CURRENT MISSION

To entertain, and be entertained, to enlighten and be enlightened, to enjoy life and share that enjoyment

ABOUT ME

Hello! I'm Mike! I live with 2 housemates (Nick and Alec) in North Park, San Diego - just a short bike ride away from downtown! My housemates and I are good friends, all 26 years old, all UCSD graduates, and we've got the most incredibly comfortable couch - people have spent the night on our couch so many times, and have complimented it so frequently, we figured we'd just open it up to the couch surfing community and meet some fascinating new people while we're at it! We love going out and being active. We also love showing people around the city - we know all the best bars and pubs in town, and some of the best restaurants. We'll take you hiking and mountain biking in the east county or we'll take you to the beach for some surfing, swimming, coastal biking, or sunbathing. We live very close to Balboa Park as well, home to some of the finest museums and artwork in the state! We are big movie buffs, we love to read, I brew beer at home and love to drink craft beers, Nick and Alec play guitar (I just sing - badly, but loudly!). We also enjoy cooking tasty meals! We are happy to offer you our couch and our company - we are excellent hosts! We can also offer you a spare bicycle (we have a couple "guest bikes") to help you get around town, if you are so inclined. We also have a Playstation that sees occasional use if you enjoy video games (We love community/participation games, like Rock Band, You Don't Know Jack, and others). We do not have any pets, though my housemates and I could be described as party animals (we love to socialize and hang out!). I work in online marketing/SEO, Nick works as a project manager for a cell phone company, and Alec works as a teacher in English language education (so we have hosted or entertained many people in our home to whom English is a foreign language - we would love to help you practice!).

PHILOSOPHY

Be excellent to one another and enjoy the time we have - everything goes on!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Oh dear, I was supposed to save some of the stuff in the "About me" section for this part, wasn't I? Oh well. You can go back and read that section, if you like.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've crashed on floors, couches, beaches, benches. I have spent a homeless weekend in San Diego, during which time I learned to appreciate benches that are positioned away from sprinklers, and the soft, secluded sand under ocean piers. As far as hosting goes, our couch has been slept on by many, many travelers. Thus far, our couch guests have all had great things to say about it! So that makes me feel good :)

Interests

Wow. I did it again. Ok, please refer to the "About me" section to get a snapshot of my interests! And I suppose I will add to that here: I also like a good wine, I enjoy poetry and literature (especially modernist fiction and scientific non-fiction), I love animals but do not own any pets (except for a turtle whom I have known for 75% of my life but he's not too active so really he's more like a decoration :P ), I enjoy live music, I love the zoo, I can't live without coffee and will show you where the good San Diego roasts are, I am a "perpetual student" and always eager to learn new things, and if you can tell me a really funny and really tacky joke, I will be your very dear friend forever.

• animals
• pets
• books
• literature
• poetry
• singing
• education
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• beer
• coffee
• partying
• drinking
• pub crawls
• movies
• video games
• cars
• socializing
• blogging
• music
• live music
• guitar
• world music
• cycling
• hiking
• surfing
• basketball
• swimming
• teaching
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Big on jazz and blues, I also appreciate some electronica and a little dubstep. I like hip hop, especially from the 90s. I will listen to just about everything. My housemates are talented guitarists, Alec is a wonderful singer too. I love to pretend that I am musically gifted so I will join in and sing along.

Movies: I'll watch and enjoy anything that benefits from great writing and/or a remarkable cast. I particularly like comedies, I am a fan of horror/sci-fi (especially cult classics), I'm not a huge fan of biography films. I love Casablanca, Jaws, Pulp Fiction, Brazil, Muppets movies (no seriously, they are brilliant, and I hope this doesn't make me lose credibility). Also, I love spaghetti westerns, Akira Kurosawa films, and the weird mind-trips of Lynch and Jarmusch. Blazing Saddles and Dr. Strangelove are the funniest movies ever. Bachelor Party is criminally underrated.

Books: Eclectic interests. I have recently read Barabasi's "Linked," Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers," Bill Bryson's "At Home," August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson," Kurt Vonnegut's "Armageddon in Retrospect," Saul Bellow's "Humboldt's gift," and Basho's "On Love and Barley." Some of my favorite books include Emerson's "Self Reliance," Heller's "Catch 22," Pullman's "His Dark Materials Trilogy," Beckett's "Unnameable Trilogy," Ryokan's "One Robe One Bowl," Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath;" I love Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, James Joyce, and the classics of Aristophanes, Sophocles, Ovid, Euclid,and Virgil (translated to English - my Latin isn't that great, and my Greek is practically non-existent!). This house is also pretty fond of Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy being his most famous example) and Norman Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth." I also really love A.A. Milne's "Winnie the Pooh," a book you should really revisit if you haven't read it as an adult (along with Benjamin Hoff's "The Tao of Pooh"). I also really liked Melville's "Moby Dick" but I think it could have more impact on today's audience if it was shortened to about 75% of its length.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

We have some stories... better told in person, though, than read on the internet.

Teach, Learn, Share

Cooking, beer brewing, beer tasting, disc golfing, basic bike maintenance, online stuff (I'll help you set up a blog!). I can talk at length about books and movies, as well as lots of miscellaneous knowledge. My housemates and I are endless wells of trivial knowledge! We know all about sharks, the cinematic tailspin of Ed Wood, the rise of monotheism in the middle east, the fall of Rome, the raw horsepower of a Bugatti Veyron, the musical career of Bob Dylan, the tragedy of Ralph Sampson's basketball career, the best way to smelt copper ore to create small tools, who would win in a physical contest between Wolverine and Batman, and the reason that we can't survive in America without Lady Gaga and Woody Allen. I can teach you some good jokes, and also some terrible ones. Nick and Alec play guitar. Nick can talk about cars and bikes all day long, and he owns a motorcycle. Alec has had extensive experience with food cooperatives and can talk to you all night long about world music and poetry. Alec also teaches English as a Second Language (ESL) professionally, so he is a great friend to have here if you are learning English or would like to improve. We are fun guys who love to teach, love to learn, love to inspire and be inspired.