise Lost, the Divine Comedy, Gulag Archipelago, 1984, Brave New World, We, the Wanting Seed, A Clockwork Orange, Naked Lunch, On the Road, White Noise, Valparaiso, Libra, The Bell Jar, Waiting for Godot, Krapp's Last Tape, the Satanic Verses, Ulysses, William Blake, Wallace Stevens, Desolation Angels, Yevgeny Yevtushenko's poetry, John Donne's poetry and meditations, George Herbert's poetry...Nicolson Baker, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Alfred Bester, Jonathan Franzen

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Seems like I should update this every week or so. Yesterday I noticed that you can buy cigarettes from government clerks at the Polish post office. I think that's pretty amazing.

Teach, Learn, Share

I love to recommend books. Books open me to whole new ways of thinking sometimes, and frankly, what the hell else are you going to do on a sixteen-hour train ride but drink and read? I'll be happy to talk film or music, and teach anyone and everyone how to make good old traditional southern (American) food.

I want to learn more languages, and learn how to cook different cuisines. I want to read more books and listen to more music and watch more film. Help me become a more thoughtful and open-minded person, and I'll do my best to do the same for you.

Countries I’ve Visited

Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Poland, Russian Federation