Hi there, welcome to the revelry! XD
I'm a jack of all trades sort of person; my life includes pondering, adventure, and a great deal of food. I've been nicknamed the Bard, Faunus, Reverend Father, and other such silliness. I've been living in Madagascar, where I've been teaching and exploring for the past semester; next, the UK... after that, who knows.

ABOUT ME

I'm eclectic, both ethnically and religiously, with no chance to judge anyone else or avoid constant reassessment of my own every belief. My favorite thing is the beautiful tathatas, momentary eddies in perception where everything pauses and you tear up from the sheer beauty of it. I also enjoy emoticon wink-faces, since I'm close to incapable of doing it real life... I can never figure out which eye I'm trying to close, and it just looks awkward.

What I'm doing with my life

My dream is to hop from country to country, dingy backwater hostel in Kathmandu, to shanty town in Calcutta, to a open roof in Timbuktu, to a spare bedroom in a Venetian Monastery, to a Vardo rolling through Madrid, living the entirety of the human experience, tasting it, smelling it, hearing it, writing and taking pictures to document it, and sharing it to the rest of the planet through any means possible. Basically, I want to be a Vagabond Photojournalist...

The first things people usually notice about me:

I'm told that it's my sense of style -hirsute, eclectic, and archaic is what I aim for - my beard and horn glasses, and my come-and-go Irish accent. I was hoping for piercing eyes, or devastating suaveness, but there you go. ^.^

The six things I could never do without:
Sound
Light
Taste
Touch
Smell
The ability to experience the planet

On a typical Friday night I am:

Digesting the delicious couscous cooked up by the Tunisian immigrants who own La Palamaraie (next to the mosque in Antsirabe), and plotting my next excursion.

PHILOSOPHY

My creed:

Share Love.
Explore the Universe.
Thrive.
Challenge Merciless Bastards.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Come chill with me, if you want dinner/lunch/breakfast/tea and to share stories! At the moment, I'm living in craftsman garret, but you are welcome to what hospitality I can provide when I'm not off at the wrinkle mill.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've had a wonderful time on this site, with some of my best experiences abroad happening in conjunction with people I met here.

Travel progress report:

States: 18/50
Washington
Idaho
Nevada
Oregon
Arizona
California (North, Central and South)
Utah
Pennsylvania
Maryland
District of Columbia
Montana
Wyoming
Colorado
New Mexico
Florida
Alaska [Anchorage, Denali, Kenai]
Aupuni Mō'ī o Hawai'i [Oahu, Hawai'i, Maui, Lanai]
Minnesota

Lines! 5/7:
Tropic of Cancer
Equator
International Dateline
Arctic Circle
Greenwich
(Capricorn and Antarctic remaining)

Canada:
British Columbia

Matanitu Tugalala o Viti (Republic of Fiji):
Viti Levu [Nadi]
Vanua Levu [Labasa, Savusavu, Nagigi, Naitilo]

Lýðveldið Ísland (Republic of Iceland):
Ísland [Keflavík, Reykjavík]
Gullhringur [Þingvellir, Geysir, Gullfoss, Flúðir, Hella, Sejlandfoss]
Hringvegur [Ejafjallajökul, Skógafoss, Vík, Hjörleifshöfði, Katlassandur, Kirkjubæklaustur, Vatnajökul, Jökulsárlón, Höfn, Horn, Atlanshafið, Djúpivogur, Öxl, Egilsstaðir, Námafjall-Hverir, Mývatn, Laugar, Akureyri, Dalvík, Varmahlíð, Blönduós, Hvammstangl, Staðarskáli, Tröllakirkja, Bifröst, Borgarnes, Grundarhverfi, Reykjavík]
Grímsey [Sandvík, Norðurheimskautsbaugurinn (Arctic Circle), Grænlandshaf/Norður-Íshaf (Greenland Sea portion of the Arctic Ocean)]

Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Turkey):
Istanbul, specifically Beyazit and Sultanahmet

Repiblik Moris (Republic of Mauritius)
Plaine Magnien
Mare D'Albert
Rose Belle
Deux Bras
Grande Bel Air
Ville Noir
Mahebourg
Cite La Chaux
Pointe d'Esny
Blue Bay
Morcellemont Beau Vallon

Repoblikan'i Madagasikara (Republic of Madagascar)
Antananarivo
Sambaina
Antsirabe
Mahajanaga
Ambanja
Akivy
Nosy Be
Nosy Sakatia
Ambilobe
Diego Suarez
Antsiranana

Interests

I spend a lot of time thinking about:

How human beings function in relationship to themselves, to the universe, to the environment... Basically, life, the universe, everything and fish. (As I said, I like Douglas Adams :) ) [Also see the "Teach. Learn. Share." section]
I'M REALLY INTO SOLARPUNK RIGHT NOW. lol. Like, I've been community gardening feral plants. Who knows how long it'll last, but it's really cool. :)

• fish
• culture
• writing
• poetry
• photography
• coloring
• beauty
• dancing
• causes
• environment
• dining
• cooking
• breakfast
• flying
• flowers
• news
• traveling
• painting
• drawing
• bouldering
• fishing
• scuba diving
• communications
• divinity
• history
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

Favorite Food:

Oh man, where do I begin... Farmers Market or garden, straight to table, homemade ethnic food, or at least hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurant. :)

Music:

A lot of eclectic things from across time and style. Ask me what I'm listening to at any given moment, and it will probably change a lot. At the moment...

