Monthly Archives: December 2020

My Fashion Picks + Wishlist for Christmas 2020

Every year, my friends and I send each other our Christmas wishlists so we can buy each other exactly what we want. It’s always super fun to go back through the years and see what kind of stuff I wanted and what kind of things I ended up receiving. If people ask me what I want for Christmas this year, I can just send them this blog post! By no means am I expecting to receive anything on this list, but I just think it will be fun to look back on this At the end of the day, I will probably end up buying the things that I want on my own eventually!

Platform Converse

Herschel Tote Bag

Screenshot retrieved from Urban Outfitters

Peta & Jain Handbags

Screenshot retrieved from Princess Polly

Cropped Denim Jacket

Levi’s Ribcage Jeans

Cropped Bomber Jacket

Black

Black is a colour

It should have no meaning

but this “BLACK” has defined us

more and more each day its seemin

Rooted in my DNA in my dark skin you see

my curly Afro hair and curvy body thats the black in me

Exotic , Special , foreign , tropical, oriental i hear it everyday

it’s just fancy language for different , but we’re all kinds of different aren’t we ?

but there’s other narratives can’t you see

the angry black person, the bum or hoodlump, the thief and the liar

that is what the system has painted us out to be

But my black is different , one word REVOLUTIONARY

I see it all around me , Black is the colour of success

And thats all black means to me

Peer Review #2

The review should assess theme and customizations, typography, layout, social media integration, site structure, usability, and any other design decisions you notice. Your review should be 400+ words and posted to your Process Blog, with clear links to your peer’s site.

My second Peer Review is of my classmate Regina’s website – http://rtopianist.com/saysomething/

The second peer review tasks us to assess our peers themes and customisations and various layouts. Regina on her home page has a moving background which i found quite unique and beautiful the picture is dark because it happened to catch the image while it was changing and moving . The layout of her home page is simple and easy to navigate she chooses subtle typographies and they are not all over the place. It is quite inviting and interesting to look at and it makes me want to explore more of the site .

The usability of my peer Regina’s site is quite high in my opinion it was full of content and she did not leave any weeks without content , weeks where we had no assignments or assigned process posts she would fill in by making a movie review, another reason why i believe in the usability of her blog is because it is simple and not overcrowded.

The theme she uses isn’t one of the default ones that comes with wordpress which entails that she did some exploring before figuring out what she wanted and how she liked it. In terms of social media she doesn’t really integrate her social media on the blog she has her instagram linked at the contact area but that is the only social media listed.

At the top right of Regina’s website she has five chain links before her search bar and if you click any of them you would be taken to her mean items at the top left of her website she has one for her home ,mumble , process posts , peer review and essay this is like a mini short cut to her menu i thought it to be creative and helpful My only criticism is that it is somewhat too simple in some areas like the backgrounds of her posts and could do with some more colour other than that i. loved her blog and found her content riveting

Essay 2: My online publishing experience

I created AmaansWorld as a sort of journal entry into my mind. I wanted it to be a space where I could write freely about my thoughts and adventures. Very quickly I decided to narrow down on the audience and give it some kind of a ‘direction’. As a result of deciding on an audience, the baseless rambling became cohesive blogs, and the crazy theories became neatly explained ideas. Originally, I wanted this website to be a space for myself, but very quickly I decided that the audience for this space would be my friends and family who would want to keep up with me during the pandemic and stay entertained.

WordPress woes:
I used Reclaim Hosting to host my domain and used WordPress to design my website. WordPress is fairly easy to use, but it does have a bit of a learning curve. I found that the default theme I was in was extremely limited and lacked a lot of customizability that the other themes had. I switched over to a theme called Signify after weeks of battling the default theme.

Design elements:
Since I wanted my blog to be a reflection of my personality, I decided to use yellow as the primary color for my theme. Yellow is often seen on parenting, wellness, and travel websites because of its ability to make viewers feel warmth and optimism (Bryne, 2019). It also makes them feel happier and gives the blog a more youthful vibe (Bryne, 2019).

I decided to give only the blog page thumbnails as it would entice people to read the blog. I didn’t feel it was necessary for the process posts, mini assignments, and other posts as those are all academic pieces of content that will be read and judged anyway. The blog section is something I wanted to grow organically, and the most effective way (other than good SEO) for me was to use thumbnail pictures to entice people.

I also added a comment box for people to be able to interact with each other and form a community. My vision was to be able to give my audience of friends and family a public space to share comments and interact with the content and each other. Unfortunately, due to the low website views, no one left any comments.

My Analytics
My analytics showed me that most, if not all of my visitors were just my classmates checking my website or my parents looking at it. I did have some random views from Russia, but I didn’t see as much of my friends and family on there as I would have liked. Unfortunately, I was not able to gather much about my audience from Google Analytics. I do think that if I improved my SEO for the blog the results would have been much more organic and promising. I also think if I shifted my websites direction to more topical content I would have more organic growth.

