My Facebook profile
About Me
My 15 minutes of fame |
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My Facebook profile
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About Me |
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| "Finding a job you love means never working a day in your life." | |||
Idaho roots
Seattle
European vacation
Where I stand
Living tips
Contact me
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My name is Eric Pence, and I am a husband, a father, and a web programmer. I am in the 60s generation—the children of the 1960s now in
their 60s (Ellen Goodman, The Boston Globe¹). I could be
described as a classic, aging, baby-boomer but I have tried to stay current with the new things that have evolved in my lifetime (in my mind
sometimes I am still 20-something), and my career reflects this attitude. Throughout my life I
have been fascinated by new and developing things. This influenced me to major in engineering when I went to college, and my active involvement
in performing music ultimately led to contemporary jazz, the most experimental form of improvisational music. See my Music page for more on this. In the 1980s I became very interested in another "new" thing—computers—and took up
programming. Like most programmers at that time I started out working on a mainframe, but I soon realized that I wanted something more
challenging, and my career ultimately led to web development. See my Programming page for more on
this.
Having a website is the definitive expression of many of my interests, and I enjoy it so much that working as a web programmer makes me feel
like I get paid to have fun! (See my slogan at the top.)
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My iReports
Commuter boat to Boston – this was posted to the topic Show us your commute
My first car, a 1953 Buick Special – this was posted to the topic My first car
Snow in Boston and suburbs – this was posted to the topic Winter weather near you
My YouTube videos
Stanley Clarke - School Days – I made this from a DVD I own
Sunday Night Barbecue – my friend Jim's video of their garage fire, set to appropriate music
The Road To Perdition – my friend Jim's video of their dog Lucy being wrongly impounded when visiting their beach
home in Clinton, CT (great song, Jim!)
My Facebook profile
My public listing – if you login you can see more
Some links . . .
MY_WTC – I posted this family photo to this website
Special songs – I was telling someone about songs that were special to Patti and me back in the 70s and decided to share them on a webpage
Cars I've owned – I thought this was an amusing way to express my car history
 My wife, Patti
Rosenfield, is a Nurse Practitioner, and we live in Hingham, Massachusetts, a coastal community south of Boston, where we have a beautiful, old, Victorian shingle-style house.
We raised our two sons in this house but now they are grown and have left home. Alex lives in New York City and goes to The New School. Ben is a 2011 graduate
in Computer Science from George Washington University in Washington, DC, and now
works for the Department of Defense in computer security in Maryland. I think it is pretty cool that my sons have lived for years in
my two favorite cities, NYC and DC. At home we have two cats, Mandy and Pepper, and a dog, Hayley. See the Gallery page for pictures of all of us, including the animals.
Times have certainly changed since I was a kid. For several years, my mother has been using email from her home in Boise, Idaho, to help stay in touch with her children and grandchildren, who all live thousands of miles from her. Alex also communicated with us from boarding school his freshman year of high school (2000) using another online method. He went to the Dialpad.com website on his PC in his dorm room (this was before Skype), and using a headset he was able to place free (at that time) long-distance phone calls to our home phone number. When Ben was away at camp one summer (French Woods) he used email with us (email at camp?) instead of the telephone or hand written letters. Ben also has a great website of his own. Both boys now have cellphones, which is the only way to stay in touch. Family dynamics have changed a lot in my lifetime, and they are affected by much more than just new technology. Here is an article I saw in The Boston Globe, "Raising a Perfect Child," that presents an interesting view of parenting today. There are links to more parenting articles on the Articles page.
Smartphone
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Project Bread, Walk for Hunger – I've done this 20-mile walk every year since 1999, usually with Margarette, and we've done it a couple of times in just 4 hours
AIDS Walk Boston
Walk to End Alzheimer's|
I usually do the Walk for Hunger with my my regular walking partner Margarette and at our rapid pace we have completed it several
times in just 4 hours (that is walking at 5 MPH for 20 miles!).
