GIFS are universal for everyone in the world. It’s become apart of how we communicate on a regular day basis. Now taking it back to the history of GIFS, become a solution to a problem in the article “The GIF is 30 years old. It didn’t just shape the internet — it grew up with the internet” as a way to compress images while also having minimal data loss. The creators did a great job in my opinion.

What did you think on the first day of the CT101? This is the perfect GIF to describe the level one excitement I had on the first day of CT 101. I actually dropped a psychology class in order to take this one as an elective because the  course description sounded more interesting. In addition, this is my senior year and wanted to have more fun before I left.

This Gif comes from a scene in the movie The Princess and the Frog.

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 was enjoyable, a friend of mine recently took this course last semester and recommend it to me.  Being able to include the things I’m most interested in sounds like a win to me.

How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes so far? I don’t think CT 101 compares to any of my classes so far. The classes I’m taking doesn’t necessarily allow for this much creative freedom. This is why I was drawn to the course description.

What are the creative potentials of this class? The creative potentials of this class is to take the skills I’ll learn and possibly apply them to real life. Especially since majority of this world is media based, I can improve my tech skills. I could also see what other people are posting and you could learn a lot from the different ways of thinking.

How do you feel about learning new skills that use Internet tools? Learning new skills that use internet tools is a great idea actually. It offers more flexibility and convenience. Instead of shying away saying “I can’t”, instead I’ll just do. This is a reference from the show “Family Guy” .

It reminds me of whenever I get my nails done and it’s hard to type on my laptop. Here is a good representation.

Giphy was much easier to use than Imgur. On my computer Imgur was a little more complex when attempting to make my own GIF.  On Giphy I was able to type in keywords to find specific gifs. I’ve seen it’s divided into different categories.

This week the thing that has been interesting to me is watching the anime show death note. So far  I am on either episode 23 or 24. Ever since I saw a preview on this show on youtube, this have grabbed my attention and I’ve been invested ever since.

https://deathnote.fandom.com/wiki/Death_Note_Wiki

Right here is the trailer of the show. This is a recommended watch.

What Makes Me Happy?

Joi Calinda

Over the course of this week, something that made me happy in the media came off the Instagram app. As I’m scrolling on my feed I see a reel that shows Lil Mama, a female rapper best known for creating the viral song “Lip Gloss” , had just launched her lip gloss brand called Vaniteast Cosmetics.

This gives me nostalgia as a little girl watching her music video on Youtube and the lipgloss in the video being so girly. Literally everyone wanted her lip gloss wand. So to see her launch her company with lip products made me feel young again although I’m only 21. For anybody that hasn’t seen the video you could watch here it on youtube: Lil Mama: Lipgloss

If you take a look at the beginning of the music video she has a keychain with lipgloss in it. As a girl always wanted one of my own.

The brand is in collaboration with a jewelry company called Aporro, calling the cosmetic line “It’s Poppin”. Which is ironic, it’s the same catchy hook she says throughout the song. On Instagram an instrumental to “Lip Gloss” plays in the background as the rapper puts the gloss onto her lips tossing it back and forth with another person. 

After seeing this I’m interested in buying to see the quality and since I’ve been getting into doing my own makeup.

Right now what’s making me happy on the internet is all of the recent movie trailers coming out right now! I am a big movie guy and seeing all of recent trailers for the movies that are going to be coming out this year is very exciting! Dune: Part Two comes out next week and I’m very excited for this because the first one was amazing and I love fantasy epics!

Another trailer that came out was for A Quiet Place: Day One. I am a big lover of horror and the first two movies are outstanding and seeing that this movie is going to be a prequel showing how the outbreak started and how everyone reacted is very exciting to me. I’ve been wanting a movie like this for this franchise since it started so I’m really hoping that it delivers!

 

I have been trying to find new hobbies to keep myself occupied. I’ve done hair, makeup, poetry at open mic nights, and even tried going to the gym more often.  This week, I stumbled upon nails. I have been trying to perfect it and familiarize myself with it. I personally love art and I love to create things- seeing that there is a connection between art and nails, I have been obsessed with it ever since. It can be done in any way you see fit. It can be unique, it could be daring, it could be fun. There are so many ways to express yourself through this art. There is no limit to your creativity.

