Introducing the Hansen's

Welcome to the John & Carol Hansen family blog!

John, Carol, Juliet (center), Elisabeth (lower left), and Kristina (top right).

This is Nikolas being held by Elisabeth.

The family picture was taken while Carol was very pregnant with Nikolas. It does not do her justice. This photo is better, but it still falls far short of capturing the beauty of Carol Anne Lindsay Hansen.

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About me

I'm the big guy with no hair, by the way. My birth occurred May 24, 1964, on Guam, a beautiful island near the Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean. I just missed typhoon Karen, which devastated the island back in 1964.

By the time I was two-ish, the familiy had moved to Dayton, Ohio - the crossroads of the midwest - where I grew up. I went to school in Fairborn, and was in the last graduating class of Park Hills High School. I joined the Air Force Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corp (AFJROTC) my freshman year and eventually attained the rank of Cadet Lt. Col. and served as the Squadron Commander. I also joined the marching band. I played Alto Saxophone along with dabbling in Clarinet. We called ourselves the Viking Guard and we were undefeated my junior and senior years. There were no better bands in the state of Ohio in 1981 and 1982. Trust me... :-)

Sometime during my secondary education, I was introduced to the music of YES and GENESIS. I remember helping one of my older brothers (Russell) repair shingles while we listened to Roundabout. Listening to YES and GENESIS continues to be a transcendant experience. These two bands are my favorite groups. I collect their stuff religiously. More recently I've taken a liking to Chris DeBurgh and Annie Haslam. Jon Anderson's and Steve Howe's recent solo works have greatly impressed me as well.

Around that same time, I began a ten year career as a dance DJ and eventually gathered a collection of over 500 45rpm singles spanning the decade of the '80s. Not to mention a numerous host of albums and CDs.

After high school, I commenced studies at and eventually graduated from Wright State University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. I worked my way through school with Co-op work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

After my Freshman year at WSU, in February of 1984, I left my studies to work for two years as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in London, England. Those two years provided me with many important experiences that changed my life forever. I also met my future wife, Carol Anne Lindsay, while I worked in London.

After I graduated from WSU in 1989, I hired on full-time to work in the same office where I co-oped throughout college, Air Force Materiel Command Headquarters, Directorate of Logistics, Depot Maintenance Division (HQ AFMC/LGPW). I had many great experiences during the nearly 10 years I worked for the Air Force.

In October of 1996 I left the federal government and took a job in Grand Rapids, MI with a company called DigiDox, Inc. Digidox specialized in electronic publications using Adobe Acrobat software. I wrote plug-ins and applications that work with and enhance Acrobat. The company also did content development for electronic brochures and catalogs and hosted websites for its customers. While I worked there the company was purchased by Adobe and its name was changed to Adobe Enterprise Publishing Services.

I left AEPS in March of 1998 to work for a company in Nashville, Tennessee called TCS Management Group, Inc (now called Aspect Software, Inc). The rest of the family joined me a month later and we have now lived in Nashville for 10 years.

Some years ago I participated in an on-line virtual community called Hatrack River on America On-Line. I created a character known as John Binder. He is a friendly sort of fellow that makes ropes and knows how to tie knots really well. I've written a number of stories (if you'd call them that) all about him.

I became involved in LEGO robotics back in early 2001 when I took over development of an integrated development environment (IDE) for the LEGO RCX originally known as RCX Command Center (RcxCC). Over the years I have added support for every programmable brick sold by LEGO and extended the IDE to support NQC, brickOS, leJOS, MindScript, LASM, brickOS Pascal, and, more recently, NBC and NXC for the LEGO NXT brick. The IDE is now called Bricx Command Center. Last year I even wrote a book called NXT Power Programming on how to program the LEGO NXT using NBC and NXC. I serve as a member of the LEGO MINDSTORMS Community Partners and was a member of the MINDSTORMS Developers Program.