CT 101 has been one of my favorite and most interesting classes this year I’ve been able to do so much much new and creative things that I would’ve hardly seen myself doing.

And what are some of these things you may ask well for starters  making and using GIFS for an assignment.

No seriously it caught me off guard I would’ve never thought a college professor would be cool with the idea of using GIFS within a class but it was different so I liked it. I learned how to use the ct101 site and add things like media and hyperlinks and embedding things onto my post speaking of which feel free to watch this mixtape that I made for my hacking and building final hope you like it. 

 

I enjoyed everything about this class to keep it very honest with you I was never pressed to get work done by a certain time and I could complete the work when it was best for me and it was never hard once you put some thought and effort into the blog post or on your website did I mention that I created a domain name cool right? But anyways if you want to take a look at my website here it is http://amchad.com/ 

I definitely want to continue to use my website after this class I’ve had some ideas on what I would use it for but that decision will come later in the future but I’m definitely keeping it that’s for sure as of right now I just have a background picture of my 2k character and two posts on my website its nothing crazy yet but it’ll progress, in what direction will I take it?

All in all this class was a great way to express myself  and along with my peers and as for the grade I feel I deserve well of course it would be an A+ not to be cocky at all but i just feel like on top of me getting all the assignments done i tried to interact with the course more to get something out of it and put my very best effort completing each weeks assignment but that’s enough about me cheers to another successful semester

 

The final week of the semester never has failed to be the saddest. Even though summer is beginning and many are excited to start heading to the beach or party, its always sad to finish a your favorite courses. This class really expanded my creativity and so far has been my favorite course so far and I’m sadden that it has come to an end.

From learning how to make blog posts to creating our very own websites with our own domain name, this class has been full of our own creativity and is why its been my favorite. Being a Communication Technology major this is the class that starts off my major and if this is how most of my CT classes are going to be like I am very excited to sign up for these classes.

In terms of the grade I deserve I will be honest with myself, this has not been a good semester for me. During the middle of the semester I lost someone very close to me back in Colombia and traveled back there to attend all the services and be with my family. I did not have the best internet there and would find myself having the worst connection and would frequently miss classes and be forced to go to internet cafes whenever I had the chance. Of course there should be no excuse as to having missing work which is why I tried to make up for all the work I have missed for all of my classes. At most I think a C is what I earned with the late work and missing posts but even with this being my worst semester in terms of grades I still had a lot of fun with most of my classes and with CT 101 I knew it was going to be fun from the very beginning.

The Gif post and the making our own meme post were both my favorites apart from making our own website. These two things are apart of the modern social media and even if it doesn’t seem important it’s still good skills to have and you could make many people laugh with them!

I also finally completed my website! It took me a while to come up with something I wanted to make a website out of but then I came across a New York Times article and remembered I always wanted to try journalism. I struggled a lot with the customization with the website because it was a bit confusing but in the end I was able to come up with a simple but fun design that still gave it a journalistic feeling. Making my stories/blog posts was also very fun and I took a lot of inspiration from the New York Times and I even took some of my own photos as well as interviewed some people!

I made stories on restaurants during the pandemic and a fire that recently happened in my neighborhood and it was a very fun experience and I have decided to keep my website up as well as continue updating it. I’m not a journalism major but it felt really nice to try something new and I definitely would not of done this had I not taken this class.

http://Nowinqueens.com

Thank you to all my classmates and especially to the Professor for making this a fun course, I wish I had been more apart of it but during the time that I was it was a great experience that gave me a lot of new useful skills. I hope everyone has a great summer!

 

I am finally in the process of making my own website! I wont lie, I have missed weeks of work and progress in this class and have fallen behind but I am now in the process of planning this website and I have decided that I wanted to stem away from what I focus on at school and try something new that I’ve always wanted to try!

Before my father came to the U.S he was worked in journalism in Colombia and would tell me about the various  stories that he would write about, this has always inspired me to make my own stories and maybe make my own website commenting on news stories around me. So this became the perfect opportunity for me to create that website and I’m very excited to get started.

