OxCreative

Where the Ox have I been!

It’s been 2 months exactly since my last post and its been a busy 8 weeks (I’ve definitely been neglecting OxCreative.com!)

So much has changed and it seems like a lifetime ago I had any time to even consider posting on the site, playing some PS3 or even finding time to read. This is mainly all down to one thing… Ralphy!

We’ve had Ralphy for 7 weeks (since he was 7 weeks old!) and boy oh boy is he a handful. Now you may be thinking “I just see a picture of a cute puppy sleeping – he doesn’t look that bad!?!”

That’s mainly because it’s the only time I can get my camera out, the rest of the time i’m stopping him digging in the mud, chewing flowers, chewing shoes, chewing stones, hell the other day I even caught him chewing the house (he had his teeth around the corner bricks of the outside wall literally chewing the house)!!

Now, I don’t want to discourage anyone from getting a puppy, and it is something me and my girlfriend Lin mulled over for a good few months before making the decision, but it is a lot of hard work and very time consuming but definitely worth the initial struggle. He’s now 14 weeks old, getting very good at listening and becoming more independent which means I get a chance to post!

I thought it would be a good time to get back on track with some of the targets I set at the beginning of the year so here they are:

1) Write more blog posts:
Well I guess so far it hasn’t been a great start for this one, but I still plan to post more in 2010 than I did in 2009!

2) Take more photographs:
I have actually done a fair bit of photography all awaiting processing. I am currently using Photoshop CS4 to process photographs but have heard good things about aperture (Mac) and the speed in which you can process images – If anyone has any recommendations, I would greatly appreciate them! (just comment on the post below, send us an email or drop us a tweet – www.twitter.com/oxcreative).

3) Learn Actionscript 3:
This is something I have really been pushing as it has been dragging on a long time. I went on a 2 day introduction to ActionScript 3 course in January with Symbiosis, Adobe certified trainers in the UK. I then went on an Advanced ActionScript 3 (Object Orientated Programming) with Design Patterns course with the same company in February. Furthermore, the trainer I had for the two courses (James Courier) was brilliant and very good at explaining not only the “how-to’s” but also the “why’s”! I still have a lot to learn and I have a ton of books as well as a Lynda.com subscription to help, but for anyone wanting to pick up a new programming language or learn more about specific software, training would be a good way to go and I can definitely vouch for Symbiosis and James!

4) Make an application or game:
I am still planning on working on an application or game for either desktop machines or on a mobile platform. I hope that with my newly found (though not extensive) knowledge in ActionScript 3 I can tick this one of in the next few months.

5) Exercise and get more healthy:
This one has gone way out of the window unless eating tea and biscuits count as exercise.

6) Contribute more to iStockPhoto:
Whilst I haven’t uploaded any more images, I have had a few more downloads and I am pushing close to the ’100 download’ mark. With that, I will have 150 to go to achieve my ‘bronze canister’ and hit my target for the year!