CURRENT MISSION

Improve the world, one person or piece of writing at a time

ABOUT ME

I'm ready for my close-up, Mr DeMille.

I guess I should mention I sound American, but spent 11 of my first 18 years out of the country and just spent 7 years in Asia teaching. Quite the adventure and I even managed to have two bands and act in 4 movies and a lot of TV. My life, it's a trip. I really love the commonality of Man. We are pretty cool when bullshit isn't screwing us up.

The quick skinny: I'm a nice guy, good guy, out to save humanity or at least enlighten it. I love Film, Music, People, nuances, idiosyncrasies, tidbits and vital parts. I genuinely love to cook, make music with people, discuss a good book or film, enjoy a nice meal or glass of wine, and I'm nuts about dogs. Cats are cute, but I'm allergic, so I don't think about them much. Soccer, that's cool. Traveling the world, even cooler. I like people who are decent and kind and hopefully doing something useful with their lives that is advancing the world progressively. If not, well then at least be a good neighbor, parent, soccer coach, citizen, etc., well-wisher. It's hard to stomach American politics and I cannot fathom how anyone could vote Republican unless they are delusional, horribly uninformed, selfish, or hate themselves.

I'm super easy going and very respectful and accepting of people, even most Republicans. I'm a good conversationalist and often employ the lost art of listening.

It's a real pleasure to meet you.

PHILOSOPHY

"All I ever wanted in life was to make a difference, conquer the universe, travel the world, meet interesting people, find the missing link, fight the good fight, live for the moment, seize each day, know what really matters, end world hunger, vanquish the dragon, be super popular but too cool to care, be master of my own fate, embrace my destiny, feel as much as I can feel, give too much, and love everything."
- Tatsuya Ishida

Rock on.

Be kind, rewind, duh. Pay it forward is what you should do naturally cuz it's the right thing to do. Carpe diem whenever you can.

Processed food tastes like crap and is probably poison.

You gotta travel outside your home country and if you can, live abroad. Bellisima!

if it's worth doing, do it right. If you have to do it, do it right. And if you screw up....learn and try better.

I want to live in a country that doesn't have the death penalty.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Social Worker
Educator
Writer
Nice, supportive guy
Lotta respect for women

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I'm very European in the way I say, "Oh, you're gonna be in my city? Stay at my place."

My buddy crashed on my couch in my 1BR apartment for 2 months when he moved to Hanoi. No big sweat. Not cuz we were friends, per se, but cuz I'm a reasonable and understanding guy that will go near unlimited miles for my friends.

Oh, I dated and almost fell in love with the girl who heads Couchsurfing in Hanoi, Vietnam. Lovely girl, just bad timing.

Interests

I'm interested in just about everything except real crap pop culture, like Kim Kardashian or The Jersey Shore, but, hey, if that's your thing, more power to ya. Rock on.

Particular interests: Film, Music, Writing, HISTORY, culture, how deep science works, people's psyche, cosmic stuff like spirituality, cooking, stuff that blows my mind, stuff i don't know, and "the beautiful game." It is so good to be alive, eh? What a crazy and delightful dance this Life thing is.

• cats
• dogs
• arts
• culture
• writing
• books
• documentaries
• acting
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• coach
• flying
• politics
• movies
• tv
• traveling
• music
• hunting
• soccer
• world cup
• teaching
• freelancing
• history
• science
• social work

Music, Movies, and Books

LOTS. AND LOTS. But not excessively so.

I'd love to know what you've discovered.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Angkor Wat in Cambodia; Ba Dinh temple complex near Nimh Binh, Vietnam; all of Japan; London, NYC, Berlin; the house where I dived through the sliding glass door when I was a toddler in Ecuador, chasing an aeroplane flying overhead; World Cup '06 (Germany) where I was shooting a documentary; Paris really is beautiful, and Barcelona; India; this ancient city in the western desert of Egypt named Siwa; Les Miserable in the West End; some other stuff I'm sure, like taking a piss in the middle of the night on the highest mountain in Wales and watching the wind blow it down the valley.

I should tell you about some of my friends, they are kickass interesting.

The sweetheart kindness and coolness I've experienced with Couchsurfing hosts. Is it amazing? Yeah, in this day and age, kind of. It's certainly the right thing to do and it's leadership. It is "being the change you want to see" and it pushes the world in the right direction.

I was a freelance actor in movies and TV in Korea for an entire year, in between 7 years of teaching English and Social Studies around Asia. Quite literally, tens of millions of people (probably hundreds of millions, since that Korean stuff gets exported all over the region) have seen me on TV in Asia. That's just incomprehensible to me and seems surreal. It doesn't make me cool; it just makes me odd.

Synchronicity and the Universe having fun.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm a teacher.
I'm a student.
I'm a writer.

Let's rock some brains.