Monthly Archives: March 2019

My favourite makeup remover

No matter I put on makeup or not, I use makeup remover to clean my face before using the cleansers everyday. Personally, I think this step is really important to make sure that there is no dust on my face. Today, I will share my favourite makeup remover- cleansing water and cleansing oil with you guys. Usually, I use cleansing water when I don’t have my eyelash extensions; if not, I use the cleansing oil (I heard that the cleansing oil is better on removing dust compare to the cleansing water).

Bioderma Sensibio H2O

  • Bioderma has made the cleansing water for different type of skin, you guys can check it out on its website! Also, sometimes Shoppers Drug Store has a pretty good deal-I believe it’s 2 for $30 (approximately) for Bioderma! Give it a try if you are interested in trying this product!

Bobbi Brown soothing cleansing oil

I know there are many different choices for the makeup remover in the market nowadays; however, Bioderma and Bobbi Brown are recently my top ones!! If you guys have other suggestions for the makeup remover, please share with me! I would love to hear it!! ❤

Process post_10 Multi-channel Marketing

Choosing and applying the best marketing strategy is the most important concept to introduce a product into the market. However, living in this “improved technology” generation, single channel marketing is no longer the best and only marketing strategy anymore. This week in class, we have Darren and Sarah from Capulet Communication to discuss about the importance of multi-channel marketing with us. Personally, I believe that the multi-channel marketing strategy does successfully help a company to bring its brand and product to its customers.

Myself as an example, I voluntarily work in my brother’s company to help them to hold the concerts- mainly singers from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in Vancouver. Yet, although there are many Asians in Vancouver, actually the tickets are really hard to sell if we do not apply the multi-channel strategy. To indicate, we have to apply different marketing strategy towards different targeting customers. For instance, we have to place many posters in different areas to inform about our shows; such as Asian markets and restaurants for people who do not usually use the internet and schools that have more younger Asians who might be interested in the concerts. Also, social media significantly are the main channels for us to promote the shows. For example, Instagram and Facebook help us to spread out the propagandas via the internet. To illustrate, whoever see our posts on the social media will share the information to their family and friends and so on. As the result, there will be more and more people know about our shows. Moreover, the one-by-one conversation is the most required service that we have provided to our customers. In this case, it is not only easier for our customers but also for ourselves to answer the questions regard to the concerts. Therefore, throughout these multiple channels to promote the concerts, we have successfully nailed the SOLD OUT show.

Ultimately, I have more understood the importance of the multi-channel marketing strategy after rethinking the process of holding the concerts. According to Darren and Sarah, if we want to favourably reach different audiences, achieve different marketing goals, we have to tell [our] story in different ways. In short, these multi-channels really help many companies to promote their businesses in this new improved technology generation.

The beginning of an Adventure

1,004 klicks away

The beginning of an adventure

In July of 2018, I set out on a road trip through the United States with two of my best friends, Alex and Rune.  In just 16 days, we visited 10 states, traveled over 7,000 kilometers, and took hundreds of photos.  We were able to travel on a small budget by living out of our car, pitching our tent in national forests, and staying on friend’s couches.  

We had spent the whole day driving from Vancouver BC to make it to California by dinnertime.  Truth be told, Alex had been craving In-N-Out burgers for years, and when he expressed the need to have one of their burgers on the first day of our road trip, Rune and I laughed and agreed.  For those who aren’t familiar, In-N-Out is a fast-food chain that sources local ingredients and is ridiculously affordable and delicious.  They’re able to keep prices reasonable by only having a few restaurants and restricting them mainly to California.

Alex, savouring the fabled In-N-Out burger after years of abstinence.

After filling ourselves up at the northernmost In-N-Out – in Grants Pass – we continued our drive into California.  As the sun was slowly starting to set over the mountains, we were setting up camp in a little clearing. We had followed an old forestry road near Gasquet, in northern California, and drove as far as the terrain would allow our small Mazda to go. 

Prior to setting out for this road trip, we had familiarized ourselves with the rules of dispersed camping and had applied for all the necessary permits, which allowed for a lot of flexibility with last minute accommodations on our trip.  By last minute accommodations, I mean setting up camp in the middle of nowhere.  We didn’t plan to pitch our tent where we did and had gotten lost a few times trying to find somewhere to sleep, but it was the most perfect mistake anyone of us could have ever made.  

At night fall, we were all wide awake, too excited to sleep, and thinking of the adventures ahead.  The sweet summer air was warm and inviting, and the stars were the brightest any of us had ever seen.  We were so far from any city, on the side of mountain overlooking a lush valley, there was seldom any light pollution.  This was it.  This was what spontaneous wandering was about, this is what traveling was about, and this is what summers were made for.

That night, we started taking silly group photos, which became a consistent theme through our road trip, as they progressively became more intricate and ridiculous.  This night was the perfect start to our summer adventures.


Looking to recreate this starry photo?

Use a low aperture, a slow shutter speed, and a tripod. Typically, night shots will require you to have a higher ISO as well. While a high ISO might brighten your image, be careful when using it as it creates more grain and degrades the quality of your image. These were the specs for my image:

Focal Length 18; 15 second shutter speed; F3.5; ISO 800

Essay 2

When I was 17 years old, I started my first blog. I have always had a passion for writing but never had an outlet to do so. When I started university, I finally found my way to sharing my art. It started with writing an article for SFU’s newspaper, The Peak, to finding my voice in Her Campus at SFU.

The truth is, I have been waiting 3 years to make it into this Publishing 101 course. I felt like it would be the start of something new for me and finally make me feel like I have a platform for my words to be read. And it did.

I have always known I want create a publication that feels like a safe place for people to turn to and generally keep them entertained. I had a few goals going into creating this blog: Writing in the dark under the stars. Navigating life, Discovering New Music, Discussing Pop Culture, and Showcasing Other’s Talent. I have leaned towards lifestyle, music, personal stories, and serious themes. By serious, I mean talking about taboo topics people may not see often. I have a 3 part series planned for a future post that discuss the question, “will we ever truly know who anyone is?.” answering the question, digging into wondering if we will ever know who we truly are, and ending with finding yourself amidst all of this.  

