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At my Desk
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I'm Invisible!
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Who Am I?
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| Full Name: |
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Matthew Wilkin (Matt)
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| Birthdate: |
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November 29, 1982
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| Weight/Height: |
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138 lbs. 6 foot 2 inches
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| Occupation: |
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Student
Open-Source Programmer
Tutor (C, C++, Visual Basic, PHP, HTML, and ASP)
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| Current Project: |
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cpCommerce
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| Location: |
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Findlay, OH
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| University: |
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Junior at the University of Findlay
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| Majors: |
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Technology Management
Computer Science
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| Car: |
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White 1989 Buick LaSabre
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| Programming Languages: |
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Basic, C, C++, HTML, JavaScript, PHP, QBasic, Turbo Pascal, and
Visual Basic
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| My Life in a Nutshell |
I was born in Findlay, OH in 1982. At 18 months, I fractured my collarbone
by jumping out of my high chair. My next adventure was at 2 years old as my
parents were transferred to Houston, TX to work at the Marathon Oil
Headquarters.
I really cannot remember much about my childhood, but I do know that I hate
Houston, TX due to the heat and humidity, however, I have to say that growing
up there has been the best thing that has happened to me. During Junior High,
I was introduced to Basic. We of course did very simple things with it but
nonetheless it was the first programming language I ever learned. This
however set the mood for high school where I learned C++ and participated in
local, regional, and state programming competitions.
In my sophomore year of high school, I taught myself HTML and how to use
Flash 5. Soon after, I began moderating iBoost Forums. iBoost decided to fire
the forum administrator making it impossible for any of us to do our duties
(due to how the bulletin board was setup). Therefore, 14 of the moderators and
the previous administrator decided to form WDForums.
During the time, I helped at iBoost and WDForums I learned CSS and JavaScript. After CSS and
JavaScript came PHP. Due to my knowledge of C++, JavaScript and PHP came easy
to me. In fact, I had the basics of PHP down in one day! After PHP, it was
time for me to head off to college. I decided to move back to Findlay, OH as
I enjoy the cool weather over the hot sun and humidity. In addition, the fact
that both sides of my grandparents live in Findlay, OH is a nice bonus.
At the University of Findlay, I learned Visual Basic, which is excessively
easy. The fact that someone can make a semester out of it and not have someone
fall asleep is impossible. However, though is it easy to learn it is very
inefficient which is exactly why I have never liked ASP.
During high school and college, I have been writing numerous projects using
PHP. Content Management Systems, Banner Exchanges, Website Statistics, and of
course E-commerce Solutions. Every project I have made has been written due
to the challenge it provided. Once the challenge was gone, the project was
done too and normally handed off to a good friend of mine.
cpCommerce is a project with an unlimited
number of challenges. The reason it is unlimited is solely that it is module
based and thus I will continue to work on cpCommerce for as long as I have the time.
I am also an Eagle Scout. I received my Eagle rank on December 15, 1999.
During Boy Scouts I injured (destroyed is a better word) my right knee
playing capture the flag. I was at Enchanted Rock back packing and camping
when a group of us decided to play capture the flag in a dry creek bed. Well
to keep a long story short I had the flag and was running back to my team's
side. I ran up a ridge in the dry creek bed and just as I was starting
to go down the gravel beneath my feet slipped out from under my foot causing
me to flip and land straight down on my right knee.
At the time, I did not know that the fall also shoved a rock of 1 centimeter
in width and 1/2 a centimeter in height into my knee as all of the blood that
was gushing out had it covered. After they patched my knee, I went to bed only
to get ready to hike the 2 miles out of camp the next morning to go home. The
other scouts split up my pack to help lighten my load so I would not have to
carry the full weight I brought with me.
On Monday, my knee was completely red and inflamed so my mom forced me to go
to the doctors office, where the doctor took a pair of tweezers and ripped
the forming scab off my knee so he could dig around without numbing me to find
out if anything was inside my knee. As stated before he found a rock and so he
latched onto the rock which my skin had become attached to and pulled it from
my knee is one swift pull. The pain at that moment was all I needed to feel to
know that my knee would not be 100% again. However, the nice purple scar that
was left behind is more than interesting and well worth the pain.
It was about a year later when I injured my left knee. I was doing a few
channel jumps on a street course when I decided to try to throw in a 360
rotation with it as well. Well I over-rotated and did a 540 instead but as I
came around instead of landing on the ramp my left knee hit the grinding rail
shattering my kneepad. As I bounced backwards after hitting the grinding rail,
I flipped and landed on my left knee again on the hard concrete ground. This
completely shot pain right through my entire body. I felt as if someone ran
over my foot with a forklift.
After that fall I went to go see, a doctor about my knee as walking on it was
literally killing me. The doctor had x-rays and a MRI taken but they found
nothing wrong with my knee. Therefore, I went to go see a specialist. The
specialist also took a MRI and could not find anything so he started me
through therapy. The therapy lessons were not doing any good so I stopped
doing them and eventually the pain sub-sided and I was back to normal or so I
thought. I later found out that my knee was very easy to re-injure and that
doing the slightest twisting of it or pulling would literally make it ache in
pain for three days.
To this day this problem still occurs though normally it takes more than just
twisting or pulling on my leg to cause it to ache in pain. One day I hope to
find a doctor or specialist who can correct this problem for me. When that
day comes, I am going back to rollerblading.
Quite a few have wondered what I plan to do in the future, for a "real" job.
My answer has always been the same. I plan to do what I enjoy: Programming,
Tutoring, and writing Open-Source Applications. Money for me is of little
value. Though I do require it to maintain bills and the necessities of life,
however, seeking thousands of dollars or becoming rich has never been my
goal. One of these days I will find the job I seek and when that day arrives
I will be exactly who I have wanted to be. Myself.
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