GIFs ^3^

Heyyo everyone!!

To start off, let’s just say that on the first day of class when I walked in and I was like…

Nah just kidding…or am I? No but really, on the first day of class I was pleasantly surprised by the 1) the layout of the room, and 2) the overall vibe that Ryan had created without even introducing himself to us yet.

He just seemed like a chill guy and I knew that this class would be as chill well, and I was correct. I’ve never had a class where the students were actually facing away from the front of the room or allowed to purposely express their creativity through digital media.

Even right now I’m listening to music, scrolling through GIPHY like:

Because I’m enjoying the assignment and enjoying curating my own blog post, which is something I’ve never done before outside of this class. I honestly didn’t think people even use blog posts anymore. Despite that, I’ve been enjoying using the different tools at my disposal here on the class website and finding the appropriate GIFs to piece together a coherent body of work. The creative potentials of this class are endless with GIFs!

Moving onto the course content let’s just say a 10 page paper analyzing the growth and layout of our posts from the beginning of the semester to the end to see how it’s changed is…

I’m curious to see how this will play out and how much we’ll all grow throughout this class.

On the first day of CT101, I was eager and inquisitive to begin the course. However, I couldn’t help but notice the absence of assignment deadlines. Personally, I appreciate having deadlines because they motivate me and enable better time management.

To be honest, I haven’t formed strong feelings about the course and its creative content yet.

CT101 stands out from my other classes because it provides Zoom archives, a feature I find quite convenient. It would be great if all my classes could offer this option. While I don’t have any issues with Commons, I do prefer using a consistent platform across all my courses.

I’m not sure about the creative potentials of this class yet.

AND I’m always excited about learning new skills that involve Internet tools.

There’s no way I can start this blog without acknowledging how dope our professor is with a standing ovation. The creativity that is encouraged, the detail-oriented explanations of each of our assignments brings tears to my eyes.

It really excites me to know how many things we’ll be doing in CT 101 that I will really enjoy learning to do… starting with this blog post.

I don’t anticipate any dull moments nor do I dread Tuesday mornings. I do anticipate the stroll to the classroom, though because it’s CT 101 Day!

I feel like all my other classes are very serious, which isn’t a bad thing. There just isn’t much room for creativity in those other classes.

There’s no limit to how creative we can be with Digital Storytelling… as long as it’s taught by the best professor teaching it.

The first day of CT101 gave me a sense of curiosity about the course and after looking at the syllabus and Professor Seslow breaking down and explaining the course, I felt intrigued. I had an interest in taking CT101 before the semester started. A couple of people I know recommended this class to me after having positive experiences with the class.

CT 101 is much different than my other classes this semester as it can explore our creative juices on the internet. This class can convey the creative and fun side of the internet and that makes me interested. The sky is the limit for this class because of the access to different software to express our creative work. The tools on the internet exist for a reason and they should not be left to waste.

This Weeks Adventure on the WWW (World Wide Web) brought me mostly to youtube for educational and motivation purposes. The happiness comes from watching the channel MeatCanyon. Meat is an animator on youtube that loves to create cartoons. On his channel he has been animating characitures of other well known Youtubers’ in this eerie art style that he made his own. The last Curator he animated was XQC.

What was really interesting about all this is the fact that I was able to see the preview of the video before it was animated in drawing form. This made me happy because watching someone elses’ process in creating leads me to become motivated myself to work on my own projects. Everything takes time, and the more time your work on something the better, you; and the thing your working on, becomes.

During this week, I came across a few videos because I didn’t spend much time browsing the internet as I was buried in school and housework. However, when I opened YouTube, the first video that drew my attention was an adorable baby girl singing and dancing, and that was the end of it for me. This video got me to the conclusion of my search since it not only made me feel happy but also made me smile.

I chose this YouTube video because it brightened my day the first time I viewed it. Her voice is lovely, and her dance movements are incredible. I’m guessing this is one of her favorite tunes. Her preparation for the camera demonstrated that she understood the assignment. I must have watched this video at least 20 times and still do because she reminds me of my now 4-year-old daughter, who would always dance to any music and sing out loud even if she didn’t know the lyrics.

