greg goebel / aug 08
* This page provides describes monthly updates, current site statistics, and personal information.
* New materials:
* Showcase document:
* Updates:
* New reviews:
* Entries in this last month's online blog include: Doctor Titania on evolution of sex, Florida road trip again, CERN Large Hadron Collider online, nuclear warhead reductions, eco-friendly road-building, runway foreign-object detection, drugs to increase intelligence, Flip video camera, more on minimally invasive surgery, expose on background-checks companies, race to build computer data centers, freeing Ingrid Betancourt, pico-projector systems, and confusion over conservation policies.
* Current statistics:
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titles pages
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Asimov Project: 15 159
CyberTechnics 11 55
WorldScapes 12 171
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sum: 38 385
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Air Vectors: 155 237
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sum titles: 193 622
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index files: 125
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sum files: 746
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images: 2,478 total / 1,485 gvg
photos: 1,925
covers: 79
reviews: 206 / 68 pix
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BACK_TO_TOP
* I was reluctant for a long time to add personal information to this site, since as a policy I have done everything to avoid hype here. However, I really do have to establish my credentials, biases, and agenda for readers, and besides it is useful to be able to have something to pass back to readers when they ask questions about me.
For the curious, the author's particulars are as follows:
Greg Goebel (full name Gregory Vaughn Goebel)
Known as "Mister G", though I do answer to Greg
Born 1953 in Spokane, state of Washington (NOT Washington DC), NW USA
Now living in Loveland, Colorado, north of Denver
Twelve years primary education in Catholic parochial schools in Spokane
Bumming at college in Bellingham, Washington, 1971
US Army Signal Corps 1972:1975 (Fort Hood Texas & Heilbronn Germany)
Electronics Tech degree from Spokane Community College, 1977
Worked for Tektronix in Wilsonville, Oregon, 1978
Electronics Engineer degree from Oregon State University, 1979:1981
Hewlett-Packard customer service in Oregon & Colorado, 1982:2000
Now writing full time
This should distinguish me from the other Greg Goebels on the web, the
assortment including an ambitious automotive sales manager, an Australian
political activist, an Anglican minister, a judo instructor, a jazz pianist
(whose father is also Greg Goebel, we've chatted), and so on. There was also
a Greg Goebel who was flightcrew on an A-6 Intruder strike aircraft in the
late 1980s, but I'm not him, either. Aviation enthusiasts may wonder if I am
any relation to fighter ace Bob Goebel. My father is indeed Bob Goebel, but
not the one who was a fighter ace, Dad was a supply sergeant in the PTO rear
echelon. "It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it."
I'm a tall and thin Anglo guy, possibly with a bit of Cherokee blood, with short-cropped gray-streaked brown hair. I used to keep it long, but scalp problems forced me to change my ways of living.
Bachelor, live by myself, tend to be reserved around strangers, not keen on disputes. Hobbies include aerobics; playing the piano (or electronic keyboard to be precise); photography, digital drawing, and retouching; collecting diecast aircraft models; Japanese language and culture studies; and sci-fi videos & animation & Japanese comix. Of course I write a lot on various subjects, too, but you've probably figured that one out. Clumsy piano player, BTW, it's always nice to have a hobby one has no natural skill at to foster humility. Writing in contrast comes to me naturally.
I'm largely apolitical, tending towards middle of the road pragmatic politics. I have broadly libertarian sympathies, but card-carrying libertarians would never consider me to be one of them -- I tend to see them, no offense intended, as nonviolent anarchists, and certainly anything but middle of the road. As far as religion goes, I consider myself agnostic, in the sense of being indifferent to the matter one way or another, it neither interests me nor bothers me. As a friend of mine once observed, I refuse to belong to any organization that would consider me as a member. I try to be tolerant of ideologues as long as they let me.
* The picture above was taken in 2008, during a visit to the Dallas Zoo.
* This website evolved from my tendency to take notes. When I want to learn something, I write everything down so I can retain the information and refer to it later, as well as organize my thoughts on it. This has led to a compulsion to write down everything I know. Once I have the materials, I might as well put them on the website and share them.
Although I try to be thorough, none of these documents are scholarly; a scholarly document is a fine thing, but my target is readability. The documents are targeted at the high school senior / first year college / (and particularly) junior college level. They are written from the point of view of someone trying to learn a subject, not someone who is a recognized or even informal expert on that subject. I update them as I learn more. I make no claims for my level of knowledge on any subject since that knowledge is written down for inspection by readers, who can then form a judgement as they see fit.
I am also not generally a fanatic about any one of the subjects I write about. Readers sometimes assume that since I wrote a book-sized document on codes and ciphers I must have a full-time interest in the subject, but that's not the case. It's just one of a list of interests. I'm more like the kind of guy who gets interested in some subject or other and decides to read a book on it, except that instead of reading a book I try to write one. I try to be thorough but make no pretense of being definitive.
* The main draw of VECTORS at present is the AIR VECTORS section. However, although AIR VECTORS is being energetically expanded, it is not necessarily representative of where the entire site is headed over the long run, and though military topics are being emphasized at present, I don't regard this as necessarily a military site. Three years of Army life left me with a grudging respect but little liking for the military, though in its favor that's all the military expects of its rankers. Despite my fascination with military hardware, I own no weapons worthy of the name.
* For want of a better place to put this -- in appreciation for their help, special thanks to:
