CURRENT MISSION

Shanghai. Shanghai. Shanghai.

ABOUT ME

Right now I'm in Shanghai, potentially for the long haul. I'll be doing what I can to make friends, forge business connections, and do whatever it takes to earn a living in this holster-at-your-hip, wild west metropolis.

I've always had a little nomadic blood in me, I figure, and that's not bound to change any time soon. Love wandering, exploring, and arriving in a new city where my brain feels like it's hanging outside my head. The rush that I get from picking up and leaving one chapter of life to pursue the next is the momentum that dives me through the years.

I enjoy people of all sorts and from all places and openness and honesty are important to me.

Being raised in Midwest America, I was brought up frugally and enjoy dumpster diving, second hand shops, and for some reason love the idea of urban decay and abandoned places. Love backpacking/hiking etc. I would love to live in a community setting making moonshine for the group.

I brew beer and make wine, and while these are in the works I attempt to paint, practice lockpicking, throw some hands of poker, shoot a bow or get lazy and play video games. :D

PHILOSOPHY

My purpose in life is to Create. Writing, painting, brewing, anything and everything, and then mixing it all together with the creations of others. I believe in constantly evolving to be a better person and feel that the largest limiting factor to real human closeness and community is fear.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

When I get a place I will update this and begin hosting in Shanghai. Previously hitchhiked around Europe and have been the guest of dozens of amazing people! Thank you! You made my time unforgettable and influenced my world view more than you know.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Met some of the greatest people I know in Seoul and nearly every day during my trip in Europe I met someone new! From a week in a tiny city in South France, to squatting in Berlin, to scaling a cathedral in Bordeaux, to sleeping with donkeys, it's all gravy.

Interests

I have many interests and usually something new all the time, but here are some things:
film making, writing, thrift stores, lying in the snow, kids' faces when they watch tense bits of films, eating strange food, seeing new places, long car rides in the early morning, drinking coffee and pretending I am a scruffy Russian in some snowy trench during a war, the aroma of unburnt pipe tobacco, expanding my palette for beer, gambling, hookah, cheeses, subversive thinking, corporate espionage, getting tactical, peanut butter

• writing
• film making
• dining
• wine
• beer
• coffee
• drinking
• thrifting
• movies
• video games
• traveling
• homebrewing
• dumpster diving
• painting
• poker
• hiking
• backpacking
• scuba diving
• business
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

I like movies full of dry humor and either dark, dirty sets, or the opposite: lively, bright locations (See Trainspotting/Amélie) I could fill the page with movies but basically anything by Wes Anderson, Boyle, Fincher, Gilliam, Aronofsky, or P.T. Anderson, but I also enjoy hilarious or cheesy movies like The Big Lebowski or Hackers. Let's just conclude with the fact that every movie goes better with a bottle of wine!

MUSIC: (mostly into dirty, dancy synth right now)
Daft Punk, Underworld, Vitalic, Digitalism, Deadmau5, Danger, Kavinsky, Sabastian, Justice, Infected Mushroom, The Avalanches, The Pixies, T.A.T.U., Neutral Milk Hotel, Elliot Smith, Sigur Rós, Radiohead, Gotan Project, Johnny Cash, Prodigy, DJ Shadow, David Bowie, Ratatat, Panacea, Sparklehorse, Girl Talk, Moby, VNV Nation, Calvin Harris, and mashup albums like those from 2 Many DJs.

BOOKS:
Mostly enjoy nonfiction that offers alternative perspectives on life. Latest loved book: The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's so cash.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Woke up on peak Säntis in the Swiss Alps.
Climbed Le Pointe du Hoc in France.
Walked the beaches of Normandy.
Hitchhiked 3873km/2407mi in Western Europe.
Drove 8 hours through the mountains of northern Thailand on a moped.
Scuba-diving off the coast of Viet Nam.

Teach, Learn, Share

I want to learn the export business in China in order to stow some travel money before I'm old and grey. Would also love to talk to someone who owns a hostel, or bar, or both. I can teach you a bit about homebrewing and wine making, though I'm no expert. How to pick locks and dumpster dive. How to fit in and be likable in a strange and foreign land.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Cambodia, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Laos, Latvia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

South Korea, United States

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