Previously on CT 101…

Where to start with this post…… To put it lightly this semester has been hectic for me. I was recommended CT last semester by my English professor and also told to take Ryan Seslow, neither of which I regret. When the beginning of the semester started and we all talked about our struggles as people in a world where no one cares how your personal life affects your performance in other areas, I knew I was in the right place. Especially since we’re all adults with other classes and commitments but, I feel like I’ve managed. Not as well as I would have liked but I did get to do some really cool things which I’ll talk about later.

As for my blog posts, some have gone up later than I’d like and I always feel slightly behind. However, knowing our professor (whom I’m thankful to have) I know I have time to keep up with the rest of the class.  Overall, I’ve learned a lot in this class and it’s been one of the deciding factors for me to stay in this major.

Our first blog post… I remember it fondly, we were just supposed to use it to get familiar with inserting different types of media into our posts. Since I had never done it before, using hyperlinks to link something to a word or sentence was the coolest thing ever. I remember immediately loving that and to this day it’s one of my favorite things to do in a blog post.

By the time we did our second assignment, I already felt more comfortable. Luckily enough, our professor is always straightforward and very clear about what he’d like to see in our blog posts. But he also doesn’t limit us to those requirements and mostly we just have to talk about what we were feeling about the material and our class.

The third assignment kind of threw me for a loop. At first, I thought making memes and gifs would be easy, but as I sat down to do it myself… EVERYTHING went wrong XD. At the time I was still using my old computer which struggled with saving some of the gifs or memes I did make. I also had a problem with getting the right parts of videos to save into the gifs I wanted. It took the video tutorial our professor gave us and some serious patience to get through the gif-making process XD.

Over time, I became more confident in our assignments. The rest of them simply expanded on skills we were developing already. I still like to make memes every once in a while although I’m more partial to gifs.

Which do you like to make more??

As for my overall performance, I’d like to think I’m doing well (at least a solid A- or B). I know I’ve missed a few classes here and there but I’m hoping that now that life has calmed down that won’t be the case anymore. I do watch the lectures whenever I get the chance and I try my best to keep up with the blogs, comments, and lessons ( even though I know I’m always 1 or 2 blog posts behind) but again, I’m hoping that won’t be the case anymore.

I’ve learned so much since starting this class, including how to set up a website a couple of weeks ago. However, I’m always my own worst critic so I’ll try to see my blog posts objectively. I feel like they’ve maintained a consistent backbone of a few gifs and I also try to let my personality come through a bit. Going forward, I plan to include even more media if I can find some that relate to the topic and also more created memes of my own especially now that I found a template website I like.

As far as missing posts go, this and assignment #7 are the only ones I haven’t done yet. I plan to fix that between tonight and tomorrow morning since I have some time to kill before class. My participation online could be better, I try to respond to the comments I get on my blog posts regularly. But, I don’t feel like I’ve commented enough on others’ posts and I plan to fix that right after finishing these two assignments. Class time participation always feels more natural to me because I enjoy the environment of having a class discussion where we all talk at that moment.

The idea of a mid-semester assessment is one that I never had before but once again kudos to our professor for thinking of ways to constantly help us improve not just in this class but as people that operate in the world. I appreciate this because it really helps me put into perspective how I have been doing and how I plan to improve. I look forward to the rest of the semester because I know that all of us are going to do awesome.

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MAN WAS I A DUMMY XD

So after realizing that the semester was quickly coming to an end, I realized I still wasn’t able to fulfill all of the things I wanted to in relation to this class. I was still always 1 or 2 blog posts behind and I still feel like I could’ve commented more on my classmate’s blog posts. However, I do feel like I was able to attend class physically more often which I am happy about because I like in-class conversation more. This semester as a whole just felt like one of those giant snowballs that never stop rolling.

