Brandon Tran

Organic Fest Asheville NC 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:35:00 +0000

We attended the 8th annual OrganicFest event this year and what a great time we had. Many great products, services and organic ideas represented here. There were thousands of people in the streets downtown Asheville. The
All-day festival was relaxed celebration of everything organic.

*FROM 10 A.M. TO 6 P.M., ON SUN., SEPT. 13, 2009, 'THE REGION'S LARGEST ORGANIC situated near the historic Grove Arcade. The all-day street festival on Battery Park Ave. and Otis St. attracted approximately 8,000 attendees, estimated festival organizers.

I managed to capture one shot of a street with vendor tents. There were 2 streets full of tents and people. This is what Organic Fest looks like from the end of the street.

Kim Cantor, Kim Iamurri, Asheville Massage Therapy

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:43:00 +0000

Kim Cantor now known as Kim Iamurri gets her site designed by the Brandon Tran Design Studio. Her site came out wonderful I think. Kim agrees...

Let's go into a little bit about Kim. Kim is a massage therapist in Asheville NC and can easily take the title of Asheville's Best Massage Therapist. Kim attended The Whole You School of Massage in Rutherfordton, NC and opened her massage therapy practice in 2003. The doors flew wide open and today she has a very impressive clientele with a completely booked schedule to match. Asheville Massage Therapy

If you are looking for a great massage directed and given by someone who knows how to fine tune relaxation, call Kim Cantor Iamurri at My Pure Therapy and schedule an appointment. Your body will be thanking your body that you did.

Global Air Rescue - Air Ambulance Service

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:03:00 +0000

Since 1986 the team of professionals at Global Air Rescue have personally handled over 7,000 missions in over 150 countries on six continents. Global Air Rescue is one of the leading international medical transportation specialists. The aircraft used for air ambulance transfers are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or governed by the foreign equivalent certification and equipped with state-of-the-art advanced cardiac life support systems. The medical staff includes registered nurses who are ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) certified and have extensive training in critical care, aviation theory, and medicine. Global Air Rescue can supply highly qualified trauma care and cardiac care physicians, paramedics, respiratory therapists, and pediatric and neonatal nurses ready to fly anywhere on a moment's notice. Take the guesswork out of emergency air travel and call Global Air Rescue today. Because wherever you are, help will always come to you.

Global Air Rescue really cares about his clients. They take great pride in customer service they provide to those who need to be transported safely, fast, and without all the headaches you may encounter in a commercial flight. If you care about your loved ones, an Air Ambulance service such as Global Air Rescue is a valuable service.

Holistic Health Care Reform

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:10:00 +0000

Health care reform lead by Dr. Oz explaining how individual health counselors can shape and change health care standards in the U.S.

Holistic Health Counselors trained through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition are available across the United States.

One holistic health counselor, Wendy Tran, is based in Asheville North Carolina helping people change their lifestyles through educating them and coaching them to change their habits.

Wendy Tran provides holistic health counseling services over the phone, video conferencing, or in her office.

Sherry Rambin Asheville Photographer

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:43:00 +0000

Sherry Rambin is a professional photographer based in Asheville, NC. I designed Sherry's site to highlight her extensive photography portfolio complete with an integrated blog. The front page is a flash slide show showing off some of her best photography pictures. Once you visit her portfolio, the photography is displayed in a Word Press blog format for easy managing. Those who view the site are raving about the awesome photography work by Sherry. She is truly a talented Photographer.

Asheville Photographer - Sherry Rambin

I'm now on Twitter - Gaining Followers is Easy

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:55:00 +0000

Twitter is a powerful networking tool that has exploded in the mini-blogging world. It has huge potential to develop targeted traffic to your website or blog.
Follw Me On Twitter.

