![]() * Helping protesters occupy Gezi Park in Istanbul in the summer of 2013, through rain, sunshine and tear gas * Long trips across the Australian Outback, and Mongolia / Russia via the Trans-Siberian Railway Here are some of my highlights over the years: 'You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.' -Mae West ![]() I also get a kick out of Joe Rogan, Malcolm Gladwell, Bret and Eric Weinstein, Sam Harris, Glenn Loury, Coleman Hughes and the rest of the bad boys of the online community. Lately I've been reading a lot of William Dalrymple's history books, and am much wiser for it.įor podcasts, you can't do better than Jocko Podcast, the Rubin Report and the Waking Up Podcast. On the more scholarly side, I go for Pinker, Dawkins, Daniel Kahneman, Matt Ridley and Dan Dennett (science), Pilger, Monbiot, Chomsky, Greg Palast, Robert Fisk, Michael Pollan, Naomi Klein and Christina Hoff Sommers. I read like a madman, and lately I've gotten my kicks from Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall" books, and just about anything by Orwell, Wodehouse, Vikram Seth, Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolff, Mario Vargas Llosa, Cormac McCarthy, John le Carre, Ian McEwan, Orhan Pamuk, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Norman Mailer, Aravind Adiga and a whole lot more. ![]() Favorites include the usual classics as well as Ken Loach / Christopher Nolan / Deeyah Khan movies, Magnolia, South Park, Syriana, Memento, Whiplash, Eternal Sunshine. I usually go for indie movies because Hollywood gets it right only about 5% of the time. Anyway, I'm always looking for new music that has the same free + fearless spirit as these groups used to have. I also loved the old Bjork, Tori Amos, P.J. Therefore for music (my first love), I grew up on the Manic Street Preachers, NIN, Public Enemy, Eminem and Marilyn Manson, which is not to discount more groovy & low-key stuff by Massive Attack, Portishead, Air, Morcheeba, Amon Tobin, or classic jazz. I abhor a cliche so anything original, inspired, even incendiary, is likely to keep me interested. Still, creativity, expressiveness, style, originality - these to me are what makes life beautiful, and worth the effort. My love is the arts, which is kind of a shame because my own artistic talent is laughable. Hosted for a while in '06 in Vietnam, and '10-'11 in Turkey. And, in 2005, I saw Europe by bicycle, thanks to a great deal of assistance from members of this site. I wandered across expensive Japan without ever having to pay for a hotel room, thanks to the generosity of the locals and expats there. As somebody once said: Too much of a good thing is absolutely wonderful. I do as much as I can with CS, because the events, the people, and the activities are a distillation of all the nicest parts of traveling. But those who have put wealth and power above life are living in the world of death, in which the living put their tombstones - their framed certificates signifying acceptance to that world - upon their walls." -George Monbiot Why I’m on Couchsurfing ![]() Your peers might at first look down on you: poor Nina, she's twenty-six and she still doesn't own a car. When faced with the choice between engaging with reality or engaging with what Erich Fromm calls the "necrophiliac" world of wealth and power, choose life, whatever the apparent costs may be. The more loyal to an institution you are, the more exploitable, and ultimately expendable, you become. ![]() People who sell their souls for the promise of a secure job and a secure salary are spat out as soon as they become dispensable. " career advice echoes the political advice offered by Benjamin Franklin: whenever you are faced with a choice between liberty and security, choose liberty. Life is a little more interesting when you don't know what is going to happen next year / next week / tomorrow. I left the USA back in 2000 and have been living abroad or traveling nonstop ever since: about 9 years in Asia, 1 year in Oceania and 2+ years moving around Europe, 15 months in Southern Africa, almost a year in Latin America, 2 years in Turkey, a year in Bali, 2+ years in Thailand and more than 18 months living on ships in the sea, and I'm still surprised by every new place I visit. I'll be in Bangkok for most of 2020 - Send a message if you'd like to meet up! Meet good people and see the world, simple as that. ![]()
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