Who is ThePete?

ThePete is a Writer, Blogger, Vlogger, Cartoonist, Hacker, Custom Toy Designer, Cultural Revolutionary, political/current-events watcher, reformed scifi/fanboy, part-time documentarian, gadget freak, Japan-o-phile, and husband (not necessarily in that order).

• thepetecom AT gmail DOT com
• thepetecom on the four major IMnets
• http://friendfeed.com/thepete
• http://utterz.com/~h-thepete/list.php
• More places to find ThePete online

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 than the real Pete probably would. Pete in RL (Real Life) tends to be a bit more polite than ThePete, online, is. That said, ThePete is what the RL Pete wishes he could be all the time and in a way, the RL Pete is the same as ThePete, just not so overtly.

OK, enough 3rd person narrative. I am an extreme person who believes in moderation. I'm an Atheist liberal Constitutionalist, 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/one 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. 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 great 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.

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.

I'm not all politics and current events. 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) 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.

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 three laptops (2 Macs and an XO), two cellphones (one voice, one data, natch) and I own four iPods of various generations and capacities. No, I don't have an iPhone yet, I'm waiting for a 3g, video shooting, copy-and-pasting, Flash-capable, 2nd Gen iPhone to come out. 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 blog about it a lot. You can find me posting about my adventures various places on the 'net–http://ThePete.Com for starters and check out TheSocNets for the various places elsewhere you can find me.

The final 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 eight 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.

Read ThePete's old (even longer) bio here.