CUNY York College – Digital Storytelling
so far the things that made me happy this week are my bday past I’m officially 21 I’m older but I still look young thank you genetics and stuff and my boyfriend meeting my family on my bday and loving him
And the next best thing is my favorite band Falling In Reverse new song has come out and it’s so good I Love It plus watching an old fav movie marathon starting with the lost boys.
so so far this has been a pretty good week so far and valentine’s day is coming and I got a plan.
Hello everybody, what’s been making me happy this week(as well as my entire childhood) is none other than the amazing and absolutely hilarious, Keke Palmer.
Keke Palmer is an actress, musician, dancer. My introduction to Keke was through her first leading role, “Akeelah and The Bee”. I also grew up watching her play as True Jackson in “True Jackson VP”, among many other iconic roles in movies and tv shows. This show was very important to me because during its time it wasn’t common for a black girl to be leading her own show also while unapologetically being herself.
This week I’ve been indulging in her YouTube channel and binging a whole bunch of her content dating from years back. What’s been having me laugh until my stomach hurts from her channel is her self produced comedy series “That’s The Gag”
“That’s The Gag” is a parody coded, Mockumentary style web-series that is very loosely based on Keke Palmer’s experiences as an actress. In this show Keke is now seen as a washed-up actress who can no longer book gigs the way she used to. She desperately tries to revive her career through many useless attempts that will leave you rolling on the floor.
As unserious as it was, I was fully entertained till the very end.
Another thing that has been making me happy this week is Ice Spice and PinkPantheress’s unexpected but extremely well received collaboration, “Boy’s A Liar pt 2” released not too long ago. This song has been on repeat since I found it. I love music that sounds experimental and does well with mixing genres, so I’m pleased with this collaboration.
Ahh, yes the GIF. An outlet to express yourself through images and clipped videos. That’s my initial synopsis anyway. When it comes to both platforms of Giphy and IMAGR, I prefer GIPHY. Purely based on the selection, and the interface is more appealing when I’m browsing. The design template is amazing.
What did you think on the first day of the CT101?
I was super excited and motivated on the first day to see how I would be able to express myself in some written form. Moreover, I was hype to meet a new group of colleagues. I was intrigued how I would be able to relay my stories over the course of the class. The atmosphere instantly motivated me.
Did you like hearing about the course and its creative content? How did it make you feel?
I liked hearing about the course, and the creative content as well. To be allowed to have a license to creatively express and write…. It left me feeling sensational. I have such an affinity for writing so this is amazing.
How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes so far?
It’s probably the most enjoyable of the lot, honestly. Professor, I appreciate your teaching style, the environment is spectacular, and my fellow students all add to the ambience. A blissful start.
What are the creative potentials of this class?
I think that the sky is the limit. We could potentially relay our stories with a mix of GIF’s, video hyperlinks, and screenshots to elevate and make our pieces more visually attractive to the audience.
How do you feel about learning new skills that use Internet tools?
I’m always open to learning and adapting to new tools and concepts. It’s great for development. I feel it will grant me the ability to flourish as a future journalist in the digital age down the line.
GIFS have massive potential and have ingrained themselves with storytelling. We live in an era where the traditional text only elaboration is becoming perhaps stale, and with the inclusion of this element the sky’s the limit. It makes story in my opinion more creative and appealing. For online journalistic pieces to be successful, they have to be engaging to the reader. It may only work for a younger audience, but over time that should balance out to a broader audience base.
Take this quote from a Smithsonian Museum article, “Thanks to the humble GIF, no emotions are too big or small to capture in animated image form.” This exemplifies how much GIF has appealed to the author’s emotional intake in relation the story they read. Talk about impact.
Well everybody, that’s my thoughts. Till next time.
Wow, this is pretty cool, Anyways what has made me happy this week is that it’s my birthday week. My birthday was actually on the 7th and I’m officially 20.
One of the other things making me happy this week is waiting for the new harry potter game to come out. I’m such a HUGE harry potter fan so I’m really excited for that.
Anddd yeah I think thats all from this week that I can remember that has made me happy.
Hey everyone, out of all the things I can think of I narrowed it down to three things that made me happy this week. Scooby Doo has been appearing quite frequently this week and is one of the things on my list making me happy. Second on my list would be nail art inspired from a Japanese artist. The final thing on my list would be Kirby, a character well known from Nintendo video games. I could play any Kirby game or look at Kirby memes all day.
