CURRENT MISSION

Survive worktime in between travels

ABOUT ME

I'm pretty much a computer geek, and a fairly shy person. Right now I live alone in a townhouse I just bought (my first house, I'm a real adult now!) in Georgia, with my two cats that rule the place: Mop and Raphael. I am their faithful servant, catering to their whims constantly. I do a lot of business travel for work, which isn't as interesting as it sounds. Mostly it's 1-3 day trips with long hours and no down time, but sometimes I get out a little. I'm definitely not much of a partier.

PHILOSOPHY

Tough question! It's not something I think about a lot. I guess mostly what drives me is curiosity. That's what leads to traveling, a bug I've picked up that no one else in my family shares. I love seeing new things, different things, and noting the similarities and differences.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Right now, just by having my profile out here.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've not couchsurfed, but I did spend a few days in some Czech grandmotherly-type woman's apartment in 1993. A male friend (platonic relationship) and I were traveling, and got to Prague with no idea where to stay. Some guy was arranging homestays. The woman was really nice, though she spoke only about ten words of English, and we even less Czech. It was a bit of a haul up to her 4th floor apartment, but the small room was nice. She also had the biggest collections of cosmetics I have ever seen in my life in her bathroom. I never could sort out if they were for personal use or not.

Interests

I spend a lot of time on the computer, being a classic computer geek. I play games, even a MMORPG for a while though I lost interest after a bit. Now I play text-based MUSHes which nobody has ever heard about, but that's okay. It's like roleplaying games, online. I also like to read and write, and recently did Nanowrimo -- National Novel Writing Month -- writing a full novel in a month. It sucked, but hey, it was a month! I love to travel, though business travel for work has soured me on it a bit. Now when I have downtime, I like to stay at home. I also enjoy dabbling on my web site construction, hanging out with friends and just doing not much of anything, and (recently at least) playing Dance Dance Revolution. I am such a dork!

• cats
• writing
• books
• make up
• dancing
• traveling
• business
• business travel

Music, Movies, and Books

My current favorite author if Robert McCarmon, and it's okay if you've never heard of him. He writes horror, sort of, and some other stuff. I also enjoy George R. R. Martin and his huge Fire and Ice trilogy. I love reading travelogues, the humorous once -- my latest read was "No Touch Monkey and other travel lessons learned too late" or something similar. I can live vicariously through the journeys of others! On plane trips I like to read either action-packed fantasy/sci-fi, quick-paced horror, or whatever the latest New York Times bestseller is, things that are quick and easy reads. Music -- well, I guess mainstream for the U.S., I like a lot of the Grammy nominees. If you have XM Radio, then Flight 26 channel describes my tastes perfectly! Movies I don't watch as much, but I like action- and suspense-filled ones. I hate romance, I'm not too fond of most (but not all) comedies, and romantic comedies are just the pits for me!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I think the most amazing thing I've done is written a novel, courtesy of motivation from National Novel Writing Month, in November 2006. It's got no real title, but it's about a boy growing up in Baghdad about the time the latest U.S. war started there. I did a lot of research on it before starting. It's admittedly not the best in its first draft, but I think the amazing thing is that I finished it! I've even dared to share an excerpt or two with a person or two.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States