My first order of business is to pick a domain name. I am planning on writing stories centered around my neighborhood, Jackson Heights since it’s such a diverse neighborhood with something always going on around here. Or maybe i’ll expand even further and use all of Queens and use any neighborhoods within Queens. So far the names I have are:

IntheHeights

NowinHeights

QueensJornalism

StoriesinQueens

NowinQueens

Customizing My Page!

So I’ve decided to put some of the posts assigned to us all together to make it easier and work on this post and update it as I go along with the process. I have decided to go with the name NowinQueens as I have finally finished my 2 posts on my website which feature two different locations from around Queens. I had written down some drafts for my post and I’m now customizing the page itself. So far it has been a little difficult to work around the customization options as I want it to look more journalistic but with the help of some videos I was able to get the simple look I wanted and even published my posts on to the website! It has a nice light orange background along with a picture that represented what I wanted to focus on in my website. I’m very excited to finally share it with everyone and plan on working on it and giving it some final touches!

Just a little sneak peak into my website at http://NowinQueens.com

Along with my website are my two News Stories that I put the most work in on and cover 2 news stories from around Queens with Interviews included!

http://nowinqueens.com/uncategorized/fire-in-queens-leaves-many-families-homeless/

http://nowinqueens.com/uncategorized/how-much-longer-will-nyc-restaurants-survive-during-this-pandemic/

Hope you guys like it!

What did you enjoy about our class and how you will apply your new skills into the world?

What I most enjoyed about this class was creating the website. It made me realize how important it is to have a website about anything that you own, create, have and sell. I will apply this new skills by promoting my website. Maybe I’ll even have my own business doing websites lol.

 

 

Will you maintain and keep up your new website? If so, how? If not, Why not?

Yes, I will maintain and keep my website. How?  I will promote the website, always post on it, make it the best out of the experience that I had while creating it… literally.

 

Well guys, it was a great semester but everything always comes to an end

The website I created its about My nail design business. In that website you will find about me and my work. It was a long shot, and almost thought about giving up but didn’t do it! Never give up on your dreams and always dream big.

lolasnailart.net

What grade you have earned in our class and why you deserve that grade?

I really have no idea.. I have procrastinated a lot, end up doing it though haha. Since I’ve been taking 6 classes because lowkey want to graduate earlier, but in the end always end up doing all the work.

I deserve whatever grade the professor might give me, and I feel like I’ve done a good job. Not the procrastination part though, will work on that.

 

 

http://breesbrunch.com/

 

 

Thanks to CT 101 I can do much stuff, I am thankful for the class to be free and stress relieve. Is my first time having a class like this, so I have abuse that freedom from the class; I believe that I am maintaining a B-, I did all the assignments, but they were not on time; I took a while for those post. I think that punctuality plays a role in grades, and because I was late for almost everything,, a B will be good; but that still is greedy.

I have about the websites, I still get confused with all the design of it, but I am trying to make it look nice. For my website, I still do not know what I would like to focus on, I do not have something that I do every day that I would like to share. I like art, but I do not do it every day; I do not have something that passionates me, which makes me excited. And like to be like that, to be passionate is tiresome. So, that is why I do not know what kind of website I want. But I did my first sketch on a computer, so I think sharing that, for now, is good.

Things that i know are about the website, I never had the need to create a page on the internet and i did not know that to keep a page you need to pay i thought it was free. and now i think that to know about websites can be useful if you are in design.

about the website i am not confident engougth to make sure that i would expand it. but i am grateful with what i know now. And i am going to miss this class, hopefully more people take this class because it helps to be in classes were your feelings as student are not being ignore.

 

What is Copyright?

Copyright is one of the principle kinds of licensed innovation. Permits copyright proprietors to keep others from duplicating or replicating their work. Protected innovation rights give individuals responsibility for things they make, similarly as they can claim actual proprietorship.

 

“Taking the songs of the day and the old songs remixing them to make them something different, its how they (referring as kids form nowadays) understand access to this culture.”

By him saying this I think is true and lead us on onto knowing that music does not have age. You could literally be 15 and still be interested onto jazz from the 1980. Age should not matter when it comes onto your taste of music.

Creative content. The latest list of things capitalism ruins. In this society, the rise of a plethora of creative content has given rise to copyrighting. Copyright is defined as a right provided to an individual or institution, by the owner of intellectual property, through a legal body. In more simpler terms. it means the owner of intellectual property basically says “hey! I give you permission to use my work for whatever reason, under certain conditions.” These certain conditions are usually profit related (*eyeroll; capitalism*).

