oh lordy, it's been five months since my last blog post. Wait..wait I can explain blogoshphere ppls. Outside of moving roughly 2,000 miles to my red dirt homeland of Oklahoma (and then three moves within this annoyingly hot area). I have also found a nice little gig as a HTML coder at a firm that specializes in online learning. Not only did I beat the 20% real unemployment but I am now a supervisor (I know right?) over some of my very own code monkeys. All the self gratification talk aside, I couldn't think of a better blog post to not only show what I've been up to but to inform you, the discerning reader, on a site that has made my "bossman of the geek world" easier.

Before I unplug my high-speed internet and head west, I thought I would share some ideas on a social media image. One thing I always find important as a traditionally trained graphic designer is ensuring my visual front is appealing. I finally updated my website but that entails a lot more than a simple black to grey background. Like a customer entering into any Wal-Mart store in the country one thing always remains the same, visual cohesion. Here are the steps I used to create my brand as a designer across the internet.

My blog is my hub for these ideas. Syntheticmantis.com is pure Rob expressed in my way. With that being said the main front I decided to use was a minimal approach so that my content was forefront. I spent days debating my new logo alone.

Well here’s an update of the fun FUN world of back-end web development. I have ripped my hair out figuring out how to move my entire site over a new server. First, I need to learn a new skill, which is SSH, yay another programming language. The reason for SSH is the need to zip my home directory. I’ve been updating this site for a little over a year now. It’s full of images, blog posts, and other content. This site now, when you include the .php files, has over a thousand files! That’s why they all need to be compressed in a .zip form. The only other option is downloading them one by one with filezilla and that is just insanity. SSH is really the only way to zip this bad boy up and move it, so I gotta learn it!

Finally! I feel that my new designs are finally polished enough to go live. Everyone that follows my blog, soak in the new minimal color scheme and awesome new logo. Look for a flood of new blogs hitting this site in the next few weeks.

 Tra la la. Oh Hi, I haven't had any posts in a long time. Here is what's going on. First, with the extra time on my hands I am beginning the process of OCD'ing on giving my site a face lift. The beautiful imagery that encapsulates my fine text is known as grunge web design style. Grunge style was huge in the web design world back in 2008 and onward. I really love this form of web design. It borders avant-garde art with a digital world. However, the party is over for expressing and now it's time for functioning.

 If there is anybody out in cyber land wondering why I haven't posted lately, it's all thanks to my senior college finals. It almost killed me, no I mean literally I almost died. I developed a pinched nerve working out, followed by a really nasty viral disease. Talk about staggering over the finish line. Just taking the tests on all the meds was a surreal experience. All that fun stuff aside I"M FREAKING DONE!! What's next? Well no blog posts for another few weeks. I got to see my sick grandma out west and celebrate New Year's in my home city of Denver. After that I'm either in a Master's Program in the middle of NYC at Baruch college or on my dad's couch enjoying the horrors of job searching. 

 Ahh yes, it's Holiday season and that means phone upgrade time for a lot of people, including myself. It can be a cumbersome task when you factor in all the various phones, operating system, plans, and ordering online or brick and mortar stores. To add weight to the decision you have to be satisfied with your new phone for two years or face serious upgrade charges. Here is the process I used to secure my new smart phone. In my case I demand the best deal with my cellular life. Sprint is hands down the cheapest contract carrier out there. If you don't already have Sprint they have a somewhat secret plan (you are welcome) that is $40 less than the other guys.

Yes, my friends social media overload is what the internet and my head is dealing with right at the moment. Before my blog post as an Adobe blogging consultant becomes a distant memory, I thought I would post some final facebook things. Also, my teaching assistant role for my social media class is heading to an end.  That means I'm FINALLY getting time to do some much needed web development. So it couldn't be more appropriate that I finally got a social media sharing tool on my blog. I spent quite a bit of research on the best sharing services out in cyber land. I found Add this on the Ted.com website. It's the number one tool for online media sharing.

 The good news is I am graduating college (Finally!!). The bad news is I need to find a job. Not really a job, but a career. I've had jobs the last four years but no career since 2006. Instead of blogging, doing web development, and graphic design as a hobby, I would throughly enjoy being paid for it. Sounds reasonable right? Wrong! The economy right now is like the first gold fish I had when I was five, it's going belly up. However, I'm not discouraged. I'm a single guy with mid-level experience that can go anywhere and my sites are set on this. I'm not stopping until it happens. Like anything you truly desire in this world it just takes a lot of work. So I am knee deep in cover letters, phone calls, and business lingo.

Awww shucks the best part of the year is over. If you're like me, you're constantly scanning those encapsulated memories of the best holiday of the year. It's obvious I am not alone since we get to see the post-Halloween pics all over facebook. I might as well remind everyone that Adobe's Facebook awesomizer (linky text) contest is still running strong. Obviously the picture above is from the Full version of Photoshop. I just really wanted to show it off. I was a guy wearing fishnets for Halloween, how elaborate of me. This post it felt appropriate to show off my Photoshop wizardry. Anyway get your pictures submitted because after this there are only  two more left.