In the end, it was a small dash to the finish line but alas, I made it. Even though it was a bit rough I’m so happy that my English professor suggested I switch to this major and take this professor. I’ve had so much fun over the course of the semester and I’ve learned so many new skills that I can use at a later date like making memes, gifs and as of late, making my website! At first, the website assignment seemed daunting and I’ll admit that I was nervous to sit down with it. Eventually, I bucked up and started it…. it went about the way I expected XD…

I sat there rewatching the two recorded lessons over and over before I had to take a break for the day and revisit it again later. The next day I got on my computer and decided that I was going to see what kind of websites our classmates were making. All of you had such fantastic websites!!! In all honesty, it’s one of the main reasons I wanted to get back into it and see what I was capable of.

In the end, I wound up doing what every kid who grew up with the internet does and googled it. After a couple of hours, I found this really awesome youtube video that walked me through everything I needed to set up a successful website on WordPress. With this tool in hand, I reset my website and started from scratch.

With this new outlook I had on my website, I got really into finding and curating digital content that relates to the things that I wanted to have on there. Because I didn’t have any specific theme in mind so I decided to keep the randomness that I had on my mmm.page we originally made. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I wanted this website to be a form of organized chaos which I feel like I’ve been achieving for the most part.

Using the new Elementor plugin, I have completely redesigned my website and I feel like it looks so much better.

Some of my favorite times to participate were the class discussions we would have. I always enjoyed going to class because I knew it would be an awesome learning experience and I was never disappointed. We did a lot of good work this semester and I hope everyone is proud of the things they learned to do no matter how small.

Happy Holidays everyone and thank you professor Ryan for one of the best classes I’ve ever taken. As I sign off for the last time, I’ll leave you all with a CT classic. Here’s a gif and a link to all of my previous blog posts. Enjoy your winters and may the memes be with you.

Assignment #1: He shoots it at the buzzer………. And its GOOD!!

Assignment #2: CT10whaaaat?!?!?

Assignment #3: ARe MeMeS ArT???

Assignment #4: Creeper… Awwww man!!

Assignment #4 Cont: I Shot…and I Missed…

Assignent 5: SPAAAAAAACCCEEEE!!!!!!

Assignment #6: The Mid-Semester Assessment Post

Assignment #7: A website!!! For ME!!!!

Assignment #8: It’s Domain name Time!!!!!

Assignment #9: How to train your website

Assignment #10: The Crossover Episode

Hey everyone, I  have posted a new blog on my website.

You guys should check it out, it’s all about the things I plan to incorporate into the site to make it interesting. There’s everything from games, to movies, to TV shows and in the near future maybe a gallery or a library. You’ll never know if you don’t check it out.

http://dreamlessbehavior.com/blogs/

So this was a first for me, building a website is something I’ve thought of doing but never actually sat down and done before. It always sounds so intimidating and I think that might have been one of the things adding to my nervousness about this assignment. Yet, here we are I’ve finally taken my first baby steps (although a little late) toward building my site.

I started out by changing the theme as Ryan suggested. I thought about toying with the other two themes but then I realized that I’m a bit late to the process so I went with the suggested 2021 theme.

The next thing we had to do was change the background color. I thought about making it a pretty galaxy theme, but then looking at the comparisons between solid purple and the galaxy I figured that solid purple looked the best because it doesn’t impair the readability of the website. In the end, I decided to do both (in a way) I put the galaxy-themed background on the website but as a picture for the homepage.

What parts of the blog did you change around first?

I am happy with the progress so far because I thought it was going to be alot harder then it wound up being.

Im hoping to build something similar to my mmm.page. But, I want the homepage to have less randomness so that the user can see the cohesiveness of the website and follow along. So in the end it should be more similar to organized chaos. Now, I have to go work on the more in depth parts of the website like the pages, so see ya’ll… for now…

Setting this up was very easy although I attribute it to our professor and his infinite patience XD.

Because I went into this process already knowing what domain name I wanted to use (see previous blog post), the rest was just following along with the step-by-step process we were being taught. Since I was one of the people that attended this class in person, I don’t have screenshots of the process, unfortunately. I do, however, remember most of the steps. It started with us going on to reclaim hosting and choosing our domain name. which was easy.