Now lets talk abut digital content. Things that fall under the category of digital content are music, pictures, blogs, videos or any other type of digital data that can be saved to computer files and/or broadcasted. In most cases, digital content is freely available on the internet. You can save and download digital content, giving you the opportunity to edit original intellectual property. This is usually harmless and includes things such as remixing songs, making song covers, patching and stitching scenes of movie together for content, adding a new spin to videos, etc. The majority of the people online get away with this. Until……..they start making money from it. Once money comes into the equation, things can get complicated pretty fast.

Lets use a classic example. Lets say an artist, like Drake drops new music. You like the song, so you created a remix to it and upload it on Youtube. Turns out your remix sounds very good and its really catching on. Before you know it, millions of people are listening and may even think your version is better than the original. You start gaining publicity and even money from the amount of viewers you’re pulling in. Now Drake is angry, and he wants to come for you.  Things continue to get very complicated and messy form then on, as the copyright “infringement” comes into play. Now all of a sudden you’re facing a very expensive lawsuit, followed by a seize and desist order. Oops.

However if things played out differently and your song didn’t catch significant attention, you wouldn’t be dealing with copyright infringement lawsuits. Now do you see why capitalism ruins everything? Even more importantly, do you see how copyright law can get really complicated especially when a larger audience is involved? To make matters worse, the laws that regulate these kinds of situations are often vague.

This example relates to fair use. lets quickly define such term. Fair use can be defined as access to intellectual property under certain conditions, without explicit consent of copyright owner. These certain conditions are usually non monetary and include research, criticism, teaching and satire purposes. In other words, these fair use conditions are presented to the user, in good faith that they wouldn’t use it for personal gains.

In his TED talk, Larry Lessig states the follow in the context of modern day copyright law. “Common sense here has not revolted yet.” Lessig also says “common sense is rare in the law.” I find these quotes compelling because laws nowadays aren’t really made in common sense. Laws are influenced by bodies for whatever reason, even tough common sense clearly revolts against their reasons. For example, Larry gives an example of the pre-airplane era where land rights for land owners extended indefinitely in the air. Anything flying over this land would be considered trespassing. When airplanes arrived, some congressional bodies as well as land owners wanted to keep this law. Common sense clearly revolts at this because if these laws were kept it would mean airplanes would be violating uncountable trespassing laws. Once a supreme court judge saw a flaw in this law, it was immediately modified, in favor of the technological progress of airplanes.

This can be related to copyright law as well. Digital content is now available online and people are capable of downloading it and modifying it, to create new content. A good majority of people are doing this to explore their creative side of to present a new perspective of original work. This in effect creates more content and creativity to be shared online. Copyright law, however is very restrictive and requires users of intellectual property to obtain explicit content from the owner. It’s clear to see how this sort of thinking is outdated and revolts against common sense.

A fictional example of fair use was presented earlier on. Now lets look at more real life examples. Richard Prince is a artist who was sued by Patrick Cariou for “infringing on his work. The image on the right is the original work and the image on the left is the creatively modified version Prince created.

Andy Baino, another person to get sued for copyright related reasons, is in a similar situation as Prince. Below on the left is the original intellectual property of Miles Davis. On the right is the heavily pixelated created spin Andy Baino created.

Now, in my perfectly honest opinion, there’s not much difference between Baino and Princes’ work from the original. Even though they have some creative additions such as Prince’s photo markups and Baino’s heavy pixelations, the creative works are obviously very similar to the original. In other words, I don’t think they are creative enough.

Both of their creative takes have enough presence of the original work to make it look like a copyright infringement, however good their intentions were.  Does this mean they deserve to get sued? I don’t think so, if their intentions were to purely express themselves. I personally don’t think this wouldn’t have been a problem if both artists weren’t relatively well known. If they were some underground artists that were barely known, I doubt they would be in this predicament. Since they’re well known and have potential to mobilize an entire audience, that’s where fair use really becomes challenging. Its no surprise that intellectual owners become jealous or feel violated when someone else uses their works and it garners a lot of attention, as they should. Even though the modifiers of this intellectual property mean no harm, they easily fall victim to fair use infringement lawsuits. These lawsuits are usually in favor of the intellectual owner and ends up in a settlement.

