. . . and I’m really glad about it, obviously. While I’m overjoyed about receiving my well-needed break, I just realized that a whole year has gone by in a flash, and I’m already a fourth of the way through my undergraduate career. You know how life begins to go faster as you grow? I think my life just got on the freeway.
When people say that college is one of the largest steps to adulthood, they mean it. I never realized how much independence it takes to live on your own. It’s not just that you have to cook your own meals and wash your own dishes and take out the trash, it’s because you no longer have your family beside you to help you make decisions and get through stressful times. Thankfully, I had my older brother as a roommate this year; but even then, I had to make so many important decisions by myself. And with these steps to independence, you begin wanting your own place, and you begin having thoughts like what kind of work you’re going to do, who you’re going to marry, whether you want fifteen or twenty kids, what you would look like with a lumberjack beard, the list goes on. Somehow, at least for me, my thoughts are no longer exclusively about how to enjoy myself at the present moment. My thoughts are on the future.
One particular thing that changes when growing up is your relationship with your family. Of course, I had to leave most of my family behind to pursue further studies, and at times, yes, it is sad. I can say with absolute honesty that I miss my family every day I’m apart from them. The bright side to this, however, is that when I do see them, I appreciate their presence so much more. When I was still living with my family, I too easily took them for granted and usually spent my leisure time in seclusion. Now it’s a joy to spend time with them because I know how much I miss them when they’re not around. Any time I can get with them now is precious.
I was scared about growing up, with all the responsibilities and work involved. However, I now realize that a part about growing up is that your outlook on life changes as well, and thankfully, that helps you cope with the struggle of adult life. If I could offer some advice to any new freshman after my first year of college, it would be this: Don’t be afraid. You’ll be alright. . . . And eat lots of spinach.
Just as God created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh, there comes a time when one should take a break from his or her work and reflect on what he or she has created. My first year of college is already wrapping up, and needless to say I’ve been working my butt off. As summer approaches and I get my well-needed rest from academia, I look back at all my work and, more specifically, this blog I’ve been writing this semester. The whole blog-writing experience has been one of great pleasure, and I’ve learned a lot about myself as a writer, especially what I enjoy in writing.
I’m sure this goes for a lot of people, but I enjoy writing SO much more when it’s about something I’m truly interested in. In my blog, I’ve had the opportunity to write about the internet, music, socratic discussion, and even my experiences with new media, from Reddit to Tumblr to word clouds. In addition, it’s so much easier to write when you’re not bogged down by formatting or having to write in an academic style. I can write however I want! Writing this blog has shown me that I’m a casual writer by heart. It’s just so much more enjoyable when I have creative freedom over my writing style.
Another thing I enjoy about blogging is having the ability to use hyperlinks. This was actually something I noticed myself about my writing in this blog as well as something that my Composition professor pointed out about my blog-writing. I really like using hyperlinks. I think hyperlinks are really useful in bringing in other sources of information beyond my own knowledge, from pictures, videos, Wikipedia pages, and potentially anything else on the internet. For example, if I’m discussing a topic that may be foreign to most people, I can easily lead them to a Wikipedia article or website that introduces the topic better than I ever could all with the click of a button. Hyperlinks are an easy way to supplement one’s writing.
I’ve written a lot in this blog, so I wrote up this “Blogfolio” to highlight some of my favorite blog posts. So without further ado . . . my Blogfolio:
My Favorite Comment on Another’s Blog: My Organized Mind’s “How Tennessee Helped Me Get Over My Fear of Making Mistakes” – Here, I found myself really examining myself and my behavior. My Organized Mind helped me uncover a bad habit of mine that I would really like to rid myself of. I probably never will get rid of it, but it never hurts to try.
My Most Intellectually Stretching and Analytical Post (#1 Strongest): “Does Art Need an Audience?” – This post was a response to a socratic class discussion about writing, art, and other deep, thought-provoking topics. During our discussion, someone asked whether a work of art, in order to be art, required an audience. And what was my answer to the question? Read and find out.
