| Alex Goldman has been vouched for |
| VERIFIED MEMBER Identity Checked, Location Verified (3) more info |
| Couch available | Yes |
|---|
| CouchSurf requests replied to | 88% |
|---|
| member since | February 16th, 2004 |
|---|
| profile views | 11,877 |
|---|
| age | 29 |
|---|
| birthday | 28 September
Everyone can see this. |
|---|
| gender | Male |
|---|
| membername | ALEXEVASION |
|---|
| occupation | sociologist, teacher, essayist, social network analyst, info junkie |
|---|
| education | two decades in Florida's public schools... for better or worse |
|---|
| grew up in | Ponte Vedra Beach, FL |
|---|
| ethnicity | Jewish, Irish, Swedish, Armenian |
|---|
| Direct Profile URL |
|---|
Languages- EnglishExpert
- SpanishIntermediate
Couch Information
Couch Available: Yes
Preferred Gender: Any
No smoking allowed
Has children: No
Can host children: No
Has pets: No
Can host pets: No
Max Surfers Per Night: 3
Shared Sleeping Surface: No
Shared Room: NoThere is an extra room (cluttered with fitness gear) with two beds (and ample blankets) to be had. For your convenience and ours, a small bathroom has been attached. I also built a deck out back, if you prefer to rough it four feet above ground. Or you can sleep with the mud and mulberry muck in the yard... your call. I live in Durham, just north of Duke's East Campus. I think it's a damn nice house in a marginally nice neighborhood. I live with Jillian, who also comes up pretty high on the local search results (we're not married and maintain separate accounts for banking and CS). We have a cat and while he doesn't smoke, his ne'er-do-well stray friends might... feel free to go outside and join them. We live walking distance from Broad Street, 9th Street, the North Point Mall, downtown (somewhat), and most public transit. I am as yet unfamiliar with the options for the latter as I am with most local sights, so the internets should be consulted, pre-arrival if possible. Our couch is super nice, but you might be more comfortable in our fitness room (if you don't mind being surrounded by weights and mirrors) where we can deploy both regular and inflatable mattresses. Any day is fine, three days is too many unless I make it clear that you (ya'll) are extraordinary surf[er](s)(ettes). We go to bed around midnight on weekdays and as late as 2AM on weekends. Jill gets up real early for work and I currently work from home until such time as I find/create a real job... don't make fun. Friends (115)
 Jillian Perry
29, Female
Durham, North Carolina
United States
Friends since August 2000
"I live with Alex "
Friendship Type: Best Friend
I vouched for Alex Goldman
 |
 Brian Cline
33, Male
San Francisco, California
United States
Friends since 2000
"roomate"
|
 Jim
34, Male
San Francisco, California
United States
Friends since June 2006
"Alex spread his high moral fiber all around the CSC in Montreal. I love this guy."
Friendship Type: Good Friend
I vouched for Alex Goldman
 30+ |
 Brian Perry
25, Male
Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung
Taiwan
Friends since June 2000
"My sister's boyfriend"
Friendship Type: Close Friend
I vouched for Alex Goldman
 10  10 10 |
 Julienne Lottering
27, Female
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
Friends since June 2006
"Alex showed me that living in a box is passe, but a triangle, thats something else."
Friendship Type: Close Friend
I vouched for Alex Goldman
30+ |
 Michael Beedham
31, Male
Cheyenne, Wyoming
United States
Friends since September 2002
"College roomates for two years"
Friendship Type: Close Friend
4 14 |
 AENGEL
37, Male
Bangalore, Karnataka
India
Friends since December 2006
"how? an act of fate i guess......"
Friendship Type: Close Friend
I vouched for Alex Goldman
30+ 8 |
 Eva J Sharma
47, Female
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
India
Friends since December 2006
"Met through Sage and Alicia"
Friendship Type: Good Friend
|
 CHICKEN SODA
33, Male
Baltimore, Maryland
United States
Friends since March 2003
"Alex went to school with me and told me about this site."
