what it is
I created fat paw design as a personal, whimsical makers mark. I use it to anchor and tag my creative work and play on the World Wide Web, as well as other places. It is my signpost, my banner. It is my presence on the web. fat paw design lets you know Peter Hyde-Smith is (was) here. It is a means of expressing myself, and is a means of learning. fat paw design is re-writable, convertible, and transformable. It is a portal looking in and looking out. It's my R&D lab and a means of displaying information, validation, and verification. It is a mechanism of personal examination and reflection. It is my shade tree and home in this medium. What you see is fat paw design.
a bit about me
Hey Ya, I'm Peter Hyde-Smith, a well-worn polyurethane chemist and insatiable tinker. In this case, I am playing a design 'hack' in the truest sense of the word, not just a 'conditional comment'. As in, when I go horseback riding, I go out for a hack, not a hunt.
For me, it is just as much fun to learn how and why things happen, as it is to do them. I've taught myself XHTML and CSS, rough and trim carpentry, wiring, plumbing, hobby farming, auto repair, and that touching a live electric fence is just wrong; as is daring your son to pee on it, and finding out a few years later he actually tried (funny none-the-less).
I spend a lot of time learning about myself, more so since I have learned I am not the same person I was 5 years ago, let alone 10 or 20.
I live in the super-rural mid-western United States with my beautiful wife and two amazing kids. We own a hobby farm, and care for horses, dogs, chickens, and a herd of cats.
why i did it
'cause I couldn't get family pic's posted on our ISP Charter Communications' personal web space...not that you'll find any here...yet...
what's with the name
Picture a lean, mean black-and-white notch-eared fightin' machine of a tom cat named Angus, limping across the lawn on three legs, holding a swollen, bee-stung front paw, pitifully yowling for mom to come and fix it.