Fair use laws remain vague and vary from situation to situation. It is about time for a serious change to the laws. I don’t think it’s that hard to distinguish between someone whos using original works for monetary gains vs someone using it for creative expression. This is where the common sense comes into play. Its tie for common sense to revolt on these laws, so a balance can exist between original intellectual owner and creative artists. There is a compromise that exists between the two. Maybe a little pinch of common sense is all it takes to realize it.

I just gave you food for thought, now you do the dishes!

The first assignment was like an open world video game, where we were given the choice to express ourselves to the fullest regarding what makes us happy on the internet. I have a few references from “Regular show” and “The office” because I love to watch videos on the internet. Check out my first blog post https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/internet-happiness-12/ . I had a lot of fun creating my first blog post because I was not sure what to expect from this class.

After we went through our syllabus, I definitely had a duh moment. I thought this class was going to be very technical because I read that we had to create a website. In actuality, this class was meant to teach us how to properly create a website while creatively using the proper tools to enhance the details of our website. Check out my duh moment at https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/assignment-2-3/.

 

The “are memes art” was my favorite assignment because I was able to create my first 10 memes that really let me express my personality. I never thought of memes as art but after CT101 my perspective has changed.

This assignment was pretty cool because we had the choice to pick a project and complete the project while sharing our process. I have never created a bucket list collage before but with the Befunky website. I was able to put my collage together. I will definitely be using this website to create collages of my future travels.

Here are a few domain names I came up with for my website. Junkorjuiced, gear2gear,speedstars, rockyowhip, flipthewhip, sharegear, feedmyspeed, gasforbrass,speedspectech,speedsweatech. I learned how to embed videos about what my website was about, which was very helpful when sharing the contents of my potential website.

After following the instructions , I was able to create my website speedspectech.net .

I shared my website with my friends and family and they all left some comments on my first website post. I have a couple friends who love cars so it was cool to get their opinion on what I have accomplished so far.

After visiting some of my classmates websites http://monopillowtalk.net/  https://thereslifeoutside.com/  https://therotatingrock.com/, I decided that I will be adding short stories on my website. It was good to see that my website layout was different than my classmates. I was also able to learn about the content my classmates were sharing, which was pretty interesting. My content was completely different and they did not have any competition content on their websites like I did.

Our last post was about copyright.  I learned a lot about how others may not see your alterations as enough changes from an original idea. As a new creator of a website it is important that I follow the guidelines of fair use. By ensuring that my website does not get any financial gains or increase my likeness by using someone else’s work, I should be fine. At the same time, I will not limit my creativity because there are no real original ideas. Everyone has an idea that stems from someone else and we all have protection against those who chose to steal the work of others for personal gain.

Here is the home page of my website. I created this website to talk about cars and host friendly battles based on which car the viewer likes better. In my week one battle , the Honda Type R had more likes than the Subaru STI, based on the comments. In the second week , I have the Nissan 400z as the first battle car and people seem to be excited about it. I am waiting to see who my viewers will pick as the Nissan 400z rival. One of the hardest things about creating my website was creating the layout because I want it to be more informative. I also want my viewers to have access to adding their own pictures to the website. I am not happy with the current layout and will work on it over the summer because I want to keep my website up. I love talking about cars and this is a great way to connect to other car enthusiast.

Overall I think I deserve an A-. I created a total of 14 posts and I got to accomplish the goals of my website, which was to conduct a car battle and have information about exotic cars displayed. I feel like I should have commented on my classmates posts which would have helped me with more of my classmates browsing and commenting on my website. As my final post I feel like I have learned a lot from this class and I will continue to build my website until it is to my liking.

 

Going into this class I was very anxious about what it had in store for me , mainly because with classes like this I feel i’m better with the visuals of it, i’m more of a visual learner. Fortunately for me I had an amazing teacher and i’m not just saying that because he is the one giving out the grades i’m saying that based on the way he treats and cares for his students. Most teachers look at the students as just students who need to complete assignments without actually understanding that students are people too not Professor Seslow.

