Watching this video it brings a lot of excitement, and a lot of energy seeing the characters interact with one another was very amazing to watch they were so focus of what they were doing.

My Passion!

For many fans of the beautiful game, European football is their absolute favorite .this is my passion. European football provides excitement, drama, and a sense of community for fans all over the world thanks to teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona’s storied rivalries as well as the extraordinary skill and athleticism of players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The fervor of the sport is only increased by the intense atmosphere of European stadiums and the prestige of winning trophies like the Champions League.

When it comes to hobbies and passions I think we all have them. Whether it’s something you hyper-fixate on for a few days or something you loved since childhood. Here are a few of mine.

One of my passions is baking. Some of my favorite things to bake are banana bread, brownies, and cookies. I got into baking when I was ten. The first time I baked something was with an easy bake oven.

Another passion of mine is music. Honestly, I love all kinds of music but my favorite genres are pop, contemporary RnB, and hip hop. Some of my favorite artists include Dua lipa, Flo, Bree runway, and Sabrina Carpenter.

Painting is also one of my favorite hobbies. I used to paint a lot during high school for my art class. Since it was the first class of the day it often set a relaxing tone for how my day would go. Even when my painting didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to it was always relaxing. My favorite medium is watercolor.

During the pandemic, I started to play a lot of Mario kart eight to the point where I became fairly good at it. I used to play Mario kart on my DSI all the time. So when I got my Nintendo switch one of the first games I got was Mario kart eight.

I also enjoy Stardew valley which is a farming sim game. I found it on my ps vita shop one day and decided to give it a try. I immediately fell in love with the chill and relaxing vibe. Unfortunately, my ps vita stopped working so I had to restart the game over on my switch. Luckily I was able to progress to where I was before. It’s a slow game but enjoyable once you get in the swing of things. Most people don’t enjoy the fishing mechanic but honestly, I don’t mind it. Also, I like the soundtrack.

In all honesty, I enrolled in this course last minute, because I was just a few credits short of being full time, which is required for me to stay in the ACE Program. So, when I first started CT101, I was a bit confused and frazzled.

Further, it was until after Professor Seslow’s email about attendance that I realized the class met in person. When I sat in on my first physical class, I was instantly intrigued! Reading and hearing things online sounded complicated and almost impossible.

I thought to myself, “I’m going to CREATE a gif?!”. In my mind, those were made with complex code by computer geniuses.

But after attending class, and having the Professor walk us through that process and talk about the power of blogging, I felt so empowered!

I am a very visual/kinesthetic learner and getting walkthrough instructions with examples throughout this course has been a lifesaver! I have always loved writing and as a Zellenial (the generation between Millenials and Gen Z), I am constantly interacting with the internet. Because of my writing intensive major, I have very little time or motivation to write recreationally. However, I think this class has the potential to spark that interest in me.

I appreciate how the assignments are always guided by self-interest! My other classes are alright, but they would be 10x better if the assignments tied to my interests rather than some generic theme or topic. I love my major and the content but it gets tiring to constantly regurgitate information in research papers as opposed to writing on my understanding of Freedom in America, for example. 

This class has the creative potential to revolutionize learning in all majors. I think this style of writing, collaboration, and media literacy makes learning more fun and works with moving the generation forward in understanding technology. It feels like we are in the future!

I feel like after learning how to use all of the tools in this course, I can classify myself as one of the cool computer geniuses that I mentioned before. I can’t wait to use this course to express myself and become a computer genius!

Recently on the internet, I am most excited about the way the internet has played a huge role in the education and cultural exchange across the African Diaspora. Yes, the internet was made to connect people all over the world, but it still blows my mind how well it works!

For some context, I am a Black Studies major here at York, I work in Diversity and Inclusion, and I am the child of Jamaican and Guyanese immigrants. With that being said, my interest in spreading knowledge of the diversity of the Diaspora is a passion of mine. The diaspora refers to the worldwide spread of Black people and culture as a result of African Slave Trade, and here is a handy map of how far that reach was. 

