Well….. Well! That’s just it! Week 3 is hard to describe. I don’t feel like there was MORE work but then again, I don’t feel like there was LESS? I don’t even think it was the same amount…. what DO I think? Who knows. The Assignments were pretty simple, 3 daily creates, 3 assignment bank assignments, a reflection post, watching TV, and interact with class. Did I miss any? Hopefully not. Let the show begin!
Daily Creates
I had a heavy work load for monday so I figured I only need to do 3 daily creates, I can skip Monday. Ha… Then came Tuesday. I just really wasn’t feeling telling a story in the dark. If I did decide to do it, it would have taken me more than 10 minutes to do which i wasn’t looking forward to. So now comes Wednesday.
Wednesday: I’m in a bit of Daily Create slump. Boo. But wait! Wednesday’s Daily Create was interesting. The word Lune is what caught my attention. I first thought of loom which i think has something to do with knitting? When i goggled lune, the definition said it was “Half moon shape” or something along those lines. Then it occurred to me that I should click and read the assignment before wasting time googling and knitting. So I click on the link and what…. I get to create a small poem and add a picture? Cool! The app was really easy to follow. The hardest thing I had to do was think. What do I do everyday that is ordinary? Well, besides getting dressed, I always put my earrings on. I go into more detail on my blog post for this daily create here. Finally here’s my lune!
Thursday: The Daily Create for Thursday really peaked my interest. Well, everything except the math part. Blah. So, like i wrote in my post for this daily create here, i chose the one equation that i will never forget: y=mx+b. I can fully remember the equation but i don’t know what it’s actually for… At least not at the moment. It definitely has something to do with a line.. i know that. But Thursday’s Daily Create was fun. I’m trying to get more familiar with GIMP since i had to download it for the Gif assignment. I went searching through google for funny pictures/recognizable logos. I was really excited when I found the “=” in the form of Mario Bro’s bricks. That was definitely the highlight of this Daily Create. The only thing I didn’t enjoy was how long it took. I know it shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes but how am i suppose to cut and paste 5 symbols and put them together on a separate file under 10 minutes? Unless i have wizard skills, it’s impossible. It took me around 20 minutes but i enjoyed the learning process which was similar to my visual assignment. Here was my end result:
Saturday:
This daily create was fun. A way for me to FORCE advice onto people. That’s the best. My separate post about it is here. Below is the actual audio!
Assignment Bank Assignments:
Visual
So far, these assignments have been extensive. The Assignment was to get a picture of a famous couple and crop out the faces with your own, and in this case for the Wire ep 13 I chose Avon and Stringer. I felt confident and was bold when i chose my assignment for the last episode of season 1. I like to refer to this assignment as “My PNG Nightmare”. I looked up various tutorials on how to face swap with GIMP. Let me tell you, it wasn’t the easiest. Most of the tutorials, well, all of the ones i found had Windows as their OS. I’ve been blessed with a Mac but in this situation, i was cursed. I finally found the perfect tutorial which i have the link for in my blog post for this assignment here. My biggest issue, as stated in the blog post, was “how do I get an invisible background?” No matter how many times I replayed the tutorial i still ended up with a white background. I emailed Groom and he blessed me with the answer “try saving it as a PNG.” Who knew those 5 words would bring me such joy? Ha! so Finally,my work was done. I have more details on why I chose them here.
Audio:
After realizing that my last assignment was the real deal, I wanted to find something that wouldn’t stress me out as much. So here’s the assignment. Reciting an original poem that reflects and episode of The Wire. It did take some time but not nearly as much as my previous assignment. My based the poem off of McNulty and the squad who worked on the Barksdale case, but mostly on McNulty because he’s just great. Here’s my blog post for the assignment. I really enjoyed this assignment because it was a way for me to be creative and funny at the same time. And I also love hearing my own voice ;). Here’s the audio!
Design:
Okay, this was by far my favorite assignment bank assignment. It consists of 4 pictures of characters that i decided to do a “where are they know” theme. my original post is really long so i felt that giving you a link to the post would work out a lot better than you having to scroll so long! CLICK HERE FOR FUNNY BLOG POST! but here’s a sneak peek at one of pictures i chose hehe:
Categories:
As easy as this assignment sounds, it took a lot more time than I expected. I messed around with categories last week and got nowhere so I left it alone thinking we wouldn’t need them. Um, mistake, we ended up using them this week. Ha! What a shame, I thought i could get away with it. It was easy for me to create the categories and then assign all my posts to them. What I found difficult was how to make them an option for a viewer to click on and find all my posts. It’s a lot easier than having them search through all my posts. I saw that John redid his whole blog and had a look at it here. So I decided to use my favorite app: Twitter. I was just curious as to how to did this and then he responded with the answer I was looking for:
I’m a sucker for screenshots, sorry. They’re just the easiest way for me to keep track of DS106 conversations. ANYWAYS. With the help of John I figured out how to do my categories. The only downfall which I am still working on is how to have them show up on the homepage only. As of right now you need to scroll down to the bottom of the page to find my categories. Included is a subcategories which i’m a little confused about but i’m sure i’ll fix it by Sunday.