My Personal Favorite (#2 Strongest): “Music.” – In this post, I got to combine a personal narrative of my musical education with a discussion on why music is awesome. I also got to list some of my favorite musical works, or simply works that were on my mind at the time. Writing this blog post was a pleasure and a joy.
My Best Use of Images: “An Unintentional Fasting” – I put photos alongside all of my posts, but this picture, artistically portraying the exact problem I discovered after the events covered in the post, was the most relevant in relation to its accompanying post. The image is a side-by-side comparison of two pictures; in the first, people are bowing down to some form of the all-seeing eye, and in the second, people are on their computers and phones, and the all-seeing eye is replaced by a wifi symbol. This comparison shows how so many people become addicted to technology that it’s almost like worship. Being forced out of my own technological addiction (the circumstances of which are discussed in the post), I was able to see from the outside looking in just how inconsequential technology and the internet can be. Sure, technology is an amazing tool, but most of what I tend to use it for is shallow entertainment.
My Best Use of Hyperlinks: “Exploring the Blogosphere” – My first blog post also had the most effective use of hyperlinks. I used hyperlinks to easily refer readers to articles I was discussing, as well as to familiarize readers with the musical works of Joe Hisaishi. ( I suppose this Blogfolio also has some good use of hyperlinks too. . . .)
After all of this practice I’ve gained this semester with blog-writing, I feel that is could be a springboard to a long-term blog-writing venture and not just a short-term class requirement. I’ve really fallen in love with blog-writing. I have complete freedom over the subject matter, and I can write casually, which gives me more creativity over the style. As for what I’ll write about in the future, well . . . I suppose I could pick a central theme to guide my writing, or I could simply write about whatever the heck I want, like coffee brewing techniques or anime. I’ll figure it out when the time comes.
Hey everyone. You probably saw my recent post about my recent dive into the Reddit community, but to sum it up real quickly in case you haven’t, I had been lurking (browsing but never posting or commenting) on Reddit for a several months, so I recently decided to make an effort to start posting and commenting more on Reddit. That way I could actually contribute to the Reddit community. And honestly . . . it’s not going so well.
Last night I decided that I would post a couple of image macros on Reddit just for fun. In hindsight, I totally regret it. It’s not like my posts were met with harsh criticism or anything. In fact, I didn’t really get much of a response. However, something happened when I was sitting there waiting for a response on the post. I felt a type of anxiety I hadn’t felt in a long time, a type that I had during a very rough time in my life. I don’t know why I would get so worked up over something so simple as posting some memetic material on the internet, but this has felt like some kind of a red-flag warning for me. Call me paranoid, but that’s what it felt like.
All this is to say that I’ve decided to take a break from the addictive world of Reddit. Something about last night made me feel very uneasy about Reddit. I need to get away, at least for a little while.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I will take solace in my God and in music.
This is the official logo from last year’s Project for Awesome.
Project for Awesome, created by the infamous Vlog Brothers, is a Youtube video competition/charity drive intent on “decreasing world suck.” The gist of Project for Awesome is that people upload videos to Youtube that advocate some sort of charitable organization, and viewers watch these videos and vote on their favorite ones. During this time, an IndieGoGo fundraiser page is available for viewers to make donations to Project for Awesome. The five (or ten in 2012) videos with the most votes then split the donations amassed by all of the viewers. The 2012 Project for Awesome alone raised $483,296.
For my final project in my Comp 2 class, I was assigned to investigate a case of using digital media such as social media or online videos to support some sort of cause or community organization. I chose to perform a case study on Project for Awesome, or more specifically, the winners of the 2012 Project for Awesome. By investigating these winning videos and identifying the characteristics which led them to gain the most votes from their viewers, I can glean insight regarding writing or media techniques to apply to my own work. It would be especially relevant if I ever end up making Youtube videos.
Here’s a list of the videos/organizations that won the 2012 Project for Awesome:
Office of Letters and Light
Not Forgotten
Wildlife Waystation
Alzheimer’s Society
Harry Potter Alliance
Save the Children
BGSU Dance Marathon
Uncultured Project
Techo
Love146
Now for the rhetorical analysis. Here’s the agenda: (1) Identify the author and the intended target audience (2) Determine the intended purpose (3) Point out examples of ethos, pathos, and logos being used (4) Evaluate its effectiveness in achieving its intended purpose.
