Goodness, somebody who wants to know all about me?
Pete Trbovich was born and raised on the West Coast before migrating north like a good penguin to his true home in the Midwest. I’ve been content writing for the World Wide Web since before Google, as a full-time career. Check my home page for links to my many contracted client sites current and past. I even get my name in a book once and again.
I could just as justifiably claim a career as an eCommerce Industry Consultant, but let’s face it: I mostly just type all day.
So after 20 years of you reading my work on the Internet, it’s about time I introduced myself!
What’s With the Penguin Thing?
This is Tux, the mascot of the Linux computer operating system. I was one of the earliest on the Internet to write about Linux at all, and my original blog on this site was mostly about Free and Open Source software with a Linux focus. “Penguin” was a name I had picked up back in the 1990s during my short stay in the corporate world. This was due to me being the only Unix-capable guru they’d hired. Let’s put it this way: I was at the headquarters of one of the biggest multinational corporate banks you’ve ever heard of on New Year’s Eve, making sure the code stayed debugged during Y2K.
Yes, the dot-com crash was my fault. No, I’m kidding. But those days did get my geeky programming comic strip syndicated in the Linux Gazette, plus a citation or two found in places like Wikipedia pages, Linux Bash manuals, and the occasional college discussion board.
Sadly, technology writing and programming itself has the shelf life of a banana, so I had to branch out beyond being a techie geek. So I flipped my site around the 2010s and now write just about the wide world of eCommerce in general.
Besides, penguins are cool! They’re my power animal, just like in Fight Club:
So, like, what do you _do_?
Well, you know Google, right?
So you type text into Google and Google finds you some links. Now it knew to do that because there is text on the webpages of those links where several words are the same topic that your Google search was about.
Somebody had to write all that stuff. ⇚ That’s what I do.
Mainly. I have also managed some eCommerce business, managed social media accounts, maintained WordPress, made videos, drawn a ton of graphic art, y’know, web content. Once upon a time I even designed software for public release, but don’t even ask me to name five programming languages anymore. I left that brain in ‘Nam!
Writing-wise, I have committed wordery in the following venues in exchange for currency:
- Blogs (duh!)
- Websites
- eBooks
- Rarely printed dead tree books as one of many contributors
- Audio and video scripts
- Scintillating, sizzling spreadsheets
- Software documentation
- Academic material
- Comics, quips, tweets, snarks, think I left some writing spray-painted on a building once
So what does Penguin Pete write about now?
Gah, just Google me. I don’t even remember half of what I find with my name on it. I blog for a living and my main skill is that I write fast. Projects go by in a blur.
My content niches swap around all the time, but currently I report news for the cannabis industry, review strange and horrible movies, geek out about culture and music, and assist the occasional legal client with a blog post about tax law. Mmmmm, tax law!
Uh, there’s books out there about you???
Lies. You’re thinking of a popular UK children’s author who also has a book character named “Penguin Pete.” I’m not that, and I’m also not the name of a snowcone company or a sports mascot.
So you’re a freelancer? Anybody can hire you?
Fat chance. I mean “yes,” but as of this writing I am booked solid. You can find my account on UpWork, and my email on the front page, for contacting me about work inquiries. When I do have an opening on my schedule, it’s filled fast.
So you’re never out of work? You must think you’re hot spit!
Actually, my continued employment depends more on my lack of competition than my innate skill. Have you SEEN how most people write these days? Not to mention research facts?
Hey, you’re pretty funny, Dude!
Yes, it’s about time I credited myself a compliment on my own ‘about me’ page.
So you have a personal life too, right?
Barely. I’m married 28 years and counting, raised four kids. Three grown and moved out, one special needs son who lives with us for the foreseeable future. I’ve been places and done stuff too and whatnot.
So Mrs. Penguin is my buffer to the outside world while I sit in my igloo and type all day.
Is that why you’re all weird and reclusive?
That’s the post-pandemic lifestyle, baby! I was an antisocial, neurotic germophobe even before there was COVID-19! Now I’m a work-at-home native and you’re all getting crowded in with me.
Peace and love be with you always,
“Penguin” Pete Trbovich