I have such mixed feelings right now!

1st. I’m happy to see the end of this semester

2nd. I’m so sad to see the end of CT101

I came into this class not really knowing what to expect but I had high hopes because of all the good reviews I’ve heard about this class and Prof Seslow, not only from Rate my professors but from past classmates and even other professors.

This course has been my favorite thus for and that says a lot because I’m a senior and I only have two more courses to go!

I learned a lot from this class and I had fun while creating and blogging about all we have talked about during class. I appreciated being exposed to different types of digital art such as Vapor wave because though I’ve seen it here and there, I didn’t know what it was exactly and how fun and easy it is to create. I also appreciate learning about Copy right and about great minds such as Aaron Swartz. These are topics that I’ve never been exposed to in a classroom setting and I’m  for this new knowledge

My favorite creative project that I completed this semester is the DS106 Assignment, I did my version of Pop star out of place and I had so much fun doing it. It was a bit challenging but I’ve always wanted to learn how to combine different pictures like this in Photoshop. I love using Photopea, its a great substitute for Photoshop.

However my greatest accomplishment in CT101 is my website aniqueryan.com. I’m so excited and happy about my website. I will definitely keep it after this course because I plan on continuing on using it to promote my art works. I like how it’s looking right now but I am definitely going to work on how its presented.

I honestly thought it would of been so much more difficult to build a website. The only problem I had was my indecisiveness lol.

What grade do I think I’ve earned in this class?

An A+ of course, Duh!

To be honest I think my grade for this class is going to be a B+ or A-

I’ve only missed the last two post and I haven’t commented on my classmates post. However I’ve tried my best to do all my assignments. This semester has been very challenging but I’ve tried my best.

Any hoooooo! Good Bye! Best wishes to all of you on your endeavors and Happy Holidays!

I musts say that my classmates have produced some very successful websites. You go guys!

The website that I really took a liking to is Claudia Bakes! by Claudia Campos. This is not because it is filled with delicious goodies…. but honestly that may be one of the reasons.

I love the overall feel of the website, the use of the color brown for the Titles gives the website a calm, “homey” feel. Its just pleasing on the eyes. I do have a bit of a sweet tooth and I appreciate the fact that Claudia shares the recipes to the pictures of the delectable goodies she post.

Well done Claudia!

Though I am currently trying to eat healthy and I’ve been doing a decent job at staying away from too much sweets, this website has me drooling lol.

With that being said, I think I’m going to try out one of these recipes. Thank you Claudia!

I am having so much fun customizing my website; aniqueryan.com

I’m still in awe that I’m actually doing this. I would of never thought that this would be so easy to accomplish.

Here is a little snap shot of my website. I have successfully added an Instagram plugin and posted my second blog post.

I’m getting there slowly but surely and I’m enjoying every bit of it!

 

*Screams internally*

I must say that this semester has ranked in my top three worst semesters of my college life and that says a lot because I’m a senior with one more semester to go. This semester was supposed to be my last but I ended up dropping a course because there was just too much on my plate. Ugh!

From being a full time student and having a full time job, contracting Covid-19 and thus falling behind on my courses. I am just over this semester already.

Ct101 have been one of my courses this semester that is not a burden, I really enjoy this class and I enjoy the wide creative range that professor Seslow has given us in this course.

This course has challenged me in a way that no other course has and I am grateful for it. It has improved my communication skills and I think its because of the many visuals I can add to my blog post. Im a very visual person and just adding gifs to my post makes it feel less formal and eases the self induced pressure of converting my thoughts into my blog.

*happy sigh*

I do think I’ve earned an A grade so far in this class, Ive been keeping up with all the blog posts and doing the assignments. The only place where I would loose points is Participation, I have not been commenting on my fellow classmates post *hides face*

Creating my website!

Yay me! I created my website!

So I really anticipated the fact that the domain name I choose may not be available and I must admit it was giving me a little bit of anxiety lol.

But alas! My first option was a hit!

My official website is aniqueryan.com

Ohh Yea!

The process after that was pretty simple and straight forward thanks to the instructions of professor Seslow.

The next step would be to customize my website and I’m pretty hyped about that idea.

The documentary The Internet’s own Boy: The story of Aaron Swartz was very interesting, this is my first time hearing about Aaron Swartz and about the brilliant things that he was apart of. He was an amazing person who accomplished a lot in his short life.

Aaron Swartz questioned the systems that the government has put in place, mostly the education system and the justice system. He believed that these systems were rigged and he worked to shed light on the injustice of it all.

There is a segment in the documentary where Aarron’s brother reads a section of one of his blogs entitled Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto. In this blog Aaron speaks of the injustice that occurs when information that was intended to be free is locked up by big corporations that intend to profit from them.

This bewildered me, I’ve been apart of this system as a student especially since I’m a Biology minor. I’ve worked on a Biology article that has been published but I’ve never really looked at the bigger picture as to the whole schematics of how my work would be accessed or who controls it because I merely did it as an assignment for my class. Now that I’ve take everything into consideration, I can’t help but feel take advantage of to a degree. This makes me appreciate what Aaron Swartz have done and I’m saddened by his shorten life and the failed system that brought that to being.

When I think of Aaron Swartz, I visualize him “going against the grain”. He didn’t give up in trying to change a system that he deemed unacceptable. He was a revolutionist in his own right. He brought about much change and he started a movement. Even in his death he is still encouraging change.

“He was the Internet’s own boy, and the old world killed him”.

Aaron Swartz went against the grain.