One example was the article I have written about “Intersectionality.” It follows the story of Jennifer Harris being removed from her university basketball team due to the fact she is a person of colour and over the assumption she is gay. It is a story that is the perfect example of intersectionality that not many people seem to know about. I plan to learn more about these stories and inform my readers of them in the future. I also plan to talk more about life and the acceptance of some things not going the way we plan often.

Overall, I would say that I have created my publication in, as Amanda wrote in her peer review, a digital diary type of experience. It is about life, the ins and outs of the world, and genuinely enjoying what life throws at us. It would imagine my audience is for people of all ages, but I can also see it being catered towards people still finding themselves and looking for someone who relates to their situations.

Through my articles about a hair care routine, nostalgia on the past, lessons I have learned through my teenage years, and even my album reviews, I would say that I am addressing my imagined and real audience through captivating posts. I always made sure that I include an “aesthetic” so to speak photo and ensure my paragraphs are separated and easy to read.

My design includes large squares of photos that summarize the story I am about to tell. Thanks to my first peer reviewer, Maggie, suggested I change my background image to something that does not let the words get lost in it. That suggestion helped shape the way I see my blog and the way that it presents itself.

I take pride in the content I produce. I make sure to write about topics I enjoy and that I know other people will enjoy. I plan to produce more content that is challenging yet entertaining. Informative is more like it. The content I have provided thus far is more lifestyle based. I want to take a turn and make this blog be reflective of my 20’s. I am 20 years old and already feel like I have been through more than enough to keep me going for awhile. I personally enjoy story times, so I would like to incorporate more.

Google Analytics was really useful in terms of figuring out what I needed to do in order to boost my views. It was interesting to learn about the details of Google Analytics, such as bounce rate, and felt like it gave me that push to create the content I want to. I mainly kept my articles to this class and my friends. My friends have provided me with so many positive comments and thoughts. They genuinely enjoyed reading my posts, or so they say. It was not until I went into the analytics and tried to figure out how to boost my engagement and views. I finally took the plunge and posted the link to my article in my Instagram bio and gained 37 new viewers. I learned that people will read my posts when I promote them and they are most active in the mid- afternoon and early evening. This feature helped me gain the motivation I needed to carry on with my blog and reach as many people as I can.

Reflecting back to when I started this blog and writing in general, I have always been afraid to share my work. It reminded me of the article by John Suler that discusses the “You Can’t See Me (Invisibility)” section of our online disinhibition. I always hid in the behind my screen, as he explains “in many online environments other people cannot see you.” (Suler, 2015, par. 6). It is easy to hide who you are through your posts, but I have always made my posts personal, making it near impossible to hide my identity.

I find it ironic as I am afraid for some people to discover my work and read it. I believe moving forward, I need to understand that if I want to make it as a content creator and for the future of this blog, I need to start sharing my work. There really is nothing to lose if people I know start finding out about this blog. I am proud of what I post and would not post it if I felt like I did not want it associated with me.

Overall, my goal for this blog is to keep posting content I love and continue to expand my writing. I am very happy that I was able to get into this course. All of the lessons I have learned in lecture and from the guest speakers are areas of writing and producing content I never would have known about if I did not take this course. There is so much more to creating a blog than it seems on the outside. The analytics, incorporating transmedia channels, collaboration, marketing, and the list goes on. I will take every lesson I have learned in this class and move forward with this blog. I cannot wait to look back on this blog at the end of my university career and see where I am now.

May I continue writing and expanding my work through the creation of this blog and carry these lessons from Publishing 101 with me through these starlight adventures.

References:

Cook, Emily. (2017). Emcookxo.wordpress.com. Former Blog. Retrieved from: https://emcookxo.wordpress.com/.

Cook, Emily. (2019). Starlight-adventures.com. WordPress Blog. Retrieved from: starlight-adventures.com

McCrae, Amanda. (2019). Peer Review #3. Peer Review Blog Entry. WordPress. Retrieved from: http://www.amandasadventures.ca/academic/peer-review-3/

SFU, Her Campus. (2018). Emily Cook | Her Campus. Online Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.hercampus.com/user

Suler, John. (2004). “The Online Disinhibition Effect.” Retrieved from: Cyberpsychology & behavior 7.3 (2004): 321-326. http://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/disinhibit.html

Su, Maggie. (2019). Peer Review #1. Peer Review Blog Entry. WordPress. Retrieved from: http://mlovetoshare.com/poisel/peer-review_1/. http://mlovetoshare.com/poisel/peer-review_1/.


The post Essay 2 appeared first on Starlight Adventures.

Starlight Adventures: Community Guidelines

Community Guidelines for starlight-adventures.com

The goals of starlight-adventures.com are to assist readers and contributors to maintain a safe space and an entertaining environment. I want to create connections that are mutually beneficial to both parties and promote collaborative involvement and opportunities.  

In order to achieve these goals, it is important for all of us truly create this safe space with our shared interests by following these guidelines:

Guidelines

  • Treat others online as you would treat them in real life
  • Be tolerant towards other’s view points and respectfully disagree when opinions do not align
  • respect the privacy of those sharing
  • communicate with courtesy and respect

Do not

  • make personal attacks on those contributing 
  • post prejudiced comments or profanity
  • avoid: name calling

Others

  • Stay on topic: keep all discussions relevant to what is posted 
  • If you see something, say something in a respectful manner
  • Always strive to be as supportive as possible in every discussion or post shared
  • No self promotion unless discussed otherwise 

This is overall a safe space and platform for those to share their opinions and new ideas that could be beneficial to us all. 

If needing to discuss any of these guidelines or wanting to contribute an idea, please contact me here. 

Featured Image Reference: My personal account on Canva designed by me

The post Starlight Adventures: Community Guidelines appeared first on Starlight Adventures.

Thank you, next.

It’s crazy to think that my undergraduate career is wrapping up within the next couple of weeks. It’s been five years of blood, sweat, and tears, but looking back on it now, it was so worth it. I have learned many life skills that were beyond my major, gained valuable knowledge on Elementary education (my major), and acquired so many wonderful memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Saying that though, I am beyond ready to move on and see what is next to come in my life! In the words of Ariana Grande, time to say “thank you, next” to SFU and my bachelor’s degree!