Some of my other interests include reading, programming, music cities, maps, tennis, and travel, and I expound on these things on various pages on my website. |
 I grew up in Payette, Idaho (some of you may be interested to know that Idaho's in the
Northwest, not the Midwest, and this map shows you that Idaho and Iowa
are two different states a thousand miles apart!) and I lived there until I finished high school in 1966 (see my PHS reunion page). My great-grandfather, Peter Pence (read about his life), was one of the pioneers of the town (there is more
Payette history here). My cousin Bob assembled a Pence family tree, starting with Peter's son (my grandfather). I have one famous relative, my late uncle Herman Welker (married to my dad's sister, Gladys), who was a U.S. Senator
from Idaho from 1950-1956. I don't agree with his politics (he was a Joseph McCarthy supporter) but I was just a kid then so it didn't cause me
any distress. Payette's claim to fame is that baseball Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew grew up there. Here's an interesting juxtaposition, my childhood home in 1963 and 2005 (the
 recent photo taken by my friend Barbara Wilson). You can also see it in Street View ¹. Following high school I went to the University of Idaho, where I majored in mechanical engineering, partly because my high school guidance counselor and
my SAT scores pointed me in that direction, and partly because I thought that when I got out of college as an engineer I could avoid the draft
(more about that here), which was something that all men of draft age (18-26) had to worry
about at that time. After my first year of college I went to Atlanta, Georgia, with my brother for a summer job selling dictionaries door-to-door,
which I did for about 2 weeks before I decided that where I really wanted to be in the summer of 1967 (the "Summer of Love") was San Francisco. So I went out to the
highway, stuck out my thumb, and hitchhiked cross-country to California. I was only in the Bay Area for part of a summer, not really long enough
to consider it a place of residence, so there is no San Francisco section on this bio page (but I did experience Haight-Ashbury during its
cultural peak). That fall I returned to college at the U of I for another year, after which I came to the conclusion that life would be more fun
without the responsibilities of school. In 1968 I moved to Seattle, Washington.
The classic Big Potato postard I saw as a child.
Some Idaho links . . .
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Seattle
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Beginning in 1968 I lived for 5 years in Seattle, Washington, a great city. You
might call those my "hippie" years, when I had long hair and lived a lifestyle emulating the values of that culture. I went to many
antiwar rallies and marches (see Where I stand), rock concerts and rock festivals (see 60s music). I have many fond memories of my years in Seattle, where I made few commitments and pretty much
focused on the here and now, living a lifestyle of hedonism.
Seattle has gotten a bad label as a rainy city but that is not the way I remember it. Boston, where I live now, has more annual rainfall, and Boston is not thought of as a rainy city. I had a bicycle in Seattle and rode it all over and rain was never a consideration. I think the number of cloudy days in Seattle may have caused this misunderstanding. I played guitar when I was in Seattle, and since my style was fairly experimental my musical tastes evolved into jazz, so when I decided to go back to school to study music, I chose Berklee College of Music, where I switched to upright bass (see more on my Music page). So, in 1973, I came to Boston . . .
Some Seattle links . . .
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The first two weeks of May, 2010, Patti and I and our friend Paula vacationed in Europe. I wrote this description to be put on Facebook, where I
have had many inquiries about the trip, but I found out that FB only allows 420 characters on a posting and this was way bigger than that, so I
am putting it here (with embedded links which I don't know how to do on FB) and adding a link on Facebook to come here.
