This assignment was to remix something, I used a photo of my dog sleeping and a photo of a rock I took at the beach, mixed the two images together and I used Canva to make a sticker picture.
Monthly Archives: March 2023
Process Post #9 – Analytics
Analytics are an aspect of website design that I see mentioned quite often, with videos and articles discussing how to best utilize the information you can get from built-in metrics and website additions such as Google Analytics.
In the artist world, you would only need to focus on analytics if you’re trying to find freelance work or an industry job in the field. Since I make art as a hobby, I have little use in analyzing the pieces I post (especially since they’re made for fun 90% of the time).
In the past, I have lost motivation and passion for art because I was constantly checking my engagement rates, optimal timing, and post formatting. Although I don’t resent the art I’ve made purely to appeal to trends and popular media, I find that it doesn’t genuinely represent me and my style. My personal art journey has also been stunted from such attempts for engagement, since I try not to add anything experimental or “weird” in order to appear more palatable.
Because of these reasons, I choose to ignore analytics on social media and focus on engaging with my friends, creating art that is true to myself, and relying on the miraculous and constantly shifting nature of the algorithms and individuals to decide how each post fares.
When discussing this website, I have a much more impersonal view of the content I create. I am less confident in my writing, and analyzing works will always be more stressful to make public than something like art which can be interpreted in infinitely many ways.
On the rare occasion that I do check my analytics, I’m mostly looking for information about the people who use my website and whether I’m meeting their needs well enough. For example, I found that 89.4% of my user base views my website on desktop which helps me prioritize which elements to update or fix. I also enjoy seeing which posts people visit my site for; there are a surprising number of users who choose to view my classwork instead of the blog content itself.
I enjoy browsing different user reports and seeing if there’s any visitors who come back to the blog often (35.7% currently). Interestingly, a majority of my audience finds my website through organic searching, which suggests a user base outside of just my fellow classmates. My overall bounce rate is 52.63% which I hope will stay in that range for the rest of this term.
I keep a filter on known bots and spiders, but there’s always a gnawing feeling in the back of my head that much of these analytics are taken up by non-human users. Despite this, I still find it fun to peruse the different tabs and wonder why each person has chosen to stop by my site.
I am usually on my computer into the late hours of the night, which has always been reflected in when I post my art. Surprisingly, that trait has carried over into the content of this website, with many posts being completed after 9pm. While posting late would typically be considered a bad practice (afternoons are usually more preferable), many people happen to visit my blog in the evening. This could also be due to different time zones (where it would be earlier in the day for the rest of North America), but there are very few users reading outside of the lower mainland.
As a whole, analytics are a valuable source of user feedback, especially if you don’t receive more obvious sources like comments or emails like me.
☆.
Read This Before You Purify Your Shadow Pokémon
If you’ve come across Team GO Rocket in-game, you’ll have encountered Shadow Pokémon. If you’ve defeated a Grunt or a Team GO Rocket Leader, you’ve had the opportunity to capture a Shadow Pokémon. Once you’ve captured them, you have the opportunity to purify them—or not.
So should you? Let’s go over your options.
What Are Shadow Pokémon?
Shadow Pokémon visually have a dark aura surrounding them, presented as black and purple flame-like wisps emitting from their bodies. You’ll find them when you encounter Team GO Rocket, and have the opportunity to capture one when they are abandoned by a Team GO Rocket member after you defeat them in battle.
Shadow Pokémon have a charged attack called Frustration, and each of their attacks come with a Shadow Bonus, which deals extra damage, just like the Weather Bonus effect that wild Pokémon captured during specific weather conditions have.
Situations To Consider Purifying Shadow Pokémon
In Pokémon GO, there currently aren’t any big tradeoffs in purifying Shadow Pokémon. However, if you care about the resources you have, here are some of the benefits:
- High Potential for Full IV: From personal experience, I only find it effective to purify Shadow Pokémon if their IV (individual values) appraisal is close to 3 stars. IV is important when considering how strong your Pokémon will perform in battle, and purifying a Shadow Pokémon in their near-3 star state has the potential to raise their IV stats.
- Ease of Powering Up: When Shadow Pokémon are purified, you spend less Stardust and Candy to increase its Combat Power, making for more effective use of your resources to strengthen that Pokémon.
- Unlock Charged Attack Return: Every purified Shadow Pokémon learns the charged attack Return, which charges up very quickly and can be useful to deal more damage quicker in battle.
So…Should I Purify My Shadow Pokémon?
The short answer: it depends on the resources you have available.
If you don’t have a lot of Stardust or Candy for that Pokémon, maybe it’s not worth purifying right at this moment. Additionally, if its IVs aren’t that high, maybe you’re better off transferring it to Professor Willow in exchange for Candy rather than purifying it.
However, if the IVs are decent, and you could see that Pokémon filling in a spot on your battle team, I would consider keeping it. If you purify it, it costs less resources to strengthen it. If you don’t, Shadow Pokémon are still powerful in their own right with the charged attack Frustration—they just cost more to power up.
