CURRENT MISSION

To make a lovely carrot cake.

ABOUT ME

I count my family as friends, feel like my friends are part of my family, and I'm learning what I want and need to from my life.

I'm having a grand old time of it, and that's certainly good enough for me. I suppose I'm a little bit of a waster, but this will not be forever the case, and at least I'm enjoying it, eh?

I'll rarely sit something out just because I can't be bothered. It's mostly only scientists who achieve things by staying in, and I never really applied myself in Physics or Chemistry.
I'm always up for a gig, a party, a drink, a dance, a hang out, or an odd job.

I go through peaks and troughs of activity, work-wise. I'll either be practically unemployed, or doing three jobs in one day. I'm yet to find that happy medium. If I am working, I might be found barkeeping; painting faces; in a pub; making some rather fetching T-shirts; in Busy Bees Craft Studio; in a fancy dress shop; hawking my wares at markets; selling merch at gigs. I have a screen printer, but I'm a wee bit feart of it at the moment.

Apart from aforementioned screen printer, I'm mainly scared of zombies, pyramids and space. I'm quite small, but large and hairy men taught me to drink. I learned quickly to keep up.

I like dancing, even if the music is bad, (sometimes especially if the music is bad).

I love live music. I'm always up for seeing a band play.

Asking questions is big on my To Do list. It's how you learn. I love to learn.

PHILOSOPHY

Say yes, always. Not in a Yes Man way, even though the film was ok. The book was better. Not in a pretentious books are better than films sense, just that the true(r?) story of Danny Wallace's Yes adventures were more interesting and funny than the shmaltzy Jim Carrey effort. Not that there's anything wrong with some shmaltz now and again. Or Jim Carrey's efforts. Man In The Moon is one of my favourite films.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm very much up for playing tour guide if I'm needed. I've got the skinny on where to be finding the cheap drinks on any given day of the week. I even know some cultural things to do, if you're that way inclined.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I suppose I cut my couch surfing teeth in an amateur sense around the age of 17. Being the only one in my group of friends hailing from my small, slightly remote town, I couldn't bear the burden of ludicrous taxi fares alone when I wanted to stay in Glasgow later than my last bus home would allow.

I spent some of my favourite teen-times discovering I can sleep most anywhere, floor, chair, couch, even the occasional bed. Often the best part of my night would be heading back to a friend's flat after some bad dancing to bad music at a bad club, to eat bad food and watch bad films whilst telling bad jokes.

These days I live in the centre of Glasgow, and the moocher has become the moochee.

And that is fine by me. I'm not just repaying debts to friends. In fact often my most gracious guests have been the people I barely know.

I have now officially surfed, and been surfed a good few times, and they were indeed just that - good times!

Interests

Saying yes, to everything.
Big talks, preferably on hilltops.
A wee bit of smirting.
Words and good grammar.
A well made gin and tonic/White Russian/Long Vodka.
A well cultivated beard.
False moustaches.
Godspeed naps.
Book loans, and the resulting conversations.
Writing, too much.
Making things with my hands and my brain, mostly for other people.
The workings of people and things alike.
Coming up with names for a band that will no doubt go no further than that.
Reading things I find on the ground.
Coincidences.
Nicknames and middle names.

• writing
• books
• dancing
• dining
• partying
• drinking
• clubbing
• pub crawls
• shopping
• movies
• reading
• painting
• music
• live music
• surfing
• chemistry
• physics
• tourism

Music, Movies, and Books

I don't mind watching rubbish, as long as I can share it with someone. It's little to no fun laughing at something by yourself.

The for real good 'uns include Love Me If You Dare, for its devious nature, Lucky Number Slevin, for its wallpaper, and The Golden Child, for its fine selection of hats.

I also very much enjoy the quotables such as Napoleon Dynamite, Wayne's World, Tremors, and Bill & Ted.

I like boxsets I can work my way through when I've got something to do with my hands.
The Shield picked up after a ropey start. Deadwood petered out after the first series. The Wire is sure to take hold of me soon. I'm quickly warming to the idea that Seinfeld is far superior to Friends. I only really enjoy Lost when I can talk about it with people who understand it better than me. Curb Your Enthusiasm is one of my favourite things to watch at dinner time. Heroes seems to me a little annoying. And not just because the last disc I tried to watch skipped a lot and then cut out before the end. I would very much like it if my little brother would return Arrested Development to my flatmate so that I can get to watching that in earnest. Dexter is pretty good, but he goes through his morning routine in an odd order.
One of the few drawbacks to moving out of my parents' house is that I can't watch excess amounts of King of Queens and How I Met Your Mother whenever I feel like it.

I like mix CDs and listening to things on shuffle. The constants are The Dears, Death From Above 1979, Holy Fuck, Future of the Left, Jonah Matranga in any incarnation, Glassjaw, The Shins, At The Drive-In, Elliott Smith, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Ocean Fracture, Stephen Malkmus-y things, Twilight Sad, TV on the Radio, Yo La Tengo, Camera Obscura, Fleet Foxes, This Will Destroy You, Band of Horses, My Morning Jacket and Frightened Rabbit.
The list does have an end, but I'm not sure where it lies exactly.
Famous Monsters by Misfits has been a big hitter of late. I just realised all the songs are about, like, famous monsters.

I have a bed book, and a traveling book, and a work book, and every now and then I start another by accident. I will read anything recommended to me and anything else I find. Libraries and book shops make me slightly anxious because I can't read everything at once.

Michael Marshall Smith, Carlton Mellick III, Haruki Murakami, Douglas Coupland, Jostein Gaarder, Christopher Priest, Chuck Palahnuik, Phillip Pullman, and Kurt Vonnegut are some of my favourite wordsmiths.

I like the picturebooks too, Maus, The Goon, Y The Last Man and The Walking Dead have been well received. I reckon if I was better at perception I'd enjoy Hellboy more than I do. I'm not sure I like Sandman, but I read it anyway. I tried to read issue one of Love and Rockets, and I liked all the monsters in the desert, but overall I was left with a sense of mild confusion, I didn't really get the whole BEM thing until the very end, and if that was the point, I'm not sure I'm into it.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

A group of strangers pushing a broken down ice cream van along the road, and being rewarded with 99s.

Teach, Learn, Share

I know, and am more than willing to share, The Comfiest Handshake In The World, with, well, the world.

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