What did you enjoy about our class and how you will apply your new skills into the world? How can you describe my journey with CT101 ? 

A few months ago I ate a delicious piece of cheese.

It was sooooo good……

It made me STOP……. and think about its origin. 

 

🤔

Heres what I found out…..

HOW CHEESE IS MADE: The 5 step process to make amazing CHEESE.

 

step 1.Milk the cow

 

step 2. Pasteurize the milk at the right temperature to kill 💉bacteria. 

 

 

step 3. Add ingredients 

 

 

step 4. Incubation period / Leave it to age

Wrap up the cheese- In a controlled humid Environment for a few months so we it breath, stay humid, and ripen it’s surface. 

step 5: Keep checking on it for the next few months. If mold has grown underneath, remove it off and when it is clean, try waxing the cheese.  

 

finally—-It is ready to be served…

 

 

 

IT TURNS OUT THAT MY CT 101 EXPERIENCE WAS QUITE SIMILAR TO THIS PROCESS……LET ME EXPLAIN

 

Writing CT 101 blogs begins with…..

 

step 1.Milk the brain.

Milking out the brain means doing lots of writing without editing…. The goal is to write down every single thing that comes to mind…In this phases quantity is more important and quality. 

 

 

step 2. kill 💉  what doesn’t work

After our first brain milking… it time to delete/ Edit what you wrote down. Some of what you wrote down has to go….KILL IT.

 

 

step 3. Add ingredients 

After your first edit, you will begin to add the right ingredients.

 

 

 

step 4. Incubation period–

In this phase, wrap things up and stop working on the blog for a while.

Take a break !

Allow the blog to breath and ripen in your brain. ( your brain will automatically work on it in the background as you do other things. 

 

 

step 5: After a while Keep checking, deleting , adding, and tweaking the blog until its ready. 

finally- You can publish it.

Old and new lessons from ct101:

 

In my midterm post https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/why-midterms-are-important/ 

I discussed 5 lessons that I have learned ( which are listed below) that I would like to share with you again….

 

Lessons before mid term	recap
1.Memes and trying humor.	In blog # 3 , I learned to try humor with memes to engage the readers.
2. Ideas can come from anywhere. Keep your mind open for them.	While working on blog # 5, I learned how ideas can come to you anytime and anywhere, while you shower, drive , watching TV , etc.Be open minded and use your environment to be more creative.
3.Move things around until it feels right.	While working on blog #2 and # 3  I learned to move different sections around to have better structure in the narrative. Here is the 3 step process. 1.Break down the blog into different PARTS 2.Move the P A R T S around. 3.Connect each part to the next.
4.kill your darlings…..Sometimes you have to get rid of a section.	While writing blog # 1, I learned how sometimes you have to drop and kill a section in your blog for the greater good of the whole story.
5. Take time to write.	After submitting my worst blog post # 4. I realized how good writing really requires a lot of effort. Ha-lf assed efforts = Ha-lf assed results.

 

 

4 more lessons after midterms…….

 

1.Why blogs die young.

After submitting the midterm blog ( which I thought was my best one).  I started to doubt if any one even read it. 

I love writing, however I am not writing just for myself.

My goal in writing is to add value to the reader.

I spend hours writing and editing  my blogs so I find it less meaningful if no one read it………

Later that week , I discovered that professor Seslow read my midterm blog which made me happy……

I think this is why so most blogs die young…

When no one is reading your work its hard to keep writing but we must persevere. Especially  in the beginning.  

 

 

2.Your Domain name matters.

The domain name  to your website is like storefront to a business.

It needs to be catchy , simple,  smooth , welcoming , and relevant to your  content.

I honestly HATE my domain name !!!

HHTOOLBOX.COM

Will you maintain and keep up your new website? If so, how? If not, Why not?

My plan is to change my domain name. So yes I would like to keep my website and write on a weekly basis.

3. Ideas have a life span. 

In her book Big Magic: How to Live a Creative Life, and Let Go of Your Fear,  Elizabeth Gilbert talks about how she once had a brilliant idea for a novel that took in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil.

She conducted lots research for the book and was read to start. However due to a circumstances she had pause.

2 years later when she came back to work on it , she couldn’t write anything. The idea had died.

She writes…

I’m pretty stubborn about sticking with projects, so I prodded at the thing for several months, trying to make it work again, hoping to bring it back to life. But it was useless. Nothing I’m pretty stubborn about sticking with projects, so I prodded at the thing for several months, trying to make it work again, hoping to bring it back to life. But it was useless. Nothing was there. It was like poking a stick at a cast-off snakeskin: The more I messed with it,

 

Gilbert eventually gave up on the idea and pursued something else that went on to be successful.

 

Something similar happened to me as I was finishing my 7th blog.

Heres what happened……

I published the first draft with hopes that I will finish the conclusion later. 

 

 

With a busy schedule I procrastinated and lost motivation every single day that passed.

 

After 2 weeks of procrastinating my desire to finish the conclusion died out. I had all my research ready but just could not write.

LESSON ? Don’t procrastinate on a good idea.

 

 

4. A picture is worth a thousand words. 

As I was writing blog # 9, I wanted to explain how cities are more creative than villages  _______________________ __________________________________________.

__________________________________________.

For some reasons writers block descended upon me, and I didn’t know what to write.

 

Then I remembered something I read a few years ago where Bill Gates would doddle when he got stock on a problem….

So I went to google images and Google draw and decided to just play around with pictures………

eventually I ended up with this visual , which I think was better than what I would have wrote.

 

What grade you have earned in our class and why do you deserve that grade?

 

This blog was based on : https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/ct101-final-blog-post-course-completion-information-3/

My Website: HHTOOLBOX.COM

All of my posts:

1. https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/internettherapy
2. https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/my-journey-withct101
3. https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/to-meme-or-not-tomeme
4. https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/6257-2/ideas/
5. https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/why-midterms-are important/
6. https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/6257-2/
7. https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/organ-meat-and-mydomain-name/
8. https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/itshere/
9. https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/why-cities-are-more-creativethan-villages/

10: The post you just read: