What’s New at Brettman.com

Added some pictures from my Pan–Mass Challenge ride this year.

Added a page for my new Pixel 7 Pro.

Added a page under the cycling section for photos from my Pan–Mass Challenge rides over the years.

Added a cucumber salad recipe (side dishes).

On the cycling page I created a separate secion for gear that has been retired. I also added a link to my Pan–Mass Challenge profile in the menu.

Finished porting some additional pages for my motorcycles section into the new design and uploaded them including a couple ride reports.

Finally finished porting the pages for my motorcycles into the new design and uploaded them.

Standardized the open graph images which get use when sharing links via social media, texting, chat, etc.

All my car pages have been converted and are now online. This endeavor also included the creation of pages for several cars that never made it online in the old design!

Work began getting my car pages converted and online. Several pages made it online today so they’ve been linked in the menu also.

The all new, mobile friendly, site design has official been brought online!! The whole site isn’t quite complete but with a large portion done I felt it was time to bring it online. As time marches on I will add additional sections.

I incorporated the Quote of the Day from the old design. I took it a little further in the new design and made on–the–fly adjustments to make it blend seamlessly with the site.

In the course of working to port content into the new design I once again got sidetracked by the idea that I truly had a desire for better structuring on the backend. Having gotten Apache running on my local machine it was much easier to work on making and testing such changes. It did require a bit of tweaking of some of my scripts and CSS but I have successfully restructured while also being able to have some improvements in usability.

Time sure has flown by and life kept me from finding the time to continue my work on the redesign. Alas, I have found a renewed desire to get things moving again. I began with installing Apache and PHP on my local machine to make it easier to get things ready and more importantly be able to publish a more complete site.

Introduced a new favicon using RealFaviconGenerator to make the new design more complete.

Given the direction I was heading in terms of organizing the site overall I found that I needed some more flexibility in the menu. After making some changes in the CSS and a little extra code in the jQuery script that highlights the page you are on, I had what I needed. Now back to porting content.

As I began work to port content into the new design I discovered some additional changes would be needed to improve the usability on mobile devices. As I made modifications and tested I found a simple yet elegant solution to the caveat that touch devices don’t have the ability to hover over items on the page.

Today marks a real milestone in terms of the redesign. I have solidified the overall design and color scheme and spent a lot of time getting the menu to function well and live in a single file so I can make changes to the menu in one place and one place only. I also spent a bit of time getting overlays working and styled to blend seamlessly with the design. My intention is that I can make use of them as I did the tooltip style popups from my old design. To ensure usability on mobile devices, now a user has to take action by clicking/tapping on the  Info Popup Icon  icon instead of just hovering with the mouse.

I began laying the ground work for redesigning the whole site. The goal was a responsive design and some small organization changes to improve my ability to easily maintain the site. I again began by looking for a template to get me started. I ended up finding about three templates I liked some elements of and thus started merging those to create what would be the design of my site. Among the changes would be eliminating the RSS feed.

Started cleaning up the style sheet some tonight. Not really a big deal but lots of unnecessary redundancy. Ugh. I guess I did learn a few things since I originally did it after all.

I cleaned up a few minor markup errors that were preventing a couple pages from validating.

I updated my ‘humor page’ with a comparison between American kids and Italian kids.

I updated my ‘humor page’ with one called “The Chili Cook–Off” that could be considered a “viral email” it has come through my inbox so many times.

I updated my ‘humor page’ with a test for dementia. Take it today!

I updated my ‘humor page’ with an Abbott & Costello parody.

I updated my Nomad page in the ‘My Bike’ section to show the accessories I‘ve recently installed.

I added a “quote of the day” to the main page.

I added the long overdue close–up pictures of my accessories to my Nomad page.

I added the Ride Report for Rolling Thunder XXI and lots of pictures from the event in the gallery.

I added a picture taken during Laconia Bike Week 2007 to my Nomad page.

A little more tweaking to my RSS feed. Now using RSS 2.0 and including publish dates. This eliminates the need for the date in the feed content entirely (assuming you are using a feed reader). I also added a link for my blog feed as well.