There are no cons to leaving Shadow Pokémon as they are if you have enough resources, but purifying them gives you a chance to improve the Pokémon’s IVs while reducing the amount of resources you use to strengthen it.
To purify or not—it’s a pretty lukewarm decision to make, in my opinion. You don’t win a lot, but you also aren’t losing either. Hopefully this helps!
Expand Your Music Taste
The Favourite Song Dilemma
The best feeling is when you discover a new favourite song. You end up loving it so much that you constantly have it on repeat. You add it to all of your playlists and it’s the first song you reach for when you open up Spotify.
This is all fun and games until you start to become bored of the song. The song no longer gives you the same feelings as to when you first discovered it. Now what? What are you supposed to listen to now? This blog post will give advice on how to prevent your favourite songs from becoming boring, while sharing how to expand your music taste.
Make New Playlists Often
An issue that I had was that I would make a few “main” (aka most listened to) playlist and continuously add new songs to it. This became an issue for me as the songs that were on the playlist from the very beginning would get overplayed. Instead of making a fresh new playlist, the pre-existing playlists would simply get longer and longer. This made me sick of the songs that I added to the playlist when I first made it.
To avoid this, I recommend making monthly playlists. This way, when a new month starts, you can transfer over the songs that you still love from the previous month onto the new playlist, while leaving out the songs that you don’t care for anymore. This not only allows you to have an updated selection of songs to play each month, but it also lets you go back to old months to see what you listened to at that time. These monthly playlists become a keepsake of that period in your life, which is fun to look back on!
Discover New Music
It is vital to continue listening to new music! You still have so many favourite songs to discover, and the only way to hear them is through branching out to new artists and genres. Take advantage of the recommended section of music streaming apps! If you’re a Spotify user, Discover Weekly and the new AI DJ are excellent places to start.
Make Playlists With Friends
The collaborative playlist feature on Spotify allow you and your friends to add songs to a single playlist (sorry Apple Music users, not sure if this option exists for you yet). This is a great feature that can not only help you connect with your friends on a musical level, but it also helps you discover new music!
Listen to Full Albums
If you like a single song by an artist, chances are you may like the other songs on the album it’s on. If you’re feeling ambitious, you may even want to listen to the artist’s entire discography, but that can be quite time consuming, so sticking to one album will feel less daunting (take baby steps!).
Listen to Whatever the F#%k You Want
At the end of the day, who cares what you listen to? If it makes you happy, listen to it! There’s no need to have an extensive list of songs, genres, and artists that you listen to if you’re happy with the current music selection you have. Remember: quality over quantity!
Peer Review #3
Website Link:
Target Audience
Looking at Completely Cass‘ website, her website seems to be catered towards student athletes, like herself. The website currently lacks content posts, which makes it difficult to feel connected to the author; however, the video in the “About Me” section allows the audience to have a better idea of who Cassidy is. This video is lively and entertaining to watch. Through the clips of sports matches, concerts, and spending time with friends, we can get a glimpse of Cassidy’s adventurous and fun life. Using this information about who she is, I can assume her target audience is someone with a similar lifestyle to her.
Content
Cassidy’s blog currently lacks content posts, which prevents me from being able to provide an in depth review of the website’s content. There are categories that Cassidy has made, which makes me excited to see posts from each category once they are published. These categories include “Athlete Who Can Do Both,” “Adventurous Soul,” “Things You Should Know,” and “Mental Well-Being.” Although these categories are currently blank, I can tell that Cassidy’s main focuses are lifestyle and well-being.
Design
In “15 Reasons Why Your Business Absolutely Needs SEO,” it mentions importance of having a “clean, effective user experience” and establishing authority for your website (Hollingsworth, 2021). I believe Cassidy does a good job at this. The white background is minimalistic and the menu titles are clear and concise, which makes the website seem simple to navigate from the user’s perspective. Additionally, the website’s logo is clean. The “CC” logo creates a professional look that legitimizes the website, making it more marketable. A way that Cassidy can increase her website’s search engine optimization is by using keywords and tags that increase the audience reach.
Marketability
Considering Cassidy’s website has limited content, it is difficult to observe the website’s marketability. Based on the current website, I believe Cassidy is on the right track to being marketable. The website’s simplicity gives it a professional feel while being easy to navigate. Although there is a professional feel, the “About Me” page personalizes the website, giving the audience a glimpse into the writer’s life. Moreover, the website’s alliterative title, “Completely Cass,” as it is catchy and memorable; I think having a catchy title can make a website more marketable.
Conclusion
Overall, I like the theme and layout of the website. The logo gives the website a professional edge, while the content creates a personalized feel to the audience. Although there are few posts on the blog, I still feel like I have a general idea of Cassidy’s interests. To improve the website’s SEO, I would recommend including keywords and tags in each post to reach a larger audience. I look forward to seeing more content on the website in the future and learning more about Cassidy!
