David Stiller’s blog

Just a quick note.  I just turned on the Akismet anti-spam plug-in for WordPress, the software that manages this blog.  My intent, of course, is to reduce the time I spend filtering out the stuff by hand.  I very much appreciate feedback and comments from real people, so keep at it!  I’m always happy to converse with fellow developers who have meaningful replies or questions about Flash and the other topics discussed here.

Akismet is supposed to be pretty good, so I hope it doesn’t delete any genuine comments.  If it deletes yours unfairly, please write to me personally (my last name at this domain), and we’ll keep the dialogue going.

On a scale of one to ten, I’m on cloud nine.  Things are unbelievably great.    Frankly, I’m a bit stunned since my first day of working full time from home, which started last Wednesday.  The first four hours, in fact, were a bit rocky.  Not to be trite, but I had this Big Change staring me in the face — “the first day of the rest of my career” — and I found myself in the unusual circumstance of not knowing where to begin.  I had spent two days carting home all my stuff from DSI — computer equipment, coffee mugs, knick-knacks, game boards, reference books, notes, email addresses, phone numbers; it goes on and on and on — and hoped to have everything settled by Wednesday.  Everything organized, everything put away; a clean, orderly desk.  Not so.  I ended up working four hours that evening to make up for my slow start.  So far, all the plates are still spinning.  Keep reading »

You know the interesting phenomenon, when you learn a new vocabulary word — “ubiquitous,” say — and it suddenly starts appearing everywhere?  You hear it on the radio, read it in the paper, experience it in conversations around the water cooler.  For me, a similar thing is happening right now, but not with words:  with opportunity.

Last Wednesday, I put in my notice at work — on very good terms, no bridges burned.  I’m going full time freelance, which is exciting and somewhat nerve-wracking all at once.  Ultimately, I’m more confident than I am anything else.  My wife supports me in this decision, I’ve hedged my bets, and so far things seem to be falling nicely into place.  Keep reading »