In other news I stumbled across a minor style issue that was showing up in Internet Explorer and managed to get this resolved so things should be consistent again.

I’ve continued work on the RSS feed to improve upon it some. The date is now in the description rather than the title and I’ve ensured it’s validity using the W3C Feed Validator. I also added a great pic to the Humor section.

Official release of my RSS feed for the ‘What ’s New’ section.

I updated my Nomad page in the ‘My Bike’ section with some additional photos.

I’ve updated the ‘Contact’ page to now require a security code for users wishing to contact me.

Added a new dessert to my ‘Recipes’ section.

I made some improvements to the styling of the pop–up messages (ie the pop–ups used above when hovering over a specific year).

I made some very minor adjustments to the site overall. If I did everything correctly nobody will notice since they were mostly cleaning up the code.

I have made some adjustments so that printing the recipes will be more "printer–friendly" saving you some ink and making them easier to read.

The contact page has been updated (finally, I know!)

Changed the background in the header.

I put together a page with 3 common ways to ‘Knot A Tie’.

I updated my Nomad page in the “My Bike” section to show the accessories I’ve installed. I hope to post close–up photos of those soon.

I updated my Nomad page in the “My Bike” section to show the accessories I’ve installed.

I added a tips area in the “My Bike” section. The first addition to this is how to deal with a dead battery on a motorcycle.

Added more photos to the Born To Ride collection in my gallery to showcase my newest additions. I also added a couple shots of my new bike in the ‘My Bike’ section now the she’s finally home.

I added some more images in the humor section.

Due to some malformed document type declarations many of my pages were not properly validating uses the W3C link in the navigation panel. This has been corrected.

Today I did some minor updating on the main page for the discussion forum I host on Delphi Forums. I corrected some issues with the layout and also added some formatting changes to integrate better with the rest of the site.

Implemented a new script to handle any ‘tooltips’ which enables these to now work in Firefox and Internet Explorer. To see an example of these simply hover over the years at the top of this page. I’m now using overLIB by Erik Bosrup.

I added a page for my new scooter in the ‘My Bike’ section.

Posted photos from the 2^nd Annual Springfield Motorcycle Show in my gallery.

Added more photos to the Born To Ride collection in my gallery to showcase my newest additions.

Pictures of my new car are now online. Check ’em out in the My Car section.

I picked up my new wheels today! Check ’em out in the My Car section.

Added a new main dish to my Recipes section.

Added a new appetizer to my Recipes section.

Added a new dessert to my Recipes section.

Added a new main dish to my Recipes section.

Added a photo to the Born To Ride collection in my gallery to showcase my newest addition.

Added more photos to the Born To Ride collection in my gallery.

I updated the ‘My Bike’ page due to the unfortunate demise of my scooter following an accident in March. I also updated the page for my 1500 Classic to indicate her passing.

A long time coming but my Saddlesore ride report from 2002 is back up on the site.

Added a photo of the latest addition to the Born to Ride collection in my gallery.

I added a link to my gallery in the navigation area.

I found a few more pictures of my Firebird and also added some more accessory close–ups for my Vulcan 1500.

Added another fantastic recipe — Chicken Marsala!

Added a couple jokes to the Humor section.

The site now has an icon which can be seen in the address bar of your browser. This also shows up in the tab for those using tabbed browsing in Firefox.

I got a great joke in the mail today about Haiku error messages from a friend. I thought it was hilarious and just had to post it ASAP. LOL!

Today I added a great cheesecake recipe!

And so it begins...The first update of the new year is quite minor and likely won't even be noticed. I fixed a problem with the Links page which caused it to look pretty crappy in Firefox.

I updated all pages to include the URI of the DTD. Now all the pages have a complete DOCTYPE. I guess I'm a slow learner, this should have been included from the beginning.

I added a great ’toon to the “My Bike” page.

Since I having been taking the time to validate all my pages I went through and added the Valid HTML logo to all pages which passed the validation check.

I made a minor update to my Vulcan 1500 page to reflect the new shiny bits I bought while up in New Hampshire for Bike Week.

I added a poem written by my niece on the “My Bike” page.

