Okay. This is it. My very last blog post. Aka my final exam. This isn’t nerve wracking at all. I thought to myself making sure not to break eye-contact with my keyboard avoiding the cursor at all costs. Something about it just makes writing that much more intimidating but maybe I’m thinking too much. Okay all I have to do is breathe. This is just like any other blog post I’ve written but I’m just wrapping everything up to the viewers. Its my farewell and I wanna make it a good one. How do I even begin to reminisce on the past fifteen weeks of CT 101?  I guess the reasonable thing to do is sit back, take a deep breath, put my AirPods on, playlist on shuffle, and get comfy because I’d like to take my time with this. And oh, how could I forget…

PREVIOUS ASSIGNMENTS…

• https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=11495
• https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=11815
• https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=12250
• https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=12560
• https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=13138
• https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=13186
• https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=13229
• https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=13362
• https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=13970
• https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=14053
• https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=14382 
• https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=14348

If im being completely honest, I didn’t know what to expect from CT 101 but I had high hopes that it would be a fun class strictly because of the name “Digital Storytelling”. While making my schedule, it didn’t seem like the worst option. I like stories and storytelling, and I’ve been meaning to learn more about the digital world anyways. So why not. For a person who makes pretty dicey decisions, taking this course was hands down one of the best decisions I have made in my education career and I say that with zero exaggeration which means a lot coming from me because anyone that knows me knows that I exaggerate a lot. Like. A lot. Though we took the first three weeks or so to write our first blog post, I did not mind taking the time to set up, and get a thorough understanding of the course and what we will be doing so I know what to expect. If anything, my excitement just grew stronger each week. From one to fifteen.     

You’d think that you wouldn’t learn much from a class you only have once a week for an hour or an hour and fifteen minutes at most. But that is where you’re wrong. Though the sessions flew by time wise, I still learned valuable information each week as well as learning about myself as a writer, and exploring the depths of my creativity. From week one to fifteen, I have learned a great deal of things regarding digital storytelling and just needed skills in the rapidly expanding tech world. Some of these skills include hyperlinking, embedding videos and various medias into a post or site, creating gifs and memes as well as learning the history behind them, and using sites such as https://mmm.page and https://assignments.ds106.us to utilize different tools and ideas into learning how to create new media whether it was digitally or on paper. Along with utilizing these new skills, I have also gained a new perspective in this class when it comes to topics such as creativity, immediacy and intuition unaware of how much of a role they play in the process of art making and other topics such as “are memes art?”.

After our midterm, we began working on our websites which is when time really began to fly. Setting up our domain names, installing WordPress, and figuring out what our sites were going to be about took about two or three weeks leaving us only another two or three to actually work on our sites. Before introducing my site, I would like to give you a story time of how it came to be. So if you haven’t already, I advise you grab some popcorn, get comfy, and sit back. Because this isn’t an average length post-or an average story….

I’d be lying if I said I was excited to start making our website. I enjoyed the weekly blogging we were doing in class and I liked that I knew what to do. Now that we were learning something new, I already knew I was going to have a hard time adjusting. It’s not that I don’t like learning new things, I just like doing what I know more and going from blogging to making a site was kind of overwhelming to me especially since I don’t have the best track record with working with technology. Any-who, first things first was registering my domain, hosting set up, and WordPress installation. Everything was going smoothly until I saw the words promotion code. Thinking all I had to do was log into my email click copy and paste and yayyyy domain time was the first set of inconveniences. “Why is that?” You may ask. Well, there was no promotion/coupon code in my email. I knew this wasn’t the biggest deal knowing all I had to do was email professor Seslow and ask but when something that is supposed to only take 5 minutes to complete ends up taking much longer, it’s kind of a buzzkill.

I will spare the details given they can be found in this blog post and will move onto building successes, frustrations and an over-all assessment of building and having a website. Though we had very detailed class tutorials on pages, posts, categories, navigation menus, working with widgets, installing and adding plug-ins, and the specifications and potentials of WordPress, it was a while before I had my first success. When it first came to customizing my website, I was really struggling. I didn’t know where anything was, all of my colors were clashing, I didn’t know how to set up my pages, install widgets, add categories, and adjust my navigation menu. I was a mess. I was completely down bad. I continued to do the bare minimum on my site each week just to get our assignment done for class but one week came where I realized enough is enough. I actually have to get my site together.

