CURRENT MISSION

After a year and a half in the states, I drove back home to Alaska where I'm hunkering down for a couple of years, so my mission is to get out of here at least a few times during that period.

ABOUT ME

I am a pragmatic person, generally easy-going, free of spirit, and I believe in taking responsibility for myself with the intent to do no harm and to be a positive force in the universe. I take things as they come.

I have held several careers, the last being a ten-year stint in the bar and nightclub industry as a business manager and bartender. I found it very easy near the end of that decade to simply stop drinking. I still appreciate the social aspect of bars, but I no longer drink nor sell alcohol to others.

After quitting my job in the bar industry in October of 2009, I left my home in Anchorage, Alaska to travel around the states, driving around the Pacific Northwest before staying in Portland for about four months. Besides Portland, I also lived during that year and a half in Denver and Las Vegas. I was not a member of couchsurfing.org at that time.

I am now back in Anchorage, where I thought I would be staying only until winter, but new opportunities have arisen, both professional and community-based, so I now must fly to Vegas to get my car.

I'll be traveling from Vegas to Anchorage from the 25th of August until about the 5th of September and am looking for places to stay along the way.

PHILOSOPHY

Freedom is the ability to pause between stimulus and response, and to choose in that moment.

I don't need to have complete control over my life. In fact, it is impossible. Things don't have to go exactly my way. In fact, I make plans expecting that they will be changed in the living. I make a deal with the universe and share control with it.

Getting older is a blessing. That I will someday die means that I exist. If time did not advance, there would be no movement. Without movement, there would be no universe, only a stagnant nothingness.

If I pursue happiness, I am never happy. Happiness is compassion, awareness, and acceptance; it is not a pursuit.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am new to couchsurfing.org. Right now, for my trip back to Anchorage, I am looking to participate as a surfer. Once back in Anchorage, I will be staying temporarily in a situation which will not allow me to provide a couch for others, but eventually I will move back into my own apartment (which is being rented to someone right now) and will be able to host on my couch there.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have not done any couch surfing through this website, but I stayed on the couches of many friends during my trip traveling in the states. It has always been important to me to be a good house guest.

Interests

Travel, reading, meeting new people, helping others, creative brainstorming, philosophy, conversation, karaoke.

• drinking
• flying
• reading
• traveling
• karaoke
• surfing
• business

Music, Movies, and Books

Viola Spolin, Noah Levine, Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, Charles Bukowski, Orson Scott Card, Philip Jose Farmer, Albert Camus, James Thurber.

Also comic books, sci-fi movies, zombie films.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Being an Alaskan, I've seen the Aurora Borealis many times. The most memorable time, however, was one crispy dry, winter night more than two decades ago, in 1989, the Aurora shimmering across almost the whole of the sky in green and blue and pink and purple bands of undulating energies. That's one amazing thing I've seen.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Canada, Mexico, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, United States

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