CURRENT MISSION

Hanging out with interesting people

ABOUT ME

I'm a very social homebody, and am usually the "stable home base" for my more transitory and peripatetic friends. People and animals move in and out of the house with some regularity, and I like having people come through for visits. I'm a far-left progressive, political and activisty, an educator, and very involved in US politics, queer issues, and women's health and sexuality issues. I'm a voracious reader, a SF/F fan, and a science geek, as well as an atheist. I travel less often than I used to, but I still get off to visit other folks a few times a year, at least.

Update, I do now share my home with my partner's very awesome 5-year-old son a good deal of the time, and this makes it harder to host at those times.

PHILOSOPHY

I don't believe in fate. I believe we have a chance as a species, and amazing potential, but if we want to go in the best directions, we'd damn well better work for it. I believe one place to start is in how we live our day-to-day lives. I'm nowhere near my ideal on this, especially in terms of consumerism, but I do tend to live how I believe in terms of interpersonal interactions, and I believe that helps, in tiny little incremental ways, to create a world that is closer to my ideal.

I like people, and I try to live by my values. I find my life is better when I treat the world as a generally trust-worthy place, and simply deal with the exceptions as they happen, rather than developing a suspicious and xenophobic reaction to interactions with strangers. My philosophy is that life has risks. We tend to inflate a lot of those risks that are associated with other sociocultural issues (hence the extreme fears of strangers, despite the fact that risk of violence is higher from a loved one, sadly). I don't want to limit my life with unreasonable paranoia, so I do what I can to minimize the risks, and simply refuse to live in fear, otherwise. This means I look both ways before I cross the street, I don't drink and drive, and I don't date violent people. I consider those to lower my overall life risks much more than taking in strangers, picking up hitchhikers, and visiting online friends ever will raise them. Besides, the latter have all enriched my life immensely over the years -- more than enough to make up for whatever small level of additional risk is involved.

I'd say that Educator and Activist are two very central components of my personality and identity, and my activism tends to be education-focused.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

This site seems perfect for me; I enjoy being able to share what I have -- not being able to find or identify the people who can benefit from what I have to share at the moment is one of my frustrations in life. A site like CS seems like a very practical outgrowth of my normal "I just met you, do you need a place to crash?" approach to the world. Although I haven't been active in the past few years since we moved; I've gotten immense enjoyment from all the folks we hosted prior to that, and definitely want to get back to it.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Most of my couch-surfing has been with friends and friends of friends, although I've also done a decent number of trips to meet and crash with friends I've met online. Most recently, that involved a trip to Montreal, a great chance to see the city, and a deepening of the friendship that precipitated the invitation.

Interests

progressive activism, US politics, online community, women's health, GLBT issues, science fiction and fantasy, philosophy, atheism, science, sociology of health care, alternative sexualities.

• animals
• make up
• education
• drinking
• politics
• traveling
• surfing
• atheism
• teaching
• law
• science
• sociology
• volunteering
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

"Favorite book" is an almost impossible call for me. I'm a long-standing SF/F fan, with a particular fondness for hard SF (Robert L. Forward, Greg Bear), and for elaborate, often multibook worldbuilding (P.C. Hodgell, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Sherri S. Tepper). I also have particular fondnesses for Neil Gaiman, Spider Robinson, and Terry Pratchett. I also read a lot of non-fiction, mostly science, politics, and sexuality, but really anything that catches my eye. I'm a longtime fan of Susie Bright, Carol Queen and Tristan Taormino. I can get lost in bookstores for days. I can't pass up used books that are cheaper than candy bars (library book sales drain my wallet like nothing else). I read voraciously, usually a few books a week. At the moment I'm typing this, I just finished Robert Forward's Indistinguishable from Magic, and am reading Schermer's The Science of Good and Evil. Next up are a few I bought yesterday: Tongue First, and a history of clockmaking's effects on the world (I can't recall the title at the moment).

Magazine-wise, I read In These Times, Scientific American, Ms., Mother Jones, and Bitch.

