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Location: Heber City, UT
After many months of thinking about making a new site, thinking about working, and finally, two solid months of learning how to code, coding, and adjusting settings, Always Forward is now online. You’ll find all of the articles from Frozenbullet, plus the promise of more frequent updates and images.
Whereas I hand-coded Frozenbullet with HTML and CSS using Dreamweaver, a program that sat on my laptop, Always Forward runs on Joomla!, an open-source content management system. Because Joomla! is on my server, I can update from anywhere there is an Internet connection. Furthermore, I can upload images from my new Blackberry Pearl in real time to Flickr, the online photo service that forwards my images through some Javascript.
There are still a few bugs that I’m working out. The biggest one is the length of time it takes to load the site, especially the gallery. If you have a dial-up connection, as I do on occasion in Vermont, I really am very sorry. I doubt you’ll even have the patience to get to read this article, so my apology might be in vain. Database-driven applications, like Joomla, combined with the external scripts that I use on my site beef it up to 150 KB on the scale. Be happy, I reduced it from 550 KB just a few hours ago!
I’m also still uploading more images to Flickr and trying to create a larger depository of biathlon-related links. But you’ll find plenty of stuff to stay entertained. Check out the videos! They’re located in the submenu-selection underneath “Gallery” in the main menu above. For videos, you’ll need to click the link and view the movies at my Flickr page.
What’s more, you can now comment on all of my blog entries via the JomComment box below. How cool is that? I think it is pretty sweet. You can also post biathlon-related stuff in the Athlete Zone forum, found as a submenu-selection underneath “Biathlon” in the main menu above.
Though I’m transitioning out of biathlon in the coming months and moving onto graduate school next year, I’ll keep maintaining the information about the sport contained on the site as a public service to seasoned supporters and new biathlon fans. Biathlon has been the major force in my life for nearly a decade now; the challenges and successes that it presented me truly were important in defining my character. That’s it for the mushy stuff.
Welcome to the site!
Brian
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