As Mardi Gras draws millions to New Orleans for the great music, food and culture, Caribbean/West Indian people all over the world make the pilgrimage back to the islands to celebrate Carnival. (Here‘s a bit of history, for context). Many are only aware of the Rio Carnival, in Brazil, with its ornate floats, lively dancing and vibrant costumes. However, Carnival is a tradition upheld across South America, the Caribbean and almost anywhere with a large Diaspora presence, like the Knotting Hill Carnival in the UK and Labor Day Carnival, here in New York! Here’s a calendar of some carnivals that were proposed for 2020 (prior to COVID shutting the world down).

For most of my life, I generally knew these existed but it wasn’t until the growth of Instagram and TikTok that I really saw how similar but unique each island’s traditions are. This all started from a single video I watched on Instagram [that I can’t seem to find =( ] where individuals were celebrating in a parade-like fashion, down a city street. The music, the dance, the vibe – all resembled different aspects of the Diaspora. It had the dance and instruments that resembled New Orleans Mardi Gras, the Soca music and costumes resembling that of Trinidad Carnival and the diversity of skin tone and hair textures that are reflected across all Brown communities. As the celebration continues, we are taught that this melangé of Black culture is located in the Montserrat, a Caribbean Island north of Guadalupe. It is amazing because, I would have never known this existed if it weren’t for social media!

As a Black Studies major, I am very invested in learning about my culture and history; however, this opportunity is only (sometimes) accessible at the university level, as the basic American Education system falls short of explaining the complexity of many Black and Brown histories within this country. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok has been revolutionary in connecting Black Communities around the world and bringing the knowledge outside of privileged classrooms. 

A great example of this is #geecheetiktok, a hashtag comprised of the lost lives, histories and cultures of the Gullah Geechee peoples. The Gulla people are an ethnic community created by enslaved Africans in the low country, coastal areas of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, where a lot of language and tradition has been preserved to this day. And even I, being a Black Studies major, had not learned much about the Gulla people until I encountered @gullagritstv and @geecheegoddess, two content creators of geechee descent who use TikTok to teach about the language and culture of their community. This hits home because my paternal grandmother is a descendant of the Gullah people. While she is still alive she is quite old and her memory of the history isn’t the clearest. So, it warms my heart to have a casual platform like TikTok be the connection between me and my ancestral community, and for others to learn of theirs.

Here’s a great video showing how some Gulla Geechee people, today, are still looking to help connect and empower the Diaspora by reincorporating the language of their culture into the modern black vernacular.

As of now, I suffer from Carnival Tabanca, a deep longing to celebrate and experience the joys of Carnival season with my people. And, until Caribbean Heritage month starts in June and New York summers become synonymous with West Indian culture, I have been relegated to blasting countless Carnival playlists and Road March mixes through my headphones, to last me a lifetime.

My Passion for Play The Sims 4

If you’ve read some of my blog posts then you’d know that I often mention sims, A LOT. The Sims 4 is a simulation video game where you can build, create characters and play in an interactive environment. I love The Sims because it allows you to use your characters to tell stories in a creative way. You can make your Sims perform any action, such as building an entirely new home from scratch or falling in love. Also, the game offers a large range of customization options, including clothing, furniture, and hairstyles. Some of the game packs add a lot more items and even a storyline for better gameplay. Anyone interested in simulation games should definitely try out The Sims 4, which is a ton of fun.

The first time I played The Sims was when I was in elementary and I had the mobile version, The Sims FreePlay on my tablet. This started my obsession with simulation games. I just enjoyed the free range I had with making characters and building. The building was my favorite part at the time. 

Then the first time I ever played the sims on a PC was around the time I was 10-11. My mom went to visit her friends and brought me along and she gave me permission to use the computer. And she had The Sims 3. I didn’t really remember what happened but I do know I was playing it a little bit. Just an innocent child having fun.

The Sims 4 came out in 2014 but I was late to the game. 2016 was when I begged my mom to get The Sims 4 for me so I could play it on my laptop. At the time I didn’t know about how The Sims go on sale for $5 sometimes so we ended up spending $40. Crazy I know, but the game is now free for anyone who wants it. When I finally got it I was ecstatic. But then…I realized I didn’t have enough storage on my laptop to officially download it. So the receipt sat in my email for years collecting dust.