I began rewatching the lectures from previous class sessions where I was following the professors instructions to the best of my ability. I’m not sure what was going on in that specific moment in time but all I know is that nothing was working. The only thing I successfully did was change the background image and color which was also the only thing I knew how to do so I really didn’t make progress. Though there was a little body of text for my welcome page, I couldn’t even remember how I did that so I was really feeling hopeless. I feel myself to be more patient on some days than others which is why I chose to try to figure out my site on a patient day. I had the lectures on a consistent loop from three pm to ten pm, switching tabs, and taking a break here and there.

 It wasn’t until around ten forty five at night where the universe decided I had enough and magically directed me to what I like to call “the main page”. Here I found out how to add my categories, alter my navigation menu, install plugins, and finally changed my background picture and color to something I liked. Though I made all of these changes the day after since it was so late, actually figuring put how to do everything from adding pages, categories, and customizing was my very first success and the biggest one by far. Some other successes I had with my site were my first blog post and setting up the home page which I found quite fun. Prior to my successes were my frustrations were mostly getting things started but another frustration I had was the formatting of things. When creating a page, I format everything to my ;liking but when I would press publish, the format would change. Though I didn’t figure out the issue, it’s a work in progress. 

Building and having a website is definitely an experience. That is the best way I can put it. However, it is an experience I enjoy having and do plan on keeping and maintaining my site for the year that I have it. I am unsure about after though. I feel like maintaining my site would be a good opportunity to “get discovered” and just great for myself to get my thoughts out and share movies and recipes with those who may be interested. There is still so much to learn and build on for my site which is just another set of experiences and I am a firm believer that life is all about experiences. Although they may not all be good or the most enjoyable, the outcome could be great as well as the things you learn from it.

Looking back. I enjoyed this class in the whole but I’ll get into detail because why not? Some things I really enjoyed were the creative freedom,  the weekly blogs because I feel as if it’s a good detox in a sense, and working on different sites such as mmm.page and the ds106 assignment bank. I enjoyed the lack of deadlines because I am a firm believer that that deadlines stifle creativity. I enjoyed the various forms of media we learned about and utilized in our weekly assignments. I enjoyed learning new skills such as creating memes, gifs, and learning about panoramic storytelling as well as learning how to take panoramic pictures to tell a story. Those were the things that stood out to me most this semester. If I’m being honest, I cannot see myself using any of the new skills I learned in the real world YET unless it is for a job. But that does not mean I will not utilize them in time because I am one hundred percent sure that I will. Until then, I plan on maintaining my skills as well as learning more through building and maintaining my site.

To be honest, I feel like I am doing fairly well in CT101 for a variety of reasons that being I comment on my classmates’ posts as well as respond to the professor and feel like I hit every requirement in our weekly blog posts. However, that does not mean I couldn’t be doing better because I can. I could be doing more to get the full experience out of this class whether it reflects back on previous blog posts more, utilize the tools shown to us during class in my free time, and not put off the suggestions given to me for a later time. I think that when I am going through my comments and replying, I should be editing my posts at the same time. I think I have earned an average of 4-5 points a week. Grade-wise, I believe I earned an A or A minus. I believe that I earned this grade because although my blogs and site could use some extra work, the effort and potential is there which one can see. In addition, I have always felt like I put extra into this class not for the grade but because I genuinely enjoy doing this-blogging and building a site and putting my interests, voice, and point of view out there which I believe adds an element in a sense. You can tell that I dont just write these posts to get them over with or see it as an assignment but as a part of my day that I enjoy doing.

Before I do the big reveal, I would like to share a bit about my site where everything is genuine as possible and 100% self-expression is the only requirement. On my site, everyone will be able to share their food for thought and those overbearing thoughts we are victims of from time to time-hence the name over thinkers anonymous. Not everything will be on the dark side because I believe balance is key. There will most definitely be space for positive emotions as well as one’s imagination to roam free whatever it may be and lead to. I hope that viewers/users will find comfort in this site. There will be posts regarding literature, movies, comfort foods/recipes, and art of all kinds. I am aware that my site will not suit everyone’s personality/“aesthetic” but I am hoping it appeals to at least a few.

Phew. Okay that was kind of a lot…

BUT WE’RE NOT QUITE DONE YET…

Without further a do, I present to you http://overthinkersanonymous.net 

 

 

 

 

 

When we first learned about panoramic storytelling in class and were given this assignment, I knew that it was my time to shine until reality set in as per usual. Though I didn’t have a specific story I wanted to tell with my pictures, I felt that it would come to me while working with a group of people. Based on my pictures below, I did not have a group of people. For a first-timer and many failed attempts, I feel like I did a pretty decent job if I do say so myself.

