Well Here We Are

I Learned So Much More Than I Expected..

We’ve finally arrived to the end of the semester. In terms of CT101, it really has been a fun ride on the way here. I’ve learned so much since the beginning of the semester and look forward to using what I’ve learned in my internet ventures to come. I learned how to make my own memes via giphy, create blogs utilizing WordPress, create expressive internet works via mmm.page and began to write a lot more creatively. Out of everything we learned, I believe that’s one of the things I’ve noticed I have gotten better at. Comparing my first entry into cuny commons up to now, I realized that the way I would type was a bit robotic. By the end of this semester I definitely became more “loose” and started to let my own voice/humor translate through my posts. I would personally like to thank Professor Seslow for such an amazing semester. I took on more classes than usual and along with also working, I was worried about how that’ll effect my studies. Thankfully it couldn’t have gone any better and I believe it’s the way that the professor formats his class that was incredibly helpful. Now, with that being said, let’s get on with the recap!

It’s Recap Time!

So in total we had about 12 assignments excluding this final blog post:

Assignment #1

This assignment was titled Things That Make Me Happy On The Internet. This was a nice intro/icebreaker assignment that really helped introduce me to the blogging process and starting to put my voice out on the internet. To top it off, what better way to do so than by talking about some of our favorite things to do on the internet.

 

Assignment #2

With this assignment, we were tasked with creating our first memes. This is probably one of my more favorite assignments of this semester as it allowed me to participate in one of my favorite internet mediums, memes! I was pretty surprised at how easy it was to go about creating our own gifs/memes. The funniest part was that I always knew about the website giphy but I had no idea I could actually use it to make memes. Thinking about it it’s pretty ironic how that happened.

 

assignment #3

For this assignment we were asked the question if memes could be considered a form of art. To this question I answered absolutely! My reasoning was more on a technical level about how art is purely subject and it is up to the viewer if by their standards, something can be considered art. Overall it was an interesting topic to think about since I’ve never once wondered if memes can be considered an art form.

 

assignment #4

In this assignment, we were tasked with choosing two projects from the DS106 Repository and complete them. The two I went with were:

Web Assignment: Guess The Story

AnimatedGIF Assignment: TV Show GIFS

The web assignment, I was tasked with taking four gifs and posting them in order to describe an internet folklore and have the viewer guess what that folklore is. SPOILER WARNING, the folklore I was trying to describe was none other than Slender Man. With the animatedGIF assignment, I was tasked with taking my favorite TV show and creating 4-6 gifs utilizing scenes from the show. My favorite show of all time has to be Mr.Robot so that is what I used for this assignment.

 

Assignment #5

This is the assignment I was able to try out the website mmm.page and got to stretch some of my creative muscles. Around the time I started doing this assignment, it was the same time that I was binging all of the Star Wars mainline movies with my significant other (she never saw any of the Star Wars movies) and figured that it was the best opportunity to create a Star Wars themed mmm.page. Along with this assignment, we also had to define the meanings of immediacy, creativity, and intuition.

 

Assignment #6

This was our sort of midterm assignment where we were tasked to go back and reflect on our assignments up until that point. Kind of like how we’re doing now. It was to, at the time, think back and realize how much I’ve really come to learn so far. Pretty cool to come to that realization.

 

Assignment #7

For this assignment, we had to make a list of at least 5 domain names and select one to be our official website domain. I actually found this to be pretty challenging as I’m not very good at coming up with names.

 

assignment #8

For this assignment, we had to choose a domain name out of our list and actually start to get our websites up and running. Out of my list of names I gravitated more toward programmersblock.com. Thankfully it was a pretty straightforward process to since the name I wanted was eligible on the first try!

 

Assignment #9

With this assignment came the biggest learning curb of this class. We had to learn how to use the customization tools within WordPress in order to actually make our website’s interface. I’ve decided to base my website around helping entry level programmers combat imposter’s syndrome by allowing them to post their code for review. Thankfully, with the help of professor’s lecture tutorials and YouTube, I was able to at least get the landing page of my website to look pretty presentable.