For the longest time I have looked a Twitter as another time waster and I felt that it was a pointless thing to type one line sentences on what you were up to. On April 11, 2009 I decided to just setup an account. I didn't think I would ever use it, but when you have a popular name like "Brandon Tran," you have to reserve accounts everywhere just in case you may want to use it some day. My name is ALWAYS taken. It's unbelievable. Sorry, back on subject... So I created an account, and I posted one tweet "Hating the world for making me get on twitter... I'm not joking..." I actually had some mixed feelings at the time about it but I figured if I did change my mind, it would be relatively funny if my perception changed. I didn't customize the account at all. Well, I let that account sit there for a month till I had time to come back around and take another gander. I decided to add a profile pic and actually take the time to make a nice, yet personal background. After doing these little changes I was shocked that within a 24 hour period I had 30 followers reading my little posts.

I have read article after article about the benefits and power behind the twitter networking machine. It really does work, people are visiting my BrandonTran.com website. Utilizing this tool can grow into something really beneficial. So if you haven't taken the time to create your twitter account, go do it now! Make sure you take the time and really design a custom background for it if you want to represent your personality effectively. I can't stress that enough. I ignore people who don't add a profile pic at least, and if I am ignoring, you bet other people are doing the same. Take the time and give it some love.

One of the areas I have mixed feelings about is clicking follow on everyone in hopes that the person will be curious and come to your profile. This fits along the ethical line of spam in my opinion. Quality figures such as Oprah, Jimmy Fallon, Shaq, just to name a few, don't do that. Sure they have their brand and are public figures, but realistically you can not follow 80,000 people. If 80,000 people post 4 tweets a day, that number would be huge.

Twitter is a learning experience for me right now so, jump on the train and let's go for a ride.

Follw Me On Twitter

Poems Only Get's A Fresh New Design

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:30:00 +0000

As the title says, yes I gave poems only a new design as well as a new community system. It allows people to post comments, rate poems, submit poems, and has a community forum. In short, yes it's a Word Press Blog with the Thesis theme. However by the time I get customizing and editing a blog, you might as well call it a Brandon Tran theme because it really has minimal comparison to the original Thesis theme. That theme software wasn't cheap by any means, however it comes with a few perks. I can use that theme on any of my websites, and for clients, there is an additional $40 license fee. So far I am very pleased with the new site and its functionality. Here comes a little shameless promotion: If you have ever written a poem you should head over to Poems Only and post it! Help contribute to the community :) I will love you for it. And who doesn't want a little bit of Brandon love? Nice you are moving already, Thanks!

Here is a screen shot. Ignore the ugly advertisement on the right.

Youtube Site Everything Upside Down

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:33:00 +0000

The other day I was watching some music videos on youtube and noticed that everything was upside down. I am not sure if it was a hack or one of the developers wanted to mess around with the youtube style sheet for kicks. Well I took a screen shot of it, and it only lasted for about 20 seconds and was back to normal. I am sure they enjoyed that practical joke. I sure got a kick out of it!

New Forums for Holistic Health Library

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:40:00 +0000

I have put a lot of time installing and customizing a Holistic Health Community Forum for HolisticHealthLibrary.com. It turned out great! Still a few kinks to work out, but for the most part it works and functions correctly.

The forum is actually a word press plugin from simplepressforum.com. It has about 1 million options, so configuring and customizing something like this is not an easy task by any means. And of course if something isn't perfect, I can't leave it along, I have to get in there and edit some of the code work so it is just the way I like it. None the less, it turned out well thanks to SimplePressForum.com

Asheville Real Estate - Sunset Realty

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:35:00 +0000

New site design:
Asheville Real Estate - Sunset Realty

Rachel L. Acker, owner of Sunset Realty has a new website so go check it out! This site has a basic design using a flash header to show some photos at the top. I feel it turned out pretty well. Also, the MLS page incorporates a real-time search to find homes in in the N.C. area.

Meet Virginia - Train - Cover Song

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:44:00 +0000

So... I bought a new guitar, a mic, and a recorder and thought I would toy around a bit. This song is one of my favorites. I have been a huge fan of Train for a good while now. Anyway, here is my version of their song "Meet Virginia."

Villa - Lake Como, Italy

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:07:00 +0000

Villa - Lake Como, Italy

My dream home on Lake Como, Italy.