Online Disinhibition and me.
I noticed that my content had led to online disinhibition. Online disinhibition is the idea that people do things in cyberspace that they wouldn’t otherwise do in real life (Suler, 2004). In my case, I noticed my online persona fell into solipsistic introjection, where my mind has merged with my online persona (Suler, 2004). I could feel the more charismatic and interesting version of myself take over my text messages or place an order for deliveries. I that my online self is more interesting, charismatic, and social than my actual self and I’m seeing the lines in my online-self and my real/offline-self get blurred.

The issue of audience and anonymity.
Since my ideal audience would have been comprised of people I know, I think my content was self-censored to a certain degree. While it’s true that short term focused writing about emotions has benefits such as enhanced immune function, lowered blood pressure and anxiety, less depressive symptoms, etc. (Novotney, 2014). I feel that I was not fully able to grasp those benefits because of a lack of anonymity.

Initially, I wanted this blog to be a stream of consciousness like a diary entry because of the immense benefits to self-esteem, social anxiety, and emotional distress, blogging has (Novotney, 2014). However, I was unable to upload anything I thought was too personal as I lacked anonymity and had a fear of judgment from my peers and audience. As a result, my content was not an honest reflection of myself, but rather how I wanted to be perceived by my peers. This is a phenomenon that has been noted by other researchers; anonymity behind blogging can allow for more free expression of ones-self as they no longer consider what their friends and family might think about their thoughts (Novotney, 2014).

I do think, that because of the nature of this blog (it being used for coursework) I was not able to fully open up and express my thoughts. Especially because I envisioned a community forming on my websites.

Online Comments and Content.
While I do have comments open, because of the low turnout to my blogs I. I think that as I kept blogging my content got more and more personal. I do believe that if someone had left a negative comment about my content, I would have very quickly changed direction with it.

While I do have comments open, because of the low turnout to my blogs didn’t receive any comments. This I think was a blessing to a certain degree, as I am pretty sensitive to criticism and a negative comment would have led me to change my content in some way. I noticed that as I kept blogging my content became more and more personal. However, I do believe that if someone had left a negative comment about my content, I would have made it less personal. Furthermore, I think it would have affected my offline persona negatively too. Studies have shown that the vast majority of people do nothing and hope it would go away on its own (Khosa, 2016).

Trolling and gender.
While I am concerned about cyber-bullying and trolling on my blogs, I am statistically least likely to be affected because of my gender. For some reason, women are usually trolled online more often than men. Usually, because they are trolled by men (Gardiner et al., 2016). In fact, it has been proven that girls are far more likely to be cyber-bullied than boys (Greenfield, 2015). Some of the comments can go from mean-spirited to downright scary and disgusting like with Jessica Valenti who had to quit social media after her five-year-old child was getting rape threats because of her feminist work (Boggioni, 2016). To a certain degree, I carry privilege with me being online even though the internet is viewed as an equal platform. But just because of my gender, my website and content is less likely to be trolled.

Closing remarks:
I think this semester has given me insight into the work that goes behind becoming a successful blogger. I’ve learned that you need to be secure in your own identity and online image and that sometimes you can get lost in the online character you build for yourself. I do recognize that somewhere I did have it easier as I was a smaller blogger and a male. I think that had I been a larger blogger and a woman this would be a vastly different story. Moving forward, I think I will keep blogging but perhaps under a new, more anonymous blog as it will allow me to be more open with my expression. I do intend to keep Amaansworld running as a reminder to myself of the work I did.

References:

Boggioni, T. (2016, July 28). Prominent feminist writer drops off social media after rape threat against her 5-year-old daughter. Retrieved December 07, 2020, from https://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/prominent-feminist-writer-drops-off-social-media-after-rape-threats-against-her-5-year-old-daughter/

Byrne, S. (2019, July 22). How Colour Psychology in Web Design Can Increase Conversions. Retrieved December 07, 2020, from https://forgeandsmith.com/blog/colour-psychology-web-design/

Gardiner, B., Mansfield, M., Anderson, I., Holder, J., Louter, D., & Ulmanu, M. (2016, April 12). The dark side of Guardian comments. Retrieved December 07, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/12/the-dark-side-of-guardian-comments

Greenfield, S. (2015, December 01). The Internet Has Changed Bullying- For The Worse. Retrieved December 07, 2020, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/mind-change/201512/the-internet-has-changed-bullying-the-worse

Khosa, N. (2016). How personality effects victim’s response to cyberbullying (Master’s thesis, Thesis / Dissertation ETD, 2016) (pp. 1-51). Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University. doi:https://doi.org/10.31274/etd-180810-5365