I also watch a lot of movies and shows, and have a similar problem coming up with a favorite. I'm currently educating myself on Doctor Who -- I've been netflixing episodes from the beginning on up. I adore Jon Pertwee. I'm eagerly awaiting the day Max Headroom is released on DVD, and deeply pleased that Alien Nation finally has been. I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan, most especially Firefly. I have a soft spot for the Raimi brothers, and will watch almost anything with Bruce Campbell in it, although Brisco County Jr is top of the list. I love Farscape, Wonderfalls, and Freaks and Geeks. I'm also a big fan of Dirty Jobs, Iron Chef, and Ninja Warrior. I think A Bit of Fry and Laurie is some of the funniest sketch comedy I've ever seen. I'm sure by now it's deeply shocking that I'd also be a Monty Python fan. In terms of more general movie genres, I most often steer away from tragedies and from romantic comedies, although there are exceptions on both, and I generally prefer a good dose of weirdness in my media. The Cartoon Network and Comedy Central's Adult Swim (particularly Moral Orel) are also my friends.

I love V for Vendetta (movie and graphic novel), Saving Grace, Harold and Kumar, Mirrormask, Kinsey, Ginger Snaps, The Blues Brothers, The Dark Crystal, Muppets from Space, The Big Lebowski, The Hudsucker Proxy, Jeffrey, When Night is Falling, The Full Monty, But I'm a Cheerleader, Nausicaa, By Hook or By Crook, Citizen Ruth, Dead Alive, Dirty Pictures, Dogma, Dr. Strangelove, Eddie Izzard's Dress to Kill, The Fifth Element, Harold and Maude, Immortal Beloved, Kung Fu Hustle, The Madness of King George, Orgazmo, Pi, Princess Bride, Real Genius, Tank Girl, The Thomas Crown Affair, Time Bandits, Wag the Dog, Forbidden Zone and a multitude of other movies. I've been having fun in recent years going through various themes via Netflix, and recently watched almost every zombie and werewolf movie I could get my hands on. I also have a serious weakness for MST-worthy bad movies.

I watch a lot of documentaries of all sorts, and I'm hooked on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Countdown, Frontline, and Bill Moyers Journal.

I really don't spend a huge amount of time listening to music, but my interests there are all over the board, too. I particularly love blues, classic rock, 80s pop, classic country, psychedelia, zydeco, bluegrass, and taiko drumming, and I still take guilty pleasure in the 80s hair-rock of my youth.

I'm generally very exploratory with food, with the major caveat that I have a very low tolerance for capsaicin-based (hot pepper) heat.

And although they don't ask about it, this seems like the appropriate place to say that I really enjoy games, too, and play them much too rarely. I'm not generally a video gamer nor a role-player, but I love everything from classic board games to puzzles and quiz games, and I have a wonderful time with games like Chez Geek, and the Looney Labs games.

And although I make it to them less often than I'd like, I have a huge amount of fun with Cons and Festivals and events of that sort.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Life's been a pretty amazing experience so far. I have particularly fond memories of a roadtrip from LA to Vermont, by way of the High Sierra Pass, and then across the country. I love seeing how the mountains change as one crosses the country, especially.

Teach, Learn, Share

Hmmm. This is a great idea! However, I'm pondering how to clarify my specialities without it seeming like either a come-on or an offer (it's neither, I'm just a geek).

Sexuality studies has been a central part of my academic interest for at least 15 years now. I'm a great resource on women's health, general reproductive health, and alternative sexualities (GLBT, Kink, Polyamory), particularly in regards to current legal and political activity, and finding resources and community. I currently teach the breast and pelvic exam to med students (yes, it's an odd job), and I occasionally speak on safer sex and alternative sexualities topics for various groups. I also volunteer at an abortion clinic, and know a lot more than the average bear about abortion-related aspects of women's health, particularly. I love that my friends come to me when they need info, and I love that they send their friends to me, too. I'm happiest when I'm sharing information, and giving people the resources to make the best and most educated decisions for themselves.