Even though I don't associate myself with the republican party (or any other) I'm sort of a redneck.

I guess I should start by saying that I spent my early childhood on a farm outside Newberg. I used to love to race motorcycles, climb trees, shoot cans and such. When we lost the farm, I had to move to the suburbs. Have you ever tried to have a bonfire in the suburbs? In the suburbs, you can't do most of the things that made life on the farm beautiful without somebody calling the cops.

So, I started spending most of my time inside. I'd watch TV or play video games a lot of the time. I really discovered chat rooms in middle school because I was a complete social outcast. I'm thankful to all the friends I made online for helping me through that. I still am a firm believer that middle school is the low point of human existence and wish I could offer something other than my pity to those who still have it ahead of them.

Fairly early in my teen years, my older sister had moved to Portland. I would visit her periodically and was really displeased with what I found. I learned that in the city, it's even worse than the suburbs. Not only is there the issue of less liberty, but the mentality of people is completely different.

When I was visiting Halfway, in Eastern Oregon something clicked in my mind. You see, Halfway is in Hell's Canyon, right along the border between Oregon and Idaho. As you might imagine from the name "Hell's Canyon," the climate there is much less hospitable than it is here in the Willamette Valley. The thing is, I absolutely loved my stay there.

Halfway is a small town with a population of about 300. I stayed in a dome tent in a field full of cows and would sometimes put on my ghillie suit and go out at night just for fun. During the day, I spent most of my time in the basement of a farm house to get out of the summer heat, but would have to walk a few miles into town for wifi.

Whenever I went into town, I was struck by how friendly the people were. In the city, people seem to just see you as competition for resources. It's like people have dehumanized everybody in their minds. Out in a little town like Halfway, people seem to genuinely care about you.

So, I came up with a rule for myself. If I want to be happy, I have to go somewhere where I can see the stars. In the city, there's too much light pollution to see the stars. In the suburbs, it isn't as bad, but you can't see them nearly as well as you could back on the farm or in Halfway. Also, out in the suburbs, the police don't like to see a young man on the roof of a house late at night. They'd rather you be inside. In the country though, where there's still a respectable level of individual liberty and where (as a general rule) the people are more friendly, the stars are brilliant.

Pourquoi je suis sur Couchsurfing

I can't go anywhere or host anybody currently because I have obligations where I'm at and still live with my grandpa. However, there are a lot of places that I've always wanted to go (Slab City, The Mesa, etc.) and I like the idea of helping somebody else out as soon as I'm able to.

Centres d'intérêt

Blacksmithing,
Outdoor activities (Camping, Hiking, skiing, Backpacking, Hunting, Fishing, etc.)
Coffee,
Cooking (I'm no Gordon Ramsay, but I'm not bad),
Guns,
Tabletop RPGs (Dungeons and Dragons, Children of The Sun, etc.)

• cooking
• coffee
• partying
• motorcycles
• video games
• tv
• outdoor activities
• fishing
• hiking
• backpacking
• camping
• hunting
• skiing
• emergency services

Morceaux de musique, films et livres

My favorite authors are Ayne Rand and Cory Doctorow. In case you didn't get it from my "about me," I'm all about individual libery. I also really liked Freedom by Adam Kokesh even if I think he might be kind of crazy.

I loved the Lord of The Rings movies and have been planning on reading them for some time, but people keep giving me other books to read and I never get around to it.

I loved The Hobbit, but I don't plan on watching the movies because I heard they totally butchered it. They added in characters that weren't supposed to exist, changed (or outright removed) important events and pretty much perverted it into something it was never meant to be.

I like a lot of different types of music. In fact, I'd say the main thing they have in common is that they're all pretty unusual. I've been really into the dieselpunk and electro-swing genres lately, but I also listen to country, metal (mostly older metal though. I don't care for most of the contemporary stuff) and basically every genre except for pop. Pop is the only genre that I just can't stand. I also don't like most rap music, but there is some that I enjoy.

Une aventure extraordinaire que j'ai vécue

Building a forge isn't actually all that complicated. Still, it's pretty rare so the fact that I do any sort of blacksmithing is usually enough to interest people.

I don't think anything that I've done was really amazing to be honest...