Well, what happened to your group of people you may be wondering. I’m glad you asked. let’s just call this… the story before the story.

Hmmm I wonder how I’m gonna take these pictures I thought to myself. Who’s gonna be in it? What story am I telling? I need a big space for movement obviously. Okay, I got it. I’ll just ask my friends if they wanna hang out Tuesday after class so they could help me with my project. Luckily, they all agreed and when Tuesday came I never felt more ready to take pictures despite my hands always shaking. Long story short, we did not take the pictures but got burritos instead…

Now time for the actual story…

I call it Posh Parker 

Ever since he was a kid, Eli hated the park. But it wasn’t the park alone, it was anything nature-related. He just couldn’t stand it. The bugs, the grass, the trees, and especially smelling like outside. One day Eli woke up feeling…different. The good kind though. He felt as if he was being too picky about certain things in life. So that maybe if he weren’t, he could enjoy more things. The first thing that came to mind was the park because why not? It was a Friday afternoon so kids were still in school-leaving it empty and a great place for some quiet time, peace of mind, and some soul searching. I wanna see what all the hype is about. Literally, everyone goes to the park-old people, toddlers, teenagers, even adults. Maybe there’s something I’m missing Eli thought. So to the park he went.

What do people even do here Eli thought while standing by the swings in an awkward position unsure of what to do with himself. I guess ill sit down he mumbles to himself and made his way onto the swings. Sure, the weather was nice and it was quiet but it just wasn’t for him. Maybe ill try walking around. On the concrete of course. Eli made his way off the swings and into the main section of the park. He walked around for a bit looking around until he found himself by a tree. Maybe if I hug the tree, I’ll feel more connected to nature. So he did exactly that. As uncomfortable as it was, Eli hugged the tree and it was at that moment he realized that both the park and nature were not for him. 

I’m so excited I thought to myself getting ready to complete this week’s CT assignment. I finally get to see some of my classmates’ websites and what they’re about. I opened my laptop along with a new tab, typed in CT101, and logged into my account. Clicking on the course schedule and this week’s assignment, I could feel the excitement building as I scrolled to the bottom of the page to see the comments that were everyone’s websites. To my dismay, there were only two websites there-mine and Professor Seslow’s. It’s kind of funny when I look back at it but wasn’t that funny at the moment. Now, I had no other choice but to wait for some websites to appear in the comments section…

I’d be lying if I were to say that I consistently checked our class website to see if anyone posted the URL to their website because that was not the case. After my first failed attempt at completing this assignment, I waited for a whole week before coming back to it. But I still came back so that’s all that matters. Right?

The websites I visited were https://aquicklaugh.com/.   https://madeinyourlikeness.com/. And https://cookwitheliz.org/.  Personally, I feel as if my section of websites to check out really resonated with different pieces of my personality which I really enjoyed. 

Let’s get started…

 https://aquicklaugh.com/ was the first site I visited where I was sucked in right away. The first thing I noticed about the site before even clicking on the link was the domain which piqued my interest with the initial thought being I like to laugh. Something I like about this website is that not only does it have the most iconic memes from the beginning of time, but it also gives us the backstory of where the meme came from. Like the name of the person in the picture and the story behind it. The same goes for gifs which I absolutely love. Choosing a favorite on this site seems. Difficult because everything flows so well together because memes and gifs are like best friends and you cannot have one without the other.  https://aquicklaugh.com/ is a great website to reminisce about old social trends and learn something new after a long day

 https://madeinyourlikeness.com/ Brought me some sort of comfort after seeing the domain causing me to click on it. Something about the name “made in your likeness” felt like it was a cool, schwifty site which it is. My favorite post on this site is a seven-second clip of an animation that was created by the creator of this site. I thought it was really funny and cute. You guys should check it out! Overall, I like the website on the whole especially the topic of focus which is animation and space which are two things I really like as well. I think the appearance of the site goes very well with the whole outer space theme.

 https://cookwitheliz.org/ is kind of a giveaway but I will tell you guys anyway. The last website I explored was a cooking website where various Nigerian food recipes are posted along with instructions. I do not have a favorite post because the whole website is well put together where everything flows. Something I appreciated about the site was the description of the food groups and an overall summary of nutrition. I also like that the directions on the recipe are precise which is needed if someone like me is going to be in the kitchen. 

