CURRENT MISSION

Home-brew the perfect beer

ABOUT ME

I left my job, sold everything I owned, and moved to Berlin in July of 2012. Why? Well, I will make a poor attempt at brevity. For twelve years I worked in the IT industry as a consultant to law firms in Phoenix, Arizona, USA where I was born and raised. I do not regret my good fortune at having had an interesting, challenging, well-paying job. However my passion for applying technology in the context of helping lawyers make more money was always lackluster, at best. By the way, I am not hating on attorneys in general, my father is a lawyer, which is how I got into the industry, and I have met many upstanding and honorable professionals during the course of my job. So, pursuing a long-held yet vague attraction to the German language, I set out for Berlin. Here I am currently, among other things, learning German, luxuriating in the artistic and cultural Eden that is Berlin, riding my bicycle, playing the piano, and availing myself of the ubiquitous and inexpensive beer. Simultaneously I am considering the direction, towards which I might apply myself, which might yield more permanent social utility to the world than my prior job. I have a BA in History from the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University and minors in Mathematics and Music Theory. I am simultaneously excited and despairing, because I recognize that the sum of beauty in the world and vast field of human experience is orders of magnitude larger than any one man's poor ability to absorb during one entire lifetime. But that will not stop me from trying.

PHILOSOPHY

I would like to leave, to all of our children, the state of the world and of mankind in a better condition than when I arrived, however subtle my contribution might be.

I also believe, as did Ralph Waldo Emerson: "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Hosting on my couch in Neukölln, Berlin.

Interests

My interests include, but are not limited to:

Traveling;
Cycling (mainly road cycling, although mountain biking, my first love, has lately been tugging at my heart with renewed vigor);
Reading well-written history, especially, but by no means only, modern military history;
Playing piano;
Beer!
Snowboarding in the winter;
Wakeboarding in the summer;
Backpacking, camping, hiking, and being outside generally;
Grilling and BBQ;
Music of all types, live and recorded, although I have a definite preference for classical music;
Mathematics;
Delicious food in general, Mexican food in particular;
Talking to intelligent and respectful people;
Learning about everything.

• beauty
• dining
• beer
• bbq
• mexican food
• technology
• reading
• traveling
• music
• classical music
• piano
• cycling
• hiking
• backpacking
• camping
• snowboarding
• wakeboarding
• history
• law
• mathematics

Music, Movies, and Books

Some favorites off the top of my head, as of today...

Movies:

Glory, Paradise Now, The Lives of Others, The Usual Suspects, Happy Gilmore, The Sting, O Brother! Where Art Thou

TV Shows: The West Wing, The Simpsons, Band of Brothers, Mythbusters, The Daily Show with John Stewart

Books: Joseph Heller, Catch-22; Alastair Horne, The Price of Glory; Ernest Hemingway, For Whom The Bell Tolls; Guy Sajer, The Forgotten Soldier; Kati Marton, Enemies of the People; Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory; James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom

Music: I don't even know where to start this list, so I am going to leave it alone.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

-Getting lost in a blizzard on the way back to our camp from the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
-B.B. King live at the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California, USA
-The night sky, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA
-Snowboarding at Whistler/Blackcomb Mountain, British Columbia, Canada
-Ride the Rockies 2012, Colorado, USA

Teach, Learn, Share

Some things I could potentially teach you:

-Strategies to properly and reliably back up your computer BEFORE the hard drive crashes
-How to change/patch a bicycle tube
-Identification of key signatures in printed music
-(Guys only) How to shave yourself with a straight razor

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Canada, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, United States