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February 19th 2007

“There is a race on today and your in it. The only question is whether you’re going to win or lose, and that is largely up to you. One advantage you have is that the great majority of the people aren’t aware that they are in the race. They are simply strolling along. They don’t understand how competitive our world is today, and they don’t realize how important it is to win.”

-Brian Tracy

Welcome to day one of my blog. I have written a journal for around 15 years and have written over 5,000 pages of the life and times of Keith Johnson that will only be mildly interesting to my wife, son and myself. This will be different and the focus is Flash, Instructional Design or E-learning, and life in general.

I starting off with a Brian Tracy quote, one I have written in the back cover of my journals for the last couple years. I believe in good quotes and the wisdom of others and Mr. Tracy is a wise man.

February 22nd, 2007

This week I was reelected Manager of the Seattle Flash User Group. I just want to thank the group and those who voted for me and support the group. Gabe Marihugh will no longer be the co-manager but is still going to run the web site. Daniel Niland is the new co-manager, welcome aboard Daniel. And I also want to thank Jeff Jones and Kinsey Fobes for caring enough about the group to run for office, both great guys and assets to the local Flash community.

February 23rd 2007

I have started working with Flash since version 5. I purchased some bad books and struggle to learn the program. It seems like back around 2000 their were a lot of back technology books filled with mistakes and bad explanations. It was frustrating, then I discovered Lynda.com’s Flash 5 Hands on training and I started learning the program, when Flash MX came out I purchase the program and Lynda.com’s Flash MX Hands on Training and I went through that book highlighting my way across 832 pages (just checked on amazon). I contribute Lynda Weinman for teaching me Flash, I met her a couple times at Flash Forward she is very nice as well as very smart. When I created the support web site for Casabyte I used the Lynda.com layout as my guide on how to teach different procedures (a lot of pictures).

So I can say I have been working with Flash since Flash 5, but didn't’t really know the program until Flash MX.

I took the Flash MX certification test and I am one of 13 people in Washington State that passed the test (Macromedia use to post that information on their web site), I also passed Flash MX 2004 certification test and will soon be taking the latest test.

It is a great program, it is a fun program and the future is very exciting.

February 25th 2007 

“Life is a series of steps. Things are done gradually. Once in a while there is a giant step, but most of the time were taking small, seemingly insignificant steps of the stairway to life.” Ralph Ranson

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” Pablo Picasso

February 27th 2007

Cartoonsmart.com great site with cheap Flash tutorials. Anyone unless you’re a guru I would strongly recommend checking the site out and signing up for his newsletter. He doesn't give your e-mail to anyone else and once a month he sends you this offer for 2 tutorials (2-6 hours of video) for $10.

March 1st 2007

"The amount of money in which we receive will always be in a direct ratio to the demand of what we do, our ability to do it, and the difficulty it would be to replace us" Earl Nightengale

Their is a lot of hype about a book called The Secret, I have some some of it and it is terrible. "The Secret" tag line is pepper through the book as much as "Personal Penguin" is in the children's story with the same name. This book has little substance and if anyone has read Napolean Hill's Think and Grow Rich they know the secret. Brian Tracy also covers it in books and Lou Tice of the Pacific Institute covered it better than anyone in Smart Talk. Which brings me back to Earl Nightengale, Earl had a radio show that was short spots daily syndicate through out the United States, I remember as a child going to pick up my dad from work with my mom and brothers and a few minutes to five Earl Nightengales Our Changing World would come on and everyone went quiet. Many of the best of those radio shows were put in a book called The Essence of Success and without a doubt it is the best book I ever read and I read a lot.

March 5th 2007

This just in, MAX 2007 will be held in the first week of October in Sweet Home Chicago.

March 7th 2007

Seattle Montage is one of the first things I did in Flash. I love to take pictures around Seattle so it is only right I create a montage to the city I call home. A nice thing about having a blog is it allows me to bring back some of my old Flash that I would not put in a portfolio site.

March 21st 2007

Last night we had a real good turn out at the Seattle Flash User Group and I want to thank everyone for coming and supporting the group.

I started out the meeting with a demo on creating the bluescreen (Keying) effect with After Effects and bringing it into Flash. Daniel Niland did another great demo on ActionScript 3, Dan Florio demonstrated video.Maru a simple tool he created to help Flash designers create custom video interfaces without writing any code. Simple and cool, everyone was amazed, his site is polyGeek.com. And we also had James LeMaster of Redmond Technology Partners (in Bellevue). James is a good guy and I am sure a great recruiter. He comes across as very knowledgeable and like one of the guys. It was a good night. Next month will be the big give-away and if all goes well T-Mobile will be talking about Flashlite.

March 9th, 2008

I think there is an unwritten rule that states if you’re going to do a blog keep it up to date. Since it has been almost a year since my last entry I think I should write something and continue to write something and bring it up to date.

Life happens; I have a two and half year old son, Dylan and as any parent will tell you your life changes, and not just a little.

Almost two years ago I decide to change my Flash design focus and get a way from websites, I still do them, but it is very competitive and somebody always wants a Mercedes at a Volkswagen price.

When I was wrapping school for Animation/Graphics I exchanged a couple e-mails with Bryan Zug a local E-Learning expert that has done a lot of E-Learning for hospitals. Brain planted the seed of think about E-learning it is a growing field and not many people are doing it.

Through the next year different articles about E-Learning caught my eye and thought about what Brian said, I thought that is the way to go.

I signed up for the University of Washington E-Learning Design and Development program (great program) and after another year of school I completed the program. Before I finished the program I was hired by a company to create all the E-Learning for Microsoft’s Zune (great product) and I have been working with the Zune team ever since.

I have lived in Seattle area since 1996, before that I lived in Green Bay, Wisconsin where I worked for nation’s largest prerecorded music distributor for 16 years. Music I knew, I killed them at Name that Tune at the bar at the Holiday Inn in Marquette, Michigan! My dad was a professional musician for 22 years. I am not an audiophile; I am more like a music junkie. So when the Zune opportunity opened it was right up my alley.

March 12th, 2008

Just announced Flash Forward will be in San Francisco this year; August 20-22nd. It is no longer handled by Lynda.com, someone new took it over, Flash developer Beau Ambur. More details to follow.

March 24th 2008

Went I was a kid I went to a neighborhood business that service pinball machines, pool tables and juke boxes and I would buy used 45s for 25 cents or 5 for a buck. If you were to purchase them new in a store they were close to a dollar. I had hundreds and in later years I even had a juke box in my apartment, nice to have but they weigh a ton and it takes four people to move them. I think they made them heavy so people would steal them at the bars.

Later when I worked for the record company I used to order them, they ended up selling for around $1.79 before all record companies phased them out. I like the fact that I can purchase a single for just 99 cents on the net and I have purchased several. My point, no point, I just kind of miss those days.