 

assignment #10

I further customized my website by downloading other third party themes/plug-ins and was able to use a pretty clean design on my “about” page. From there, I was able to change around the new template and add my own wording, pictures, and even wrote up a summary as to why I started this website and what’s its purpose.

 

assignment #11

In class we were shown by the professor what can be done creatively with the panoramic setting on our phones. The class broke into two groups and created different scenes by using this technique. The scene I created was the finals week process. A sort of phase by phase process that I personally go through when preparing for the end of a semester. This was a pretty fun assignment to do overall since I was able to test out what was possible with the panoramic setting.

 

assignment #12

So this assignment was actually broken up in two parts. The first being to share my website url on in the comment section, programmerblock.com. The second part was to explore my classmate’s webpages. They all came out amazing! The one that really caught my attention was the webpage aquicklaugh.com. I mean come on, it’s practically a meme museum!

 

Now…About Grades

Now that I’ve about wrapped up everything, of course, like any student the grade I’m hoping for is at least an A.  However, since I do feel as if the assignments I handed in are of good substance,  I wouldn’t be disappointed with a B/B+. The time at which I handed everything is no one’s fault but my own. Crossing my fingers for the best outcome!

Introducing My Completed Website

I have to say that I’m really happy with the final product. The inclusion of the third party theme Astra, and then the third party plug-in Elementor, definitely made the process so much easier. And now, the time has come to present programmersblock.com.

Homepage

About

 

Blog

Contact

 

What Do You Meme

While looking through my classmate’s websites (all amazing), I would have to say the one that stuck out to me the most would have to be Stella’s, aquicklaugh.com. I would definitely say that it’s because I’m biased when it comes to memes/gifs. Since I could remember, memes have always been apart of my internet experiences so it was cool to see that one of my classmates decide to create  a sort of meme/gif museum.

It was a pretty nice to go through the website and experience the “oh I remember that one!” moments. Makes me think how far along memes in general have come. From the early days of troll/lol faces, to reactionary gifs, and now a whole internet culture that surrounds them. The website as a whole is very well thought out and has a very clean interface.

Also, the way the site is formatted in terms of sectioning specific memes under certain topics is also a really nice touch. My favorite section definitely would have to be the “Lore of The Memes ” one. Overall, it is a very fun website to visit and I can definitely see why it is so popular amongst the other students!

Panorama and Storytelling

Utilizing The Panoramic Camera

So in class we went over how to use the panoramic camera setting to be able to tell a story of sorts. We went out into the hallway and broke up into two groups. My group (along with the professor for two of them) created three scenes. One with everyone dancing, another with everyone fighting, and lastly one where we were all attempting to create some really odd/morphed shots while everyone was moving. My favorite scene had to have been the one where everyone was in a fighting position. My role was to be in the middle of an argument with another student while the professor was trying to break it up. By the end of the shot now it’s the professor fighting me instead of the student.

Now It’s My Turn

Since it’s finals week I decided that it would be incredibly fitting to portray all my personal stages of coping with finals. There’s stage 1, the stress phase, where I dread the oncoming stress that’s about to come while trying to study the massive wave of information. Stage 2, the study phase, where I finally get my [R E D A C T E D] together and start planning out what it is I need to study. Finally there’s stage 3, where I feel confident enough (or as confident as I wish I could feel) to take the exams and get on with it.

Now, onto the next stage…

STRESS EATING!!

One of the biggest issues I’ve come to realize I have is that I find comfort in eating junk food when I’m stressed. Did you know! That your gut microbiome produces up to 90% of the serotonin in your body! (Sources: my bio-major girlfriend). So no wonder it’s called comfort eating. I thought it would also be  fitting to showcase my frequent trips to the vending machine throughout my studying process.

My First Blog Post

So the time finally came where I upload my first ever blog post. Pretty exciting times I’d say. I went ahead and went through some recent programming projects I’ve been working on and decided to post the first ever python project I completed. Now, it’s time to wait and see if there’ll be any critiques on how I did. I mean, the whole point of my blog is to improve right? On the other hand, I continued to work on other aspects of my website. I went ahead and completed my “about” page. I decided to introduce myself and give a little background on my experiences as a learning programmer. Along with this, I also put into detail as in why I decided to make my website the way it is. I really like how the end result came out!

