www.RogerWendell.com
Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic Evolution^SM

Roger J. Wendell:

KGNU

Okay, this page (and this entire website) is mostly for me - an opportunity for me to express some views, archive things, save the Earth, and rant a bit (please see my disclaimer page). Nevertheless, if you're interested in who I am, and what this now very large* website is about, you can look further down this page, below, for a brief description as I see myself (not very objective but, then again, who is when it comes to the person closest to them?)... *by early 2006 my site was filled with about 250 mb of text and pix that were generating nearly a half million hits each month - and I wasn't even selling anything!

Me

In June of '06 I was diagnosed with stage 0 cancer but was one of those few lucky ones whose tumor was removed, tested, and eventually eradicated. In addition to feeling really lucky the incident also changed my outlook on life a bit. Nevertheless, I thought I'd keep this page (and most of my website) pretty much intact as the way I originally started creating it (in the late 90s) since it was all heartfelt then and still relevant now...

1. There is nothing more important than family - I've been very lucky to have had great kids, siblings, parents, wife, cousins and extended family! In addition to that, my other interests include; QRPp CW, mountaineering, vegetarianism, Deep Ecology, paleontology, cosmology, and combating marxism.

2. I've always loved my country but, admittedly, have been critical of it at times. I love our Constitution and am vehemently opposed to monopolies, Bolsheviks, marxism, antifa, and other leftist terrorists. In addition to my military experience I've also served as an election judge, member of my city's election commission, and as an elected delegate to my party's county and state assemblies. In later years I was elected to office as a board member for the Green Mountain Water & Sanitation District.

3. I've always loved the outdoors and Nature. As a young kid, even before my teenage years, I was out hiking, climbing, and exploring every chance I got.
4. As an older kid (in my teens), in the late 60s, I started to realize the natural world around me was being destroyed for nothing more than economic gain, ignorance, and just plain indifference to our huge population problem.
5. In my twenties (1970s and 80s) I became an environmental activist while trying to juggle family life, completing my education, and holding down a job that, although it provided a living for me and my family, was a distraction from all those wonderful things of interest to me. In fact, I never really understood how anyone could submerse themselves in a career (except maybe for research scientists and musicians) in our modern, hyper-ventilated dog-eat-dog industrial rat-race. To me, modern jobs have always been like that Robert Hoyt song where he sings about it being "Quittin' Time" on the high-tech plantation - it's all (or at least most of it) drudgery and tail-chasing that separates us even further from not only the natural world but our own humanity. Okay, maybe I'm a little jaded here as I never really fell in love with a job (except for my Coast Guard radioman work and broadcast experience). So, who knows, maybe if I'd become a cancer researcher or evolutionary biologist I'd have kinder things to say about earning a paycheck but as it stands now I think most of us could tell the boss you-know-what. Nevertheless, I worked hard at various jobs, throughout my entire life, and am thankful that capitalism wasn't completely abandoned during my working years. However, it was also clear in the 70s that leftists were gaining control of media, education, and our government - with my generation (the "boomers") only making the problem worse.

6. In my thirties (1980s and 90s) I became politically active and started voicing my opinion about unnecessary wars, poverty, human degradation, overpopulation, environmental destruction, our loss of freedom, outrageously high taxes, bloated government, and a whole host of related issues and problems.
7. In my forties (1990s and 2000s) I reverted to my childhood (see item #3 above) and began exploring Nature again. This included trips to Asia, Africa, South America, and just about everywhere you can go on the North American continent (Including most of Canada and almost all of Mexico). I also developed an even deeper appreciation for my family (see items #1 above) and enjoyed spending more time with them every chance I had.
8. In my fifties [which started as 2006 rolled around] I planned on even more time with family, more time with Nature, and less time with careers and jobs (see item #4 above). And, I actually did get more involved with outdoor stuff, and Nature, but was somewhat delayed with the cancer issue I've mentioned way too many times already... Nevertheless, my early 50s started out really well with a number of 14er climbs, summiting Mt. Baker, some fantastic backcountry ski trips, and wonderful travel to Australia, Europe, Hawaii, Antarctica, southern Africa, and other great places.
9. My 60s started out somewhat difficult with the loss of my dear father, the passing of some friends, and a divorce. Nevertheless, life remains a grand adventure with the development of other wonderful relationships and fantastic things yet to be explored in Nature, science, and the world around us. I still have huge concerns about our overpopulation problem and destruction of the natural world, and, or course, the leftists who have taken over so much of our government and media. So, there's still a lot of work to be done to protect our country from decay. However, in addition to that I'm also going to continue living - Life is a special gift that we should all be taking full advantage of!