Doing a Little Sailing

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:58:00 +0000

We had a little wind down at the lake so I decided to take out the little sail boat for a few runs around the lake. Wendy took a few pictures.

View My Sailing Gallery

My Trip to the Northern part of Italy

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:26:00 +0000

Italy is one of the most beautiful places in the world to visit. Trust me, I have been all over the world. It is truly one of those really special places anyone would love. So Wendy and I decided to go visit some friends Paula and Massimo after we heard they were moving to Italy for work reasons. It just seemed like a good time to see Italy. Visit some good friends, eat some good food, and see some great sites.

Our trip started by flying to Newark airport in New Jersey and meet up with Paula who was on a business trip from Houston TX. This was an unexpected meet up. Who would have thought we would be on the exact same flight with her. So it worked out nicely, we flew to Milan with tons of luggage for 3 people. Arriving in Milan we hopped in a cab to Paula and Massimo's really nice apartment.

This was during the week so Paula and Massimo had to go to work. During the day we walked around Milan checking out the 3 things to see there. The Duomo Cathedral, the Milan Castle, and the Duomo Piazza. Piazza is Italian for Central Square. Once Paula and Massimo got off of work they took us to a wonderful restaurant which was very small and quaint with amazing home cooked Italian food.

Next we hopped on a train to Venice and spent 2 days there. We had a great time getting lost in the winding unorganized little streets :) and enjoyed the sites and great food. While in Venice we toured a Glass making factory of Murano, and went to a Concerto of Antonio Vivaldi. He was an Italian composer who is famous for his music.

Instead of making this story a book, I am just going to finish it up by listing the places we visited: Bergamo, Lake Como, and Florence.

View My Italy Photo Gallery

Dog House Doggie Daycare - Asheville, NC

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:51:00 +0000

Meet Kathy, owner of "The Dog House," who runs a dog daycare, or shall I say, K-9 paradise - vacation spot for dogs. Kathy is one of those really sweet gals that loves her dogs as much as she loves her own children, and it shows. "The Dog House" is a true K-9 Paradise. That is my definition of it. I remember when people would kennel their dogs while they were on vacation or out of town. This trend of dog daycare has really caught on and "The Dog House Doggie Daycare" is one of the greatest dog facilities in Asheville, NC. Your dog can now hang out with friends, get plenty of love, and just have a huge amount of fun. Instead of them going crazy sitting in a kennel, these dogs get so much stimulation from constant playing, it's almost like going to Disney Land for our K-9 friends. If you have been kenneling your dogs, think about giving Kathy at The Dog House a call and enroll your pet. It's inexpensive, and your dog will love you for it.

As for the site, the concept for the site was to be as simple as possible, yet have a fun professional look. So I went with the flash header, drawing most of the artwork by hand. A few clip art icons in the mix and the rest was history. The site turned out great and Kathy is happy with the site.

Dog House Doggie Daycare

Cadence's Body Contouring, Health Spa - Asheville, NC

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:52:00 +0000

One of the popular things to do in Asheville North Carolina is to look and feel your best the natural way. Cadence Fleming, owner of Cadence's Body Contouring and Health Spa, has the methods, tips, and secrets to achieving that better looking you. Her new spa website project still follows the fundamental easy coded html that I always use with some photographic flash flair for the front page. Take a look, this one is a beauty. No pun intended.

Cadence's Body Contouring, Health and Day Spa - Asheville NC

Your Hawaii Source - Site Redesign

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:45:00 +0000

YourHawaiiSource.com received a new design this month. Also added a huge gallery of pictures related to Hawaii. Google began sending this site quite a bit more traffic so it was due for a nice overhaul and fresher look. Once again the design is mainly focused towards content more so than fancy graphic work.

Guzer - Video Entertainment Site Redesign

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:37:00 +0000

Guzer.com received a fresh design. The concept was simple: To keep it simple. Improved comment system using ajax so that when someone makes a post / comment the page does not reload. Also the 5 star rating system was programed using the same concept using ajax. The page does not load when you rate a video or picture. The new site design focuses on getting the user straight to the content without clutter or extra stuff for them to click on. This site is all about the content as well as simple coding for fast loading!

