Previously on CT 101…
Where to start with this post…… To put it lightly this semester has been hectic for me. I was recommended CT last semester by my English professor and also told to take Ryan Seslow, neither of which I regret. When the beginning of the semester started and we all talked about our struggles as people in a world where no one cares how your personal life affects your performance in other areas, I knew I was in the right place. Especially since we’re all adults with other classes and commitments but, I feel like I’ve managed. Not as well as I would have liked but I did get to do some really cool things which I’ll talk about later.
As for my blog posts, some have gone up later than I’d like and I always feel slightly behind. However, knowing our professor (whom I’m thankful to have) I know I have time to keep up with the rest of the class. Overall, I’ve learned a lot in this class and it’s been one of the deciding factors for me to stay in this major.
Our first blog post… I remember it fondly, we were just supposed to use it to get familiar with inserting different types of media into our posts. Since I had never done it before, using hyperlinks to link something to a word or sentence was the coolest thing ever. I remember immediately loving that and to this day it’s one of my favorite things to do in a blog post.
By the time we did our second assignment, I already felt more comfortable. Luckily enough, our professor is always straightforward and very clear about what he’d like to see in our blog posts. But he also doesn’t limit us to those requirements and mostly we just have to talk about what we were feeling about the material and our class.
The third assignment kind of threw me for a loop. At first, I thought making memes and gifs would be easy, but as I sat down to do it myself… EVERYTHING went wrong XD. At the time I was still using my old computer which struggled with saving some of the gifs or memes I did make. I also had a problem with getting the right parts of videos to save into the gifs I wanted. It took the video tutorial our professor gave us and some serious patience to get through the gif-making process XD.
Over time, I became more confident in our assignments. The rest of them simply expanded on skills we were developing already. I still like to make memes every once in a while although I’m more partial to gifs.
Which do you like to make more??
As for my overall performance, I’d like to think I’m doing well (at least a solid A- or B). I know I’ve missed a few classes here and there but I’m hoping that now that life has calmed down that won’t be the case anymore. I do watch the lectures whenever I get the chance and I try my best to keep up with the blogs, comments, and lessons ( even though I know I’m always 1 or 2 blog posts behind) but again, I’m hoping that won’t be the case anymore.
I’ve learned so much since starting this class, including how to set up a website a couple of weeks ago. However, I’m always my own worst critic so I’ll try to see my blog posts objectively. I feel like they’ve maintained a consistent backbone of a few gifs and I also try to let my personality come through a bit. Going forward, I plan to include even more media if I can find some that relate to the topic and also more created memes of my own especially now that I found a template website I like.
As far as missing posts go, this and assignment #7 are the only ones I haven’t done yet. I plan to fix that between tonight and tomorrow morning since I have some time to kill before class. My participation online could be better, I try to respond to the comments I get on my blog posts regularly. But, I don’t feel like I’ve commented enough on others’ posts and I plan to fix that right after finishing these two assignments. Class time participation always feels more natural to me because I enjoy the environment of having a class discussion where we all talk at that moment.
The idea of a mid-semester assessment is one that I never had before but once again kudos to our professor for thinking of ways to constantly help us improve not just in this class but as people that operate in the world. I appreciate this because it really helps me put into perspective how I have been doing and how I plan to improve. I look forward to the rest of the semester because I know that all of us are going to do awesome.
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MAN WAS I A DUMMY XD
So after realizing that the semester was quickly coming to an end, I realized I still wasn’t able to fulfill all of the things I wanted to in relation to this class. I was still always 1 or 2 blog posts behind and I still feel like I could’ve commented more on my classmate’s blog posts. However, I do feel like I was able to attend class physically more often which I am happy about because I like in-class conversation more. This semester as a whole just felt like one of those giant snowballs that never stop rolling.
In the end, it was a small dash to the finish line but alas, I made it. Even though it was a bit rough I’m so happy that my English professor suggested I switch to this major and take this professor. I’ve had so much fun over the course of the semester and I’ve learned so many new skills that I can use at a later date like making memes, gifs and as of late, making my website! At first, the website assignment seemed daunting and I’ll admit that I was nervous to sit down with it. Eventually, I bucked up and started it…. it went about the way I expected XD…
I sat there rewatching the two recorded lessons over and over before I had to take a break for the day and revisit it again later. The next day I got on my computer and decided that I was going to see what kind of websites our classmates were making. All of you had such fantastic websites!!! In all honesty, it’s one of the main reasons I wanted to get back into it and see what I was capable of.