Reference
Hollingsworth, S. (2021, August 6). 15 reasons why your business absolutely needs seo. Search Engine Journal. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close
A Biased Review of The Eras Tour Set List
Last Friday (March 17, 2023), Taylor Swift kicked off the US leg of The Eras Tour with a bang. The show was highly commended by fans all around the world tuning in through social media, and also in major press reviews, such as Rolling Stone and The New York Times. The 3-hour show, split up into Swift’s 10 album eras from the past 17 years, clearly demonstrates her unmatched excellence in stage performance, and her love and dedication to her fans. Each era consisted of fan-favourite songs, stunning visuals and costumes, and jaw-dropping choreography. The concert attendees have said nothing but positive reviews on their experiences, which included watching the openers (Paramore and GAYLE), buying merch, and screaming along to their favourite current and nostalgic songs.
While I personally have little to no critiques to give on the show overall, and seeing the Glendale, AZ shows have only made me more impatient for the Seattle shows I’m attending, there are of course (probably controversial) changes I would make to the set list based purely on my own personal preferences. In a hypothetical world where she could realistically sing and dance for 8 hours straight, there are so many songs I would add to the set. Let’s get into some of them, era by era.
Taylor Swift
Songs performed:
- NONE
Songs I wish she would perform:
- Our Song
- Teardrops On My Guitar
- Should’ve Said No
Fearless
Songs performed:
- Fearless
- You Belong With Me
- Love Story
Songs I wish she would perform:
- The Way I Loved You
- The Other Side Of The Door
Speak Now
Songs performed:
- Enchanted
Songs I wish she would perform:
- Mine
- Back To December
- Dear John
- Mean
- The Story Of Us
- Better Than Revenge
- Haunted
- Long Live
Red
Songs performed:
- 22
- We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
- I Knew You Were Trouble
- All Too Well (10 Minute Version)
Songs I wish she would perform:
- Red
- Holy Ground
- Begin Again
- Come Back…Be Here
1989
Songs performed:
- Style
- Blank Space
- Shake It Off
- Wildest Dreams
- Bad Blood
Songs I wish she would perform:
- Out Of The Woods
- I Know Places
- This Love
- Clean
- You Are In Love
- New Romantics
Reputation
Songs performed:
- …Ready For It?
- Delicate
- Don’t Blame Me
- Look What You Made Me Do
Songs I wish she would perform:
- I Did Something Bad
- Getaway Car
- King Of My Heart
- Dancing With Our Hands Tied
- Dress
Lover
Songs performed:
- Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince
- Cruel Summer
- The Man
- You Need To Calm Down
- Lover
- The Archer
Songs I wish she would perform:
- Paper Rings
- False God
- Afterglow
- Daylight
folklore
Songs performed:
- invisible string
- betty
- the last great american dynasty
- august
- illicit affairs
- my tears ricochet
- cardigan
Songs I wish she would perform:
- seven
- mirrorball
- this is me trying
evermore
Songs performed:
- tis the damn season
- willow
- marjorie
- champagne problems
- tolerate it
Songs I wish she would perform:
- gold rush
- ivy
- cowboy like me
- right where you left me
Midnights
Songs performed:
- Lavender Haze
- Anti-Hero
- Midnight Rain
- Vigilante Shit
- Bejeweled
- Mastermind
- Karma
Songs I wish she would perform:
- Question…?
- The Great War
- Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve
References:
Aramesh, W. D. (2023, March 18). Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour is a 3-hour career-spanning victory lap. Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-live-reviews/taylor-swift-the-eras-tour-glendale-review-1234699496/
Caramanica, J. (2023, March 18). Taylor Swift, pop’s maestro of memory, returns to the stage. The New York Times. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/arts/music/taylor-swift-eras-tour-review.html
Photos:
Aramesh, W. D. (2023, March 18). Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour is a 3-hour career-spanning victory lap. Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-live-reviews/taylor-swift-the-eras-tour-glendale-review-1234699496/
Breaking down Taylor Swift’s ‘eras’ tour wardrobe – fashionista. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://fashionista.com/2023/03/taylor-swift-the-eras-tour-outfits-costumes
Courtneypochinmirror. (2023, March 18). Taylor Swift’s full setlist for the eras tour – and it’s bound to divide fans. mirror. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/us-celebrity-news/taylor-swifts-setlist-eras-tour-29459246
Iasimone, A. (2023, March 20). All the surprise songs Taylor Swift has performed on the eras tour (so far). Billboard. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.billboard.com/lists/taylor-swift-eras-tour-surprise-songs/this-is-me-trying/
Lutkin, A. (2023, March 22). All about Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour setlist and Outfit changes. ELLE. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.elle.com/culture/music/a43355124/taylor-swift-eras-tour-setlist-outfits/
Rudner, D. (2023, March 19). Photos: Taylor Swift Kicks Off ‘eras tour’ in Fine Fashion. News. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.expressnews.com/entertainment/article/taylor-swift-eras-tour-17848411.php
Staff, A. O. L. (2023, March 20). Here are all the outfits Taylor Swift has worn on her eras tour (so far). Click here to refresh. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/outfits-taylor-swift-worn-her-221600475.html
PROCESS POST #10: Insights and Rankings, SEO
From last week’s process post discussing analytics, this week’s readings proposed a visual of Data.ai. The content used analytic reports to show which apps and websites are frequently used/downloaded. It is a useful tool that helps navigate businesses and users to improve their projects and increase engagement. It is ideal for decision-making processes and delivers overall insight into the performance of the gaming market for instance (Data.ai., 2022).
