A little disclaimer before we start. I decided to try out a different format for this post just to see how it comes out.

We did it guys. Is it just me or ever since COVID started, time flies by? Maybe it is just me! HAHA. I can’t believe 4 months went by so quickly. It seems like if just last week I was nervous about the idea of using gifs, memes, hyperlinks, and creating a website.

Here are all my completed assignments:

Assignment #1: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-1-what-makes-me-happy-on-the-internet-2/

Assignment #2: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-2-gifs-as-communication/

Assignment #3: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-3-memes/

Assignment #4: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-4-ds106-assignment-repository-2/

Assignment #5: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-5-digital-art/

Assignment #6: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-6-mid-semester-assessment-post/

Assignment #7: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-7-domains-domains-2/

Assignment #8: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/domain-name-registration/

Assignment #9: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-9-the-wordpress-customizing-series-part-1/

Assignment #10: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-10/

Assignment #11: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-11-social-media-n-wordpress-3/

In the assignments, I wrote about various topics; from what makes me happy to creating memes to creating a website. I used the website: https://giphy.com/ to make gifs. I used the mmm page and I used wordpress. <— On these names, I hyperlinked my own page to these websites.

This is my mmm page. I included things that motivated me and what kept me going. My family, my daughter and coffee help me keep myself motivated to continue my career in Nursing.

This is the first meme I created for assignment #3, which I hyperlinked above.

I enjoyed learning new things. Before CT101, I would have been so lost if someone told me to create a website of my own. I would have not known where to even start. You,Professor Seslow, are part of why I was able to complete all the assignments. The recorded videos were a great help, and so were the actual assignment posts. They were all detailed and easy to follow. I did have trouble completing the assignments on a weekly basis because my other classes were a bit stressful but I am proud of myself because at the end of the day I knew what I was missing and I make sure to complete them all.

Something I enjoyed about this class was using Gifs. It was a new way to express my feelings without actually having to use words. You know the saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. Im guessing a video/GIF is worth even more! 😆 I think I will continue to apply all my skills in the world. Not only did it allow me to use my computer for things other than writing essays and doing homework, but it also made a little computer savvy. Nowadays, it’s important to know how to use a computer and do different things.

I think I will continue to update my website. I think it’s nice having a website to upload pictures of all the coffees I try. However, I know I won’t be uploading daily or even weekly. I won’t make that promise, lol.

For my website, I decided to post updates and reviews on different coffee drinks. At first, I did not know where to start but with tutorials provided, I got the hang of it and started to personalize it. I did not experience any frustrations other than today. I was updating the main page and it kept on freezing. After many tries, my pictures were able to upload.

Here is a tour of my website https://julissa1122penaloza.com/

This is the first thing you will see when you decide to visit my website. I included a recent picture of my daughter and I. That day, we went to see holiday lights at the zoo and it was beautiful to see how creative they were. I also added a picture of Luna, our family dog. Last but not least, I added a picture of coffee. My mom likes to say that I am addicted to coffee, I think I am. Haha.

This is my “About” page. I included a few things about myself. In fact, I edited this page today and I included an update.

This was the first blog I included on my website. It was just an update of my latest work on the commons page for CT101. This assignment was actually connected to the website so why not include it? It was an update of all the changes I did to personalize my website.

In this post, I compared to types of coffee’s that I ordered at Starbucks. Let me tell you, they were both good!

This was my most recent post where I explained that I decided to try out a new drink. It was good and I am glad I decided to try out more. As I stated before, I will continue to update my website and upload blogs on my website.

As my final grade, I believe that I should get an A- or B+. Not an A+ because I did not exceed the expectations for any assignments. I only met the requirements for each assignment; therefore, I think my work combined is a grade of either an A- or B+. I honestly put in the effort to each assignment and made sure it looked nice and presentable. I used to my advantage the fact that there were no deadlines for the assignments, for which I am extremely grateful. I was not completing the assignment on a weekly basis, as I explained above, but I did complete all of them. I even went back and updated some.

(Hopefully Professor is in a good mood and grants me the grade of an A)

Thank you for everything Professor, I enjoyed being in your class. Happy Holidays everyone!!!

I decided to visit Ericka Herrera’s website. The link for her website is right here. From reading her websites’ name, I found it funny and creative how she incorporate “ugh” into it, while still making it sound like her first name. Upon entering her website, I already liked what she posted, which I included a screenshot of right above this paragraph. By far, it was my favorite post. I enjoyed seeing pictures of her pets, finding out their names and learning a little bit about each. Pets are literally like humans, they have different personalities and express their emotions very well. I also have 3 pets: 2 cats and 1 dog.

