CURRENT MISSION

Keeping life interesting...I've been mostly grounded since I found gainful employment

ABOUT ME

i'm a really easy going guy, and thrive off of good conversations. I'll drink wine, but I'd rather have a good beer. I used to read a lot but the internet has killed my attention span. Back when I could hold a book for more than 20 pages I was really into philosophy of mind and cognitive science. I enjoy making new friends, hiking/camping, and am an avid swing dancer.

For 10 years I was a volunteer EMT/Firefighter. During college I was a snowboarding instructor in SoCal. After college I taught English in Brazil and earned enough $ to backpack the northeast coast of the country for several months. I worked in the music industry for a few years after coming back to the US, and I've worked as a Data Scientist (basically a statistician) since 2014.

I love to travel, especially long road trips. I've driven across the US from DC to LA 4 times, usually giving myself 2 weeks to zigzag around and enjoy a few national parks. I've also been up and down both coasts of the US multiple times. I enjoy traveling with friends, but prefer the freedom of traveling alone: 2 of my 4 drives x-country drives were solo, and I backpacked Brazil by myself for five months (best trip of my life!)

I'm pretty easy to please, be it an all night party, kicking back with a small group of friends, or just lying back and staring at the night sky in comfortable silence with people i've just met.

I smile and laugh a lot, often at nothing at all.

PHILOSOPHY

While we're here, I think it's important to make the most of our time by witnessing and experiencing as much as possible. I'm really open to trying new things, visiting new places, and meeting interesting people. life is all about exposing your self to new ideas and experiences. we are constantly evolving, and that change is fueled by who meet and what we've seen.

I'm not passive in my life, I actively seek out new experiences. I don't plan far ahead in advance and enjoy adapting to new circumstances. I allow my life to happen, and try not to resist the flows and currents that sweep me along.

If I ask a lot of questions, it's because i'm genuinely curious. If I smile or laugh, it's not at your expense: I'm just having a good time.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I signed up w/CS to help me find people and couches in Brazil. CS helped me coordinate a group and alternative bed during Carnival, which was great. I live in a group house and can't really host right now, but I can help show you a good time in DC if you visit.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've driven across the US 4 times and organized the trips so I could both visit national parks and friends. My last trip, I brought my brother along and we pad-crashed with 6 different friends over 2 weeks.

Travelogue (under construction/in stasis.): http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/20322/summary

Interests

I read alot (and probably spend more time in bookstores than is healthy), but hey, philosophy students do that right? I also love snowboarding, fireighting, and road trips. I've played the guitar since i was in 7th grade, but i don't practice like i should so it's more of a casual hobby. i like to cook, but i'm not very good at it (teach me?). stand up comedy belongs on this list too.

i practice a form of taoist qi gong and meditation, but i haven't gotten around to either in awhile.

I thirst for knowledge. i want to know at least something about everything.

around 2007 I began to cultivate an interest in politics, but i still have a lot to learn.

• books
• cooking
• wine
• cheese
• beer
• instructor
• meditation
• partying
• drinking
• politics
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• backpacking
• skiing
• snowboarding
• boxing
• emergency services
• medicine
• science
• volunteering
• road trips
• parks

Music, Movies, and Books

"What really matters is what you like, not what you are like. Books, records, films; these things matter!" - John Cusack, High Fidelity

MOVIES
<>
good music videos, like Spike Jonze's and michel gondry's. Kurosawa. Tarantino. Kung fu movies. comedies. scary movies (including cheesy 80's slasher flicks). Shitty B-Movies you can drink to and laugh at with friends.

MUSIC
Air // Allman Brothers // Barenaked ladies // Beastie Boys // Beatles // Beta Band // Bob Dylan // Bob Marley // Broken Social Scene // Cake // Charles Mingus // Charlie Parker // Chemical Brothers // Chico Buarque // The Clash // Creedence Clearwater Revival // Dandy Warhols // Dave Mathews // Death Cab for Cutie // Dizzy Gilespie // Flaming Lips // Foo Fighters // Herbie Hancock // Incubus // Iron and Wine // James Brown // Jimi Hendrix // John Coltraine // Johnny Cash // Jorge Ben Jor // Jurassic 5 // Led Zeppelin // Lynard Skynard // Nick Drake // Oasis // Paulinho Da Viola // The Pharcyde // Pink Floyd // The Police // Postal Service // Radiohead // Ray Charles // Red Hot Chili Peppers // Robert Johnson // Rod Stewart // Rolling Stones // The Roots // The Shins // Smashing Pumpkins // Squarepusher // Stevie Wonder // Steppenwolf // Sublime // Tom Jobim // Thelonius Monk // Vinicius De Moraes // The Who // Yesterday’s New Quintet

BOOKS
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Lorax
into the wild
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
the Mind's Eye
Hitchhiker's guide series
a heartbreaking work of staggering genius
theory of scientific revolutions
one flew over the cuckoos nest

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

1) A box truck with its hazard lights flashing (as though it were temporarily parked) that had just gone through the wall of a gym and landed on a bunch of treadmills at 4am. The driver was fine, he just fell asleep at the wheel and walked away.

2) An x-ray of a whole peanut (in the shell) lodged in a 6 year-old's bronchiole tube. Doc's treated his cough like an allergy for awhile, gave him a battery of tests, but didn't give him a chest X-ray until about 9 hours after he started having trouble breathing.

Don't get health insurance with kaiser permanente.

Teach, Learn, Share

SODA
soda outside of the US is healthier than soda inside the US. most soda's produced outside the US (including US brands found in foreign countries, like coke) use real sugar instead of high-fructose corn-syrup. the body can digest fructose, but its not equipped to handle tons of it.

rise in fructose consumption has been correlated with the obesity and diabetes pandemics in the US. increasing evidence is directly linking fructose with obesity.

stick with water, says i.

CHEESE
You can keep hard cheese like parmesan fresh by lightly coating it with butter. It sounds weird, but it keeps the cheese from drying out.

SKI FREE
If you press 'f' in the computer game ski free, you can go faster and escape the monster that would otehrwise gobble you up for successfully staying alive. XKCD taught me that.

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