The reading even acknowledges the age of technology we’re in. Linking to my last process post, technology has evolved into a new age and is advancing as we speak, it has brought Gen Z to what it is today (Data.ai., 2022). With Gen Z, comes new trending sites and apps. Data.ai. has reported that TikTok has ranked “Top Apps” in the 2021 market.
As a social media user, I agree with this report. TikTok has grown a huge community of creators and overall is an entertaining app. I think that TikTok has become very successful because it offers short collections of entertaining content that keep the audience engaged and active since videos are around 15-30 seconds. Compared to an hour-long youtube video, TikTok has an advantage as it caters to short attention spans. I do find myself scrolling for hours in my free time which is probably me contributing to levelling up TikTok’s ranking.
Speaking of technology, SEO is introduced as “Search Engine Optimization.” The Search Engine Journal states that SEO is the most viable and cost-effective tool to understand and reach customers (Hollingsworth, 2021). The article elaborates on reasons why SEO is crucial for businesses. From this reading, 2 reasons stood out to me the most. 1: Organic search is often the primary source of website traffic (Hollingsworth, 2021). This is a true statement, considering where we all start online is with a browser, an organic search engine. 2: SEO is a strategy used for the long term (Hollingsworth, 2021). This is a factor to consider because technology and the internet have impacted society, and are constantly changing.
I’ve known about search engines beforehand since it is a daily tool I use, although this is my first time digging deeper into the topic and hearing about SEO.
– Eliza (aka Peanut)
Reference:
data.ai. 2022. State of Mobile 2022
Hollingsworth, S. (2021, August 9). 15 reasons why your business absolutely needs SEO. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved March 21, 2023, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close
Process Post 9
After reading ‘Digital Breadcrumbs‘ by George Philip, Jennifer Anne Lazo, Rooham Jamali and Rudy Al Jaroodi, I started to think a lot about how technology is tracking me everyday. I was fully aware that this happens to users of technology as most apps require location tracking, however I am curious as to what they do with this information. Is this type of surveillance really as scary as everyone makes it out to be? As the authors of Digital Breadcrumbs say: “will this trail of data we leave benefit or harm us in the long run?” (Philip et al., 2016). This article made me think of an assignment I did a few months ago where we were to visit My Ad Center on our google accounts and and click “manage privacy”. This feature allows users to see all the assumptions that google has made about them to in order to provide appropriate ads that users will engage with. In my case, google correctly guessed my age, gender, household income, education status and even my relationship status all based on the info I have shared online by just using technology.
Although this information can be somewhat alarming as for anyone it is odd to find out that you have been watched and tracked this whole time. However, this data is used as information to educate, and also to create personalized ads for its user. Therefore, I am not to worried about minimizing my own digital footprint as I don’t find it to be as much of a threat as people can make it out to be. Besides, new technologies like this are inevitable and will only improve as time goes on. Think about it as a tool for out future rather than something to be afraid of.
References
Philip, G., Lazo, J., Jamali, R., & Jaroodi, R. (n.d.). Digital Breadcrumbs: The data trail we leave behind us. Pod Academy. Retrieved March 21, 2023, from http://podacademy.org/podcasts/digital-breadcrumbs-our-data-trail/
Process Post #9: Yum, digital breadcrumbs
For content creators, you could say that analytics are the key to knowing and growing your audience. But for the audience? Well, that’s a different subject.
For audience members, analytics means that our every movement, action, and choice is tracked. Pod Academy (2016) notes that most, if not all, the applications we use require our location information. We “willingly” give up our location for social media, digital payments, and more. We’re tracked by security cameras and the cookies on our browser. Scary, right?
What is a digital trail?
Something to think about is what is a digital trail?
A digital trail, according to Dr. Elisa Oreglia (as cited in Pod Academy, 2016), is made up of the remnants—breadcrumbs, you could call them—that you leave behind when engaging with the digital world. You may not mean to leave a trail behind, but it is just something that comes with the territory.
Anytime you use your phone, your computer, your credit or debit card, or anything that has a chip and is traceable, you are sprinkling your breadcrumbs around. But why do or should we care about breadcrumbs?
Why care about breadcrumbs?
