I don’t know where to start. There is a lot to unpack. First of all, can we talk about how fast this semester went by? I swear I was just learning how to make my own GIFs yesterday. Every other class, you take an exam regurgitate information and you’re done. That’s the last you see of your professor and classmates. You leave feeling empty and cold, you whole existence came down to that one piece of paper and that 1-2 hours you had with it. This reflection makes it so much more intimate and even harder to say goodbye.

Although I never talked to anyone outside of class this was the most connected I felt to any of my classmates even if it was behind a screen. In other classes you don’t get to see the work others put forward. There is something really special about watching everyone grow and build their skills. Watching people’s personalities and interest shine through. I enjoyed interacting with people by reading their posts, commenting on their work, and reading comments left for me. It was a fun and overall new experience. I know I’ll never have another class like this so I want to say thank you to anyone who read my posts or commented on them.

 

I think I started off really well this semester, I was growing and thriving. I don’t think I finished off as strongly as I could have. It went downhill after I started not keeping up with the blog posts on a weekly bases. I put in all the effort I could with the time frame I had left. I must say I am a little disappointed in myself for falling behind at the end. Which is why I plan on keeping up with my website. I know I could do better and I want to prove that to myself.

Even though there was some set back I still learned a lot from this course. I sharpened my skills as an author and editor. I learned how to create and manage my own website. I mean, how awesome is that?! I learned how use and navigate WordPress while also learning to express myself through my own blogposts and images. I’m happy that I went the extra mile be designing my own icon and logo.  I even commissioned two artist to draw a portrait of me and one of my dog Onyx. It made my website that much more personal. All and all I feel like I deserve an A-.

As stated before, I will keep up with my website. I’ll have the domain for a year so might as well take advantage and have some fun! I want to reinvent myself. Am I crazy for wanting to delete everything and starting off fresh? I have new concepts and new ideas, after seeing everyone else’s website I am reinspired. I like the lifestyle vlog I currently have but I want to home in specific content. I feel like the blog will look more put together that way.

My Website So Far:

My website name  is erickughh.com. The purpose of my website was to create lifestyle content. It ranged from everything including my dogs and my plants. My plant hobby is my favorite thing ever, and it brings so much happiness and joy. I wanted to share that with everyone else. I also love watching TikToks and wanted to post content I thought other students related to. Click here to watch a couple of TikToks I thought were funny and relatable. Over all, It was a fun experience creating my website. Using WordPress “Twenty-Twenty-One” was relatively easy and beginner friendly. The only frustrating thing was thinking about what to post! I overthink a lot. I thought a lot of content wasn’t good enough. I need to keep in mind that this website is for fun and just to share my joy with the world.

Past Blog Posts: 

Assignment #1

Assignment #2

Assignment #3

Assignment #4

Assignment #5

Assignment #6

Assignment #7

Assignment #8

Assignment #9

Assignment #10

Assignment #11

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I’m proud of everyone! You guys have done an amazing job customizing your websites. Each one is unique and special. We all have different quirks and interests. It’s great seeing everyone’s personality shine through. Congratulations to each and everyone of you.

I think this comes to no surprise but Jida’s website is just *chefs kiss.*  It’s giving me everything and more. The aesthetic is to die for, it’s my Pinterest fantasy! I love the color scheme and how it all flows so well together. It makes me feel cozy, I can drink my morning coffee while scrolling through her blog. Please keep posting even after the semester ends, I sincerely enjoy it.

Another classmates blog I really enjoyed is Nader’s website. 

I love all the scenery this website provides. The views are breath taking. The background image really helps make everything flow together. It gives me a sense of relaxation. This is another website I could scroll through for hours just taking each image in, I wish I could visit these beautiful locations.

I goal for my website is to be authentically me. I want to use pictures that are unique to only me. Which is why I commissioned artwork from one of my friends. His Instagram is @galaxatagon  if you want to show some support.  I also commissioned art for one my pets, so stayed tuned! All of my social media is under my about page.

