I've actually been working on this redesign, on again, off again, for the last year or so. Although the design has been through a number of changes, the technologies I wanted to build the site with have remained the same: WordPress and jQuery.

So, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new design - please leave a comment. If you didn't see the previous version, here's a screenshot of what it looked like:

Go ahead and say it, it's OK, the previous version was ugly. Hopefully the new design is easier on the eyes.

As a side note, I'll be starting a series or articles that will cover the redesign and development process in more detail. The articles will focus on topics such as creating a custom WordPress theme, client-side development using jQuery, and website performance. If you are interested in any of those topics, be sure to subscribe or bookmark this site.

First, I will be offline from Aug 2, 2009 - Aug 8, 2009, so I will not be able to respond to any emails during that time. For questions or issues regarding SimpleModal, please use the jQuery Google Group. For questions or issues regarding SimpleModal Contact Form, please use the WordPress support forum (and make sure to tag your question with simplemodal-contact-form-smcf).

SimpleModal

Version 1.3 is out, but I have not released the new documentation yet. Until I get them out, you can view the full source version to read the comments to see what the new options are. There are a few reports of possible issues, which I'll be looking into soon.

SimpleModal Contact Form

With the new version of SimpleModal, I need to update SMCF and release. I also have a handful of new features that I am planning on adding, so you should see some new changes happening to SMCF over the next few months.

Site

I have been working on a new design for my site for well over a year. It has taken many different directions and I have finally settled on a design I like, I just have to finish up a few remaining features. I am also planning on rewriting the SimpleModal and SMCF project pages as well as adding new demos.

I'm planning on having the new site and documentation ready in August, followed by updates to SimpleModal and SimpleModal Contact Form.

SimpleModal - jQuery Plugin

SimpleModal gained quite a bit of traction in 2008 and was downloaded nearly 20,000 times. That number includes all versions and each variation (full, min, packed). After releasing 1.1.1, I started on a complete rewrite of the code. I ended up modifying the existing code for the 1.2 release and have yet to decide what to do with the rewritten code.

At this point, I am unsure of the fate of SimpleModal. The jQuery UI library has improved dramatically since I initially released SimpleModal and I am contemplating talking with the UI team about combining efforts (with the Dialog UI) instead of duplicating them.

SimpleModal Contact Form (SMCF) - WordPress Plugin

After quite a few requests, I released SMCF which was based on the SimpleModal Contact Form demo. It was my first WordPress Plugin and over the course of 2008 I became very familiar with WordPress and released many SMCF improvements. The SMCF plugin gained some fans, and was downloaded almost 8,000 in 2008.

I have quite a few ideas for SMCF, including themeing and the ability to create custom forms. I think the direction will depend a on what happens with SimpleModal, but either way, I'd like to improve the contact form, regardless of what powers it.

emAlbum

Other than the release of a minor bug fix in February, it has been another quiet year for my image gallery script. Despite the lack of updates, emAlbum continues to be the top rated script on The CGI Resource Index and Hotscripts.

emAlbum is my baby - the first version was released in 2003 and since then it has evolved into two versions, emAlbum Standard and emAlbum Pro. The Pro version was created at the encouragement of my wife and some users for a very affordable $25. I've wanted to re-write emAlbum for years and have considered turning emAlbum into an open-source PHP project, but I just haven't had the time or resources to do so. Hopefully I'll be able to resurrect the project some day - anyone interested? ;)

EricMMartin.com

In the first full year since its re-opening, the site has received a steady increase in traffic. I posted 26 blog entries in 2008, covering a wide variety of topics. SimpleModal is by far the most popular project and the WordPress Pumpkin was the most popular post.

In 2009, I hope to double my posting count and narrow the focus in on a couple of topics, WordPress and jQuery. In addition, I've been working on a site redesign, which I hope to release in Jan or Feb 2009. I'm on my third or fourth attempt at a re-design, so hopefully the current one will stick ;)

Photography

In addition to focusing on WordPress and jQuery, I plan on discussing my new favorite topic: photography. I bought a Nikon D40 DSLR in August and have really enjoyed expressing my creative side through photography. I'm still learning the basics but have been happy with some of the photos I've managed to capture. Check out my Flickr photostream...I'd love to hear your feedback. Here are my favorites.

Online

I finally started using Twitter (my account) in 2008 and have had mixed feelings. One thing is for sure - I'm getting tired of trying to stay connected in so many different places. I plan on sticking with Flickr, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Among others, I never really used MySpace (who does anymore?) and Plaxo left a lot to be desired.

Happy New Year

Better late than never, I guess! 2009 should be an interesting year, especially in the U.S. A new President and financial crisis will certainly keep things interesting. Thanks for visiting and have a great 2009!

WordPress Pumpkin set on Flickr.

4 is my favorite number and it has been for as long as I can remember. Some other random thoughts:
- My sons, Caden and Cooper, are 3 and 4, respectively.
- "Four is the only number in the English language for which the number of letters in its name is equal to the number itself." - Wikipedia
- Kirby Puckett, one of my childhood "idols" wore number 34.

Birthday Highlight:
After dinner, we are sitting around eating carrot cake cupcakes that Shannon and Cooper made for me. Caden, who is carefully licking the frosting off of the top stops, points to the "cake" part of the cupcake, and says:

Caden: "We don't eat this part, right? ... It have poop!"
Shannon (my wife): "No sweetie, those are just raisins"

After some good laughs, we couldn't figure out what was funnier - the fact that he thought we'd serve him food with poop in it, or the fact that he was carefully nibbling around the "poop".

Going against my intuition, I conceded to a second trip. Despite my best efforts to keep him safe, on the way down as we went around one of the turns, his left leg got jammed somehow and I heard a pop/snap sound. Caden immediately started crying and as we exited the slide I told Shannon that we needed to go to the hospital.

We raced to the emergency room with Shannon sitting next to Caden trying to console him during the (what seemed like forever) drive. After a long wait in the ER and two rounds of x-rays, we got the bad news - he had a buckle fracture on his left tibia, right below his knee. Because the break/fracture is on a weight bearing bone, the doctor said that he'll need to stay off of his feet until it heals! They put him in a full-leg splint and he should be getting a cast in the next week or so.

So, one day after turning 3 and getting a new big-wheel and two weeks into preschool, Caden won’t be allowed to walk, run or ride for the next 4-6 weeks!!! He seems to be in pretty good spirits and is starting to figure out ways to get around. Yesterday, I jury-rigged a pedal car which allows him to put his broken leg up and pedal with his right. He was so happy to be able to get out and play.

Everything worked out and he will be fine, but from the time it happened until we got the diagnosis, I was a wreck. Now that we've gotten our first trip to the emergency room out of the way, I'm hoping we won't be doing that again any time soon.

Thanks to my brother-in-law, Max, for helpful tips on my new logo and also to Michael Heilemann for his default WordPress theme, which I used as a reference.

As time allows, I'll be adding content to the about, resume, projects and contact pages.

If you have any comments or criticism ( hopefully constructive ;) ) on the new site design, I'd like to hear them...

I've chosen WordPress and while I'm trying to create/find a design, I'm just going to use this "default" theme.

This site will mostly be used as a place to store code I'm writing/testing, but I'll also be adding various anecdotes about work, family, technology, etc...