CURRENT MISSION

Explore this thunderous silence.

ABOUT ME

I have five sisters and grew up in a suburb of Chicago. I graduated with a ChemE degree from UofI, but haven't had the desire to get a 9-5 job in one location. I started playing online poker after school and used it to travel the world a bit...Japan first, then Europe, Mexico, Kenya, and China. I lived in Seattle a while, Berlin for a longer while, Madison a bit, then Chicago again doing research...but where I am NOW concerns me most.

PHILOSOPHY

The universe is a celebration.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I host. I surf. Perhaps we'll share the experience one day.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I surfed at Jon's place in Brussels for two nights during my European trip. He was a top guy and a great host; I'd love to return the favor. I've also hosted over THIRTY couchsurfers of my own...in Chicago, Seattle, and Berlin.

Interests

Music, Politics, Foreign Policy, Culture, Traveling, Social Justice, Guitar, Eastern Philosophy, Cooking, Food, Meditation, Yoga, nonThought, Film, poker, meeting new people...

• culture
• dining
• cooking
• yoga
• meditation
• politics
• traveling
• poker
• music
• guitar

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Yo La Tengo, Arcade Fire, Flaming Lips, Dandy Warhols, Sufjan Stevens, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, David Bowie, Belle & Sebastian, Black Keys, Spoon, Nada Surf, Air, Grandaddy, Manu Chao, Pixies, Múm, Blur, Notwist, Bjork, M. Ward, Sparklehorse, Postal Service, Thievery Corporation, Queen, Smashing Pumpkins, Joy Division, Smiths, Wilco, Caribou, Velvet Underground, Stevie Wonder, Modest Mouse, Morcheeba, Nouvelle Vague and a host of others...

Movies: know I'm leaving some out, but here goes... Drama: The Great Dictator, Usual Suspects, Shawshank Redemption, Platoon, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fight Club, Edukators, Everything is Illuminated, Tsotsi, Life is Beautiful, Network, City of God, Igby Goes Down, Dancer in the Dark... Comedy: Bill Hicks, Eddie Izzard, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Big Lebowski, Dr. Strangelove, In The Loop, Happiness, Uncle Buck, Death at a Funeral, Superbad, Bottle Rocket, Three Amigos, Princess Bride, Withnail & I... Fantasy: The Never Ending Story, Labryinth, Lord of the Rings, Waking Life... Documentary: Baraka, Why We Fight, An Unreasonable Man, Food Inc., Forks Over Knives, Taxi to the Dark Side, War Made Easy, Fog of War, Outfoxed, Uncovered, Iraq for Sale, Maxed Out, Sicko, Zeitgeist...

Books: Anything Orwell (1984, Animal Farm, Homage to Catalonia), Aldous Huxley (BNW, Island, Perennial Philosophy, Doors of Perception), Alan Watts, Krishnamurti, Eckhart Tolle, Bertrand Russell, R. Buckminster Fuller, Khalil Gibran, Viktor Frankl, R.W. Emerson...but I tend to read mostly political non-fiction: Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Arundhati Roy, Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein, Ralph Nader, Gore Vidal, Eqbal Ahmad, Tariq Ali, Stephen Kinzer, John Pilger, Studs Terkel, I.F. Stone, etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Find stillness within, escape the chatter of thought & true amazement unfolds.

Teach, Learn, Share

Read Chomsky & Watts...they can say it all better than I. And Bill Hicks had it right.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, United States

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