• The Merchandise section needs to be revamped, it needs to contain multiple shops for multiple designs and ALSO include my yard sale where I can sell away stuff I no longer need like my childhood toys.


• There is still too much “Design” in Bracercom and it’s still not as flexible as I want it yet, I would like this future version to be completely XML/PHP/Text Based where the only graphics are the content, basically the site’s interface must disappear.

After the “function driven” only interface concept of Bracercom V3, I had a very strong urge to bring back “design”/“sound” and crap to this version to bring back some “glory”.

The funny thing is, I find myself throwing every single sheet of paper I’ve drawn on that envisions Bracercom V4 in all its perceived Flash animation glory.

Bracercom V3 works, it just works, I even received comments from people telling me this is how they want a site to be, no fancy animated banners or preloader that takes up space and file size for its own sake, no ambient sounds and the likes.

But I love those useless craps, as does most web designers...no ?

But deep down inside, I know what to do for this version; it’s going to be a natural progression of V3 instead of a complete design overhaul.

Traumatized by the kiddish color interface that is Bracercom V3.2, I moved to the other extreme, I have decided that this version will only have two color languages, black and white, there will be no shades of grey, no doubt, simple, only the content itself are allowed to have colors, the interface should just work as a navigator and stay out of the way.

No more crazy font usage, Bracercom V4 had no more use for that, the content itself would suffice as interesting, I reverted to a font that would had me stoned in the web design arsenal when it comes to creativity, I reverted to the trusty old New Times Roman font, it works so just shut the fuck up.
I could totally commit design suicide by using Arial, one of the most readable font in the planet but I am not about to shot gun myself just yet.

The color problem I experienced in V3.2 had got me thinking as to why my logo is so dependent on color, it’s not that it’s a bad thing; I just want my identity to be able to portray itself in numerous shades of color, this thought also comes at a time where I felt my old logo no longer represent my personality anymore.

This leads to a complete design overhaul of the Bracercom Logo as you can see here.
Once again, I am happy with my logo and all is well.

Bracercom V4 featured a section I have always wanted to have but don’t really know what to put in there, a merchandise section, a place where I can sell my knickknacks, like a yard sale.

Alright, let’s get this version going, Bracercom V4 power up !

Overly concern about content display space & possible new sections that need to be incorporate into the design during airtime cause Bracercom version 3 to be the most functionality orientated version of the three thus far.

With no bells and whistles, this version’s only mission was to display content in a standardize and orderly fashion, a task greatly aided by the HTML/CSS combination.

With only functionality in mind, all previous versions’ wish list was incorporated without much hassle.

The “Diary”, “Highlight”, “Fitness”, “Senseless Doodling” and “Site History” sections are all new to Bracercom V3.

1 year and 8 months later [04 October 2009] after the initial creation of Version 3, two new sections “Download” and “Accent” had been “squeezed” into the design.

On 03 Feb 2010, 4 months after Bracercom v3.1 or 1 Year 11 months 28 days after Bracercom v3 was first conceived, Bracercom v3.2 was conceived.

The “accent” section was removed, it was originally created to help me remove my Chinese accent when I am speaking English but I have decided to be the unique crap that I am.

The “senseless doodling” section and “official gallery” sections are fused into one.

Unfortunately, this version turns out to be such a disaster; it effectively marks the end of Bracercom V3.

Feeling that the initial V3 grayscale color scheme was rather boring, I’ve decided to bring back some colors, and what better color to use than my favorite blue and a touch of gold and yellow in small quantities I thought.
At the beginning, it looked great in my eyes, but as time goes by, it started to grow on me that the site is starting to look rather kiddish, and this feeling starts to grow and grow on me to the point that I can’t stand looking at it anymore.

So many things have happened in my life when Bracercom V3 was up, and the site reflected that as well, sections come and go.

I even got to learn a little bit about what it meant to have too much exposure, not a good thing to me.
Bracercom is suppose to be a small little place in the web where I hide, where only my friends come in to see what I have been up to and a few strangers are welcome, to have more than 500 visitors to my site everyday is something that I cannot comprehend.

This final version of Bracercom V3 also marks the end of my weight training routine, after two years of training and posting every single picture of myself every month, I have decided to stop it for many reasons.
Thanks to all the people that sent emails to me encouraging me in this aspect, I am sorry I’ve let you all down.

The diary section of my site will also be removed by the next version, seems like my personal life could be used against me in the hands of the wrong person [It happened]; it has also brought me many friends, people that share the same thoughts as me.
The sad me, the philosophical me, the 3 years diary section has had a good run.
It’s not really gone; it’s just not available to the public anymore.

Ladies and Gentleman, this is the end of Bracercom V3, what a great idea it was, to focus just on functionality, ease of update and nothing else.

The main reason for the upgrade to Bracercom version 2 was because the Bracercom version 1 mascot can no longer represent the skill I possess at the time.

From an R&D design time standpoint, it’s a waste of production resource to completely redo a website just because there is a site mascot change but that’s exactly what happened here.

As the content grew, this fancy “look good” Actionscript 2.0 Flash site starts to “crack” just within 8 months.

Bracercom V1 & V2 was designed with “delivering a good presentation” in mind, similar to how a few drops of perfume was packaged in a large fancy box.
It’s big and fancy but no love.

Face with the need for more sections & space for new content, as much as it hurts, I have to let this type of interface go...for now.

Ah Yes...The very first official version of Bracercom.

Bracercom Version 1, which original purpose was just to showcase my work, was heavily inspired by the legendary Neostream web site, hence the Mascot, which naturally became the Bracercom version 1 mascot.

Bracercom version 1 took 7 months and 25 days of R&D time, most of which was spend on the animation sequence of the mascot as he jumps to different section of the site.
On retrospect I must say I’m still very proud of the hair and cloth simulation I had achieved at the time :)

Not that it really matters but it’s an interesting note to myself that Bracercom V1 was coded in Flash Actionscript 1.0.