I also like reading her plant post. Quarantine hit hard for almost everyone. Not being able to go out without having the fear of getting sick, having family and friends getting sick was very hard [it still is]. I liked reading how she made use of her time and decided to grow plants. Her plants look very healthy and I hope she keeps us the good work!

This is my first post. I decided to post an update of what I have done in the commons website. I added a link to my Assignment #9 which was about customizing my wordpress. It was an update on how my work was going. The link to my first post is -> here.

This is my second post on my website. You can visit the actual page of my post #2 in this link. I included a picture of two types of drinks I have tried from Starbucks. I added a little explanation of when I have the drinks or why (you will understand when actually going into the link and reading the post). I also added a sentence or two of a comparison of the two. Well, to be clear, the comparison is in my opinion.

When it comes to the first part of this assignment, I can say that progress is coming along. As I stated in the beginning of this post, I have added two new posts to the website. I re-published a work from my personal website and I added a whole new post about something I love. I will, hopefully in the future, add a post using a plug-in. I hope to continue adding more posts!

I was indecisive when it came to choosing a background color for my wordpress. I was stuck between a light blue color or a darker royal blue. I opted to go with the lighter option so that my font color remains black. To me, a darker font stands out more on a lighter background than a lighter font on a dark background.

This is the color I chose. I decided to just include my name and the class’ name to make it unique and simple. It states that it is my website for CT101 but it does not limit what I will post.

I decided to add a little bit about myself on the website. I included what I am majoring in, my favorite person, and I added a picture of us. This part was fun and tricky because I still did not know what exactly an audience would want to know about me. I am shy so I did not know what I wanted to share.

I think I will post a variety of things. I would want to include pictures of different foods I enjoy, different places I would love to visit, my journey in my education and major. I would also like to include different “coffees” I have tried. I put it in quotes because some people may argue that starbucks coffee is more creamer than actual coffee.

My mistake on doing the assignments out of order! I decided to do assignment #8 before doing assignment #7; therefore, I ended up choosing a domain name before brainstorming different domain names. I chose http://julissa1122penaloza.com/ as my domain name. Being that I chose that domain, you can infer that, at that time, it was available [haha]. I also decided to choose a domain that had my name in it. I made it unique by adding some numbers.

If I had done this assignment in the sequence I was supposed to complete it in, I would have made a list of the following domains:
1. http://my_every_daylife.com I would have chosen this to communicate, with an audience, what I do in my every day life.
2. http://nursing101.com With this domain, I would have blogged about survival tips when going into nursing. I has been quite a journey so far and I am not even close to the end. I would have loved to share my experience.
3. http://change_is_inevitable.com In this website, I would have talked uploaded daily quotes. Quotes that are simply about life, even inspirational quotes.
4. http://seasonsinNewYork.com I would have loved to share different pictures of different outfits one can wear throughout the 4 seasons in New York. I would have shared both female and female ideas.
5. http://netflixreviews.com In this website, I would have shared my reviews to different movies or shows on Netflix. Honest reviews with a number grade to it, the good, the bad and what could have been better.

One of my favorite websites is tiktok.com

I like this website, not because it is currently trending, but because there is a variety of videos that can keep you entertained or even educated. I, myself, follow a lot of nursing tiktokers. As you can see on the left side of the picture, you can also find videos about games, food, music, pets and funny videos.

I decided to name my work: “my_motivation”, which you can see –> here. I created this by using mmm.page. As you can see, in the picture above, I chose to use a flower as my background. It is actually the narcissus flower, which is very beautiful. The narcissus flower is December’s birth flower. My daughter was born on December, which takes us to my next gif that I added: the girl and the mom. My daughter, Brianna, is my biggest motivation. She is turning six this December and I only want to see her happy. I want to succeed for her. I had a good life but I want hers to be even better. It has been a bumpy road but we are managing because nothing is impossible.

My family is the reason we are managing. They have been my support and they have helped me out with my daughter, especially when I have class. I am in the nursing program and that is my goal. I want to be a registered nurse and help others. Hopefully, with a few years into my career, I would love to work as a labor and delivery nurse.

As I mentioned before, I want my daughter’s life to be great and I want to see her happy. I want to travel the world with her. My family did not do much traveling, but it is something I want to do. There is nothing better in this world than seeing your child smile, well at least for me. It’s been a little difficult, managing studying and being a mom at the same time. Especially last school year, when everyone went remote. As funny as it may sound, coffee got me going throughout the day. Even if it’s bad, I have at least 2 cups of coffee a day. It’s what keeps me up all day. I am manifesting that I WILL earn my degree and become an RN, I WILL give my daughter the life she deserves, I WILL be a good mom, I WILL make my family proud.

