Creating My Domain
Prior to the start of classes, I made sure to carefully follow the directions sent via email to create my website. I had never heard about UMW Domains before, and after learning that each student for their duration at the University of Mary Washington receives a free domain, I was very excited to get my blog up and running. It took me about an hour to finally decide on a domain. I did some browsing at other students’ domains and deduced that many students used some form of their names in their domain. As I wanted to shorten the length of my domain for ease, I decided to go with “www.nixmemita.com.” Short, sweet, and to-the-point.

Installing WordPress went smoothly, and when the time came to select/design my websites’s theme, I was already very eager to start adding content. I wanted my page to be fun, but still look professional. Playing around with WP, I found that you could install widgets to put on your page. I installed and added a Twitter feed widget that would display my most recent posts in the right sidebar. I included a brief “About Me” section in the right sidebar as well, then completed adding my full resume.

Setting Up My Accounts
In the class assignment for Week 1, we were required to create accounts for several websites. I had heard of all these websites before, but only had accounts for some. As I already had a Gmail account, I was all set up to upload videos on YouTube. I have used Sound Cloud in the past to listen to music and remixes, but I had never created an account for it. I had to create a Yahoo account in order to sign up for Flickr. I’m familiar with Flickr, as my brother (an amateur photographer) posts pictures of his family and my niece there often. In the past, I could never really commit to using and posting on Twitter. I realized that regularly posting and interacting with others on Twitter would be my biggest challenge. My Gravatar image was automatically added to my Sound Cloud and WordPress accounts. The following are my accounts that will be used in DS106:
• Sound Cloud – nickymemita
• YouTube – nicole.memita
• Flickr – nickymemita
• Twitter – @nixmemita

Trying Out Daily Creates
After going through the class syllabus on the Wire 106 page, I saw that, in addition to several assignments that would be given throughout the semester, we had to complete Daily Create mini-assignments. I love assignments that are both fun and bring out peoples’ creative sides, so these Daily Create assignments really interested me. To become familiar with using and tagging Daily Creates, I completed a couple:

August 27, 2014 – The Sky! The Sky!
The vibrant colors in this photo and the fantastical look fascinated me.

August 30, 2014 – Your Perfect Day
Using a collage app on my iPhone, I arranged pictures of what my perfect day would be. It’s my goal to visit Puerto Rico, New Zealand, and go on an African safari one day. My perfect day will then wind down with endless sushi and a nice relaxing spa massage.

The Wire
Episode 1: Getting to know the characters and remember their names in this first episode was difficult, but regardless of not being able to put names to faces, I was still able to understand who the characters were personality-wise. It shocked me how hostile McNulty’s superiors began to treat him after he screwed up talking to the judge. I felt like the other characters were being too hard on McNulty, judging him solely on this screw-up. I could tell McNulty was wise, but stubborn, and that he was enthusiastic about taking down this gang. Towards the end of the episode, I could see that D’Angelo’s attitude towards the gang life was starting to change. Although he had gotten away with killing somebody, his reactions to the beating of the drug con-artist that tried to trick them with fake money, and the murder of one of the witnesses from his trial shocked up, and might have even scared him.

When reading Professor Groom’s commentary on Episode 1, the parallels that occurred in the episode became clear. D’Angelo’s demotion is that that of McNulty. Both characters are getting heat from their higher-ups.

Episode 2: The heat from above is starting to get to McNulty, which can be shown by his late night binge in his car. I liked the contrasting moods in this scene. McNulty sitting in the darkness and the raindrops through the car windows created a somber, depressing mood. However, “Love is Strange” was playing loudly in the car. It was an interesting pairing. What those three detectives did at 2:00a.m. in the High Rises made me think about, as mentioned in the Wire 106 commentary, the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson. Watching this scene made me see police brutality from the perspective of the community. It’s unfair, unjust, and cruel, more so because these communities are essentially powerless over police force.

Episode 3: D’Angelo’s explanation of how to play chess instantly made me think of the drug ring they have going on. His uncle, Avon Barksdale, is the king. He has his men on the frontlines doing his work for him. It’s interesting to see that this show is not just black and white, cops versus criminals. I’m starting to notice it’s a lot more complex. Each side, the division and the gang, has internal problems. The people within these groups have personal problems. For example, McNulty finds out that Lt. Daniels might be a dirty cop. At the same time, Barksdale’s crew’s stash is robbed by a man named Omar and his crew.

Episode 4: It’s nice to see Herc have a gentler approach to speaking with West Side citizens. The police approach this community with so much aggression that I think they forget they are still people. And they are not all bad. Everyone has a story from their past—secrets, skeletons, and more. McNulty and Bunk’s f-word tangent while studying the apartment where the murder occurred brought some humor to something that would otherwise be considered serious and dark.

Hearing D’Angelo give a detailed explanation of how he murdered the college girl, then seeing McNulty and Bunk deconstruct the whole crime scene feels like the story of the murder is being told from two different perspectives. I found it quite neat.