Wow. Obama won. OBAMA WON.

Flash and Gen

Yes!

Flash rocks. And I'm finally rocking with it.

I've completed two out of four training sessions so far this year of Adobe Flash animating software. These free courses are taught by the university's (do)IT staff. The best realization in these classes so far is that I'm not as horrible as I thought I was. In fact, I tend to be the answering know-it-all when questions are asked to the class... oh wait, that's not too new. Plus, every new technique I learn, my colossal project gets better and better.

Oh the colossal project? still the Black Sea Flood project. I might have once upon a time expressed that finishing this project would be a piece of cake. Well I never actually looked closely at what I had finished for my animated mapping class... Kyle and I stayed up many nights and kept fiddling with it until it worked... kinda worked that is.

This year when I finally opened it, I was terrified at how many glitches made up the map; the whole thing was the biggest mess I ever had to work with. I couldn't decide whether to start over again or continue it. I decided to continue it... that was 1 month ago.

First, I needed a naming and organization system. I changed all names to a strict naming sceme and made all layers/folders, object- and instance names match accordingly. Then after all movie clips et al were in organized folders, I started deleting the excessive objects (there were a lot surprisingly) and combining others. I'm currently redesigning the look of the menus and layout, but that's a forever long adjustment. The battle that is always being fought is file size.

Yesterday at my fabulously successful Flash class, the teacher addressed some of my concerns:
1. Instead of having invisible-toggling text movie clips, I'm going to have dynamic (uploads when action occurs) text
2. I was taught to keep everything on one frame -- ex. the sea heights --, but having that many movie clips on one frame will slow down Flash and make it hard to edit things quickly (my problem). So instead I made a movie clip with a sea height movie clip on each frame. That way, the movie only has to load one movie clip on the first frame.
3. Loading menus! Yay, I've been waiting forever to understand an efficient way to make loading pages. The secret --> Scenes. In case, you have came to this blog to learn how to make loading pages, here it is:
--a. Window > Other Panels > Scene
--b. in Scene Panel, add a new scene
--c. rename scene "Loading Page" and your main scene "Main Scene"
--d. drag "Loading Page" to the top in the scene palette
--e. in the "Loading Page"s timeline, create any animation. ex. words "Loading" moving across
page. Also create a layer for actions.
--f. on the last frame of your loading page animation, on the actions layer, create a key frame and
open the actions panel (F9)
--g1. type this (action script 2.0)
if (_framesloaded == _totalframes) {
gotoAndPlay("Main Scene", 1);
} else {
gotoAndPlay(1);
}
--g2. or type this (action script 3.0)
stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, loader);
function loader(e:Event){
if(stage.loaderInfo.bytesLoaded == stage.loaderInfo.bytesTotal){
gotoAndPlay("intro", "Main Scene");
stage.removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, loader);
}

In March, I'm actually going to present the Black Sea Flood map at the AAG: American Association of Geographers. The two conventions I went to, Chicago in 2006 and SanFran in 2007, were so exciting. All topics of Geography are discussed and the who's who of the Geog academic world are there... but that's the thing: it has always felt very elite. Well duh, the conventions are targeted to graduate students and professors.

But this year, I think I have something worthwhile to take to Vegas... something elite.

Besides the convention, I'm really thrilled to be getting better at Flash. I remember first trying to learn it at age 15 and being happy to make a frowny face smile and wiggle around... early padawan skills, compared to the Flash Jedi I shall become.

A Sunday Procrastination

Wow was this weekend ever so unproductive! My new catering job is fine except the fact that it disturbs the weekend lazy/productive balance. I worked 8 hour shifts on Friday and Saturday, therefore completely depleting the energy I saved for homework today... poor excuse? Instead I watched the Packers/Seahawks game today, cleaned a little, read a little Steinbeck, practiced a little bit of viola... that sort of stuff. Nothing to help me with my current academic load... ah well. The greatest part of my day was handing my friend Jenn a resume to take to her work at the bank to see if I could be hired... no more hairnets for me! Oh working at a bank would be the best best best! And then my Saturdays and Sundays will never be taken again! @_@

So yea, I'm pretty much blogging to procrastinate homework, so what else can I talk about... Human nature. Yea, let's discuss that because I've been thinking a lot about it recently. Ray Kurzweil said in a YouTube interview that human emotions are something science understands least and will be the hardest task for a computer to ever replicate. I think human emotions naturally stem from personal experience and hormones, yet Steinbeck said it best that all negative emotions come from the absence or lack of love -- the love you think you deserve (read East of Eden, I can't capture Steinbeck like Steinbeck can). People are so afraid of being misunderstood, under appreciated or turned down, that they will act judgemental or indifferent.

Really, everyone is needy.

I wish I could tell my long term crush how much I want him and just grab and kiss him... but I'm afraid of being turned down (again), therefore I'm just giving up this frustrating chase. I just worry that he is as clueless or as shy as I am, and he is waiting for me to make a clear move... while I wait for him to make a clear move. Sigh, I hope pursuing crushes will be easier in my 30s, I have no idea how the dating scene even works at this age.

The border to Grown-Up land

When I was 6 or 7, I heard a boy making the strangest sounds. It was some sort of distressed wail, in between a cry and an angry roar. I looked to my mom to decipher the hidden meaning, the unclear emotion and she responded: "He can't decide whether to grow up or not." Adolescence was pain-staking for him and when a frustrating situation used to call for tears and fists, now the matured mind ask for rationale and understanding.... resulting in an in-between anguished cry.

I've been thinking a lot about this memory. I don't quite believe that all it takes to become a "grown-up" is acknowledgement. Nor is it practice. I can spend multiple days being responsible: waking up early to work out; eating a healthy breakfast; attending all my classes; asking effective questions; spending quality time reading assignments/newspaper/steinbeck; flossing; going to bed before midnight, etc. etc. Yet the day always comes that I regress: a bowl before class; skip class; a bowl for lunch; cheese-its for lunch; laundry and dishes piling; bills ignored; homework ignored; health ignored; finish the night drinking to get drunk; going to bed before sunrise, etc. etc.

I could say that a sign of my maturity is that the regression days become further and further apart. I could say that a sign of my maturity is that I don't care for those regression days and feel better after the productive days. But I can't rule out the simple fact that I still live for those regression days. Those days make me feel free, independent, untamed and popular. A balance is needed, and the kid lives on.