In the end, I wound up doing what every kid who grew up with the internet does and googled it. After a couple of hours, I found this really awesome youtube video that walked me through everything I needed to set up a successful website on WordPress. With this tool in hand, I reset my website and started from scratch.
With this new outlook I had on my website, I got really into finding and curating digital content that relates to the things that I wanted to have on there. Because I didn’t have any specific theme in mind so I decided to keep the randomness that I had on my mmm.page we originally made. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I wanted this website to be a form of organized chaos which I feel like I’ve been achieving for the most part.
Using the new Elementor plugin, I have completely redesigned my website and I feel like it looks so much better.
Through the youtube video I watched, I learned how to add pages and edit them with
Elementor (which wound up being a lot easier than I thought), edit my menus, and even use youtube videos as backgrounds. I also replaced the web icon and the website icon with a custom logo I made.
This is my homepage where you will find the initial purpose of the website. It takes you to every page I have (except for the Tv show page which is still in progress). There is also a slideshow of different pictures at the bottom of things I’m interested in.
This is my gaming page where I posted about all of the games I like. Games from both the past and present are on this page and while I have links to some of the games, I plan to update that to have links to all of them.
This is my movie page where I talk about some of my favorite movies and why I like them so much. It is also really cool because the backgrounds of the movie entries are all videos that I figured out how to loop and shorten.
This is my blog post page where I have posted every blog post I did this semester. I plan to have a comments section where people can discuss topics on this page eventually but I couldn’t figure it out in time for the deadline.
This is my “about me” page where you can find out why I made my website which also has one of my favorite quotes at the bottom. It also contains the copyright statement to hopefully keep me from getting sued XD.
Lastly, this is my contact page with my email address for the website if any of you guys or anyone who visits the website wants to contact me :).
I’m still working on my website and will probably continue to maintain it. I want to continue adding content to it, like if I find a new show that I enjoy or if a new video game came out and people want to talk about it. It’ll probably be treated similarly to this class website, a blog that is updated every so often with places for people to leave comments and share a space with like-minded people. This seems like the most ideal use to me because I’ve come to really like the feeling of community that our class discussions in person and our website promoted.
Will you maintain your website when the semester is over?
Now last but not least my grade. Honestly, if you would’ve asked me about a month ago I would have said a B but looking at my website and all of my blog posts, I feel like I deserve an A+ or at least an A. I feel like I’ve grown so much over the semester and I’ve always exhibited the skillset that our professor wanted to see from us (hyperlinking, embedding, making gifs and memes, etc). I know that sometimes I ran a little behind class schedule (mainly for familial reasons I’ve already spoken with the professor about) but I never let that stop me and always managed to stay on track. This class has pushed me out of my comfort zone and I embraced every challenge thrown at me. I mean I made my first edited and purposefully recorded
Youtube video because of one of our assignments!!!!
Some of my favorite times to participate were the class discussions we would have. I always enjoyed going to class because I knew it would be an awesome learning experience and I was never disappointed. We did a lot of good work this semester and I hope everyone is proud of the things they learned to do no matter how small.
Happy Holidays everyone and thank you professor Ryan for one of the best classes I’ve ever taken. As I sign off for the last time, I’ll leave you all with a CT classic. Here’s a gif and a link to all of my previous blog posts. Enjoy your winters and may the memes be with you.
Assignment #1: He shoots it at the buzzer………. And its GOOD!!
Assignment #2: CT10whaaaat?!?!?
Assignment #3: ARe MeMeS ArT???
Assignment #4: Creeper… Awwww man!!
Assignment #4 Cont: I Shot…and I Missed…
Assignent 5: SPAAAAAAACCCEEEE!!!!!!
Assignment #6: The Mid-Semester Assessment Post
Assignment #7: A website!!! For ME!!!!
Assignment #8: It’s Domain name Time!!!!!
Assignment #9: How to train your website
Assignment #10: The Crossover Episode
