Monthly Archives: October 2020

Interaction with a Stranger

A few weeks ago, I was at chapters to pick up a book I ordered. I was waiting in line and this girl started asking me if she should get a hardcover copy or a paperback copy of the book in her hand since she couldn’t decide. I told her that I had done some research and found out that hard cover is meant to last longer but paperback is best for travel purposes or just carrying around. I myself, was getting a hardcover copy of my book so I figured she’d prefer the same. After talking about the book type she should get, the conversation continued. She seemed young, around the same age as me, so I decided to ask her if she goes to high school or university. She then went on to tell me she just graduated from high school and is now attending university online. Don’t worry we are getting to the good part….

So, our conversation kept going and I found out that we both graduated from the same high school! We were both surprised since we had never talked or seen each other and I know that may be hard to believe but I was always more of an introvert in school so I had limited friends and acquaintances. Plus there’s so many kids and your energy runs out by the time you graduate. We talked about our experience briefly with Covid-19 and how university is going and it was nice to get to know someone else besides the other people I already knew from school. We even exchanged socials and I have talked to her a few times since! It’s true when they say this is a small world-like really small for real.

Reflecting on that experience, I find that talking to someone face to face, is so much more engaging and connecting. I’m not saying that getting to know someone online through facetime, zoom, etc. is any less meaningful, but there’s a sense of disconnect when everyone feels like they have to act a certain way or say certain things in order to make a connection with one another. Another thing is, the fact that we are online so much now especially because of school, it gets tiring to talk to someone for “interaction” online repetitively. I’d rather meet people and talk in person. However, I still prefer a balance since I’m not super social but not super introverted either. I guess I’d call myself an ambivert because it really depends on whose company I’m in and the energy they bring with them while interacting.

PEER REVIEW ONE

My peer review will be on the the blog fairything.net which is written by Alex Masse.

First Glance

The website is bright and welcoming but a little confusing. The use of a title or a caption that tells the reader what this website is about could help clear things up. There is a really catchy tagline about art, but art can mean a lot of things and therefore, a picture or a description right at the top would be helpful.

The site appears to be set up for new posts to be visible at the top. However there is a lack of continuity regarding whether the article has a header picture attached. If this is a stylistic choice then that is fair, but leaving the space for pictures and not filling them makes it seem like something is missing. Creating a consistent style will make things a bit neater!

Menu

The menu is a bit sparse. There is a home button which is good, however, the word blends into the header picture making the button almost undetectable on all pages other than the home page. 

There is an about page button which is great and it is easily accessible. 

Although this article talks about containers of media it could be helpful in deciding how to organize the posts, because the blog deals heavily with various forms of media.

There are only two menu options that lead to the blogs content and there is definitely room for more! It is not explicitly clear what inward and outward posts means in terms of organizaton. There is also not really a clear path to access all of the academic assignments in one place. Assigning a drop down menu to academics and even just giving an explanation on what inward and outward means could be really useful.

Content Structure

The author has a really unique voice and that is amazing! However it can leave people who are first visiting in the dark! Making what they are talking about in a post explicitly clear can make for a more user friendly experience. 

This can be fixed by including hyperlinks, which can be explained in this article. This can help create a network when mentioning previous posts, which the author does often. Using headings, subheadings, and maybe at the end including a list of links to all the pages on the blog that are mentioned in the post can be helpful as well. Adding tags is a really useful way to make sure all content is accessible in one area.

There is also always a little catch up before getting into the content and it would be more clear if the author could keep the personal commentary about life events to only ones that relate to the topic they are talking about in the post. It would give the blog more flow. Separating these funny anecdotes into a separate post could be a possibility.

Specific Posts And Design

The author has made many posts for their site, and it is easy  to get lost in what is going on. This appears to be an art blog but some of the posts are process posts which disturb the flow of art content. 

Specifically there are two posts about books and then one about inktober. The titles do not make the subject of the posts clear. If the author could  have specific theme titles or pictures, it would give a more clear idea of what post a reader is about to experience. This article could really help the author figure out how they want to distinguish one category of posts from another.  Again, tagging can also keep things really tidy and show the connection from one post to another.

Conclusion

Overall the blog is really interesting and sets the stage for some really amazing content. It could benefit from some organization but all that will come in time!

MINI ASSIGNMENT TWO; SPIDERMAN

With Great Power Comes Great Frustration

Being Spiderman really is not as great as you would think. Although some of the perks are great like, swinging from webs, getting the girls, and not having to wear glasses, it honestly kind of bites.

The Mask Situation

Whenever I swing around town as Spiderman I wear a mask. Everyone knows it! It goes with my outfit, its breathable, and it looks really cool. Now people want me to wear another mask on top of the one I already wear! How does that make any sense. I literally had to publish my own smear campaign about how I’m supposed to be cancelled because I wasn’t wearing a surgical mask over my regular mask. Do people think I my actual face looks like that? If only a spider that injected reality checks into people existed.

