CURRENT MISSION

Meet amazing people and be happy!

ABOUT ME

I enjoy good company and engaging conversations. I'm pretty easy going usually and serious other times. I like to be upfront and appreciate people who are smart and considerate.

I thoroughly enjoy my life as it stands: working, studying, and volunteering.

I have my own web development practice built from a longstanding interest in the Internet, focused on building and deploying Drupal websites, but I'm occasionally commissioned in financial services or technical consulting due to my past work experience.

I used to spend a great deal of time volunteering in various capacities with local community and student organisations but spend more time meeting new people and having adventures with friends.

Outside of work, I'm an avid cyclist and swimmer, a classical pianist and video gamer, and a transit geek and all-around urbanite.

PHILOSOPHY

I suppose I'm an existential humanist, grounded firmly in the belief in an amoral, absurd world where we "find ourselves" and have the capacity to forge our own futures. Maybe even a biocentric transhumanist to extend "human qualities" so well documented now in other creatures.

I don't get too caught up in -isms though, so I guess I form my continually-changing philosophy. The -isms just help summarize my philosophy. (I guess that's very existential of me!)

Two quotations that resonate with me to the core:

"No one has ever said that life is to be easy. Only that it is to be lived."
- Grandmother in "The Road to Rankin's Point" by Alistair Macleod

"There are plenty ways to die, but you have to figure out a way to live. Now that's hard."
- Neighbour in "The Brave One"

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've surfed twice with the same host back in August 2012 in Montreal. It was a spontaneous dive right into CS and had an amazing couple of weekends.

My roommate is an avid CSer so we've also opened up our place to travelers who are keen to meet us and see the city.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

So far: just one surfing and one hosting experience under my belt. Great first steps into CS. I've surfed a couple of times prior outside of CS through other networks.

Working largely from home and having the freedom to telecommute virtually anywhere I can access the Internet, I would like to become much more in both surfing to see the world and hosting to meet people from all over.

Interests

computers, video/board games, swimming, biking, movies, design, shopping, cooking, non-profit orgs

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Manufactured Landscapes, Elizabethtown, Castle in the Sky, A Walk to Remember, Big Fish, Life as a House, The Pianist, Transamerica, Twelve and Holding, The Fifth Element, The Devil Wears Prada, Date Night

Books: God's Debris, The Chrysalids, Wuthering Heights, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, A Thousand Splendid Suns, No Great Mischief, Island the Complete Stories, Heart of Darkness

Music artists: Sarah McLachlan, Evanescence, Portishead, Secondhand Serenade, Sick Puppies, Something Corporate, Dashboard Confessional, Beyoncé, P!nk, Jami Sieber, Joe Hisaishi, Nobuo Uematsu, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Josh Groban

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

It's probably not quite so amazing to a group like CS, but my first camping experience living outside a house for the first time was amazing: being able to see thousands of stars for once in total silence and darkness. Sadly, it's not something I've experienced since.

Teach, Learn, Share

Playing piano, swimming, using a computer well.

Or cooking! Nothing fancy, but I've uncommon experience with rolling thin maki and preparing marinated sashimi, mostly born of wanting to really easily and quickly prepare something healthy and yummy.

(Or we could just cook together.)

Countries I’ve Visited

United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada

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