Scooby Doo runs through my mind almost every week but it stood out in this week. This cartoon has taken on so many different forms throughout the years as technology and television has been improving. A mystery solving cartoon that has transformed into a brand anywhere from games, clothes, movies, and toys. I chose to include it in what makes me happy this week because of catchphrases from the show. Velma says Jinkies!, Shaggy says Zoinks, Scooby says Ruh Roh!, Freddy says Lets spilt up gang! Daphne says Jeepers!
I included a gif down below from the 1960s Scooby Doo Where Are You show.
Assignment #2 – (week #3)
**Here is the video recording from the Tuesday section on 2/14:
Passcode: A^O6mpA3
**Here is the video recording from the Thursday section on 2/9:
Passcode: HAA=vDm7
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:
(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?
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
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!
Well for starters I don’t know how many of you are basketball fans but, the G.O.A.T. just became the all time leading scorer passing Kareem’s 38,387 point record.
Aside from that, I recently found out that another season of “Your Honor” had released. Its a really good show about a judge(played by Bryan Cranston) who essentially has a complete character change after dealing with a series of events stemming from his son being involved in a hit and run. Ironically the victim of the accident was the son of a mafia boss. It airs on Fridays on showtime but, with everything going on I haven’t been able to keep up with it like I’d like to.
This week what has made me happy on the internet is Finding out that one of my longest favorite Youtubers is entering a new era of his life he is becoming a father. Pewdiepie is someone I have watched as long as I can remember and just seeing him grow from a teenager to a grown man has been really inspiring he has impacted my life very much. Congratulations Pewdiepie (Aka Felix Kjellberg). Can’t wait to see this next chapter of his life.
In other news, something else that has made me happy is Big Time Rush made a comeback back when I was a kid I would love listening to their music and watching their tv show on Nickelodeon. I have very good memories with those guys so seeing them come back together and going on tour again has made me really happy.
Finally, after so many years DC is finally getting what they deserve they are finally in the right hands. I remember being in middle school being the biggest DC fan and always defending them even though I knew marvel was doing better I have always loved Marvel but DC has a special place in my heart. Seeing how James Gunn has a plan for the future of DC studios is very exciting and I will be there to see what Mr. Gunn has in store for DC studios.
Staying in the comic realm Marvel is coming out with their first Phase 5 film with Ant-Man and The Wasp Quantumania. I’m excited about it Phase 4 wasn’t terrible had good films but also okay films still excited to see the future of Marvel and what they have planned with their future movies so I will be checking this film out.
Dall E-generated art and ChatGPT are making me super happy and entertained these days.
The image below was created using Dall E.
The video below is a tutorial that gives a quick overview of the new Artificial Intelligence Ai digital tools everyone is talking about. Those trained in using Ai will be one step ahead of the best in digital art and graphic design.
Chat GPT has given people a tool that helps them in their creative process. Work and school are some areas I am incorporating Chat GPT into my life.
One area I find helpful has been when applying for grants that support me financially through college. Grant writing is precise, and it can be challenging to get noticed if someone is not a writer with a specialized focus.
Ai tools often help me brainstorm, although I do not take examples created by Ai and use them verbatim as if they are my own. However, what is helpful is the different avenues of thought that Chat will make. For example, a complex question from a grant can be generated with just a few keywords, and you can generate it up to six times without being too repetitive. Therefore you can select different parts and add them together with your own thoughts, and voilà you created a new paragraph or essay in a fraction of the time.
I often ask Chat for a “list,” which will generate a bulleted list of ideas. If I feel the paragraphs I created need refinement, I will also use my Grammarly app and add any new ideas to Chat.
What is unique about Chat is that paragraphs and essays evolve with new vocabulary and searches. So the more you play with it, the more your original idea grows. Similar to when developing a section or article on your own. Only you will save yourself a ton of time and mental energy.
I created this blog post without the blog assistance of ChatGPT. But I did use Grammarly.
Hello! So a while ago, I found this youtube channel called Densle, where they make animal crossing shorts.
Recently they released the last episode of the series after five months. The animation style is really cool and I like how the story took an unexpected turn but had a happy ending.
In other happy internet news, I learned that there is a community collab pack to the video game celeste and it’s set to come out on February 18th.
Warner Brother’s is home to DC Comics and DC is home to some of the most popular heroes known to fiction. Home to Batman, Superman, the Flash, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman. Warner Brother’s and DC Comics have had mixed results with these wildly popular heroes on the big screen. Few of their films have gone on to be major successes and have big box office draws and even fewer have been given any critical praise. The franchises are filled with characters handled so poorly many have given up hope that warner and DC could salvage anything from the original attempt to build something to rival the Marvel cinematic universe.