Since the whole point of my website is to help keep people motivated, I figured it was appropriate to add a bit of motivational text to let visiting people know what the page is really about. I mean I’m no Rocky Balboa at motivational speeches but I figured I’d give it a try since it fits the theme.

It’s nice to see overall how the page is coming along. I definitely still want to tweak a few aspects of it and I still have my contact page is to complete, but hey I’m almost there. If anyone is interested in checking out my first python project and want to leave their own critique please feel free! You can press here to check out my blog post and see if there’s anything you’d want to say about it. I look forward to hearing from you all!

 

Beginning My Website

Starting

So as I thought, the hardest part of this process will be learning how to use the WordPress website. Right off the bat I can already tell that this is an incredibly powerful tool to use. The varying templates allow for an insane amount of customization that the really allows you to create whatever comes from the imagination. Thanks to the power of YouTube, I was able to find plenty of tutorials that really show what the site is capable of. I definitely have taken a lot of inspiration from two video tutorials out of the bunch that I saw:

Tutorial 1

Tutorial 2

Tutorial 2 was especially helpful and is where I’ve taken most of my inspiration from as the man in the video clearly explains in great detail what each tool does, as well as how columns and sections work. I was actually even able to utilize themes that weren’t initially presented in the library. The theme I downloaded is called Astra, and the plug-in I downloaded alone with it is one called Elementor. Personally, I find both these tool incredibly helpful/intuitive. Along with all the tutorials I watched, I also looked up how to create my own custom logo. What I found was a website called logomakr.com which was incredibly easy and straight forward to use. Using all this new information together I was able to create the basis of my homepage!

Thoughts So Far…

At the moment, I’m currently working on the other linked pages (about, contacts, blog, etc.). I really like how well it’s coming out so far. At the time of typing this, my plan is to keep my homepage as the “welcome” page, while the about page will be my reasoning for creating this website and the blog page the actual content of the website where all my code will go. The blog page is what’s going to consist of all the corrections, examples, errors, etc. After learning everything that I have I’m feeling a lot more confident in what it is I’m creating and look forward to what the finished product will look like. Down below will be the website url as well as my “about” page that I am currently working on.

Website Link: programmersblock.com

Domain and Registration

Deciding on a Domain Name/Signing Up

It was a bit challenging to decide on what to name my website but ultimately I settled on the first choice on my list, programmersblock.com. I really do like the idea of a sort of social hub for aspiring new programmers so the name felt pretty fitting overall. The process of signing up was pretty easy and very straightforward. This is especially the case when my domain name was cleared for eligibility on the first try. Now, comes the challenging portion of this assignment; actually formatting my website. I have an idea of how I want the end result to look, the only issue is really figuring out how to go about doing so. The upside of wordpress is that they offer a bunch of editing tools to your disposal but what comes with that is the learning curve of how to use said tools. It’s gonna take some tinkering but I’ll definitely figure it out. I mean, I kind of have to quickly now that the end of the semester is catching up.

OH AND BEFORE I FORGET…

I did remember to take my step by step screenshots to show how my sign-up process went. However..

I took these screenshots on my desktop monitor which seems to have a resolution that is incompatible with the cuny commons. Whenever I try to upload them I just keep receiving an error in which I normally don’t receive whenever I take screenshots on my laptop. You can find the oddest of errors when it comes to tech.

 

 

 

Potential Domain Names

1. 1.  programmersblock.com
   2. imposternomore.com
   3. compiletime.com
   4. imposterssyntax.com
   5. imposterflow.com

Why These Domain Names

One of the most difficult challenges many aspiring programmers face today is being haunted by the feeling of imposter syndrome. This inhibits many aspiring programmers from applying and obtaining careers within this field of work and ultimately leads to many giving up on learning how to code altogether. I too myself feel this from time to time when it comes to working on my assignments. As I read through documentation I feel that little inkling of ” you can’t do this”, “you don’t really know Java”, “you have a hard time with C++”, etc. However, once I start I’m always able to figure things out therefore invalidating those doubtful thoughts. The website I have in mind is a sort of community based confidence boosting platform where aspiring programmers can post their code and have more experienced programmers (whether in the field or well versed in the respective programming languages) either give friendly pointers or reinforce that what they have created is well made.

