April 02, 2003

Back Home

I finally arrived home last Monday and I'm still trying to overcome jetlag. Cherry blosoms are on it's best which helps overcome the sadness I had for leaving San Francisco. I had really, really good times over there. My friend Tori worked her best to make me feel at home. And man she did a good job; I never wanted to leave! FlashForward was a blast. Had tons of fun and really enjoyed hanging out most of the time with Sean Voisen. Sean is an excellent dude, really humble guy. He was able to put up with 3 days of listening to me go crazy, without ever punching me in the stomach for nonsense talk. Was able to meet up also with the Dura Brothers - which was really nice too. They are both very cool guys. The conference? Awesome, this was my 3rd FF and it was definitively the best so far. The most outstanding moments where: * Kevyn Lynch's keynote: packed with new stuff coming from the mothership * Dave Yang's and Collin Mooks OOP sessions: very interesting to see how they both aproach design patterns in different ways * Grant Skinner's Film Festival: because he really deserved it. * Sam Wan's presentation: I love his style, very very clear, but sofisticated at the same time * Phillip Torrone's gadget marathon: very very cool. * Thomas Wagner: games in flash never looked better * Vas Sloutchevsky's interfaces: When we thought branded flashy interfaces where dead, here come Vas to probe we are all wrong. * Eric Natzke's closing: reverences to THA man. What I missed from the conference: * Dave Yang's Q&A: OUch! I'll never forgive myself for that! Sean told me it was excellent, just both of them and a bunch of other people from Macromedia, including Nigel Pegg, discussed in a very friendly atmosphere the future of AS. Would love to hear from them more about what happened there! * Robert Penner: Had so many questions for him. I know he was supposed to speak but somewhere sometime before the conference, his session was canceled. * Branden Hall & Joshua Davis: I know the dynamic duo has been one very bussy with work, and the other learning how to be a father, but I really missed them not showing up on stage