 

 

Ironically enough, I know picking a domain name was supposed to be something that most people take time to deliberate on. However, my name was picked before we even registered our websites XD.

Did anyone else use a known nickname they already have? 

I think most people who are avid video gamers are used to having multiple names or alias’. I just chose one of my PlayStation account names for my domain name because it was already one I liked and am used to using. It’s called Dreamlessbehavior, and the reason why is that it was my smurf account. I wound up enjoying it so much that I played on it more than I slept, thus the name Dreamlessbehavior. However, there were other possible choices I thought of for a bit before settling.

There were a few other names I could’ve gone with, the first one is probably the most obvious I could’ve used my real name. It is probably good practice to use your real name for websites and such especially for those of us that want to be in the creative field as a career in the future but, it’s just something I’ve never been 1000% comfortable with. An alias always made more sense to me so I typically stick with either that or a nickname.

The next thought I had was to use one of my nicknames. I normally tell people they can either call me D or Avionne because it ends up being easier since my name is a bit unusual. They are both nicknames I’m used to but in the end, I didn’t go with them because they still felt too personal and I almost wanted the user to experience a detached personality without a real-life name attached to it. Weird I know….. XD.

Lastly, I was left with my OG PlayStation name, Lionel, and the name I did go with, Dreamlessbehavior. Lionel is the name I’ve had for my account since 2013 when I got my first PlayStation. Everyone always thinks that it’s supposed to be similar to Lionel Richie but in reality, I was a kid with no internet who didn’t know how to spell Lion-O from the Thundercats correctly XD.

With all that in mind, I came to the conclusion that Dreamlessbehavior is probably my favorite nickname so that is the one I chose for my website. In the long run, it’s a better name and to me, it sounds better, it will also match the theme of my website. Once that was settled all there was to worry about was my theme and let me tell you I was excited about that. Did you already have a theme in mind? If so is it more personal or professional?

I already knew I wanted my website to be more like my Tumblr when I was 15/16. Absolute chaos with little to no cohesion that represents my most random thoughts and the things that I’m into!!! Chaos can be so much fun when used in a design, I feel like people underestimate just how cool it can be. when done right (in my unbiased opinion of course). Of course, I’ll have my CT101 assignments mixed in so it’ll be almost like a massive page of self-expression.  It also might not look exactly like what one would think chaos looks like. For example, two websites that are considered some of the worst consumer websites are Wayfair and Papersource.

When looking up why they have a bad design most would say that there’s too much on the screen and no hierarchy. I for one love it and they may seem a little old (similar to catalogs) but imagine that instead of gift boxes, trees, and wreaths you see memes, gifs, and youtube videos. That is the space I strive to have where there is no visual hierarchy or specific theme in mind, just a mashup of everything and anything. Now it is time for me to start thinking of how to bring my mashup of a website together!!

Ciao…. for now.

Where to start with this post…… To put it lightly this semester has been hectic for me. I was recommended CT last semester by my English professor and also told to take Ryan Seslow, neither of which I regret. When the beginning of the semester started and we all talked about our struggles as people in a world where no one cares how your personal life affects your performance in other areas, I knew I was in the right place. Especially since we’re all adults with other classes and commitments but, I feel like I’ve managed. Not as well as I would have liked but I did get to do some really cool things which I’ll talk about later.

As for my blog posts, some have gone up later than I’d like and I always feel slightly behind. However, knowing our professor (whom I’m thankful to have) I know I have time to keep up with the rest of the class.  Overall, I’ve learned a lot in this class and it’s been one of the deciding factors for me to stay in this major.

Our first blog post… I remember it fondly, we were just supposed to use it to get familiar with inserting different types of media into our posts. Since I had never done it before, using hyperlinks to link something to a word or sentence was the coolest thing ever. I remember immediately loving that and to this day it’s own of my favorite things to do in a blog post.

By the time we did our second assignment, I already felt more comfortable. Luckily enough, our professor is always straightforward and very clear about what he’d like to see in our blog posts. But he also doesn’t limit us to those requirements and mostly we just have to talk about what we were feeling about the material and our class.