 

So far CT 101 has definitely been the most fun I’ve ever had taking a college course. I would say a big contribution to this has been due to the subject matter of the class as well as having a cool professor at the head of it. It has definitely made this stress-inducing semester feel a bit easier to handle.  With that being said, it also makes me feel incredibly guilty. I definitely have neglected this course more so than my other courses this semester. Between work and school it definitely hasn’t been the easiest but that doesn’t mean I can’t get the work done. I just have to re-evaluate my time management and better layout the work ahead of me. Overall, I was able to get done the first 5 assignments:

Assignment #1

Assignment #2

Assignment #3

Assignment #4

Assignment #5

Now if this re-cap assignment was completed at the time it was assigned then I’d say I would be doing pretty okay in the class, probably looking at a B average. Realistically now however, I’m most likely looking at a D grade average. If I can get all my assignments in by the final class of the semester along with all of my comments, then I’ll feel as if I am in a much better position.  Regardless, I feel as if I’ve already learned a lot even with the amount of work I’ve done. Learning how to utilize all of the tools on the CUNY commons, working with giphy as well as mmm.page, has opened up a broader spectrum of what’s possible at such an easy level. For example, one of the coolest things I’ve learned this semester is how easy it is to make my own giphs. I absolutely love using gifs/memes to emphasize my text messages and now that I know how to make my own I’ll be unstoppable ! These are definitely skills I’ll utilize even once this course comes to its conclusion. Now, it’s time for me to get back to work!

Creativity is the ability to alter traditional rules, ideas, patterns, relationships, or any of the sort, and create new meaningful ideas, forms, methods etc. Can also be defined as originality, progressiveness, and imagination. You can find creativity in a lot of aspects in our lives such as (but certainly not limited to) music, art, memes, GIFs, etc.

Immediacy is a quality or feeling of being directly involved with something.  It takes place within the moment and is therefore important and requires attention immediately. An example of this is if you’re at a live performance for your favorite performer. There is an immediacy to watching live that you cannot get from just a recording alone.

Intuition is the ability to know something based on feelings rather than having all the facts. Everyone has experienced this one way or another throughout their lifetime. Many times this can be referred to as a “gut feeling”. Say you’re home and you have this strong feeling that a specific individual is gonna stop by and visit. This is one of the many examples of intuition.

Recently, I’ve been watching the entirety of the Star Wars films with my significant other. So I figured for my mmm.page I was going to make it star wars themed. At first I was a bit clumsy with all of the tools provided to me but after playing around with dragging and dropping images and pasting stickers I was able to figure it out. I have to say it was pretty cool to see all of it come together. This website is definitely an amazing tool to utilize whenever you feel as if you need a creative outlet.

 

1.Web Assignment: Guess The Story

For the first assignment, I decided to go with ‘Guess The Story’. For this, I am instructed to use at least 5 GIFs, along with several hints to tell a myth, legend, or folklore. All the conditions can be seen as follows here. The following myth is one that was actually has a lot of ties internet, so it actually pairs pretty well with said project.

Hint 1:  Has a survival horror video game based on the myth

Hint 2: Has had news articles written about said myth

Hint 3: One of the older myths conceived on the internet

2.AnimatedGIF Assignment: – TV Show GIFs

For this assignment, I will be taking one of my favorite shows and create 4-6 GIFs from it. All the instructions can be seen as follows here. The show I will be using is called Mr.Robot. The show follows the unreliable protagonist ‘Elliot Alderson’ who is a programmer who works as a cyber security engineer by day, but is also a vigilante hacker by night. He then finds himself in a bit of a dilemma when a mysterious leader of an underground hacker group recruits him to take down the very firm he works for. Mr.Robot takes place in New York City as well as various places on Long Island. It is a drama/psychological thriller.