10. My 70s wont start until the end of 2025...

IQ* Tests, Personality Instruments, and Profiles:

I think it started in the military for me (although I don't remember for sure) when the IQ tests, personality instruments and various profile tests started to roll-in. There's no doubt the pace picked-up when I was in college. My guess is that most of this type of testing, in college, takes place in the teaching and social science schools but I think we got a pretty good dose of it in the school of business as well. Anyway, by the time I became a manager (which occupied most of my career) I was taking all kinds of tests - especially when I was involved in leadership training and other related assignments. For what it's worth, here are some of the scores and ratings I accumulated later in my career:

• Firo-B: "May prefer small, intimate groups to large ones. Strongly prefers to lead and influence yet reluctant to take much direction from others. Enjoys a realistic amount of warmth from others. "
• 16PF Personal Career Development Profile: "Mr. Wendell functions quite comfortably with problems and situations that involve abstract reasoning and conceptual thinking. He seems to be quite curious about the events of the world around him. Being probing intellectually, and having interest in learning from lectures and books, he usually likes to learn about many things. He also strives to seek knowledge for its own sake. Mr. Wendell appears to be quite able to learn well from his experiences. He can usually be counted on to use his experience to advantage in solving most problems."
• Campbell Leadership Index (CLI): "Overall, your observer scores on the Campbell Leadership Index (CLI) are very positive compared to those of other leaders. Most of the ratings you received from your observers fall into the high or very high range,..."
• MBTI: (ESTP) "You focus on your outside world and get energy through interacting with people and doing things. You notice and trust facts, details, and present realities. You make decisions using logical, objective analysis. You prefer to be flexible and adaptable and to keep your options open as long as possible."
• DISC: (Dominance, Influence, Conscientiousness, Steadiness - Dimensions of Behavior). This one I completed 03/24/1998, for some management training, and I lost a bit of the explanation and description text. Nevertheless, the "Tally Box" came out as 18, -8, -9, -1 - making me a high "D" for Dominance. They describe that as; "Emphasis is on shaping the environment by overcoming opposition to accomplish results." They describe this as a person with tendencies to get immediate results, causing action, accepting challenges, making quick decisions, questioning the status quo, taking authority, managing trouble, and solving problems. They also state that a person with these traits desires such things as; power and authority, prestige and challenge, opportunity for individual accomplishments, wide scope of operations, direct answers, opportunity for advancement, freedom from controls and supervision, many new and varied activities.
• I was also rated "Autonomous" (AU) in some other instrument but don't recall which one it was. I mention it here because it seemed to be a pretty accurate rating although not at all inline with the vast majority of managers I worked with over the years - I was one of the very few rated "AU" - not something they were impressed with...

* Like everybody else I've taken a number of IQ tests throughout my life. I think that their scores and results are usually inflated or, at least, easy to achieve if you've taken similar tests before (for me, I received a lot of "practice" having taken Air Traffic Controller and military tests...). Anyway, in the early 80s I came in with a score of 126 and then, in 2004, a score of 133. I'm not feigning humility here when I suggest there's no way I can be that smart. Neverthless, it's fair to say that higher scores are a good indicator of person's ability to reason and problem solve. But nothing more - there are countless derelicts, con artists, killers, and politicians with high IQ scores...

Click Here for my "Birthday Video for the World..." (9 mb, 41 seconds, avi format)

Mt. Morrison, Colorado

It was Sunday morning, November 12th, 2006 - my 51st birthday and I was determined to climb Mt. Morrison, near my home west of Denver, for what was at least the 75th time in less than four years. There was a light but steady snowfall and it was still cold despite having just reached the summit after 2,000 feet of strenuous elevation gain. I was alone with my little Canon digital camera and decided to record a video birthday message for the world. No script, no pen or paper, and no battery power either - after my first "take" the camera, much to my disappointment, went completely dead. So, what you get here is some raw, uncut video that creates not only a digital archive of my extemporaneous presentation skills, but a heartfelt message about the Human condition and the plight of dear old mother Earth. To create the video, I held the camera at arm's length, hoping that my face was properly framed in the viewfinder, while I turned slowly from side-to-side on the very highest tip of rock on top Mt. Morrison - I wasn't even sure if the camera was going to focus at such a short distance with so poor lighting due to the snowfall. Nevertheless, as you'll see, my little experiment seemed to work for the most part...     [Ed. Note: As of November 8th, 2021, I completed my one thousand climbs to the top of Mount Morrison!]

About RogerWendell.com's Background Images:

Over the years I've used all kinds of photographs, drawings, and text for the background image on my pages. Since I usually rely on cascading style sheets I can change the background image on over 200 pages with just a couple of keystrokes. One recurring theme, that I've always liked, are either images related to a type of environmental spirituality or math and science stuff. I change the background image quite frequently, since it's so quick and easy (as I mentioned above...), but will try to dedicate this portion of my "About" page to a description of the most current background image:

Systems of linear equations take place when there is more than one related math expression. The following two equations are graphed on the same xy-plane: y = 3x + 5 y = - x The solution set to any equation is the place where both equations meet on the xy-plane. This meeting place is called the Point of Intersection. If you have a linear equation and a quadratic equation on the same xy-plane, there may be two points where the graph of each equation will meet or intersect.

Environmental "Tools" representing resistance to the distruction of dear ol' Mother Earth!

Links:

America Blog Deep Ecology Evolution Life Politics Roger's Rules of Order Science Spiritual Stuff Writing by me...

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