Dear Self, Im writing you this letter to tell you that you better have a good man, a good job,  a nice house, and lots of puppies. Just kidding! But I really hope that you have a good career once you graduate and that you’re managing your adult life well. I hope that you become …

Continue reading "Your Hopes, Dreams and Fears"

It was a rainy night in London when I was first arrested. The police took me to the station for questioning and put me in one of those dark rooms with a hanging lamp like in films. But instead of a police officer questioning me, a man with one eye and a hat came in. … Continue reading Who is Annabella Smith?

Here is my agent “Nice Guy.” They could not find a picture of her so they drew someone who looks like a really nice person. She is known for being extremely nice and countries who have assigned her did not even speculate that she was actually building ties with their enemies. Almost everything is unknown about her, including the country …

It was dark outside….the mood….just right. She’s been playing hard to get…but he finally found out a sunset is her favorite time of day, perfect for a romance. They lean in to comfort each other and about to make a kiss when……wait, how are you reading….this!? This is my secret diary! Agent smith, signing off […]

I have…received orders to tell you about my photography skills… Being a spy, of course I take pictures! How else could I do my job so…effectively….My handler, on the other day, is not into all that techno self-absorbed stuff though. He even goes and makes fun of people taking pictures of their food to post […]

Archives One of the writing assignments I chose to do this week was called “Letter from out of the Blue”. This was a fun one for me because it had been so long since I mailed a letter, much less received something in the mail that wasn’t junk or a bill! The assignment was to sit down and write out a letter to someone, longhand. Then we had to put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it, and actually mail it via “snail mail”. I chose to write the letter to my little sister even though I can […]

This week’s assignments are 8+ stars worth of writing assignments. Here’s what I picked: A Letter To You As A Child (2 1/2 stars)- This is a letter to me at 16 years old. Take advantage of high school. Take advantage of having awesome teachers and friends and mentors around you. Don’t be afraid to … Continue reading "Sleuth Assignments: Writing Edition"

https://flic.kr/s/aHskTQ2EiK Hunter Hayes: Hunter Hayes. I’ve listened to Hunter Hayes since I was a Junior in high school. I listened to it in my car everywhere I drove for about a year. It was also the first album I ever had signed by the artist when I met him at a concert. Taylor Swift: Taylor Swift. … Continue reading Influential Albums

Archives This week we had to watch a YouTube video called The Shapes of Stories. This video features Kurt Vonnegut showing us that all stories fall into categories and the flow of the story can basically be drawn as a line on a graph. I actually found this to be pretty fascinating and tried it out on a few of my favorites. For this example I used the Spy Kids movie we watched for class. This movie falls into his “Man in Hole” category where someone gets into trouble and then gets out of it again. In the beginning, there is an […]

I really enjoyed watching Kurt Vonnegut’s take on “The Shape of Stories.” What I agreed strongly with his theory was the accuracy in the expression of his statements, “People love that stuff” and “We all know what happens!” In terms of graph, while the initial point of the curve may be different depending on the story, the final point of …

This post will be about the secret agent I have created. My secret agent’s name is Alex Whales but his code name is A.W. He is 22 years old and is from Woodbridge, VA. When A.W. is not on a top secret mission he can usually be found in the casino gambling. A.W. is the …

Continue reading "A.W."

Carmen and Juni Cortez grew up with their parents separated while the kids were very young, say newborns. The weight of the child births broke the marriage of their parents. Their father took Carmen while their mother took the younger son, Juni. The two grew up not knowing the other existed, but both followed in …

Continue reading "Alternative story line: Spy Step-Kids"

Super Smash Bros: Melee (SSBM) was released for Nintendo GameCube in north america on December 3, 2001 just a little over 15 years ago a legendary game was given to us.  Many of us have played it, but very few of us were able to master it. What is Melee? Melee is the second installment …

Continue reading "That Ain’t Falco!"

Archives It feels like Secret Agents and Spies have been around forever but the truth is that they didn’t really show up in movies until the early 1960’s and tv in 1964. The movie I chose to watch this week was Spy Kids. It really took me back to my childhood! In the movie, the parents of two kids are kidnapped and the kids discover that their parents are actually retired secret agents. These 2 kids then go on a mission to save them and keep a secret project out of the bad guys hands. At the end of the movie, […]

Spy Kids was definitely an interesting movie that well illustrated the theme of spies and their enemies. Often, we see a pattern of a group of people working toward a common goal. For instance, in the Disney movie Incredibles, the Parr family worked together in defeating the bad guys. Moreover, we also see a pattern of bad guys who were …