Breadcrumbs are the reason your Pinterest feed suggests to you everything that you love and find aesthetically pleasing; they’re the reason why your TikTok For You Page is catered so well to your interests and likes; the reason why most random (yet perfectly-suited) ads can predict our next purchases; and so on.
Beyond this, companies and whoever else has access to our information can find out our political preferences, financials, and other private data.
A great question for us to consider now is, what’s happens next? Will our trails helps or harm us as we move into the future?
It might not be something we can avoid, but it’s something we can consider the next time we pick up our phones and other devices. For those of us (me) using applications like Google Analytics to track our website’s audience, think about the information you have in your hands. It’s more than you know.
References
Pod Academy. (2016, May 3). Digital breadcrumbs: The data trail we leave behind us. https://podacademy.org/podcasts/digital-breadcrumbs-our-data-trail/
Untangling Morality in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
Character archetypes have a fairly predictable lifespan of solidifying themselves in pop culture, going through subversions, and subsequently creating new archetypes based on those subversions over the course of many years.
A musical by the name of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog presents one such subversion of the conventional villain. Once again I will be showing spoilers, as this is 15 years old, has been available on YouTube for free since 2012, and only lasts around 40 minutes.
Dr. Horrible (real name Billy) is the titular protagonist and atypical supervillain of this musical. At his core, Billy is an idealistic man who believes that society is deeply flawed and seeks to reform it. His self-focused yet strong morals clearly show the decision making abilities of an Fi user, an INFP to be more specific. It’s rare to see a villain character who uses Fi as they are usually cast into the role of quirky side characters or sensitive heroes. I’ll be analyzing how Billy’s idea of morality intersects with his position in the story and showcases a great example of a realistic INFP character.
Despite Billy being generally correct that society has plenty of problems, he doesn’t actually seem all that interested in the important work that people like Penny (his crush) undertake. His primary goal is much more ambitious than that, seeking to rule the world in order to dismantle the issues he sees in it. In reality, his methods to reconcile these values turn out to be ill-defined and naive (in line with the poor planning and indecisiveness of low Te)
Billy becomes the supervillain Dr. Horrible in order to infiltrate the Evil League of Evil and use their resources to govern (and therefore “fix”) the world. In order to get accepted by the leader, Bad Horse, Billy needs to commit increasingly cruel objectives which only starts to become a problem when he is forced to assassinate someone.
Captain Hammer (Dr. Horrible’s nemesis) also preoccupies much of his time, leading to an unfortunate mess of priorities which ultimately ends with Billy alone and unsatisfied after accidentally killing Penny. Despite having achieved the one thing he needed, Billy is left without any reason to still be working towards that goal.
Billy starts off with fairly good intentions and is endearing and personable, if a tad awkward at the beginning. I firmly believe that Penny would have been open to a relationship with him if his rivalry with Captain Hammer didn’t get in the way of everything else. That’s precisely what makes it hurt so much when Billy becomes obsessed with making it into the Evil League of Evil, as his ordinary life falls apart and it all culminates into a tragic but captivating character progression.
Aside from Billy’s obvious lack of preparation, the Evil League of Evil is an organization which we can deduce would not allow someone so outwardly open about his plans to actually overthrow their governance. We can see how the league breaks people down with their absurd and cruel standards, and can presume that even if Billy could change anything, the person he’d committed his life to is already gone.
At this point, Billy is so hopeless that we can presume he has lost his original goal and any motivation to dismantle anything at all. We see hints of his sense of self being degraded in service of the Dr. Horrible persona throughout the musical, but I certainly rooted for him despite the clues suggesting it wouldn’t end on a positive note. What starts as a comedic musical with air-headed characters and obvious tropes shapes into a deeply tragic story with a surprisingly dark ending.
One of the most emotionally jarring moments happens right before the credits roll. Dr. Horrible is seen chatting up the other villains in a triumphant montage at the league, seemingly having moved on from the previous events. He has a stylish new outfit and is finally being taken seriously in front of his peers, and the music swells before the doors slowly close.
We cut to Billy, sitting in front of his video camera with the desolate expression of a man who has lost everything, including himself.
☆.
Process Post #9
The Art of Cultivating Taste
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
– Ira Glass, This American life about Storytelling
I can’t remember when I stumbled upon Ira Glass’ concept of cultivating taste, but it has stuck with me ever since. I was going through writer’s block and felt so seen and heard reading his words. As a perfectionist, it is very defeating to sit down and produce “shitty” and unsatisfactory work where the feelings you want to explain are not piecing together the way you want them to. Some days are better than others, where the words can flow out of me naturally, and some days I am left staring at a blank page until I feel defeated enough that I no longer want to write anymore. But, on the days when everything works in your favour and you feel proud of what you have written is the best feeling in the world to me. Whenever I feel down and doubt my writing abilities or feel like I have created the best work and peaked as a writer, I return to this video and feel reassured. Whenever I feel a sense of imposter syndrome or a writing slump, his words comfort me like a blanket in the death of winter.
Check out the full video series of Ira Glass talking about storytellng here
Spring has finally sprung!