This next image brings out the same emotions in me as it demonstrates a baby in full light, camera, and action. Could it possibly get any better than this? I downloaded this GIF from Giphy because I enjoy watching babies in their happy moments, which brings me joy and happiness.

Making our first GIF & GIF Post Narratives!

Assignment #2 – (week #3)

**The class video recording from class on 9/12/23 is below:

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!

Don’t mind if I let you guys in on something I binge watch on youtube very often. The first Sunday of this month was an annual car event welcoming all BMW’s ever made—Bimmer Invasion!

This event is what many enthusiasts prepare for all year long all over the country, whether it’s to show up and spectate or attend with intentions on winning an award in many different categories.

Also, for those of you that choose to watch the video and wonder why you see a two-door Toyota at a BMW car meet… it’s because the newer Toyota Supra’s were produced with the heart of a BMW engine! ↓↓↓

This week? Piracy is making me happy. Now am I pirating anything? No way! Piracy is stealing! You wouldn’t steal a car! You wouldn’t swipe a handbag! You wouldn’t shoot Archduke Franz Ferdinand, plunging our world into a war that no one could have dreamed of! (At least I hope you wouldn’t )

In the streaming era piracy is largely considered a thing of the past. Why download something and waste your digital space when you can just go to Netflix, Hulu, or any of the other 20 million streaming services? But, rather than just being a nefarious tool for evil doers to make off with the hard work of others, I see piracy, at times, as a devoted act of media preservation.

Ever since I was a kid I was a huge fan of anime, manga, art, and animation as a whole. I have fond memories of my class mates and I passing around printed scans of the latest Naruto and One Piece chapters, directly translated from Weekly Shonen Jump by the dedicated scanlation team. As a kid I never thought of this as piracy, it was just a chance for my friends and I to read the comic we loved without having to wait for the monthly Shonen Jump to come out.

A property like Naruto is highly unlikely to ever end up becoming lost to time with over 250 million copies sold, it’s unthinkable for all of them to disappear from circulation anytime soon. But any kind of media can easily become lost to time, especially now that we find ourselves fully in the Era of licensing. If you’ve ever “bought” a song or a movie online then you’ve likely just purchased a license, which allows you access to a digital product under a few different terms of service. If the company goes under, your account is banned, or TOS changes in any way, you’re out of luck!

Today with the vast array of streaming platforms, all rich with content, we have become comfortable relying on them to see our favorites year after year. But now shows are quietly disappearing from streaming with no physical copies available. Recent favorites less than a decade old are at risk of becoming lost media in a way that must be maddening for viewers and creators alike.

Now let me be clear: you, me, your mom, and kpop sensation Kim Nam-joon should all be paying for our media. We should be supporting out artists in anyway that we possibly can, but we have to face the facts that media isn’t as safe and protected as we’ve come to think it is. We need to take a more nuanced view on things.

For right now I’m very happy to know that media might be preserved and protected, even inadvertently, so that it can be shared with future generations. It’s impossible to save everything we love or want to see more of but we can do our best to protect our investments, both for our wallets sake and our cultures sake. What will you want to share with your kids or grandkids one day?

Recently, I’ve been watching a GTA V roleplay server called “ストグラ,” and this is the clip of a girl named Kokona Makita who was kidnapped six times in a single day by bank robbers.

Hey everyone my name is Kyle and what really makes me happy on the internet is cooking videos. Also survival videos, or funny fails. I enjoy all of those but I’d have to say I love the cooking videos the most cause I like to eat. My favorite food would probably have to be chicken alfredo because I loved that since I was little and still do.

There is nothing like watching a youtube video with a warm meal already on your table.

As I was lurking through the fine worlds of the World Wide Web this past week, I came across a platform that provides radio stations from around the world. You can even listen to your local radio stations on there. It was a fun experience and I got the chance to listen to different radio stations in different states in the U.S.  I introduce to you, Radio Garden.

https://radio.garden/visit/williston-park-ny/877bfa7r