(Collens-Eckerl Wedding, November 3, 2007)

  This section is all about me, the creator, maintainer, and administrator of this site.

Basics:

    Let's see..  I'm 25 years old, about 5'11, 185 pounds, blonde hair, blue eyes, average build, and fair skinned.  

    My name is Eric Vogel, and I am a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology.  I hold a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in International Affairs & Modern Languages, both from Georgia Tech (and both with High Honors).  I'm fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, and know a good bit of French as well.

    I currently reside in Austin, Texas, where I am employed as an Applications Engineer by National Instruments Corporation.  I provide technical support and teach classes on the graphical programming language LabVIEW, traveling extensively throughout the United States and Canada (and even, once, to Brazil).

Family:

    I have an older brother, Ryan (27), who also graduated Georgia Tech, with a BS in Electrical Engineering.  He is an engineer at Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta.  My father is a retired U.S. Navy submarine commander and VP at Intelsat, and my mother manages the grooming department at a Petsmart.  All three own separate houses in the Atlanta area.

Biography:

    I was born at Fort Ord army hospital in Monterey, California on April 20th, 1984.  Since my dad was in the military at the time, we moved around a lot, until my dad got a job at Hughes Communications, and we settled down in Orange County, California (when I was 3).  I lived there for more than 10 years, until Hughes Communications merged with PanAmSat Corporation, and my dad was transferred to a rural southern town called Conyers, Georgia, about 30 miles East of Atlanta.  I attended Heritage High School, now infamous for a shooting and a nationally-aired PBS special about how students were having sex parties and spreading syphilis to each other (Guess I missed out on something...).
    I moved into the city (Atlanta) when I was 18 to study Computer Science at Georgia Tech, mainly because the full academic HOPE Scholarship was too good to refuse.  While there, I spent five semesters abroad (in Spain (Barcelona and Madrid), Mexico (Mexico City and Monterrey), Costa Rica (Heredia), and Argentina (Buenos Aires).  In addition to learning to speak Spanish fluently, I fell in love with exploring new places and cultures and decided to declare a second major in International Affairs.
    Just before I graduated, I was recruited by Austin-based National Instruments Corporation and, as a result, moved to Texas in October, 2007.

Hobbies:

   I volunteer with English at Work every Saturday morning.  I also work out pretty regularly, either to a nice Latin beat or to my favorite weekly podcast:  This Week in Tech with Leo Laporte.