I do want to shout out this class, PUB (Publishing) 101, as one of my favourite classes I’ve taken at SFU. I truly appreciate the course designers who believed students’ work is worthy and valuable enough to be put out there and read by the public, as well as taken seriously by academics. Creating work that will not only be read and critiqued by our professors and TA’s, but the public via the Internet, gives our work a sense of greater purpose than simply for a grade. So thank you, Suzanne and Ellen, for believing in us and recognizing that students’ voices deserve to be heard not just within the four walls of our classrooms, but for everyone to hear as what we have to say is valuable. I never thought I would ever write a blog, until I took this class, and now I have discovered that my voice matters too. 🙂

I created this blog in hopes of spreading kindness and encouraging people to practice empathy for others. If I have inspired at least one person to spread kindness in someone’s life, then I have achieved my goal! I truly believe kindness as a ripple effect, as demonstrated in this comic I stumbled upon on Facebook:

Image from: 4amshower

I plan on continuing my blog past this course, however I am going to take a well needed break for a little while! I’m not sure how long it will be, but I definitely want to continue writing and putting my thoughts on the Internet. Even if no one reads, I’ve discovered it’s a cathartic way of organizing my thoughts and figuring out my stance on big issues, as well as a venting outlet, and who doesn’t like venting. 🙂

Always remember that everyone is just doing their best in this big, wide, weird world and that we’re all humans who crave love and belonging. Be the positive light in someone’s day, the answered prayer, the spark of joy. Let’s all change the world, one act of kindness at a time!

Process Post 11 – The joy of public shaming

This week in class we watched a TedTalk by Jon Ronson where he discussed peoples’ tendencies to behave like a lynching mob on social media when it comes to perceived injustice, as well as the joy people get out of this public shaming. Jon Ronson discussed a particular case of a woman named Justine Sacco. Some of you may remember her as the woman who made a tweet before getting on an airplane from London, England to Cape Town, South Africa that utterly dismantled her life during the span of the flight. She was a public relations worker in New York with 170 Twitter followers. However, her story is proof of how fast word can travel, especially on the Internet. The tweet that ruined her life was this:

Image from: Jon Ronson TedTalk

Upon arrival in Cape Town, Justine turned on her phone to discover that she was the world wide #1 trending topic on Twitter. It turned out that one of her 170 Twitter followers sent Justine’s tweet to a journalist who then retweeted it to his 15,000 followers, and spiralled from there. Jon Ronson actually emailed the journalist a few weeks after the incident and asked him how it felt to do this, and he exclaimed it felt “delicious.” When I heard this, I was immediately enraged and knew I wanted to discuss this on my blog. How could someone say the destruction of someone’s life felt “delicious”?!?!?! Then, Jon Ronson began to show some of the tweets that were sent to Justine, ranging from demanding her to be fired from her job, to wishing AIDS upon her:

Image from: Jon Ronson TedTalk
Image from: Jon Ronson TedTalk

Jon Ronson had a suspicion that Justine’s tweet was actually not meant to be racist. He met with her a couple of weeks after the debacle and asked her to explain the joke, and she said that her intention was to mock the bubble Americans live in when it comes to their knowledge of Third World countries. Clearly, it was not interpreted that way.

Although I do feel that Justine was in the wrong and could have worded her joke much differently to convey what she was trying to say, I don’t believe she deserved to have her life torn apart because of it. I understand how her tweet was misinterpreted, as it’s nearly impossible to detect elements like tone and body language over Twitter that help with interpreting a message, but she made a mistake. Jon Ronson mentioned how it was interesting that someone tweeted, “somebody HIV positive should rape this bitch and then we’ll find out if her skin colour protects her from AIDS” (8:10) as that person received no public persecution whatsoever. So why when we are joining in a mob mentality do we all of a sudden deem this disgusting behaviour appropriate? I can’t imagine any sane person having the courage to say something like this to Justine’s face. However, when we have a mob of people doing the same thing, and we can do it while hiding behind a computer or phone screen, it makes dehumanizing someone a lot easier, and we may even feel a bit of joy sitting back and watching somebody’s life crumble right before our eyes.

While watching this video during class, one of my initial thoughts was, “what if Justine was just doing her best?” I know that may sound like I’m giving her too much of a break, but that is the mentality I live by and also what this blog is centred around, so I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t ask myself that. Once again, although she could have worded her joke way better, the intended meaning was misinterpreted. I do believe that she made a mistake, but we all have made mistakes and bad judgement calls. To be honest, I wasn’t surprised that everyone on Twitter that night was so quick, and excited, to call someone out for their wrongdoing. It’s much easier to do that then take a minute to ask ourselves, “maybe she meant something different by that tweet” and giving Justine the benefit of the doubt. Instead, responding in ways the Twitter users did that night makes us feel better about ourselves; that we’re not the only one who has flaws and makes mistakes. Jon Ronson put it beautifully when he explained that the Twitter users that night were trying to call out someone’s misuse of privilege, essentially something good, however the phrase “misuse of privilege” is becoming a free pass to tear apart anyone we choose to. In attempting to search and find the “bad guys” in our world, we are utterly destroying innocent peoples’ lives, and feeling good about it. I ask this of you: next time you see something online someone has said that bothers you or even enrages you, like Justine’s tweet, take a minute before you respond and ask yourself if you were standing in front of that person with no one else around you, would you still say that comment to them? If the answer is no, don’t post it. Also, ask yourself if there are other ways of interpreting what they said. Who knows, you may have saved someone’s life.

Essay 2 – Semester in Review

As the semester comes to a close (as well as my degree) it’s time to do some reflecting on the work I’ve completed in PUB 101. While reflecting on my blog and the semester for this essay, I couldn’t help but feel proud of my classmates and myself for the work we’ve completed. My classmates and I not only created this semester-long project for school, but we were given the opportunity to showcase the potential and talent we have as university students to the Internet world. I am incredibly proud of the unique content my classmates have created. I look forward to keeping up with their blogs and seeing where they go with them!

