Thinking about getting engaged? You have to check out my friends at Mordor Jewlers. Find this great new ring on their website right here. This particular ring is really hot right now. Get it for only 299.99. A bargain.

I used Etsy because the format is relatively simple. Using the XRay Goggles was really easy to edit pages and it was kind of fun seeing what I could do to change the page.

This was a 4 star assignment that was mandatory this week.

Here are some screenshots of me making my “The One Ring” page.

I would do an intro for this entry, but I’m running short on time as is, so I’ll just tell you that this assignment also ballooned to three-and-a-half stars, compared to the plain three it had when I first selected it. Long story short, I have to, quote, “find a cool, easy-to-use digital tool online,” and “write up a brief tutorial on how to use it, and what it can be used for.” In other words, think ABC’s Shark Tank, if it were exclusively made for the people who brought you Napster and Facebook.

Today, I’m going to pitch Audacity to you. Now, Audacity is a downloadable audio editor that’s been available for public use since May 28, 2000. It’s main selling point has been two-fold: Not only can you record audio for editing from multiple sources – including directly, if your computer contains the right equipment – but it has also been used in the editing process of whole albums. That’s because of the available use of several editing techniques, such as the standard fade-outs and fade-ins, which are common with most recorded materials; trimming the audio, to cut out any noticeable mistakes; or simply normalizing the audio, entirely, to get rid of any background noises that might interfere with the recording during playback, which also makes Audacity perfect for potential podcast producers.

Once your computer is finished downloading both Audacity itself, and the LAME file needed to import MP3s onto it, from your designated “safe” sites, simply record whatever it is you wish to hear. Whether its from a separate source, or by pressing the “Record” button on Audacity, chances are, once its uploaded, you’ll be able to hear it once the playback begins.

From there, it’s off to the races you go, as every potential form of sound manipulation is now at your command. From testing the credibility of “backwards audio messaging” rumors with the Reverse feature, to creating your own singing lesson for the local choir with the Change Pitch option, anything goes!

For example, if you wanted to sound like you were visiting a cavern, select the audio in full – or parts of it, if you want to take it slow – by typing in the starting, and ending, times of the part you wish to edit on the Selection Start and End/Length bars, conveniently located near the bottom of the screen. Go up to Effect, and choose the “Echo” selection, before pressing the “Play” button on Audacity, to hear the end result for yourself. If you’re satisfied with what you hear, save it as an Audacity file – and, later, as its own MP3 – by going up to “File,” selecting “Save Project As,” and typing in the title of your choosing, before repeating the process once more, this time clicking on “Export Audio” to save your finished project as whatever form of audio you need, including WAV and MP3! If not, just press the “X” button at the top-left corner of the audio file to permanently delete it… unless you happened to save it as its own file before you clicked on that button, which means you can have even more fun with it tomorrow!

With that, I earn seven stars, when I only wanted six, for my Web Assignment efforts this week, as well as complete all of the necessary requirements on my checklist.

Another week is in the books, and another two challenges are completed, as this time, I had to do two Web Assignments worth no less than six stars. Naturally, I chose two three-star tasks to check off this part of my weekly list, but this one managed to have its score balloon to three-and-a-half stars by the time I managed to get everything in order.

To make an embarrassingly long story short, even if I am too late for that, the task I’m referring to is the “BuzzFeed Personality Quiz, which I used to – albeit quickly, due to time constraints – construct a quiz modeled after a favorite anime series of mine.

Based on one of the earliest-known works of Detective Conan creator Gosho Aoyama, Magic Kaito 1412 may have only aired in Japan, starting around this time last year, but I openly enjoy it, even now, as it’s willing to take the tropes we normally associate with the mustache-twirling villains of old, and subverts them, for both dramatic and comedic effects, depending on the situation.

How else could you justify the fact than an aspiring stage illusionist decides to become a jewel thief to solve the mystery of his father’s (supposed) murder; his childhood friend uses a janitor’s mop as a weapon, whenever she gets angry; one of their classmates is a wicked, young witch whose only goal in life is to make every man in the world her slave – with the help of Lucifer as a spirit guide; and another one’s basically Sherlock Holmes, but without the drug addiction? This is what I was looking at with the task before me; it was a chance to see which high school archetype you are… if that school was in the “Land of the Rising Sun,” and your class clown doubled as the “Magician Under the Moonlight.”