Novotney, A. (2014, June). Blogging for mental health. Retrieved December 07, 2020, from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/06/blogging

Suler, J. (2004, June 1). The Online Disinhibition Effect. Retrieved December 07, 2020, from http://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/disinhibit.html

It’s A Not Goodbye, It’s A See You Later :)

The Power of Painting had a very funny start. I have told this story in previous posts but essentially, I only became interested in painting because of the COVID-19 quarantine. At around April, I would take my daily walks around my neighbourhood and sometimes I would end up at the dollar store. I grabbed a couple of paints and supplies, and the rest is history. With all of this in mind, when I began this class, I wasn’t too sure what I would make a blog on. At first, I considered a restaurant blog but that seemed generic and hard to do during COVID. But then I remembered my paintings and I thought a blog would be the perfect place to not only show my audience but also a place where I could document the work I have done and also share ideas and tips. This blog acts as a platform for me to be myself and write what I am thinking, which is apparently normal as “some people do report being more like their true self in cyberspace” (Suler, 2004). I like to think of it as my creative space and an online art gallery for myself.

During my editorial and writing process, the audience that I had in mind was just like me. This is because “the content should speak to the few people who can identify with this personality because this is the only audience that matters”which means that my content should reflect my own personality (Gertz, 2015). This includes regular people who aren’t expert artists, have little to no drawing/painting experience and are just looking to do something for fun when they have time. I think this is one of the reasons why I write the way I do. I specifically add steps and include points that may be simple to artists but are things that never would cross the mind of a beginner. I also took a very friendly and casual tone when writing my posts. I never wanted to be too serious with my audience and I wanted to make it seem like I was having a one-on-one conversation with the person reading. By doing this, it made the flow of the posts to be more natural and also easier to read.

In terms of the paintings I have made, they were all chosen by me and are designs that I really enjoyed. Therefore, the look and aesthetic of the paintings may be geared towards a younger audience but in all honesty, it can really be for anyone. The same can be said when I was choosing my theme and designing the blog. I already had a bit of an idea in my head and decided to do what I know I would love. Since I am a very minimalist person who enjoys very simple and easy to navigate things, that was what I wanted to see on this website. I chose a theme and template called “New blog WordPress theme” because it looked clean and had a nice menu bar at the top.

With this audience in my head, I am glad I used Google Analytics and WordPress analytics to actually figure out who the people visiting my blog were. Having these tools was “like having an all-seeing eye gazing directly into the hearts and minds of our audience” which is really helpful as a publisher who wants to increase engagement on their platforms (Gertz, 2015). As I figured, my demographics were what I anticipated. In terms of age, it ranged between individuals aged 18-34. This makes sense because that’s who my target was, and I know a lot of my friends who followed my blog journey fall between these ages. For gender, I predominantly attract females which also makes sense because of the girly aesthetic of my website and also the more feminine paintings that I choose to replicate.

Regarding value, I hope that I am giving helpful advice, tips and tricks to beginners just like myself. As mentioned before, I am no expert and what I am writing about comes from other artists that I have learned from. Also, I have no plans on monetizing this website because my intentions were never to make a profit or generate really anything from doing this blog. It’s just a creative and space for me to use to talk about my newfound hobby and also for other people to learn and get inspiration for their future endeavours.

In the beginning, “The Publication of Self in Everyday Life” didn’t exactly make sense to me. I was reluctant to take this class, but this experience has really changed my perspective of publication in general and I would highly recommend this class to anyone thinking of building an online presence. With all of this being said, the end of this semester is approaching, and all of my assignments are wrapping up. This was a difficult semester (and year) for all of us but I am very proud of what I accomplished this term. Under the circumstances, I managed to create a blog that I grew to love and become passionate about. Although sometimes tedious, documenting my progress through my process posts really showed how much my thinking and thought process grew over the past couple of months. This website was really my own personal digital garden because I “frequently adjust[ed] and change[d] [ my website] to show [my] growth and learning” (Basu, 2020).

In terms of the Power of Painting, I would love to continue it. A passion that I gained over quarantine at the beginning of the year now holds such a big influence in my life. It has made me so happy to paint or come up with ideas each week and be able to share them with my audience. Even if the people reading my content were just my friends and classmates, it was still so exciting to see my analytics go up and it proved to me that I could continue this in the future. Obviously, I do say this now as my optimistic self, but I know that life gets busy and a lot of what I love gets pushed to the side. That is why my goal will be to try to continue this blog to the best of my ability. I think it is important to prioritize things that make me happy and this definitely does!

References

Gertz, T. (2015, July 10). How to Survive the Digital Apocalypse. Louder Than Ten. https://louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines

Basu, T. (2020, September 3). Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet | MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/03/1007716/digital-gardens-let-you-cultivate-your-own-little-bit-of-the-internet/

Suler, J. (2004, June 1). Psychology of Cyberspace—The Online Disinhibition Effect. http://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/disinhibit.html

The post It’s A Not Goodbye, It’s A See You Later :) appeared first on the Power of Painting.