I wanted to create a blog on the topic of kindness because I saw (and still see) a dire need for positivity in our current world. Reace Mok, one of my classmates who wrote a peer review on my blog said, “her topic is extremely timely, as in the age of cyberbullying and Trumped-up racism, stereotyping and hate, a little kindness is a fresh and needed concept” (Mok, 2019, para. 8). Reace’s comment was exactly my thinking at the beginning of the semester when brainstorming blog topics, and thus began The Kindness Lifestyle. The target audience for my blog is everyone, as I don’t believe kindness is limited to a certain type of person; it’s universal. However, due to kindness being associated as a female trait, I believe my blog attracts mainly females. Based on comments and feedback I’ve received, this rings true as they are almost all from females. I believe I’m addressing my target audience, which is everyone, through my content as it remains focused on the universal topic of kindness. However, I could improve on making the design universal, specifically more gender neutral, as currently my blog design could be considered more on the feminine side. It’s interesting though because my classmate, Tobi Cheung, who wrote a peer review for my blog said that, “[my] blog style matched the topic [I] [am] writing about, the colours were soft which [is] very welcoming and [has] a calmness to it” (Cheung, 2019, para. 2). Tobi said that my blog design matched my topic and since most people would consider my blog to look quite feminine, does this mean that kindness is in fact associated with femininity based on Tobi’s comment?

Designing my blog was one of the most exciting, yet difficult parts of the creation process. Just as I was content and proud of what I had created, with the help of a WordPress tutorial on YouTube, I read Travis Gertz (2015) article, Design Machines: How to survive the digital apocalypse. In his article, he discusses the pressing issue with the design of websites today; they all look the same.

Image from: Louder Than Ten

After reading Gertz’s (2015) article and seeing the collage of images shown above, I realized that my website falls into this “digital design homogeneity,” as he describes it. I was discouraged seeing that my design was nothing new or original as I worked hard on it, as well as received many compliments. However, I did keep the design for the duration of the semester. As the semester closes and I have more time to become familiar with WordPress design, I will try and redesign The Kindness Lifestyle to be more unique and more of a monopoly, as one of our guest speakers, Trevor Battye, described what our websites should be.

Trevor Battye also showed us a video by Peter Thiel where he discusses the importance of being a monopoly in the business world (Independent Institute, 2015). Although he focuses on businesses, his ideas can also apply to our websites. Thiel believes that as a creator, your work should be so unique and one of a kind that it does not have any competition (Independent Institute, 2015). In this sense, I believe the content of my blog is on it’s way to being a monopoly, but definitely not with design yet. Sofia Sullivan mentioned in her peer review on my blog that, “nowadays you don’t typically see blogs [on] this subject [of kindness]” (Sullivan, 2019, para. 4). As I continue to build my blog, aiming to be a monopoly will be a priority when making decisions about content, but especially with design as that is what makes websites stand out to viewers.

Reflecting on my thoughts of publication at the beginning of the semester compared to now, I will say they have changed quite a bit. I still believe that what people post on the Internet should have purpose and be productive (at least most of the time), however over the semester I have gained more respect for certain platforms like Instagram. Although I still see the majority of people using Instagram in a pointless manner, I also see the potential it has for purposeful content after what we’ve learned in this course. The most significant thing I learned in this course is that although almost everyone in the world can be a publisher with the technology we have, it’s much more difficult than it appears to be for that exact reason. Creating an innovative idea that is a monopoly is difficult to do with so many people trying to do it every day. However, I hope with my blog I provided value in the sense of inspiring my readers to think differently when it comes to kindness as well as provide them with a glimmer of positivity.

References:

Cheung, T. (2019, February 27). Peer Review #2: The Kindness Lifestyle [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://tobisroutine.com/posiel/peer-review-2-the-kindness-lifestyle/#comment-19

Gertz, T. (2015, July). Design Machines: How to survive the digital apocalypse. Louder Than Ten. Retrieved from https://louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines

Independent Institute. (2015, March 6). Peter A. Thiel | Always Aim for a Monopoly [Video file]. Retrieved from http://libanswers.snhu.edu/faq/8628

Mok, R. (2019, March 18). Peer Review – 3 [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://rerouted.ca/academics/peer-reviews/peer-review-3/

Sullivan, S. (2019, January 30). Peer Review [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://thebeautyblondie.com/posiel/peer-review-2/

The values junior devs add to the team

Someone asked me about some valuable contributions I've seen from junior developers.

At first I was almost drawing a blank as I couldn’t think of any notable contributions by a junior.

See, that's where I was overthinking this: valuable !== notable.

So no, I haven't seen juniors create revolutionary things in the first week of joining the company, but taking 3 more seconds to think about what values they add got me some answers:

1. They contributed like how we contributed

They put in the work, working through the backlog and tasks assigned to them.

This was why I was drawing a blank: they just do work like the rest of us, nothing special there.

But the fact that there’s nothing special IS why this is special!

From the junior’s perspective, they are a burden to the team.

But from our perspective, they are just one of us who are new to the team and need some help ramping up. Sure, we have more experience with the project and therefore can make better decisions, but we typically don’t treat them specially.

2. They help uncover holes in the system

The drawback of working fast is leaving a trail of bugs and technical debt with zero documentation behind.

When a junior comes on board, their questions can help us realize the holes in our systems as well as the documentations for them.

Because they are junior, we get the opportunity to force ourselves to explain things in simpler language with easier to understand concepts — the key to good documentation.

3. They help boost team morale

Remember the part where I reminded you that more senior devs on the team are also humans?

When a respectful junior joins the team and ask the more experienced teammates questions, the person being asked instantly gain more self-confidence, authority and overall good feelings.

They are only human (once again!) and could be struggling with imposter syndrome as well!

You asking them, and them being able to help you find answers is validation that they are good enough.


The way I see it, this question is about validation.

Often times, we humans need more than someone just telling us about something — we need them to show us.

There's nothing wrong with that.

I do think it's also important to remind ourselves that change comes from within.

No matter what method I use to convince you that you are valuable, you can still choose to reject that idea.

This is why a lot of my posts are often centred around mindset changes.

Changing one's mindset can greatly help create bigger change, even though it's still up to the person to open up to that change (coming from within).

