This week was a really cool week. I finally got to start creating things!
First off, I was introduced to Daily Creates. This week, I did four!
My first Daily Create was more of a doing than creating. To celebrate MLK Day I decided to suggest that people use their free day to serve others. In addition to suggesting others, I decided to sign up for a volunteer opportunity that I will be doing Friday Jan. 25! I will be working alongside the American Red Cross and helping with the local blood drive. I felt this was a great opportunity to share the idea to volunteer so others could become motivated as well. I feel people get caught up in their daily lives we forget we can take a step back and help those who need it.
My second Daily Create was to explain something technical while using furry animals. I used a boxer with a ball in his mouth to explain the Lock and Key Model by Emil Fischer. I am a biology major so using a biology concept was the first to come into my mind. I know this concept very well too because I have to know it in my field. (Fun Fact: The Induced Fit Model is actually a more correct way to describe the relationship between substrates, enzymes, and active sites (; ) I thought using the boxer picture was a really good idea because it shows how the Lock and Key fits together just like his toy does in his mouth. He is also super cute. I made this Daily Create by finding his cute picture online and looking up a direct definition of the model to double check my facts. Then I went into my Snapchat app, typed over the picture using a Big Text font and made the text black to contrast with the greenish background. The look came out very clean and served it’s purpose to being informative, but throwing the viewer off with the super cute picture.
My third Daily Create was to make a literal song comic. Currently, my second favorite song is No Place by the Backstreet Boys. So of course this is the song I wanted to play around with. I chose the lyrics in the beginning of the song that say “You’re my Memphis, New York, New Orleans all rolled into one.” I decided to literally put “You’re my Memphis, New York, New Orleans” all rolled into “one”. So, for my comic I found a picture of the word “one” written in white letters in a black circle. I picked this because it was circular and fits the rolled part of the lyrics and I could draw inside the white letters. To finish off my comic I decided to hop on my iPhone and use the “Markup” tool on the saved picture and draw inside the “one” ,”You’re my Memphis, New York, New Orleans” in a rolling motion. I also picked colors I personally associate with the places. I have no rhyme or reason why I picked the colors I did – it just felt right. I thought this was funny, creative, and different from what others were doing with the task.
My fourth Daily Create was something I loved! I got to take a high deff, zoomed in picture of nature. I love photography and I loved my end result. I picked a bush outside my house because it is the only plant that really has any color right now. It’s also raining and I thought it would look extra cool with the droplets. I took this with my iPhone 8S Camera and it did a wonderful and beautiful job. I zoomed into the bush and got my hands a little wet so I only took a picture of a few leaves on it – per the Daily Create’s wishes.
Aside from my Daily Creates, I was introduced to the Assignment Bank on our DS106 webpage. I’m also really excited about these because I get the chance to create using different medias.
The first assignment I did was a Visual Assignment. This assignment was meant to confuse three fans of different secret agent characters. So what I did was take a picture of James Bond off the Internet, go on Snapchat and type a quote from Kim Possible, and then give credit of the quote to Perry the Platypus. This way, different fans can recognize their favorite secret agent character, but get confused that the picture and quotes are meant for three different people. Furthermore, I kept the colors consistent in my creation to keep the balance and appeal to the eye to further gain the attention of the viewer. I enjoyed this assignment and I think it’s pretty funny.
The second assignment I did was a Writing Assignment. For this assignment I was to link a song to Twitter and describe how it makes me feel. I picked my current favorite song, “This Is It” by Scotty McCreery and talked about how happy and excited it makes me feel. I can’t wait for my future wedding – in fact I have a pretty clear image in my head on how it’s going to go. I’m also really excited about getting proposed to and this song makes me daydream a little harder.
My third assignment was a Design Assignment. I got some photoshop fun in for this assignment! What I had to do was think of something I wish my iPhone did and then create a picture that depicts that thought. I said that I wished my iPhone could send information straight into my brain so I didn’t need to study the information I was reading, I’d just memorize it. I imagine the words flying from the phone straight into my brain so that’s exactly what kind of picture I put together. I took a picture off the Internet of a boy sitting and using a typewriter. The image already had words flying out of the typewriter. Next, I found a picture of an iPhone laying down and I put the two pictures into an editing app called Adobe Photoshop Mix. This app allows you to mix together two photos and photoshop them. Using this app, I cut out the iPhone and placed it on top of the typewriter. I then used a tool called Clone Stamp to hide the typewriter with a close stamp of the wall behind it. Next, I used the Warp tool to make the flying words appear to be flying into his head more. Then WAALAAA. I had finished my masterpiece. I was happy with this assignment and thought I did a good job. I also think it’s what a lot of people wish too – especially with books.
After I made all of my creations I took some time and customized my page. If you noticed, I changed my blog title, the themes, and the whole set up of my page. The first change was the change that brought all my ideas together. I decided to call my blog “A Captivating Silence” because I feel it goes with my theme of being undercover, and not showing my true self. It’s a silence from my real identity and my real world and I really wanted that for these platforms. So, I think it’s really fitting. The go with that idea, I changed the background of my blog to a pretty sunset. I feel like sunsets are captivating and when you watch them, you’re silent. It has meaning to it. I changed the theme colors to purplish pinkish too so it went with the picture and color scheme. Then, I changed my logo to a pretty white cursive G (the first letter of my name), just so I could have a small little hint of who I was, but not enough to actually know me. I thought it meshed well too and I liked the aesthetic. Last, but not least. I reorganized my posts into menus. You can view my weekly assignments in one section, and then my miscellaneous posts in another section. I felt it added more organization and my viewers can find things more easily. I felt accomplished after organizing and customizing my blog and it made it feel more personal.
In addition to my tasks, I started following a lot of my ds106 classmates and trying to find them on all of their accounts. I went through classmates followers and found others and so on. This now meant I have their posts on my feed and I can actively comment and like. I don’t feel the need to post all of my twitter reply comments or the comments I leave under posts because honestly I’m so compelled by everyones posts. I see so many creative works and I comment so freely like it’s second nature. In other words, I don’t comment because I have to, I comment because I truly like it. The two that stood out to me this week were definitely from Christiana Meyers and Matthew Miles.
Christiana or agntchristianameyers106 did an amazing Instagram mural. If you click on her Instagram profile you can see the mural that encompasses her last few posts. It’s incredible and really caught my eye.
Matthew did a great job explaining my feelings on snakes. Reading his blog post made me remember some “awesome” memories from the conference golf championship in high school where the same thing happened to me. I’ve embedded his post below. I can relate to this post so much. It really stuck out to me and gave me a good laugh. I made sure I commented on it so he knew I appreciated it.
Lastly, I was to share my thoughts on “What do you think is a good example of storytelling in the secret agent genre? What makes it a good example?” My answer to this is: I’m not really one to watch tons of movies or tv shows and if we’re being honest here, I usually stick to romance, comedy, and horror movies. The only good example that truly comes in my mind as to what is a good storytelling example of the secret agent theme is Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb. I’m not kidding when I say I haven’t watched any spy movies or movies with secret agents in them because I don’t like action and a lot of those movies fall under that category. So yes, Perry is the secret agent that comes in my mind and I love the Phineas and Ferb example for a storytelling theme because of how many episodes and stories the directors created. Perry goes under so many missions and they are SO secret, no one even knows his identity. He lives everyday being an actual platypus and no one even suspects him to be different. It’s awesome and he definitely stays true to being a secret agent.
Again, this week I learned so much and I finally feel like I’m in the swing of things. I’m ready to tackle this course and keep on chuggin’ along!
With love,
Gab