The Blazer

Hi everyone and welcome back to another week of blogging! This week’s blog post is all about blazers. Blazers are perfect for all seasons because they come in many different colours and materials. They are styled perfectly when thrown over a blouse or even a hoodie. The trendiest pattern we have been seeing over the […]

Goalkeepers Have to Have Short Term Memory

Almost all of my keeper coaches have taught us a form of thinking where we need to have a short term memory in order to play our position. A lot of people see this and have to think about it for a second because it is not something that is discussed a whole lot. It is easy for a forward to make a little mistake and either correct it or get it the next time the ball comes their way. There are times where goalkeepers don’t get a whole lot of action and if we make a mistake that one time something gets kicked at us, it can be a deciding factor in a game situation.

I always talk about how if a goalkeeper makes a decision that is not the correct one, it is more costly than a forward or midfielder making a poor decision. But like all humans, we make mistakes and we cannot dwell on it otherwise it can lead to more goals being scored on you. It can be very difficult because when a goal is scored, the goalie is the last line of defense so it can be very easy to look at the keeper with the slightest bit of contempt.

Trust me, there are times where when I let in a goal, I tend to blame myself, always thinking “why didn’t I do this instead?” or “why did I approach it like this?” This is where the keeper coach starts telling us to forget about it and move on, have a short term memory, because once you go down the rabbit hole about what you should or shouldn’t have done we start to second guess ourselves and make more mistakes than necessary.

Assignment #6

Newest Addition!

One of our newest addition is our Beyond Meat Gyozas!

Eating plant based has become quickly popular and almost a trend in Vancouver these days. I personally am not vegan or vegetarian but I’ve been to plant based restaurants and have been surprised with how delicious the dishes are!

These gyozas consist of plant based “meat” and cabbage. They are available for purchase frozen so that you can cook it to your own liking in the comfort of your own home!

My favourite way to cook my dumplings are to place them into a shallow pan with an inch of water and simmer for 10 minutes, then drain the water and drizzle some oil on top and a bit on the sides so the oil can seep to the bottom of the dumplings to prevent sticking, cover the pan and let them sizzle for 6-7 minutes. They always come out with a crispy bottom and are so delicious!

Bento Time!

If you don’t know what a bento is, it is basically a Japanese lunch box with sections of different foods to eat with rice or noodles.

This bento is called the “Gyu-Meshi Bento”, translating to “Beef Stew Bento”. This is one of my favourites as the beef stew is my mom’s recipe and she makes it fresh from scratch for our shops. The best part is that it is topped off with a sous vide onsen egg!

We also have a lot of other types of bentos such as tempura on rice and fried chicken with tartar sauce. I love getting bentos because it lets you try a bit of everything and it’s a meal that will keep me full all day.

Love It or Hate It

In my experience, seafood is a category of food that people either love or hate and this dish is one that definitely fits that category.

It’s called the Uni Ikura Bamboo Box. Translates to Sea Urchin Salmon Roe on top of a bed of sushi rice, topped with shredded egg and wrapped in bamboo leaves.

Surprisingly, many people rave about it but I actually am not a fan of either sea urchin or salmon roe… sorry dad…

However, when it is sea urchin season, many foodies around Vancouver are always on the search for the best uni dish and combinations like these are becoming very popular in contrast to the traditional sea urchin sashimi with soy sauce.

Essay Two

I always wanted to have a blog or some form of documentation in my life but I never knew how. PUB 101 was also a class that I have been wanting to take for a few semesters but I was never able to get in due to the popularity and waitlist that this course withholds. When I finally got in this semester, I was so excited to start a journey of not only documenting a period of my life but as well as learning all the skills to build an online presence and make it into my own!

This blog was initially to document my family and I’s journey throughout the pandemic as business owners as the restaurant industry has been hit extremely hard since March of this year. I wanted to do this so that I would have something to look back on when hopefully, one day this pandemic is over. However, this blog has slowly turned into not only just current experiences but I have found enjoyment in writing about past experiences and I was surprised at how many of the course contents were applicable. I am not sure how much value or influence I have added to others but my hopes for this was to show awareness for small businesses and how anyone can support them during the pandemic. Every little bit counts!

Along with all the technical skills that I have learned from this course, I have also been hit with realization of the factors that make up what kind of space the internet is today. Some of the topics that stood out to me most during this semester were: fake news, copyright, monetization, and transmedia.

