My name is Mario Giannini. I currently live in NYC with my wife and 2 teenage kids, a Jack Russel, an anole, and 2 goldfish.
I am a techie, gearhead, nerd, or however you want to put it. If it involves writing code, then count me in. I don’t care if it’s HTML and CSS for a website, or PHP and MySQL for a WordPress plugin, or C#, C++, or Pascal for a desktop or device app to interact with that site. I actually do see beauty in coding, in the problem solving, the logic, all of it.
I can be soldering a board for my Raspberry Pi robot one day, then coding an Adobe Plugin with Visual C++ the next. Then later that same day, working on firewall setup for my latest Linux server. It’s all good, and I believe that there is no single important or premiere technology. It’s just a bunch of many pieces that can sometimes come together to create a work of art.
At one time, I spent 15 years as teacher and track chair for the Columbia University Continuing Education program where I taught and oversaw the teaching of software development. I’ve also co-authored 2 books on software development: Windows Programming Programmer’s Notebook and OOP Demystified.
Photography is also a pretty big interest of mine, though I find myself constantly trying to improve. The best place to see some photos is on pbase: http://www.pbase.com/mariog
I like getting outdoors, hiking, back-country camping, and all sorts of physical activity. I currently hold a San Mokuroku black belt in Japanese Sosuishi-ryu jujutsu and Shodan black belt in Isshin Ryu Okinawan karate. I still study these and am starting Okinawan Kobudō at Seibukan Dojo.
And finally, there are motorcycles. I have been riding motorcycles for the past 25+ years, year-round for trips and a daily commute through the streets of NYC. At first, they were just this awesome rush of excitement, speed, and adrenaline. Then over time, I started to realize how just about any ride on a bike would calm me down, and just leave me happy. And as time goes on, and I get older, I am less interested in chasing down the guy who just passed me on some super sport bike, and content to go at my own pace, on my own ride. My previous ride was a 2003 Kawasaki Z1000 that I picked up in 2016 with only about 2,400 miles on it (it now has over 11,000). Pictured below was after riding from NY to Ohio, for work, after a couple hours of rain. Currently, I am on a 2020 Yamaha XSR900, which is a major update in technology for me, and a blast to ride.
My kid now has their own 2013 ZX6R, and had a CBR300 for a year before that. We got to go on some nice rides together with that CBR, and I am wishing them all the best with their current bike.