London On Saturday, May 1, 2010, we flew to London. Our hotel was in South Kensington, London, near Hyde Park. There was a Tube stop a block away so it was easy to get around (the P.A. warns you to "Mind the gap" as you step off the train at each stop). We went to the Tower of London, where Patti slipped on the wet steps and hit her head breaking her glasses. She only needed a bandaid ("plaster" in London), and fortunately she had a spare pair of glasses! We took hop-on&off double-decker bus tours around London and saw many neighborhoods. We took a boat ride on the Thames from Tower of London that ended at the London Eye, an extremely large passenger-carrying observation wheel across the river from Parliament & Big Ben. We saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, toured Kensington Palace where Princess Di had lived, and had High Tea at The Orangery in Kensington Gardens. And of course, we shopped at Harrods, the biggest department store I have ever seen! Paris On Wednesday we took the Eurostar high-speed train to Paris via the Chunnel (tunnel under the English Channel). In Paris we stayed in an apartment on Rue Saint-Antoine between Hotel de Ville (City Hall) and Bastille, which on current maps respresents the Métro stop and the former location of the prison (that we learned after a fruitless search was destroyed during the French Revolution). In Paris we visited Notre Dame (Patti and Paula climbed the 387 steps to the top), strolled on Champs-Elysées (where the most accessible bathroom was in McDonalds) and climbed the Arc de Triomphe (great views in all directions). We also went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, visited the Louvre where we saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, and took the train to Versailles to see Napoleon and Josephine's palace and gardens. We used the Métro a lot to get around Paris, took a boat tour on the Seine, and several double-decker bus tours (on one we passed by The Thinker sculpture by Rodin). In Paris we ate some of the best crepes and omelettes we have ever had. Our son Ben, who goes to school in Amsterdam, joined us in Paris and did many of these things with us. Amsterdam On Monday we took the train to Amsterdam where we stayed in a hotel on the Amstel River near the Magere Brug ("Skinny Bridge") that had no elevator so we had to climb 4 flights of stairs to get to our room. We walked a lot in Amsterdam and took many trams. I love the city with all its canals and bicycles and bike paths (Amsterdam has more bicycles than cars—the Central Station has a bicycle parking garage). We visited the Anne Frank House, the Rembrandt House Museum, and the Van Gogh Museum. We took boats on the canals and had pancakes (a Dutch delight that also comes in varieties with meat, vegetables, and cheese) at Sara's Pancakes, which we later learned in a review is the best in Amsterdam. We flew back to Boston (via London's Heathrow) on Thursday, May 13. We kept our eye on the news of the Iceland volcano and were relieved it didn't interfere with our flights (both airports closed after our return).
Here are Patti's photos. |
Where I stand
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I was raised in a household similar to the one I raised my kids in, where my parents taught me values that I retain to this day (I will always remember
the impression that was made on me when my dad took us to see Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's story of bravery and
justice in small-town America) and I have hopefully passed these on to my sons—values like integrity and charity, and a
desire to participate in a kinder and gentler world, and help create a more humane and just society.
I took this Political Compass
test (a brief explanation) and the results
show me as "Libertarian-Left", meaning I believe in social freedom and some economic regulation. Not
surprisingly, I am at the exact opposite setting on the compass to George W. Bush.
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| Obama |
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Obama Accomplishments – here is a list I made after he had served 2 years
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This cartoon appeared in The Boston Globe after the GOP retook control of the House of Representatives in the 2010 mid-term elections. In
some convoluted logic the voters think the Dems failed because in 2 years they couldn't fix the problems the Republicans took 8 years to
create.
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| Adjust, don't conform |
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"Humaneness is one of the hallmarks of being a liberal." — Walter Cronkite |
My social and political views are very liberal, which is the essence of logical thinking and humanitarian concerns. During my formative years
in the 1960s I was mostly surrounded by people with the same values, but as I got older and moved away from the college setting I came to
realize that I had been living in a somewhat sheltered environment, and in order to co-exist with some of the others I met whose views were
very different from mine I would have to keep some of my opinions to myself (though I would not have to change my values). I thought this
philosophy was stated very well in the slogan at the progressive New England boarding school my wife Patti attended, the Windsor Mountain School in Lenox, Massachusetts:
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| Pacifism & resistance |
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"My pacifism is not based on any intellectual theory but on a deep antipathy to every form of cruelty and hatred." — Albert Einstein |
I have always been a pacifist but my commitment to my beliefs was really put to the test in 1969 during the Vietnam War when I became a draft
resister. Like millions of other Americans I opposed the war for political and moral reasons and participated in many antiwar marches and
rallies. After a couple of years of college I took some time off which resulted in the loss of my student deferment, and when I received my
draft notice I responded in the spirit of what we used to chant—"Hell no, we won't go!"—I
refused induction into the army. Taking this stand put my personal freedom in jeopardy
for a period of time, but finally, after an anxious year involving lawyers and an FBI investigation, I was able to put that episode behind me
and move on with my life. I was far from alone in my war resistance—the Justice Department identified 570,000 men who
"violated" the draft laws.