Today marks the first day of spring! Another name for today is Spring Equinox. Spring is hands-down my favourite season. There is nothing like stepping outside, being able to take your coat off again, and seeing the budding blossoms returning.
This past Saturday I found myself exploring Vancouver. I went to the BC Home and Garden Show at BC Place. Even though I don’t own a home, there were some great exhibits and it was fun to dream a bit. One stall was giving away Japanese maple tree seedlings. I was able to buy some pussy willow branches to decorate my apartment.
While down in the area on such a warm and sunny day, I decided to take a walk down on the seaside boardwalk in False Creek. It reached +16 degrees this day. There were so many happy people out just soaking up the sunshine after a long grey winter. What a great walk along this boardwalk it is also a great place to bring your bike or have a picnic by the ocean. It is a beautiful view of the Science Center across False Creek and you can watch the Aquabuses go by. I haven’t ridden one yet, but I plan to this summer. It would be a fun way to get to Granville Island from The Olympic Village (which is about $6.25 one way).
There were so many flowers that were out already! I took so many pictures. I used my phone app called ‘Planto‘. If you are interested in plant names I recommend this handy app. All you have to do is take pictures and upload them into the app and it will identify them for you. I also have mushroom and rock identifier apps I love to use.
Wellness Creators I’ve Been Loving Following
While I usually share about products or brands I love, I thought I would do something different and share about some fellow wellness creators who I believe have been killing it with their content lately. Since March is also women’s history month, I wanted to share three ladies who are inspiring other women to take care of their wellbeing through their platforms.
- Ashley Wong | @ashleisure_fit
A kinesiologist and personal trainer, Ashley is also the founder of Elevate With Ashleisure Fit Inc; a group pop-up fitness event designed to revive minds, bodies & souls one workout at a time. Though I’ve gone to school with Ashley for many years, it was through handling her social media content for her business in which I got to learn firsthand about her passion for uplifting others in all aspects of their health.
I love how she desires to use the lessons she’s learned from a season of burn-out to provide a one-stop shop for health at her bi-monthly fitness events. Her business and blog Instagram pages feature helpful tips on holistic health, stylish athleisure looks, reflections on her own fitness journey, and some at-home/gym workouts!
- Cassidy Carson | @focusedfitnessbc
Though I’ve known her husband’s family for years, it was only at the end of 2022 in which I reached out to Cassidy as she was offering a 6 week intro to the gym program that helped me set up healthy habits going into 2023.
Cassidy is a fitness coach that empowers others through functional fitness that focuses on an individual’s needs and goals. I was a bit nervous working with a personal trainer for the first time this year, but Cassidy has always helped me feel empowered and challenged through the workouts she assigned me. Her page is full of amazing tips on working out, motivational advice, healthy habits/routines, and recipes you’ll want to try!
- Shanna Tyler Salmon | @shannatylersalmon
I stumbled upon Shanna’s page shortly after I started to take content creation seriously on this blog and on my Instagram page. She’s easily become one of my favourite people to follow on Instagram and I’ve loved getting to chat with her through the DM’s.
Shanna is a personal trainer based in NYC. Like her Instagram bio says, she’s keeping it really real through her honest reflections on life, fun yet effective workouts on her Temple Bodii Instagram page, and the encouragement she brings to other women in their fitness and health journeys through her reels.
She also has an incredible way with words and her weekly Sunday Soulday newsletter has become my fave. I love the quotes she puts in them every week as well as the book, song, and Instagram account she’s currently loving.
Super proud of what all three of these women are providing in the wellness space and I can’t wait to continue to see them flourish and inspire those around them. Be sure to check them out on socials!
With care & joy,
Ainah
How to Gain Muscle
A common goal of weightlifting is to gain muscle, but how do you do that? Let’s talk about it!
The simple answer is to perform resistance training and consume protein and nutrients, according to this article. This has to be broken down into different concepts of muscle growth.
Rep Ranges
Deciding what your targeted rep range is for various exercises will help you work towards building muscle. This will depend on your goals. Fewer reps of 1-5 are achieved for more strength, the mid-range of 6-12 results in muscle growth, and 12-20 reps are suited for people wanting to build muscular endurance. If you’re in the low rep range, you’ll want to lift heavy weights, whereas there’s room to adjust the weight to be lighter for higher rep ranges.
An example of this is the bench press, such as doing 5×5 (5 sets, 5 reps each). For tricep pushdowns, you may see something like 4×10 or 3×12.
Setting up a Routine
To gain muscle and achieve your fitness goals, you need to have a consistent routine for your exercises. Read this blog I wrote about picking the right workout split. This includes doing the same exercises consistently and applying progressive overload. If you do the same exercises consistently, you will see results and get stronger. In addition, don’t overdo it, a workout only needs 4-5 exercises.
