Who is ThePete?
The Nutshell
I'm a storyteller, first and foremost and I choose a variety of media to tell those stories. One day I hope to tell a story completely in Japanese. To be specific, I'm a Writer, Blogger, Vlogger, Puppeteer, Cartoonist, Hacker, Custom Toy Designer, Cultural Revolutionary, political/current-events critic, independent voter, reformed scifi/fanboy (still partake, but am critical), part-time documentarian (always have a camera), gadget freak, Japan-o-phile (こんにちは みなさん！), science-loving atheist, and husband (not necessarily in that order).
Find Him
- http://www.zazzle.com/thepetecom ←-buy stuff from here and I will thank you!
- thepete.com AT gmail DOT com
- thepetecom on AIM and gtalk
Seriously, Who is ThePete?
Well, ThePete is an alter-ego of sorts. The guy who writes all this stuff (including these words here) is named Pete, but ThePete says more here than the real Pete probably would in person (hey, it's the Internet). Pete IRL (In Real Life) tends to be a bit more polite than ThePete, online, is. That said, ThePete is what the IRL Pete wishes he could be all the time and in a way, the IRL Pete is the same as ThePete, just not so overtly. 
OK, enough 3rd person narrative. I am an extreme person who believes in moderation…and puppets. I'm an Atheist liberal Constitutionalist with a dash of (real) conservativism, though I don't like labels as they tend to be limiting. I use them just to give you a starting point. For instance, I don't believe in God or gods. I believe that if something/someone did create the universe, we probably can't even conceive of him and if we can, he is NOT the god of the Bible, Koran, or Torah (or any other religious text). There is precisely ZERO evidence for “Him” existing, so, I say fuck that. You might as well believe Superman or Spider-Man are real people. Like Jesus, Moses and other fictional characters, there are morals to learn from them. Just because the Biblical Jesus didn't walk the Earth doesn't mean the fictional one didn't say some pretty cool things.
ThePete's Politics: The Nutshell
I am liberal in my opinion of justice and the law. I believe that you are innocent until proven guilty in civil AND criminal court, unlike the US legal system which believes it only in the latter (I learned that the hard way). I think the current governmental system is grossly corrupt and very likely causing greater harm than good. This is where I'm a Constitutionalist. I think the old USC is being largely ignored and the original principles behind it, even more so. However, the USC isn't sacrosanct, either. Nothing created by a human or humans is. We are evolving, our culture is evolving and the minute you put all of your trust and faith in a document 200 years old (or 2000) you are making a mistake. Still, the USC is a powerful shield against oppression and it's a shame that so many of our “leaders” (even in the Obama administration) want to ignore it (Assassination of American citizens, Mr. Obama? Warrantless wiretapping, STILL?) All that said, Obama's better than Bush, but so would a turtle be.
ThePete's Non-Political Passions
TheWriter
I'm not all politics and current events. I'm a writer by trade. :) (Sorry, that's not very photographically interesting, though you can watch me finish my 6th novel.) If anyone knows a publisher or lit agent (I write scifi, speculative fiction, novels, short stories and screenplays), send 'em my way, will ya? I need one of each :) Check out the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2009 if you're interested in reading a not-too-painful first draft. You can read my poorly drawn comics, too. I'm also a bit of an actor when I need to be (aka when I can't get anyone to read my words aloud). You can watch me in my old video podcast The 5 Minute Show or check out my puppet vlog.
TheFanBoy
When I'm not creating content, I'm consuming it. I love good movies, good TV, basically, anything with a good story. I shy away from things that are too popular–I believe that once everyone loves you, you're not pushing the envelope enough. I used to be a HUGE fanboy/scifi geek and I do have that spirit alive inside of me still. However, all of my favorite franchises seem to have been peed down their copyright-holders' legs (save Battlestar Galactica even Battlestar Galactica got stupid at the end but I took care of that) though I still put up with shows like Torchwood and Doctor Who because they'll often have a handful of good writers who get to write at least some of the shows. Ironically, after BSG, I think my favorite scifi on TV right now is Sarah Jane Adventures.
TheGadgetGuy/TheLifeStreamer
Another passion of mine are gadgets. Introduced to James Bond by my electrical engineering father at a very young age, I am fascinated by anything electronic (almost). I own four laptops (2 Macs (both nearly dead, an eee pc and an XO), an iPhone (jailbroken, but still not as good as its hardware), I own four iPods of various generations and capacities and a Kindle 2. I use most of my gadgets to help me document my life. For some odd reason I find a good deal of my life fascinating, so I (micro)blog about it a lot. You can find me posting about my adventures various places on the 'net–http://ThePete.Com for starters, see http://life.thepete.com for my microblogging and check out TheSocNets for the various places elsewhere you can find me.
TheJapan-o-phile
Another thing you may find interesting about me is that I have a massive Japan-o-phile streak in me. It's the one obsession that I can't really explain. The scifi, the writing, the gadgets, it all makes sense in some way or another. Why am I fascinated by all things Japanese? I have no idea. I've been studying the language on my own for about ten years. I've been a fan of Godzilla and Gamera films for most of my life and also really enjoy non-giant-monster movies from Japan too. My favorite Japanese filmmaker has to be Takashi Miike, director of such bizarrely different movies as Happiness of the Katakuris, Yokai Wars, and Audition. I love Japanese food, watch anime (Japanese animation) almost every day of my life and plan to move to Japan for at least a couple years, just to say I've done it.
Misc. ThePete
Then there are my comics and my puppetry–read about JayThePal.
I'm a Gemini.
I have blond hair (currently).
I'm a casual gamer (I gravitate toward weird video games rather than popular ones–my favorite currently are the Lego games and the Katamary Damacy games).
I secretly fantasize about ditching my online presence entirely and focus solely on my writing, but I'm afraid I'm much too addicted to the instant gratification of the Web.