Faulty Spidey Senses

I get that I chose to be anonymous but sometimes I get really tired of people not knowing who I really am. One time as Spiderman I saved this old lady from getting hit by a bus. I did the whole shebang. I swung down, snatched her off the street, and placed her gently on the sidewalk. She was swooning all over me. I literally had to pry her arm off of me.

A week later I see her at the grocery store and I’m just in my regular clothes. I smiled at her and she started screaming at me. Saying how a young men these days are so disgusting. I almost regretted what I did for her last week. Knowing that I’ve helped people like that really gets my webs in a knot.

Movie Remakes

I hate all the remakes of my movie. I don’t get why they keep making so many without me when I’m still spinning! I’m never doing much these days. I get that while we were filming the original I would disappear to save people, but I wasn’t a diva. I made the franchise and now they’re phasing me out! Like who even are Tom Holland and Andrew Garfeild? What really makes me mad is that they didn’t even ask me to come to set when they were filming with the imposters. Their webbing techniques were obviously terrible. Had they just asked me to come I would have happily showed them the ropes. Its honestly disrespectful.

WEEK WRECKER 3; SUPERHEROES

Why Do People Love Them so Much?

It makes no sense why people love superheroes so much. There are so many problems associated with the superhero industry that people seem happy to ignore. If anything it seems as if the villain’s need more of a voice.

Misogynistic

I think the main issue for me is the fact that there is a lack of female superheroes. Although there are a few there are obvious issues with them. They are always wearing very little clothing, getting considerably less notoriety, and always being forgotten about until someone is trying to argue that superheroes do not have enough diversity.

These movies also perpetuate the idea that when a female is in distress she needs a man, but when a man is injured in a super human fight he doesn’t need a woman. To make it even worse, the women these men do save all seem to have to fall in love with them. It’s as if she is not given any sort of autonomy, and as a trope of the genre she falls into his arms.

Destructive

Not enough people talk about how much superheroes ruin when they are saving the world. The amount of cars they throw, buildings they take down, and general catastrophes they are a part of must have some civilian casualties. Many people argue that the movie is set in which superheroes exist, and therefore I cannot argue the realities of innocent lives lost. However, the issue should then fall on the creators of the genre who set these superheroes into reality. If the movie is set in a reality where civilian do not get injured, then what is the superhero even saving them from? They can’t get hurt! Therefore by saying that it is fictional and that they would not get hurt refutes the very purpose of the movie, and anything with that big of a plot hole should not be produced!

Self centred

All superheroes are cowboys of justice which is just unacceptable. As a society we work to make it clear that those that are different should no get special privileges. The rich should have to pay taxes, people with fast cars should stop at stop lights, and people with more should help those with less. Therefore it makes no sense why these random people who can do weird stuff, like shoot lasers out of their armpits, should get the privilege of policing, destroying, and assaulting others.

In Conclusion

It just doesn’t make any sense how people can blabber about these concepts when really they make no sense. Even looking at it from a linear plot driven perspective. A lot of the plots contradict each other from one series to the next! Any old producer or writer can come in and change everything and it is expected to be canon while also not getting in the way of the other supposedly canon versions of the series.

PROCESS POST WEEK 4; DIFFICULTIES

This Is Actually Very Difficult

I have a real new found appreciation for small businesses and people who start sites on their own, because I do not think I would be able to do this without the help that PUB 101 provides.

As the semester gets into full swing I find myself second guessing everything. Whether I got my mood board right, the colours perfect, or my tone correct? However, my main issue is the technical side of everything. Watching the YouTube videos and listening to questions that come up in tutorial have allowed me to customize my site more, but I am sure that I am miles away from knowing even just the basics of what everything there is to know about running a website.

In keeping with the theme of this blog I want to talk about some of the things that frustrate me from building this site.

The process of my blog has been really fun, but it has been a steep learning curve. Writing posts is something I find really enjoyable and if I had more time I would definitely write more! However, the technicalities of font, spacing, hyperlinks, and pretty much anything that alters the websites frightens me. I find myself having to really pull myself away from what I think will just be the easiest. I want to push myself to make this website fit my content and to do that I need to get myself to learn, not only the tasks associated with the class, but also those on the periphery. The things that are not on the syllabus but can definitely allow for me to get the most out of this class.

Another annoyance is that I want to do so many things but that is just not possible. I want to make my sight about pictures, but I want it to have a lot of writing, but at the same time I think linking out to different resources and keeping this an academic space is also important. Although the vision board helped me realize what I want to do with my online space, it did not help me with the amount of aspirations I have for this space.

I am also a little bit stumped for the mini assignment for this week because I want to pick someone who will fit the theme of my blog but I also don’t want to be so commonplace. Although a villain would be amazing, imagine a superhero getting mad when they are usually holier-than-thou beings! There is just so much to do with this blog that it’s over whelming, not in workload but in possibility.

This is however not a complaint. I think that writing this process post has actually helped me to compile a list of things I want to do moving forward. I know this is all about the process and with time I will get better at navigating and controlling. On a positive note, I actually do feel better about my site than I did in the first week. I also think I have finally figured out how I want to organize everything which helps a lot.