 

It’s time to pick a Domain name and as much as I’m excited about this, I’m equally anxious. I’m too indecisive when it comes to making decisions such as this.

What if I later hate the domain name I choose now?

What if I can’t create a domain name that I truly like?

Anywhoooo…..

Lets first talk about content. What would my website comprise of?

Well I’ve always wanted my very own website to showcase my creations and maybe someday sell them on thus website.

What creations you may ask?

I love to create on many artistic platforms; drawing, painting, crafts, photography. Currently I’m taking the Graphic design course and I’m in love.

Here is one of my favorite paintings that would mostly likely be shown on my website.

I would like my domain name to be my name so along the lines of;

aniqueryan

anique_ryan

However if that’s not possible then something such as;

aniquecreates

aniques_creations

 

For my second choice of the DS106 Assignment, I choose another Visual assignment.

This Combophoto assignment looked like it would be a bit amusing to complete and it was just that.

After brainstorming a few ideas I set out to acquire the two photos I would use to combine into one.

For my first choice; a bouquet of flowers.

And for my second choice; an ice-cream cone

After acquiring my two photos, I headed over to Photopea to edit and combine my photos.

I had to do a bit of cropping and resizing .Voila! 

Assignment complete!

It’s a bouquet of roses!…… It’s ice-cream!…… NO,It’s a bouquet of roses in an ice-cream cone!

 

 

 

This assignment first caught my eye because it is one that I have the skill to complete. It resembles one of the previous assignments for this class; Assignment 2: Gif reaction post, where we had to make a Gif reaction to how we feel about the class.

This is the second assignment that caught my eye. I’ve always wanted to learn how to edit pictures, well to be more specific, I’ve always wanted to become skilled in Photoshop. I found this assignment to be a bit challenging to complete. Nonetheless I did complete it, Yay!

First I went looking for my main picture, the back ground picture. I found this nice winter picture on Unsplash and then uploaded it onto Photopea.

After setting the scale of my picture so that it completly covers my work area I then set out to look for my “popstar”.

I then decided that I really don’t want a popstar. I thought that the use of a cartoon character would be much more amusing especially since there is a human in the picture that I choose.

After  brief brief contemplation, I decided that I would use a cartoon character that can be seen sunbathing as that would be the opposite of the wintery background.

I then uploaded my second picture onto Photopea and unfortunately it did not have a transparent background so I had to do some work. I must say that even thought I followed the steps that Professor Seslow showed in the recorded video it was still a bit challenging because I’m not versed in Photoshop.

After a bit of a struggle I was finally able to remove the white background from the second picture and was successfully able to complete the assignment as can be seen below.

In debating if Memes are considered to be art we must first look closely at both memes and art.

According to Oxford Languages, Art is “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.”

However with new technologies art has evolved and there are new types of art such as graphical art with new medium such as the internet.

In the article ‘ The surprising academic origins of memes‘ by Erhan Asian, The Conversation, it is stated that “Meme creators use “multimodal grammar” (in other words, images and captions) to express and share ideas and opinions.” People who then share these memes on their social media platforms with their friends then add a personal meaning to memes.

Richard Dawkins, a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author define a meme is “a unit of cultural transmission or imitation”.  It is said that memes are linked to evolutionary biology and have been compared to genes because of how memes flow with the evolution of culture.

with this we can see the academic and artistic component that memes of comprised of.

Here is a video of Richard Dawkins speaking about Memes.

 

In my opinion Memes are art, with the facts I’ve listed above it is impossible to not see the connection between Art and Memes.

 

My CT101 meme

 

 

I first heard about CT101 in one of my previous courses by a classmate who spoke very highly of professor Seslow. It was later recommended by my Photography professor when I inquired about a course where I can learn media content. After learning what the course contains I was sold and honestly it was the building of the website for me. My reaction was “Oh really?”

 So even though I don’t need CT101 and I am working full time and also attending college full time I was still pondering if I should take this course.

After the way last semester ended with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic I was even more skeptical of taking on CT101 on my already tight schedule. I barely  survived the last semester. It was exhausting.

I hopped on my computer and went to looking on ratemyprofessor.com

There were nothing but good reviews, everyone loved this class. I was impressed.

I thought; well I’ve got nothing to lose, this course sounds great.

I showed up to class with great expectations. With everything that I learned before hand and all the great reviews, I had very high hopes. I logged on to our first Zoom meeting with eagerness.

Midway into our first session I was relived that professor Seslow and this course was exactly as described to me. Professor is very nice and seems really down to earth and there is a nice calm vibe to this course, it’s very refreshing compared to most of my other courses this semester. All in all, I don’t regret taking this course at all, I happy I’m taking this course this semester and I excited to see the fruition of this course.

 

What brings me happiness on the internet?

A good D.I.Y project.

I’ve always been crafty, I always try to do things on my own so I’m always on the internet looking for Do It Yourself projects. There are a lot of Lifestyle blogs and also Youtube channels that are dedicated for such projects.

My most recent D.I.Y project is making a face mask. At the beginning of the pandemic I think this has been the most sort after D.I.Y project. I headed to YouTube and I was not disappointed in the plethora of face mask tutorials I found.  The face mask tutorial that I found simple and easy to follow was one posted by Mimi G Style -a popular fashion, lifestyle and DIY blog.

I grabbed my sewing machine and some scrap cloth and got to working. And in no time at all I made a few face masks for myself and my love ones. I even had a few inquiries from friends willing to buy a few face masks.  Now my favorite face mask is the one I made. Thank you internet.