There are 3 perpetrators that rule my life and have my heart. They are dramatic, naughty , and the embodiment of a  New York City crackhead. Wanna know who they are? Click here

I want to dedicate a part of my page to these meddling creatures. The About page will include a brief biography about each one of them. It will allow the viewer to better understand their shenanigans when I start to blog about their daily interactions.

Allergic to animals? Well can I interest you in some Plants…

Soon I will post my most expensive plant yet and post about a $10,000 plant! Santa if you’re reading this, it’s on my wish list this year and every other year of my existence.

“It’s about drive, it’s about power, we stay hungry, we devour, put in the work put in the hours and take what’s ours” – The Rock

Well if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions. I’m three assignments behind feeling overwhelmed but I will put my best foot forward.

Picking out a Site Icon

I created three different icons for my website. I ended up picking the first one because the letters were big and bold enough to actually see on the tab. I had fun designing these icons to my liking. It makes my website feel more me.

 

I also created a logo. You can probably tell I love soft pink and that is the aesthetic I want for my website. I know a white background is best more accessible so I plan on adding touches of pink every where else.

 

As for my content my plan is to create a lifestyle type of blog. I will be posting about my plants and pets in my main blog. I also created a category for tiktoks, I want to share tiktoks I think most students will be able to relate to. Under my about I want to have little bio about myself and also link all my social medias.  I’m using the theme “Twenty-Twenty-One” on wordpress and I find it easy to use and navigate as a beginner.

 

 

We did it guys! We’re proud owners of a domain. I’m assuming most of us are first time owners. How exciting! My registered domain is erickughh.com Don’t peak yet, it’s still under construction! I really liked all five of the domains I had came up with. I was going to pick one based on process of elimination and seeing which one was available. Of course to my luck, all of them were available. I am a very indecisive person, especially knowing something like this is permanent. In the end, I chose erickughh because I wanted it to be easy to follow me throughout all platforms and have consistency with my handle.

 

At first, I was extremely nervous. All of this was new to me and I felt intimated by the process. I’ve never used any of these websites before or anything like it. I thought for sure I would have a difficult time.

The actual procedure of registering and installing WordPress was simple and straightforward. I did not run into any hiccups along the way. I was relieved at how easy it was. I also find it comforting that it had the same dashboard that I’m used to using for CT101 the only difference was I’m an admin now! Now I’m ready to go. Super excited about developing my website and what the future brings!

 

Before hearing Professor Ryan talk about domains in class I never gave it much thought. Honestly, it’s something I wasn’t even aware of that was available to the general public. I am excited to create a domain for myself and be able to register it.

Five Potential Domain Names:

erickaherrera: It’s simple and professional

eeh: This is an abbreviation of my name, Ericka Elizabeth Herrera

Eche: Another play on my name. Ericka Elizabeth Herrera Compoverde. I also like that it means to increase and everlasting.

erickughh: This is my Instagram handle and it would be nice to have the same handles throughout all platforms. It’s easier for people to connect with you.

erickanyc: I love venturing out in the city and I think it would be cool to blog about my outings and adventures.

I have a couple of hobbies that I would like my blog to be about. It includes plants and exploring the city. I also love interior design. I think it would be best if I had a life-style type of blog so that I can express interest to all my hobbies.

This is my favorite plant blog. It’s very informative and provides  a lot of care tips for a variety of plants.

 

 

This my favorite fashion blog. I love the aesthetic of it and the layout of the page. It always draws you in.

I am excited to create my own website! It sounds like fun to be able to personalize every way you want to. I’m scared that my skills aren’t good enough and I will be not be content with what I create. However, it will be my first time doing this so I will not be too hard on myself.

Am I a good noodle? Have I accumulated enough gold stars to get the grade that I want or better yet the grade that I deserve. I think I’m doing good in CT101 and I feel like I am flourishing in this new environment.

I believe I am maintaining an A in this class. I always do each assignment to the best of my ability. I always try to read and comprehend each blogpost carefully before jumping into an assignment. Comments from Professor Ryan go from “Good work” to “Great work” to “Excellent work.” Here are all the assignments I have completed:

Assignment #1

Assignment #2

Assignment #3

Assignment #4

Assignment #5 

My favorite takeaway from CT101 so far is the ability to express myself. I’ve learned how to communicate through memes and images while also creating a storyline. Which I believe is essential when you are trying to have a media presence. Your audience has to be engaged and follow your story with ease.