My draft resistance – a serious and stressful episode in my life We Ain’t Marching Anymore – draft and military resistance to the Vietnam War An interview with a Vietnam draft resister 35 years later – this could be me Carter's pardon – a discussion on President Carter's pardoning of Vietnam War draft dodgers.:: draftresistance.org ::.A "fan" letter – from someone who does not agree with my views
When I was in high school in the mid-60s I subscribed to the Berkeley
Barb, an underground newspaper loosely associated with students at UC Berkeley. Something I learned in one issue was the history of
the Peace Symbol
This is somewhat esoteric knowledge and I presume if people have any association for the symbol they just know it stands for peace. Now I see it on clothing and other items as a "fashion" icon and realize that many very young people might not even know its meaning. Oh well, it will always symbolize an anti-war theme for me. |
| War is immoral |
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"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." — Dwight D. Eisenhower |
War is a hostile and barbaric action that is the result of a total failure of diplomacy (or as Isaac Asimov put it,
"Violence is the diplomacy of the incompetent."). I
strongly oppose war and I do not support our leaders who get us into wars when they cannot work out problems with
other nations using non-violent methods. I do support the men and women in the armed forces because they are honorably
putting their lives at risk for the security of our country, and they are not responsible for the failure of our
leaders' diplomatic efforts. We have a military to protect our freedoms if our country is ever threatened or attacked
by another nation (which is why we call it the Department of "Defense"), but when our troops are sent to
preemptively attack the citizens of another nation on their own soil as we did in Iraq, we are invading them,
and I say, "Bring our troops home!"
War Resisters League – "There is no way to peace – peace is the way." Nonviolence.Org – "War is just a racket." – Major General Smedley Butler, USMCLetter To Bush – I received this chain letter after 9/11 |
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Yay! Bush is Gone! |
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A monument has been erected in Iraq to honor the journalist who threw his shoes at Bush. This was created after I removed this section and I thought it deserved its place of honor here. |
| Liberties & rights |
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"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, that you can't even passively take part; and you've got to indicate to the people who run it that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" — Mario Savio |
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our personal freedoms. Unfortunately, we do need laws to protect these freedoms because not everybody is respectful
of the rights of others, but if you want to engage in a non-harmful activity there should be no law restricting you.
Free Speech Movement ArchivesThe Berkeley Free Speech Movement |
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Rants
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"People who think they know everything are annoying to those of us who do." — Isaac Asimov |
| So far I've said where I stand on some of the important issues of the day. Here are some things that may be less important, but they are still annoying. |
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| Disclaimer | |
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If I sound very opinionated it may be because I grew up in the 60s, the era of the Free Speech Movement, when it was considered pretty normal to express yourself openly. See my Articles page for more in support of my views, or on the lighter side, see Political satire. |
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1 Some articles have links that expire too quickly so I save them offline.
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Over the years I have stumbled upon a few tricks for doing things that I would like to pass on to my sons, now that they are grown and living
independently. I could have told them these things or jotted them down on paper, but that has 2 shortcomings—One, I would have to remember
the tips all at one time, and Two, they could forget what I say or misplace the paper on which they were written. Putting them on my website seemed to be a
good solution because I can add to the list as I recall things, and also it has a more permanent quality.
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Tips.Net: Household Tips, Handy Hints, and Thrifty IdeasHousehold HintsRobbie's Handy Household Tips and TricksBob Allison's Ask Your Neighbor: Helpful Household Hints
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To guard against spambots that search webpages for email addresses I am not spelling out any complete email addresses contiguously anywhere on my website.
My email address is eric(at)penceland.com—replace (at) with @ Patti's email address is patti(at)penceland.com—replace (at) with @ |
My newest digital toy is a Droid smartphone I got from my son Alex. I have had a flip-phone for years but finally upgraded to the
current phone technology. Both my sons have had smartphones for awhile and know all about them but I am now in the steep learning
curve. Now I can do email on my phone but typing on a touch screen is a little tricky. It is great to have Google, GPS, and the
weather forecast so readily available, and see my 
One of my main passions is 
click to enlarge
, a superimposing of the semaphoric signals
(
Human Rights Campaign
National Do Not Call Registry
