It’s the last work day of the week before we are off for Christmas! Hooray! This is a highly anticipated holiday break for me. I have no real special reasons for being especially excited for this other than it being Christmas, but that should be enough. I have a 4-day break. I get to give and receive gifts. There are Christmas cookies everywhere. I got a carton of soy eggnog. My brothers are back from college and my sister is visiting temporarily. The smell of a warm fireplace and a nice pine tree inundate the living room. There are decorations all around and the wonderful light displays. A big Christmas dinner is just around the corner. Also, a new year follows closely after that. As the song says, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” I’d have to agree on many fronts. The weather might be the only part that isn’t that wonderful. I can stand the cold on Christmas, but on the days before and after I just see it as cold and not comfortable. So in general I would say a nice warm Spring day is the most wonderful weather of the year.

At DDA, the signs of Christmas are here as well. We are indoors so the weather isn’t a factor, but there is a bunch of Christmas decor up. Several staff members have also brought in some homemade cookies and treats. The candy-cane cupcakes were a new favorite of mine. We also of course have our day off marked on the company calendar that everyone is looking to for a little R & R. As we countdown to the day off, we keep ourselves content busily working away at the current projects at hand. With all the digital services we offer, there is no lack of variety in our tasks. We do things like 3D animation, video editing, digital photography, custom programming, copywriting, graphic design, search engine marketing (SEM), and everything in between. So give us a call or visit and see what we can do for you.

I guess I wasn’t paying attention to the weather at all this week because this morning I was completely taken by surprise when I woke up and snow another new snow coating. This snow coating was different though. This time was was followed with rain that froze on the ground and made everything a sheet of ice. I went out to my car in a little bit of disbelief and started hacking away at the snow ice mix on top of the car and trunk with my forearms. After the trunk was clear I popped it with my key so I could get my ice scraper out of it. Only the trunk didn’t pop and I couldn’t yank it open because it was frozen. So I thought I’ll just go in the side door and pull the seat down to get the ice scraper. So I hit the unlock button and tried to go in the driver’s side door. This too wasn’t budging and there was no soft snow underneath the ice layer to make it easy to crack and clear off. So I went to the other door and yanked that too, but it didn’t budge.  How ironic is it that my ice scraper is frozen in my car? I quick went to check my email to see if there was a delay. The YMCA emailed me to say it wasn’t opening until noon, but no word from work. So I called in to say that I’d be late.

I went back out with some kitchen utensils to try and chisel the ice. My mom was up now at this point to and she went out after me to clear her car. I was chiseling the seams of the passenger side door because that one was coated far less than the driver’s side. My mom announced that she could get her passenger side open and asked if mine was unlocked. Oops! In my early morning daze I’d forgotten that I only hit my remote key’s unlock button once which only unlocks the driver’s side door. So I unlocked the passenger side door and it now opened without too much fuss. I went in and kicked the driver’s side door until it opened then went in the back and was finally I was able to get to my ice scraper out of the trunk.  From there I went out and cleared the top of the car of all snow and ice. I still had a time chiseling off my side windows of ice as it didn’t seem to crack off very easily with the scraper.

By the time I got in the car to leave ice was forming on my windshield again. So I started it up and jacked up the defroster. I was then on my way. My road was slushy, but the main roads were pretty good. I only had one incident of a little sliding at the end of my road. I did see a car almost lose control merging onto 611 though. Though late like I said I made it to work and saw why there was no delay. The ice coating up here was hardly the foe that it was in my area. This ice coating at work was a light crunch instead of feeling like you were stepping through a plate glass window with every step like it was at my house.

We’ve overcome the weather yet again to have another day of business at DDA. The day to day digital workload will continue with our staff doing things like 3D animation, video editing, digital photography, custom programming, custom web design, copywriting, SEM, and more for our clients. You too could be a client if you wish. Just give us a call or visit and see what we can do for you. Feel free to check out our online portfolios for a taste of the kind of final products that we put out.

I found out last night that apparently one of the movies that some friends made for a festival is now listed on IMDB (Internet Movie Database). This movie ended up winning best film of the whole festival and they were invited to go to California to compete in a winner’s festival. The time they filmed this happened to be one of the times I was staying in Philadelphia, so I got to help out. I ended up getting to play one of the zombies in the movie in a chase scene. It isn’t much, but I’m in there doing my best mindless zombie run in a group. It was enough to get in the credits and apparently also enough to get listed on IMDB as well. So now you can find me on IMDB! How cool is that? The movie is called “Two of Harts” and I’m listed as zombie Jimmy. I’m now wondering if my role as a creepy shadow in the movie I helped out with last week will get me another IMDB credit. I might end up looking like I have a pretty good acting resume not too long from now, even though I can’t act. From now on, I guess you’ll find me in my luxury trailer on various movie sets munching on food from the Kraft services table. Either that or I’ll still be doing what I have been doing.

What I’m doing is working at Dynamic Digital Advertising as an animator, programmer, and 3D modeler. Every week holds something different for me as far as what type of work I may be doing. It could be animating in 3D, making an interactive application with Flash programming, or making an admin section to control a website’s displayed content with some custom programming. I, with my fellow digital savvy workers, can handle any type of media related work you can throw at us. That’s because our list of services is gigantic and encompasses all types of things like video production, digital photography, copywriting, graphic design, custom web design, search engine marketing (SEM) and everything else in between. Don’t think of us as just an advertising firm, that only makes up a small portion of what our actual work is. Think of us more as a digital firm, where we can bring any thought you have in a digital medium into a reality. So give us a call or visit and see what we can do for you.