HEY EVERYONE!!! Although it took a while to get my site somewhat together, I would love to invite you guys to check out my very first blog post on there! I’m very excited about it if I do say so myself and think it could benefit some of you as well. How could your blog post possibly benefit me? Well, I’m glad you asked.

If you’re a movie lover like myself or just looking for a good watch,  then you should check out my post! basically,  I wrote about five really good movies that I have watched recently with a little description and my rating of it all. I also included the links so you can see the watch options, the actors/actresses starring in the movie, and much more. If that isn’t enticing enough, I have also made some changes to my site from the last time so maybe that will catch your attention! 

This is kind of overwhelming I thought to myself as I opened up WordPress to start customizing my site (overthinkersanonymous.net) It was time to decide on a theme. Hmmmmmmm. Decisions, decisions, keeping in mind what Professor Seslow said, I went with the safest option that being twenty twenty. I was already feeling overwhelmed about creating a website in the whole so the last thing I wanted to do was complicate things more. I then proceeded to choose a background color, and image and added a little introduction to my about page.

 

Although it may not look like much, I worked on the appearance of my website and was just trying to figure out WordPress on the whole. If a series is considered two pages, then yes, I created a series of new pages. I added recipes and poetry pages BUT they do not show up on the menu bar which is something I have to figure out.  However, the pages pop up when you type them in the search bar. Although I rewatched the recorded lecture two or three times, I was not having the best experience with WordPress and decided that it was best if I go on YouTube. When I was adding the finishing touches to my half-complete website, I finally figured out how to edit my pages properly and decided to save that for the next assignment because at that point I was getting frustrated and when I get frustrated I don’t do things to the best of my ability but just do the bare minimum which is the last thing I wanted to do for this site.

 

Overall, I think I had a decent experience with my first time using WordPress though things could have gone much better. However, this is not stopping me from achieving my desired website despite the difficulties I encounter along the way which is expected because I’m not the biggest fan of technology all the time. 

For someone who felt that registering their domain was a feeling, no one or nothing could ruin-I was oh so wrong. For a process that seemed quite easy if I do say so myself, I had a pretty difficult time. I went into the registering process excited and happy that my name was available and that everything seemed so simple. To my dismay, I was mistaken.

 
Everything was going smoothly until I saw the words promotion code. Thinking all I had to do was log into my email click copy and paste and yayyyy domain time was the first set of inconveniences. “Why is that?” You may ask. Well, there was no promotion/coupon code in my email. I knew this wasn’t the biggest deal knowing all I had to do was email professor Seslow and ask but when something that is supposed to only take 5 minutes to complete ends up taking much longer, it’s kind of a buzzkill. 

 

After receiving and inserting my coupon code and clicking complete order, I thought wow that was so easy. Now all I have to do is wait for my activation link. So I did exactly that. Waited. And waited. And waited. A day passed and I still received no email-not even in my spam. Maybe I signed up with my personal email I told myself knowing that was completely untrue but decided to check anyway. After receiving no activation link in my personal email (shocker) I then had to send out another email to Professor Seslow and then another to the reclaiming host help desk. Luckily, I received assistance in a timely manner and solved the issue. “Well…what was it?!” You may be thinking. That’s the part I’m getting to right now. APPARENTLY, my order never went through meaning my domain was never registered. Although it was frustrating to hear, I was relieved at the same time now that I could register again and make sure my order is complete.  

Nonetheless, overthinkersanonymous.net is officially a go and I couldn’t be happier. From that point on, setting up web hosting and WordPress was a breeze compared to registering. Overall, I’d give my experience a 2/10 for the registering process but I am confident to say that my blogging and setting up experience will be a 10/10. 

When it comes to assignments like these, I like to take my time and brainstorm but I decided to switch up my process a little. I want my domain names to come to me naturally so here it goes…

• Food4thought.com
• Dontbeasquare.net
• Comfortcoop.com
• Overthinkersanonymous.us
• Sincerelyyours.com

I think these names would be good examples for the website I am going to build because I want my site to be as open and genuine as possible where 100% self-expression is the only requirement. By definition, food for thought means “something that warrants serious consideration.” On my site, everyone will be able to share their food for thought and those overbearing thoughts we are victims of from time to time-hence the name over thinkers anonymous. Not everything will be on the dark side because I believe balance is key. There will most definitely be space for positive emotions as well as one’s imagination to roam free whatever it may be and lead to. I hope that viewers/users will find comfort in this site. There will be posts regarding literature, movies, comfort foods/recipes, and art of all kinds.  I am aware that my site will not suit everyone’s personality/“aesthetic” but I am hoping it appeals to at least a few. 