Throughout the class i’ve learned how to incorporate gifs into my own media , make my own GIFS and oh yeah I created my own website!! I definitely am so grateful for this class experience and the things I was able to learn in these short amount of weeks. The weekly blog post with the thought provoking questions to get you to dive deeper when answering the question of the week.

This is the hard part on choosing what grade I should get in the class. I feel with the determination I had to complete all the assignments and blog posts leads me to believe I deserve a B+ in this class because I did the assignments to the best of my abilities and I reached out to my professor whenever I didn’t understand something. With all of this being said I believe a B+ is what my work and determination reflects. I say a B+ instead if an A because I didn’t always complete the assignments on time so with that being said I don’t think I should get the same grade as the people who did.

The things I enjoyed the most in class was the flexibility and individuality it allowed me to have. Besides that I really enjoyed the creative side of me that came out in my website. Being able to provide a little piece of sunshine on someones cloudy day is enough fuel for me to keep the website up . I have a-lot of plans for the website which include mental health and suicide hotlines, relationship advice, new parenting advice, even employment opportunities just to name a few.

here is the link to my website so you can get information to help reduce stress! https://kingkyla.com

What Have I Learned?

Wow, it’s the end of the semester!

Wow, I can’t believe it! Even though I have been waiting for this semester to be over. This semester has definitely been the hardest for me. I took a couple of classes that were quite intense in writing (my WORST subject) which have literally kicked my ass lol. I could genuinely say that CT101 has been my escape from it all.

I really enjoyed assisting CT101 and learning things that I never knew I needed. I was fascinated when we learned about Gifs and Memes because I love using them and sharing them in my daily life.

^ This one is my favorite Gif I created! I love the Office and this part of the episode was hilarious so my first Gif just had to be this! I loved learning how to make Gifs, Memes, add them to my post, I enjoyed learning how to hyperlink. (that’s currently my favorite song), adding photos and media to my posts and discovering new elements in every class we had.

I enjoyed creating my website. I would say that this class taught me something that I have always wanted to know, and that is the idea of a website. It was lots of fun playing and discovering new little customizations that I could do on my website and adjusting it to MY liking.

Will I Keep my Website?

I do plan on keeping my website and hopefully be able to maintain it. I recently have taken an eyelash extension course, meaning I want to be my own boss and start providing services for the ladies out there that would love to get their eyelashes on fleek. I would like to transform by Travel Blogs website into an Eyelash website! I can see that this website has great potential in helping me cater my services and help me provide a platform where my work can be portrayed through images, comments, links to social media, and maybe even able to provide bookings through my site. I am honestly excited for what the future may have in store for me and for my website. I know that it will be a beneficial factor in my life.

Final Website Link & Description 

This is my website – http://eyeconicny.com/

My website consists of three pages.

1.  My Home Page – where you will find a photo gallery of pictures taken by me!
2. Blogs page – Where I have three posts published of trips I have taken.
3. About me page – I introduce myself and explain how I will use my website. 

My website is a place where I post blogs of memorable pictures taken on my iPhone of places I go, people I am with, and the things I eat! When I was building this website it did give me a couple of headaches. I am not a very patient person so I would get frustrated when I did not know how to fix certian problems.

I had a little bit of frustration when including a gallery on my website. I wanted the gallery centered on my home page, but for some reason, it would all shift to the right of the screen! Even my heading was shifted to the right of the screen! I watched the professor’s videos in hopes that maybe I could find the answers and techniques needed. I also played with it for about two days lol. I thought maybe my computer was glitching. In the end, I reached out to Professor Seslow and he suggested a couple of videos on youtube and gave me a couple of tips 🙂

I was finally able to center my home page and *sigh* it was such a relief and satisfaction to me. There’s nothing better than FINALLY figuring it out!

After I fixed this issue I had I was on a roll on finally being able to proceed in creating and customizing my website.

What Grade Do I Deserve?

Honestly speaking I would love to give myself an A LOL who wouldn’t! But realistically I believe that I deserve a B- because I am aware that I have missed a couple of assignments and posts which is the reason why my grade might be affected. Although I did miss a couple of posts I did in fact put a lot of work into my website! I enjoyed working on it and making it appear presentable.

