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**Thoughts by Dave Hart**
1. I'm not a big fan of introspection.
2. I am, however, an occasional smart ass.
3. I've written three books and didn't sell enough to cover the publisher's very modest advances. Before you ask, they are books about Macs, two of which predate Mac OS X, so they no longer have any useful information.
4. I worked three summers cleaning salmon in Alaska. I believe I have made more money heading and gutting fish than writing books. Now I'm sad.
5. These days, I have a job that I have difficulty explaining to innocent bystanders. My job title is TeraGrid Area Director of User-Facing Projects and Core Services. See? That didn't help at all, did it? Suffice it to say, I work hard to put your tax dollars to good use.
6. I would one day like to hike the Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine.
7. I watch too much TV, but I can't seem to stop.
8. I've run two marathons and finished both times. I learned I'm definitely not Kenyan. Maybe I'll try again in a few years, but that's enough for now.
9. My younger daughter wants to be a unicorn when she grows up, and with advances in genetic engineering and stem cell research, who's to say she won't?
10. My older daughter was born on the same day that the Space Shuttle Columbia burned up on re-entry (Feb. 1, 2003).
11. I don't believe in omens.
12. I have bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science and I work at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. I was hired there as a writer.
13. I have virtually no interest in professional or collegiate sports. It's amazing how easy it is to find parking on Superbowl Sunday.
14. I like playing sports, though. I'm not a bad volleyball player, for a guy who's 5'8". In my youth, I competed in softball, swimming, and soccer.
15. I make terrific whole-wheat pancakes from scratch. Pretty good waffles, too.
16. I took piano all through grade school, taught by a teacher who managed to remove all joy from that activity. There was also a brief and hazily remembered clarinet period sometime before sixth grade. I still, inexplicably, have the clarinet.
17. I still have and used until last month, when it finally got a little too rusty from being stored with sweaty gym clothes, the original Masterlock combination lock I got as a freshman in high school (1981).
18. My 9-11 story: I was in San Diego, and my wife was on business travel at Comdex in Atlanta when the planes struck. She called. The best advice I have ever given: "Hang up and rent a car. Now." She and her co-workers drove home.
19. One day I hope to write a novel and have it published. So far, I've only done the former. For the latter, I surmise it would have to be a good novel.
20. I've hitchhiked in Alaska, England/Scotland, France, and Tahiti.
21. I need my coffee in the morning. Without it, by late afternoon, I exhibit all the classic symptoms of caffeine withdrawal: nausea, severe headaches, and being a whiny wuss.
22. I was paid $10 for my second short story to be published in an obscure, low-rent literary journal.
23. On my to-do list, I would like to travel and visit all seven continents. I would also like to work full-time as a freelance writer one day.
24. I am a cynical optimist.
25. My goal in my personal life is to be an excellent father and husband. I am grateful to the many men before me who have set the bar low and made this goal much easier to achieve.
**Thoughts by Dave Hart**
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