I had a great weekend!

That’s something you hear people say all the time, but rarely is it true to the extent that it was for me this past weekend. Most of the time, the weekend is the time for us to regenerate from the work week, hang out with some friends, go to a movie, or catch up on some house work. For me this is usually the case. But yesterday I got out and about in a part of the city that I never really hung out in, which was tons of fun.

My girlfriend and I decided that we wanted to go check out Franklin Square park, in Center City at 5th and Race. It’s the big park right by the 95 on-ramp with the old-style carousel. There is a fantastic sand sculpture there that I recommend everyone check out - it’s simply massive, and full of Philadelphia pride. What’s really cool about it is that it is 150 tons of solid sand that holds its shape, and is expected to stay there until September. We bounced from there to the mini-golf course (which was surprisingly a solidly fun course, I haven’t been mini-golfing in ages but I hit a +3 on the 18 holes) and then went on a spin on the carousel. Afterwards, while exploring Old City, we came across a quaint little Italian cheese importer that also served sandwiches and ice cream. After grabbing some lemon sorbet that was seated inside a lemon peel, we headed back to her parent’s house and went for a refreshing swim in the pool.

A Sunday adventure like that is always great for me. I love coming back to work on Monday refreshed, and ready to work on new Flash Animation, 3D modeling and animation, and web interactives for Dynamic Digital Advertising and its clients.

With Flash applications, it is always a good idea to keep file size down. The whole purpose behind Flash’s original design was so that a user could run elaborate interactive applications or animations seamlessly over the web. With today’s high-speed Internet philosophy, however, file size is becoming less and less of an issue. We can make larger, more complex files that include video, embedded fonts and high-res images, and not have to worry as much about users missing out due to low bandwidth.

There are still advantages to keeping your file size down, however. The file will load faster and, in most cases, run much smoother when you have your items preloaded or dynamically called in by the file. Embedding high-res images can be cool when done right, but dynamic quality scaling is the way to go for speed. Keeping the file small also helps in games, where user input accuracy has as much to do with the game’s quality as high-res graphics.

As a Flash Animator at Dynamic Digital Advertising, I try to keep file size in mind at all times when working with Flash apps. It is a good habit to be in, since a lot of the time we are trying to keep the file smaller, to be accessible to as many users as possible. Sometimes, we have to break out the big guns and embed something, but if we can get away with making your Flash file run as quickly and as smoothly as possible, believe me, we’ll do it!

Recently I’ve been searching for a new apartment. Partly this is because I like a change of habitat every year or so, but with rising gas prices, I’m also looking to move closer to work.

The other day, I checked out a place that is literally only 10 minutes away. It is a really nice place, in a good neighborhood, and it has relatively cheap rent. Being 10 minutes away from DDA would dramatically increase my free-time during the week - I’d save 2 hours of commute every day. On the other hand, I’d have a roommate again, something that I wasn’t too fond of in the past.

The roommate is nice enough. She is a 49-year old woman with a dog and not too much else. She doesn’t have Internet or a computer, but doesn’t mind if I bring mine so I can work on my personal portfolio of 3d animation, 2d animation, and web interactive projects, or play my video games. The apartment does seem a little small though for the two of us - while I would have my own bedroom, I don’t know how I would feel about sharing such a small living area at this point.

Sometimes we need to accept conditions we wouldn’t necessarily like, just to get by financially. It may only be a temporary thing. I am looking at other places too - there’s a place I’m checking out today that seems promising. Wherever I move, I’ll still be here at DDA doing the best video production, animation, and web design in the Philadelphia area!