calvin crane

There are times in life when it feels like you walk alone though this is probably not the truth the perception is there and feels very real. But it is on the way to somewhere where you no longer walk alone and indeed do not feel it. Today I had an experience that fully placed me in the feeling alone category, though I was not.

Continue reading "We all walk alone at times on the way to what draws us."

Posted by calvin crane

sunset, wilshire, beverly, nelson , speedway, venice, la cahuenga, sepulveda bvd, pallisades, PCH. oar house , firehouse, jims at the beach my LA. 1992.

Posted by calvin crane

I have in fact been surprised at the claims for expenses that MPs have been making. In fact more than shocked. And the backlash will be felt on the back of the backlash of the economic downturn.

If there is something that I also felt however is that a felling of optimism. Part of the old regime died in the economic collapse and it seems politicians are talking reform tonight with Jeremy Paxman at a level that would have been laughable a month ago perhaps. So in both cases perhaps the bang is nasty and has had a very negative effect but maybe it was necessary. I think it may have hurt the wrong people but they are merely casualties of a war on greed. Greed is a common denominator here and the working classes are not exempt from their greed in the housing market fuelling the demand and inflated price rises.

Ok I jumpt off my soap box for a moment, caught up with some ciudade de homens following the street kids in brazil by way of a series from the creators of ciudade de dios city of god. Cool I was disappointed as I was expecting similar to the popular film. But the series has merit and every episode a kind of message Confucius would have been proud of.

Posted by calvin crane

Another short term job today, but very nice atmos at DDB Health in Hammersmith, nice also to do some visual work for a change. Getting on also with my flickr widget for as3 and flex. Its mostly flash but as I built it with the sdk and started with an Application tag I'm looking at trying out some flex components for challenge. It might keep things tidy. Will see how easily they skin up as I want a custom look. Still not doing Capoeira but my handstands an general balance upside down are getting there. And also my makak's are coming off to the extent a hard floor doesn't worry me. Would be nice if i could control going backwards and balance in the vertical, at leats for a moment. Still no sign of full on Summer. But its nice to have the late evening light, allows me to get out for a run since I was biggin it ip playing battlefield 2 last night, and how good this game still is years later !

Posted by calvin crane

I had a moment of clarity and thought I ought to blog it.

Where I'm at - I will develop action script as and when it seems suitable interesting and a good idea or the bills start to get on top..

I want to focus on developing widgets for portals and websites, and anyone's sites generally.

I want to get into a style industry in some capacity.
I want to get into a travel industry better. Indeed combine the two sometimes. Style will mean sticking around Europe and indeed I don't think I will ever be able to not access it say at least 3 times per year if I do get to do my thing on some Caribbean Island.

So nothing drastic , an evolution but need to define a few clear goals to make it happen.

Posted by calvin crane

The older one (website) had some very old stuff, so I'm getting round to doing things.
Had a strange one this week end, misjudged my friday night consumption and that's all I'm going to say on that one very big baseball bat in the face note to self. But will I learn I know I caused a friend some grief. Sorry buddy I'm looking for an excuse but don't really have one. Watched some of the football, Arsenal look quite poor, I think they have been a bit unlucky this year with injury and the side is very young, wonder who will stick around, would be nice to have a few more English players in the squad.

Continue reading "Messing around with the look of this, its not mine but its cleaner and appealing."

Posted by calvin crane

My old colleague Jake Brindle let me in on a cool package called bulk loader for as3.

http://code.google.com/p/bulk-loader/

I'm just checking out its usefulness here. Its a bit bulky for banners but for microsites and my portfolio should be ideal to centralise my loading of external assets.

EXAMPLE USEAGE

package at.landed.view.components
{
import flash.display.Sprite;
import br.com.stimuli.loading.BulkLoader;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.display.Bitmap;
import flash.display.BitmapData;

public class Image00 extends Sprite
{

var loader : BulkLoader = new BulkLoader("main-site"); // creates a BulkLoader instance with a name of "main-site", that can be used to retrieve items without having a reference to this instance

public function Image00()
{
loader.add("images/me.png", { id:"me" } );
loader.get("me").addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onBackgroundLoaded)
loader.start();
}
private function onBackgroundLoaded(e:Event):void
{
addChild(loader.getBitmap("me"))
}
}

}

Posted by calvin crane