CURRENT MISSION

Faites de beaux rêves!

ABOUT ME

I was born with a conscience. For your sake, I am happy that this was the case.

I've never had the slightest desire to go into outer space.

I can be persuaded to sing karaoke after several drinks (anybody down for Hula Bar? I haven't been there yet).

I have just completed a cross country trip via hitchhiking and seek to do the same on every other continent. People are what make this world worthwhile.

I grew up on a farm/ranch riding horses and dirt bikes (which I also wrecked frequently - the dirt bikes, not the horses).

I love animals of all persuasions...cats, dogs, monitor lizards, silky safakas, etc.

I played saxophone (hated, but want to start again), piano (hated but wouldn't mind dabbling once again) and guitar (just hated and want to learn solely to play one song so it'll not likely happen in this lifetime). I also would like to take up the cello.

I read. All day. Every day.

PHILOSOPHY

I had a false belief. I thought I came here to stay...
We're all just visiting. All just breaking like waves.
The oceans made me, but who came up with love?
Push me, pull me, push me...Or pull me out.

So if there were no angels, would there be no sin...? Oh, you better stop me before I begin. But let me say:
If I behave could you arrange a spacious hole in the ground? Somewhere nice, make it nice - Where the land meets high tide.

Like a cloud dropping rain, I'm discarding all thought. I'll dry up, leaving puddles on the ground. I'm like an opening band for the sun. Push me, pull me, or just pull me out...out...out...out.......

Pearl Jam, Yield - Push Me, Pull Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmR8b4a8pFg

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love people and I love color. Those that embrace such a way of living and opening up paint this world and our hearts in tones that would blind those that seek to close the doors of opportunity to the rest of the world. If only those that would close their eyes to beauty would but wake from the tired and staid ignorance that has come to characterize the whole of their sad and fearful being... There is really nothing more that needs be said regarding why I have chosen to become a part of this community.

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I cook, I clean, I take out the trash...I do it all.

Anything that you need a hand with while I'm around? Want your brakes changed? Need a hand with a transmission swap? Apartment need painted? Trees need trimmed? Carpet need shampooed? Need drywall hung? I am a jack of all trades, but master of none. Not what you want to hear after I've changed your brakes out...lol. Seriously though, I am more than willing - in fact, I am frothing at the bit - to give you a hand with anything that you may need at the time of my visit.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have traveled extensively and have spent up to three months at a time with individuals that I've encountered along the way. These experiences were wonderful as I really had an opportunity to experience the local culture and get to know my host quite well.

Interests

In my free time I can be found (repeatedly) rereading anything by Tom Robbins. I recently went through a Vonnegut bent and next I'm eyeing Richard Brautigan. When I'm not reading, I'm out exploring the world. Whether on my longboard, or lurking around the cool dark basement of an abandoned cigar factory in Tampa, I like to get out of the house as much as possible. I love a good steak, a rhubarb pie, a strong cup of coffee, an ice cold vodka w/lime, and dingy diners that haven't changed (or bothered to wipe down) their menu in 15 years. I like dive bars and penny slots and a good political, philosophical, economic, sociological, or theological talk. I like to walk the streets at night when they're silent and empty and explore every nook and crevice, every alley and lane.

• animals
• cats
• dogs
• horses
• culture
• books
• coloring
• beauty
• cooking
• coffee
• drinking
• reading
• painting
• guitar
• piano
• karaoke
• hitchhiking
• helping others

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Requiem for a Dream, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Synecdoche, Everything is Illuminated, Filth and Wisdom, Wristcutters: A Love Story, Spun, Serendipity, Sleepless in Seattle, Dead Leaves, Elfen Lied

TV: Breaking Bad, Anthony Bourdain, Naked and Afraid, House Of Cards (netflix), and Gordon Ramsay

Music: Melvins, Pearl Jam, Nomeansno, A Perfect Circle, Les Claypool, Leftover Crack, Gogol Bordello, Kaizers Orchestra, Modest Mouse, Niraj Chag, M.I.A., Stabbing Westward, Rise Against, Murder City Devils, The Expendables, Radiohead, Everclear, Rachmaninoff, Garth Brooks, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Tom Waites, Future Leaders of the World, Machine Gun Kelly, Yelawolf, Wiz Khalifa,

Books: While Mortals Sleep (Kurt Vonnegut), Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates (Tom Robbins), The World as Will and Idea (Arthur Shopenhauer),

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have loved and I have lost - it is in having lost that I have learned what it is to love. I have ascended many peaks only to find myself flat upon my back with the clouds of heaven and the whole world yet above me - to be humbled is to grow. I have survived all that I have faced and through this I have learned to live. I am every man, woman, and child. I am part of the collective whole and yet I am the only 'me' that the universe has ever known or beheld. To have been granted but a day is a gift beyond measure. To acknowledge fear and to grant it no quarter is to open wide the door to greatness and to allow it out that it might color and shape the world in ways unimaginable to the mind's eye.

Teach, Learn, Share

The Silky Safaka is one of the most elusive and endangered species in the world - it is also one of the most beautiful. Be a cuddly and endangered species and leave the world wanting more, More, MORE.

Aside from that, I can teach you many things. Would you like to know whether you're being followed on a crowded street without alerting the one/ones that are following you? Would you like to make an amazing meal using just chicken, rice, ketchup, brown sugar, soy sauce, some sort or citrus, and mustard? Would you like to learn how to hide your heat signature from an overhead aircraft? Maybe you would like craft an intriguing sculpture out of cardboard?

What I Can Share with Hosts

I think that I already covered this in the aforementioned skill sets of light auto mechanics, cooking, cleaning, carpentry, philosophical and sociological discussions, karaoke, and an ability to allow you inside the confines of my brain...I am an open book if you will but ask. I can share only that which I have to give. All that I have to give is simply and wholly that which I have come to know as both myself and my understanding and appreciation of the world around me.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar

Countries I’ve Lived In

Iraq, United States