I would want my site to be similar to the concept of both Instagram and Pinterest because these are my two favorite platforms by far which I have mentioned in previous blog posts. I think a combination of these two sites would be great because they are very self-explanatory and user-friendly. In addition, clicking on one piece of content will lead you to related content that was not on your home page. Although my site is heavily influenced by Instagram and Pinterest, I would also like a dash of Quora in there. Quora is a social media platform with its sole purpose being Q&A. Personally, I love Quora because there is literally no judgment on that site. All kinds of questions are asked in which multiple answers are given and I think that that is great. 

Phew. Website owner. This is big. As much as I am worried, I am equally or even more excited because I feel like I haven’t really been able to express myself the way I wanted to until taking this course. In-person I am not a chatty person and never really get to discuss things that I would like to. With this website, I am allowed to do all of that and even more! The only reason I find myself worried is the whole technology aspect of it. I tend to get frustrated with technology easily when things do not work and I am unable to solve the problem. But I don’t think this will shake my excitement because Professor Seslow is here for assistance which never fails! 

 

 

For reference…

Assignment #1

Assignment #2

Assignment #3

Assignment #4

Assignment #5

To be honest, I feel like I am doing fairly well in CT101 for a variety of reasons that being I comment on my classmates’ posts as well as respond to the professor and feel like I hit every requirement in our weekly blog posts. However, that does not mean I couldn’t be doing better because I can. I could be doing more to get the full experience out of this class whether it reflects back on previous blog posts more, utilize the tools shown to us during class in my free time, and not put off the suggestions given to me for a later time. I think that when I am going through my comments and replying, I should be editing my posts at the same time. 

Since we are up to week seven for posts, I think I have earned an average of 4-5 points a week so between twenty-eight to thirty-five points in total. Grade-wise, I believe I am maintaining an A.

From week one to seven, I feel like I have learned and retained a great deal of information but the most would have to be from our previous assignment regarding mmm. page when it came to building a page. Through this assignment alone I learned how to incorporate different types of media into one and utilize my previously learned skills in this class while building a page that is inserting gifs, hyperlinks, videos, and much more. In addition, this assignment was much more deeply on a personal level than any other we have received so I feel like I have also learned some new things about myself and media making on the whole. Such that it can be a very tedious process at times and to always save your work! 

Two new skills that I have developed, cultivated, and displayed regularly in my weekly posts are incorporating hyperlinks and gifs whether I make them myself or they were already existing.  

I assess my performance through self-reflection in this class by checking my comments under each of my posts at least once a week in case my peers or professor have suggested I do something different whether it is formatting, adding links, videos, or asking to explain something with more detail. Another way I assess my performance is by going back to my previous posts to see if I have grown as a “blogger” by keeping my content fresh and trying to think of new ways to spice things up as well as trying to bring a new perspective every week. If things are looking a bit “stale”, I would put some extra thought and effort into that week because I have never been a fan of repetition-especially in my work because then I feel like it lacks pizzazz. 

Before taking this class I did not know ANYTHING that I know now but nonetheless, I will specify. This list includes hyperlinking, embedding videos, creating gifs and memes, utilizing different websites to work on various skills that being the DS106 bank and mmm.page, and most importantly blogging. Now that I do know these things, I feel very enlightened when it comes to the tech world even though these skills are probably the bare minimum. I also feel less confined in the sense that I have options when it comes to expressing myself. It is no longer just instagram and Pinterest. I have various creative outlets that I can go to which is a very liberating feeling especially since I plan to further my knowledge in CT. 

After evaluating my weekly blogs, I do see them expanding creatively. I would say this is the case because I do not hold back in any of my posts when it comes to my thoughts and opinions. In the cases where I do find myself struggling with an assignment, I do not rush myself but give myself time to fully understand and plan my execution. I feel like the only thing that has been a little repetitive was my formatting but I think that I have changed that up a bit in my most recent post (blog five) and found a style that I like.

Unless I count assignment seven, then no. I am not missing any assignments because I will be completing assignment seven right after this. I believe I am commenting on my classmates’ posts but not in the most timely manner. I feel like I should be commenting during the same day or week when the assignment is given and posted up. But I do comment on two of my classmates’ posts for each assignment. I think I could be responding to comments more specifically towards my classmates. As for participating, I make sure that I do during class time whether it is a question, comment, or concern.