So what is the author of the winning videos? Obviously, there are many of them. Some examples would include Charlie McDonnell (AKA CharlieIsSoCoolLike), Gunnarolla, and the Harry Potter Alliance. The intended audience of these videos would be (again, pretty obviously) the entire Youtube viewership, which could be a combination of all sorts of different people (here is a page of the Youtube viewer demographics, courtesy of Youtube).
Next, what is the purpose of these videos? Well, as we’ve previously established, the videos are designed to advocate a charitable organization of some sort and to gain votes from viewers in order to win a share of the donations for the charity.
Now here’s where it gets fun. What are some examples of ethos, pathos, and logos within these videos? With all of the different videos that won just in 2012 alone, I have seen examples of all sorts of rhetorical strategies. For ethos, the most common strategy was charisma, using charm or humor to draw the audience in. Also, the fact that a lot of these video makers already had massive followings prior to Project for Awesome would have been helpful, since many of the viewers would have already been familiar with or were fond of the video makers. Some of the videos included firsthand experience from the speaker. One example would be Charlie McDonnell who, in his video advocating the Alzheimer’s Society, described his experience of having a grandfather who had Alzheimer’s disease and eventually passed away as a result. This one was particularly effective for me as it showed that Charlie McDonnell had a strong reason to be advocating the organization he/she was supporting.
These videos also had numerous instances of pathos. Since most if not all charities are established to solve some sort of world problem, it is easy to appeal to the audience’s emotion by describing in detail the problem they seek to solve. Appealing to emotion can also be easily achieved simply through language. One video supporting the Wildlife Waystation was effective in using pathos by making me feel responsible about helping their animal sanctuary since they are primarily funded by donations. The video said that it was up to me to help these animals. I immediately felt an emotional response. I didn’t want to feel the guilt of seeing those animals suffer, so I felt compelled to donate and support them. Now that’s pathos.
Finally, we have logos. Logos is probably the most upfront of the rhetorical strategies, and that makes it effective when used correctly. The most common use of logos I noticed in these videos was the use of statistics and general logical statements. The Harry Potter Alliance video showed an impressive use of statistics to inform the viewer of how many members they have amassed, how much money they have raised, how much supplies they have donated, and other useful information. While doing so, the video remained organized and engaging.
Overall, these videos were fairly effective. By using a mix of the three different rhetorical strategies of ethos, pathos, and logos, they got their points across and compelled me to take action as well. I saw instances of authority through firsthand experience, charismatic presentation, appeal to emotion and morality, and factual data and evidence. In addition, what I believe to be effective about Project for Awesome is that even though it is over for this year, the videos are still online and can still raise awareness about these various charities and nonprofit organizations. I hope to gain even more insight into the effectiveness of Project for Awesome through my digital activism project.
Reddit. “The Front Page of the Internet,” as some people call it. Just like the Internet, Reddit can be a scary and disgusting place. On the other hand, it can be home to creativity, collaboration, and community. To be specific, Reddit is a social media site aimed at creating online communities based on common interests or beliefs. Besides the Reddit Front Page, which is composed of the hottest content on Reddit, Reddit is broken up into subreddits which are run and moderated by other redditors just like yourself. Each subreddit is built around some common interest or theme, and they are as numerous as the hairs on your head. Some popular subreddits include /r/aww which is dedicated to providing pictures and videos or adorable animals and /r/funny which is home to all sorts of comedy.
Reddit operates on an up-vote/down-vote system. (Up-votes and down-votes look a little something like this.) Any posts or comments on posts can be voted up or down once by each viewer. Content that receives more up-votes (also known as Karma) rise in popularity on the site, and those that are down-voted sink into obscurity. In a perfect world, original content that is witty, humorous, informative, creative, or otherwise awesome would receive up-votes, and tasteless, boring, and unoriginal content and “reposts” (posting something previously submitted to Reddit) would receive either no attention, or worse, the dreaded down-vote by the viewers. Because of the presence of up-votes and down-votes, Reddit can tend to get rather competitive. This can be a good thing, however, as it may spur redditors to contribute original and creative content that is deserving of karma, thereby increasing the overall quality of the content of Reddit. Unfortunately, reposts are common, and due to redditors being unaware that certain posts are indeed reposts, they can be rewarded for copying someone else’s work.
