CURRENT MISSION

Ride a motorcycle in Kazakhstan. Sleep in yurts in Kyrgyzstan. Look at Mosques in Uzbekistan!

ABOUT ME

I traded my wandering life for a "real job", but the wanderlust is only in remission.

Having experienced the friendship and kindness of people in my traveling days, I feel compelled to reciprocate the good will by hosting fellow travelers, in the great Emerald City Seattle, WA. So far it's been really fun hosting people. It's like traveling and meeting new people from all over the world without having to leave the city.

I've been to quite a few places, but the ones that had really captured my imagination had been Finland, Mongolia, Tibet, and Russia.

Russia has a special place in my heart. I have lived and worked there for 2 years. No, I'm not a spy or a commie defector. I'm pretty sure the Cold War ended when David Hasselhoff brought down the Berlin Wall with that one song...

I'm from a pretty diverse background. I speak English (well, duh.), Chinese (if you don't, you should probably learn it - it'll make yer RICH!), and Russian (no, seriously, I'm not a spy)

PHILOSOPHY

Don't be a dick, don't be an asshole, and don't be a pussy... yep, I'm a very classy and deep individual, obviously.

"Fearing no insult, asking for no crown,
Receive with indifference both flattery and slander,
And do not argue with a fool." - Pushkin

Interests

Programming
Graphics/Web design
Drawing things
Making things
Gnar-shredding related activities (skateboarding, snowboarding)
Learning to play Elliott Smith songs
Discussing ideas
Making vague/general statements to appear clever("isn't everything <___> to a certain degree?")
Not giving a damn about things
Giving a damn about things
Contradicting myself

• design
• traveling
• drawing
• camping
• snowboarding
• skateboarding

Music, Movies, and Books

Mostly books about the future, be they optimistic or post-apocalyptic... Carl Sagan and Neal Stephenson are my favorites. Was quite into some Russian lit and Camus during my artsy fartsy phase.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Not really amazing things per se. They are just bits and pieces I tend to look back at fondly when I reminisce the good ol' traveling days...

Skateboarded in front of a real Vladimir Ilych Lenin statue in Russia! (that was my dream since I was 14, no joke)

Saw the sunset at the Mt.Everest base camp. Gor-geous.

Bathed an elephant (well, actually more like being on the elephant while he's playing in the water).

Rode a motorcycle in Nepal, fell off, and didn't die.

Bribed my way out of trouble in Russia (I've become scarily good at this... ).

Spent a week by myself in a forest in Finland (well, more like hopping from campsite to campsite).

Hitchhiked in Israel and camped in an abandoned building next to a minefield.

Slept outside in Wadi Musa under a blanket of stars. Absolutely unreal.

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