CURRENT MISSION

Excitation. Perturbation. Exploration. Elation.

ABOUT ME

Born in the hippie nest of Northern California. Moved to the Arizona high desert to learn physics and acquaint myself with the desert. Currently undergoing transformation into a scientist in music cognition, partway through a graduate studies journey that took me from the London, UK to Ontario, Canada where I work now in a music performance lab. The off-time is filled with ultimate frisbee, biking, slacklining, live music, cinnamon rolls, backgammon, and ping-pong. Relentless student of life.

The outdoors is where everything comes into focus. I define my life in terms of the periods between backpacking trips. I feel most alive when I'm cooking from a camp-stove, washing my clothes in a river, listening to rain patter on a tent and strings twang from across the campfire. The trail is the real destination, everything else is a compromise.

PHILOSOPHY

My guess is that finding value in the inter-dependencies between and within living systems is to admit that understanding the physical world and how it operates can actually lead down better paths, as individuals and as a species. That's a long-winded way to say I'm not convinced that we cannot derive an "ought" from an "is". We may actually find that better and worse decisions can be made on the basis of empirical facts about the universe. Although it's not perfect, science is the best tool we currently have in the service of that end.

My intellectual heroes are the ancient Stoics. My goals in life are to be a good person and pay attention to what's around me.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Couchsurfing was integral to my first adult experiences in the world outside my country. When I was first introduced to CS as a real viable traveling tool, it seemed miraculous. Now I see it as a natural part well-intentioned traveling. I always prefer Couchsurfing to staying elsewhere on the road, and host whenever I can at home. It hasn't been anything but a positive experience for me.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

A post-high school / pre-college journey sent me throughout western Europe on the Couch-surfboard, mostly in Ireland and Germany. Dublin was my first ever, followed by a few months of surfing couches in Clonmel, Cork, Galway, Berlin, Paris, Prague, and all over the US. Later trips sent me to couches in Granada and Tarifa, Spain. Much of my mid-20s was spent hosting in all of my various Flagstaff, AZ residences, including college dorm room and co-op houses.

Interests

Above all, I enjoy being challenged physically and intellectually. I have played the violin since I was a kid, starting playing ultimate frisbee in college, and have pursued outdoor shenanigans all over the spectrum throughout. Hiking, biking, running, camping, swimming, backpacking, snowboarding, skiing, dancing, etc. My childhood adventures took me to much of the Sierra mountain range close to where I live in California, but those experiences have given way to the vast high altitude deserts of the southwest. I also am fascinated by physics, neuroscience, the tech industry, and how they all come together. [Careful not to mention anything about consciousness, free will, metaphysical zombies, the mind-body problem, the controlled hallucination theory of perception, substrate independence, or the illusion of the self...I'll talk your ear off.]

• music festivals
• dancing
• yoga
• reading
• music
• violin
• backpacking
• mountain biking
• craft beer
• ultimate frisbee

Music, Movies, and Books

There's a place in my heart for Celtic music and folksy stuff, good old-school hip-hop, classic rock, alternative and progressive, all the way to metal and electronica.

A couple favorites: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Tool, Pretty Lights, Rage Against the Machine, Daft Punk, Justin Martin, String Cheese Incident, Umphrey's McGee, Opeth, Primus, Lunasa, Martin Hayes, Justice, Paul Simon, Sage Frances, Santana, Steve Vai, Muse, OTT, Shpongle, Bob Marley, RHCP, Radiohead, Michael Franti, Cake, Big Gigantic, Railroad Earth and many, many more.

The movies that twist my mind into knots are the ones that really get me going...Adaptation, Inception, Stranger Than Fiction, The Matrix, Donnie Darko, Good Will Hunting, Waking Life, Gladiator, Lord of the Rings.

Some of my favourite books are Finite and Infinite Games, Poisonwood Bible, Replay, The Monkey Wrench Gang, A Game of Thrones, Plato's Republic, Sex at Dawn, and Dark Money.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I trekked up Mt. Humphreys in the middle of the night, and watched the sun burst above the horizon of the Grand Canyon from the highest point in Arizona. Words are insufficient so I won't even try.

Teach, Learn, Share

My morsel of practical knowledge to impart are the tenants of the ancient philosophy of Stoicism and the contemporary practices of cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness that (I might argue) have become aligned with it. I'm also big on evolutionary theory and how an understanding of our genetic roots can help us understand our nature.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Quesadillas, conversation, pingpong, violin lessons, book trades and dancing lessons (I learned east- and west-coast swing, waltz, cha-cha, nightclub two-step, salsa and a bit of tango in a club in high school).

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States

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