CURRENT MISSION

To see all the amazing places that are out there and learn more about the people living in them.

ABOUT ME

I'm a halfway serious amateur photographer. Abandoned buildings and architecture in general are some of my primary photographic interests. Seeing so much evidence of changing cityscapes lead to wanting to know more about the history of the buildings and places I've seen, and then to wondering about the nature of the community that built these places and how and why those communities changed by the time the buildings were abandoned.

I've felt more and more over the past few years that what's really important in the world is people, and that's lead me to going back to school this Fall with the intent of earning an anthropology degree. I'm finding myself more interested in social inequity and sociological issues in general as well.

Having been laid off two years ago from a job in a career I have no interest in continuing, I'm in a position where I'm pretty flexible in terms of what I want to do with my life. Right now I'm looking forward to starting my second year of my return to college in the Fall, where I'm pursuing a degree in anthropology and history.

If you're interested, my pictures are up on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stormdog42/

PHILOSOPHY

I've made a sort of hundred and eighty degree turn in my life in the last few years. I used to be very introverted. I worked in IT and dreamed of an ideal job that involved sitting in my own little cave and dealing with computers, not with people. I was horribly shy and had some level of anxiety about dealing with people.

I'm tired of computers. So done with them. I gave away my hundreds of pounds of old computers at a Goodwill electronics recycling event. A number of things have made me feel that since things are transient, people are what's important. I love talking to people and will strike up conversations with strangers when I see something that I think would be interesting for us to talk about.

I love meeting new people. I want to know more about them, and about how they live in different places. I feel like a huge amount of difficulty in this world stems from narrow worldviews and lack of understanding and empathy for fellow people who are different. One of the big reasons I want to go to school for anthropology and sociology is that I feel like it's a good way to help increase the level of that kind of understanding.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Though I signed up for an account a few years ago, I never really pursued any opportunities for travel. Life was kind of busy. At this point, I want to get started seeing more of the world again, even if my trips are going to be relatively local for now. I'm looking forward to meeting interesting people and learning from and about them!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've only been hosted once so far. I stayed with the wonderful Greg Lesatz up in the Houghton/Hancock area of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula. The copper mining ruins there are one of my favorite places to photograph, and the opportunity to stay with a local who could show me more interesting places I wouldn't have known about was just fantastic!

Interests

These days, I'm very interested in the nature of community in urban areas and the way it's changed through time. Why cities develop the way they do. What the internet has done to the concept of communities that are tied to place.

I'm an avid photographer and tend to shoot thousands of pictures of whatever new places I happen to be in.

I took classes for most of a year at a Japanese cultural center in Chicago in an attempt to learn to speak Japanese. I don't think I could hold a conversation to save my life even still, and I haven't had time to keep up.

In my first year of school, I took two semesters' worth of Spanish, so I have some minor ability in that language too.

I'm a board game lover and will give most anything a try. My current favorites are Power Grid, Pandemic, and Arkham Horror.

I've been getting back into circus arts and juggling this Summer. I juggle balls, clubs, and have done torches a few times. I'm also currently learning to ride a unicycle. I love finding people to juggle and pass clubs with!

• arts
• architecture
• clubbing
• electronics
• traveling
• juggling
• anthropology
• history
• sociology

Music, Movies, and Books

I lived my whole life in books when I was a kid. These days I read as much non-fiction as fiction, but I try to keep a steady intake of both.

In non-fiction, two books that I feel have a great deal to teach are Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (Douglas Hofstadter)and The Tao is Silent (Raymond Smullyan).
The last few pieces of non-fiction I've read would be Suburban Nation (essentially a handbook on the new urbanist movement of city design) and Traffic (Tom Vanderbilt) which has been described as the Freakonomics of cars. Right now, I'm reading In the Neighborhood (Peter Lovenheim), which is about his attempt to get to know his neighbors in a suburban community that seems to lack real community.

In non-fiction, I'm eagerly awaiting my chance to read the newest Dresden Files book. Or rather, listen to. Since I do a lot of driving, most of my fiction is in audio-book format.

When it comes to music, I'm pretty eclectic. I'm a long time They Might Be Giants fan. Other than audiobooks, my little iPod is populated with artists like K.D. Lang, Blind Melon, Neil Young, Sarah McLachlan, The Greatful Dead, Fleet Foxes, Neutral Milk Hotel, and bunches more. I'll give anything a try.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Just one? Maybe my first trip out exploring an abandoned building, when I stood on the 18th floor roof of Detroit's Michigan Central Station and looked out over the city. That experience sticks with me.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm always looking for someone to practice Japanese or Spanish with.

I can juggle and am happy to try to teach others to do so.

I can sometimes do a lot with misbehaving computers and will happily offer what expertise I can. I suspect my knowledge is starting to become out of date at this point though.

I can drive a stick shift and could even teach someone to do so on my car while I'm visiting, assuming I come by car.