 

Hey Classmates! I just published a new blog on my website care to go see it?

Blog

Its about one of my experiences while executing one of the jobs in my business.

Upon the start of CT101, I doubted myself more than I doubted my ability to do what this course requires. I have been writing since I could remember, but as I’ve said before, I lack vulnerability with my audience. Which in my opinion, is key, because anyone can creatively write, but not everyone has something to say.

In our introductory post, I shared with you what was easiest for me to share with people: music. When I sit down and analyze why I feel comfortable sharing music comparing to other of my works, I come to the realization that it’s because it’s content  I have been creating the longest.
Practice makes perfect(ish), but the more you do something, the more confidence you enable yourself to gain.

Following my self-analysis, it dawned upon me that “I did not choose this course; the course chose me, and I almost missed it!” (Click here to read my opinions about CT101 vs other courses). I placed my faith in this course, and of course, professor Seslow, that at every step of the way, I would build more of an intimate relationship with the internet.

A great way to do something new and out of my comfort zone was to create a meme account and explore its possibilities. While writing my “Are meme’s art?” blog, I learned that meme’s have more potential that what people typically see on social media or share with our friends.  Because you can use any recorded content to create something new, with new meaning and intentions, meme’s are most definitely art.

Need practice or to build some confidence? I’ve got you covered. For practice in creating content,  the ds106 Assignment Bank offers a variety of projects you can try and are rated by difficulty which allows you to either stay within your comfort zone or challenge.

Through the Assignment bank, I gained practice in video editing and somewhat of the basic guideline on how to write a terms of service. Heavy on the “somewhat”. But more specifically, I remixed some scenes of the Incredibles animated movie with Yolanda’s Be Cool song “We No Speak Americano” and wrote an Apocalypse Terms of Service that you can read here, in my blog.

Check out the remix:

One of most appalling truths I have learned in CT101 is actually not a technique or strategy, but information. The documentary of Aaron Swartz taught me how vile and unjust the American system is. I already felt this way before seeing the documentary, but I suppose it added to my anger.
However, as I stated in the closing of Internet’s Own Boy blog, “as long as we live in ignorance, we will forever be slaves and puppets. It is time to start questioning”. This truth has opened up a new reality for me, and thanks to CT101’s influence, I will be able to help others find it too.

Following this revelation, and only after fully understanding that the internet is one of the most powerful tools in the world, came the creation of our own websites. And truthfully, It all feels like the cultivation of a very healthy relationship… if handled correctly.

My website, Mono Pillowtalk was created with the intention to “cover topics that one typically suppresses or ignores, that I have silenced, in a creative way”, and thus, far both my short stories Wallflower, Sunflowers, & Petals and Playa Juan Dolio do just that.  Check them out!

My website is my newborn babe. It is currently being neglected due to finals AND the preparation of summer classes (for me), but I do intend to keep it, use it, and grow with it. I will use it as my beginner friendly website where I can explore and fully master customizing and HTML. See what works, visually, so that later when I do feel ready to grow my business through the internet, I can do it all by myself. Growth, baby.

After knowledge, comes the work and the work wont do itself. Thus, thats on me. But if I don’t, what I do know for sure is that CT101 has prepared me for bigger and better things to come.

I am both happy and scared to part ways with CT101, but thanks to professor Seslow, I know I will be alright. Every step of the way was carefully laid out, organized, and explained. It could not be more crystal. The doubt that I had been placing on myself is no longer there. I have the right information and resources to handle my own website or the internet as a whole, and for that I am grateful.

As for my grade, when combining both my literal words and my actions in this course, I deserve an A. What type of A? that depends on the technicalities, which I have unfortunately not have been paying close attention to. So, maybe an A-/ B+ minimum? Sounds about right. I have done all the blog posts, contributed to the class’ meme folder, supported and encouraged my fellow classmates. If I truly had to pick something I wish I did better, it would be turning on my camera more often. Despite of this, I have always been right there. Loud and clear.

How will I be using my website as we go forward?

 

I did my website about my business. I planned about doing it about it since i only have an Instagram account of the business. If it wasn’t for this class i wouldn’t have done it lol.

This website is going to help me promote my business as we go forward in completing it.