My Top 3 Influencers For Style Inspo

Do you ever wake up feeling some type of way, wanting to look good but have no clue where to start?

Well, if that’s ever the case, I’ve got you covered! These are my top 3 influencers to turn to whenever I’m feeling fashionably uninspired.


#1. Kicki Yang Zhang

 

 

This Berlin-based Chinese girl is changing the game of fashion and style. She is fearless, fun, colourful, and doesn’t take herself too seriously. On top of that, her Instagram feed is so on point. Everything is so visually pleasing, and colour coordinated. So if you ever feel like you don’t have enough colour or art in your life, just check out Kicki’s Insta!

 

 

 

 

 

#2. Yourgirlneens

Yourgirlneens’ full name is Nina Huynh. She was raised in San Francisco, and now li
ves in Vancouver, BC. The first unforgettable thing about her is her beautiful pink hair. On top of that, her style is ON POINT! Puffy jacket, bucket hat, thrift items, she could pull of anything! Nina’s instagram includes mostly her styles and things that she is working on. But if you want to really get to know Nina, you got to check out her youtube channel. It has lots of different content, from lookbooks, to Q&As, to Vl
ogs, to challenges, and more! Her video editing skills is amazing, and so is her boyfriend!

 

#3. Song of Style

 

Aimee Song is one of the most elegant ladies out there. She is classy, flawless, and living her best life. Whether you are going on a date, or attending a gala, or even packing for Europe, whatever it is that you are planing on doing for the day, you could find some inspirations from scrolling through her Insta feed. Aimee was actually one of the first fashion influencers that I’ve ever followed. I remember how proud I was about her Asian heritage, and how I felt i finally had someone more relatable to myself to be inspired from. She also has a fashion lifestyle blog if you are looking for more of her and her style!

 

 

 


Who are your favourite fashion influencers? Comment below and share with me!!

The post My Top 3 Influencers For Style Inspo appeared first on Heyy, Jessie.

Let’s Start Integrating!

After my recent process post focusing on my Google Analytics, I noticed how lost my visits are. They were decent, but not as a high as I know it could be.

View count from March 12-18

I decided to just take the shot and promote my blog to my Instagram followers. And it made all the difference.

View count from March 19-25 after promoting articles on my Instagram Story

I had gained 37 new users over the span of a week.

Using social media platforms can really impact how much of a following one has and how many views we are able to reach

Something I think I need to take note of is: consistency.

The reasons why people gain a steady following and consistent views is because of how often we post and how much content we produce and promote. 

I want to start posting more frequently. Whether that be posting more articles or posting more on social media, I feel that this will help me gain more readers. 

I want to start incorporating Instagram in terms of promoting my articles on my story so then people can easily access them through the link in my bio. I am more interactive on Instagram with my followers so perhaps posting photos related to my posts can help as well. 

Utilizing hashtags on Twitter can help me relate and reach more audiences. I want to start posting my articles on Twitter that have to do with music so then people who have fan accounts for certain artists will read them and hopefully provide feedback and support. 

Twitter is very versatile and I believe this platform has the most room for growth and I plan to focus on these trends and post more. Perhaps tagging who the articles may feature can help as well. 

The one transmedia channel I need to integrate is Facebook. I have way too many family members on there and do not want them reading all of my articles. I feel like there will come a time where I will start promoting them on there. I think I will share this  blog when the course ends to show off all my work I have done through this semester.

I also had an idea to promote my blog on groups I am part of on Facebook. 

Overall, my main issue is my insecurity. I feel like people may judge my work and not truly support me. But honestly, that is just part of life.

I want to be a content creator so I need to get over this fear to get anywhere. 

I plan to work towards integrating more social media platforms to promote my work and even collaborate with some others. 

If all goes to plan, look out for me on your social media platforms sometime soon!

Featured Image Reference: @Keti_98 on weheartit.com

The post Let’s Start Integrating! appeared first on Starlight Adventures.

Process Post 10 – Risky is safe, safe is risky

This week we had Darren and Sarah from Capulet Communications to share about affordable marketing in a multi-channel universe with us in class.

I worked in a PR agency as an intern for five months last summer. I mainly had to do clippings for our clients, mainly luxury hotels and resorts. I scan newspapers, magazines and screenshot online articles, social media posts when they got coverages. I realise that almost all our clients have several social media platforms to publicise themselves, mostly Instagram and WeChat (for the Chinese market). Part of my job includes helping the clients to look for influencers that match their brand images, and I realise that most of them are active on multiple social media platforms to develop their online self. Most influencers are active on Instagram as a platform to interact with their fans and audiences, while they use websites or YouTube channels as a relatively passive platform to allow audiences to know more about their work and private life. This is indeed a great way to increase its traffic.

There are a growing number of brands who rely on social media to expand their influences and reach a greater variety of audiences, even for reputable hotels who have a long history of development. They use attractive images, usually instagrammable spots in the hotels, and uses short captions to attract people’s attention. People now prefer bite-sized information rather than wordy passages, it is challenging for the PR to bring out the distinctive features and hotels’ selling points by just a few sentences when drafting for captions. There is so much information online and everyone can place ads, thanks to Google and Facebook. PR must, therefore, develop a gimmick or something authentic that creates discussion in our society.

If marketers and PR only stick with safe options, they would always be mediocre. Darren shared a quote today in class – “Risky is safe, safe is risky.” This not only applies to marketing, but also to our lives. We should take a step forward to leave our comfort zones, make bold moves and risky decisions to stand out from the crowd.

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PHOTO PROMPT: Domestic Re-Imaginings

A simple exercise to improve your visual eye, without leaving the house.

The premise is pretty straightforward; if you’re in a photographic funk, parameters are your best friend. These images were created within the constraints of my own self-imposed challenge. In just 15 minutes,  I produced over 30 images without leaving the house (therefore averaging less than 30 seconds per image). What can be gained from this kind of activity? By imposing limitations to time and setting, I was able to explore unique choices in content that may not have occurred to me otherwise––achieving this creative mindset is sometimes trickier than you would think.