(Little fun fact to throw at the end here. Every bit of code/virus shown on the show is real! There are no green screens on any of the computer monitors. The director wanted every code to be as authentic as possible so they utilized them within controlled virtual environments.)

When asking myself the question “can memes be considered an art form” I found the question itself to be pretty funny. I mean, I use memes every single day and not once have I ever asked myself if they can be considered art. Come to find out, there are many videos online that asks this question as well. For example, the video provided below by TheVerge asks this question and provides a pretty interesting take on the subject matter.

Again, I personally use memes all the time since I find them to be pretty hilarious when emphasizing a piece of text I would write. Whenever a meme is so funny that it actually makes me physically laugh, I always enjoy sending them out to others who may find them amusing as well.

Overall, I do believe that memes can in fact be considered an art form. First and foremost, art is subjective, meaning that it really depends up to the individual to determine whether or not something has any artistic value. I  believe memes are art since they are something incredibly expressive and can be used as an incredible tool to invoke some sort of emotion.

In terms of communication and storytelling, memes are incredible tools for doing so as well. As mentioned prior, I love using memes the most to emphasize a joke or comment I may make in a text/post. It sort of help bring the text alive and give it character. For example, picture a good friend of yours wishing you a good morning. Nice right? Now picture them wishing you good morning and also sending this meme along with it. Nice and hilarious! As far as storytelling goes, take the meme used above as an example. (Spoiler warning for those who haven’t seen Star Wars) Here’s the entire story line from episodes 1 – 6 in four panels. Funny and gets the point across !

What did you think on the first day of the CT101?

Before we had our first class meeting, I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve read the class description of course, however, I was still curious to see what the class would actual entail in terms of assignments, lectures, etc. After the first class meeting, I became a lot more intrigued in the subject matter but definitely still a bit skeptical since I wasn’t quite sure how I’d fare in content creation.

Did you like hearing about the course and its creative content? How did it make you feel?

Again, definitely was a bit more on the skeptical side of things since I am not very confident in my ability to be creatively capable. However, I did also feel a sense of excitement. Its been a pretty long time since I’ve created any form of digital media. I want to see what it is I can do creatively in a digital space.

 

How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes?

CT101 has definitely been a nice buffer between my many computer classes this semester. I know I’m in the process of catching up on work, however, it hasn’t been stressful in the least bit. I would go as far to say that it’s actual pretty therapeutic.

 

What are the potentials of this class?

I think a potential of this class is to possibly discover a new hobby while at the same time learn about new accessible tools on the internet. One of my favorite parts of the internet is that of meme/gif culture and to find out it’s actually really easy to be apart of and contribute too has been a real eye opener. Definitely will continue to create more even after/outside this class.

 

How do you feel abut learning new skills that use Internet tools?

To be able to learn new internet skills is the most exciting part! Definitely a favorite topic of mine. So much so that I’ve recently began to teach myself the programming languages necessary to program the front end of an entire website. I absolutely love tech and the internet, so if I can learn the tools that allows me to contribute to this space then I’ll take the opportunity to do so.

I would say that out of all the websites I visit daily, YouTube has to be the one I am on 80% of the time. I mean, it has practically everything you’re looking for. If you need to touch up on a lecture topic for class and your professor’s notes are a bit too confusing…boom! Hundreds of other videos explaining the same topic. Maybe you would like to re-watch some clips from your favorite movies? You can watch it a million times if you’d like thanks to YouTube. You may even come to find a bunch of different content creators whom you’d like to subscribe to because of how their videos appeal to you. Personally, tech is my favorite topic to keep up on. My favorite videos consist of reviews/benchmarks of the latest computer parts such as processors and graphics cards .

On the complete other side of the spectrum, one of my other favorite things to do is re-watch past UFC/boxing highlights. It wasn’t until about two years ago I became a really huge mixed martial arts fan. Since then, it takes up a good chunk of the content I watch online. I did wrestling back in high school, so when I watch these pro-fighters compete, it reminds me of that rush you feel when you’re standing in front of your opponent prepared to see if all that training is about to pay off or not. Not only that, to watch your favorite fighters come out on top over their competition is also just really exciting to see.