Hi, and welcome to my web site. I'm Peter Mills, and this site is here to let you get to know a bit about me, as well as to let me share some knowledge, recipes, links, and advice with you.

Family

I talk about my family a lot, but that's because we dominate the community, well in competitions of family size, at least. I have three brothers (James, Richard, and Kevin) and two sisters (Bridget and Anneliese).

My brothers and I are pretty competitive, and when we're not fighting each other (in video games), we make a good team. We play squash together, jam on guitars, and play various video games. Some of our favourite games are Warcraft 3, Perfect Dark, various Mario-Kart like games, and classic Sierra games.

There are many pictures of my family in my photo gallery, and my 8 year old sister Anneliese has a web site here.

Education

I have an Honours Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto. It's called an honours degree, because U of T was honoured to accept more of my money, for an additional year of study. The degree includes a Specialist in Computer Science and a Major in Commerce. It took some extra work to study both programs, and they were both interesting to learn, but strangely they were the only two Arts&Science programs that were financially deregulated and could charge extra money from students.

I went to high school at Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts, a small arts school in Toronto, where I majored in music.

Work

I work as a freelance computer programmer in the Toronto area. Most of my work is creating web sites or small business applications. Contact me if you'd like a current copy of my resume.

Some areas of computer science work that particularly interest me are:

Bioinformatics: that is, computer programming to aid in scientific research. Working on treatments to save lives would be a very inspirational and fulfilling career.
Graphics and game programming: I think this is an interest that most computer programmers share, and why not? Graphics and video games are flashy, sexy, and fun to work on! I have a dream of making a fun, story-based, indy video game, at some point. Here is some concept art from an adult-comedy video game I've been toying with: poster, bar scene. If any artists or other programmers would like to collaborate on this with me, let me know!
During university, my project partner (and cousin) David and I made a snow 3d snowball fighting animation that can be seen here. The models were made in Maya 5.0, but the animation itself was scripted using C++ and OpenGL. David and I may convert the animation into a playable game, if time and motivation permit. The animation won 3rd place in U of T's "Wooden Monkey" animation contest.
Business or home automation: an excellent use of programming is to eliminate boring repetitive work. Next I'll have to invent a machine to eliminate programming work. On the other hand, this machine could eventually launch nuclear weapons and send robots back in time to kill me. Yes, I enjoy Sci-Fi movies.
Mobile application development: that sleek, sexy cell phone in your front pocket can do more than receive calls and vibrate your ...umm... upper thy. Sit down for 10 minutes and imagine how you could use a portable internet-connected hand-held device, possibly with voice-recognition, a touch screen display, and a stylus pen; I think you'll be excited like I am (no, my cell phone is not vibrating). Add other possibilities, like barcode scanning and RFID reading, and you'll likely be buzzing like a bee in a cup of tea.

Hobbies

Squash

I play squash at the Badminton and Racquet Club in Toronto. I'm usually on the court 3-4 nights a week, and I'm always up for a game.

I love watching pro squash, when I can. My favourite players are Canada's own Jonathan Power and England's Peter Nicol.

Here are some online Squash resources that I use:

The Guide-to-Squash: an incredible site with online lessons from professional Liz Irving and video-on-demand viewing of pro squash matches.
Squashclub.org: another site with great e-lessons and training advice.
SquashTalk: news and articles about professional squash around the world.
Prosquash.ca: the official web site of the Pace Credit Union Canadian Classic, a yearly Toronto-based pro-squash tournament.
SquashUnlimited.com: an Ontario based Internet squash retailer that I've purchased from. Check out the racquets and DVDs there.

Health

I find new medical breakthroughs fascinating, and love reading about new research into healthy eating and living. I tend to scour the net and read the viewpoints of many different health practitioners and organizations, but the most informative source on the net for me has been Mercola.com. This is a site run by Chicago doctor Joseph Mercola. The site, which is touted as the The World's Most Popular Natural Health site, is an incredible repository of Dr. Mercola's work and research. He recommends a rather extreme diet that I don't follow, but I have learned a wealth of information from reading through his research. The site contains about 5 years of articles that have been published electronically in Dr. Mercola's newsletters, which he releases approximately every 3 days. The articles in the newsletters are almost always summaries of articles he's read online from various medical journals, with comments and relevant links added by Dr. Mercola. He also writes a daily blog with additional links to interesting medical news stories, which I read regularly.

BBC News's health section is also a great medical news site that I explore frequently.

Cooking

When I don't eat well, I don't feel well. I got into cooking, because I constantly had an upset stomach, and I wanted to find great tasting food that really agreed with me. After years of trying out new recipes from TV, friends, cookbooks, and the Internet, I've found a lot of great food that I cook regularly. My cooking has really turned into a full hobby now, and I look forward to continuing to explore new ingredients and recipes.

I learned a lot of recipes and cooking techniques from watching foodtv. Two of my favourite Food Network shows are Good Eats and Everyday Italian. Good Eats is fascinating, because it describes the chemistry behind different cooking techniques. Everyday Italian is about, as you'd expect, basic Italian cooking, with the occasional gourmet dish. It's similar to Molto Mario, but with more entertaining host.

My favourite foods are Paellas, risottos, pastas, stir fries, roast chicken, grilled salmon, and various salads. Check out my recipes page for some of my recipes!

Music

I sing and play guitar, piano, and bass guitar. I love to write my own tunes, and I have instruments and some recording gear in my little home studio.

I love songs from most genres of music, but a few of my favourite artists/bands at the moment are The Dandy Warhols (their older stuff, mainly), Jack Johnson, and Coldplay. I'm always into hearing new music, especially bands recommended by other musicians.

More info and music samples to come in the near future.