You can still enjoy the blog and gallery just like you always have here, but with some slight changes. I decided it was time to make some technical changes to the way the site works behind the scenes, and also some changes to the way the site looks and behaves, for you, the ever important visitor. First of all, I've created categories and grouped blog entries and gallery images within those categories. I hope this will ease navigation as the content inevitably grows in size over time.

Finally, most of the changes should be transparent to you, my prized visitor. Geeks, techy wonks, and general nerds out there will appreciate what I'm about to discuss here, but others may just end up with glazed over eyes, and a sneaking, overwhelming feeling of boredome. First of all, I upgraded the database to the newest version of MySQL. Then, I upgraded Hibernate, and I implemented Spring for overall control of the application behind the site. Hibernate takes care of all the database access and data maniupulation, and Spring manages creation and management of all Java objects. Finally, the site itself is implemented in JSF/MyFaces. It has been a great learning experience getting all this stuff working together, and I must extend a thanks to my work buddy Lou for helping me get started on the Spring stuff.