Thaddeus

About Me

I was born Thaddeus, though most people who know me call me Ted. How you get Ted from Thaddeus? I don’t know and googling it has always led me down a rat-hole of baby names. If you know, I’d love for you to tell me.

I have always been interested in fantasy and science fiction. Some of the first things I read back in Junior High were fantasy novels, and that instilled into me a lifelong passion for fantasy.

As you’ll find with many other people who are fond of sci-fi and fantasy, I really am a geek or geeky-nerd-dork (it seems knowing the difference between a geek and a nerd makes one a dork).

So armed with that knowledge, I give you a few bits of trivia about me.

  • I’m married to a wonderful woman who has put up with the trials of being married to a writer.
  • I can recite most of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Yup, I have seen the movie more times than I can count (I had to transcribe the movie into script form to help a friend with a school project before the internet existed, so watch a bit, pause, write, rewind, repeat, …).
  • I have degrees in chemistry, computer information systems, and business management.  My day jobs have generally always centered around computers.
  • I took engineering physics for the fun of it (nine years after my last Diffy Q’s class).
  • I love gaming. Mostly roleplaying games, but I’ll get into computer and board games as well. The trouble is I don’t have time to game much.
  • I love photography. I was the photography editor on my high school yearbook and spent a lot of time in the dark room. Now I’m all digital.
  • I love hiking. This is a hobby I’ll mix with photography, the trouble is, carrying 30 pounds of gear up a mountain side is a lot of work. My longest single day hike so far is 18 miles: in Rocky Mountain National Park, we got up early, took the Lawn Lake trail (starts at 8,540′) up to Lawn Lake, then The Saddle (12,390′), and on the way down, stopped at Crystal Lake (the deepest lake in the park).
  • We had an overly intelligent, but wonderful horse named Dollar, whom we lost when he was 28.
  • We have two cats (Pip and Saffie). Pip is a grey tabby and she reminded me of Chiana from Farscape…and Crichton called Chiana…Pip.
  • Lots and lots of reading.
Image of Thaddeus Nowak

Enjoying Myself

This picture to the right was taking in Aug of 2011 while hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. The day in question had near record-breaking heat, no cloud cover, and no typical afternoon showers. The stream was mercifully cool. That week, we did 41 miles of hiking in 5 days. 

My longest distance in a week was on a 2010 trip to Oregon. On that one, we did over 70 miles in 6 days around Mount Hood and the Columbia River.