Posted by brandonthedeveloper at October 18th, 2009

Pal Joey

Some of you might remember in July of 2008 someone stole our 10 year old Boston Terrier Petey from our backyard. We looked for him for months following that with no luck. We did manage to find three other Bostons though. Good for them, not so good for us. Still, if someone contacted us with info about Petey we felt like we had to follow up.

During the second week of October, 2008 we received a message off Craigslist that said, “your dog is at the Chesterfield Animal Shelter.”. While I was certain it wasn’t Petey I couldn’t not check to make sure. So during my lunch break the next day I drove to the animal shelter to check this dog out. It wasn’t Petey (no surprise there) but an extremely malnourished Boston that drooled constantly and was losing hair. I took him out of the cage and he was very friendly. I walked him around and pet him for a while before putting him back. I sat in the car and thought about that dog and the immediate connection I felt with him. The next day, we all came back so the rest of the family could meet this pup and see how he was around children. When they brought him out the waiting area was full of people of all ages and this dog was friendly to everyone. Our biggest concern at that point was “how would a new dog behave around our other dog Alex, our two cats and the Angora bunny that lives in the house like a cat”? Yeah. I know. A zoo. We decided to take this pup home and give him a try.

That was October 17, 2008. Yesterday was Joey’s first full year with us. We named him after two of my favorite music heroes that are no longer with us, Joe Strummer and Joey Ramone. He’s never been a replacement for Petey but has been perfect fit in this family from the very first day. We’re so glad to have him.

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at August 20th, 2008

Just a quick reminder that the Flash Development User Group (FDUG) in Richmond, Virginia will be meeting tomorrow night – 08/21/2008 at ArtWorks in south Richmond from 6 – 8.
My old friend Kevin Power from the Martin Agency will be talking about programmatic animation in Flash and I’ll show some component skinning in Flex.

All levels and abilities are encouraged to attend. Come out and support Flash in Richmond!

Questions? Email me at brandonthedeveloper at gmail dot com.

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at July 25th, 2008

Most of you know that on July 2, my dog Petey disappeared from our backyard near Floyd and Ellwood, right next to Carytown. Almost two weeks ago, we started getting Petey sightings on Midlothian Turnpike. Apparently, the area near Cloverleaf Mall is infamous as a spot where animal thieves discard stolen animals. Since July 14, we’ve had sightings almost every day but no matter how many times we go over to Midlo, we’re either too late or just out of luck.

So here’s what I’m asking, if you by some chance are driving along Midlothian Turnpike between Cloverleaf Mall and Providence Rd, please keep an eye out for a little Boston Terrier. Petey is 10 years old and would normally weigh in around 16 pounds. Folks have said he seems to be doing ok but is skittish when approached. He’s almost always been seen on the south side (Cloverleaf side) of Midlothian Turnpike. If you think you see him, please call me (398-0123). Tomorrow (7/26) I’ll be out on Midlothian on my bike putting up flyers and keeping an eye out for him most of the day. We really miss him and want him back ASAP!

Thanks everyone. :)

Oh and we’re offering a reward.

Petey

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at July 16th, 2008

On July 17th, FDUG will welcome San Francisco based Adobe Platform Evangelist, Lee Brimelow!

Join us in welcoming Lee as he brings us a “Sneak Peak” at Flash CS4 and Flash Player 10 !! Straight from Adobe Headquarters! We will also have some pizza, drinks, and who knows…. Maybe even some software!!!

Lee Brimelow is a Platform Evangelist with Adobe and an award-winning interactive designer. He has worked in the past for companies such as America Online, Netscape, eBay, Stanford University, and frog design and has a passion for developing new and innovative ways of using the Flash Platform to create rich user experiences. He runs the popular technology blog at theFlashBlog.com, produces the free Flash tutorial resource at gotoAndLearn.com, and has a regular column on Flash in Layers Magazine. Lee is also the author of several titles for Lynda.com including Flash Professional 8 Video Integration and After Effects 7 + Flash 8 Integration.

Time: 6 – 8
Place: Artspace/Plant Zero, 7 E. 3rd Street in South Richmond – click for directions

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at July 3rd, 2008

Hey Richmond, Va!

My dog Petey has gone missing.
Petey is a male 10 year old Boston Terrier. He weighs about 16 pounds and is very friendly. He’s never been out of our backyard without a leash so it’s totally out of his character to wander off. We live west of the boulevard between Floyd and Ellwood avenues near Nansemond. If you see him, call me at 358-2953 (home), 398-0123 (mobile) or 804-286-4250 (skype).

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at May 21st, 2008

Wow. Aside from my kids bDay posts, I have pretty much blown it as a Flash/Flex/AIR blogger. ;)

I was having a little Twitter conversation with my Flex/Flash bud Sean Moore (www.seantheflexguy.com). We were talking about punk from back-in-day and a top 10 list of punk albums. So, as a cheap means of getting a blog post up, I’ll post my top ten punk rock albums. This is not the same as if I had to come up with my top ten albums of all time (which I don’t think I could do) but here goes:

* in no particular order

1. The Clash – Clash ‘77
2. X – Los Angeles
3. Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers – L.A.M.F.
4. Iggy and the Stooges – Raw Power
5. Ramones – Rocket To Russia
6. Stiff Little Fingers – Inflammable Material
7. Hüsker Dü – New Day Rising
8. Minor Threat – Minor Threat
9. Bad Religion – No Control
10. Social Distortion – Mommy’s Little Monster
11. Bad Brains – Bad Brains

My list is so punk it’s actually eleven items. ;)

You gotta top ten? I wanna see it. :)

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at August 16th, 2007

John Ballinger has released the newest version of his desktop client Tweetr. Tweetr is a full featured desktop Twitter application written using the AIR runtime. The new version looks great and has new icons that make it simple to use.

Here’s a list of updates for this new release:

• fixed messages being truncated
• changed webcam logic if no webcam
• delete your own messages (new)
• updated camera button
• automcomplete for @username and “d” msgs
• msg’s are refunded if Twitter eats them.
• turns off webcam after photo.

One of the best new features is the built in file sharing. Drag a file into the download window and once uploaded, you are given a url that links to the file.

Download Tweetr here.

Great job John!

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at July 30th, 2007

Sean over at actionscriptcheatsheet.com has released his PDF AIR Cheatsheet.

“This is a seven page PDF that outlines all of the new packages and classes specific to Adobe AIR Beta 1.”

Get it here.

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at July 29th, 2007

Just a quick shout to say Hi and thanks for adding me to the RVA Blogs list. I’m going to be getting a new and improved Adobe user group going here since the current one is dead. Anyone interested in getting involved just shoot me an email.

I’d also like to say that anyone in the RVA area who has not attended a Refresh Richmond meeting, its a great way to meet other local tech folks. The last one on July 17 was a lot of fun. I met a lot of designers and developers, drank some beer and had a great time.

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at July 5th, 2007

brandon&cliff6.9.83001, originally uploaded by propiratzi.

My old friend Cindy found some old pics from back-in-the-day. Here’s me and my buddy Cliff twenty-four years ago at Bennys.