As my first assignment I chose: “That’s not what I expected” which was from the visual assignment section. It seemed as something simple but meaningful to do. It was something I could quickly figure out on my own by simply looking at the assignment directions. This assignment,in my opinion, reminds us to always look at the bigger picture. Sometimes, by only looking at one part or a simple piece of the picture, you might get a misunderstanding. Like in any situation, even in the real life, problems can arise when you do not look at the whole picture because you get a whole different idea than when you actually see the entire picture/situation. In this case, by simply looking at a zoomed in picture, a million guesses can come to mind, but it might be tricky guessing correctly. I will now show my outcome for this assignment.

In my opinion, if I wasn’t the one that took this and I was seeing if for the first time, I wouldn’t know what it was. If anyone comes across this post and picture, leave a comment below with your guess. I was looking through the submitted works for this specific post and I found myself staring at a picture for an extended amount of time trying to figure out what it was a part of.

As my second assignment, I chose: “Create a house” from the 3D printed assignments. I chose this as the assignment that I do not know how to do yet but I would love to complete one day. From reading the first sentence of the assignment instructions, I knew I would not know how to complete it because I do not know what a CAD program is. P.S. I still do not know because I have not looked it up yet (LOL.) Anyways, I would love to complete this in the future. Everyone has in mind what kind of house they would love to own one day. Imagine putting all your ideas into a program and, hopefully, in the future being able to own your DREAM house. I find that fascinating but, since I know myself 100%, I know I will be making changes every week, or so.

I’ve stated, in the previos paragraph, what I would need to learn to complete the project. I do believe that I should be doing these kinds of projects at least twice a month. Therefore, at least 6-8 in this semester. Not only will this be a fun project, but it will also enhance my skills, more specifically, my storytelling skills. I think these skills are very important because anything that enhances your knowledge is very valuable to have. Learning new skills and learning how to use different tools is necessary to keep your mind and creativity working.

-Me after successfully setting up my domain and hosting wordpress.

This was such an easy experience, in my opinion. Following Professor Seslow’s recorded video on zoom and description on commons, it was such an easy and fast process. Hosting wordpress wasn’t anything out of this world either. Following professor’s steps on zoom allowed me to set it up very quickly. Since I was already at the page, I decided to change the website’s icon to a picture of my daughter and I. I went ahead and changed the background to a light-blue color. I also added two or three sentences about myself in the about section of my website.

I was very indecisive when it came to choosing my domain name. I ended up going with —> http://julissa1122penaloza.com/ I did not, and still do not, know what kind of ideas I wanted to incorporate in my website; therefore, I just added my full name and my two favorite numbers: 11 and 22. Overall, the process was fun and it was not difficult at all. I was expecting it to be more complex and difficult to create since it does sound like an important and complex topic: CREATING A DOMAIN. As I mentioned before, it was easy by following the steps provided to us by Professor Seslow. I think the difficult part will come when deciding what type of content to include in my website. I am, however, excited!

 

I am definitely not doing as great as I hoped I would be doing. I let myself fall behind on assignments and am currently missing 2. I got distracted and overwhelmed by my other courses but NO need to worry though, I will have them done by the following week!! I plan on catching up to all assignment and going back and fixing work that need editing.

I believe that I am currently on a C grade due to my missing assignments which are Assignments #4 and #5. However, hopefully I do bring this grade up and see the grade that I am looking for. I have attached links to my completed assignment at the bottom of this post.

What I have learned the most is uploading GIFS that I obtain from GIPHY. Another skill that I learned is hyperlinking certain words of my writing which is shown throughout this writing piece or at the bottom of this page. This is something I had no idea I was able to do because when I was first got introduced to all of this, I was nervous because it was all new terminology to me. I also learned to make my own memes on –> https://makeameme.org/ which I demonstrated on Assignment #3.

Aside from publishing my blog post assignments, I also assess my participation by attending weekly classes on zoom. I have yet to comment on someones post or participate on class discussions but I do plan on doing so in the near future. I have, however, participated via messages during the zoom call but not speaking. The class format does, in a way, contribute to my progress because it allows me to catch up on my work. Everything on this class website is formatted in a way that is easy to read and follow.

As mentioned before, I had no idea of any GIF or meme creating websites. I only viewed them on TikTok or instagram. I also had no clue on how to create my own website or the importance of sizing images in order to make the writing look presentable.

I can see that my blogging work expanded creatively from assignment #1 to assignment #2, but it has stayed on a loop on the other assignments. I do hope I learn how to use more websites so that I can make my work even more creative and presentable to the audience.