So I’ve been on Reddit for several months now. However, I’ve been what Reddit calls a “lurker,” which is basically someone who browses Reddit but never really contributes to discussion or posts any content. And honestly, it’s hard to get out of “lurker” status. Much of the Reddit community is overly critical, so even something as trivial as a minor typo in a thread post can get you “down-voted to oblivion.” Despite the danger of being attacked by overly critical redditors, I’ve recently began making an effort to become more engaged with the Reddit community. So far, I believe today has been the most successful for me for engaging in the Reddit community, as I mustered up the courage to go on /r/coffee and start a thread asking for advice on buying replacement parts for an espresso machine I recently purchased at a thrift store. When I posted my questions, to my stupefaction, someone responded within a few minutes! Moreover, the response was informative, helpful, and polite! For someone who was nervous about diving into the Reddit community, this was an encouraging moment. (If, for some reason, you want to see the my post on /r/coffee, here it is.)
In the future I hope to become even more engaged in communities on Reddit. Being a former lurker, I have already scouted out many a few subreddits that have piqued my interests (such as the aforementioned /r/coffee or /r/food), so now the next step is to continue contributing to online discussion and to submit my own original content however and whenever I can.
I must warn you, however, that you can find some nasty stuff on Reddit, just as you can on many other internet sites. Please use caution when browsing.
Tumblr is enthralled with pugs at the present moment.
So recently I succumbed to peer pressure (my brother, that is) and signed up for a Tumblr account. If you don’t know, Tumblr is yet another of those social networking sites but with an emphasis on sharing content instead of simply conversing. The setup is simple. Get a username and password, start subscribing to pages, and presto! Those subscriptions will begin filling your dashboard, and you can begin posting your own content or even repost other people’s stuff. Honestly, Tumblr wasn’t what I had originally expected. I had thought that Tumblr was more of a blogging site much like WordPress. However, once I dove into the Tumblr world, I realized that it composed mostly of one single thing:
Oh yes. You know those short little videos that people post everywhere on the internet? Well they’re called gifs, and they’re everywhere on Tumblr. People love to post gifs of scenes from their favorite movies or TV shows, or perhaps from other visually pleasing video footage. One of my favorite things about Tumblr is the many “#What Should We Call —” sites, which are dedicated to using gifs to illustrate certain common feelings and reactions to events. The prime example of such a site would be “#What Should We Call Me,” which I believe was the first Tumblr site of its kind. One that is especially relevant to me, being a musician, is “#What Should We Call Conservatory,” which is chock-full of gifs relevant to any aspiring musician. As an example, this one illustrates the horrifying feeling of being called in for an audition. The gif humorously represents the common gut-wrenching experience of music auditions. That’s what I love about Tumblr, and especially about gifs: they’re so relatable! It’s always a refreshing feeling to see that other people go through the exact same things on a regular basis as you do.
Despite the heavy focus on visual content like pictures and gifs, there are some writing aspects to Tumblr. I’ve seen many instances where internet celebrities will use Tumblr to host Q&A sessions with fans. I’ve never participated in one, but I would love to in the future. Also, I do believe that Tumblr has a blogging/writing option, although I’ve rarely seen it used. Indeed, Tumblr is very addicting mainly because of the plethora of stuff on there. And yes, I’ve taken many a few breaks from writing this to look at Tumblr. I’m sorry.
Now my goal is to actually start sharing some original work on Tumblr. So far I’ve only been reblogging other users’ content, which is fine, but I really want to start contributing to the Tumblr community.
Instead of posting a picture alongside this post, I figured that it would be fun for you to listen to some music with it. But I wouldn’t want to force you to listen to something I picked out for you, so I simply ask you to listen to a song that makes you really really really happy. (If you need a recommendation or are simply curious about what I would choose, click here please.) So put those headphones on, hit play, get happy, and start reading.