2020 rolls around, lockdown starts, everyone is online, and TikTok gets more popular. Once everyone went on lockdown schools had to switch to online classes. Also, I started to see a lot of sim-related content on TikTok and even my friend was telling me about she would play the sims. So that got me thinking, the old computer didn’t have enough storage to download The Sims and we needed an electronic device for class…do you see where I’m going with this. I asked my dad for a new laptop and said it was for school. I know I know that was kinda bad but let’s face it…the old laptop was on its last leg.

I had gotten a way better laptop that had about 200 GB of storage. For me that’s a lot, the last laptop didn’t even touch 100. So, I quickly went back to my email so I could finally download the game (I had it starred just in case). I opened the game and went to create a sim, if I remember correctly I named her after me. I did make her a boyfriend and they got married and had a son. I didn’t have any game packs at the time so I had to make do with what I had. Kicking my feet while playing the sims.

But later on, my friend told me how she played her game with games mods and custom content. Custom Content (CC) is fan-made or player-made clothing and objects added to the game. From clothing to hairstyles and accessories to even build items. And games mods are additional features to your game and can enhance gameplay. I went down a major rabbit hole of watching simmer YouTubers and learning how to make the game more fun and enjoyable.

So I went crazy and downloaded a lot of custom content and mods for my game AND I had the storage for it which makes it much better. Because of the custom content I downloaded, I also became more interested in making sims than doing gameplay. Even though creating a sim is still considered “playing the game”, I would never place them in the world I would just save them and exit the game.

This essential sparked something else in me. If I’m not going to play with these sims why not share it with others? I decided to make a Tumblr and join the sims community on there. They call it “simblr” it’s a cute name. But I started to post sim lookbooks and reblog other sim posts and officially became a part of the sims community. But I didn’t stop there, because of all the sim Youtubers I would watch I got influenced to start my own youtube channel on January 13, 2021. Started a bit slow at first but I eventually had my own schedule. And I started to post my own 6-minute sim videos every Tuesday and Thursday. Shameless plug sorry 🙂

I had a lot of time to post videos because I was still doing online classes for my entire junior year in high school. I did go back for my senior year but I graduated early in January 2022. So, I basically had all the time in the world before I started college.

And then a sad day came…on September 15, 2022, my laptop broke. It snapped in half… like the screen and keyboard SEPARATED. Very sad day because I also had a test to do and the only way to access it was on a computer. But my friend luckily gave me her old mac. 

I had lost all my sim saves and mods so I had to restart. And in my opinion, macs aren’t that good for gaming. But I had no choice. So, posting on youtube was paused and I was bummed because the sims ran so slowly on the mac. I just stopped playing it for a while.

BUT THEN…on September 26…my uncle came through and blessed me with his PC. The PC is a literal beast, I could probably download over 100 games and they’ll all run smoothly. But of course, I downloaded The Sims 4 and that’s the ONLY game I’ll be playing. I have way more storage than before so of course I download tons of mods and the game still runs smooth like butter. Here’s a picture:

I was also able to post on youtube again. But since I have better equipment (I begged my mom to buy me a mic) I wanted to get into actual gameplay and play a storyline. My creative juices were running. So, I did. And here we are now, still obsessed with The Sims and sharing it with others on different platforms. 

I have over 1000 hours on that game…it’s bad. But anyways hope you enjoyed my long story and till the next assignment.

Are Internet Memes Art?

Memes are big in internet culture. It’s a good way for people to interact and communicate online. With the rise of online communities and social media platforms in the early 2000s, the current concept of internet memes began to evolve. Memes were mostly text-based in the early days of the internet, and they frequently took the form of inside jokes or running gags inside certain online communities.

If you’ve been on social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram then it’s very likely that you’ve seen a meme before. Reddit is another huge place for memes but Reddit can also get pretty toxic so I’m not on there as often. Nowadays you don’t even need to be on social media to see memes. A friend or family member probably sent you one before through messages.