Eating to Gain Muscle
This comes with its challenges, but ultimately the main priority to gaining muscle is consuming protein. The guideline is to consume 0.72 grams of protein per pound of body weight. So you may see someone who weighs 140 lbs consuming nearly 140 g of protein.
You may have heard the terms ‘bulking’ and ‘cutting’, which are cycles of eating that entails eating above or below your maintenance calories. To bulk, athletes may eat up to 500 calories or more over their regular calorie intake, whereas those cutting will eat 300-500 calories below. Both cycles require a sufficient amount of protein to build muscle.
Carbs and fats are important nutrients to incorporate into your diet, though protein should be a priority.
Ultimately, this will look different for some lifters, but everyone should be lifting weights and consuming enough protein to see results in muscle growth. Contact me to discuss more!
The post How to Gain Muscle first appeared on Lifting With Lita.
Sun Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant
It’s currently 2:00 AM right now and I can’t fall asleep for the life of me. My brain is running and I have to be up at 7:00 AM to head back to SFU right now, so I am going to write my content post for this week. From my room, I can hear the planes overhead. The sounds of them passing by my window start to scare me and I don’t know if it’s because maybe I haven’t heard it in a while or because the plane sounds awfully close to us here on the ground. I can also hear the sirens of police cars or ambulances from my window. That I find more than normal because back on the mountain, fire alarms are pulled nightly and the norm is for about 2 fire trucks or ambulances to pass by my window.
This weekend has been hectic let me tell you that. It started with Friday being St. Patricks Day. I don’t usually celebrate it, my family doesn’t usually celebrate it, but it is a holiday and something to celebrate for some people so a group of my friends got together. Full of laughter and definitely not alcohol because we are good children, the night ended pretty late resulting in me walking back home at 3:30 AM. As one would assume, the next morning, at around 8:00 AM, my dad tried to wake me up as we had to go renew my passport all the way in Burnaby. That plan did not follow through as the partying from the night before took me out, and by that I mean I was throwing up every 30 min for 4 hours. Because of that unfortunate circumstance, all our plans went awry and my parents went off to renew my passport without me, and the plans of food after that went out the window.
This all eventually leads us to today, where we decided to make up for the previous day’s distressing events. After some insightful arguing, the four of us landed on dim sum and went to our usual place Sun Sui Wah. As I have mentioned THOUSANDS of times, my dad and I are very similar, so as soon as we had sat down I grabbed the paper and started ticking off how much of what we wanted. Then, I passed it over to my dad who then checked over our list, and within 5 minutes we were done ordering and ready to eat. To be honest, I would like to admit I think my head was bigger than my stomach because we ended up with 3 takeout boxes to bring back home.
Hours: Monday to Friday 10:30 AM – 3:00 PM & 5:00 PM – 9:30 PM Saturday to Sunday 10:00 AM – 2:30 PM & 5:00 PM – 9:30 PM
Address: 4940 No. 3 Rd, Richmond, BC V6X 3A5
Whenever we go for dim sum, our family always goes to Sun Sui Wah. We’ve taken cousins who have visited from London and friends that flew all the way from Japan over, and everyone has loved it. The food always comes fast and tastes hot. I’ve got to say, every time we have come I have tried something new and thankfully the menu here is so vast, there is plenty of ways I have got to go before I can say I have expanded my palate. The only thing I would say is that they changed their recipes. I don’t like coconut and because of that, my taste buds arise and can tell when something tastes like it or has it. Recently, within the past 2 years, they changed their egg tart recipe to include coconut milk or at least something that tastes like coconut. However, even with this slight change, I buck it up and still have it because I have got to stay true to my routine. Because of all these factors, I give Sun Sui Wah a solid ⅘.
Behind: Deep Fried Sesame Ball with Black Sesame Paste
* Also a little PSA, this is not all the food we had. I just forgot to take photos which is why some look partly eaten…because they were… *
Recent Blender projects
So, I noticed that I have not posted anything much about Blender. Yeah, I know this was originally meant to be a blender website so let me fix it.
Also to go off topic for one second, these blog posts are nice and everything but there has been something I have been questioning. I am making these blogs purely because this is something I enjoy. But one thing that is making me think is how this is for the PUB 101 class. And I feel that makes a difference. Let me explain, if I were to make a blog because I wanted to I would make one out of fun. Though with these blogs being graded, I feel as if all blogs must need a certain length. For me, this makes these blogs more of a pile-on with all the other assignments, process-post, and reviews we have to do. But hey, I am just a guy stating his opinion online and it may not matter. So my bad for going off track, let us continue our blogging!
Here are some nice dominos being tumbled over, I was trying out the physics feature on this. Watch out for the little surprise at the end of this video. Oh, and just for one more add-on to this piece, the “S” and “G” are meant to be my initials. 
Hey, this one took a while to do, mostly because I was trying to figure out how to make the ground look realistic. Apparently, in some versions of blender, there was a template for rock texture and depth. So that is being used in this little short video. As for animating the text, I had to make sure the text lit up at the right times, so each text are there own separate object, not as one big text.
