CURRENT MISSION

Be here now

ABOUT ME

I was born in the Chinese year of the monkey and I live up to the stereotype - trying to figure stuff out for myself, poking and prodding at my ideas to see if they shift.

"I'm a sensitive soul... though I seem thick-skinned"

I'm really interested in environmental/ethical issues. Reading and writing is a big part of my life. Right now, I'm trying to combine the two. I really love music too.

Most of all, I try to keep an open mind and heart.

PHILOSOPHY

Have some tea.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My parents belong to an organization called SERVAS which is like a pre-internet-slightly-less-chaotic Couch Surfing. When I was growing up people from all over the world came to stay, usually for two nights. Great memories involve the Aussies in love, traveling with a rubber chicken, The israelies Alon and Imbaal who stayed for two weeks, taught me to write in Hebrew and fed me hot chilli, and the Danish guy Tomas who served us a Marzipan Pig for Christmas.

Interests

Psychology, Ecology, economics, the intersection of the three. Music (blues, reggae, hip-hop, modern soul) Philosophy (Socrates, Hume, Wittgenstein are old faves you might have heard of.

Stories and story structure, creative writing, Guitar and harmonica playing,

Things I like learning about: Biology, local and natural history, religious traditions, *stories*... I love learning

• animals
• writing
• reading
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• blues
• surfing
• biology
• ecology
• economics
• history
• psychology

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies - a wide taste - everything from Almovodar's "Volver" to the most recent Bond film. From "The Maltese Falcon" to the Monty Python films. I rarely enjoy action or horror films.

Music, again a wide taste. Mos Def is a big influence and inspiration on my own rap-poetry. I like the blues of John Lee Hooker. Bob Dylan is a genius. From New Zealand, Fat Freddy's Drop are successful for good reason, and reggae bands like Katchafire and the Black Seeds and hip-hoppers the Feelstyle and Four Corners are impressive. I have to work hard to get into punk or metal.

Books: Usually the last non-fiction book I have read. In this case it would be Malcom Gladwell's "The Tipping Point." Guy Claxton's "Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind" changed my life.

Buddhist writers: Robert Aitken, John Tarrant, Thich Nat Hanh.

As far as novels go, I'm a fan of Jane Austen and Ursula K LeGuin, Yann Martel's "the Life of Pi" and Maurice Gee's "Live Bodies". Graphic novels ('comics') like Ozamu Tezuka's "Buddha" series, the "Fables" series, Maus, and the pioneering "Contract with God" I like.

And my teenage obsessions: I watched "The Fisher King", listened to Smashing Pumpkins and read Tolkien. All three I treated with a religious reverence, and all still mean something to me.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

An elephant charging me from ten metres away.

Teach, Learn, Share

Psychology researchers got one group of people to nod their heads while listening to a recorded opinon piece. The other group were just asked to listen to the piece. Afterwards, the nodders recorded a much higher agreement with the opinion in the piece than the non-nodders did.

If this can be generalised, what does it say about us being 'the rational animal'?

Experiment quoted in Malcom Gladwell's "The Tipping Point"

Countries I’ve Visited

United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

New Zealand

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