In week 7, we learned about fake news and the circulation behind it and I slowly realized that fake reviews could be written just like any fake news report. In my experience, it is common that one may exaggerate the issue when slightly discontent with an experience regarding a restaurant, especially when they are hungry and eager to eat their food. One small slip up could stir up a bunch of emotions and cause a blowout. Lewis & Marwick (2017) discuss how trustworthy media really is and how manipulation may be used to someones advantage. Being the daughter of a long time restaurant owner, I have heard countless stories of toxic restaurant relationships in which one party is discontent with what is going on, resulting in spread of inaccurate information online, ultimately leading to manipulation of others. Luckily, my family and I have never experienced that personally.

The next week, we went on to learn about copyright. It’s actually a coincidence because the day after that lecture, I was at work and noticed a bunch of the photos of our food on the delivery app Fantuan, was switched and not the original ones that we submitted. I called the customer service line and was told “it’s fine, as long as the food looks similar”. I responded with “no, we cannot use photos that were taken by someone else without crediting them, which is not possible on a delivery platform”, and they were very unhappy with me.

Monetization was also a topic that I found to be very eye opening. I was about 14 or 15 when “YouTubers” became a thing and influencers who were made money off social media starting becoming very big. Vara (2015) writes about how Steven T, Jones, an editor, started a kickstarter to continue his love for journalism “by letting people give online contributions to help fund…” (Vara, 2015) the window for reporting and writing. In terms of integrating ads into this blog itself, a peer suggested ideas such as pairing with local businesses to benefit both parties (Atwal, 2020). However, Atwal (2020) later recommended that monetization may not be fit for my blog as it is already one big advertisement for my family business alone and any other advertisements may harm the business which I strongly agree with.

Finally, the last topic that stood out strongly to me was transmedia and how we can incorporate multiple forms of media and how diverse it can be! Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com (2013) discusses how Pokemon has developed into such a big corporation with many types of media, ranging from TV shows and video games, all the way to stuffed animals and even theme stores! By doing so, this company has been able to stay in the spotlight for many years and continue to be a relevant part of not only kids but adults’ lives as well! After learning about transmedia, it made me think about how I would want to incorporate different types of media to advertise my parents’ business.

This class has ultimately taught me so much in such a short amount of time and it has made me want to discover and learn more about the publishing industry. I didn’t think I would want to continue blogging after this semester due to my busy schedule but now, I wouldn’t mind putting aside some time for this blog. There is so much to discover in this industry and I am planning on taking PUB 201 to further my knowledge. I am so excited!

Sources

Atwal, J. “Peer Review Three”, Don’t Ruin My Mood. Retrieved from: http://dontruinmymood.com/pub101-assignments/peer-review-three/

Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com. 2013. “Pokemon as transmedia storytelling. https://kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/pokemon-as-transmedia-storytelling/

Marwick, Alice and Lewis, Rebecca. 2017. “Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online“. Datasociety.net.

Vauhini Vara. 2015. “Survival Strategies for Local Journalism”, https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/survival-strategies-for-local-journalism

Process Post #12: Reflecting…

There are a number of things that occurred this semester that I wish I would have done differently, or I wish could have gone a different way. In reality, it’s bad to dwell on the should’ve, could’ve, would’ves that were out of my control… but I figured I would say my piece and let it go.

COVID Gloom and Blues

Since we’re in a global pandemic, I reflected on the idea that PUB 101 would have been a different course if it was taken in person. As Suzanne reiterates regularly, I would imagine that the dynamic of the class would feel more like a community of sharing ideas and blog posts. I enjoyed the relationship that was shared amongst people who talked and turned on cameras during class, but it still felt like there was something lacking. Although I do enjoy going to class and finishing work in the comforts of my home, I also miss the social interaction that comes with taking courses in person. Presenting class materials online was very hit or miss… getting hit with Internet problems is always a worry. In the future, if I end up taking PUB 201, I will take it in person. With that being said, I look forward to the day that we can all go back to SFU campus! I can relate to everyone that is feeling a loss of motivation or energy, and I hope everyone in the class is doing well with coping. Hugs all around!

How Far We’ve Come, and From Here On Out

I am, for the most part, a lurker on social media – sort of. You see, I have an Instagram account, which was originally meant to be my personal account, but it turned into my bunny’s account with a smidge of me. His content is way better than mine could ever be. I mean, just […]

Essay #2 — Semester Reflection

Throughout this course, we have explored the various digital, global and networked spaces we inhabit. As an “online publisher,” I would say that I have learned a multitude of things through simply creating an online presence and expanding it. For my website, I wanted to create a space that promotes and documents my progress as a musician. In Goffman’s reading, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956), he explains his theory of there being a ‘backstage’ and ‘performance’ side to every individual (Goffmann, 1956). Using his dramaturgical model of social life, I would argue that this website serves to present a more personal side of who I am as an artist. Essentially, this platform is meant for my listeners/audience to get to know me for more than just my music. Media platforms like Instagram and Spotify make it easy for users to present and portray a fairly one-sided representation, but I want to inspire and encourage others to share their talents and passions through my story!