I’ve developed skills such as using photoshop and the ability to make gifs. Giphy has become one of my favorite tools and I even use it outside of class for my personal use. One of my friends even asked me to show them how to use it. I regularly display the usage of gifs on my posts and I also make it a point to hyperlink outside material. Just to add a little bit of spice.

I always comment on classmates posts and read their post thoroughly, what I comment always has some substance and insight. However, I am definitely not commenting on enough people posts. It is something I need to work on, I should put more effort and comment on more peoples post.

Before taking this class I did not know what it was like to have creative freedom in a classroom. Saying that almost feels like a contradiction. I also wasn’t aware of all these websites and tools that are available.  I did not know how to use photoshop but this class forced me to dip my feet into it. I was intimidated but I’m glad it’s something I gave a chance.

I definitely see a difference in my creativity from the first blog post compared to my most recent one. I’ve been hyperlinking material more, adding more visuals, making everything more cohesive and flow better. I feel more comfortable being myself allowing my creativity to be more free.

 

What is creativity? What is immediacy? What is intuition? Creativity involves your imagination and your ability to make or do something original. Immediacy is the sense or quality of being directly involved. Intuition is the capacity to understand something right away without having to think about it. These three things added makeup the act of bringing fresh and inventive ideas to life by thought, realization, and production.

 

As I am sitting here all I can feel is static. A tingly sensation throughout my body. At the same time my brain feels numb. I am a cog in a the machine. For the past week I have been regurgitating information onto a sheet of paper. And the week before then I was overloading myself with information. Everything I know has no substance.

I was inspired to create something that shows how uncreative I feel.  My body wants to run but my mind is sterile.  I feel like a computer that is stuck on a reload. A computer gives you access to all the information you could ever need but it’s practically  pointless without internet. I have potential to know so much but that knowledge is useless without any real comprehension or understanding. I want to be able to flow freely but I feel restricted by school standards. My work can be found here. 

I found the mmm.page to be very user friendly. I liked all the tools it had and how easy it was to use and access them. I got the gist of it very quickly unlike photopea which had an overwhelming amount of tools to use and navigate. I only used three images which I found on Pixabay. The rest are stickers I found on the mmm.page

I browsed through every section of the  DS106 Assignment Repository.  The first one that really caught my attention was this Nike Run GPS Map.  The purpose of this assignment is to create an image by running. The GPS will track your run and create an outline of the area you ran in. I’ve seen this done on Facebook many times. I’ve seen people create animals and even purposing using this “running art.” It seems like a fun way to get your cardio in.

However, I do not have the endurance to do this type of art. It’s complex and it hurts my head thinking about how people use the city grid to create an art piece.  I’ve never done something like that before. It’s definitely something that requires a lot of planning. When I think of CT101 I only think about a screen and I thought this was a neat way to incorporate the “outside environment.”  Here is an article show casing some examples as well as how long it took to complete them. I can barley run for 10 minutes without feeling like I am dying. I will have to pass on the physical torture.

Another assignment that really caught my attention was a digital facelift on money.  It looked like a fun assignment to do. The assignment requires that you reinvent the dollar bill by giving it a face makeover.  I have never used photoshop and was intimated by the thought of it. I wanted to push myself a little out of my comfort zone and give it a try. The assignment said to not limit yourself to American currency. So I put my own twist on it. I am indigenous to Ecuador and decided to use the currency sucre. This currency is no longer used and Ecuador now uses American currency.

To show homage to the old currency I did a mashup of the two. Pictured above is a an American dollar bill with the face of an angel that would be found on the one sucre bill. I created it using photopea and I hope to improve my photoshop skills in the future. This assignment forced me to use photoshop but it was also very beginner friendly.