If a banana taped to a wall is considered art why can’t memes be considered art? Art can be used to express one’s creativity and imagination, transmit ideas and feelings, and provide an aesthetic perspective. Memes often use creative aspects such as visuals, language, and comedy to convey a message or idea, which can be interpreted as artistic expression. Some memes are also purposefully created to be visually appealing or thought-provoking. You could also compare memes to Pop Art. Pop Art uses a lot of inspiration from the internet pop culture which is something memes do as well (spokenvision).

I believe memes are good for art AND communicating…depending on your intent behind them. According to Forbes, memes can help you express ideas in the most simple way. The most common meme is an image or photo with a funny or sarcastic remark written across it so it’s not that hard to understand. Just look at this:

…working on assignment #4 AS WE SPEAK.

People say memes can tell stories, but, have you heard of someone teaching something with memes? I found this video of a guy teaching English with memes. And I feel this is a smart way to educate people because people love memes.

Speaking of memes here are some of my favorite memes.

This is an ICONIC meme. This is also probably one of the first memes I’ve seen on the internet. Kind of reminds me of the vine days. Now that I think about it, Vine was another platform that introduced making funny short videos that were turned into memes. So sad it got shut down.

Bernie dropped the hardest picture and didn’t even notice. After this photo was released many memes were made and shared across so many platforms. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook? You couldn’t escape it.

Blogging has become my latest passion, and I am engrossed in it for hours without taking a break. As a result, it has become somewhat of an obsession for me.

I am passionate about yoga stretches that help alleviate my cranky tech neck. It is one of the passions I have pursued and studied. I am a certified yoga teacher with two Yoga Teacher Training Certificates, although I don’t currently teach yoga. As an enthusiastic yogi, I regularly practice yoga to maintain my physical and mental well-being. 

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I believe that if he can do it, anyone else can too. Additionally, it’s amusing to note that “dog” spelled backward is “god,” although I’m not religious, I find it intriguing.

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As you can see, this guy is quite advanced in his yoga practice. It’s impressive. By the way, I don’t think I mentioned earlier that I am passionate about animals.

Have you ever heard the saying Ohana means family?

My native hometown is Hilo, Hawaii, but I have lived in New York City since 1995.

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One of my favorite things to do is skate; something New Yorkers and locals from Hawaii have in common is that we are very active. In my experience, there’s no better place to skate than in Hawaii or New York.

Click play button on video below.

Click play button on video above to see a video about my passion.

As you can see in my reel, my nieces and fiance, Greg, love to skate too.

I created a reel of my family skating in various locations, indoors and outdoors, in Pennsylvania and New York. The process was relatively easy, and I created three versions from various digital formats.

This iMovie was created using multiple recordings taken from my iPhone and clips texted to me by my younger sister.

I dragged and dropped all the videos onto my desktop. From there, I dragged the .MOV file into iMovie editing software which is pre-installed on every Mac computer (not sure about iPads).

Once the clips were lined up 1 through 5, I dragged and dropped an MP3 of Tina Turner’s “Rolling on the River” below the 5 video clips.

To export from iMovie, I selected >file>share>file

Following these steps, I now have a video with music to accompany my movie.

I thought it would be interesting to show the same .MOV in three styles and two different formats to inspire our class to try various methods of gifs and movies when blogging.

*Tip

During the export process from iMovie, select “quality medium” and “resolution 720 p” in your options panel, or your file won’t fit in WordPress or the giphy.com editor tool, and you can’t play with the editor tool to shorten the length of the gif in giphy.

The gif above was created using a .MOV, a recording from an iPhone.

*Tips:

1. Best practice when recording a video is to hold your phone horizontally. If you record holding a phone vertically, you will get an effect like the one seen above. The entire screen isn’t utilized, and there is negative black space, wasting what could have been a great scene on both sides of your recording. It’s an eyesore.
2. When creating a gif in Giphy, convert your movie to a lower “resolution” and choose medium or low “quality” when exporting. If not, giphy will not accept your MP4 in the built-in editor tool, and you won’t be able to use all the cool editing features that giphy offers.
3. Using giphy is as easy as drag and drop once you have selected lower resolution and medium quality, you are free to create your gif using various font types and colorful text.
4. Regarding both Giphy Upload and Giphy Create: After export, select “quality medium” and “resolution 720 p” in your options panel, or it won’t fit in the giphy.com editor tool, and you can’t play with the editor tool to shorten the length of the gif in giphy.

