Hello. My name is Christian Andrew Wilcox. Here is my incomplete autobiography...

History

I was born on April 8, 1978 (I'm 28) in Janesville, Wisconsin (map). My parents are Robert Douglas Wilcox and Anita Mara Wilcox. I have an older sister - Amy Lynn Wilcox.

My family lived on the East side of Janesville (near the Rock County Fair Grounds) until my Junior year in high school (Craig HS). That year my parents and I (by then my sister was living in Madison, Wisconsin (map) attending the University of Wisconsin) moved to the North East side of Janesville (map). The relocation moved me into the Milton School District, so I finished up my senior year at Milton High School.

I spent many of my younger years learning about computers, but was always distracted enough to not really get into the more challenging aspects of the technology. I liked playing video games and watching television way too much and ended up losing some focus in my life.

Two weeks after high school graduation in 1996 I began working toward an Associate's degree in CAD Drafting from Herzing College (which was originally called the Wisconsin School of Electronics and located in the Northgate Shopping Center - yes, I went to school in a shopping center).

The February following my Fall graduation from Herzing, I accepted the position of Drafter at Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) in Middleton, Wisconsin. At that time, ETC was spread across several leased commercial buildings, but I had a cube in the main office.

Two years later I took a promotion to Senior Drafter. Now more than seven years into my employment with ETC, I still hold the position of Senior Drafter within the Manufacturing Engineering department. In 2004 we moved just down the road into our new headquarters.

I met my wife and love of my life Amy one Saturday night in the middle of June 2001. Just like my parents before me, we met in a bar - The Pub on State Street, downtown Madison.

I rediscovered computer software development the same Fall I discovered Amy. Just before two years into my tenure at ETC, I started learning more about computer programming. I learned fundamental programming concepts first through an introductory course on Visual Basic at Madison Area Technical College.

AutoCAD (the design software we used) had built-in support for several programming interfaces. Lisp, Visual Basic, and simple batch text scripting were some of the tools I could use to automate some of the repetitive tasks that comprised my daily routine. Once I understood what was possible through scripting, I could rather easily reduce once tedious tasks down to one or a few mouse clicks.

I've spent the last few years exploring the world of software development. I believe I now view the world in a way that is different than before I knew about programming computers. There's something incredibly empowering about having almost complete control over something as complex and powerful as a computer (or network of computers).

Family

I married Amy Lynn Swanson at 4:30 PM on February 23, 2002 in the Community Terrace of Madison, Wisconsin's Monona Terrace.

Hannah Diane Wilcox was born 7:58 AM Thursday, May 16, 2002 at St. Mary's hospital in Madison.

Alexandar Michael Robert Wilcox was born 5:30 AM Monday, January 24, 2005 at St. Mary's hospital in Madison. After almost 11 weeks of life, all of which he spent in a hospital, Alexandar passed away April 9, 2005. We will always love you Alexandar.

Programming

I understand the following computer programming languages:

• Visual Basic (6.0 & .NET)
• C#
• Python (my favorite language)
• Java
• PHP
• Javascript
• C/C++
• Ruby
• Perl

I use the following programs/tools/frameworks for web development:

• TurboGears Django - web application development framework
• TextMate Vim - text editor

Goals (in no particular order)

• Learn more about communication technology
• Learn more about professional software development
• Get involved in the Northside community here in Madison
• Learn more about mobile computing
• Learn more about my family, my friends, and myself
• Get involved in the open source software community

... more here later ... Disclaimer: please disregard any out of sequence paragraphs, typos, or even seemingly random babble. Hopefully at some point this will all come together to form a cohesive, comprehensive look into my life. Mostly this is an outlet for me to document the events in my life that define who I am. Hopefully it will provide the additional benefit of helping other people understand what makes me tick...