CURRENT MISSION

Visit new places, meet new people, incite riots

ABOUT ME

I'm fairly outside the mainstream.

I'm vegan, although I describe myself as vegetarian, because what's most important to me is that I don't eat my fellow creatures. The fact that I don't eat their bodily fluids is more like a detail.

I don't drive, and don't even have a driver's license. I bicycle and walk everywhere. I ran a marathon (26 miles) so nothing seems far.

I'm not a big fan of consumer culture. I rarely watch television, never go to malls, and buy all my clothes second-hand.

I enjoy: Performing music, writing (esp. unique and brand-new reference material), cooking, telling jokes, and traveling.

PHILOSOPHY

The qualities I most admire are ethics, intelligence, and action.

Ethics seems sadly lacking. If you left your wallet or purse at a coffeeshop, you wouldn't have an expectation of getting it back, at least not intact. I want to live in the kind of world where you *would* have an expectation of getting it back.

Related to ethics is selflessness which I greatly admire, since the opposite, selfishness, is probably what's ultimately most responsible for all that's wrong in the world, including poverty, environmental destruction, and much crime (especially white collar crime).

I suppose Intelligence is self-explanatory, and if it's not then that one's moot, isn't it? :) As for "action", I mean the idea that people actually do something with their lives, rather than just sitting around and passing time.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've offered my home to travelers for years via a notice on my personal website. When I heard about CouchSurfing.com I thought that made so much sense, to create a centralized hub for everyone to connect. My only disappointment was that I hadn't thought of the idea myself and implemented it.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

While I've offered my home to others, I can't say that I've ever stayed with a complete stranger. Of course I've stayed at friends' places when traveling, and hostels, but I don't recall staying with someone I didn't previously know.

Interests

Performing music, writing, environmentalism, vegetarianism

• culture
• writing
• ethics
• cooking
• vegetarian
• vegan
• marathon
• partying
• clothing
• chess
• traveling
• music
• piano

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Spinal Tap, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Office Space, Dr. Strangelove, Star Treks 2, 3, and 6

Books: War Tax Resistance, Diet for a New America, Beatles Recording Sessions, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series

Music: The Toadies, Ben Folds Five, The Beatles, The Police, Princess Superstar, The 5th Dimension, Stone Temple Pilots, Filter, Everclear, Queen

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I was briefly in a band with the bassist from Whitesnake, who's quite talented. I sat in for one song with Ben Folds Five at a sold-out show in Dallas. And once King Coffey from the Butthole Surfers sat in with my old band at a party. Perhaps the Pinnacle was recording "Hey Jude" at not just the same studio the Beatles recorded it at (Abbey Road), but on the same exact frickin' Steinway grand piano -- even if I had to pay for that experience.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can show others how to do: website development, playing piano, ceramic tiling, playing chess, speaking Japanese, losing weight

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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