The heavy, Horse feathers, andrew bird, blake mills, beirut, kaki king, Firewater, Gogol Bordello, Charlie Winston, Manu Chao y Radio Bemba,The Dead Weather, The Heavy, The Antlers, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Bon Iver, Broken Bells, Croslin St. by Lazarus, Califone, Scroobius Pip, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes, Elliot Smith, Caravan Palace, Ximena Sarinana, Metronomy, Woodkid, Sage Francis, Phoenix, St. Vincent, Sufjan Stevens, the Raconteurs, KT Tunstall, Lily Allen, the Ting tings, the wombats, the tallest man on earth, blogotheque, Sea Wolf, the Voice Project, Chris Pureka, Marko Markovic, Beats Antique, Manchester Orchestra, A Movable West, Filbert, Noa And The Whale, Walks the Earth, Chad vanGaalen, Glen Hansard, Oren Lavie, Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, Mon Cheri, THe Airborne Toxic Event, Cloudcult, Venetian Snares, Rail Road Earth, Sam Morris, The New Pornographers, the Swell Season, Paper Birds, Dale Earhardt Jr. Jr., Barcelona, El Olio Wolof, Rachel Yamagata, Priscilla Ahn, Brett Dennen, the bird and the bee, Cage the Elephant, Peter Bjorn and John, Tomi Librero y su puchero misterioso, Dave Gahan, The Dodos, TOm Lehrer, the Cardigans, Robert Johnson, THE BUILDERS AND THE BUTCHERS, Devotchka, Jorane, Jamie T, Enya, The Cranberries, Hello Sea Horse, Flatfoot 56, Of Montreal, Dido, Moby, Tegan And Sara, Jack Johnson, Agustin Barrios, Deer Tick, We vs. Death, Vauxhall Broadcast, the fratellis, We Vs. Human, New Lungs, the yells, the switch, Duffermen in Carrels.
Steam Powered Giraffe, Robert Frobisher (fictitious), Sex Bob-omb (fictitious), Bartok, Liszt, Brahms, Agustin Barrios-Mangore, Enrique Granados, Johan Kaspar-Maertz, Mozart, Beethoven, Sinatra, Satchmo, Crosby, Danny Kaye....

Shows:

Covert Affairs, Person of Interest, Nikita, Life (thrillers)
Doctor Who, Farscape, Star Trek, Eureka, Firefly (creative sci-fi)
No Reservations, Lonely Planet, National Geographic, PBS (Planet)
Adventure Time, Portlandia, Raising Hope, SNL, The Daily Show

Movies:

Um... don't get me started. XD I'm a bit of a film nerd.

Books:

Pablo Neruda, Herman Miller, Walt Whitman, ee cummings, Gabriel Garcia Lorca, Gabriella Mistral, Jack Keruac, Anthony Horowitz, Brian Jacques, JRR Tolkien, C S Lewis, George McDonald, Shakespeare, Jean Craighead George