Although Giphy Upload is an excellent tool for creating memes with your message, I will describe below why Giphy Create may be a better choice.

Welcome to “bad TV.”

Uploading your MP4, JPG, PNG, MOV, or WebM in Giphy Create is a different experience than just using the “upload” button in Giphy. In Giphy Create, numerous options are available, including filters, which provide a wide range of choices. For example, the MP4 above was produced utilizing a “bad TV” filter in Giphy. This filter was particularly appealing since it gave my gif a unique nostalgic appearance.

This could be due to my fondness for nostalgic visuals. I have memories of watching bad TV in the 80s, and it was not necessarily a marker of one’s socioeconomic status. Poor graphics were present across all socioeconomic groups since the technology we are lucky enough to possess today had not yet been developed. But In the ’80s, everyone had a bad TV.

Today, we have numerous reasons for the exceptional graphics seen in technology and on the Internet.

Watch the YouTube video below for some historical content on the evolution of the Internet.

For more information on the Internet and how it came to be, click the YouTube video above.

Back to More Passions,

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We all have different backgrounds, but we all possess the potential to create new neural pathways and learn anything we are passionate about. It just takes practice.

I am incredibly passionate about learning new tools and tricks with AI. In a recent MMP 200 course at BMCC, my professor taught us a new command to use with ChatGPT. He suggested we preface our commands with a specific tone or profession to generate results tailored to a more professional voice. The outcome was truly remarkable. I highly recommend giving it a try. For instance, you could type in the query, “In the manner of a medical professional, what is the best way to describe (insert ailment here).”

I am passionate about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, commonly known as RBG. RBG exemplified the core values of feminism. Her steadfast commitment to gender equality was unwavering, even in the face of significant adversity. Despite standing at a mere 5′ tall, RBG refused to let anyone silence her and fought tirelessly, leaving an indelible mark on history.

Click here for a recent article describing the legacy of RBG in the New York Times.

On the first day of the CT101 class, I wasn’t excited because I didn’t know what the course was going to be about, and I didn’t understand the class description but it would be a cool class to take.

When I first actually got in the class and meet the professor and he basically told us what type of class it was and what we are doing so I wasn’t surprised. I did like hearing about how creative the class was gonna be, it was cool to think that I would be able to make my own meme.

Compared to some of my other classes ct 101 is very fun and more laid back. In my other classes, there are strict deadlines and assignments that don’t really engage us as much as this one does. Assignments are fun and keep us entertained while also allowing us to express ourselves creatively. 

I would say that Digital storytelling has lots of creative potential such as how fast we can share content. Showing off student work or spreading a message to the world are two examples of sharing. Additionally, students have the option of collaborating remotely on projects or receiving peer feedback.

I’m looking forward to using these online resources. I’ve primarily accessed GIPHY for the gifs I’ve used in this post. I am so excited to see how other people use GIFS to express their own opinions and ideas in this class because they are the perfect medium for self-expression. 

If you are more of a visual learner, the video below is a great way for you to learn about the brief history of how far the internet has come since the beginning of time to now. I think influencers and internet personalities should thank Mahir Cagri for creating that bridge between himself, the internet and the public. According to Cagri, the movie Borat was based on him. That movie would of never made it in this time and age, cancelled culture would have driven it out of all streaming platforms. Cagri, blogged with his broken English about traveling, women, and his love for accordion.

My early years of blogging started with Myspace, with my first social media friend was Tom.

I am not sure if many of you will remember MySpace but it was IT back when I was in middle school.  I used to use different generator pages to change my background, to add music and to send different types of glittery graphics. MySpace now is a music streaming page, but you could watch the video below to learn a little bit more of its history. It is 15 minutes but pretty interesting, give it a chance!

After MySpace diminished, I opened Facebook then Facebook started vanishing in popularity because Instagram came around, while in Instagram one of the first pages I followed was Humans of New York. A very impactful page because it is very self-identifying. We as humans love reading stories about other people overcoming difficult situations, we all love heroic stories, it is in our nature.

