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Time moves fast, doesn’t it? I feel like I was just writing my first blog post on what makes me happy on the internet. Now we are all writing our final blog post after three months of digital storytelling. Looking back we did a lot of great work in our blog posts and the things we created.

In this class, I enjoyed writing blog posts each week about myself and other classmates. My favorite blog posts were Week 1, Week 4, and Week 5. These were my favorites because I felt like this is where I was most creative and I was really proud of the results. Each week challenged my storytelling, creativity, and writing skills. In the “real world” I plan on taking these skills I enhanced in this class and using them just in day-to-day life.  Every day in life you have to think creatively to solve problems. We are always telling stories whether writing them online or in person. These skills I have learned in this class will be used in good use. I definitely plan on using more gifs in texting, everybody is going to be tired of my gifs.

In this class, I learned . . .

• How to express myself through Blog posts
• The use of Gifs, hyperlinks
• How to use WordPress
• How to create a website with WordPress
• The Art of Digital Storytelling!!!

Check out all the blog posts I did this semster👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾

Assignment #1 – What Makes Me Happy on the Internet?

Assignment #2 – Thank you, professor. 🤝

Assignment #3 – art Is memes

Assignment #4 – Music Mashup

Assignment #5 – Floating in Space

Assignment #6 – Its Mid-Semester Assessment Time

Assignment #7- Doname!?

Assignment #8 – My Domain Registration

Assignment #9 – WordPress Customizing Fun

Assignment #10 – Exploring WordPress

Assignment #11 – Checkin out Websites’

Notice how my blog posts have changed from my first to this one?😏

I honestly think I deserve an A- in the class. 

Why? 

I did every blog post assigned with 100% effort. I took a lot of time for each blog post and even went back to some to make sure that I was proud of the work. None of them really looked the same. You can see the progression of my work from the first blog post to the last. I definitely have progressed in digital storytelling. Isn’t that the purpose of this class? Then my creative works I did such as my mmm.page, my music mashup, and my website are great. The only thing I would say for myself is that I could have participated more in class and been more interactive in all the blog posts.

My favorite part of this semester in this class was hands down making my own website in something I am passionate about, Music. My website is for people to share music together. I personally share my favorite songs of the month, the concerts I go to, and my hot takes. Let me give you a tour. Come along 🙂

Welcome to JAIMUSLUX

Creating this website was not as hard as I originally thought. Professor guided us well with his tutorial videos on setting up our domain name, starting to build our website, and adding plugins. The only frustrations I really had were picking a template to choose from. they over 4,000 options to pick from. I searched for hours looking for the right one. I was obsessed with building my website because I was so excited. Building a website is no small task it involves a lot of work if you want it to be what you envisioned. Nonetheless, I love how it turned out 🙂

Now the question is will I keep this website up? 🤨🧐🤔

I REALLY want to keep up this website, I see great potential in it. The only thing that is would be holding me back from maintaining this website is if it actually grows a community that people would participate in. If I wasn’t able to get people to visit the website there wouldn’t be any point. My content may be better on social media platforms like TikTok or Instagram. Maybe I can grow an audience there and then direct them to my website. 🤷🏾‍♂️

What should I do? Comment below 😉

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I was checkin out my fellow classmate’s websites and I saw some splendid stuff going on. Great job everyone. You guys gave me ideas for my own website, thanks. 😉

I discovered Tyler’s website and it was one of my favorite’s. The template he chose and the color scheme match the vibe he creates. I was drawn in by the home page where he introduces you to his world of ideas and creativity. It paints a picture in your mind of this imaginative space and you feel welcome to join. I was really impressed by his recent blog post where he shares one of his creative written works. Definitely go check it out, I was captivated by the great writing. Looking forward to other ones Tyler.

If you need some fashion advice go check out Shanjida’s website to keep you up to date with all the latest fashion trends on a budget. The template choice is chef’s kiss, it complements the topic and theme of her website. I like the home page because it introduces you to her type of style. Her first blog post is easy to follow and straight to the point. The guys would appreciate some fashion advice too. Thanks 😮

I JUST posted a new blog post as well 👀

It’s about my FAVORITE concert I went to this year.

Check it out!

Here’s a video:

(It won’t load here so I guess you have to go to my blog post 🤷🏾‍♂️)

You know that Dinosaur game you play on google when you have no internet. Yes, it’s on my website thanks to a plugin available. 😎 There are actually other games you can add to your website as well, you should go check it out. So that’s what I worked(and played) on this week.

Have you ever been in the car listening to the radio turning the knob of FM radio looking for any decent song? But all the radio stations are playing the same ole songs from 10 years ago or they are literally all playing the same songs over and over. I feel you, I’ve stooped listening to the radio long ago and only listen to GOODMUSIC and music that is food for the soul. Come check out my WELCOME post on my new website. Come join our community where we vibe and share GOODMUSIC only. Feel free to share anything about music; your favorite song, artist, or concert you have ever been to. Under my new welcome blog post.

