Learning Flash - Part 1

Learning flash has been an uphill battle. I know what i want to learn, but i didn't have the language to describe it. Trudging through books and online tutorials on flash scripting is really really frustrating, but what i didn't realize until recently was that i was learning something.

Sunday, Carol and i hopped into the car and took adolfo for a much needed haircut at Cool Cuts for Kids in Sugarland. We got there five minutes after they opened (11:05) only to find that we were already the fourth haircut. Adolfo didn't mind this -- in the waiting area there is a Thomas the Tank Engine Train Set table. He is a very confident player now. He arranges all the trains in just such a way, and pulls them throw the tressel bridges carefully rather than clumsily pushing them through. He anticipates the dips after the raised bridges and doesn't allow them to fall off the tracks ("...DERAILMENT!, i shout...") Since his first haircut at 1 year-old, he's been playing with this table - love to watch him.

Ten minutes later we were called to a chair. He chose the one that looked like a fire engine. It is always the same lady (thankfully) who cuts his hair. She speaks spanish to him. I am nervous as she slings the barber sheet around his neck. Would he begin to buck? would i have to hold him down like i did last time? We put on Bob the Builder in the DVD. He remained calm for the entire haircut. It was miraculous.

It was time to celebrate. We took him shopping for a book next door at Half Price Books. Carol sat in the back with him while i searched for a flash book. Most of them i would open, sift through, and realize quickly that it wasn't what i needed. Then, I recognized the authors of two books. I glanced through them and understood them.

I gave myself a project on monday and finished it today: a small page with scripted tweens and externally loaded media. The flash file is also in the folder on chairjockey; if anyone wants to critique the code i've got in there, please do. The coded tweens (with the exception of the rotating red star) are a set of extensions that i picked up from the macromedia site. The Images and Reviews are loaded into a dynamic text box (the images being called in the external txt file with an 'img' tag.)