Werd.

My Daughter saying bye to 2009, wooT!

Today I got to meet one of the people that helped me mature even further this year. Although I am 30 years old, i still have tons to learn, much wisdom to gain and even more situations to endure. However, as I stated in my previous post, I am massively eager to see 2009 be over.

I met Mark Horvath today from InvisiblePeople.tv. Mark had come from another part of LA to where I work in Venice, to pick up a few baby car seats that I had to help use in his pursuit to fight homelessness.

Another video of Mark’s work (I first discovered his work after his CNN article):

Mark from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

Mark’s work is what inspires many, as well as myself to realize that as bad has things have got lately, that some are still off far worse. I still hold my ‘American Dreams’ and aspirations to see myself and my family far better off, however, I also feel compelled to give a hand with any way I can to help make things a bit easier for others around me. The hardest lesson for everyone to really learn in life is that, its not all about you, even when you truly believe you don’t live life that way. I am happy to say I will be working with Mark on some non profit web projects in the future, that will hopefully have an effect on the war on homelessness.

I recently have heard other’s speak of the homeless situation as ‘their fault’ and just people that are dirty and lazy. I can tell you from people that I have met, figures that speak of the overwhelming majority not being mentally ill, and just victims of bad domestic situations or a bad economy. Maybe working at a shelter for even a day would change the ignorant’s paradigm. It hurts to read children being so widely effected by the current economic situation as well. Being a father, I can tell you that wanting the very best for your kids is probably the highest of priorities in one’s life, but scares you to death to know what could happen if someone just lost a job.

I have seen churches that are well off, ask of their congregation to donate money to further the expansion (which really comes to be simply the ‘re-beautification’) of their church, instead of using proper fund towards people in critically bad situations. From what I remember, people make up the congregation, congregation makes up the church, and the church is what serves God and His Word. If a ministry really wanted to increase their numbers, then why not help the homeless, I am sure many of them would in turn spread the good faith of what that ministry had done, which is far better than any marketing plan, or making your Churches’ building look prettier. Thankfully, there are many people (including churches), even the young, that are still doing great things for the less fortunate.

I see a bit clearer this days, but still with much to learn, of some of the discrepancies between good non-profits, and the ones there are just out for the proverbial ‘glory’. Glory to say that are helping people, but only by handouts. A simple but small example is this, my true belief, when applied to homelessness especially, is that you cannot simply feed them dinner, and give them shelter for a night. There has to be some measure in assistance in rehabilitation. Think about it, if you could really focus on 1 person, help them, nurture them, and bring them to living well, and if mixed with humble nature, how many people could that 1 person then help?

Enough of me being slightly angry.

There were many others that shaped me further this year as well, either it be through disagreements, or simply being told that you should ‘never be tired’, which in the correct context is true. This year was rough, but I feel it did molded me even further, and hardened me a bit too. This is not just professionally, but personally as well. One of the most famous quotes that I liked, but now understand further from Michael Jordan is: “I have something more important than courage. I have patience”. Of course it being from a commercial, but so dramatically true. Patience, and staying calm in the midst of life’s hurricane’s is incredibly difficult. This doesn’t just include keeping your own composure, but the composure of others, be it family members, coworkers that look up to you, or even children. It may be more pressure, it may be more difficult without the silver lining, but hang on. You will come out stronger for it.

So in ending with what will probably be my last entry for 2009, I leave the rest of the aforementioned quote for 2010.

“Look me in the eyes.
Its okay if you’re scared.
So am I.
But we’re scared for different reasons.
I’m scared of what I wont become.
You’re scared of what I could become.
Look at me.
I won’t let myself end where I started.
I won’t let myself finish where I began.
I know what is within me…even if you cant see it yet.
Look me in the eyes.
I have something more important than courage.
I have patience.
I will become what I know I am. ”

Christmas 2009 is here, and I hope everyone stays safe out there.
Here’s to looking forward to brighter days.

On this night
On this very Christmas night

A rather lengthy video of the Belmont Shore Christmas parade this past Saturday:

Belmont Shore Christmas Parade from Anthony Tanaka on Vimeo.

