Side Projects
A few years ago, I became interested in the craft of homebrewing beer. Over the years I’ve gone from extract brewing using a turkey fryer to building a single tier brewstand capable of making 120 bottles of beer per batch. I’ve also started growing my own hops from rhizomes. 
I decided to build TheBitterBrewer.com for two reasons. First, I wanted to document my homebrewing experiences and blog about projects and recipes. Second, other popular homebrew forums, like NorthernBrewer.com, have missed opportunities to monetize on their web traffic and I thought it could be an opportunity to experiment with Google AdSense and online merchandising services by CafePress.com. This project uses open source forum software (PHPBB3) with a user registration plugin called Captcha to ensure registrants are humans, not spam bots. This was also my first attempt at illustrating using Adobe Illustrator and a Bamboo Fun tablet.
2) RWECE.com
This is my wife’s website which I initially built out using Joomla!, but later rebuilt using WordPress. WordPress was simple enough for her to add/remove content as well as customize the look and feel on her own.
3) MaryBud.com
This site is still under construction but is my first attempt at complete website design. I used Adobe Illustrator to create all of the design elements on the site. This is the most exposure to CSS I’ve had and I used it for both text and graphics styling.
This was my second Flash project and was built out for a contractor (family-member) that wanted to show off his work to prospective clients. I purchased a template from www.EntheosWeb.com and then dropped in pictures and text. I had to play around a little bit with ActionScript to get the mail form to work.
5) FairfieldCountyMasonContractors.com
This was my first Flash project and was built out for a contractor (yes, another family-member) that wanted to show off his work to prospective clients. I purchased a template from www.EntheosWeb.com and then dropped in pictures and text.
6) SFAEYC.org
South Fairfield Association for the Education of Young Children (SFAEYC): a local affiliate of the state organization Connecticut Association for the Education of Young Children (CTAEYC), and the national association (NAEYC). SFAEYC is a non-profit organization composed of over 191 members dedicated to supporting the needs and rights of young children, their families, and early childhood educators. My wife is President of SFAEYC and one of her first goals was to give the association an online presence to better communicate with members, professionals in the field, and parents. This was my first HTML project and included integration of a syndicated radio feed and listserv for member newsletters.
I initially built this site out using Flash as a portal to all of my web projects.
But after recently taking an OPIM class at UConn, I rebuilt the site using WordPress. I now use the site as a professional profile.
