Monthly Archives: January 2023

Movie reivew

blah balh

Site Process

With the site process, I honestly had no idea what I was doing. I had to ask for some help from my fellow peers and instructors. After some time exploring the settings and functions I was able to create my website and present what’s shown and uploaded to my page. I found it a bit difficult at first but then after it became interesting to work with.

Process Post #3

For this week, I’m still working on creating a vision board for my website. I start to navigate the tone of voice that I should use to communicate with my audience.

sup

Marvel

Trung Sisters

Trung Trac and Trung Nhi

SammyUniverse

A little bit about Sammy Universe

Why Sammy Universe?

Who am I

Process Post/ Assignments

Week 1

Week 2

Process Post 2: Reflecting on my Tumblr days

Me during the circa 2014 ‘soft grunge’ era on Tumblr.

I’m going to be completely honest, going into this I didn’t feel confident in creating a blog at all. This is my first time using WordPress and my first time editing a blog since about 2015. When I was a teenager, I got really obsessed with the band One Direction and I decided that I wanted to dedicate a blog to them. So, I created my first-ever blog on Tumblr.com called “NandoswiththeNialler”. I called it this because one of the band members called Niall Horan liked the food chain Nandos. Anyway, that blog didn’t last too long. As I grew up and decided to become more “edgy”, I ended up changing my URL and my whole theme to more of a “grunge” aesthetic, after becoming obsessed with it. If you were a Tumblr kid between the years 2012-2016, you know what I’m talking about. I call this my emo/misunderstood/it always felt like the world was ending era. I had a lot of feelings and angst and I made Tumblr my outlet. Since then I’ve blogged pretty casually over the years, with my URL and theme changing once or twice. My Tumblr blog (and my old cringy posts) is still up and I still post sporadically. I didn’t delete anything, change the theme, or change the ‘about’ section for nostalgia reasons. I checked the other day and I was surprised to see that I still have a little over 2,000 followers, but a lot of them are probably either inactive or bots.

Although I haven’t edited a blog in years, I found it fairly easy to figure out how to navigate WordPress and add plugins, categories, and widgets to my blog. I originally wanted this blog to have the same theme as my Tumblr blog. A black background, the title as the header with no image or icon. The menu bar would be below the header with the content beneath it. This theme was very popular in the “grunge” era of Tumblr. Then I started thinking about how much I’ve changed since I originally chose that theme. I want the theme and content of my current blog to reflect who I am today. So, I decided to use this theme from the Elementor plugin. I chose to display my icon and menu as the header with a sunset-like gradient background and the title below it. I also added some pictures that I’ve taken on an image carousel.

The blog I’ve created relates to my vision board because it has bold colours, and the title is larger than everything else which gives it a typography feel that I really like. I was leaning toward an art magazine editorial look.

Ps. I linked a video about the 2014 grunge Tumblr aesthetic, maybe I’ll dive more into this topic in my content posts.

https://www.tumblr.com

About Me

Welcome to my blog! My name is Autumn, I am 20 years old and I have an amazing 2 year old daughter. Currently I am taking the IUPP program at SFU but when I don’t have classes I spend my free time taking my daughter on adventures in the city as well as trying new restaurants and cafes.

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Process Post 1: Talking to a Stranger

Being introverted, I’m not exactly thrilled about the idea of talking to a stranger. I’ve always been reserved and quiet, and I’m still learning to break out of my shell and put myself out there, even online. Talking to a stranger can feel intimidating, you don’t know if they’re going to be easygoing or not, and they might be reluctant to talk to you.

When it comes to either online or in-person interactions, I used to find myself leaning towards online interactions a lot more. There is less pressure online, there are no awkward silences, you don’t have to worry about if there’s something in your teeth, and you can send the other person memes or funny Tiktoks. Although I used to lean towards online interactions more, lately, I’ve been growing to enjoy interacting with strangers in-person more than I used to. I find that it’s a lot more candid, you don’t have the time to contemplate your responses as you would online, and your true self comes out more that way. The conversation seems to flow better in person, and you can also read the other person’s tone and body language.