In order to complete this assignment, I felt like I needed to be in the moment and get out of my head which is hard for me to do. I’ve always tried to complete my blog within the week before getting assigned a next one to prevent a buildup of assignments. And sure I could’ve just written down whatever but that wasn’t really sitting right with me-especially for this blog. Creativity is…immediacy is… intuition is… in what order do these things go? Has been my only thought for these past two weeks tormenting me in hopes of figuring out what to write until I came to the realization that I’m doing this all wrong. At this moment, I am alive. I am alive and doing things at my own pace. To me, being alive is taking the good with the bad and finding joy in the little things in life. Doing what you really want to do-big or small despite what others may say. Currently, I am on the living room couch with my tortilla blanket, AirPods in, phone faced down, full attention on my keyboard. I feel as if I am alive. Of course, everyone has their own interpretation of what it means to be alive but this is mine which I find myself following more recently. And at this moment, I feel as if I have cracked the “code” to this assignment which most definitely took more than three seconds. 

I’ve always thought of myself as a self-aware individual and been told so as well. I am aware of who I am as a person, my habits-both good and bad, my surroundings, the impacts of my decisions, what  I perceive this life to be, and so on. However, being self-aware does not equal being expressive. I always felt like I viewed the world in such a “shwifty” way but have always struggled in showing others what I mean. Sure there are the posts I share on Instagram or my Pinterest board but I never a way to just take the image out of my brain to show others. I believe the creative potential of my awareness is quite great if I do say so myself-if executed properly. As stated one sentence ago, I intervene in this awareness through my shares on Instagram and the construction of my never-ending Pinterest board. Although I am very fond of art, I am not the best drawer out there leaving me unable to show everyone what I see. 

Luckily, for me, in this day and age, I could be the absolute worst drawer alive and still be able to express myself through the power of my web browser. Unlike me,  the creative potential of my web browser is far greater than any potential I will ever bear and this assignment is my portal. At this moment, I would like to express how I feel and what I am seeing in my mind through the power of the rectangle…

Passion is defined as a strong and barely controllable emotion. So what is it that I am passionate about you may ask? Hmmmm…  I think I am passionate about the unknown and art which go hand in hand. I think it’s because with art, anything is possible and the same goes for the unknown. You never really know something until you know. I find the unknown and art to be two very beautiful aspects of life because they don’t really have a solid definition as to what they are and “to define is to limit”. Art comes in many different mediums so there is always something new to try out. Something I’ve always wanted to express and share with the world is my experiences and perspectives in life through my writing. My fear of putting my work out there is what is holding me back because I am my biggest critic so most times I feel as if my work is not up to par. Overall, I am inspired to write and create a “dimension” using the mmm. page to show others the little things in life that make me happy and how I view the world.

Wow. That did not go as expected. But not like in a bad way. For starters, I was unaware that we could only use a certain amount of blocks per page that being thirty on the main page and ten on the second. Although this did catch me off guard, it wasn’t something I minded because it was more of a challenge which I appreciate. My initial intention was to only create one page but I didn’t like how my main page was looking more like an intro page instead of what I really wanted to portray. That was where my second page came into play. And secondly, I made the mistake of not publishing my main page prior to starting the second so it got deleted. I was upset but not to the full extent because I did get a screenshot! 

Now let’s get to it… 

Creativity is the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of artistic work.

Immediacy is the quality of bringing one into direct and instant involvement with something, giving rise to a sense of urgency or excitement.

Intuition is the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.

So in what order do these things go? Well, after working on both of my pages, I believe the order is intuition, creativity, and then immediacy. Now let me explain. I feel as if intuition comes first because that is your ability to understand something meaning the assignment given to you. After understanding the assignment, is where the brainstorming of ideas comes in which requires your imagination and original ideas that are creative. Lastly, after understanding and brainstorming for said assignment, it is now time to get involved which leaves one excited that being immediacy. 

Hmmmmmmmmmm. This seems interesting I thought to myself browsing through the DS106 website. I wasn’t paying too much attention to the rating and more so the assignment itself. I started with writing assignments since I felt like I had the skills to do that given the fact I am an English major and enjoy writing in my free time regardless of suffering from writers’ block 84% of the time. It didn’t take long to find one that piqued my interest that being writing the terms and conditions of an apocalypse. I thought this assignment would be cool for two reasons. Reason one being no one ever reads the terms and conditions but since our lives depend on this, it would be a great way to get my creativity going. Reason two was that I recently started watching the walking dead which for those of you who don’t know is about a zombie apocalypse so I thought that doing this assignment would be fun.

