CURRENT MISSION

To do as in the movie "Pay It Forward"--Spread good deeds exponentially

ABOUT ME

I am an Orthodox Jew living the best that I can by following the tenets of Judaism and Hassidic teachings.

I am open-minded and outgoing. I am also easy-going, friendly, kind, and sensitive. People will say that I am also an intellectual, although I will humbly say that I am not. Sometimes I am unconventional and/or free-spirited.

I also have traits that may be the exact opposite, in that I am also opinionated and talkative.

PHILOSOPHY

Life is too short to focus on amassing wealth, belongings and power, and to have hatred, grudges and revenge towards others. Live life as a good, honest, and decent person. Live with as little as possible for your sustenance and instead surround yourself with friends, family and knowledge as much as possible.

I recently came across a wonderful article that explains how the collapse of the U.S. (it could be any modern-day Western country) is unavoidable:
http://greatchange.org/ov-orlov,closing_the_collapse_gap.html.
Essentially, friends, family and happiness is more important than money, property or power.

Bottom Line: I do my best to help anyone who comes my way and I never, G-d forbid, knowingly take advantage of anyone.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I need some suggestions in this area, as I am a newbie to this site.

Also, if anyone finds any spelling or grammatical errors, please let me know. I strive for exceptional writing!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have hosted several people in my apartment. One person stayed with me for a whole month. Another person stayed in my apartment by himself when I was away from home for a whole week. When I used to live in Israel, I had people sleeping by me all the time for Shabbat. Once, I had 5 people sleeping by me for three days.

I plan to do some traveling around the world soon and hope to learn and experience the world through personal connections.

Interests

Hanging out with friends, computers, science, math, politics, natural health/healing, traveling, writing, surfing the web, doing mitzvos (good deeds) for others.

Some of my interests could turn into a career, but as you will get to know me, I believe a person's job does not define him; what his assessment of the worth of others does!

I have a desire to become an amateur nutritionist and will do my best not to profit from such a profession. I also have a desire to develop some ideas I have for a few websites and will do my best not to profit from these too (make them free to everyone interested; they will be paid for by donations).

• writing
• ethics
• politics
• traveling
• surfing
• jewish
• teaching
• history
• mathematics
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Ah, there are so many...

Movies: I typically like ones based on a true story, drama, science fiction and documentaries. I watched all the Harry Potter movies even though I have never read any of the books (yes, I know, the books are better).

Music: I only like Jewish, Classical, and Oldies. If you think I will like something else too, I am open-minded to a suggestion and sample.

Books: I do not like to read, as I have a mild case of ADHD. But I do read quite a bit online.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

This is very hard to write about. One amazing thing that I have done was renting a car for one week and traveling across Israel. The experience of driving among Israelis, as an American driver, and more so as a Californian driver (we may be one of the safest in the world), was not so bad. I took many pictures and hopefully I can post them here in my profile.

Teach, Learn, Share

As written in Pirkei Avos (Ethics of the Fathers), "Who is wise?--He who learns from every person."

This is essentially what being a good student is about: even a professor, for example, can learn from a freshman. I remember my college days when, if a professor made a mistake, and a student corrected him/her, there were thanks in abundance and no hard feelings. Nowadays, the professor lashes out, not to mention attempts to instill, subconsciously, his/her own ideology.

Recently, due to lack of a job, and finally realizing that college taught me absolutely nothing, I found an interesting video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZtX32sKVE. Essentially it says that college is a scam; a waste of time and money. Anyone would have been better off playing the stock market than putting money into the College Money-Pit. College will not prepare anyone for the modern day world where there is Corporate greed. College will not teach you a single thing that you could not have gotten for free on the internet or learned via couchsuring. College will not prepare you for useful skills that you could have gotten for pennies on the dollar by doing an internship. This may sound political, but if around $100K in college debt has taught me anything, is that college REALLY IS one of the top scams ever seen in U.S. history.

To end on a positive note, the CS community has the capacity to teach you more in just a few surfings/hostings than 4 years of college!

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Jamaica, Mexico

Countries I’ve Lived In

Israel, Ukraine, United States