I added a page for my Oldsmobile & my Pontiac 6000. These can be accessed from the “My Car” section under Past Cars.

By request I added one of my favorite quick meals to the recipes section.

I added a page for my Pontiac Firebird & my Grand Marquis. These can be accessed from the “My Car” section under Past Cars.

I added a guestbook and updated all pages to include a link to it in the navigation panel.

I started getting the car pages together. The first is for my new Altima!

Today I took the time to validate every page using the W3C^® HTML Validation Service and corrected any errors found.

The new design made it online today (as scheduled this time!). Unfortunately I didn’t get the ride reports completed yet. Those will be back soon.

The page for my current bike is complete along with the pictures and accessories close–ups. Next on the list is to port over the ride reports.

The pages for my first bike have been completed and work now shifts to creating the pages for my current bike. I also had to correct a very minor inconsistency among the pages. My goal was to have the new site “online” on November 1^st. Well, that’s sure not going to happen. I am going to push back the date a tad. I need to get a little something together for my current bike (even if it’s not complete) and then I will post the new site. My new goal is by November 7^th.

Jumping around just a little bit, I added a section for my favorite recipes. Work continues on the bike pages.

With the humor section basically completed I have started work on the bike pages. First on the list is to redo the page for my first bike.

I began getting the humor section put together in the new design. I also plan to include some new stuff once I have finished porting the existing content in.

I also added a link to my DVD collection to the About Brettman section on the home page.

The basic outline of all the section pages have been created. This will give me the opportunity to post the new site as soon as I get a little more of the main content finished.

The old Fun Links page has now been combined with the Motorcycle and Car links as a separate section called Miscellaneous.

Further work has been done to move to the use of style sheets as well as a couple minor design changes to the site as a whole.

The old Motorcycle Links page and Car Links page have been combined into a single page and organized into separate sections.

I have made a number of tweaks to the basic design and think I finally have the design of the site nailed down. Work is beginning on the rebuilding the existing content to fit the new design.

Work has begun on a complete re–design of the site. My plans are to eliminate the use of frames and simplify the look to be a little easier on the eyes while still having effective navigation.

Having recently joined the Massachusetts Motorcycle Association I have added their logo and link to My Ride page.

I registered the domain name brettman.com today! Currently it re–directs to the “true” location of my site but perhaps in the future I will spring for a hosting account.

Added another picture to My Ride page.

A minor update to My Ride page.

I updated my motorcycle accessories page to include some more closeup photos of the recent additions.

I Updated My Ride page with my SaddleSore 1000 Ride Report and added a link to the Iron Butt Association.

I also added a link to Taglines Galore in the Fun Links section.

My Firebird page has been updated with information regarding the recent “cosmetic surgery”.

I updated my accessories page for my bike to include the latest additions. I hope to have close up pictures for them soon.

Well, most people won’t even notice but I changed the navigation bar a little. I moved a links around and adjusted the colored bullet to be aligned better with each link.

I updated the existing link on the Corvette page as some of them were no longer working.

Added a couple links to the Web Resources section for sites which I have been using recently and found helpful.

I also added a page for various types of feedback. Now you can send me your comments about the site, ask that a link be added and even tell me when you found a link that no longer works.

Last but not least, I added a few new pages in the humor section.

Minor update to incorporate further use of CSS.

Just a few minor tweaks tonight to make the “Recent Discussions” for the Delphi Forum work again. I also added a link to my friend Susan’s page.

At long last! The latest version of my accessories page for my bike is now on–line. I think the new version works quite well. It includes close–up pictures of many of the accessories which will open in a small pop–up window. Have no fear! You will not be inundated with little windows. The window can be left open (or closed) and when you click to see the picture for a different accessory it will reuse the existing window (or re–open it if it was closed) and also bring the window back to the front so it isn’t hidden behind any browser windows. I hope you find the functioning to be simple and clean.

It’s been a while but I have recently switched ISP’s so along with moving the site I changed the background and have updated the links in my Web Resources section. I no longer have access to CGI scripting so the forms no longer work (the guestbook still functions). Hopefully I will work around this as well.