I consider a stranger to be someone I’ve never met and know nothing about. I consider a person known after interacting with them and learning about them, like their name, age, where they’re from, and some of their interests. You can meet someone and become acquainted without fully getting to know them. The more you get to know someone, the more comfortable you both become. Over time you start opening up to each other and discussing things beyond the surface level.

For this process post, we were asked to find a stranger and engage them in a conversation. My encounter was unexpected, and I didn’t even have this assignment in mind when I engaged with this stranger. It happened on a Sunday evening while I was grabbing my laundry in my apartment’s shared laundry room. When I walked into the laundry room, one of my neighbours was there getting her laundry. I startled her when I opened the door, we both laughed, and I apologized. After that, we walked to the elevator and discovered that we live on the same floor. I told her that I hadn’t seen her around before, and she said she moved in a few weeks ago. I then asked her how she was liking it here so far, and she said her new apartment is a lot nicer than her last place, and it’s way more convenient to be close to campus. I agreed that it was convenient and we said goodnight. After this interaction, I would still consider this person a stranger, but maybe a tad bit less than a stranger, if that makes sense. I didn’t learn anything about her other than that she also likes to do her laundry on Sunday, she lives in my building and we both enjoy the convenience of it.

Process Post 1

Process post #1

Paying it forward one sip at a time

I would consider myself a very outgoing person. I am not afraid of going out of my way to start a conversation with a stranger and do it quite often especially when I am in the lineup at coffee shops. Although I do not know this person, I do know that we have one thing in common, we both love a good cup of coffee. 

Back in the summer, I was in the lineup at Tim Horton’s early on a Saturday morning. If you know me, you would know that I need coffee every day. I can’t and don’t want to know how I would function without my morning dose. When I was about to pay, my phone died so I was unable to pay for my coffee as the only money I had at the time was my debit card. I had already been waiting in this long line for nearly 20 minutes and I was not going to leave without my coffee. I turned around and politely and quite uncomfortably asked the man behind me if he could pay for my coffee. I told him that I could Etransfer him when I got home. He laughed, and told me not to worry, but to pay it forward. 

On Saturday I decided it was my time to pay it forward. A little late, but better than never. I was in my favorite coffee shop Bjorn Bar Bakery, chatting away with an older lady that was behind me while we were waiting to order our drinks. As I was about to pay for my drink I turned around and told her that her order was on me today. She was taken aback and confused by my generosity but did very much apricate the act of kindness. She thanked me and I smiled and asked her to pay it forward. 

Spot The Fake Homie


EDITED – Mar. 18TH, 2023

What is a “homie”?

Homie is a friend you can count on. It’s usually someone that is part of your friend group or someone who has known for a very long time (eg. childhood).

How to spot a fake homie:

1. They only reach out when in need

A fake friend rarely reaches out to you and when they do, they want something from you. Oftentimes, you are the one who is planning the hangouts or reaching out first. This can be difficult to spot because we all have different friends for different activities. Thus, a key to spotting this is to look at the conversation history. If you notice that there are more messages from you than the other person, red flag.

2. They don’t stand up for you

A fake friend won’t protect your image. They allow people to say incorrect things about you by not correcting them. They often value their own image over yours, thus not correcting an individual because it can tarnish their own or they do not think it is of value. However, this is done in a very subtle way and thus only being able to notice that one is doing this by repeated incidents.

3. Criticism

Often time, you feel the need to act or dress a certain way to avoid judgment when hanging out with that person. This leads to some worries about sharing some personal problems because you have a fear they might judge you.

Venting vs. Talking Sh*t – is there a difference?

At times, we can get very overwhelmed by the emotions we are experiencing. Whether it’s good or bad, we often want to talk about it with someone. But when it comes to a situation that occurred between you and another person, where does the line fall between venting about someone and talking sh*t about that person? Let’s talk about it.

What is Venting?