The third assignment kind of threw me for a loop. At first, I thought making memes and gifs would be easy, but as I sat down to do it myself… EVERYTHING went wrong XD. At the time I was still using my old computer which struggled with saving some of the gifs or memes I did make. I also had a problem with getting the right parts of videos to save into the gifs I wanted. It took the video tutorial our professor gave us and some serious patience to get through the gif-making process XD.

Over time, I became more confident in our assignments. The rest of them simply expanded on skills we were developing already. I still like to make memes every once in a while although I’m more partial to gifs.

Which do you like to make more??

As for my overall performance, I’d like to think I’m doing well (at least a solid A- or B). I know I’ve missed a few classes here and there but I’m hoping that now that life has calmed down that won’t be the case anymore. I do watch the lectures whenever I get the chance and I try my best to keep up with the blogs, comments, and lessons ( even though I know I’m always 1 or 2 blog posts behind) but again, I’m hoping that won’t be the case anymore.

I’ve learned so much since starting this class, including how to set up a website a couple of weeks ago. However, I’m always my own worst critic so I’ll try to see my blog posts objectively. I feel like they’ve maintained a consistent backbone of a few gifs and I also try to let my personality come through a bit. Going forward, I plan to include even more media if I can find some that relate to the topic and also more created memes of my own especially now that I found a template website I like.

As far as missing posts go, this and assignment #7 are the only ones I haven’t done yet. I plan to fix that between tonight and tomorrow morning since I have some time to kill before class. My participation online could be better, I try to respond to the comments I get on my blog posts regularly. But, I don’t feel like I’ve commented enough on others’ posts and I plan to fix that right after finishing these two assignments. Class time participation always feels more natural to me because I enjoy the environment of having a class discussion where we all talk at that moment.

The idea of a mid-semester assessment is one that I never had before but once again kudos to our professor for thinking of ways to constantly help us improve not just in this class but as people that operate in the world. I appreciate this because it really helps me put into perspective how I have been doing and how I plan to improve. I look forward to the rest of the semester because I know that all of us are going to do awesome.

Also here are the assignments I’ve done over the semester and didn’t hyperlink above. Okay till next time ya’ll :)!!!!

Assignment #4: Creeper… Awwww man!!

Assignment #4 Cont: I Shot…and I Missed…

Assignent 5: SPAAAAAAACCCEEEE!!!!!!

Soooooo with a few medical setbacks and some tinie tiny procrastination I’m dropping into the discussion of….

DIGITAL IMMEDIACY!!!!!!!!

Did you know what that meant at first?

I had no idea what to do at first. Part of me wanted to make it a collage of things I like (which it still ended up close to). BUT!! I felt like it should have a simple creativity to it. So I started brainstorming.

At first, I thought about the things that are important to me like my family, girlfriend and friends. Since I don’t have a whole bunch of pictures of the significant people in my life (those are pending), I decided to instead use things that make me happy.

I really enjoy memes, my city and gifs so I tried to incorporate those into my page.  In the end we had pure unadulterated CHAOS!!!!!

In any case, its an accurate representation of my creative thought process at least.  I really enjoy space, music, memes, basketball, SpongeBob, hidden messages….. Basically I enjoy a lot of things and since I didn’t want my main page to be too serious the second page and onward will probably focus on individual interests like, architecture, coding, shows, music, etc.

While my second page is in development, I present to you without further ado…. my main mmm.page. 

Until next time everyone…

So for this assignment, I was a bit nervous. I don’t love how my voice sounds when it’s recorded but I was playing some Overwatch 2 with my friends and my girlfriend over the weekend and thought this assignment would be fun. I’m still new so I didn’t expect it to go as well as it did but I had a lot of fun. The basis of Overwatch 2 are the 3 roles: support, tank, and damage. All of them have different abilities and no two people in any category are the same. Have you ever recorded a youtube video?

