Technical Resume
Thoughts On Technology
Favorite books
Thoughts On Life
Thoughts On Backgammon
The Full Rant
Linnet's Wings
07/02 Penobscot Bay Sailing Trip
Time After Time...

Proud to be an American!

I received my B.S. in Physics from Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois in 1972, and have been living on the East Coast ever since. I love it out here. I was fortunate to have lived on the water off Pomeroy Cove on the Piscataqua River in Dover, NH for many years. Though New England Nor'easters are an awesome event, it seems that the worse the weather gets the better I like it.

That whole New England seafaring mystique bit me long, long ago. I remember my first brush with that feeling in the movie Moby Dick as Ishmael struggled up the cobble stone path against a hard wind driven rain. Great stuff! The stuff to make a young kid yearn for far away places.

Though not living directly on the water now, I can still fill my nostrils with the salt air and hear the lonely cry of sea gulls. I really enjoy New England; it's in my blood.

My interests span a diverse and exciting range: I have been in the martial arts since 1968, and continue instructing through the Rose School of Karate, and as a 9th Degree Black Belt Senior Grandmaster of C&S Self Defense Association. I enjoy the creative process of writing both fiction and nonfiction (catalog of works at pmRose - An Author's Website), the challenge of writing complex web based business computer programs, reading many different genres, software applications design and development through my Riverside Software Development, writing (educational, novels, currency trading, martial arts), concepts of business and business process, real estate investment Christian Shores Investment Company, sailing, backgammon, cooking, history, Eastern philosophy and some Western, psychology, meditation, and science, and since 2012 trading foreign currencies through my company, Longwood Currency Trading. For a summary view of my entire career, check out my resume of life.

Other than sailing and martial arts, I have never really been an outdoors or sports type of person, and camping to me is the Holiday Inn. And a little arthritis seals that all up anyway, so, no, unfortunately I'm not going to be hiking Mt. Katahdin anytime soon, though Sue and I did drive up and walk around one of the base camps on a trip we took in 2015.

To relax, I enjoy movies, intelligent tv series, candle lit dining, good wine, and some relaxing travel. As you can see, this does not indicate a huge amount of outdoor activities, dancing, jumping out of airplanes, or working out on the elliptical trainer at Planet Fitness. I'm an academic, and happy to have many passions in my life that fulfill me.

What I do, do, however, is: cry listening to Eva Cassidy's 'Over The Rainbow', rock to Evanescence, and sway to Phil Collins' 'No Jacket Required'. Beethoven's Symphony Number 5 stirs me, and Bach's 'Brandenburg Concertos' are almost more than I can take. Steve Tyrell's soulful renditions of the standards and the haunting piano of Philip Glass's 'The Hours' take me to another place. And cooking to Vivaldi's 'The Four Seasons'? Please...

I 'get' Jackson Pollock, sort of. Norman Rockwell makes me squint to find the place where reality and art separate. And Monet? He makes me crazy with his artistry. Poe, and Melville, and Mitchner take me to places and states of mind that I cannot describe. And Barefoot Cabernet? Where do you find wine like that for under $25 a bottle? You don't. Honestly, I've had a $275 bottle of 1975 Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir that slayed me, but how do you follow that up the following weekend? Sorry, but that's above my pay grade.

Though I was in what is a fairly intense and stress filled job in an industry known for measuring time in "internet time" of 3 for every 1 unit of "normal" time, I tried to keep a perspective on things and not let life carry me away. I used to work for a living, but I never lived to work. I work hard, but I also play hard- and more importantly: I make the time to play; to make sure that my life is always fresh.

The picture at the right here is of my brother Alan visiting 08/03/02. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family. It makes all the hard work that I do meaningful and gives me a sense of purpose. And having Colin and Marissa made me realize this in a big way. Without them, I might have ended up just grinding aimlessly through the motions of living without really realizing what a wonderful world outside of my own little brian there was.

And because of that, I can detach from the problems of life and enjoy my life fully through the variety of interests I've mentioned.

Here's a picture of us on vacation to Universal Studios in Feburary of 2003. What a great experience these trips have been to share with Colin and Marissa. And after a long day of hiking around to all the sites, I park myself in a fold out lounge chair by the pool and read while the kids swim with the biggest decision I have to make is where we will go to eat that night. Life is grand!

---

But times change, and sometimes so do the players in the game. In June 2004 I settled into a beautiful 3 bedroom condo in Dover, NH, and continued to enjoy my work as a web business applications software developer, with Colin and Marissa continuing to be the joy of my life, I just try not to take things too seriously.

After having my hip replaced in 2010, Sue and I've been charging around having a wonderful time, living our lives to the fullest, and, as Michel de Montaigne put it: "The value of life is not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a man may live long yet very little."

I retired from software engineering in 2015, and 2017 we bought, renovated, and moved into a beautiful 1775 antique cape in New Durham, NH. I continue to teach martial arts, as well as trading the FOREX foreign currency markets through my proprietary trading firm Longwood Currency Trading.

And so that's all about me. I enjoy writing - can you tell - and so I chronicle activities in my life on my family home page. I do this more for myself than for a reader's entertainment. I've got nothing to sell and no one I care to try to impress. It's just nice to be able to go back over stuff as a check to make sure I'm not pissing my life away doing nothing or by having a negative attitude.

If I see I'm not logging interesting events on my home page, then the assumption is that I'm slipping off the path. The writing acts as a confirmation that I am active and doing something to not only make my life better, but - hopefully - positively affecting others who come in contact with me in some small way. I'm fortunate that I can do that, and I have a responsibility to do it.

If I am not happy, healthy, terrific, and calm then I could not influence others in a positive manner. I try to follow the basic Hopi principle of life: "Seek the way to conduct our lives in friendship and peace, without anger, without greed, without wickedness of any kind, among ourselves or in our association with any people."

Anyway, welcome to my life - such as it is. Now, I have to admit to a certain amount of lightheartedness in developing all of the pages on this site, which - by the way - has its root at my family home page. Some form quite practical purposes while others... well, let's just say this is all great fun and leave it at that. I really enjoy what I do, and I take great delight in squeezing everyone elses toes about it.

Thanks for passing through.
peter — zzrose-at-yahoo-dot-com