Friendship Type: Good Friend
I vouched for Alex Goldman
2 |
 Travis Johnson
28, Male
Orlando, Florida
United States
Friends since September 2007
"Alex is my roommate. "
Friendship Type: Friend
I vouched for Alex Goldman
| | |
|
Personal DescriptionNARCISSISM, EFFICIENCY, GUILT... concepts that motivate and define me. I'm a mid 20s southerner still trying for a Sociology PhD at the University of Florida. I've taken some long trips, greatly subsidized by CS, to learn more about the world. I lean to the political left, but try to take in other points on the spectrum as to not exclude good reasoning... a radical centrist of sorts, I hope. I try to moderate my consumption of all substances, resources, and viewpoints. I'm usually working on half a dozen different projects at once and usually making very slow progress on all of them. I know a little about a whole lot of things, people, places, etc... and I like it that way.How I Participate in CSI attended the CS collective in Montreal during the Summer of 2006. I wrote a comprehensive CS user survey and have been doing some statistical analysis on the data to try to better understand how people use this tool and how it uses them. I have also written a number of formal enhancement proposals to improve CS functionality. I went to Asia partly as a CS emissary this in the winter of 2006 and have recently been working to try to hook up CS with Idealist.org for a volunteer project. I evangelize wherever I roam.CouchSurfing ExperienceIn the summer of 2000, pre-CS, I hitchhiked from Florida to Maine and back with a friend of mine, finding generous people willing to let us occupy couches in just about every urban center along the route (excluding Savannah, GA where we slept on a roof in an abandoned warehouse district). I discovered online accommodation sharing systems while traveling in Europe over the summer of 2003. Now, I use them whenever I want to go someplace new. You can see my journeys mapped out below or via Google if you look.
View Map
InterestsMANY Sports (hiking, rock climbing, surfing, kayaking, mountain biking, racquetball, tennis, golf)
Documentary Movies (I've seen hundreds)
Creative Journalism (NYT, BBC, NPR, Slate, This American Life, RadioLab, The Believer, N+1, etc.)
Manual Labor, Yoga, Meditation, Arguing
PhilosophyThe lives of privileged people like me are luxurious to a fault... the freedom to do almost whatever one wants presents the devilish predicament of virtually unlimited choice. In short, being a creative cosmopolitan may not be as easy as it seems, but I suspect rote work, routine, and bureaucracy wear folks down even faster. I advise people like me (who else could I advise?) to find a series of tough projects and small groups of people who love working on them. Help improve the world where and whenever you can. Follow the golden rule and remember that we're all ultimately on the road to something, but it's probably not worth spend too much time worrying about exactly what right now. That is, unless perhaps you believe (as I still do) that you'll live forever.Music, Movies, BooksI've been exposed so much media over my lifetime - half the time I don't know the names of the actors, songs, and authors... there are simply too many examples to list in an organized fashion, so forgive me for not indulging this topic.
Types of People I enjoyI never met someone I couldn't learn something from. I like being around people I've just met because I feel they make me really engage with the world and project something close to my "true self". I sometimes say controversial and forward things that make certain people feel uncomfortable. I have tons of compassion, but perhaps it is more abstract than most folks'. I especially hate to see unfulfilled potential... especially my own. Basically, I enjoy most people unless they exhibit certain styles of interaction that rubs me the wrong way... and I even learn something from that... mostly how far I can push them before they snap back. Specifically though, I like people who a smart, witty, and worldly. I really like people who help me develop further as a person by encouraging exploration of unfamiliar ideas and behaviors. Still, I can't sit around bullshitting and drinking all day... I'll slink off to read and write after a couple of hours.Teach, Learn, ShareI consider myself to be a liberal artist with social science expertise. That means I dig creative and systematic analysis of human behavior. I would say that my specialties are organizations, consumption, subculture, social networking, environmentalism, and higher education. I can also do some fairly technical web stuff, statistics, and write pretty well, but unless the end result is an essay, they all tend to bore me pretty quickly.One Amazing Thing I've Seen or Donebeautiful places on four continents, incomparable human kindness, needless suffering, squandered opportunities, trials and tribulations of all sorts. Perhaps best of all, when I was thirteen, I saw a man stick a rooster's head in his mouth on a dare - there was a lot of blood... his and the bird's.Opinion on the CouchSurfing.org ProjectI love the opportunities this system affords me, but I wish I could live somewhere cool enough for long enough to repay all the hospitality folks around the world have shown me. I could go on and on about the nature of CS and other projects like it, but you should probably just read my blogs to see if such things pique your interest.Locations Traveled
What do these numbers mean?