The second assignment I chose which I will be demonstrating on how I completed it in my blog today was a “This Doesn’t Belong Here” Assignment. Basically, I had to take two different movie scenes and incorporate one into the other very subtly. For this assignment, I think I just had to learn the basics of photoshop that being its tools, functions, and certain rules. I chose this assignment because I love movies so I had a whole bunch of scenes and characters in mind. I also chose this assignment to practice my photo editing skills. I took a couple of classes regarding photoshop in high school and although I wasn’t the best, I still enjoyed it but unfortunately gave up and haven’t practiced since but this assignment caught my eye for that exact reason. Instead of using photoshop, I used photo pea which is similar. The two movies I decided to use are the last scene from Someone Great and Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street. 

The Assignment:

Step 1:

The first thing I did in order to complete this assignment was to gather my materials that were a picture of Freddy Krueger and the final scene of someone great. After that, I opened up photo pea in a new tab on my browser, inserted my first photo from someone great, and added a new layer that way the original did not get messed up. 

step 2: 

After including my first photo and adding its layer, I inserted the picture of Freddy Krueger. As you can see, this picture contains a white background which is no good for the final product. In order to get rid of this, I used the magic wand tool and selected the areas I wished to remove (all of the white) where you can see with the dotted lines.

 

 

Step 3: 

After selecting the unwanted areas, I had to rasterize the layer in order to delete them. I rasterized the layer by right-clicking the layer with Freddy on it and selected “rasterize”. After that, I hit the delete button and all white space was gone. 

Step 4:

Now that all of the white space is gone, I moved Freddy and changed the fill and opacity percentage so that he could blend better into the scene. 

final Product:

In order to build both emergent storytelling skills and use new tools to create them, I think we should be completing at least one project a week. I say once a week so we have time to go back, reflect, and add things on without the pressure of a tight deadline. You can also go back to prior weeks and compare your works whether they were writing, visual, or audio assignments this way we can expand our horizon and see how we can incorporate one area of interest in another. For example, what if we did writing one week, visual another, and combined both on the third week? I think these skills are important because, in a world where we are heavily dependent on technology and it is consistently evolving, I believe we should be able to utilize more than the basics. In addition, this could be something fun to do in free time or a side hustle, and when has learning anything extra ever hurt anyone?

“Is that 50 Cent?” I asked my brother during the halftime show. “I didn’t know he was gonna perform”. “I don’t think anyone knew.” He replied “It wasn’t announced”. Still filled with excitement that 50 Cent was performing, the fact that he was upside down completely flew over my head for the first few seconds of his performance. One would usually wonder how is he even upside down right now or why is he upside down but not me. The first thought that came to mind was I am most definitely going to see memes about this tonight. Not even the next day. That’s how fast memes are made. Within a couple of hours of something happening. Memes play such a big role in internet culture I find it crazy but in a good way. I mean how could they not be produced within a few hours? They’re so simple to make and upload to the internet and given the number of people on social media, how could it not go viral? But just because they can be made with ease does not make them any less of an art form which is a topic many people have different opinions on. Some believe memes are art where others do not but I’m not too concerned about the naysayers because to me, memes are art- and good for the art world.

 

 

Communication. Some are good at it, others are bad, and there’s always in-between. Whether they’re feelings of joy, anger, worry, sadness, or jealousy there’s a meme for them all. I personally believe that memes are great for communication because you can basically sum up your day in a meme and the best part is, if you’re feeling sad, the meme will sympathize with you yet also make you laugh. I think that memes are crucial for communication whether we are using them first hand or just referencing them. They’re great conversation starters, a way to explain things, and to simply make one’s day better to know other people can relate. Not everything has to be so serious all of the time and memes are living proof of that such as those funny thanksgiving claps back ones. Sure, they’re not as deep as a painting or sculpture would be and have color schemes, or symbolism but they are a form of self-expression which is art because not only are you expressing yourself, but you are evoking emotion out of others as well. Not every meme or picture that is posted has the intention of going viral but they do which can change one’s life whether human or animal and are used as inspiration for other artists. I feel as if this is the side to memes that are more than just self-expression because those who go viral from memes can use their fifteen minutes of fame to build something for themself whether it be a platform or sponsorship

Just like every other form of art, memes are consistently evolving. Each one has their time to shine but will never stay around for long which there is nothing wrong with. Despite their convenience, I don’t think memes can be used for storytelling because there are many ways to interpret a meme when trying to only tell one thing. I feel as if memes are too broad of an element to tell stories with. I think you guys will catch my drift more if you watch this cool video I found!