It only seems like only a couple of months ago that the semester began, and in reality, it’s only been a couple of months. While thinking about the end of the school year, I found myself reminiscing about my newly-begun journey as a blogger. Again, it’s only been a few months since I started this blog, and I have already amassed 4,000 words of original writing (4,600, if you count what you’re reading now). I know it’s not that impressive, but being someone who usually doesn’t engage in much casual writing, I am impressed in myself. And apparently it’s already time to look back and recall my fondest moments while writing. I guess it’s a good idea for a writer to frequently bring to mind his or her past writing and reflect on it. In my case, I was quite fond of the few posts I made about music as music is a subject I am wholly passionate about. Those posts were some of the easiest to write simply because of my interest in the subject.
So without further ado . . . my (practice) Blogfolio:
My Favorite Comment on Another’s Blog: My Organized Mind’s “How Tennessee Helped Me Get Over My Fear of Making Mistakes” – Here, I found myself really examining myself and my behavior. My Organized Mind helped me uncover a bad habit of mine that I would really like to rid myself of. I probably never will, but it never hurts to try.
My Most Intellectually Stretching and Analytical Post (#1 Strongest): “Does Art Need an Audience?” – This post was a response to a socratic class discussion about writing, art, and other deep, thought-provoking topics.
My Personal Favorite (#2 Strongest): “Music.” – In this post, I got to combine a personal narrative of my musical education with a discussion on why music is awesome. I also got to list some of my favorite musical works, or simply works that were on my mind at the time. Writing this blog post was a pleasure and a joy.
My Best Use of Images: “An Unintentional Fasting” – I put photos alongside all of my posts, but this picture, artistically portraying the exact problem I discovered after the events covered in the post, was the most relevant in relation to its accompanying post.
My Best Use of Hyperlinks: “Exploring the Blogosphere” – My first blog post also had the most effective use of hyperlinks. I used hyperlinks to easily refer readers to articles I was discussing, as well as to familiarize readers with the musical works of Joe Hisaishi. ( I suppose this Blogfolio also has some good use of hyperlinks too. . . .)
I’ve come a long way from the beginning of this semester. However, this is only the beginning. All of my blog-writing thus far has been for assignments for my composition class, but I feel that I want to continue writing in my blog well past the conclusion of the class. As for what I’ll write about, well . . . I’ll figure that out when the time comes.
“A Positive Tomorrows first grader uses JumpStart on a computer at the Oklahoma City University Intergenerational Computer Center in Oklahoma City.” – NewsOK
This week is the climax, for lack of a better term, of my composition class this semester, the week of our service learning project with Oklahoma City University’s Intergenerational Computer Center. The ICC was established last year to offer free computer access to those of the local community who don’t have regular computer and internet access. The ICC also works with various public schools and children’s groups such as Boys and Girls Clubs and Positive Tomorrows. This week, the ICC is hosting various public school classes during their intersession to engage in learning activities.
I went Wednesday morning to put my time in helping out the young’uns at the ICC. In all honesty, I was expecting the whole ordeal to be much more labor-intensive than it turned out to be, but it still kept me on my toes. We were basically there to assist the students in their projects. If they ever had questions or couldn’t get something to work properly, we would give them pointers.
The students (around 3rd or 4th grade) began by writing poems based on the question “What if I was a rock star?”. They then took these poems and made them into storybooks using an online program called Kerpoof. (Check it out. It’s pretty fun.) The program does have a bit of a learning curve, so we had to help the children frequently with things like backgrounds, text boxes, and various other features (or in other words, functional literacy). Once the students got the hang of how Kerpoof worked, they really went to town. I observed a great deal of creativity going on. They all were using the same resources (same topic of poem, same program), yet each student’s finished product was vastly different from the next student’s. It was a truly amazing sight to see the students achieve advanced literacy with Kerpoof so quickly. There was one student in particular who managed to create the entire storybook without help, then proceeded to begin toying with the movie function of Kerpoof! I was astounded.
