About Pete

I'm a middle-aged, overweight, bald, white guy with high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Fortunately for me, medication controls both blood pressure and cholesterol quite well. I really need to lose some weight, though. More exercise wouldn't hurt me any, either. I don't bother trying to control being bald; in fact, I sort of encourage it by cutting my hair (what there is of it) to about 1/4 inch long. Any other approach would just be silly and expensive.

I'm married and have been since 1984. I don't have any plans to change that, unless my wife throws me out. I don't think she's going to throw me out - at least not right away. :-) For me, being married has been the best part of my life, and I'm still amazed that my wife loves me and puts up with me. It says a lot more about her than it does me. I love her more than I can put into words. An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. That's from Proverbs 31, verses 10 and 11, New American Standard version of the Bible. I've been blessed with an excellent wife (and she's a beauty!).

I'm a dad. My wife and I have one son. Being a dad is both wonderful and frustrating, great joy and great sorrow. Our son is healthy, pretty bright apparently, and seems fairly talented in lots of different areas. He's a very good speller and reader. He seems to have some musical ability, according to his piano teacher and his music teacher in school. He loves sports of all kinds. It doesn't seem to bother him that much that some kids are better than him at sports; he goes out and plays anyway and has fun. He gets good grades (almost all "A's" and a few "Bs"). He's pretty shy around adults, especially, and is quiet in most social settings, but not at home!. I'm proud of him almost all the time, because I think he's a good kid, and I love him without reserve. But, he's a doggone American kid! He'd rather watch TV than read a book. He tries to slide by in school without working too hard. Same with his piano lessons. That drives me a little crazy. As his dad, I see potential and opportunity, and I think (and say), "Make the most of it! Work hard! Learn! Seize the day!" But he's a kid, and he thinks (and says), "Do I have to do my home work now? SpongeBob SquarePants is on! " There are times I'd like to take a sledge hammer to the TV, but then again, I sort of like SpongeBob. ;-)

I'm a software architect/engineer, designer and developer by education and employment. I have Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Master of Science in Computer Science degrees. I've been a professional software geek for many, many years (and an amateur for quite a while before that). I wrote my first programs on punch cards and paper tape. I know a bunch of different technologies, from Ada to XML, with stops along the way for GW-Basic, FORTRAN and Lisp, Pascal, Perl, Prolog and Python, C, C++ and C#. I've done most of your "Visual" variants: Visual Basic, Visual C and Visual C++, Visual J++ and Visual Studio.NET. I've stopped for a sip or two of Java and gulped down whole pots of JavaScript. I know that "SQL" is pronounced "sequel" and even know what it stands for. I can put a database into third normal form, and know the reasons for not doing so. For you academic types out there, we can talk about "big O" notation and the relative performance of different data structures and algorithms, whether a problem is NP-complete or NP-hard, and the merits of different sorting algorithms. Q: When is QuickSort not? A: When the data is almost completely ordered already. I've spent quite a bit of time with markup languages, SGML (the old man of the bunch), HTML (pretty but dumb) and XML (the upcoming hotshot, already making a big splash in the world). I mostly enjoy my work, and it pays well enough. I appreciate the fact that enjoying one's work is pretty rare and that being paid well to do what you enjoy is rarer still.

Currently, I'm employed as a software engineer, developing web applications for a large aerospace company.

Finally, but most important to me, I am a Christian. I don't think I'm an "in your face" Christian - my faith is my own, and I'd be happy to tell you about it, if you'd like to hear, but I'm not in any way going to pressure anyone. If you are interested, here are some passages from the Bible that lay out some of what I believe:

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. - Romans 3:22-24

Even to your old age I will be the same, And even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you. - Isaiah 46:4

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. - Jesus speaking to the Pharisee, Nicodemus, as recorded in John 3:14-17

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. - Ephesians 2:8,9

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. - Jesus speaking at the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in Matthew 7:7,8

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. - Hebrews 12:1,2

What do these verses say?

1) We've all blown it. Against God's standard - absolute holiness and purity - even the most saintly of humans is an abject, dissolute failure. Note that the standard against which we should be judged is not other people. The standard is God Himself - absolute, unblemished holiness, purity and perfection. No one measures up.

2) God loves us! More specifically, God loves me and you, each one of us individually. Even to our graying years, God will be the same. He will bear us and deliver us.

3) God acted on His love. Based only on our own merit, no matter how good we have tried to be, we would all be doomed - most especially me. But God sent His Son, so that just by believing in Him, just by faith, I can have eternal life. It is God's gift to us - to me - through Jesus. God isn't a mean, old man, waiting for us to make a mistake so that He can zap us with a bolt of lightning. Rather, when He knew that through my own efforts, I couldn't possibly attain complete holiness and perfection, He offered His own Son to perish in my place.

Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! - Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in Matthew 7:9-11

4) We have a choice to make! We have not attained holiness by our own efforts. We cannot boast - the standard is God's holiness and not one of us - most especially myself - has ever reached it. Most of us have even quit trying. But, through faith in Jesus (and not through any effort, good deeds, or rituals of my own) I am saved. This gift of God's requires a choice on my part. I must choose to believe and then to act on that belief, just as God acted on His love.

Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall. - Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in Matthew 7:24-27

Faith is not passive; it is active. It is not enough to say, "Yes, I believe." It requires me to do. We must be willing to profess our faith to others. We must act on our faith: "let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus."

I will not argue with anyone about my faith. As I said, it is my own. I acknowledge that reasonable, intelligent people disagree on matters of faith. In my experience, reasonable, intelligent people disagree on just about every subject imaginable, so rather than try to justify what to some is unjustifiable, or to explain what to some is inexplicable, let me just invite you to be open to God's calling.

If what I have written here has interested you in looking further into becoming a Christian, I encourage you to seek out other Christians. Talk to a Christian friend, or to a Christian pastor, minister or priest. He or she will be happy to guide you in beginning and continuing your Christian life. Being a Christian is not always easy; it will often require difficult, unpopular choices. Being part of a Christian community (a church or fellowship) is essential to being a Christian, as the people there will support you in your faith. But remember, they are human as well! They also have not measured up to God's standard. So if you are hurt or offended in some way, forgive and try again, just as God has forgiven you. If you persist, you will find other Christians that will love and support you, and your life as a Christian will be joyful and fulfilling - and challenging! I hope to meet you one day in Heaven!

If you happen to live to the south of Seattle, here's the church my family and I attend regularly.