Bonjour ds106ers!

Man, does time fly by quickly or what? It’s Sunday night, and while everyone else is enjoying the Superbowl (well, not really because of the power outage), I’m scrambling around trying to submit this post on Canvas before the clock strikes midnight. Now I know how Cinderella feels! Anyways, here’s what I’ve done this week:

What is storytelling?

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live” – Joan Didion

When I think of the word “storytelling,” this famous quote by Joan Didion pops into my head. I completely agree with Miss Didion. I think of stories everyday to make sense of things that I don’t know. If someone is walking with a limp, I wonder, “How did they get that limp?” or if a boy and a girl are holding hands, I assume, “Oh, they must be dating.” These stories help fill in the uncertainties in our lives, and give us a sense of comfort.

Analysis of Movie/Book Based on Kurt Vonnegut’s Shapes of Stories

For my story arc, I decided to tell the story of the Baltimore Ravens at Super Bowl XLVII via Polyvore. We see at the beginning, the Ravens were inbetween good fortune and ill fortune. Then, during the first and second quarter, the Ravens were doing very well, leading 21-6 and had very good fortune. Then, after the power outage, the Ravens started to lose momentum, and had very ill fortune (see Ray Lewis’ angry face). However, in the end, the Baltimore Ravens were victorious and won the Super Bowl, 34-31, giving them very, very good fortune.

Review from in[SPIRE] site

The picture I looked at was a remake of the movie poster of “One Day”. Although the colours and effects originally caught my eye, what I really enjoyed about this picture were the sentences that the creator added to the photo. Not only does it act as a spoiler, it also reveals the (very hilarious) person’s attitude about the movie. Something I would have changed was the colour of the words because I had a difficult time reading it since there wasn’t a huge contrast. Maybe hot pink would have been a better option?

Review of Student’s “Best” Work

This student’s best work is in regards to an assignment called What Colour is Your World? I really enjoyed the different pictures they used to show their favourite colour, pink. However, another aspect that I felt really made this work multi-dimensional was the audio he/she added. The song was Jason Mraz’s “Geek in the Pink.” Not only does the title of the song tie in with the concept of the video (which is a really cute idea) but it also reveals more of the student’s personality and preferences.

Daily Creates

This week, I did three daily creates. Here are the ones I did:

1. January 31, 2013 Finish the sentence. “My biggest fear is….” What is the story of overcoming this?
   After an intense week of internship interviews, all that is on my mind is, “Will I find a job after graduating college this spring?” So, of course this daily create was very easy for me to answer. Fingers crossed I hear back from one or two employers within the next week or I might pull my hair out in frustration!
2. February 2, 2013 Write a story that uses all the ingredients listed in your favorite canned or box food.
   One of my favourite snacks is chocolate-covered cherries. I could eat bags and bags of these babies if I had it my way. Just a side note, anything chocolate-covered tastes exponentially better frozen.
3. February 3, 2013 Make a picture of something broken. Literally or Figuratively.

   

   This weekend, I was at my parents’ home in Northern VA. While my family and I were watching the Caps vs. Penguins game, I noticed my brother’s iPhone screen was cracked. Knowing the daily create topic today, I swiped his phone and took a picture of it. Then I had to spend the next minute explaining what I was doing to my family. #ds106probs

Telling a Story in Photos

From TDC372

I can’t believe I have this much work to do. You look at the big of papers on your desk, not knowing where to start, knowing there’s no end in sight.

You lean back in your black leather chair. Your fingers weave in and out of your hair, while you look at the light reflecting off the ceiling. The ombre effect reminds you of a less-impressive sunset.

Sun. You turn your chair and look outside the tiny window in your room. The sun is about to set, and you realize you haven’t taken a step outside your room. You breathe in the stuffy air, and crave the fresh, cooling breeze. You look back at the pile of papers and think, I can start in a few minutes.

After stepping into a pair of sneakers, you race to the playground in your backyard. You remember playing on it when you were younger, cascading blankets over the slide to hide from monsters, swinging on the monkey bars to avoid stepping in the lava. But today, you gravitate towards the swings. You sit down on the cool rubber. Then, you rock your legs forwards then back. With every swing, you feel the distance between you and the ground increase, until you can’t feel the earth, or the stress, anymore.

From TDC384

Comment Group Activity Summary

Okay, so first off, I had some difficulty finding everyone’s blogs. I was able to find some from the comments I’ve received, but I think I’m missing one or two from my group.

Other than that, Oh. My. Goodness. I’m not sure if it’s just my group members or what, but I feel like my classmates’ work is so much better than mine. But I can’t get sad, I must use this as motivation to do cooler/better stuff!

Regarding the feedback I’ve received, I feel like everyone in my group is super nice! Everyone’s comments definitely gave me a confidence boast and helped reassure me that I’m not doing awful in this course. Later on, I hope that I’ll receive some criticism because I feel like my work can definitely improve (or maybe I’m just being too harsh on myself).

Reflection of Week 3

This week was actually the first week I was able to participate in the ds106 show. It was actually a really interesting experience since I’ve never used Google hangout before. At first, I had a difficult time getting into the hangout because it was full (guess everyone wanted to join this week!) But finally, I was able to get in, and of course, as soon as I joined, Professor Levine put the spotlight on me! Since I never used Google hangout before, the switching screen threw me off and distracted me when I was trying to talk with everyone; however, I think I was able to kind of articulate my thoughts (right???) Also, there was a huge echo from someone’s computer, so it made some of the show difficult to listen to. Other than a few technical difficulties, I really enjoyed the ds106 show this week. There were a lot of new faces at this week’s show, and I thought it was interesting to hear what other ds106 professors had to say.

Besides that, I feel like I fell behind a little this week. Being sick and traveling to Northern VA for the weekend really threw me off a bit. However, I’m hoping that I learn from this week and make sure to start on some of my work early instead of rushing through everything at the last minute.

Anyways, hope everyone had a great Superbowl Sunday, and I’ll see you guys next week!