As this semester draws closer, I reflect on the stark contrast between this class and my other academic pursuits. While I may not have performed to the best of my abilities, this class has been a welcome respite from the chaos of my other courses, including a challenging algebra class and a philosophy course with an average professor, not to mention a demanding lecture and lab class. 

I have not been on top of my assignments as well as I could or should’ve been. However, I have been enjoying this class, and I have pushed to do my best in my current condition. I would take a B in class because I know I don’t deserve an A. I have worked on this website for hours without eating anything, so I am hoping for a B, but I’ll leave it up to the professor.

I have fallen in love with the freedom this class has offered me. I have also enjoyed seeing so many people unite and just let loose.

One thing I can say for certain is that the website-building skills I have learned will definitely come in handy. I plan on creating another website for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign in the future. Besides that, I put my passion into the website I’ve created now so that I will nurture that.

Assignment #1 – Internet Happiness

Assignment #2 – First Day of CT 101

Assignment #3 – What are memes?

Assignment #4 – Passion

Assignment #5 – Digital Storytelling Project

Assignment #6 – Semester Reflection

Assignment #7 – This is MY DOMAIN… 😉

Assignment #9 – Reclaim Hosting

Assignment #10 – NovelVoyage

Check out my website guys – NovelVoyage – Start your Voyage

Hey guys, what’s up? How has everybody been doing? I hope everyone is great because I am fantastic. After a bunch of hurdles, I have just finished my website to the point where I can submit it as something I’m proud of. This means how I envisioned this website, but as I was creating it, I started improvising certain parts and ended up with something completely different than I originally envisioned; however, I had the same primary goal and core function. 

I’m not going to lie. I have not eaten in about 12 hours and am starving. However, I am still grinning from ear to ear, and I can’t wait to show you my website. 

As an introduction, I want to introduce you guys to my homepage, which is the very first page anyone sees when they click on the website or enter the URL. – NovelVoyage – Start your Voyage

Also, as a side note, I made my website mobile, tablet, and desktop-friendly. 

I also have a couple of posts ready for anyone to read. Since I mainly read fanfiction these days, these posts are fanfiction, although I plan on further developing the website because why not? 

On the starting page, you’ll see six of the most recent posts, and then if you go to the top right, you’ll see the fanfiction link, which you click to get to that archive. – FANFICTION – NovelVoyage

I have just started working on my ideas for my webpage and have signed into Reclaim Hosting. So far, it’s been a pretty easy step-by-step process. However, I’ve run into a little issue.

The control panel section of the Reclaim Hosting website has not been responding, so now I am in a little sticky situation where I don’t know if I can do the webpage. I’m not sure what the problem is precisely. However, until this point, everything has been pretty smooth and easy to follow, along with the instructions that the professor laid out. I emailed him, and I am confident I can get through this little hurdle.

I have just finished all my finals, and I’m excited to finally assemble the website I’ve been creating. I have a good idea of what I want to be and what I want to look like; I hope to solve this problem with the control panel soon so I can put it together.

On the other hand, the steps I took to sign up for the website are pretty standard. I’m sure everybody followed the same steps when signing up for the Reclaim Hosting website. I didn’t really get to do anything else, but I have contacted the website managers to assist if they can.

As I say this, I just got an email telling me what to do to fix this.

Alright, let’s have some fun with this one.

Honestly, this is the most exciting thing I’ve done in a very long time. It’s the website I’m working on, which will be about books and a pseudo-book club. I have never been a part of a book club, so I’m kind of just using my imagination. Furthermore, I don’t know of any other site like the one I’m describing, mainly due to the heavy fanfiction side I’m working on.

Growing up, I was embarrassed to admit that I read fanfiction, especially when I started reading. But I’ve always been fascinated with books and literature, exploring stories and reading about different variations of established stories.

For example, I spent approximately eight years reading Percy Jackson fanfiction, among others, but it was mainly Percy Jackson. I want to create a website that can be used for established books, and as someone who reads all, I know that there are fanfictions that are just as good, if not better, as real books.

Here are some of my favorites:

• Percy Jackson and the Game Chapter 1: Prologue, a Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfic | FanFiction
• Betrayed Son of the Sea Chapter 1: How it All Began, a Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfic | FanFiction
• Perseus Jackson Monster Shifter Chapter 1: Welcome to Hell, a Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfic | FanFiction
• Altered Destinies Chapter 1: A New Beginning, a Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfic | FanFiction
• Intertwined Destinies Chapter 1: A Missing Demigod, a Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfic | FanFiction
• Eternal Destinies Chapter 1: Teaser, a Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfic | FanFiction

I will also spit out a couple of names I’ve created to choose from. I think I already know which one I want to pick, but I still want to put out the choices that I have made. 

• PageTurners
• ReadersRealm
• BookishBanter
• ReadingRetreat
• StoryCircle
• TalesTogether
• PagePalette
• LiteraryLiaisons
• BookishBoulevard
• NovelVoyage – Winner

The main reason I picked this is that it sounded fancy. Still, it also included the word voyage, which to me represents travel across great expenses, as well as the word novel, which to me is important because up until I got to high school, I did not know what a novel was Ever explained what a novel was and it’s just a funny story. So it becomes, in my eyes, something that means a journey across a great expanse of worlds through the words and literary sculpting of dreamers.