I normally play Ashe who is a damage dealer or one of the many supports. However, for this assignment, I decided to do something I’ve never done before… Play Sombra. Sombra is in the damage dealer category and she specializes in stealth kills. Her abilities consist of hacking members of the other team and taking them out with her SMG. Lastly, if you find yourself in a tricky spot… SHE TELEPORTS OUT!!!

With this evil power in my hands, I set out to cause as much chaos as possible.

Have you played Overwatch 2 yet? Whos your main?

Recording the video and uploading it was the easy part, editing it was hard. In addition to being new to Overwatch, I have never edited a video in my life. So I was very confused, to say the least. The first step was to upload it from my PlayStation which I set to happen while I played for a bit longer. The next was to let it process which unfortunately took its sweet time.

Once that was processed, it was time for the editing. I was intimidated by the amount of raw footage I had to edit. The one thing that made this easier was Youtube Editor because it was pretty straightforward.

I messed around with some other videos I had to make sure I had the hang of it but once I finished practicing I went through the Overwatch video and cut it to the scenes I wanted to show. I didn’t do fantastic but for my first few games as Sombra, it was decent.

Overall I enjoyed this experience. I’ve been enjoying Overwatch 2 a lot so it was nice to have the incentive to try someone different. As for video editing, it’s not necessarily my cup of tea but I can see why some people enjoy it. Editing raw footage into something semi-presentable was not an easy task and I have a lot more respect for those who do it professionally.

I’ll probably revisit this skill at one point maybe even later this semester. Although the process drove me up a wall, I want to get good at it because digital media (especially videos) are such an integral part of our daily lives now.

But without further ado….

I present to you all……

The long-awaited results….

Of my first time playing Sombra on Overwatch 2!!!!!

So for this assignment, I went digging through the Ds106 repository. I looked through all kinds of tasks that could be done, mountains on mountains of options when finally, I found it. The one!! The only!! Minecraft!!Have you ever played Minecraft before? If not, give it a try you might like it!

I have loved Minecraft ever since I was a child so the thought of using it for a college project was right up my alley. The task itself was to build my own cozy cottage. As a previous architecture student, I had this in the bag. With this in mind, I loaded up Minecraft on my ps5, ventured into a previous save where I have with no houses, and found the perfect spot on these snowy hills.

Next was to figure out how I wanted it to look. Personally, modern homes have had the most appeal, but this was a welcomed challenge. I also referred to Youtube and Google for some inspiration. In the end, I decided to just throw some blocks together and see what came of it.

The next step was to choose my building blocks, I went with spruce wood and cobblestone. Both are pretty basic and can be found in the area but they match the scenery.

Finally, it was time to start building. I started with the foundation and steadily built up from there.

After about an hour I had built up a solid small foundation that I liked.

It went through many renovations because I couldn’t decide if I wanted outdoor sections or not. However, I did decide to have big open windows everywhere to give the illusion of space and show off the scenery. In the end, I had this cute little cottage.

I eventually plan to update this in the future with furnishing inside and a garden on the side. But that’s future me’s problem. Ciao for now ya’ll.

Are memes art?? Hoenstly I was stumped when Ryan asked us that. Some would say no but personally, I would say yes. First off this is once again the best class ever because memes for homework!??!? What professor ever asks for something like that!!

Most professors are asking us for papers and exam 1 study guides around this time so for this class to be about self expression and memes…

As for memes, they have a long history which goes back as far as 1939 with the Keep calm and carry on meme. The origin of the word meme was also something I didn’t know until now but the fact that it stemmed from a greek word was not surprising. What did surprise me was that dank memes where considered a sub category of memes. I always though of them as just collections of memes unique to ones taste so it feels like I gained some knowledge from the articles we read.

Doing my own research on the topic only strengthened my opinion on the matter. It is true that memes are the medium of the internet which makes it an art form because of its simple use to convey messages. Most people that see memes know the context because the internet is so vast that if you browse even casually, you’ve most likely come across a viral meme or two. Because of this, there are even artists who use memes as art exhibits like the grumpy cat art exhibit we got to read about in the digital trends article.

I found another example of this online also, a puerto rican artist who made an entire gallery exhibit of memes.