I now have a more permanent web address! You can simply point your browser to http://www.bigfoot.com/~brett.stpierre and you will automatically be forwarded to wherever my site resides. Just in case I ever move you will always be able to find me. Update your bookmark today!

Minor changes to my Vulcan (“My Ride”) page. I added a graphic of the Vulcan tank badge which I found and modified. I also added a link to ABATE of Massachusetts. There were also some minor cosmetic changes.

More manufacturers added to the Car Links section!!

I updated the accessory page for my scoot. I listed a few more accessories I purchased which unfortunately will have to wait until spring to install. In the spring I also have plans to provide close–up photos of the accessories installed.

More changes! I made some minor changes to “My Ride”. The most noticeable of which would be the accessory table which now resides on it’s own page.

Did a little “playing around” today and made some changes to the navigation menu. You’ll notice that now it uses the same font as the rest of the pages and the “sections” no longer have the underline for the hyperlink.

Updates to “My Ride” and “Motorcycle Links”.

More pictures added to the photos area of “My Ride”.

Updates to “My Ride” including a photos section for my bike as well as a section I will use to post photos from the various rides I have been on.

Created a new page to showcase my new motorcycle. You can get to it the same as before, by clicking on “My Ride” in the navigation bar. The page for my Vulcan 750 is also still available as a link off of the new bike’s page.

Fun Links page updated.

Car Links and Motorcycle Links updated.

Finished adding consistency changes to my Vulcan page as noted in 4/29 entry. I also added a new page of Motorcycle Links, check it out in the navigation bar.

Updated the About Me page to include a few more pics. Not new pics mind you, these were taken in 1998. Also made some more “consistency” changes such that when you click to see a picture of my Firebird (for example) it will have the same backgound as the rest of the pages rather than just showing on a white background.

Thanks to the wonderful support at Prime Connections (my service provider) the “Add Link” form has been fixed and is functioning normally again!

I moved the visitor counter off of the “main” page so visitors wouldn’t be counted twice if they went back to that page. The counter now resides to the right of the led sign at the top. For space reasons I also removed the text “Visitors since...”.

Minor “bug” fixes. I found a couple images that weren’t showing up and also the backgound for my Firebird page was incorrectly showing as white. I believe I caught everything and for the most part must say that the revision went smoothly considering I changed so many “little” things. In addition to minor bug fixes I added a graphical link on the About Me page to CAUCE and a graphical link to my employer (MEDITECH).

The revised version made it on–line today! Everything should be working okay but if you should experience a problem drop me a quick note. I updated a number of the pages fixing broken links and such and also added a page for my Firebird.

I have begun working on a complete update of the site. The overall design will not change but I plan to make a more consistent look to the site as well update/add some links. It will probably take a bit of time before I post the new site since I want to complete the entire site instead of posting each page as it is updated.

I made some minor changes to the about me page and added a link to my motorcycle page.

Well, it’s been a long time since I made any updates but I finally got off my duff and did something. The first order of business was to update my resume. Minor updates to the About Me page. I also need to update all the links on my site as I’m sure there are dead ones. Fear not, I will get to this soon. I made the frame at the top of the page (the one with the sign in it) resizable to aide viewing in different resolutions. Last but not least I added a form for requesting site additions.

I made another attempt at making my MIDI work better in both MSIE and Netscape. I have now made the MIDI come up in a separate window so visitors can easily shut it off. It still isn’t working perfectly in Netscape but I am a step closer and feel that soon I will have it working. I also took out the MIDI on the About Me page.

Lots of changes today! I added a page of classic car photos I’ve taken and scanned myself. This page will grow in the future when time allows. I also added another page to my Humor section entitled ‘Addicted To The Web’. I organized the files a bit by moving them into directories and also changed some file names so that all my pages would have .html as an extension. A more subtle change (even subtleties are noteworthy) was that I added a newsflash message to the led sign to alert visitors to the new car photos page. Please let me know if any of the graphics won’t load or if there are any pages that can’t be found.

I found a led sign Java applet and put it in it’s own frame at the top of the site. This proved to have some great possibilities. I am able to use several different effects as well as colors and timing control. You can find all the necessary components for the sign as well as some help for using it at Greg’s Little Shindig.