Venting is a way to express frustration or other negative feelings about a situation. The focus of the conversation is on you, typically about how something unfolded or how it made you feel. When you vent, you are often seeking advice or a solution to the situation.

What is Talking Sh*t?

Talking Sh*t is when you speak negatively about a person’s character. It involves gossiping, rumours, making fun of someone, and general negativity towards a person’s characteristics. When talking sh*t, it focuses on the other person. It consists of “She is or He is” rather than “I felt”.

Is there a difference?

Personally, I think there is a difference. That is, you can vent about someone & not talk sh*t. The difference is in the choice of words and the focus/goal of the conversation. For example, “Vivian did X, Y, and Z. It made me feel sh*t”, is a form of venting. It doesn’t stray away from the main point, being the way Vivian’s actions made you feel. Versus saying “Vivian did X, Y, and Z. She always does this sh*t and continues to go on picking at Vivian and her character”, is a form of sh*t talking.

We all get overwhelmed with our emotions and sometimes we just need to talk about it. However, I acknowledge that not everyone sees the difference. The line that divides the two is very fine and oftentimes, people are venting but also sh*t talking at the same time. As a result, venting to the wrong person can result in the same consequences as sh*t talking.

So then, we are left with the question of whether there is a difference between venting and sh*t talking, if it often is combined when doing either? Let me know your thoughts below!

CAUTION: Building a friendship off sh*t talking

My high school was a very toxic place. The social environment was very cliquey. That is, everyone had their own little group with little room for new additional members. But, everyone wanted to be liked, but they themselves do not like everyone. As a result, there was a lot of pretending to be one’s friend but in reality, they were critiquing the other’s behaviour, actions, and/or appearance. Coming from a high school environment like this, sh*t talking was a big problem that caused drama between individuals and/or groups. But also, helped develop friendships as they have a common hatred for an individual. And so after 5 years of experience, I’ve come up with a list of reasons of why building a friendship off sh*t talking is never a good idea.

1. There’s often no common interest besides the people you “hate”

When friendships begin to form out of a shared hatred for another person, it is typically the sole reason you ended up being friends with that person. Rarely do friendships that begin in this manner remain for a very long period. It’s because this kind of friendship frequently runs out of things to talk about because the only thing they had in common was their “hatred” for the same individual. Even if this isn’t true of all friendships, it could feel weird if there isn’t any sh*t talking in the conversation.

2. Distrust

With a friendship like this one, it’s hard to trust the other person. When things go sideways or potentially end badly, there’s going to be a fear that they might be talking about you the same way they were dissing the people you both “hate”.

3. Surrounding yourself with negative energy

Negative energy is generated by talking sh*t because the comments are negative. When a friendship is built on this kind of energy, every time you engage with that friend, you are surrounding yourself with negativity.

The Start of Something New

𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘀𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘡 #2

Starting a new project is always the hardest part. I find that my biggest problem is finding where to begin.

When starting “in my kaizen”, my dilemma stood between what I wanted people to know, what should be kept offline, and the concept of my blog. I have always wanted to put myself out on the internet but there are several things that hold me back.

Firstly, I’m an in-person person. That is, I rather embarrass myself and express my true self in person than send an embarrassing message that you can, at any point in time, go back and laugh at me. This is the result of living through a pandemic where all social interactions were limited to just your household for quite some time.

Secondly, a part of me enjoys the secrecy that comes with being offline. Since most people are online and posting a lot of their daily life, I grew fond of the potential curiosity that comes with being offline.

But ultimately, I wanted to have the concept of my blog make sense to the content it contains and vice versa. And so, I created a list of possible topics I wanted my blog to talk about and a vision board, comprising of images in a certain aesthetic I want my blog to present as well or be associated with.

I then spent time working out the technicals, like pages and categories. It was quite confusing at first but with the help of some google searches, youtube videos, and simply just playing around, I end up figuring it out. However, there are certain changes I want to make that I currently do not if it’s possible. I’m continuing to look into achieving these changes, ultimately making it a site that can be easily navigated.