I think I will be attending church this Christmas Eve. It’s time for me and the guy up stairs to have a little talk.

I had been debating if I wanted to write this blog or not. It dives into a bit more personal than I normally like to reveal, but still hesitant to reveal much if any at all.

2009 was a B#@$%, undoubtedly one of the worst years of my life (and for my family). Plain and simple. Last October I was laid off from my job, where I was in the Mortgage division as a programmer. Not fun. For the next 12 months I was in and out of contract jobs, as with the rest of the economy, full time jobs were hard to fine, especially in my area and level of expertise. It ended up coming out to be 8 out of the 12 months were spent unemployed.

Times got rough for my family, and all I could think about was keeping the lives of my wife and daughters as normal as possible, while we weathered the storm. My family is everything to me. Getting past the dark clouds wasn’t easy, and I pray its something we never have to see again. I wish that type of hardship on no one, and sadly, as bad as our situation was, we aren’t the worst of all stories out there.

I was listening to Christmas music tonight, as like others, Christmas tends to be one of my favorite parts of the year. However, when I think of Christmas, my first initial thought is church, and getting to see my daughter’s eyes light up on Christmas morning. There is no better feeling. This year though has taught me a bit more, and kind of shifted my vision even more so into another direction. As we had been through our hard times, seeing people still in very difficult times through the news and blogs, hurts. Especially for the countless number of children on the streets, homeless, and may not have a very Merry season this year. This photo design says it all.

I recently returned to full time work in early October for JibJab Media, and it has been great so far, and we are out of the storm now thankfully. I am thankful for a job that keeps me employed, and gives me the potential to help others in the future, as well as appreciating my daughter when she endorses them. However, I do feel the need to help out this holiday season with those less fortunate, and I will.

This past year, again, has been nothing short of Hell. Again, thankfully we were able to survive, and we did it by a few family members that stepped up to help us out from time to time. We appreciate it, and if anyone knows the way Piseth and I operate, we try to do our best for others as well.

I think that’s about all I have to say to you, I will leave the rest for my conversation with the Big Man upstairs during ‘Oh Come All Ye Faithful’.

Prayers to those who are struggling.

Here is one of the many videos from InvisiblePeople.tv, very heartbreaking to know how other’s are spending this cold season:

Carol from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

I got a kick out of how much Adrianna loves to say “JIBJAB” during the Elfyourself videos, that I had to post it! Now JibJab has put her on the blog, and I am now convinced she will be a superstar some day

I will be teaching once again at Madrid Middle School in January for their GATE program. The El Monte school district unfortunately can only do the program once this year, as the economy has of course taken its toll on education. If you are attending my web design class, I will see you all soon!

WooT! Us JibJabbers along with OfficeMax have released the new ElfYourself.

There has already been write ups on Techrunch and CNET!!!

Go JibJab team! Check out my little video below.

Posted some photos from Halloween. My daughter’s first time trick or treating, and she basically ran up to every door possible. She loved it, and was not scared at all when some of the more creepy characters were around her. I got to get out with the in-laws and wife for a bit as well. We visited Club Code in Newport Beach ( I won’t recommend it).

So there was this little issue I ran into with Flex and image processing. When posting an image to the flash player client, instead of uploading to a server (save on bandwidth when editing locally) it would show that the image was loading, however with security errors (via the debugger).

Anywho, the problem was actually simple where the image was not being fully loaded as the flash swf was playing. So to rectify that issue, I simply added an event listener to wait for the image load to complete, and then move on to create a bitmap.

Now you will see in the code below that I am already using an image control, however this was used with bytesarray, and of course with FileReference.load() method.

Anywho, I hope this helps some people out there. I saw other solutions on other forums where people were setting timer’s to wait for the image or set a bland method that allows the player an extra second to capture the image, instead of quickly passing through it.

bleh:
private function completeHandler(event:Event):void
{
var image:Image = "file.png";

// create the new bitmap
var newBitmap:Bitmap = new Bitmap(bitmapData);
}