Audience Demographics/Analytics

Throughout this course, we had the ability to keep track of our statistics through websites like Google Analytics. After reviewing the data, I was surprised to see who my audience was and the various places they were located. Considering the fact that I am a musician based in Vancouver, BC, it was crazy to see how far my content has reached throughout the globe! In the image below, I have put together the data of my audience members within the platforms of Google Analytics, Youtube, and Spotify.

From the data, I noticed that there were a few common trends in my analytics. For instance, it can be seen that my target demographic ranges between individuals who are within the ages of 18-24. Likewise, across all three platforms, the results show that the majority of my audience is female. I would assume that because I am someone who writes songs about personal experiences, females would be more likely to relate to them compared to males. Geographically, the top countries in my audience can be found in Canada, the United States, the Philippines and Indonesia! Knowing these trends will help me create content and cater it towards these specific areas in the future!

In addition, I would define my public as young adults who listen and enjoy the musical genre of Acoustic/R&B. In Week 6, we learned that the term public can be defined as the social space created by the reflective circulation of discourse (Warner, 2002). I have catered my content towards that audience through singing/covering songs within that genre and creating warm and welcoming visuals/designs. Although my music is not something that can be held physically, I would say that I am providing my audience with songs and covers that they can consume and listen to through streaming and downloading on distribution platforms.

Now vs. The Start of the Semester

Looking back, I would say that my perspective of publication was limited to books, novels, news articles and newspapers. Given the many advancements made in technology and the various ways we consume media, I have grown to see that the publication of the self happens in our everyday lives. Throughout the semester, I have developed my own digital garden where I have cultivated my own little piece of the Internet. In Tanya Basu’s article, she defines a digital garden as a space that “explore[s] a wide variety of topics and are frequently adjusted and changed to show growth and learning, particularly among people with niche interests” (Basu, 2020). As the weeks developed, I continued to download various plugins and learned the importance of refining my voice through the process/blog posts created. I made the decision to remove comments on my website for the sole purpose of limiting certain interactions and feedback. Although user-interaction is great in many scenarios, I chose to limit these interactions on my site to keep the space as something I can confidently call my own.

Plans for the future

When it comes to my future monetization plans, I hope to continue gaining revenue through various platforms like YouTube and Spotify. Since I am still in the early stages of developing my website, I don’t plan on taking any further actions to monetize through WordPress. Instead, I hope to transform my site to provide more of a promotional asset to my brand. I see myself changing the format into more of a social media reference landing page like Linktree. Hopefully, by doing so my audience can easily access other social media platforms that feature my music/content in the future!

It’s hard to predict what may happen within the next few years. After this semester I would have finally completed my undergraduate degree and hopefully, be in the process applying for a full-time job. However, my main goal since the beginning has always been to finish school for my parents and then attempt to pursue music full-time for at least a year. I hope that over the next few years I will be able to support myself financially with something related to music. Whether it be working in an administrative position at a music distribution company, or even as an intern at Spotify, I hope that this website continues to be a space that I can creatively express myself and encourage others to do the same. There are still many things I have to endure, but I am excited for the lessons and growth to come!

References

Basu, T. (2020, September 03). Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/03/1007716/digital-gardens-let-you-cultivate-your-own-little-bit-of-the-internet/

Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books.

Warner, Michael. 2002. “Publics and Counterpublics.” in Quarterly Journal of Speech. 88.4. Available from http://knowledgepublic.pbworks.com/f/warnerPubCounterP.pdf

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PUB 101 Essay 2: My Publication Journey

A big question I asked going into this course was what is publication, and the best answer I got was from the little short videos in our reading where Matthew said “Publication is the creation and/or shaping of a public is such a central idea for artists and writers” where for me entering this class I’ve been able throughout the weeks of this course been able to put my vision of my own blog out in the world for others that have the same liking of films as much as i do and help then give feedback on films they are interested in. today I will be talking about my journey in making my own film blog and how it’s been for me through all these weeks.

With entering the first week I was nervous and didn’t exactly know what I was getting myself into as I have never made my own website before and didn’t know what to expect. But when we were aloud to make it on whatever we wanted I already had a great idea that I’m very passionate about which was movies, because even on my spare time I watch movie reviews all the time cause I love to see what different peoples opinions are on movies I’ve seen and have not seen and see if I even connect with their opinions. So when I was making my website I wanted to have that same feeling I get from watching YouTube videos of other review sites so I wanted to try and make my audience have that same feeling. A good quote I found from our readings was “I’m going for a feeling of wonderment, a connection across time” and from that quote that’s how I wanted to make my audience feel from just visiting my site and reading my reviews on the movies I’ve been watching.