WordPress gave us too many options of themes to choose from. This week I looked through hundreds of themes and I’m still not sure which one I should go with. 🤦🏾‍♂️

I have one that I am using for now. I’ll most likely change it later on.

I have decided that my website is going to be about my journey with music concerts. Sharing my reviews, videos, and pictures of the concerts. I wanted to add a calendar of the future concerts that I will be going to. I had to google how to do it but it was pretty simple.

First: Download the events calendar plugin.

Second: Go to the Appearance tab on the side to have it shown on your website by adding it to your menu.

Here are the final results! I already added some concerts I’m going to this month. Take a look at jaimuslux.com 😎

My experience of registering my own domain, and setting up my web hosting account was easy as pie.

I have decided that my website is going to be about music and the concerts I go to. From the last blog post I had decided on the domain name JaiMusic. However. it was taken…😡

All good though, I used a random website generator and found my new domain name.

Jaimuslux.com

I love it! 😍

`BRANDONJAI                `WHATSTHEDILL              `NODNARB

`BJtheKid                          `BRANDNEW                         `JaiMusic

All these potential domain names are good examples of the website that I will build. I like these because each one features a part of my name and they are pretty fun to me.

The thought of building your own website is frightening. When you look at other websites you see how detailed websites are and how much work goes into them. So you may think that it’s rocket science but I have seen it’s not as difficult as it seems. But What will my website be about? Hmm.

One idea is that my website could be about music. I would write blog posts about new and old music that is out, giving my opinion on them. I also got to a lot of concerts so, I could post videos pictures of the concert and then write a review on how it was.  This is where the domain name `JaiMUSIC would come into play. Jai is my middle name if your wondering.

Another idea could be about basketball. I would write blog posts on the NBA and college basketball. I love talking about basketball, would my predictions on the season and about injuries, etc. I would use `WHATSTHEDILL for this website. Dill is my last name if your wondering. 

One of my favorite websites as to be Soundcloud. My favorite feature is the comment section of a song. You are allowed to comment at a specific mark of a song. when that time passes through your comment will pop up to whoever is listening. I love this feature because sometimes you miss a detail of a song that someone else points out. It really enhances the listening experience for me. Hopefully, my website can be just as innovative as Soundcloud.

Another website I like is called LivePlan. It is a website for small business owners. I was introduced to this from the internship I did at York. I like this website because it makes it easy for business owners to plan their business now and for the future with the financials they have. All you have to do is enter your business information and they organize everything for you. Pretty cool.

mmm.page is an amazing tool.

My experience using this website was great. It is simple and easy to express your ideas digitally.

I used my favorite tool, GIPHY for stickers and for gifs. I do wish that the website would allow gifs to move as it would bring another dimension to my page. Maybe there is a way to do so, I just couldn’t figure it out.

I was completed to create how I am currently feeling. Sometimes you can’t put into words how you are feeling and why you are feeling that way but you can express it. That’s what I was able to do with the mmm.page and I am happy with the results. I hope you enjoy it.

How am I doing in CT101 you ask? Well if you must know, I’m doing just okay in the class I would say.

I would say I am maintaining a grade of a B- at this point of the semester. The evidence is shown by doing all the assignments but only missing assignment #5 at this point. I plan on completing the assignment this week. I went back and revised assignments #2 and #3 to make them better. I respond and engage with my fellow classmates in their posts. I try to respond to one classmate for each assignment we do. I participated in a class hand full of times and showed my camera once. I believe I can improve in this aspect. Here is a list of my completed blog posts.

Assignment #1 – What Makes Me Happy on the Internet?

Assignment #2 – Thank you, professor. 🤝

Assignment #3 – art Is memes

Assignment #4 – Music Mashup

What I have learned the most from CT101. The greatest learned assets in this class so far is learning how to express myself more through written word. I would say that I am not the best when it comes to writing and expressing myself however, this class has forced me to think about how I feel, what I am thinking, and how I go about in what I do. Some new skills I have learned and have displayed in my posts are using hyperlinks, using gifs, and using those aspects to create a story through my posts.

One thing I know now that I did not know before this taking this class is how the art of blog posting. I have never written blog posts before so this is all new to me and I am really enjoying it. I would say my blogging work has been expanding creatively slightly by the use of more gifs and the content of the blog post being more extensive. I will work toward a better second half of the semester.

I found two awesome projects to do.

The first project was a dream visualization. This project is simple, you just have to take a recent dream or nightmare you’ve had and make a visual representation of it for others to see. Dreams fascinate me, I love telling people about dreams I have and analyzing why I had such dreams. So that’s why I liked this project. I’m not really good at visual art such as drawing or even digital art I would say. I would need to learn how to shake that mindset off and to put my dream into a visual representation. I would probably go do this project digitally. I do think that making art in any physical form is important for your mind to express its feelings and such. I could see myself doing this project multiple times when I have vivid dreams.