The following are my completed assignments:

Assignment 1: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-1-what-makes-me-happy-on-the-internet-2/

Assignment 2: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-2-gifs-as-communication/

Assignment 3: https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-3-memes/

Im my opinion, memes are a form of ART. Art can be anything from paintings of Mona Lisa to sculptures made by Michelangelo. 

Memes can be used as a form of expressing how you are feeling or explaining why you are feeling that way. It can be made to be funny, relatable or both. This way, you can COMMUNICATE your feelings to other people without having to speak or explain yourself. Some people, like me, are shy so speaking up isn’t one of our greatest virtues. Sharing memes, allows one to express one’s sentiments, just like a painting would do. This way you can connect with other people or at least relate to them!

Is this good or bad for Art?…

Memes can be good in the sense that I explained in the previous paragraph. It can be created and used as a form of expression or it can be a communication starter. Article 1 explains that there are quality memes that can make you laugh and prompt you to send it to others. However, there are some that are just disappointing and one cannot see the reason to its creation. Just like we do to art, we appreciate and value good memes while judge or criticize less-than-stellar memes.

Memes are not just simple forms of self-expression.

Memes can also be used as a mirror to real life. Article 2 shows that memes can, in fact, reflect real life events. Many meme creators  share bits of information through their perspective and tag their work, allowing others to view things “through the lenses of the creator,” hence getting a new perspective.

Art is whatever you view it as and it keeps on evolving on a daily basis!

Links:

Article 1: https://www.newsrecord.org/opinion/opinion-memes-are-a-form-of-art-not-getting-the-recognition-it-deserves/article_3b15f0c8-fb48-11e7-89aa-1320d251e001.html 

Article 2: https://www.clozette.co/article/memes-art-form-7315

On the very first day of CT101, I have to admit, I was nervous! I was working with things I have never worked with before. Websites like Commons or GIPHY; It was all NEW to me. I had no idea what to expect since none of my friends have taken this class either. I was ready for the experience. I needed an elective class and after searching various elective classes, I chose this course. I saw this class was highly recommended on the York Cardinal App. After meeting the professor, on the first day, I was not as nervous as I was before class because I liked how he explained everything in a simple manner. I was still somewhat nervous…

BUT THEN… After hearing about the course and its content, I was like “hmm 🤔 this is actually an interesting and fun course.” I was going to be able to make and have my own website. The creative content was what SOLD it for me. Being able to upload gifs, videos, short clips, all made it exciting. I was able to express my feelings, as I am doing in this post, and have fun at the same time.

CT101 is very different from my other classes. I am currently taking nursing courses which are extremely difficult, for me at least, and require A LOT of work. In this course, I am able to be creative and work on my own time. However, this can be both good and bad. I have been focusing more on my other courses while I have been pushing back my assignments on this class. I know, we do not necessarily have a due date but it does make me feel bad. In no way am I saying I do not care for this class but I feel overwhelmed with my other courses. I am getting back on my work mode and catching up on all my assignments. So far, I am enjoying this class. I am learning how to work with various aspects of my laptop, rather than just using Youtube, writing papers, or being on blackboard.

If you ask me now, if I regret taking this class?… DUN DUN DUN, the answer is no. Am I ready to catch up on all my assignments, which I will? I SURE AM! I see a lot of potential with this class. As mentioned before, I am working with Gifs; I have my website; I can upload creative content. I have yet to try out so many other features. I still haven’t made my own GIF, but hopefully by the end of the course, I make multiple GIFS expressing who I am. I am excited to see everything I learn at the end of CT101!

Assignment #1: What makes me happy on the internet

Hello everyone! I wanted to share that what makes me happy, on the internet, is any type of social media platform (any platform for communication.)

First of all, you can see anything from current events all the way to memes and funny videos. You can connect with your friends and family and keep up with them on a daily basis.

An example of a social media that I enjoy is tiktok.com. There is a variety of videos included within the app; entertainment videos and videos that can help you with your career chosen. I am hoping to graduate as an RN. On tiktok, I follow a few tiktokers who are nurses.

As you can see there are various nursing related videos. Educational nursing videos and funny nursing videos. Videos that make me feel excited for whats in the the future of my career.

Sometimes, I even get ideas of places to visit with my daughter. I get inspired to go out and visit all these new and fun places… even tho it sometimes hurts my wallet. 😭

As you can see, there are pages on instagram.com that suggest different places where you can eat a variety of different foods. I have yet to visit any place but hopefully soon after this semester!!

Lastly, I love the FaceTime app. It allows you to see someone that you are missing when they can’t be there with you at the moment. I love it when my daughter calls me after class, even if it’s to tell me to buy her something. HAHA!

Social media is a huge platform with so much to do. It personally makes me very happy!