If a tree falls in a forest...

...and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Maybe I should learn to animate!

I am a programmer, and programming skills are what I have developed in the last 10 years.

However, time and time again, I wish I had some artistic skills: design, animation, or perhaps at least knowing what looks good.

In my day, I have done a lot of Flash programming (mostly AS2, but some AS3 as well). I often get to work with artists, but occasionally I am asked to do the art myself. I politely say "no way", and move on. In the middle of most of my projects though, I go back to the artist or animator and have them fix something or update something (usually the "boss" is trying to get me to do it). Wouldn't it be nice if I had these skills myself? yes, but it would take some time and effort...and something fun to work on (looking for ideas).

Adobe CS4 was announced recently, and stuff like this seriously makes me drool. Do you think that tools made easy can help someone like me? Is there any hope?

Check out http://www.gotoandlearn.com/play?id=87 for some amazing additions to Flash in CS4. Now if only I was a student again and could get the killer discounts. :-)

Time and Resources

Have you ever said, "If only I had more time..."? It seems that we (especially in the USA) never have enough time. However, more time is not the solution, prioritizing our time is.

On a similar note, have you ever found yourself waiting for your computer to do something? "If only my computer were faster," or "I wish this task would hurry up." The amazing this is, our computers are getting faster every year, yet we have this amazing ability to max out the resources just as fast.

I'm trying to solve both of these problems in my life by posting here. (Ok, posting is not the top priority for me, but I have been meaning for months [nay, years] to post something here.) I'm currently waiting for my computer to finish building some code for work and usually waste that time with other non-important tasks. I'm trying to be better with that.

Any ideas of how to better manage time and resources?

Yesterday was the first day of Spring term classes. I really like the spring atmosphere because of the warm weather, smaller classes, and the quick pace of boring classes.

This term I am taking "History of Creativity" from the Manufacturing Department and "Computer System Architecture" from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. So technically I am not taking any "Computer Science" classes this semester, however the computer architecture class looks like there will be a fair amount of computer programming.

This is my first post