In General:

These two-fer weeks were so incredibly overwhelming (and it’s looking like the next couple of weeks are going to be overwhelming also). But, at last, we are over the hump, and everything is done. The Radio Show. The audio assignments. The daily creates. And I’m bundling them all up nicely for your to look over in this weekly summary.

STOP, Collaborate and Listen

Our radio show started out a bit rocky with the two group members that we never heard from, and then incredibly different schedules that we all ended up having. But once we got past that, and decided on our theme, and our layout, we all got our shit together, and came up with what turned out to be a pretty good show (I think), but we’ll see about what Prof Burtis says come Tuesday.

The most difficult part of this group project was definitely communicating with the rest of my group. Because we all had such different schedules, we decided email/canvas were the best way of communicating, but not the most efficient. We probably could have had things done a lot quicker had we had a different means of communicating. We got it done though. And on time. We all decided the theme to be fall because we all are a bit obsessed with pumpkin flavored things. And the soundscape layout worked best with our diverse schedules.

As far as my contribution for the show, it went better than I expected. Although, I have to say, my own voice sounds totally different inside my head. I’m not sure I am a fan. I’m also a lot more soft-spoken than I imagined. Our group as a whole chose to do a soundscape layout, so my portion of the show included reading a poem (from the Poetry Read audio assignment) and talk about in relation to fall. I chose this particular assignment (which only has one star allotted to it–unrealistic) because I felt that a poem is interesting to analyze, and this particular poem makes me think about the fall, and the fall makes me think about this poem–maybe because the first time I read it was in the fall, but also because I find myself in a very reflective kind of mood in the fall. This was also the mood I tried to maintain in my radio show. I think it came off that way. To achieve the portion of the show, I wrote down everything that I was going to say (my public speaking is atrocious) and read it and recorded it in Audacity. I had to read everything via script because otherwise my show would’ve been full of “ums” and “uhs.” Nobody likes that. Anyways, I think our show turned out pretty awesome. It airs Tuesday night at 6:00 pm, on ds106 radio. Let me know what you kids think about that.

I think as a whole, the show comes together really nicely. We all add a taste of our unique (and big) personalities to the show, and in the end it all came together really nicely, and really creatively. It is a good depiction of our individual selves in relation to each other. So, I liked the outcome.

Working with audio in general has been quite the experience. It took me a lot to warm up to. And I’m still not entirely  comfortable with it. I’d rather do visual, or design assignments any old day–I have more of a knack for those branches of digital storytelling. I thought that I would maybe get more comfortable with audio but I think it would take more that a few weeks (thanks to my introverted nature) for me to be comfortable with audio.

STOP, Hammer Time

During the past two weeks, we had to complete 10 stars worth of audio assignments. I have to say, of all the categories of assignments (design, visual, video, etc), the audio assignments are my least favorite. They make me nervous for some reason. Maybe because you are supposed to convey a whole story or idea with the sound of your own voice, and I don’t have a lot of practice with it. Plus, the walls in my house are paper thin (as you learned from my first sound effect story), and thus, makes recording quality audio very difficult and annoying. In fact, I initially went home to Northern Virginia to my parent’s house to try to record–and get free food, but that’s besides the point–but ended up accidentally deleting it when I was already back. So, that idea proved futile. Anyways, the rest of my audio assignments went pretty well. And you guys can check them out by either combing through my recent articles or clicking one of these links: Miiiiilk, No Need to be Dramatic, A New Comment is Waiting for your Approval, Me Who? Exactly What?, Forever Studying, or It’s Morphing Time.

STOP, In the Name of Love

We had to do 6 daily creates for the past two weeks. Here are mine:

1. Extreme Edit

• I took this picture as I was walking back from class one day, and edited it using Instagram. It looks pretty similar to the original, so I suppose the edit wasn’t too extreme–it just brought out the intensity of the colors in the leaf and on the sidewalk behind it, which makes it look pretty effing cool if you ask me.

2. Non-Dominant Emotion

• I drew the emotion of annoyance (or boredom to some people) using my left hand (my non-dominant hand). I actually had to draw it twice–drawing straight lines with your non-dominant hand is difficult. I love this smiley face. I use it a lot in my text conversations, because I think it’s funny, and it conveys exactly how I feel when I am annoyed.

3. First Thing in the Morning

• The first thing I do every morning when I wake up is go pee. Thus, the picture of the toilet. Fuck everything else, I need to pee. I have been holding it in all night. (#smallbladderproblems).

4. Dramatic Reading of Emily Dickinson’s “If you Were Coming in the Fall”

• I am TERRIBLE at being dramatic. I can’t seem to find a realistic level dramatic-ness. So, I just did it over-the-top, which makes it rather comical. I liked doing this daily create though. I’m not a very dramatic person, so getting to be overly-dramatic was fun for me. I recorded this using Audacity.

5. Picture of a Fence

• I took this picture this summer. This particular place is at the docks in Old Town Alexandria. These boats are either privately owned or they are the public ferries that carry people to and from DC or the National Harbor or to Georgetown, etc. It’s really a beautiful place. And one of my favorite spots in Old Town. The fence here is important because it keeps people from falling into the water.

6. And a Photo of Something that Means a lot to me

• This is my kitty, Mosby. Don’t be fooled by his adorableness he is a little asshole, but what cat isn’t? I love him though, and he means a lot to me, as any pet should. I got him last January when he was only a wee kitten of 3 months. He is now a year old, and an even bigger asshole than he was when I first got him. But I guess that’s why I love him. That and he is cute.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The unused media that I added to the dropbox were all pictures from the design blitz in week six, that I opted out of using. They were called “balance.jpg,” “dominant color.jpg,” “proportion.jpg,” and “unity.jpg.” My curiosity is piqued (perhaps because of the vagueness) as to what is going to happen with these unused pictures.