I think we should definitely have more assignment like these. It gives you creative freedom and you get to improve your editing skills and knowledge. This assignment was a warm up and I hope to grow my skills more and more with each blog post. In doing so you are no longer limited to images you can only find online. When you tell a story you can tell it and show how you visualize it. It can be anything you want it to be and that’s what makes storytelling special.

What even is a meme? Oxford Dictionary  has defined it as “an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.” What is art? Art is defined as “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.” I don’t think it’s debate whether memes are art or not. I think it’s a debate of whether people appreciate them as art or not.

The importance of memes 

Memes are art and they are here to stay.  Art is always evolving and taking new forms.  To me arts is meant to portray the current state of a society and it’s people. Weather that is political, religious, or just for entertainment. Memes are the art of the 21st century.  I love memes. They’re a quick and efficient way to express not only yourself but the state of society.

Personally I use memes as a way to cope with stress. It’s a way to communicate and bring up stress in a light/humors manner to another person. I feel it gets the point across quicker and I feel more comfortable presenting it that way as to not burden the other person.

   Society uses memes to express the state of their government. There is also political memes. Any time there is a presidential election is when I fee like political memes are most prominent. People use it to express their thoughts about the race and also the statutes of it. Memes are also political propaganda. Here is an article discussing meme warfare.

When Covid-19 started my timeline was flooded with memes. People expressing their disbelief, fear, and lack of trust in their government.

Are memes disposable?

 I enjoyed reading the piece by Kate Knibbs. She brought up an unforgettable meme celebrity, grumpy cat. It goes to show how far a simple meme can go. From meme to movie to an art exhibit.  However, I disagree with the statement “They’re fun, and they’re disposable.” Every year I see past meme templates resurface and recycled to fit current events. I find this to be especially true with SpongeBob memes and memes using traditional art. They always come back to haunt you. The video stated anyone can make a meme it’s a very accessible form of communication. I agree and it’s a form of communication that will continue to thrive in mainstream media.

 

With CT101 your options are endless. There is a format you have to follow for each assignment but you are given creative freedom on how you present said format.

Here is a fun video about the history of memes. 

 

* I created the top and bottom memes. For the first one I used memegenerator.net for the bottom meme I used make a meme. I found both easy to use.

Lay it on me! On the first say of CT 101 I was ready to hear about all the reading, papers, exams. Just going over the syllabus like all my other classes. I was ready to sit in class and feel overwhelmed.

I have never taken a class like CT 101 before. I was excited and happy to hear how valuable our ability to express ourselves and portray our thoughts using media is in this course. It really got my creative juices flowing.

So you’re telling me I don’t have to stretch myself thin? I was shocked that as students we are allowed to grow and better ourselves in this environment.  All of my other classes have late penalty’s and  take off points for every little thing. There are no resubmissions or making up any work.

One of my professors took off points for using the wrong copy and paste method on my excel worksheet for my homework.

I really appreciate that this class is go with the flow. We take it one week at a time. Which really allows me to go with the grove of things. I’m not worried about all the course material at once. This class has the potential to bring out the more creative side of me. Which as a student in the public school system seems to be washed away.

*Also I found GIPHY more user friendly. I had trouble saving gifs from Imgur to my desktop.

I spend an absurd amount of time on tiktok. I love watching comedy skits, dancing, and the crazy transitions people edit. It is an app full of creativity and it always brightens up my day. My favorite trend on tiktok right now is students catching “devious licks.”  It’s a guilty pleasure but it sparks joy. I know the trend can be problematic but I can’t help find it hilarious.

It started off  as an innocent joke…

Students were taking a single pump of soap and hand sanitizer putting it in their pocket and taking it home or even a handful of water. They would also take a single paper towel home. Students would also take a single piece of loose-leaf  paper from someone and call it a “devious lick.” The goal was to take a school item home.

This trend took a dark turn when it turned into …  

Students taking soap dispensers off the wall! 

It humored me watching what students came up with as their “lick”.  It was all innocent fun in the beginning. Some students took it too far by taking the entire soap dispenser but I still found it funny to watch other peoples mischievousness. Especially since schools are aware of this trend and had to make announcements over the manner. The things people will do for some clout on the internet is questionable but entertaining.

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