I found this video on tik-tok and it has inspired me to to keep trying even though I suck right now-but practice makes perfect!

Making our first GIF & GIF Post Narratives!

Assignment #2

Here is the class recording from 2/20:

Exciting Times!

Let’s make some GIFS and explore their history, contexts and the potentials of this Internet culture sensation! GIFs are obviously here to stay! How far will they go? Can you tell a story with GIFs?

Some of you have already applied some great GIFS to your posts from last week!

But First, and Importantly:

What makes a successful, compelling and engaging Blog Post?

You can certainly see my examples, but now, you have a contrast and a result to work from now that we have published our first assignment (did you publish assignment #1?), looking back, did you cover all of these aspects listed below? (you can always edit and update your existing posts, I highly encourage it! And make sure that you are responding to your comments!)

Good Blogging is:

• being thoughtful with your post titles –  How will your audience know what the post is about if you don’t make this clear and engaging?
• giving your opinions, feelings, insights & philosophies – Ct101 is a platform for you to share, express and discover the potentials of creative writing through embedded media and well crafted narratives.
• backing up your resources, inspiration and research with hyperlinks, we need to see where the source information has come from.
• proof reading your grammar and punctuation. It’s OK to work stylistically, but it should be kept consistent.
• and always embedding cool media that’s made or found from elsewhere to give context and keep the audience engaged.
• what else could we add to this list?

(You can click on the images above and they will re-direct you to their websites. I did this by selecting the “custom URL” option in the media / image uploading specifications area in the blogging editor and added the URL – watch my demo)

Imgur and Giphy are great platforms to explore and create GIFS with!

They both have a HUGE repository to choose from! In our class this week let’s check out both of these platforms in a series of video tutorials, both Imgur & Giphy are free to use and work with. (I encourage you to sign up for your own account, both are free) Let’s experiment with both platforms this week as we work on this week’s new assignment blog post.

Be sure to share your thoughts on what you think about both platforms, did one work better for you? If so, what were those features?

*The Assignment #2 Details:

Let’s publish a NEW BLOG POST of your own and be sure to comment on one or two of your Classmate’s GIF Posts too!

Create a NEW blog post on our class website and embed a series of new Reaction GIF s that narrates your feelings about our CT101 class so far!

Let’s get creative, how can you tell your story in GIFs so far? Hmm?

Think about these questions, and answer them:

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

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

How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes so far?

What are the creative potentials of this class?

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

(yes, you can make this post as long you wish and make it flow like a story – This assignment description that you are reading is also a BLOG post example of the assignment!)

***Each reaction GIF that you use should be accompanied by a sentence or two or three of verbiage to help describe the GIF and narrative you are communicating.

Here is an example of me responding in GIF expressing the above GIF:

“Demonstrations and examples will be shared and executed during our class time, don’t miss it!” (and if you do miss it, I’ll post the video tutorial from class here below) Sinister audio fades in and out as Skeletor mercilessly GIFs himself into oblivion!

**PS – Here is a handy tutorial on how to make a GIF from a YouTube URL using Imgur from Prof. Smith a few years back –  My first GIF post

How do you say it / pronounce it? Gi-f or Ji-f?

The battle continues! 

Oh, wait, you cant possible publish your new post without referencing and discovering some GIF history! How will you incorporate it into your new post?

Here is the WIKI for the GIF file format – its a good read.

Smithsonian – History of the GIF

A good article for WIRED on the 30th Birthday of the GIF

GIF History via – VOX

Let’s get started!

**And be sure to also comment on one of your Classmate’s GIF Posts!

Let’s Do it!

This week the super bowl made me supper excited and happy. I was so happy to see Usher’s performance and the excitement to see the 49ers and Chiefs go head to head was so thrilling.

Realistically I was just watching for Usher, eager to see which other celebs he would bring out to preform along side him. When I was much younger I had the biggest crush on Usher, I think I knew almost all his songs. Indeed I was way young to be listening to some of them but the innocent mind of a child goes a long way.

The Super Bowl half time performance single handedly made younger me so happy.

