SwimFinsSF

About Me

Fun Facts about Pete:

• Name: Pete
• Parents: Dennis and Judith
• Siblings: Sister (Katie), Step Sister (Marny), Step Brother (Jason)
• Relationship Status: Got one
• Relationship: Boyfriend named Kevin! 🙂
• Sexual Orientation: Figure it out! 🙂
• Location: Live in: San Francisco, CA
• ‘Stats‘: 5’11” / 180# / Brown Hair / Blue Eyes / Clean Shaven (Cuz ya can’t get through a conversation online without ’em)
• Favorite Animal: Frog (dunno why… they just make me smile! ;))
• Favorite Pet: Dog
• Childhood Pet’s name: Cat named ‘Sparkle’ (Stop snickering – I was in kindergarten when I named her)
• Life time pets: 2 Cats (Huckle and Sparkle), 1 Anole Lizard (can’t remember his name), 1 Bull Frog, A Hamster (which died in a cold maryland winter next to the sliding glass door), An aquarium full of stone toads, a fighting fish named Opus, and many lizards that my mom and I caught (how many moms do you know that will catch lizards with ya? ;))..
• Favorite Band: Oingo Boingo
• Primary Musical Instrument: Clarinet (Played since 2nd Grade)
• Other Instruments I can play: Trombone, Saxaphone (all of ’em cuz they’re more or less the same), and Flute.
• Occupation: Software Engineer
• Boxers or Briefs: Boxer-Briefs! 😉
• UnderGrad Degree: Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Favorite Cocktail: Gin and Tonic or a Lemon Drop
• Place I’d like to live some time: Berlin or Cologne
• Favorite Sport (participating): Swimming and Volleyball
• Favorite Sport (watching): College Football and Mens Gymnastics (for different reasons! ;))
• Favorite Author: John Steinbeck
• Favorite Childhood Books: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Flat Stanley
• Religion: Christian Science ( <i>not</i> Scientology – if you’re curious go look up the difference)
• States I’ve lived in: Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, California, Colorado.
• Favorite Toy: Legos
• Languages Spoken: English and German

Why SwimFins?

Some Mug Shots of Pete Over the years:

Warmonger vs. Peacenik

Ok.. Just found this and its too good to not pass on:

A Warmonger Explains War to a Peacenik

Conspiracy Theories

Guess i’m not the only person that noticed Al-Jazeera went MIA… Work of hackers aparently (although i am curious the real source of this hacking)… Anyway … Here is ths story I found on it today..

Last Dance

Stephen’s Memorial was today.. Well actually – they called it a celebration of his life which was EXACTLY what it was… They reserved the bar at this great restaurant in down town San Jose which was aparanetly Stephen and Tyrone’s favorite and had a huge party.. It was GREAT… There were so many people there and everyone had a great time.. We all talked about him… We saw the pictures his family had brought of his life… we cried a little… some came in drag… some wore marti gras beads… some were friends from work.. some were the gay boys from apple… some were friends.. some were family… some were from who knows where…

But at the end it was exactly what it should have been… a celebration of a really wonderful guy who touched more people than i’m sure he knew… So many people love him… Tyrone was a trooper… Stephen’s mother was there and was great.. She was clearly devistated to have lost her baby but I hope it gave her some comfort to know how many people loved the guy…

On the way home matt, kevin, and I had a great talk about what comes after death… god… the usual things you think about when something like this happens… but it was nice to talk about it regardless…

And… to top it off… as we got out of the car after the drive home… Donna Summer’s ‘Last Dance’ came on the stereo…

Made me smile…

He’ll stay with me… With all of us…

Al-Jazeera

I find it more than a little odd that Al-Jazeera’s web site has been down and un-reachable for days now… Granted I think that that site is even more of a propaganda machine for the other side as CNN is for ours so I don’t trust what they would say on there.. But even as much as I find conspiracy theories BS for the most part, I do find it a little odd that it is hard to get an opposing opinion on this conflict these days..

Just musing…

Friend did point me at a couple of other interesting sites… Not recommending any of them mind you… I’m just trying hard to find different points of view… I’m sure CNN and google news aren’t preaching the God’s honest reality nor is Al-Jazeera… But maybe if you combine enough different ones we can start to distil out a little reality.. Cuz i’m sure our president isn’t going to offer it up..

Anyway.. Here is what I’ve been looking at lately:

Google News
SF Gate
Christian Science Monitor
Der Spiegel (german)
Deutsche Welle (english / german)
BBC
Al-Jazeera (arabic)
Cursor’s Al-Jazeera Link
IraqJournal

Muslim WakeUp!
Anti War

Like I said – this doesn’t recommend my personal views… Just some more info to add to my understanding… If anyone has more I’d be interested to see ’em

Film Book Recommendation

Our product designer at work just got me a copy of a book that is turing out to be very cool… Book is Called “Editing Digital Film Integrating Final Cut Pro, Avid, and Media 100” by Jamie Fowler… It talks about all of the various things that go into using Software NLE’s (Non-Linear Editors) for a Film based production and what is involved in the transitions between original film shot, transition to tape / DV / etc. for editing, and then the final process of cutting the original film back together for the final print… All sounds very industry specific (which it is) however he does a good job of describing how it all works in a very interesting way… Anyway.. Just thought I’d pass it on…

So in case you care:

Editing Digital Film: Integrating Final Cut Pro, Avid, and Media 100
by Jaime Fowler, Jamie Fowler