Water Wheel Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Sun, 18 May 2008 17:31:00 +0000

I have developed a fascination for water wheels and hope to some day build one so I compiled a collection of water wheel pictures. These pictures will be the inspiration, influence, and concepts for my future water wheel project. The project will encompass European old world architecture and generate electricity.

Water wheels have been around since ancient classical times, generating power to drive a millstone or create energy. Water wheels have something special about them. Maybe it is the sound of the water falling, the energy they can produce, or the architecture that makes them so special. What ever it may be, people are drawn to build them.

Water Wheel Pictures

First In Counters Redesign

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Mon, 05 May 2008 06:41:00 +0000

First In Counters received a new design in April to a sleeker more modern design. The clients are very happy with the new look and it still needs a little more tweaking.

First In Counters

Holistic Health Library

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Mon, 05 May 2008 06:38:00 +0000

I have been working on a new website with Wendy for her health counseling degree program. You can follow the progress of the site here:

Holistic Health Library

Fun Snap - Browse, Upload, and Share Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:07:00 +0000

One of my recent projects, is Fun Snap, which is a photography based website where users can upload photo and share them. Simply put, a gallery of photo's that are uploaded by users. I think the project in the long run will be a great one. The major genre of photos is landscape nature type scenes, but the members are able to upload any images they chose.

Anyone who visits the site can enjoy the wonderful photos, which can be used as desktop backgrounds, or just to browse.

You can see the progress of the site here:

Fun Snap Photos

My 6,000 Square Foot Dream House Comes To Life

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:56:00 +0000

Well, thus far only my friends and family know about this project, but I think it's time I wrote a little something about this milestone project for me. I am originally from Alexandria, Louisiana where the climate is hot, humid... The best thing I know there are family and friends.

One day in 2005, I decided to move to an area where the scenery was beautiful and inspiring with the goal of building a dream home. Well... I am quite spontaneous at times, so Wendy and I packed the bags, hopped in our 2 automobiles and off we went to Asheville, North Carolina, which is a hot spot we had visited in the past. It's a nice little city in the blue ridge mountains with great people, fun culture, and amazing mountain views.

December 2005 We moved into a small 2 bedroom apartment and began looking for the perfect land to build on. We soon found a great lot and began construction on this dream house in July of 2005. To make a long story short, there were good times, and there were stressful times. Not because of the simple process of building a house, yet the size and magnitude of this house. This home project is right at 6,000 sq. feet, which to me, this is the size of 3 average homes. So the project felt like I was building 3 houses at once. The project involved many different factors I was not used to when building a house. A steep mountain slope, high labor and material cost, and harsh harsh weather during the winter months. In 2005 this was the real estate boom peak in most of the United States and I think that was one of the factors of costs. So during the next 2 years, we would work day in, day out on this project, making it the most perfect home you could ever imagine.

Read the Full Article Here
My 6,000 Square Foot Dream House Comes To Life

My First House Construction Project

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:59:00 +0000

Building a house can be intimidating, especially when you have never done it before. There is no better way to learn how to build a house, than to just jump right into it and get the ball rolling. I say that lightly, but at least grabbing a book on how to build a house will help, which is what I did. Another very helpful tool I used to build this house was a little advice from friends who had already been through the experience as well as talking to my framing carpenter all the time.

Wendy and I started building this house in 2003, which was in the midst of the real estate boom! Then thing to do during those years was to build a house, live in it for two years, and sell it for a nice little profit, while avoiding the capital gains tax. You can't beat that kind of deal. So many of my friends where all on the band wagon building many houses.

There was a lot to learn building this house and I learned just about everything I would need to know making any other construction project for the future a cake walk. This project went by very fast and ended up being completed in about seven months.

Read the Full Article Here
My First House Construction Project

INT Marketing, Inc. Web Design

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon Tran) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:37:00 +0000

This site was created many years ago to host my portfolio of sites built and to have some information about the company. It is the main corporation website for INT Marketing. For my clients you can always find my latest contact info on the website.

INT Marketing, Inc. Web Design