This week, I discovered a new instrumentalist to study on my musical journey named Eldar Djangirov. He’s an amazing pianist who is considered the best at using his left hand to play today by some people I know.

I was bored during the week with no inspiration because everything I listened to was something I already heard. For example, I like listening to music by Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea, and Robert Glasper, however, after some time, the songs that I listened to from these guys got old. Of course, that’s what happens when you listen to something on repeat, and I know that when you take a break from it, you will find something you like when you come back to it, but the problem was what to listen to.

When all hope was lost, one of my piano mentors showed me a performance from Eldar which blew me away.

The left-hand only section starts around 5:11, but I recommend listening to the whole performance.

This performance sparked a feeling of jealousy in me when I saw how he was playing with his left hand which inspired me to try and replicate it. Ever since, I have taken much joy in practicing building up my left hand so I can play similar things like he did.

Hi my name is Molivia Koning,

I love story writing been doing it for years but have never published anything. Looking forward to get guidance through this class and utilize myself with learning tools to break out of my shell. I hope this class will give me confidence to publish my work.

What made me happy this week, was that one of my inspiring artist Bob Marley movie came out called “ONE LOVE” on February 14th. 2023. Unfortunately I was not able to see the movie because of my busy work schedule but I was still excited that this movie came out, it was long overdue but I guess right timing surpasses personal desires in rare cases and I am looking forward to see the movie soon!

Thank you!

What makes me happy is this gif of a Quby dancing and being happy because this is how I feel when I’m in a good mood and plus I use gifs like these to express my feelings and personality and as well as being silly :3

Here is a gif of a Quby dancing 😀

If you want to look for more quby gifs it is on tenor, come see the link down below yourself because everybody knows we all love Quby and his cuteness and silliness that we can all relate.

https://tenor.com/search/quby-gifs

For those that doesn’t know what is Quby, I can explain it for you 🙂

Quby (also known as Pentol) was created by Zhong Chaoneng back in 2015 for the popular instant messaging platform called WeChat and as you can see above Quby(or Pentol) is a abnormally huge head, rosy cheeks and stick-like limbed baby who expresses relatable expressions in his world. Quby is also a race not a name but I would still call him Quby or Pentol, everyone in his world looks like him but with hair or age or clothes but regardless it is funny and silly and expresses feelings and personalities to use his gifs.

You can also search on Instagram for quby pages with stickers or merchandise of quby as well as relatable shorts of quby

Also that’s Quby’s best friend Tory 🙂

Assignment #1 – Example Fun with Ryan

Here we are in the Spring semester of 2024. I have a particular love for teaching CT101 at York College!

“CT” is short for Communications Technology, and the course is called “Digital Storytelling”.. (I know, the name of the course says it all!) It has quite a bit of history and I will share more on its origins soon. CT101 makes me happy. CT101 takes place on the Internet!

I love this class because it can literally help and inspire everyone. There is something here that everyone can learn and benefit from while also helping others evolve collectively. I say and mean everyone because lets face it, “we” spend a lot of time using the Internet..

Its a relationship, really!

We can all benefit from learning new digital tools, techniques, applications of self-expression and participating in a cross CUNY community here on the commons. (Which is a piece of the Internet that makes me happy! Oh I already said that..) CT101 puts an emphasis on creating and publishing content to a class blog whilst experimenting with what the potentials of “what a blog post can be”…

This also makes me happy. WordPress makes me happy!

What is making you happy on the Internet this Week?

So here we are, officially jumping into CT101 this second week. We have a ton of great stuff to cover, learn, share, create, apply, rinse and repeat this semester!

Assignment #1 asks us to share; What is making you happy on the Internet?  We can do cool things like hyperlink text and verbiage.. We can make an image or ten, an animated GIF like the one above and below – also a “clickable thing” that redirects to another page or place on the Internet. That IDEA in and or itself makes me very happy! So in essence, the creative and practical functionality of the Internet as a whole makes me really happy.

The Internet archive makes me happy too! (did you know about this?) Jump in and go waaaaaaay down the Internet cultural rabbit hole! The Internet Archive is a cultural repository of “stuff and things” that have been shared and published on the Internet! I especially like the Way back web machine to examine what websites looked like back in the early days! Especially some of the top brands that are synonymous with the Internet as we know it. This kind of research ability gives me a ton of creative ideas!