In starting to watch Kurt Vonnegut’s lesson on story lines, I was not expecting a refreshing taste of comedy and accuracy. But by the end, I was totally on board with his points. And to reference Kingsman yet again,  the curve where Kurt described the Cinderella story seemed applicable to Eggsy. Eggsy started below the X …

Continue reading "Kurt Vonnegut: please be my dad"

Wow this week was definitely a long one. The first thing I saw on the list was watch a movie and I saw Spy Kids and got so excited. I knew it was going to be a good week. I read the list and was thinking “oh this is gonna be a piece of cake!” ... Read more

A lot of stories and movies have the same kind of plot. It starts out with a plot that has a fairly well off person or character. Then something terrible happens to this person. This makes you feel sorry for them. After some time this character does something heroic or creates something great which shows …

Continue reading "Stories have Interesting Features"

Of course there are different flavors of spy fiction and the characteristics that make up different spy movies are all a little different. But there are some characteristics they all have in common. Which include, risk taking, money, gambling, action, being suspenseful, and violence. Also I want to talk about a certain flavor of spy …

Continue reading "What Makes a Spy Movie?"

The spy genre of entertainment has been around for some time now in our Western culture. The interesting thing is, there hasn’t been much variation of the overall theme of these movies and television shows. As of now, there are two main over-arching categories of the industry: witty and comedic spy works, or the serious … Continue reading "Sleuths and Secret Agents, and Similarities, Oh My!"

I found the third week’s focus on writing assignments and the analysis of spy genre stories to be quite enjoyable! Early in the week, I completed my three Daily Creates on Twitter, pictured below. The shadow image was difficult to capture with my camera accurately, but otherwise I simply had to use Paint to resize … Continue reading "Mission Check-In: Week 3 Summary"

After reading through the AV Club’s “History of TV Spies and Secret Agents”, I watched some clips of the original show ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ before watching the recent film by the same name. Comparing this with the story ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’, I found some interesting commonalities among the stories. In the original U.N.C.L.E. … Continue reading "Spy Patterns and Themes"

For this 3 point writing assignment, “Changing Fortunes” (http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/changing-fortunes/), I had to use a randomly-generated fortune cookie for inspiration in my own short narrative which tied in our spy theme for the semester. I used my character, Wren Wilder (003), to explore the idea of loneliness an office-based agent might face when his friends are … Continue reading "Changing Agents’ Fortunes"

  When I was first looking to get a car when I was 16 it needed to fit three criteria. It had to be vintage, Japanese, and rear-wheel drive. I had plenty of options that could fit such as Toyota Supras, AE86 Corolla’s, MR2’s, Celica’s, Nissan S12’s, S13’s, S14’s, and pretty much any old Datsun. …

Continue reading "The 80’s is Cool Again"

After reviewing Kurt Vonnegut’s discussion on the Shape of Stories, I decided to analyze this week’s story “Kingsman: The Secret Service”. I decided to attempt a visualization of the story, shown below. The story starts at a low point, as Eggsy did not finish his career plan of British service like his father and is … Continue reading "Agent Stories: “Kingsman”"

For the 2 point writing assignment, “How Does a Song Make You Feel?”, I had to choose a song and twitter a summary of what I felt from listening to the song. I feel remorseful whenever I hear this song. We can cause pain to those closest to us if we aren't careful. #ds106https://t.co/7dHK3qYCzF — … Continue reading "How a Song Makes Me Feel: “Hurt”"

It’s no secret the weird and wonderful Kingsman: The Secret Service draws on decades worth of pop culture of spy films and television shows. The movie is stuffed top-hat to shoe-phone with references to James Bond, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, and of course, Mission: Impossible. Kingsman is far more than parody and homage, […]

For this 3 point writing assignment, “Dear Diary…” (http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/dear-diary/), I was encouraged to write a diary entry from the perspective of any Disney villain I choose. In an attempt at creative liberty, I chose villainess Mirage from Pixar’s “The Incredibles”. I justified this decision by the fact that Disney owns Pixar, and incorporates their merchandise … Continue reading "Dear Diary: Mirage’s Conflict"

Man, this week was tough. So many things to do. I started out by doing the assignment back writing assignments. I did Assignment 2055, the everyday life of a spy which was 3 stars, I titled mine, Mission 106: Find Amy. Log 87. I then did assignment 1924 also rated 3 stars, which was to … Continue reading "Week 3"

Prior to being interviewed and hired onto the U.S. Secret Intelligence Agency (SIA), Wren Wilder was an Orlando native with a penchant for outdoors exploration and international travel. His involvement with Boy Scouts at an early age led to an interest in outdoor survival techniques, and his proudest accomplishment from his childhood is his well-earned … Continue reading "Character Dossier: 003"