g.wygonik's flash experiments

...but my wife was.

We recently finished up a project for AARP The Magazine -- a look back at 1968 via a timeline with images, audio clips, video clips, best-of lists, and a pop quiz.

The project is way deeper than it appears on the outside; there were amazing audio interviews with some of the influential people that made 1968 so special. From Bootsy Collins talking about James Brown to John Kay (of Steppenwolf) to Tommie Smith (the Olympic gold medalist who came up with the idea to do the Black Power "salute" during the medal ceremonies) -- it was awesome to get to edit the audio interviews and hear just how deeply the year affected them. It also struck me just how apathetic today's youth are. When you hear about these kids that took a stand against the war and social injustice and really DID something, and you look at the news today you can't help but see that most people talk the talk (mostly online) but certainly don't walk the walk. I got into doing music because I had something to say and wanted to try to change things around me -- and music was a great way to get into people's heads. But it seems that most people are happy to just post something online in a public forum (Digg people, I'm looking at you) and think it's doing something. I don't know... I'm old and jaded now.

In other news, I've been dealing with an ear infection for a week now -- which has kept my left ear clogged. So much for working on music! Most annoying. Hopefully it clears up soon, as my antibiotics are running out.

I've been working on developing some apps for the iPhone/iPod Touch. While I've been doing mostly web-app development, I'm getting ready to transition to full-on SDK Objective-C work. I've been putting it off as I'll need to upgrade my Mac Mini to Leopard. I think I should have the means to do that soon. There are some great possibilities with the technology, so I hope I can make it shine (like it does in my head).

Finally, we're starting up VeggieAustin -- the Austin version of the vegan/vegetarian dining guide we did in New Orleans. While there are several pre-existing sites here that cover some of the places to eat, none of them seem to venture out beyond their favorite spots or get updated more than once every 8 months. We're not necessarily trying to "compete", but we see a need for something just to help ourselves out, so we're doing it "our way".

Beyond that - things are ok. Hope everyone is well.

g.