This is both a useful and liberating exercise for anyone looking to expand, reinvigorate, or practice compositional techniques. For myself personally, there have many upsides the more I have trained my artistic mind to approach the world in this way. Because oftentimes when I am in the midst of a creative block, this is due in part to existential struggles that are infiltrating the rest of my day. So the beauty in this exercise is that it is also a kind of mindfulness strategy as well. Life is a little easier when we can see the beauty in our humble surroundings. 

TIPS & TECHNIQUES:

Here’s what you should keep in mind to get the best outcomes:



  • Use a convenient, portable camera instead of a fancy one. This allows you to focus on the frame instead of technicalities such as ISO and depth of field. (I used my phone.)
  • Imagine that you are creating a sculpture or an abstract painting.
  • Investigate all possible angles: top-down, bottom-up, and eye-level, amongst others. Approach things abnormally. 
  • Combine those unusual angles with odd cropping. Ignore perceived beginnings and ends of objects.
  • Turn your attention towards appealing combinations of texture and negative space.
  • Avoid pre-grouping images in your mind as you shoot. Avoid thinking about thematics or symbolic interpretation. This is about producing and following instinctual impulses.
  • Remember, these images don’t need to be capital-A artworks. It’s okay if you never show these to anyone. But I don’t recommend deleting these; stash them in a sketchbook, virtual or printed out.
THE AFTER: Groupings & Gestalt

Although you can leave this activity after the shooting stage, I recommend taking a moment to review the photographs. I find it useful to bundle these images and begin to experiment with their interactions amongst one another. Personally, I find this secondary stage to be very relaxing and rewarding, so I encourage you to arrange and rearrange your snippets. Good consider-ations include colour palettes, textures, and leading lines. If you’re confused by that last term, hopefully the images down below
give you an idea of what is meant by this.

When grouping your images, consider the famous Gestalt principles relating to perception. In case you’re unfamiliar, these are very helpful guidelines when it comes to UX and design more broadly. (Check out DePaul University’s online resource for more detailed information––the site design itself is extremely outdated but it does provide comprehensive explanations with art historical examples.)

Though all the principles may be at play, I want to draw your attention to a few key interactions:

First, closure tells us that our brains seek out a connection, regardless of whether the elements touch. So we read all these images as one, in part due to their proximity as well. Both closure and proximity are virtually inevitable due to my snapshots up being lined up in this row/column structure (something to be aware of if you choose differently).

However, you will find that various potential arrangements within this structure will provide equally varying levels of compositional success. What you should aim for is a good sense of continuity, so that proximate images almost “talk” to one another as the eye flows from one area to the next. Again, have a look at my visualization of exactly this, below. 

Overall, experimenting with the order of your snapshots within a grouping structure can lead to a really satisfying visual impact. 


Enjoyed this post? Check out my other photographic challenges:

FIGHT CREATIVE BLOCK: 3 Unusual Experiments in Photography

Catching up with old friends

It’s my second solo trip and this time I’ve picked Toronto – a city where two of my best friends from primary and secondary school life. They immigrated to Canada over 6 years ago and rarely go back to Hong Kong. It’s my first time to visit them in Canada, in fact, it’s my first time to visit friends in a foreign country! The last time I met with them was already 2 years ago when we first entered university. That time we talked about the struggles of adjusting to uni life, reminiscing the good old days in secondary school. Two years later today, we are one year away from graduation and we start discussing worries of stepping into adulthood – internship, graduation, life and etc. It’s shocking how fast time passes which we are about to step into a new stage of life. We started to think more about our future and in a more mature manner, it was different from the time where we did silly stuff together in primary and secondary schools, but I am glad that we’re witnessing our growth despite our long-distance friendship.

Hope to see them soon in Hong Kong!

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How to not feel like a value sink as a junior developer

After writing my surprisingly well-received reddit post on value, people have been messaging me privately about their concerns with demonstrating value as a junior dev on a team of experienced devs.

Most notably, this message jumped out to me as it really speaks to junior devs' frustration and pains in their work:

I’m a front end new grad with about 6 months in industry and I struggled (and to some degree still struggle with) feeling like I’m a value sink for my team or that I’m not learning fast enough to be a good return on investment. As a senior developer what are some valuable contributions you’ve seen from junior developers?

Boy oh boy, that sounds painful, doesn't it?

Yet, we've all felt that one way or another before:

Feeling worthless because you have the least experience on the entire team;

Feeling frustrated because you seem to get stuck on the stupidest little problems;

Feeling ashamed because you think you should've known these things already;

Feeling guilty because asking others for help is a huge waste of their time and energy;

Feeling overwhelmed because the more you learn the more you know you need to learn;

Feeling like a value sink instead of a value adder.

How about when you want to fit in with the rest of your team, but you are confused by their inside jokes and use of advanced technical jargons — yeah, that feeling stings you like a mofo.


My official title now is Senior Front-end Engineer, but don't let that fool you, I know full well that putting aside the ego-boost, these feelings that "I'm not good enough" are still there.

What can I say? Imposter syndrome is a b-.

That said, I'm not as affected by these feelings as I was when I first started out. The main difference is that I know how to respond to these feelings now and how to not let them hinder me as I improve myself and grow.

Get away from me, imposter syndrome!

The first thing to understand is this: everyone can be valuable to others through their own way.

If you are struggling to find a job now, it may be that your potential employers failed to see the value in you; it could be that you haven't found the best way to present your values to others; it could also be that you haven't found what others need so you don't know how you can be valuable just yet.

If you have a job now, no matter how "low" your position is, you are definitely valuable. Employers don't pay you for you skills — they pay you for the value you provide for them.

With that out of the way, let's talk about how junior devs specifically can be valuable.

Unique values of a junior dev

It may not be easy to spot on the surface, but junior devs have their own special way of adding value to a company.

Let's break the issue down and tackle them one by one.

1. Lack of technical skills

You are new to the industry, hence the "junior" in your title, so it's understandable that others who have been in the industry for years are better than you technically.

It's important to note that there are people who are better at what they do than even the most senior person on your team. In other words, if you compare yourself with people better than you, you will never be good enough.

But, you don't have to be, do you? You can still compare with those who are better than you technically, but let them be your inspiration and guiding post that motivate you to become more like them.