This experience has been an enjoyable one mainly because I didn’t do much. It’s not that I’m lazy or anything (although I am), but it delighted me to see these children being so independent. Once we helped them reach functional literacy, they managed to achieve great results all on their own. I was flabbergasted by their ingenuity. I am glad that I got to help these children exercise their creativity at the ICC this week. After all, creativity is an essential part of a good education.
My word cloud. I think it left out the words “single” and “available.”
Hey y’all. This lovely thing above is known as a word cloud. There are these online programs such as Tagxedo or Wordle that take a URL or block of text and create these word-based pictures based on the words you give it. The more important or common the word, the larger it is. In fact, this word cloud was made from the very blog you are currently reading.
Now we (I and my fellow Composition classmates) have been discussing how word clouds can be used to teach or cultivate creativity. To help investigate this, our teacher gave us a rubric titled “The Capacities for Imaginative Learning,” formulated by the Lincoln Center Institute as an identifier for creative material. So basically, we need to weigh word clouds against this rubric. In this post, I’ll be focusing on just a few items on the rubric which I think that word clouds carry well.
Embodying (to experience [an object of study] through your senses, as well as emotionally, and also to physically represent that experience): After making my own word cloud, I immediately realized that it carried a strong emotional feeling. The certain combination of words gave me distinct feelings and thoughts. And while doing this, it manifested itself in an aesthetically pleasing illustration. It really does a bang up job at taking your own thoughts and feelings put into writing and making something beautiful and creative out of them.
Questioning (To ask questions throughout your explorations that further your own learning; to ask the question, “What if?”): I believe that word clouds are a great method self-reflection (that is, if you use your original writing to create them). A word cloud is composed of words significant to you, but you may not be aware that you use these words as you do. By doing this, a word cloud can prompt you to ask questions about yourself: Why do these specific words appear? How do these words describe me? Do these words accurately describe me? If you want to get really deep, you may use your word cloud to identify aspects of yourself you may not like and wish to change or get rid of. I almost did that. O_O
Identifying Patterns (To find relationships among the details you notice in [an object of study], group them, and recognize patterns): VIOLIN, ORCHESTRA, PLAYING, MUSICIAN, ART, INSTRUMENT. I think you can see where I’m going with this. If there is a common theme in writing, a word cloud will point that out. Obviously it found out that I talk a lot about music in this blog. (And Tagxedo even let me shape my word cloud into a treble clef!) Being able to notice and illustrate patterns is one way that a word cloud can be a vessel for creative learning.
Socrates and Phaedrus duking it out in an epic battle of the minds.
So last Wednesday my Comp class had a “mini-symposium” as we reflected on the writings of Plato in a passage of the Phaedrus. The passage’s main topic of debate was whether writing could convey as much information as normal conversation and whether constantly writing information down rather than simply memorizing and recalling said information would result in a loss of intelligence. While debating this issue, my class somehow got onto the topic of what makes art art. As a musician and a lover of all forms of art, this thought intrigued me. What makes something art?
The immediate answer to the question is that if someone finds that thing to be beautiful or otherwise artistic, it is art. So is a bag full of trash art because someone might think it to be pleasing? I guess so. After all, who am I to say what is and isn’t art? “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” so they say. However, another question came up: If something’s status as a work of art is dependent on someone’s interpretation of it, does that mean that something cannot be art if it has no audience?
I had to think hard on this question. But then I realized something: a work of art has to have an artist, just as a creation needs a creator. And that artist is likely to find his or her own work to be art. So, I guess you could say that a work of art always has an audience. So what if not even the artist finds beauty in his or her creation? I guess that’s the only time something could be regarded as garbage.
In regards to online writing and blogging and such, I find it hard to believe that any decent writing could be considered garbage. The online audience is simply too vast for there to be no one to appreciate it. Also, a blog is a very pliable work of art. You can easily change things and improve based on feedback from your audience. If people don’t like it at first, you can fix it.
This whole topic was quite intriguing. I had a lot of fun discussing it with my fellow classmates.
And speaking of art, did you see the painting I included on my previous post? Gee whiz.
My Poorly Knit Sweater 