Today, the new site for New Students launched – a subsite of the Bauer College’s website designed for an audience of new undergraduate students who are invited to attend orientation sessions and other resources to get off to a successful start.
Here’s a screenshot of what the new site looked like at launch.
I was the official RE/MAX of Texas photographer for the Statewide Convention 2013 in San Marcos. I coordinated two other professional photographers who contributed on the Saturday evening awards gala portion of the event.
I’ve been hacking on the new Twenty Twelve default theme for WordPress since before it was released.
The great thing about WordPress is that as soon as the open source community begins working together to tackle a problem – they begin releasing the code publicly for beta review and to allow people to begin testing or forking it. I started looking at it in June because I was intriqued by its new simplistic approach to a responsive menu.
On Sept. 27, 2012 – the new Twenty Twelve theme was officially released. As soon as it was, I knew I would want to base my BrandonMoeller.com redesign on it, as I previously did with the Twenty Eleven theme.
Here’s some screenshots of my website with the Twenty Twelve child theme I designed:
The standard post pageThe photos page.The contact page.
Here are some details about the new Twenty Twelve child theme.
Fonts
I’m still using the Franklin Gothic FS family of fonts that I bought from FontSpring.com two and a half years ago.
Franklin Gothic FS Medium Condensed continues to be the web font for the Site Title “Brandon Moeller” up top in the header, while I’ve chosen the Google Web Font Oswald. Right now, I’m using it for my post titles.
Here’s an article that explains the method I used to alter my functions.php file in the child theme to add Google Fonts to my website.
The new Hire page
I completely re-thought the Hire Me section of the website.
I renamed the page “Portfolio.”
I moved it to its own WordPress site within my Multi-Site installation.
It mirrors the look of BrandonMoeller.com except it has a unique menu and the title of the WordPress website is “Brandon” (not “Brandon Moeller”). It shares the same theme — but with one difference.
In the BrandonMoeller.com website, I have to edit the CSS via JetPack (thanks, version 1.7 ) to hide the .site-title-secondary class I created to display “Moeller” on the Hire site. (( .site-title-secondary { display: none; } ))
The Hire site’s portfolio page is a new design that incorporated the Toggle function of the Jquery library as well as shortcodes and styles I added to the child theme and the visual editor via
TinyMCE.
All that being said …
I won’t go into what I did to customize my child theme to personalize Twenty Twelve in this post. Honestly, I never found the time to finish and I’m looking forward to WordPress 3.6 and the new Twenty Thirteen theme which is expected to improve the post format UI.
Even though I am releasing this child theme to download; I’m not completely satisfied. It does look nice the way it is now and I won’t be making any more changes to it.
I think I’m looking forward to the new version of WordPress, expected in April, which will contain the new Twenty Thirteen theme.
Life is keeping me pretty busy right now. Which is a very good thing.
You can’t tell – but that’s Steve Lombardi, RE/MAX of Texas Aviation Director, piloting the RE/MAX balloon, as he treated one of our photo contest winners to a ride.
I even added a little holiday message at the end of the GIF, which in the newsletter, linked to a story about our holiday hours.
The animated GIFs – which only work in some email clients, usually mobile clients (Sorry, Outlook desktop users) – are an added feature to the newsletter that I am charged with producing.
Today, I took part in a surprise “Home for the Holidays” celebration event where the Texas Sentinels Foundation handed over the keys to a refurbished home to a wounded Afghanistan veteran.
As the event’s official photographer for the nonprofit organization, I feel honored to be able to help capture this moment in the Jesse Medina family’s life.
The Foundation alerted their family and close friends – and everyone kept the secret.
See more photos on the story, which I also wrote, on the Texas Sentinels Foundation website:
Marine Lance Corporal Jesse Medina and his family were surprised today by Bank of America and the Texas Sentinels Foundation with the keys to a debt-free, mortgage-free home in the Northcrest Village subdivision in Spring, Texas.
They thought they were going to a Texas Sentinels Foundation Christmas luncheon. They were — lunch was served — but they didn’t know friends, family and local media would be there to congratulate them on their new home.
The Marine and his wife, Megan, and son, Aidan, received the keys to their new 2,348-square foot, 3-bedroom, 2-1/2-bath home and saw it for the first time after a brief key presentation ceremony.
I wrote the press release about a new RE/MAX office that opened in Galveston.
I then sent the press release to media contacts in the greater Houston region.
The article, “RE/MAX Leading Edge now open in Galveston,” also contains autobiographies of each of the office’s owners that were submitted by them.
The press release was also submitted to RE/MAX media relations and marketing professionals in Denver.
Here are the first four paragraphs of the press release:
RE/MAX Leading Edge in Galveston opened its doors today for business and is owned by four successful local Galveston resident Realtors. RE/MAX franchise Broker/Owners Kelly Kelley, Nicki Huprich and Sales Associate/Owners Ryan Moody and Frank Burgy are prepared to meet all of the real estate needs on the Island.
“We’re centrally located on the island and have experience in commercial properties, new developments, condos, residential – the whole gamut of what real estate in Galveston is all about and we plan to serve the entire market,” Burgy said. “When you come off the seawall, we’re the very first real estate office you see, and we’re located on the defining line of the West End of Galveston.”
Located at 3616 7 Mile Road on the edge of the West End of Galveston, the office is highly visible to full time Galveston residents as well as the second home and resort market.
“Who doesn’t want to live near a beach?” asked Moody. “The Texas Gulf Coast offers small hometown living in a resort environment. Galveston is not only a great place to live full time but many Texans find Galveston a great place to own a second home. Our prices are competitive with other resort markets. Driving one or two hours to a second home is more desirable than having to fly three to four hours.”
Today, I published an article I wrote about RE/MAX DFW Associates REALTOR Cindy Bogle to the RE/MAX of Texas News Online website.
Here are the first two paragraphs of the story:
Cindy Bogle – an award-winning Realtor at RE/MAX DFW Associates in Plano – didn’t think it could happen to her. At 41, she was young, she exercised regularly, she watched her weight, didn’t smoke, didn’t drink.
“I was wrong in believing healthy people don’t get cancer,” Bogle, now 42, said. “After a routine mammogram in September 2011, I was encouraged to come back for a biopsy. When the biopsy came back positive for breast cancer, I was completely shocked and scared. I did have family members who had been diagnosed with this same disease later in life, but I did not carry the gene for breast cancer – I was tested – and truly believed I was too young to ever be diagnosed with cancer.”
Today, I published an article I wrote about RE/MAX DFW Associates REALTOR Cindy Bogle to the RE/MAX of Texas News Online website.