Lets dig a bit deeper..

The GIF above is taken from my profile on GIPHY. (go ahead and click on the image of the hyperlinked word to find my “stock” of animated GIFS. You can use them and embed them almost anywhere on the web. Thats the beauty of GIPHY.com – its a search engine for animated GIFs and animated Stickers, like I said, its Internet culture and Internet culture makes me happy! Website’s like Giphy have a lot of utility, they give us the opportunity to share our emotions and feelings through looping visual imagery. This helps me express myself in so many ways. Giphy.com makes me happy this week!

I love to make animated GIFS! And guess what, you are going to learn how to make them in our class! I love GIFs and I feel that they are a huge part of Internet culture. Come on now, we all love animated GIFS! I made most of the GIFs in this blog post. These are just a few of the many of thousands that I have made (did I say thousands? Yikes, its true, I cant stop!) I blame Professor Michael B. Smith for this as he got me into GIFs and making them! Be sure to check out his blog here.

OK, so those are a few things that are making me happy on the Internet as well as a few ways that I use the Internet. Let’s get started!

PS – Did you notice the formatting for this blog post? Notice how my images are the same size and how everything has been aligned to the left? This is intentional and it helps the viewer/reader easily absorb the content. You too will learn how to apply a similar format, though it may see a bit tricky to manage at first, you will easily get the hang of it!

Week #3 – Assignment #1

**Here is the class recording from Tuesday 2/13:

The Course Schedule page is here – this is our most important page as it hosts all of our weekly assignments and their specifications – please check this page each week at the beginning of class.

1. Did you read the 1st day welcome blog post located here <–it has an assignment that prepares us for this week – the assignment details are located at the bottom of that post, it simply asks you to leave a comment, and to respond to one of your classmate’s comments, did you? 

2. Let’s get signed up! Did you sign up for the CUNY commons and the CT101 website? If not, please review the process for access to the CUNY commons and the CT101 website as per the course schedule page.

And now… this week, its time to get blogging!

Let’s learn about and tour our WordPress blogging interface here on CT 101’s website. We will discuss and learn how to sign in, create a new post, add text, verbiage, images, GIFs, videos, hyperlinks and contextual content into the blogging interface! We will begin by sharing some sentiments accompanied by visual media to help tell our stories.

***Each week I will screen record a video tutorial that demonstrates techniques and tips for each assignment – The tutorials will always be posted shortly after class directly into the corresponding blog post with the assignment details.

This Week’s Assignment…

Assignment #1 – What Makes You Happy on the Internet this Week?

Your goal for this week will be to read and follow the info / links listed in this week’s blog post. Absorb the information and then begin to prepare and gather all of needed media, images, links and content that you need to create and publish your first blog post here on our class website!

(This assignment was originally created by Professor Michael B. Smith a few years ago, it still holds true as a great example and ice-breaker for our first blogging assignment.)

In a new blog post, take the time to introduce anything you want about yourself and describe a piece, or multiple pieces of the Internet that is “making you happy” this week. Share what the content is about, the media format, and the online space in which it was discovered. Let us know why this (or these things) make you happy! Thats right, express yourself! Make sure it’s something you can ’embed’ into your post and be sure to link back to the original source(s) of the the items via hyperlink.

Below is also an example:

“I recently discovered a writer who made side-by-side comparisons of frames from the Simpsons with frames from the original movies that inspired the cartoon. I love this kind work because it shows how culture is seemingly endlessly recycled and remixed.”

Also, here’s a video short (below) from the original, famous “shower scene” from the 1960 film Psycho that the inspiration is drawn from.

Lets notice some key words above: “The Simpsons” and “Re-Mix Culture”. These are both terms that you may be familiar with, but what about the audience that you are sharing this with? Both of those terms (subjects) are great examples to hyperlink to! Hyperlinks give context and meaning to subjects and terminology.

PS – THIS whole blog post is an example of a good quality post! Notice the length, the amount of embedded media added, hyperlinks, content and context to help support the verbiage.

It all just takes a little bit of regular practice.

Let’s do it!