ABOUT ME

I am photographer, meat connoisseur and lamp designer.
When not taking photos, I am one-half of a two person lamp company known as Factory514. http://factory514.ca was started in August of 2010 by me and my brother Tom. Itâ

PHILOSOPHY

I probably can’t outrun a bear

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

A week before I left for my trip I made contact with several people on CouchSurfing living in Paris. I found someone who agreed to let me stay on his couch for a night, all was good. For the rest of the week I tried to create a rough plan for what I really wanted to see while in La Ville Lumière. This person, Nicolas, and I wrote many emails back and forth, discussing what I should do and my options on how to do it. With a day or two left I decided to change my plans and extend my stay in Paris from one to two nights. Thankfully it was no problem for him.
Before meeting Nicolas I had no idea what to expect. Really, truly no idea. As it turns out Nicolas is an incredibly generous and nice person. He put me up in his dorm room for two nights. He arranged and prepaid for my day trip to Bruxelles (before even meeting me, now that’s trust). He set up a dinner that other CouchSurfers came to and took us out for drinks afterwords. He showed me around the city and gave me great advice for what to do during my time in Paris. It’s hard to describe how taken aback I was by Nico’s ability and willingness to play host to a complete stranger. That sort of attitude is something I really admire and hope to emulate if a traveler wishes to surf on my couch.
This reminds me a lot of the Diplomacy hobby and the people in it. So many of the people I know and care about in the hobby are incredibly generous people. For the people that travel great distances to attend tournaments all over the country there is always a dedicated group of locals that are more than happy to entertain, give advice, and go out for drinks. Half the time (if not more) there is an open invitation for travelers to sleep on couches or floors or spare beds for free. My favorite part of the game is the people I meet and the friendships that I have formed. Through it I know I can show up half-way across Canada and be taken care of and accommodated. So in this way the community of CouchSurfers is reminiscent of the Diplomacy players around Canada and I just love that. It excites me to know that there is more than one group of people in the world (I’m sure there are many more, I just don’t know them) who are willing to open their homes to complete strangers and take them in just as they would an old friend.

Interests

Photography, food and design

• design
• photography
• dining
• drinking
• traveling

Music, Movies, and Books

I love 5th Element. Probably saw it 30 times so far. Heat is great too.