How am I doing in CT101?

I think that all things considered, I am not doing too badly in CT101. But I know I’m not doing the best I could be. I’m not as attentive in this class as I would like and have missed several classes. My schedule sucks, and I know that I could be doing better.

What have I learned and retained the most? / What new skills have I developed, cultivated, and displayed regularly in my weekly posts?

Some things that I’ve learned that I’m retaining is honestly just being more active on the technological and social front. I don’t really text. I don’t really blog. I don’t really talk to people that often, but now I’m doing that more, and I’ve started using Reddit because I’ve got into dungeons and dragons; I’m a lot more expressive in how I talk to people through GIFs and memes. So, that’s one thing I’ve definitely taken away from this class.

What do I know now that I did not know before taking this class?

I did not realize how people interacted with the Internet, and I don’t use social media or technology. So, I’m developing skills on that front, considering I had none before.

What grade do I believe I am maintaining, and why do I deserve that grade?

I’m not even going to try to advocate that I should receive anything above a B. Honestly, I didn’t realize how bad my schedule was until now, and I genuinely regret how it worked out. Still, I enjoy the Zoom lessons when I watch them, and I think I would be happy with a B or B-, but I know I’m not near the level of an A.

Do I see my weekly blogging work expanding creatively? If so, please explain why. Or am I stuck in a loop where my posts seem to look the same most of the time? How will I change that?

I am noticing that I’m slowly becoming more creative, but I don’t know how to work the website to get that kind of flare in my posts. I’m not very good with this kind of thing, but I am getting better, and I think I have to explore the website a bit more to take my posts to the next level.

Are there any assignments that you are missing? If so, list them.

I am missing some assignments, but only the ones after this. I will do them soon, and they will be uploaded soon. I need 7 – 10. 

Are you commenting regularly on your classmates’ posts? Are you responding to comments made by the professor and your classmates?

I have read many of my classmates’ posts and commented on a couple of them, but I need to start commenting more and going a little more in-depth on their posts.

Are you participating during the class time? If not, explain why.

I tried to be in class as much as I could, but I just can’t with my schedule, and I’ve also had a lot of personal things going on in my life that have come out of nowhere that are just not helping in any way, shape, or form. 

This is the time to be accountable. How will you make needed improvements?

I will try to do better in the future and be mindful of the different commitments I have next time. Now that I’ve gone through what I have, I can roll with the punches better, so to speak. 

Passions, I am passionate about many things, and I can’t say for certain what I am more passionate about between all of them; for instance, before my fourth grade, I hated reading, and the idea of it I found to be boring. But then I picked up the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series, and from there on out, reading was my passion.

Along the way, I picked up several more. In fact, video games are also one of my passions, along with writing. To be honest, recently, I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate 3, and I absolutely love it. That’s not to say Baldur’s Gate is a passion, except that this game was what made me realize that what I’m really passionate about is great stories.

 I’m a true sucker for a good story.

This Is Your Brain On Storytelling: Why We Love Narrative ELearning (forbes.com)

I’m not even talking about the fairytale-type stories or the stories where there’s always a good ending. I love a story with unexpected twists that work with the development of characters and plot, and stuff you would never expect to happen out of nowhere and all these twists and turns and the Ups and downs that follow.

The Science of Storytelling: Why We Love Stories | by Joshua VanDeBrake | The Startup | Medium

I’ve actually started exploring this further by means of Baldurs Gate 3 and what kind of storytelling it fundamentally is.

Memes are internal jokes that spread quickly across the internet. They might be hilarious, relatable, or even bizarre, but they always seem to hit home with people.

Nowadays, memes are frequently inspired by pop culture allusions, current events, or ordinary life circumstances. They can take many forms, including captioned photographs, short movies, gifs, and memorable statements. Memes are like the internet generation’s language; they’re how we communicate and connect online.

The best aspect is that memes change throughout time. What begins as a simple joke can turn into numerous variations, each with its own distinct twist.

1. My first day in this class was surprising, and I’ve never had a class quite like it. This is the first time I’ve had such a chill professor, especially considering the crazy courses I’m taking this semester; I’m so glad I have this class because I also have to take algebra, which I find to be my Antithesis.

1. Honestly, I loved hearing about the creative content and how we will be using it because I love a good story. Because of this, I love the types of things that I love. I’m all about the progression of the story and the way that directors, actors, and game developers can come together and use different methods to tell a story, and it’s also something I’ve been trying to learn to do.

1. I’ve answered this pretty much already, and I have to say I’m enjoying the freedom this class offers me. I don’t know if the chances of me actually posting this on time are great, but the liberty this class gives me is such a breath of fresh air, considering I’m taking difficult lab classes in algebra and philosophy.

1. Honestly, I don’t really know what my goals for this class are or what I want to learn. I just think that I’m here to broaden my horizons on different things that I have dabbled in. I feel pretty good about using new tools because a lot of the stuff I do is online, and I’m all about learning new things.