Being a father changes your outlook on life. I think it is important to show my son that we should look beyond ourselves in everything we do -- that we are responsible for more than most people care to believe. I'm an amateur astronomer and unix/windows computer system administrator in Ontario, Canada.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
Besides the obvious goal of the SETI program, it also presents an interesting way of bringing people together regardless of race or political issue. Just take the time to browse the SETI country list on this site (http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/countries.html) and note that even participants from typically "enemy" countries are actively contributing to this same program. That makes SETI@home a good thing above many other reasons.
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.