And what to do with your lacking technical skills? Practice, practice and practice.

I wrote about this through sharing my embarrassing experience learning the one-handed shuffle.

I also wrote about the best way I found to practice.

2. Lack of self-worth

From my personal experience and anecdotes I hear, a lot of times companies hire juniors and treat them as juniors.

By that I mean sometimes the more boring and mindless work nobody wants to do is assigned to juniors. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

From a less cynical perspective, it's not the company's fault to do that, but they often do need to find better ways to utilize skills juniors have and uncover their potentials.

In more cynical scenarios, people (managers, seniors, co-workers) could literally assign you impossible tasks so when things go south, you can take the blame for them.

Again, how you respond to this affects your mentality; if you treat it as a challenge that helps you grow, you can feel more excited and motivated to work through it. And hey, they expected you to not find solutions easily, so if you don't, then no harm to anybody.

Those people who you look up to got good at what they do by going through the same phase you are going through now. Problem is people tend to forget what it was like and what they went through to achieve their level of competence, so they appear less considerate.

3. Being a time and resource drain (a.k.a. value sink)

This one's interesting.

I think a junior dev should be able to bother a more senior person as much as he/she wants. If you don't ask questions, your teammates won't know that you are stuck, confused and having problems.

Of course, being respectful and considerate when doing so helps tremendously.

If you start the question with "would you be available later to help me with something quick?", then they have the choice of saying "sure" or "sorry, I'm busy with something right now, but I can help you afterwards." Either way, you have successfully signalled to them that you need help.

And after they help you, you have another chance of showing your gratitude and you being considerate by saying something like "thanks so much! I don't want to take any more of your time, so I will figure out the rest myself."

Heck, this is not How to Talk to More Senior Devs 101; this is simply how to be a good co-worker in general.

And this is your gentle reminder that they are human, too!

So unless they are real assholes, people generally don't have a problem with you asking a lot of questions — it's just a form of communication with your team.

In other news, humans like to feel good about themselves if you let them. So if you are being humble, asking questions and showing respect, others may even love helping you (or loving being recognized for their expertise).


And there you have it!

Feeling like a value sink is demoralizing, so I really hope this post can help some of you out there to overcome some of mental obstacles and burdens and start feeling happier in your job.

Mini Assignment 6 – GIF!

via GIPHY

It’s almost the end of the semester and I’m trying to get myself together. Wipe my tears, take a deep breath and continue on my term papers. Hang in there guys, just several more weeks to go!! (This semester goes faster than I expected!)

p.s. One of my friends always says I’m good at picking gifs when texting, so I’m really excited when I get to make my own gif for the assignment! Can’t wait to send it to my friends!

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Process Post #10: Multiple Channels, Multiple Media.

This week we had a speaker Darren Barefoot from Capulet Communications who talked about multi-channel marketing. Nowadays advertisement became so accessible to everyone, we can use different channels to get different information, such as TV, magazines, ads online, social media, and others. Companies work on attracting audiences from different categories. They use different advertisement tools.

People spend a lot of time on social media; therefore, companies use social media to reach the audience. Advertisement became very accessible that we stopped noticing it. Brands sponsor influencers all over the world who share information about certain products on Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms.

Personally to promote my blog and reach out to specific audience, I would use Instagram. Instagram is the platform I use the most. It’s very easy to reach a large amount of loyal followers that I could later connect with my blog.

Dr Martens.

They say fashion comes full circle and it’s entirely correct about Dr. Martens boots. Dr. Martens shoes allow perfectly to adopt to every individual’s style. Their outstanding durability and comfort make them ideal for street fashion.

Dr. Martens began life in the 1960s originally as a modest work-wear boot that was even sold as a gardening shoe at one stage. Going from a workwear item to a fashion staple, the practical shoes have become a regular sight during fashion week. These iconic boots have been a wardrobe staple for decades, and I don’t think it will change anytime soon.

They are perfect for any weather- you can wear them when it’s snowing, raining, or sunny. They perfectly complete any outfit. There are so many different styles of Dr. Martens you can get- platforms, chelsea, oxfords, ankle boots, and many others. You can wear them with jeans, leather pants, skirts, dresses- they complete every outfit and make everything look so much more interesting and unique. I am sure that the popularity of Dr. Martens will never fade.

Process Post 10 – Transmedia

“Transmedia stories are based not on individual characters or specific plots but rather complex fictional worlds which can sustain multiple interrelated characters and their stories” (Kevin Britteny Lauren, 2013).

I had no idea what ‘transmedia’ meant before enrolling and subsequently engaging in this course. However, this does not mean I wasn’t participating in it as both creator and consumer. In fact, when reflecting on the media in which I was utilizing throughout childhood and today, much of what interested and continues to tap my mind is a product of transmedia storytelling. We like, follow, buy and crave stories, and through various mediums and ways in which our interests interact, these only become more appealing, compelling and addicting.

Similar to Lauren’s (2013) post about the transmedia-ness of Pokemon, which you can read here if my last link did not tempt you; various forms of involvement within the ‘story’ enthralled me from the likes of ‘Batman,’ ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,’ ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and ‘Star Wars.’ I was not just watching a cartoon or playing with an action figure, I was interacting with video games, seeing movies, watching YouTube videos, mesmerized by commercials, wearing clothes and playing board games that encapsulated the worlds, characters and stories of each interest. For an in-depth exploration of transmedia storytelling in the context of Star Wars, read this article about Suzanne Scott’s course at the University of Texas, Austin.