      

 

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

BRRRRINNGG BRRRRINNGG BRRRRINNGG. Still asleep, my body rolled over to the other side of the bed on its own, grabbing my phone, twisting and turning it in all directions until it was right side up. I managed to open my eyes just enough to press the snooze button but also enough to see the time and realize I had pressed snooze one too many times. It was 7:04 and I was still lying in bed questioning if my education was worth being sleep deprived while I was supposed to be getting dressed and heading to school to make it on time for my 10 am. I know what you’re thinking “but Safiya, CT is online” which may be true but I have classes right after leaving me no time for travel. Even though I could’ve slept in a little later and entered class on my phone and not really pay attention, I wanted to pay attention and find out what the course was about since I couldn’t figure anything out from the name which piqued my interest. I made my way to school and connected to the wifi waiting for class to begin. I wasn’t very fond of the whole 10 am sitch but you win some, you lose some. I didn’t have many thoughts about the course beforehand only thing I knew is that it would be a hit or miss and within the first five minutes, I declared it a hit and as my new all-time favorite class. For the whole hour lecture, the only thought in my mind on a loop was this is the coolest class ever.

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

Hearing about the course and its creative content brought me so much joy because it was like I finally had time to do something that I love without having to worry about school because this is my schoolwork. Whether it’s making blog posts or gifs, I’m here for it all. I felt for a while that I was lacking a creative outlet and this class came at the right time which is why I was so happy. Although it may not be the usual drawing or painting I am into, I love exploring and practicing different parts of the creative world, how they work, and making work of my own.  This was the only class ever besides English where I have been excited and eager to do my assignments because I knew that I would enjoy it. This professor is great I thought to myself the whole day after class and proceeded to rant to my one and only friend about how much I love this course and how fun it’s going to be despite only having it once a week.

How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes? What are the potentials of this class?

Compared to my other classes, I feel as if CT is my most breathable course right next to English because I like both equally. They both give me space to voice my opinions whether it is verbal or written, appropriate due dates, and just enjoyable and not stressful at all which are the elements that make a class enjoyable. This class being digital-based leaves many potentials such as discovering or obtaining a new skill or interest of mine which could lead to something much more. Another potential of this course is that since we are going to be creating our own websites and learning how to blog properly, we can create a name for ourselves out there that can branch out to new opportunities. 

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

Personally, I feel like learning new skills using the internet is fun, frustrating, exciting, and very much so necessary. I feel this way because I love to learn new things which are exciting and can be fun when things I like are incorporated-such as memes. However, the internet and its tools are infamous for making me lose my mind from time to time. I get so angry sometimes when my laptop acts up or something is not working or I just can’t seem to figure things out. Besides that, I have no beef with internet tools because I think learning new skills regarding internet tools is crucial in this day and age especially s we advance into the future. This is because we use the internet every single day for a variety of things and have become so dependent so the least we can do is figure out how to use it beyond the bare minimum. 

Woke up hungry >:)

1. Although the week just started, I found quite a few things on the internet that have made me happy so far which didn’t come as a surprise due to the concerning attachment I have with my phone. The very first thing I remember was finding a recipe for dumplings and coconut cream pie because I was hungry and felt like making something new. I love to cook and bake despite not being the best and nothing makes me happier than finding easy recipes on the internet that I feel like I can manage given my lack of skill.
2. Another thing that made me happy on the internet was scrolling through my Instagram and Pinterest feed which consist of various kinds of art such as vintage cartoons, ballpoint pen drawings, poetry, and dark gothic art. They both also consist of book recommendations and summaries which led me to do some research of my own. Although I have not been reading as much as I’d like to, I am consistently adding books to my booklist. This week, I added eleven existential classics after doing some research of my own. My eleventh grade English teacher introduced me to this genre and I was captivated right away but haven’t done many readings on it. Below are some screenshots of my Instagram and Pinterest feed!

3) For as long as I can remember, I have always loved movies on the whole but as I got older, I became extremely fond of horror movies. To me, horror has always been horror-nothing more, nothing less. Until I was scrolling on Hulu and found that there are different types of horror whether it is supernatural, demonic, slasher, zombie, etc. I thought that indie horror was the coolest given its definition “Specifically, indie or low-budget horror cinema has proven itself to be particularly illustrative of horrors’ commitment to experimentation and shock value.”. I found this fascinating because it heavily relies on creativity and the execution of it all. Most films I have been watching were indie horror after this discovery.