I certainly think that we should do these types of projects a couple of more times this semester. These projects allow you to use the skills you have, to think outside the box, to develop new skills, to learn new tools to create stories, and to overall improve your storytelling. Storytelling is very important for everyone to explore because everyone has a story to be told.

The project that I had the skills to do was the music mashup project. For this project, I had to pick any two songs and combine them to make one song. At York I took music production classes so, I knew what to do. Making music and listening to it is a favorite that’s why I liked this project. I was very excited about this one thus, I choose this one to complete.

So for my music mash-up project, I used GarageBand to mix up the songs. I first had to find mp3 versions of the two songs I wanted to use. The two songs were Come Through and Chill by Migues and Midnight Blues by Umi.  I took snippets of each part I wanted to use and I aligned each part up so the timing would match. It took some trial and error but it finally sounded how I wanted it to sound.

Here is the final product! Enjoy 🙂

First off let’s get clear on what is the definition of art? According to the google dictionary, art is the “expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form.” Now that we understand what art is, what is a meme? Well according to the google dictionary, it means “a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc., that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by internet users.”

Okay, it is really not much debate that memes are a form of art and they are here to stay as the professor mentioned. Still, some may argue that it doesn’t follow traditional art formats like drawing, painting, etc. This is nonsense. I like what this girl said about memes being art. “This is simple, art imitates life. Therefore, when we see memes that highlight humanity and therefore imitates life, it is 100% art. This can also be turned around in saying that memes are also life.” – Madison Wakefield. However, they are many various questions or how memes fit into art culture, I am ready to debate about this let’s go.

Art in all forms is constantly evolving. Memes are a new evolution of art in the 21st century. It is absolutely great for art as it gives us humans more ways to express our ideas, feelings, and creativity. It even sometimes serves as a better communication than words themselves. How many times have you seen memes being thrown out in text messages? Probably a lot, that’s because it is a form of communication.

Although memes are a great way of self-expression, it is much more. A good meme is often spreading fast throughout the internet. As humans, we are all facing similar challenges and experiences throughout the day. As a result of this, relatable funny memes are always spreading throughout the internet. Memes are a representation of life itself. Anyways here’s my meme. Enjoy 🙂

I love storytelling so when I was looking for classes to complete my schedule digital storytelling intrigued me.

I wasn’t in the first class because I had to work. 👎🏾 However, on my first day of CT 101, I felt that this was going to be my favorite class this semester. I thought it was going to be great to be part of a creative class with my fellow peers.

When I heard about what this course is about and the creative content I was hyped. I felt this way because I love exploring new and different ways to be creative in self-expression. It’s a great distraction from the million other things we all have to do and a way to express our feelings.

What really stood out to me was when professor Seslow said that his goal is to have us learn and grow throughout the semester. This impressed me because most professors just want to feed us information and give us a grade, nothing is about learning anymore. Then as students, all we are worried about is completing assignments and getting a good grade. I felt that this increased especially during the transition to online learning during the pandemic. It is not a fun way of learning.

The use of Imgur and GIPHY is definitely a new experience for me to find gifs as the only time I really used gifs was imessage. After using both my favorite website to find gifs has to go to GIPHY. The interface is better and it’s just easier for me to use. When you searched for a specific gif it made it easy for you to find where Imgur would give you gifs that didn’t even apply to your search. The main feature that I like the best compared to Imgur is the stickers feature. You could download gif stickers to your phone to send as text messages, I already downloaded a few.

This class compares well to the other classes as I am taking film studies where we analyze movies and education in technology where we are learning on how to effectively use teach with technology.

However, this class is definitely going to be unlike any class I have taken. I see the potential of this class is going to be growth in storytelling and creativity. Maybe some viral memes come out of this class and one of us gets famous. 😏 Just don’t forget about us when it happens.

This summer I had the opportunity to be a Ball Person for the U.S. Open tennis tournament and the experience was awesome.

(Okay I wasn’t this bad but my shoe did come off one game smh)

Now that experience got me all into tennis. I’m playing tennis more and watching old tennis matches on youtube. My personal favorite that I was watching this week is John McEnroe vs Bjorn Borg at Wimbledon in 1981.

I love how sarcastic John is in the video. Watching these old matches also has gotten me into older tennis fashion. I love going on the internet and getting inspiration from tennis fashion and implementing it into my own style. Here are some of the favorites I saw this week.

You actually see this fashion coming back today as you see on TikTok.

These things on the Internet make me happy because it reminds me of my grandma dressing me up preppy as a child and my mommy taking me to tennis lessons early morning. These experiences always give me a warm feeling of comfort and how much fun I had.