I love reading personal blogs! you get to learn so much about an individual just by the things they share. The last 3 years I been in a spiritual journey —After coming out of a dark space in my life. I knew I needed to direct my energy towards something that was going to bring me INNER PEACE. This spiritual journey has introduced me to getting closer to God, yoga, meditation, journaling, being in contact with nature, appreciate the sun, the moon, the stars, the energy that surrounds us. I meditate every day, every second, every moment of silence. To meditate is to be mindful, grateful and aware of yourself. It is not as hard as one might think, a moment of silence can redirect your whole day.

Here I am meditating at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont

My favorite Yoga instructor is Adriene Mishler, her Youtube channel has 30-day challenges, she has quick 10 minutes yoga videos, Yoga when you’re feeling unmotivated, Yoga for beginners, how to use Yoga to get a good workout in, her channel has it all & if you don’t like the way she instructs, once you’re in the Yoga channel more instructors come up. The video below is only 5 minutes, just watch it and if it motivates you go ahead and try it 🙂

I have hectic weeks — I have classes Monday thru Friday, I work Sunday thru Thursday, I am a mother, so my days are HEAVY. There is always something going on … but Fridays are my mindful days (before my son gets back from school). I do a quick Yoga session at the gym, do my work-out and dedicate that time for myself. With so much going on in our lives we sometimes forget to give time to ourselves, we forget we are our own best friend, and we need to take care of ourselves emotionally, mentally and physically before taking care of others. I encourage you to put your phone down for three minutes, get in touch with yourself, listen to your thoughts, be present. I hope you took something positive from reading this today, Namaste.

Memes can be art. Since art is defined as a way to express emotion no matter what the medium is. Memes can be used to express emotion whether it’s happiness, frustration, sadness, and so on.

According to Harvard Crimson art is defined as anything that has symbolic meaning. Even if a meme doesn’t explicitly tell you as the viewer you can understand the emotion that the meme is trying to convey.

On artzealous.com an artist by the name of Kash Jordan has been trying to bring memes into the art world. He has curated art exhibitions with his memes. Both of his art shows showcased memes from different artists from Instagram meme makers to digital art.

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Memes can be used for storytelling. For example the meme I made above using imgur. It tells the story of what happens when the professor asks what you think about CT 101 and you respond by calling it boring. The meme has a clear beginning, middle, and end.

This is one of the first memes I remember. It came from the comedian Kevin Hart’s standup special laugh at my pain. I remember people using this reaction whenever someone said anything outrageous. It is also one of my favorites.

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This is another meme I made using Imgur. I found imgur to be easy to use but it does crash a lot. As for my other two favorite memes.

This is another one of my favorite memes. It comes from the real housewives of Atlanta. This meme came out in 2017. It can be used in many different scenarios like when someone accuses you of saying something you didn’t say like I thought you were paying the bill this time.

This is also a favorite of mine. It can be used to poke fun at something like how people spell gif.

Art by definition is “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination”. So I’d say that memes are indeed art, as they are human made ways to express something via their own imagination. Additonal reasons memes can be art are found here: Are Memes our Era’s defining artistic movement? – Muckle Hen Blog

Can Memes be used for storytelling? If so, How?

Memes can indeed tell a story as it is quite literally making a long story short. It can get a point across a make everything clear without overexplaining everything.

Is it good for communication? Are they forms of self expression or are they more?

Memes are used for self expression, however its purpose isn’t restricted to this. It can be used to get a point across by using an image and caption to describe certain aspects that would be rather tedious to describe in words.

Are Memes Art?

I would consider memes to be a form of art in which people can express themselves however they may feel. When searching on the internet whether a meme can be seen as a piece of art I came across a website which gave valid reasonings towards why memes can be considered art in this day and age. The simple reasoning is art is always evolving.

Is this good or bad for communication?

I believe memes can be good for communication. I believe this because sometimes it may be easier to address and convey certain topics or discussions with a fun image to make it feel less overbearing. It’s also a great way to change the standard means of expression.

Can MEMEs be used for storytelling?

I find memes like this to be enlightening because they can tell stories about when times were dire and still make it seem on the brighter side. It can also make a long story much shorter and more tolerable to hear.

Thank you for reading and I’m looking forward towards the comments.