Either way I realize my code is bad and I guess nonsense by what you tell me, could you point me in the right direction to produce the events I desired?
It would certainly be easier to determine if the code was doing what you want/expect if there were comments in the code.
Ignoring the mismatched braces for the moment, please explain what you think this code is doing:
if(time - preTime > potInterval){
preTime = time;
(fade < 255);
fade +=5;
analogWrite(ledPin, fade);
(fade > 255);
fade = 0;
fade -=5;
analogWrite(ledPin, fade);
It appears as though that stuff in parentheses is supposed to have an if in front of it. If that is the case, the code after it SHOULD be in curly braces, and the semicolon on the end is wrong.
For now, change
(fade < 255);
fade +=5;
analogWrite(ledPin, fade);
to
if(fade < 255)
{
fade +=5;
analogWrite(ledPin, fade);
}
Make corresponding changes to the code that follows. Try that, and let us know what the code looks like, what the serial output looks like, and what the visual results look like.