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Overview

  • 9 references 3 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in English; learning Spanish
  • 38, Male
  • Member since 2009
  • Structural Engineer
  • B.S. in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College, and an M.S....
  • From Sammamish, Washington, United States of America
  • Profile 100% complete

About Me

CURRENT MISSION

Become the best version of myself that I can be. Design buildings that won't fall down. Figure out a good way of generating pseudo-random fields of soap bubbles that at least aesthetically track as physically correct.

ABOUT ME

I'm a structural engineer, working in San Francisco, and I love my work. It's not always glamorous stuff, but I love putting buildings together. I've been living in the bay for about 5 years now, and though my mother still thinks that I might come back to Seattle, SF is really my home - the attitude of experimentation, of geekery, of deep and profound thought is something that I can't seem to get enough of.

I haven't been out of the country for a significant period of time in a while, but instead I've been traveling within this wonderful country of ours, trying to get the number of states that I've visited above the number of countries.

PHILOSOPHY

I believe in the fundamental reasonableness of the vast majority of humankind. Every person has explanations for what they do. Many of them are wrong, some are right, most are neutral. I assume that every person I meet is a reasonable human being, until I'm proved otherwise.

Why do I live my life? That's what I'm trying to find out. I wish I knew, but I'm enjoying the search.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've been to many couchsurfing events in the Osaka and Tokyo areas in Japan, and I've slept on a few fantastic couches in Japan and India. I've been to quite a few CS events in San Francisco, but I haven't had a place that I could host people.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My best friends from abroad I made through the couchsurfing project, and I've yet to meet a couchsurfer that I didn't like.

Interests

Engineering, climbing, hiking, philosophy, good movies, other people's life stories, accents, people watching, football (Soccer), but basically if you're interested in talking about it, I'm interested in listening to you.

  • design
  • movies
  • traveling
  • hiking
  • rock climbing
  • soccer
  • track and field
  • engineering
  • history

Music, Movies, and Books

Recently:
(Music) - The Tallest Man on Earth is my favorite artist right now. I liked the Kings of Leon for a long time, there. I've got some eclectic tastes, and on my computer I've got (among many other things) - Kanye West, Daddy Yankee, Feist, Tupac, The Killers, The Barenaked Ladies, Save Ferris, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Firewater, Green Day, Eminem, Mika, Modest Mouse, OK Go, The Paperboys, The Pogues, The Raconteurs, The White Stripes, Black Star, Flogging Molly, Mozart.

(Books) - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Love in the Time of Cholera), The Magus, The Sparrow, David Brin (The Uplift Series, Earth), Neal Stephenson (Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, Anathem), William Gibson (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Pattern Recognition)

(Movies) - Brad Pitt (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Fight Club, Snatch), Y Tu Mama Tambien, Hot Fuzz, Thank You for Smoking, Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote, everything he's ever done), Johnny Depp (Pirates 1, Fear and Loathing), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (and Judd Apatow, though he's getting formulaic), Borat, Amelie, The Moulin Rouge, Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men, Love in the Time of Cholera), The Kids are All Right, Bellflower

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Alone on a guard tower in the ruins above Pisac, Peru, as the sun set over the Andes.

Long-term creep and differential shrinkage in a post-tensioned, voided flat slab supporting the biggest panes of glass ever built.

The central market in San Salvador.

The Pietà, by Michelangelo.

Finding the doctoral thesis (with handwritten notes) of a major historian of British castles while researching Rochester castle in Duke Humfrey's Library in the Bodleian.

The generosity of the vast majority of the people I interviewed for my Watson Fellowship project. I would come into their lives a complete stranger, and they would bare their soul to me with no expectation of anything in return. It is a truly humbling experience, and I will always be in their debt.

Teach, Learn, Share

The 501 bus will take you from Verapaz to San Salvador, but you can just take any bus toward San Vicente, get off at the highway, and hop on pretty much any bus to get you to the city.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

El Salvador, India, Japan, Peru, United Kingdom, United States

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