What makes ME happy is that it was recently announced that a new pair of CEOs are taking over at DC comics and will lead the next ten years of DC films. One of these new CEOs is James Gunn the director and writer of the Marvel film “Guardians of the galaxy” and the DC film “The Suicide Squad”. Handing over the reins to someone like Gunn gives me an immense amount of restored faith in the future of DC films. What me makes me even happier is that they’ve released the slate of DC films and television shows for us to look forward to.
Hey, everyone! Hope you’re having a wonderful week.
My most recent hyperfixation has been TTRPGS– Tabletop Roleplaying Games– like Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. For those unaware, TTRPGs are a form of group storytelling; One person, usually called the Game Master or GM, creates a world and a story, and everyone else at the table creates a character who participates and directs how the story goes. If you’ve ever watched shows like Stranger Things, it’s what the kids in that play.
If you’re into Fantasy and Sci-Fi or just fiction in general, it’s an awesome way to be able to craft your own daring adventures and let your imaginations run wild. And honestly? It’s a load of fun. I’m a part of a group that meets every Saturday, and it’s a blast. For three to four hours every weekend, I get to hang out with my friends, relax and snack, and take part in a collaborative story about a bunch of brave heroes fighting against the forces of evil. It’s basically like getting to experience your own fantasy novel.
There are countless TTRPG systems, and they all focus on different genres and settings. Some are about Fantasy, some are about Science Fiction, some focus on Horror, some let you play as superheroes. Anything you can imagine, there’s probably a game system for it. But for simplicity’s sake, I’ll focus on Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, or DnD5e, which is the most popular system right now.
In DnD, the Game Master sets the scene. For example, your group of adventurers may be exploring a dungeon, so the GM will describe what the dungeon’s moss-covered walls, the cold stone, the sound of dripping water in the darkness, to get you immersed into the scene. They’ll also describe the enemies and obstacles you’ll encounter. In a dungeon, you might deal with undead skeletons, or traps or cave-ins.
The players all come with character sheets which detail everything you need to know about your character. Say, for example that you’re playing a cunning thief, or a brilliant wizard, all of the things your character can do will be detailed in the sheet.
Here’s the sheet for one of my characters. It looks like a lot when you first start, but I guarantee it’s a lot simpler than it seems:
This all says, put simply, the things my character is good at. He’s a big, burly warrior who fights with a giant sword. He’s good in a fight, but he’s not very smart and he’s very socially awkward.
So, in a dungeon, my character would do very well in a fight against skeletons, and he’d probably be able to dig his way out of a cave-in, but he’s not very smart so he might fall prey to traps.
To determine what happens, I will have to roll a dice, usually a 20-sided one, and then add relevant numbers on the left to meet or beat a number set by the GM. So, for example, to avoid the trap I might have to roll something to do with intelligence, and meet or beat 15. Since I’m bad at intelligence rolls, I don’t add anything, and if the total of my roll meets of exceeds 15, my character avoids being hurt. If I don’t, then I take damage and my character is injured in some way.
This makes it so that there’s always some narrative tension– I can’t just say that my character is a golden God who succeeds at everything he tries. Because he can fail, his successes have meaning.
With that frankly far too long explanation out of the way, let me explain why I enjoy TTRPGs.
They’re a fantastic way to develop self-confidence and public speaking skills, in an environment that’s not very high stakes. Everyone feels awkward at first, and most people understand that everyone needs a little time to get used to it. It also helps you think creatively, and flexes the little brain muscles of your imagination. And above all, it’s just a ton of fun.
If DnD interests you, then there are countless resources online to try and find a game. I personally use the LFG (looking for group) subreddit on Reddit to find my games. And if you’re (understandably) nervous about meeting strangers in real life, there are a bunch of online sites where you can sign up to play through sites like Zoom or Discord, the most popular of which is Roll20.
And if it doesn’t interest you, that’s fine too. We all have differing tastes, and I appreciate you reading through this post to learn more about something I’m passionate about.
Hello everyone, what from the Internet has made me happy this past week?! well lets get started …
The Grammys happened on Sunday, the opening show got everyone moving. Performed by one of my favorite artists Bad Bunny who performed “El Apagon” and “Despues de la Playa” two songs from his album”Un Verano Sin Ti”, album that won Best Musica Urbana Album!
A lot of things make me happy on the internet but the main thing that brightens up my day is a nice post of wholesome content, whether it would be a funny cat video or a cool post involving people with their pets.
These types of videos are always helpful in making me feel better if I’m not in the best of moods. It’s hard to not smile at a nice video with animals in it.
Another thing i enjoy on the internet is reading.