Today, it only takes a second to recognize the success of Marvel movies as a product of transmedia integration. These films, as well as everything else from Stance socks to video games, are transmedia juggernauts, all of which impact us at the deepest neurological level. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) of Australia posts an interesting article here that examines the cognitive science behind our infatuation with media and how transmedia arouses neurons. In 2019 and assuredly beyond, transmedia storytelling has and will continue to expand – apps, VR, Blogs and whatever gaming platform arises from the brains of Silicon Valley. However, the fresh technologies of the 21st Century did not spawn the idea of transmedia, as Henry Jenkins, attests, our brains have long been exposed and satiated by the integrated and complex worlds created by multiple media. In fact, Jenkins suggests that transmedia started making strides in the 1930s with Tarzan Adventures, which was interestingly during the Great Depression. Perhaps Jane was not the only person saved by Tarzan…

In terms of ReRouted, transmedia integration seems like a logical step and initiative. I feel this because the nature of the blog is to read as a story; therefore, the complexities, characters and interwoven environments and ponderings fare well to be exposed through other mediums and platforms. Because my technical skills are somewhat limited, I have to consider the ways in which I can enhance transmedia integration on this blog. I have yet to give careful consideration for this, but the addition of a vlog via YouTube, perhaps some storyboard sketches or various one page infographics depicting the blog’s content or message. In terms of audience, I’m wanting to capture more people, and for me, the challenge will be grasping the likes of non-athletes or people who really aren’t interested in hearing ‘some jock’ blab about football. It will be important to discuss change in general; identity, life, situation, environment, etc. To accomplish this, I need to present the story from different angles or mediums that conjure interest from others.

Transmedia options provide a different lens in which to explore my content and overall theme. ReRouted is a story, and with that, there are various ways in which to tell it. One year ago, Shannon Emmerson posted an article about great transmedia examples, with The Matrix series of films being a quintessential standard. Like the movie reflects in its complex direction, the more angles you have to view something, the more intrigue is developed, questions are asked and in the blogosphere, visitors one receives. Therefore, more channels of accessibility and variety in exploring ReRouted from various perspectives is valuable and the reason why I need to utilize transmedia.

How to write code without having to Google things

Ever wonder how professional programmers/developers are able to “spit out” code and commands instantly on demand?

How do they memorize all of that information?

Is there a secret to their wizard-like abilities?

As it turns out, there is!

A lot of professional developers have learned the secret to learning things quickly and memorizing things for a long time. And that secret is…

*drum rolls*

Do the same things over and over again to the point of puking :)

You must be really disappointed right now that I’ve reveal the secret after hyping it up initially.

But, of course, there is more to it, and I honestly did not lie about how effective it is.

You see, many people, myself included, learned web development through following countless number of tutorials. More often than not though, the act of following tutorials is mostly just blindly following instructions.

Whether or not you were able to successfully recreate what the tutorial is teaching you about, be it an one-page static website, a simple React app, or an API for bookmarking things, you will not remember anything you have just done.

Tell me if either of these scenarios sounds familiar to you:

  1. You followed a tutorial and successfully coded something that resembles the tutorial’s demo. You feel a sense of relief, but you don’t know WTF just happened because you almost just copy-pasted the code (shut up, typing out the same code isn’t much different than copy-pasta).
  2. OR, you followed a tutorial and failed to achieve the expected end result. Either you encountered some uncaught errors or you were missing the same stylesheets as the demo, you will be stuck debugging the problem on your own which was never mentioned in the tutorial. Guess what, you are left wondering, again, WTF just happened.

This is exactly why you shouldn’t strive to follow as many tutorials as you can find, but instead focus on a few tutorials that you do over and over again. Here’s what’s gonna happen:

1st Pass

You are clueless what the tutorial author is talking about, but you follow it regardless. In the end, best case scenario, you didn’t encounter any errors and you got what you were promised. Now you have a complete thing that you have no idea how to recreate or apply to any of your other things if you were to do it without guidance.

2nd Pass

Because you have done the tutorial once, you are familiar with some of the steps. This is where your brain piece things together instead of blindly following instructions.

While going through the same steps again, you start discovering some typos or mistakes you made in the first pass, or you may try changing tiny things here and there just to see what happens.

A very crude example: the tutorial tells you to put color: blue; in your stylesheet. You sort of guessed (assuming you are completely new to CSS) that this line is going to change the color of some text, and you saw that some text on the page has blue color from the first pass.

This time around, you feel a little more adventurous and decide to tweak some small things that are unlikely to cause errors, so you change it to say color: red;. Now that you can see the difference visually, you understand that this particular text block will be affected by this particular rule which changes the color of the text.

3rd Pass

You are getting a bit bored because you have already gone through the entire process, not once, but twice!

But this is when something weird and magical happens: while that boredom is starting to sip in, a sense of confidence is also kicking in!

You realized that now you know what to type without having to read the original tutorial text word by word. A clear step-by-step process is also starting to take form in your head as if the tutorial steps are gradually being imprinted onto your brain.

4th Pass

Now you are feeling REALLY adventurous; you start changing less trivial things.

Instead of fiddling with colors and font sizes, you start changing functions and reordering them just to see what happens as a result of every one of your changes.

You may also start getting some big red and scary errors, but you don’t panic because you know exactly what you changed to cause that and it’s only a ctrl/cmd + z away to bring it back to a working state.

5th Pass

The tutorial content has become part of your knowledge base that you can retrieve at will. What’s really beautiful about this is that the explorations you had in the previous passes, such as the color changes and function restructuring and what not, these enable you to achieve a higher level understanding of the content.

Your brain can finally make sense of everything. Not only that, you can now synthesize, adapt, and apply to new problems using the knowledge you just put in.


Again, the point is not to avoid Googling things all together. It's to gain mastery and confidence through meaningful practice.

Experienced developers accumulate their knowledge overtime. Most of them don’t do this repetitive process of following tutorials deliberately because they take a slightly different and longer approach.

They accumulate the knowledge by simply working on similar projects over and over again. Potato potato.

What you will find after many passes is that the next time you start building your own thing, whether it’s to set up a new project structure, initialize a git repo, or create some boilerplate framework code — you know, all that pro stuff — the commands, knowledge, and everything becomes muscle memory and come to you automatically when you need it!

Have I convinced you that doing the same thing repeatedly is not only NOT BORING, but it actually gives you a better understanding of the things you learned from tutorials?

This is the secret that allows you to learn things quickly, memorize things for a long time, and know how to adapt and apply newly acquired knowledge in your own projects without guidance.

What’s also great is that this ultimately gives you more confidence, which turns into motivation to keep you going in the journey of getting your dream job or creating your dream website/app!

Now stop reading and go dig up those tutorials you “finished” and start redoing them until you can recreate those without looking :)