BrianWardwell.com

(My online portfolio):

While I’m sure that no web developer, or most other professions, reach to the point where their project is “that’s perfect”. My online portfolio is no exception although it has helped me strive to continuously improve and “tweak” as needed, as I’m sure will always be the case. This year has thrown some curve balls and some unexpected decisions needed to be made. I’m deciding to try and enter the Web workforce a little earlier than expected and also consider switching my Computer Programming AAS to a Web Application Programming certificate. Why?

I am now looking to gain experience and though I don’t mind the extra work, some technologies such as RPG Programming (an old IBM report generating language) and COBOL. I can shorten my time completing and the certificate also adds in many things the Computer Programming AAS does not, such as C#, ASP.NET, and Object-Oriented Programming.

In addition to this, I want to further develop on languages and skills I already know including more complex PHP, MySQL, and working at becoming far more proficient at JavaScript and many of its libraries. When there is time, I also plan on teaching myself Ruby (another server-side programming language) and possibly Perl if needed. However, for now, what is seen is more on the portfolio front. Here are some changes I expect to make and working on designing to add:

Added Content:

• More photography (art photography, portraits)
• More of my personal Adobe Photoshop work (have been using it since 2006)
• Programming examples: Even if screenshots at first, I’m working to showcase my PHP, MySQL, and Python skills.
• My goal: Some programming user interaction examples such as changing the color of a box with a mouse click.

Added Functionality:

• Images: Choice of standard gallery page or carousel/slideshow.
• “Pagination” example using my course list and descriptions.
• Page transitions.
• My goal: Some programming user interaction examples such as changing the color of a box with a mouse click.

Blog:

While this blog will remain, I would like the blog link on my online portfolio to be my own WordPress (CMS) blog hosted as part of the site. This will be easier for the user with more customization.

• Social media updates such as Facebook, Twitter, etc
• Further documentation as I begin to learn more skills in August such as Java and C++
• More focus on aspirations I have as a web developer and even organizations I would like to create or updates from other sites that I am administering

Files (PHP):

Due to a problem with the school server this spring, the site I was able to upload to my own domain is only in HTML so far as the PHP on the school server was broken. I plan on rewriting the files to be set up with PHP for much better functionality and capabilities.

Optimizing speed of the website. I consider it to be on the slow side right now, unfortunately

I also think it would be very fun to help showcase and even review some local businesses and services. Being a native Fargo resident, I’m proud of how the city/smaller-metro is developing in caliber such as food, did someone say “Drunken Noodle“? These would also be unsolicited “mentions”.

Brian Wardwell
July 16th, 2015