CURRENT MISSION

explore, create, share

ABOUT ME

I don’t have time for all of my hobbies. Right now songwriting, guitar, photography, climbing, and skiing top the list. But I'm prone to getting obsessed about some new thing at any moment :)

I'm a tech startup guy / web developer and entrepreneur for a living and I love what I do, but I define myself more by my hobbies rather than my job.

I just moved to San Francisco and am loving it here, except that my tiny studio has no couch to host :)

I love to read and watch movies. I read non fiction faster than fiction, unless it’s really boring, in which case I tend not to read it, even if people say I should. I really like Seth Godin. My tastes in fiction tend to lean toward satire and wordplay. Tom Stoppard, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson, and Tom Robbins top my list. That’s three Toms and a Bob. I used to read quite a bit in Russian which is my native language. I don’t think it gets much better than Bulgakov — Master & Margarita is probably my favorite book. I think satire is the best because it means the author doesn’t take himself too seriously. People who take themselves seriously suck. That’s kind of a garden path sentence, but not really.

I am really into languages and wordplay. I double majored in linguistics and computer science and I like to learn new languages. I took a stab at some basic Thai for my trip to Thailand last year but it didn't stick very well. Right now I'm learning Portuguese, inspired from my capoeira days when I had a teacher who didn't speak much english. It's a great language and the nice thing about it is that I can mostly understand it with my high school Spanish.

I like artsy movies but I’m not going to deny myself the pleasure of the occasional Arnie or Segal flick when the moment is right. Hell who am I kidding, there are no wrong moments for that stuff. I thought No Country deserved the oscar, and was possibly the first oscar in this decade that went to a seriously good movie, not a Hollywood crapfest, and I don’t care if you disagree because you’re wrong and I’m right.

I really like music. I think for some people music is optional, or background noise. For me it’s really important. I have eclectic taste in music, for the most part. I listen to a lot of indie stuff right now. If pressed I’d say my favorite bands are probably Tool, Asobi Seksu, Underworld and Krematoriy (a Russian indie band if you can call it that). I used to listen (and still do on occasion) to gangster rap and I’m not ashamed of that. I still think Tupac was one of the greatest artists of his decade.

I am really into food. I like eating it and cooking it. I try not to be a snob about it but the reality is, I am. I’m getting into beer. I hope it doesn’t get into my belly. I try to eat organic. Sometimes I pay twice as much for a product because it has nice packaging. I’m a sucker like that, but I don’t think less of myself for it.

I am a big procrastinator, but I when I’m working I can be insanely productive. I got to sleep late and wake up late. I am a typically a zombie prior to 8am.

PHILOSOPHY

zen, taoism, and hedonism :-)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I only joined CS last year and hosted one surfer before moving out from chicago to SF, now I have a tiny studio and can't easily host any more, but I am always welcoming people if they are willing to sleep in tighter quarters on a small couch :)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I haven't surfed through this site but I have had a couple nice times surfing people's couches via craigslist, especially in new york.

Interests

photography, telemark skiing, mountaineering, rock climbing, capoeira, guitar and songwriting, cooking, SCUBA, film, music, books, social software, entrepreneurship, Ruby on Rails, burning man

• writing
• books
• photography
• capoeira
• dining
• cooking
• beer
• gardening
• technology
• movies
• music
• guitar
• mountaineering
• surfing
• scuba diving
• skiing
• rock climbing
• telemark skiing
• computer science
• teaching
• entrepreneurship
• languages
• science
• software

Music, Movies, and Books

Tool, Asobi Seksu, Thrice, Yo La Tengo, Underworld, Patricia Barber, A Perfect Circle, The Mars Volta, Wrens, Mestre Acordeon, Radiohead, King Crimson, Raveonettes, Abandoned Pools, Placebo, Massive Attack, 2Pac, Alice in Chains, Cooper Temple Clause, earlier Pink Floyd, early Dream Theater, Rush, Aesop Rock, Thrice, Krematoriy, Nautilus, Neko Case, The National

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Life Aquatic, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Natural Born Killers, Terry Gilliam, Tarantino, Oliver Stone, Wes Anderson, Charlie Kaufman, Serenity, Judd Apatow, Tuvalu, City of Lost Children, Almodovar, Kubrick

Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon, Just A Couple of Days, Tom Robbins, Robert Anton Wilson, Illuminatus Trilogy, Murakami, Nabokov, Strugatskie, Asimov, Heinlein, Tao Te Ching, 100 Days of Solitude

Teach, Learn, Share

i can teach you some photography stuff, computer stuff, or skiing :) love to learn about other cultures, especially foreign languages

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Belize, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ukraine, United States

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