A Short Little History

Hi my name is Brent O'Connor and I was born in Grand Junction, Colorado. I lived in Colorado from birth until High School graduation. Between Kindergarten and seventh grade we moved around from Greeley, Meeker, Sargent, and Creede, Colorado. My mom and I moved back to Grand Junction after spending the summer before seventh grade in Creede. I ended up graduating from Central High School in Grand Junction, Colorado.

My freshman year in college I attended Pacific Christian College in Fullerton, California. After my freshman year of college, I left PCC to attend Manhattan Christian College in Manhattan, Kansas. There I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Bible/Pastoral Ministry with a Minor in Youth Ministry.

Shortly after graduating from college I went on to marry my true love. I truly feel that God has blessed me with the most wonderful person in the world, my wife Julie.

Julie graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in Elementary Education. Julie currently works and serves as the best stay at home mom in the world!

I currently work full time at Kansas State University as the web manager for the College of Architecture, Planning, & Design. I also do web development on the side through my business Epicserve.

About This Site

The Design

I designed this website using Fireworks and then put the design into XHTML and CSS by hand using Dreamweaver MX as my code editor. When I'm on the PC I use Dreamweaver because I like its SFTP / SCP integration into the site manager so that I can work with the files directly off the server without having to run FTP on my server. When I'm on my PowerBook I use Transmit for uploading files to the server and I use Textmate as my code editor.

Backend / CMS

The backend of this site was entirely custom coded by myself using PHP / Mysql. I use my own framework that I've developed over the years that uses the MVC model. My framework is mainly driven by a Controller, Database, and a Template class that I wrote. I also wrote the system that creates the RSS feed as well as the comment form and contact form.

Hosting

I host the website on my own server that I have co-located with a big company in Texas. I've been pleased with their service and support and have never really had a problem since I started using them. Before having my own server co-located I would run this website and others off a server at a friend's house that had a static IP address with his DSL.