The process began with the usual round of paperwork: Log on to BuzzFeed, preferably with my Google+ account; select “Make a Post,” “More” and “Quizzes,” in that order; and then, see what I could do with what the site could provide me. It was practically smooth sailing from that point onwards, as I gave four personality profiles when I was only asked for three, each one connected to one of the main characters in Magic Kaito – the titular phantom thief, Kaito Kuroba; the police inspector’s daughter, Aoko Nakamori; the scarlet temptress, Akako Koizumi; and the son of the superintendent general, Saguru Hakuba.

Admittedly, the toughest part was the construction of the questions, themselves. Again, tying everything I know about Magic Kaito into a personality test was going to be a close call, but I think I made everything work out for the best, right on down to the photo selection for each question, and possible outcome of the test.

The writing process took more time than I expected, but if it wasn’t for last-minute inspiration from the likes of Baggage and The Newlywed Game, as well as the idea to end everything on the biggest potential stealth pun of them all, I wouldn’t have gotten the necessary minimum of six questions needed for the test to be published. To be fair, starting the test off with a question about making the best possible entrance into a party didn’t hurt, either.

Overall, everything worked out for the best, and this first set of stars was well-earned. This is easily my favorite project of the week, and I am more than satisfied with the effort I put into it.

As for the final product, I recommend that you take the test for yourself, here.

For my final Web Assignment of the week, I am completing the required assignment Storytelling Within The Web:

From the Spring 2011 ds106 class came the idea of changing up an existing web page to tell a new story” you will be intervening in the code and design of a website of your choice to tell a story. You are not to photoshop the design of the site, but rather intervene in the actual html and CSS of the site—though you can photoshop particular images on the site. Essentially you alter the content of a web page (content, images) to make it tell a new story. Originally we recommended doing this using the Firebug extension in the Firefox browser, which does work, but is unfortunately easy to lose your work. We currently recommend Mozilla Hackasaurus — install the X-Ray Googles in any browser and use it to re-cast the content of any web page. When you blog it, include both a screen capture in your post, but you will also need to upload the web files (HTML and media files) to your own site so it can exist as a stand alone URL. (see our olderFirebug Tutorial) Consider using news sites, social media profiles, product pages, movie review pages etc. The simpler the design of the page, the easier it will be (think Craig’s List).

To be honest, I was completely confused and scared by this assignment, so I saved it until today to complete. However, I found this incredible tutorial created by Daniel Adams, a past DS106 students. He made a video on his blog that is simple and easy to understand, which perfectly explains how to complete the assignment. I completed the assignment given the instruction he provides in the tutorial video.

In honor of Homecoming Weekend and school spirit, I decided to alter the content of my Instagram profile web page to resemble that of our new school mascot, Mandaalynnn the Eagle! Below is the original web page and then the altered webpage.

I made several changes to my original web page in order to achieve the final product. I will list them below:

1. Change profile image to that on our Mary Wash eagle mascot.
2. Change username from “mandaalynnn” to “mandaalynnn the eagle”.
3. Edited the About Me/Bio section to reflect the new name, important dates and info. (1908- Year MWC/UMW was founded; Pro Deo Domo Patria– UMW’s motto; UMW main website)
4. Alter the number of posts and followers (1908 total posts, and 5,000 followers for the approximate number of undergrad and graduate students that attend UMW).
5. Change the three most recently posted images to UMW appropriate images (university seal and logo, Lee Hall).

This assignment was really simple but I had a lot of fun doing it. For 3.5 stars, the assignment required me to create a Pinterest board and pin to it all things that reflected my dream vacation(s).

The pins on my vacation board range from Disney World to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to road-tripping across the United States. I know it’s only a matter of time before I make these dreams into realities. Traveling has always been something I’ve been interested in and I do plan to actually take all the trips I’ve pinned to my Pinterest board.

Some of the specific posts on my Pinterest are:

Travel guides for Disney World which is at the top of my list of dream vacations.

A guide on how to travel across the United States without spending a lot of money.

And lastly, a list of parks in Canada that are great vacation spots. I included this one because my dream is to travel outside the country and I figured it’d be start in the country closest to home, our neighbor to the north, Canada.