This summary is not a replacement for reading references; it's a quick summary to help you get started. At a glance, you can see how many references a member has, and how many of them are positive, neutral, and negative.
In the second line, you'll see how many references came from people who hosted this member, surfed with them, and traveled with them. These numbers won't always add up to the total: some references are not categorized, and some may be categorized as more than one thing.
When viewing this summary, don't jump to conclusions! Things that are negative for one person may be positive for another, and vice versa. It's important to read references carefully and evaluate what that information means to you. References (109)104Positive 5Neutral 0Negative
44From Hosts 20From Surfers 18Traveling
 From Stephen Sadowski Denton, United States
Jun 13, 2011  Positive Alex is an amazing individual, bright, curious, and quite funny. Just from reading his profile, I was sure that I would enjoy conversing with him, but as great as his profile is, it doesn't begin to encompass his personality. Alex, thank you so much for picking me up at the airport, even after my flight was delayed, and thanks for hanging with me and for the boxing lessons. You are a fantastically cool guy and will be a wonderful father! I hope our paths cross again soon.
 From Darshan Desai Bethesda, United States
May 16, 2011 Positive Alex represents what Couchsurfing is all about - he has traveled extensively and has great stories to share. We met very briefly when he visited here, but it was great talking with him. I look forward to meeting and talking with him, whenever that may be!
 From CITOYEN DU MONDE Des Plaines, United States
Mar 17, 2011 Positive We met through our CS host, Steven, and what followed was a challenging rock-climbing session followed by equally intense rounds of quarry basketball. When he's not displaying his climbing prowess or his dominant low post presence in the water, Alex is a fascinating person to talk to about any topic that comes to mind. He is very knowledgeable and is definitely not shy about expressing his opinions. One of these days I will put that symphony of climbing moves together and conquer that rock face! Alex is definitely someone you need to hang out with if you're ever in the Triangle!
 From Laura Meyer Westport, United States
Oct 30, 2010 Positive Pumpkin carving, the birth of bunnies, and a solid eight hours sleep. What more could a girl ask for?! Very grateful for my stay :)
 From OMARSIMPSON Richmond, United States
Oct 14, 2010  Positive I don't want to put a lot of cool and super bla bla about this guy! Simply I had one of the best experiences staying at his place and chatting about everything! He is a generous dude too, check my profile for some pics we had at his place! ohh sorry, MY ROOM :) while i stayed at his place ! if you surf at his place then you've hit the Jackpot of CS !
 From Alan Lotrakul Sugar Land, United States
Oct 8, 2010 Positive Jillian and Alex were very accommodating hosts and easy-going people. Jillian is a very sweet person. Alex is a fun conversationalist who is knowledgeable on just about everything you want to talk about. Their cat was also very cool to be around and hilarious to just watch. I wish I had more time to hang out with them during my visit to Durham and took part in their very appetizing salmon and asparagus. I look forward to maintaining a relationship with them and welcome them any time they're in my neck of the woods.
 From buddy.smith Atlanta, United States
Aug 18, 2010 Positive I only wish Alex had more time in town. He was a great guest. If I'm ever in Durham, I'll be looking him up again :)
 From Tam Huynh Durham, United States
Jul 10, 2010 Positive Alex: Nice guy, nice neighbor, pretty good handyman. Funny guy that is worth sharing a beer with! Glad he and Jill came to Durham.
 From Jason Yang Charlottesville, United States
Jun 13, 2010 Positive Anyone who's met Alex and Jill knows I don't need to describe how cool they are. They fed me when I arrived, welcomed me into their home and took me around their city to explore a bit. Alex is an incredibly interesting guy - thoughtful, philosophical and curious about so many things. He's a great guy and I'm glad to have met him.
|
35 
Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill: North Carolina's Triangle
US Southern Ambs
Portland
