Blog: Michael Serna

Video Gaming Era at an End for Me?

 

I'm so busy at times I find myself posting on this blog as the last thing on my "to-do" list. I feel like I only post when I'm not busy. I think I forced myself to not be busy in order to post today. heh. Well with my adjustment to working so early in the morning, 7 am (with a wake-up call of 5:30 am) it's been difficult to find time to blog. At least on this blog I find my daily devotion to be beneficially with my daily walk with God. 

There's one thing I've noticed myself sacrifice in my life since the start of the new year. It's playing video games. I have 3 video game systems the Wii, Playstation 3, and the Xbox 360. I do give 200 mins a week playing NBA 2K10. But other than that, that's it. Do I want to play video games? I actually do. But there's just no time for me to do so nowadays. I arrive home from work noticing myself continuing devotional bible studies on my own, tuning in to a Laker game, and practicing web designing/programming standards. ''

The glory days of video games are about over for me. Obtaining knowledge of the word of God and the web is in. Except for tonight ... I force myself to slouch on the coach and write this blog.

At the same time, I hope I don't leave this blog or write twice a month. I hope to write more frequently at least twice a week. Perhaps I'll add it to my to-do list on my iCal. 

Mac Pro in the Shop and other stuff ...

 

This is by far the longest time I've been on a PC at home. 4+ hours. My tank of a machine, Mac Pro is in the shop because of repairs. Specifically due to firewire ports. I've been maxing out the Mac lately I think I've burned it out. Using multiple firewire ports at the same time, while editing video, sound, browsing the web, chatting, and checking e-mail. Of course, when a strain of that magnitude happens, you gotta wonder that computers weren't as powerful and couldn't multi-task as they can today. 

Well it's been another week in the bag. Time to say hello to a 3 day weekend! Bought a pair of new shoes today, heading out to a debut Saturday evening. Urggh I'll miss the Saturday Night NBA All Star festivities! I'll just have to catch the Shannon Brown dunks when I get home or see what I can grab on NBA.com. It's all good though, much more love to a old friend of mine. Sunday it's church and God's time, and Monday, is wide open. Probably a day to relax and play with my new Asus Netbook! Thank you Newegg! 

 

Designers These Days

Got a great deal of info on what a typical designer has in his/her arsenal. 

Thanks to Chris Coyier. http://css-tricks.com/designers-these-days/

… have a good design sense and understand the fundamentals / design principals.
… know all the major design software including the entire Adobe Creative Suite.
… have some basic video editing skills.
… know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
… know enough about server-side languages (PHP, ASP, Ruby, Python, etc) to understand how they work, what they do, and the possibilities of their use.
… know about servers, hosting, domain registrants, DNS, etc. Setting it up, and fixing it when it breaks.
… know OS X really well (and enough Windows to get by) or know Windows really well (and enough OS X to get by) and know a huge variety of utility software that goes with.
… are good photographers.
… can color correct photos and work in RAW.
… can cut clipping paths or otherwise extract objects from photos.
… have a killer online portfolio.
… are a personable, nice people that are good with clients.
… can help clients with anything even vaguely computer-related.
… are quick to adapt to new software and new technologies.
… can train fellow employees.
… can train clients on the use of their websites.
… are good communicators.
… are team players.
… have good taste in art, music and movies.
… are up to date on social media.
… are good at logic and deduction.
… are good at user experience and user testing.
… are SEO experts.
… know about and how to handle web accessibility (and the laws surrounding it)
… understand copyright laws.
… do progressive enhancement and graceful degradation techniques.
… can debug cross-browser problems and older browser bugs.
… can bring your own client base.
… are healthy, well groomed, and wear fancy t-shirts.
… can be on-call at all times for emergencies.
… have college degrees in design-related fields.
… own very nice and expensive computers full of expensive software.
… can design for mobile devices.
… are good typographers.

New Books!

 

Received some new books today. I love Greg Laurie’s clarification and his doctrine to how God should be approached. Of course, the primary word is from the bible as it should. Also, considering I’m a web geek, I got some books on improving the way I build websites. Elements that are the gift of God that I use for everyday commission unto His glory! Thank you Amazon.com!

 

The Giant iPod Touch

My overall grade for presentation of this device: 2/5 

Catch the keynote here: http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Hope for Haiti Now

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Current State of Mind

Today I'm feelin' a bit under the weather leaving me to drop many things today. Thus having time to make a post today. The new year has started out okay for me and with natural disasters going on in Haiti as the focal attention of today's current events. 

After focusing so much in the business and project management world last year, I've caught myself being pulled back in to much of the web world once again. A couple of enhancements such as jQuery and CSS has me brain twisted and surprised to see how much my job is getting me involved. Slowly and surely I am going back to becoming a full-time web developer it seems and it isn't what I totally want to do. That's the state of my job right now. It has pulled me out of what I want to be as a PMP (Project Management Professional). It's pulled me out of studying and advancing more into this great need and I'm always wondering if I'll get back into it. 

Another thing that didn't quite catch my attention was this year's CES event. So much gadgetry there including upcoming 3D televisions. This isn't all eye-popping to me as I find this to be an excuse of companies selling something "just because televisions can't offer anything anymore." 

Lakers: Probably something that's taken me off a little bit of stress. The Lakers are the best team in the league right now even with a battered team that consists of injuries of nearly half their team. Kobe is a fierce competitor who physically can be a liability to the team because with his bad back and fingers. But his presence in the team makes them all the better. 

God: Where could I be without God? With more hardships and challenges comes the calling of God. I've been experiencing multitudes of stress with headaches and sleepiness. (Part of it has to do with the need of new prescription glasses) But I hope God can give me the strength and courage I need to conquer my days ahead of me. Don't forget to check out my Devotional blog here.

A Step Up from 1080p?!

And you thought 1080p was the most stunning high quality video eh? Heck even I did. But with now newer HDMI cables we can expect television sets and monitors to follow. Introducing 4k x 2k!

Read full article here.

 

 

Terminator Salvation

  

Can't judge the movie so much solely based on the Terminator Trilogy. If you know the trilogy, then you know the story. The plot takes place after it was much described by Kyle Reese in Terminator 1 in which John Connor has a major role in the resistance of the machines. SPOILER ALERT! I thought the best scene in the film was Arnold's appearance in the movie! (well a CG version of him of course) And it very much replicated the old Arnold of the 1980's. Young and buff. Very good job on the look-alike! Even though his appearance was just for a total of 30 seconds. Anyways the story was okay and has potential to build up for a sequel where John does actually send Kyle Reese back into time to save his mother, Sarah Connor. The entire movie was predictable and okay. 3.8 stars/5 stars.

Amazon Free MP3s

Free Amazon MP3s

Check it out and grab some! Has a couple of good hits, but mostly tracks in which we I've never heard of. Anyways it's good to check in and see what's available. Add it to your bookmarks!