When it came to my design of my website I made it very masculine and didn’t know how to make it stand out more with my website in general, where to me still my website doesn’t have the cool widgets that make it stand out more from the others but my website is just ordinary but for me that makes it stands out are what I do to my post and how I write them for my audience. Where from the readings to make a good design to my website it says “It is not sufficient for a good design to be rational and logical, great, intuitive design are those that allow us directly, and correctly, to see what we can do with a thing” where for me I wanted to make my post stand out and make it very easy to just navigate my website to see everything to get the most out of it, and with the final week upon me I think I have reached that point.

With each post I am adding to my website I’m hoping it is making my audience feel the same way that I feel about the movies I’ve seen and if it hasn’t made some comments on those posts to give me feedback on what they think as well. I wanted to make my site somewhat a reddit page where people can come and laugh about funny things or even give off some rants about some films and how they disliked them or loved them. Also with using google analytics it has showed me what my audience likes the most about my site in where there visit the most or what kind of post they are looking at the most, so with this knowledge it has helped me redesign most of all my post to fit that so i can get even more people to come in and explore my website

Looking back on my site from the beginning to how it is now it really blows my mind away, where from me posting some really boring posts and not having any pictures on my site to help make it stand out and catch the eyes of my audience. To now with my post for me sounding really good and having a lot more pictures with a lot of tune up to make my site even easier to navigate it makes me feel as if what I’m putting out to the world is getting known now by my intended audience that I am posting for.

With my goals of my online self with these final week ahead of me I’m going to do my best to try and still be active on this site for my little amount of audience I have cause down the road this audience might get even bigger and if that happens will just blow my mind away that people are actually enjoying my movie reviews. This class has taught me a lot of publication and how to get my voice heard and now has got me very intrigued into taking more publication classes to continue my journey on my website.

References:

Matthew Stadler. 2010. “What is Publication?” Talk from the Richard Hugo House’s writer’s conference, Seattle, WA. May 21, 2010. http://vimeo.com/14888791

Victor Kaptelinin. “Affordances.” The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/affordances

Basu, Tanya. September, 5 2020. “Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet” MIT Technology Review.

End of Semester Final Reflection Essay

I was to stress that I am currently in my last semester as a fourth-year business student at SFU. Publishing is one of the two electives that I am taking…Continue reading

Essay 2: A Reflection on My Online Publication

Creating an online presence isn’t something that intrigues everyone, but it’s something that can be very helpful for those that want to express themselves in an open medium, or even just to have a personal journal. My experience through this term has given me a lot to think about. There were three key takeaways that […]

Finding Creative Courage Online

At the beginning of this semester I was pretty set in my mind of two things. That coming up with content to blog weekly and building an entire website in a matter of weeks would both be very difficult. I was wrong on both counts.

Building a website can be intimidating. WordPress itself is especially intimidating to me, personally, but blogging through these past few months has certainly changed that. Gaining experience in the WordPress back-end and website construction has ended up being a very beneficial skill that I’ll take forward with me into the future. In terms of weekly content, I surprised myself with how much I had to say. Sure some posts were harder than others to churn out, but overall my creative side was thoroughly, and joyfully, exercised.

My Online Voice

Although blogging is very intimidating, being able to test the waters and find your voice, per se, online has been an intriguing journey. As I take my newfound wordpress skills with me, I’ll also take this blog. Being able to exercise my creativity in a space where I have ultimate control and creative direction has been energizing.

Future Plans for My Publication

Let’s Talk What I Watch will continue to be an online space where I can take the time to write 3-5 minute reads about anything I watch, from binging TV shows to any genre of movie. Eventually I definitely want to incorporate more consistent themes into my posts, like highlighting certain aspects in all of my posts, rating the content, and giving recommendations in relation to other content. This could eventually evolve the blog into a place where new or less popular films/shows can be recommended for or against and be more informative. However, I’m also a big fan of re-watching or discovering older content, so I still want to maintain my natural voice that I’ve found throughout this semester which is that I enjoy ranting about whatever I find interesting in the content.

What My Publication Offers

Streaming content, whether it be documentaries, films or television shows, has taken over as one of the primary activities many people are turning to as the pandemic continues. While it has long been a popular activity, as even before streaming at the conception of the cinema and TV’s watching content has been a central activity in the lives of people around the world. Given this popularity and presence in our lives, hearing other film-lovers opinions, getting recommendations, and being able to relate to how other’s interpret content is a very valuable aspect to the online experience. As mentioned by Boyd (2014), engaging in online spaces, like social media, individuals are able to access greater publics and networks that otherwise wouldn’t be available to them. Although my blog is currently isolated and not on social media yet, it is still possible relate the words of Boyd as opinions and discussions that someone may relate to can one day be seen as the construction of a public While I’m a stubborn person in the way that I don’t often follow content recommendations from others (whether it be books, movies or even songs), I think being able to find an online space where you relate to others opinions, views, and feelings about a shared piece of content can be very soothing and a great use of the Internet. Likeable to various communities on TikTok, finding others who you can relate to can be very meaningful. This ability to find a community and relate to others relates to a conclusion from the Why We Post research project (2016) that reads “social media is not making us more individualistic.” While we can continue to support and strive for individualism and uniqueness, ultimately there is comfort in finding people like yourself online.