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have seen
The shade of Blue in Crater Lake
The darkness of the earth in a lava tube half a mile below a frozen desert
The flash of lightning striking a tree through the hail
The rumble of a car-sized boulder rolling across the road in front of my car in a flash flood in Yosemite
The splash of pelicans diving for fish, watched from my living room couch
The White House in Washington, DC
The first airplane in which humanity ever came aloft
The shake of my fingers slide across the surface of a rock from the moon
The fluttered thunder of a cloud of migrating monarch butterflies
The clash of steel in a joust
The joyous terror of a horse between my legs taking off, unbidden, flying over a fence faster than a car The thunder of hooves of the surrounding herd as we cascaded down a hill
The laughter of young poets on the roof of a parking structure in Spokane and Sacramento
The sunrise in the Mojave desert
The walls of snow, fog and rain in Oregon, Pacifica and Olympia
The salmon spawn upstream in a creek off the Puget sound
The looming scale of Denali
The deftness of a captain with two hooks wheeling a fishing boat like a leaf in an inlet of the Kenai
The slow tick of a glacier, melting
The wry humor of a grizzly bear in the wild, shaking a coca-cola box
The wonder of a baby being born amid screams of joy and pain
The entire room lost to the wildness of the guitars and the full moon and the ephemeral teenage soul
The moon-rise over the golden gate bridge
The look of lust in a woman's eyes
The sorrow of a family mourning someone they love
The joy of a man partaking in the first meal of the past two days
The blush of a girl being whirled through the dance to band playing tunes that haven't been played in decades
The stars in my eyelids as I tasted the perfect bite of a taco-truck taco
The color of the crunch of leaves
The glowing horizon in the dark with Mount Diablo on fire
The purple sunset through the warm rain of Fiji, with the fruit bats flying home
The love of an elderly woman cooking in Nagigi
The glee of surfing the Wavakui to the sacred salt lake, with the Island of Bone
The trees sinking their roots into the living coral of Naitilo
The Green Turtles and Manta Rays of Lahaina
The rock from which the Viking parliment recited its laws
The view of the Katlasandur from Hjorleifur's burial cairn
The burial grounds of the Troll-kind
The ice lagoon of Jokulsarlon
The cliffs of Oxl that we drove, the wind trying to scrape us off
The steaming purple dunes of Namafjall-Hverir
The Valkyries of Akureyri
The Arctic Circle, and my skin after bathing in the Arctic Ocean
The Graveyard of Reykjavik, and Olsmidjan
The drunken merriment of Vikings in a feasting hall, blurred by an abundance of mead
The Aegean from the sky
The gold leaf walls of calligraphy in the Grand Bazaar
The muezzins of Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque competing in harmony
The moon rising high above the Bosphorus
The tall abstract stone chess-pieces of a mosque's cemetery, going back to the fifteenth century
The gleam of the hustle in the grin of a man on the metro at the Zeytinburnu stop
The slosh of my innards flung into a sky commode while dangling high above Somalia
The coming-to and convalescence in a hospital bed in South Mauritius
The gleam and glow of Mahebourg's Blue Bay, iridescent and surreal
The love hidden within religion, held in an embrace
The song of the feral dogs of night and morning roosters on tin shingles in Antananarivo

I have seen a part of the world
I have seen Humans

Teach, Learn, Share

What I’m really good at:

Unfortunately, I tend to be good at the vast majority of things I try, which makes me either appear like a show-off, attention hog or know it all. It also makes me a jack of all trades, master of none. XD I just really like doing things, and when I really like it, I improve quickly. Songwriting, instruments (many), poetry, cooking, photography, drawing, painting, broadsword fighting, languages, producing innuendos out of thin air (and it's not the only thing I can make appear ;) ...case in point), explaining the fundamentals of relativity and string theory on a napkin... My goal is to be the Dos Equis man by the time I turn forty.

Personal ethics:

The profession I've defined (Something I wrote a while back):

"What it means to be a Cultural Photojournalist

"There is a rule of thumb in mainstream news media on how to create an interest-capturing broadcast... "If it bleeds, it leads." It is the predisposition of perception-forming organizations in both visual and print mediums to lead off any segment of news-worthy material with a story with strong visuals about destruction, death and yes, blood... Even if unrelated the following subject. Sex and distraction are marketable, and marketability funds both the censors and the producers. This is WRONG.

"It is our place in society, as wanderers of the planet, to express the voices of humanity. Where we are of most use to mankind is in the expression of those voices that go unheard, turning the oppressor's monologue into the dialogue of cohabitants of a too-small planet... We are to scrabble about the desert, seeking the flowers, and find the diamonds in the dung hill.

"We should seek the beauty and joy in reality, though we should not let its gleam blind us from any ugliness and pain that we, through action, publication or discourse, might remedy.

"We are agents of change, giving voice to the songs of the tongueless and painting the dances of the invisible.. And heaven and divinity help you if you are muted by fear of repercussion, punishment or obscurity. We tread lanes of brutality; let us redeem our blood-stained shoes.

"I call upon you to have a true level of durability and a new concept of success. We are to be epicurean nomads, not to be gluttons of first-world extravagance, nor ascetics in penance for those below the poverty line, but instead, we should find joy in the flavors and fulfillment of a globally-minded gourmand, find happiness in our shelter from winds and rains, and consume with no less than we yearn for, but no more than we need. Epicurus once said that "it is of more importance in whose company you dine than what you dine upon;" in such a way, let us strive to seek companions in excellence, intellectually, spiritually, culturally... even if their journeys into the meaning of being human reach different destinations than our own.

"We are to be citizens of humanity, for there are many just causes worth your life, there is no nationality worth your soul. Too often in recent history has a pride in origin been the justification for xenophobia, hatred and oppression. Take pride in your country; take pride in your culture. Never do so in such a manner or instance that belittles those of another person.

"It is not our primary concern to be the prophets of a "superior" opinion, hand down agendas to the people from the marketing directors who sit in the clouds of Mount Olympus, nor to be the mouthpiece of a self-contradictory majority opinion. Our central intent is found in a ceaseless process of self-perfection and self-refinement, through increasing our experience and understanding of the fellow inhabitants of the planet. It is our calling to explore; it is our calling to experience; if we learn, if we share, then much the better... But it is our highest calling to appreciate all forms of humanity and expressions of beauty. We are the appreciators of Earth."

What I Can Share with Hosts

Chai
Friendship
A hug

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Ethiopia, Fiji, Iceland, Madagascar, Mauritius, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Madagascar, United States