Web 2.0 Storytelling:
So this chapter was really interesting. Speaking for myself, my view of the internet is really limited. I mean, yeah, sure, i use twitter and tumblr, blah blah. But those are just basic things, right? Bryan Alexander’s chapter really goes into detail. There are so many different forms of blogging, wikis, images, etc. Here’s my whole post about it. READ ALL OF IT. I PROMISE IT’S GOOD!
Commenting Is Good 4 The Soul:
I hate to brag, but commenting has never been an issue for me. Wether people like it or not, i will always make comments. This doesn’t mean they’re mean, though! Last week, Groom said to step up the commenting game, and i think i did. What was easier for me this week was keeping track of my comments. Last week i didn’t keep any track. So basically on Sunday I went through a bunch of blogs hoping I would see a comment by me. I only ended up finding like 3 or 4. This week, i played it smart. I took a couple screen shots of twitter convos but ultimately those grew in numbers so fast. So i feel the best way for you to see my twitter action is to actually look at my account here. I talked to so many people on there that it’s just too difficult for me to record. BUT! in addition to some screenshots, I copied and pasted the links to a good amount of my comments on blogs this week to my notepad on my laptop. I think the easiest way for me to do this is to list them off and you click for yourself. What i will also include are some of the screen shots i mentioned. Wow, i feel like a teacher now. ANYWAYS. Overall, i enjoyed commenting. It’s fun, especially when people notice me commenting and reading their posts, they decide to read my posts as well. Like Groom stated earlier, it makes us feel more like a community rather than people on their laptops completing assignments for this class. If you haven’t commented that much, i suggest you do.
Screen Shots
Link To Comments:
I really liked Ien’s TDC math expression edition here.
John’s gif of Omar as a bio teach in Community was hilarious, which is why i chose his assignment from the assignment bank. His post is here.
I like RAC and was happy to see a fellow fan when Jessica used them for ans assignment from the assignment bank here.
Nicky followed my lead, or i followed her, in using John’s design assignment. I was impressed with her way of the Gif here
I couldn’t figure out how to do a video montage for Friday’s TDC but Jessica did so I asked her how, here.
Finally, some encouragement much needed after this stressful week from Nicholas here.
Known/Jetpack:
I’m just not a big fan of it, to be honest. After I installed it, i rarely look at it, until now. I’m just so used to posting separately on each site that going to Know is just another step in my way. My biggest issue was with Twitter. I c linked up my personal Twitter account to Known and i can’t seem to take it off and add my DS twitter. I emailed Groom about it and he emailed Known. There’s suppose to a way for me to de-authorize it but i can’t find it. I do post links to the Wire106 Hub so the class can keep track of what I post! Jetpack is cool too. I downloaded it this week and my favorite part is how you can see how many views your page gets. I mean, views are important, right? It’s nice to see how many people actually look at your work. My highest is 44 views in a day. I think that’s GREAT.
The Shapes Of Stories:
I’m not sure how i felt about this video. Maybe it was the bad audio. I mean, i’m not complaining, i know it’s an old video but t was difficult for me to fully understand Vonnegut’s story. What i did understand was really funny. I laughed when he said that people never get tired of happy endings. Also, the Cinderella bit was funny as well. How he described her never-ending happiness with the chalk line was great. I mean, Cinderella did find the prince and became super rich afterwards, leading to great happiness, right? I’m familiar with some of Vonnegut’s work because my dad was a fan. Welcome To The Monkey House had lots of great short stories.
The Wire: S1E13
This episode had a lot of information… My assignment bank assignment goes into detail about how i felt about this episode. Lots and lots of things unraveled, some good and some bad. But check it out here!
S2E1:
This is the episode where stuff gets real. First off… McNulty! I thought you were “good police.” Why did you take that cash from the rich dude? Oh, well. Rawls did screw you over so I guess a little extra cash can’t hurt. It’s not like you don’t get revenge, hehe. I swear I saw a spark in McNulty’s eyes when he was dragging along the dead girl from the harbor. Or maybe he was having a flashback to his old homicide days. I thought about this when he projected the currents and gave the body back to Baltimore City homicide. A part of him wanted to keep that case close so he could check up on it and also screw over Rawls, because, who wouldn’t?!? Any who, this is what struck me this episode.
S2E2:
Dead bodies. That’s all i have to say. Like, what?!? 13 bodies? Since this season started, i’ve been super confused on how the docs have been working. I get that they leave creates open and steal stuff, a lot of stuff, but what do the mobster type guys have to do with it? Well, after this episode, i realized. It’s all about the underground sex trafficking, right? Why else would there be a create (or whatever they’re called) filed with 13 girls? It’s obvious, guys! SEX TRAFFICKING. That is what felt was the most important thing from this episode. I also like how McNulty gave those 13 Jane Doe’s to Rawls. Ha. WEll deserved, to be honest. But i’m excited to see how the upcoming episodes turn out. I mean, there are a lot of ways it could play out.
Lunch With The Crew:
Unlike last week, i decided to join Groom and fellow classmates off campus for some zaa. It was really great to meet other people in the class and talk about The Wire. You won’t believe all the different things people pick up from this show. So many details to catch, it’s amazing. If you haven’t had lunch with Groom yet, do so. Not only is it free food, but you get to actually hang with Groom instead of only seeing him through his weekly videos and posts. DO IT.
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