CURRENT MISSION

Become an architect

ABOUT ME

I am a former philosopher and currently think of myself as a world traveler. I taught English in Korea for two years, wrote several half-completed books for a year, worked in a woodshop for a year while making absurd projects on the side, and taught English for a year in Taiwan. I am now pursuing a masters in architecture with an interest in resilient and ecologically responsible design. I revel in the epic and the quirky, the sublime and the silly.

PHILOSOPHY

Wittgensteinian

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've mostly surfed so far, but hosted a few people while I was a teacher in Keelung,Taiwan.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I surfed Britain during my two month self-guided castle and cathedral tour. I was fortunate enough to stay with fun, interesting, and generous hosts the whole way.

Interests

writing, philosophy, mountaineering, architecture, structural engineering, creating elaborate nonsense, woodworking, memetics, tabletop gaming, experiencing cultures, and of course traveling

• writing
• books
• architecture
• design
• recipes
• traveling
• woodworking
• backpacking
• mountaineering
• teaching
• engineering
• history
• languages
• philosophy
• science
• social justice
• environmentalism
• environmental protection

Music, Movies, and Books

Music:
Air, ...And You Will Know us by the Trail of Dead, Arcade Fire, The Architecture in Helsinki, J.S. Bach, Balthrop Alabama, Barber, Bartok, Beethoven, Belle and Sebastion, Cake Bake Betty, Chopin, The Decemberists, Dresden Dolls, Elliott Smith, Emiliana Torrini, The Fiery Furnaces, Philip Glass, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Grieg, Human Voices, Man Man, Metric, The Mountain Goats, Neutral Milk Hotel, The New Pornographers, Nick Drake, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Orff, Pavement, Portishead, The Postal Service, Rachmaninoff, Radiohead, Rilo Kiley, Sigur Ros, Simon and Garfunkel, Sonic Youth, Sufjan Stevens, Johan Strauss, Richard Strauss, Tchaikovski, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Richard Wagner

Movies:
12 Angry Men, Adaptation, All About Eve, American Beauty, American History X, Apocalypse Now, As Good as it Gets, The Back to the Future Trilogy, Batman Begins, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Brazil, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Children of Men, Chinatown, Clerks, A Clockwork Orange, The Conversation, Cube, The Dark Knight, Dog Day Afternoon, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Edward Scissorhands, Empire of the Sun, Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Fiddler on the Roof, Fight Club, A Fish Called Wanda, Five Easy Pieces, The French Connection, Full Metal Jacket, Gandhi, Gattaca, Gladiator, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Gods and Monsters, Good Night and Good Luck, Groundhog's Day, Hard Candy, Hook, The Hunt for Red October, I ♥ Huckabees, Inception, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Jean de Florette, Ladri di Biciclette, Lars and the Real Girl, The Last Temptation of Christ, Life of Brian, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Love and Sex, M, The Man Who Would be King, The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Manon of the Spring, Metropolis, Memento, Mirror Mask, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Munich, Network, Old Boy, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Paradise Now, Patton, Platoon, The Prestige, The Princess Bride, Psycho, Pulp Fiction, Raging Bull, Raiders of the Lost Arc, Ran, Rashamon, Reservoir Dogs, Rosemary's Baby, Le Salaire de la Peur, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Se7en, The Shining, Silence of the Lambs, Sin City, Smultronstallet, Snatch, Some Like it Hot, Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring, Stalag 17, Star Wars IV-VI, Taxi Driver, The Third Man, Titus, To Kill a Mockingbird, Touching the Void, Toy Story, Toy Story 3, Trainspotting, Trois Couleurs: Bleu, Unforgiven, The Usual Suspects, V for Vendetta, Wag the Dog, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, When Harry Met Sally, Witness for the Prosecution, Ying Xiong, Z

Books:
Reasons to Live, At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, Tumble Home, The Dog of the Marriage, Good Omens, Catch 22, The Brothers Karamazov, Welcome to the Monkey House, Cat's Cradle, 1984, A Clockwork Orange, The Watchmen, Transmetropolitan, King Richard III, Hamlet, Macbeth, Jumpers, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series, The Lord of the Rings, The Kingkiller Chronicle series, The Song of Fire and Ice series, The Wheel of Time series, Sand Kings, Spin, Ender's Game, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, The Gods Themselves, Stranger in a Strange Land, Survivor, Choke, Fight Club, Harry Potter, Sphere, Jurassic Park, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Consider the Lobster, Infinite Jest, Guns Germs and Steel, The Gay Science, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Philosophical Investigations, Ontological Relativity, A Treatise of Human Nature, The Singularity is Near, The Diamond Age

TV Shows:
Breaking Bad, The Daily Show, House M.D., House of Cards, Kids in the Hall, Mad Men, Orange is the New Black, Planet Earth, Robot Chicken, Rome, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, The West Wing, The Wire

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have climbed an alp on a whim and eaten (semi) live octopus.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm happy to share my knowledge of how to pack for backpacking trips and other adventures, to help plan elaborate nonsense or build artwork, and to provide guidance towards the existential joy I sometimes attain.

I always want to learn how to build things (especially from wood) and about science and history. I could certainly use all the help I could get learning languages.

I always love sharing stories and recipes.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

South Korea, Taiwan, United States

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