What Was FITC?

Well I just got back from my very first Flash conference, FITC, and it was a pretty good milestone for me.

It was great to finally meet my online friend Stacey who has given me tons of advice over the last year or two. I also met many new people, Kristin, Lord Alex, Eric, Steve, Paolo, Tony, Julian, James, Randy, Michael, Lanny. I’m sure I’ve left some out. I’ve got some pictures here, but Stacey’s are much more entertaining. Of course it was awesome having my fellow work peeps Mathew Ray and Adam Boozer there too!

Aside from the fun, I got some pretty serious inspiration and motivation to further my knowledge of what is now known as the Flash Platform. There were several sessions that were busts, one in particular in my opinion was the keynote. I don’t think that anything groundbreaking was announced and I thought that much of it was just filler. Can you say “exciting?”

The most inspiring session was Joshua Davis’ Mutation themed talk. I was strangely freaked when Adam dropped the F-Bomb but Joshua put everyone to shame in that department. The guy just does amazing work in the punk aesthetic (inspirational to me) which is also creative, and technical. Other sessions that I especially enjoyed were by Colin Moock, Darron Schall, Mario Klingemann, Keith Peters, Adam Boozer, the Next Generation panel, and the Freelancing panel. Some others were interesting and others I found fairly bland.

On Sunday the combination of Colin Moock’s and Darron Schall’s talks made me realize the potential of what Adobe is trying to do with the Flash Platform and Apollo. Not that I’m well read in the Flash/Flex blogosphere, but I haven’t seen anyone state this yet: Adobe is aiming directly at the .NET market. With the free dev framework, the lightweight runtime platform (much smaller than MS .NET), the cross-platform (I hope) compatibility, and the promise of desktop apps with Apollo, I’m definitely buying in. From what I can see from the sessions by Collin, Darron, and Keith, the entirely rewritten version 9 player will open up a whole new range of possibilities, AND respect for the Flash Platform.

Joyce came up and we stayed a couple of extra days after the conference to enjoy Toronto. The extra time brought up feelings I’ve had about Canada, Toronto and Hockey which will be upcoming posts.

FITC – I Think I Just Screwed Up

So Monday I book my ticket for Flash in the Can and I’m getting all excited about going. Wednesday I wake up to a the local paper’s article about the fact that Delta pilots are probably going on strike on Tuesday, which will probably put the airline out of business. Tickets from Atlanta to Toronto on Tuesday for a Thursday flight on other airlines will probably be in the $1000+ price range.

What kills me it that two weeks ago I had a strong thought NOT to book this flight on Delta for the very reason above and I forgot. Does anyone have any suggestions?

UPDATE:

Stacey, that would be cool. I think we’d probably have more fun than being at the conference!

Anyway, Delta has come to an agreement with the pilots so no strike. But what I ended up doing is booking on Air Canada. A phone call to Delta told me that the ticket was non-refundable so I was planning to take the $50 cancellation fee and use the ticket voucher for something else. But on the Delta website I hit the “cancel itinerary” button and it let me cancel! Apparently the 24 hour refund policy applied to my 48 hour old ticket. Maybe the 24 hours starts when the credit card transaction is settled, but this morning I saw a credit for the amount of the ticket on my credit card!

Sweetwater in April – The Best Xmas Party Ever

We hit the opening party for the Sweetwater tasting room on Sunday afternoon. Apparently it was due to open at Christmas time but they didn’t quite make it. The theme was a “Better Late Than Never” theme.

I have to say it was worth the wait! The weather was perfect, about 80 degrees and the new room was stunning. Certainly inspired by other great tasting rooms such as New Belgium. The server said that they would have the room open for their Monday and Thursday tastings as well as for private parties.

We ran in to Big Daniel from The Local with a friend of his (forgot his name!). It was a good time harrassing Daniel since he doesn’t drink. He was having fits trying to find a Coke to which we responded, “Well what the hell are you doing at a brewery dumbass!” He took his abuse well and dished some back at us.

The beer, as usual was just fabulous. Joyce had a couple of Blues and I had the IPA and a Belgian “Double Trouble” that was apparently brewed just for the occasion. I’m not much of a Belgian beer fan, but this was VERY good and VERY strong. Not too heavy and just crisp enough for the day.

The conversation was good, the music was rockin’, the vibe was fun and it was overall about the best afternoon we’ve spent in at least a year. Spring has sprung!

By all means, check out the Flickr Set.

Chicks Dig Josh Rouse!

Saw Josh Rouse’s first tour date promoting his new album Subtitulo. I got the album at eMusic and you should to. I’ll tell ya the guy has some misses, but when he hits, he can really pen some gems. I’m glad that Claire Kember had the taste to turn me on to him several years ago. Anyway, the crowd was full of young hotties all singing along. Single guys, there’s your clue. Catch one of his shows!

Got some shots and video with my new FujiFilm V10 camera. It’s pretty damn nice compared to the old Canon Elph that just died.

The camera will go up to 1600 ISO which is crucial since my old camera was VERY problematic at 400 ISO. I bracketed down two stops and set it manually to 800 or 1600 ISO and got some very decent shots. Check it out at my Flickr account.

Here’s some video. The audio was pumping due to the auto gain control on the camera. Gotta figure a way around that! You can find this one and two more at You Tube.