Expanding My Online Presence

While I will hopefully continue to post on Let’s Talk What I Watch frequently, I have recently discovered other avenues of online life I want to pursue. Throughout these “unprecedented” past nine or so months, I have been in search of a new challenge to undertake and I’ve settled on an Etsy shop. Ever since I bought my iPad and began drawing digitally I’ve found an interest in designing little stickers about various things I enjoy, whether it be Harry Styles or an inside joke from a TV show.

One of the main issues with this idea was that there are already so many sticker shops on Etsy. However, I did notice several holes in the market. As Thorn stated, “there are a thousand podcasts for 25-year-old white geeks, but very few for 18-year-old hip-hop fans” (2012, para. 15). I’m not about to invent something new to sell, so I figured if I want to design stickers I just have to be as original as I can.

While I was still teetering on the edge of undertaking this new past-time in the new year, several sentiments from guest speaker Trevor Battye and the following Thorn quote pushed me over the edge. “Plans are great, but making stuff is how you build an audience, get better, and most importantly, get closer to making a living” (2012, para. 18). Just like throughout this semester where we were encouraged to write at least two posts every week, ultimately just getting something creative out online, just sitting down and actually starting to do something is the best way to move yourself closer to your goals.

Conclusion

Ultimately, my personal online presence, such as my personal Instagram and Twitter, seem to come naturally. As if they are second nature. Developing other presences like my Etsy shop are much bolder steps that I look forward to taking. Furthermore, I surprised myself substantially with my adaptability to the backend of WordPress and my ability to create weekly content. I also look forward to continuing this blog and seeing where it can lead me.

References

Boyd, D. (2014). “Searching for a public of their own.” It’s Complicated (pp. 213-227). Wattpad. https://www.wattpad.com/203798155-it%27s-complicated-8-searching-for-a-public-of-their

Thorn, J. (2012). Make Your Thing. Transom. https://transom.org/2012/jesse-thorn-make-your-thing/

University College London. (2016). Why We Post: Social media through the eyes of the world. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/why-we-post/

Week 12 Film Blog: Inception

Since Last week when I watched Tenet I wanted to watch one of my favorite movies of all time by Christopher Nolan which was “Inception” from when I watch this as a kid I was hook of how the plot was and how this movie has my favorite actor of all time who I praise as my god Leonardo Di Caprio. I will explain why this is my favorite movie of all time and how Leo played yet another amazing role in this film

when I first watched this film I didn’t know what to expect but it had me hooked from the start as this film was just about theft’s stealing vital information from dreams in your brain which is why its called inception. the way this movie was just filmed and how smoothly the plot went without getting really confused me made me love it every way throughout the whole movie.

With Leo I swear with ever movie he is in he pulls of such an amazing role and should literally get and Oscar for almost everything he has been in and in this movie he still pulls it off again. with every scene he is in he can grab the viewer and make you feel as if you are with him in the dreams and with the little mind confusing ending as well at the end made you really think about his character and what he did through out the movie

Rating 10/10 Leo is just amazing

Week 11 Film Blog: Tenet

with entering the final few weeks of this course I’ve decide to watch a new movie that came out his year call “Tenet” directed by Christopher Nolan which this movie was not a let down and for me is up there as one of my favorite Christopher Nolan movies as in this movie I will talk bout how its a movie that will make you think the whole time and some of the best actors just being real stars of the movie

When entering this movie it made my mind confused right from the start and was still confused at the end as well as i had to watch a YouTube video to explain some things and that still didn’t help. but for me when a movie makes me think and question everything it make me love it even more, this is a type of movie you have to watch more than once to really understand what’s going on and everything that’s happening it this film as some stuff goes by very fast

with the acting in this movie the one character that stood out the most for me was Robert Patterson on who he portrayed Neal in this film, where from coming from a bad twilight series to now some big roles in Christopher Nolan movies and as well as being the next batman in a movie coming next year he has really impressed me with his work as you get emotionally connected to his charter through out the whole movie, and his storyline in the movie really messes with you mind near the end which blew me away

Rating 10/10 Will confuse you like crazy

The Trendiest Christmas Gift Guide

Hi everyone and welcome back to another week of blogging! As the holidays are quickly approaching, I thought that this week would be perfect to post a holiday gift guide to give you guys some inspiration and ideas of what to get your friends! This guide is mainly girlier gift ideas but they can work […]

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