But when it comes to the topic at hand, memes are art. Think about it, if art is subjective and up to interpretation then yeah memes are art hands down. Besides, your not gonna tell me that the Everything is Markiplier meme isn’t art, I mean look at this guy.

That’s only one of my favorite memes but anyone whose ever heard of markiplier and seen taken or shrek can still see the resemblance and get the joke. Another would be the mocking spongebob meme.

I love the spongebob memes because I feel like they were a way for most of us to keep our childhood favorites relevant as we grew up. My last meme is a  more recent one, the will byers crying meme.

With the hold that Stranger Things is about to have on the internet due to spooky season, a meme from season 4 seemed like a great addition. I would consider all of these memes art because they are all staples that can give context to the state of the internet at the time they were made. Memes are art, a form a digital art to be specific, but art none the less.

So as you can tell from the title before now I had never heard of Communications Technology as a major. I had studied architecture since I was about 8 years old and it was my major in college for 2 years. Considering my experience with a creative major being a soul-sucking drag before now I was not expecting the first day to be as fun as it was.

But the fact that Ryan listens to us and makes sure to treat us as more than just students on a roster creates cool energy in the class. When he told us about the homework style and the fact that there was no set schedule or due dates to stress over I was elated!!

The fact that we get to blog as homework is the coolest thing ever and I’m excited to see what all of us wind up making in the future. This class helps to stretch my creative thought process which is a muscle I haven’t flexed in a while, to be honest XD.

Having a class that allows me to express myself is what I was looking for in a major. So far this has felt like the perfect blend of learning and showing off skills that we may already have which is most likely more than I do in math.

This assignment in particular has been an exciting learning experience. Finding out that the history of gifs is a long and complicated trail of copyright laws, boycotts, and intellectual properties is something I was expecting. What caught me off guard, however, was the amount of individuality the gif has now. I also didn’t expect it to be 30 years old.

I was pleased to learn that oxford had to weigh in on the gif vs jif war even if they only made it worse by declaring both valid. I’ll of course still say gif because it makes the most sense.

But learning how to make these supposedly simple gifs were the hardest part for me. I didn’t expect to have so much difficulty getting the loops that I wanted, let alone thinking of the material I wanted to loop in the first place. The internet normally comes second-hand to me but this genuinely made me draw a blank. I welcome the challenge of course but in the end, was not able to make all of the gifs that I wanted to.

I found both Imgur and Giphy a little difficult to navigate but in the end, I’ll probably use them for different sources. Imgur is easier for gifs that are a bit longer but Giphy is better for short clips. I look forward to experimenting more with both and learning to be an active participant in internet culture. But that’s all I have for now. Ciao Y’all!!

Hello everyone, the thing making me happy on the internet this week is the videogame called Nba2k23.

(This isn’t my character but it is a real-life player who has been in the game for a while named Giannis Antetokounmpo)

It’s essentially a game about simulated basketball where you are able to make your own character and become a basketball superstar. There are multiple modes that you can play from Rec to Park, The Theatre, My Team, and My Career.

Although this iteration just came out Friday, I have been playing 2k since 2014 and it is one of my favorite games. I have been playing MyCareer mostly because I enjoy making different builds and taking them online to play against other people with my friends. I normally make about 3 or 4 builds ranging from point guards to small forwards to centers but I only recently started making bigger players last year.

So far I have been watching YouTubers such as Chris Smoove, 2klab, and Joe Knows. Joe Knows and 2klab are especially known for analyzing the game and showing people the best builds to make for their playstyles.

Although I already have my first build, I am planning on altering a build  from the video above for my second. Some other good videos for beginners to watch would be videos by Joe Knows such as the Kevin Durant build and the Giannis Antetokounmpo builds.

Overall it is a very fun game and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys basketball games. And if you don’t like 2k (which is understandable it is a grind-heavy game) then try NBALive19, its unfortunately the last in the series but it is the only other Triple A basketball game. But, that’s all I have for ya’ll today. Try the game out, you might like it :).