Here is a sheep, we do not talk about the sheep. the sheep although made of simple things, but knows a lot of things.
Here is a cool thing I did here, notice something? Yes, the floor is reflective, that’s what you thought right? Yes, this was cool, I added a thin glass material right above the floor, which automatically added the reflection which I thought was so cool.
Thank you for looking at my art dumps, if you have any questions, please type in the comments, I may choose to request somebody’s idea if I get any!
Process Post 9: SEO & Audience Growth
In State of Mobile 2022, Data.ai reports that each user spent on average 4.8 hours on their phones, which is one-third of the time we typically are awake. Reflecting on my own device usage, my screen time averaged about 10 hours and 50 minutes across all of my devices in the last week alone. Of course, this covers more than just my phone—so a more realistic look that I’m able to access is my social media usage, which has solely been on my phone. Just yesterday, I was guilty of being on TikTok for 9 hours and 7 minutes, which is so wild.
As somebody who clearly spends an unhealthy amount of time on social media, I believe SEO is crucial to reaching the customers, readers, subscribers, and users you want—whether you’re an individual or a business. Whoever your intended audience is, SEO is a force that captures leads towards what you are putting out in the digital world. In “15 Reasons Why Your Business Absolutely Needs SEO,” it states that SEO can boost the effectiveness of the user experience of a website, and can drive trust and credibility in an online space (Hollingsworth, 2021). Over time, trust and credibility can be built with consistent care for SEO, to keep brands relevant and more easily discoverable. When we better understand how our own audience is trying to find us and meet them where they are, we’ve already created a trail that they can start to follow.
SEO doesn’t just cover websites either—for example, Instagram users heavily rely on hashtags to extend the reach of their posts beyond those who already follow them. By making sure they use the right hashtags, users can reach more people who find their content relevant. When I used to post for a small Instagram shop I was running with my friend, a decent amount of time was spent testing combinations of hashtags, from ones that had less than 10,000 posts to ones that had over 300,000 posts in them, to see how popular and lesser-known hashtags would affect our post reach. The analytics we reflected on in our Professional account each week helped us see which posts were doing well, which hashtags were associated with it, and where our audience was coming from, so we could continue to target those people.
It’s not easy to build an audience from the ground up, but with consistent effort and reflection, it’s definitely possible. However, in our heavily saturated digital world, I’ve observed that it takes zeroing in on a niche, as well as being insanely active on multiple platforms, to really see growth. With the need for a considerable amount of effort, the communities that last online are likely founded on passion rather than a fleeting need to go viral.
References
Hollingsworth, S. (2021, August 6). 15 Reasons Why Your Business Absolutely Needs SEO. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved on March 18, 2023, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/
Kate Middleton’s 5 Best Outfits of 2023 So Far
Catherine, the Princess of Wales is a global fashion icon. The term the “Kate Effect” has even been coined to describe how every outfit she wears immediately sells out, contributing an enormous amount to the British economy. Spilling the Royaltea is counting down the Princess of Wales’s top five outfits of 2023 so far:
5. Simple yet Elegant
At a Windsor Castle meeting with eight academic professionals on January 25th, the Princess of Wales wore a clean black suit over a white v-neck blouse. This simple outfit is sharp, classic, and clean, taking the fifth spot on Spilling the Royaltea’s countdown.
4. Power Suit
Kate flaunted the power of her new royal title as the Princess of Wales with this beautiful emerald pantsuit and turquoise blouse. The button detailing and sharp lines of the suit give her a regal aura, which is very fitting to meet Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway on March 2nd. Despite the fact that she looks absolutely beautiful in the suit, the bow at the top of her blouse crowds the outfit, making it feel a little old-fashioned, which places this outfit at number four.
3. The Burgundy on My… Blazer when You Splashed Your Wine Into Me -Taylor Swift
While visiting the England Wheelchair Rugby team on January 19th, the Princess of Wales chose her Roland Mouret suit, which she also wore during her visit to Boston in 2022 (our sustainable queen!). She kept the accessories simple with a dainty necklace and hoop earrings. She shows us that sometimes, less is more with this sleek ensemble.
2. Beautiful in Black and White
Instead of one of her signature pantsuits, Kate opted for a long houndstooth black and white skirt with black books, a turtleneck top, and a long cream coat when visiting a rehabilitation center on February 28th to announce a new garden therapy initiative. Sometimes, all it takes is a bold pattern to make a statement.
1. Bold in Red
Rounding out the countdown is the red Alexander McQueen suit Kate wore to launch the Shaping Us Campaign for the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood and reception at the BAFTA headquarters on January 30th. Her Gianvito Rossi pumps and Miu Miu clutch perfectly match the suit with her statement Chalk Jewelry earrings adding contrast to the all-red ensemble. The cut of the suit, the boldness of the all-red, the accessories… chefs kiss!
References:
Petit, S. (2023, March 3). Kate Middleton’s Royal Style: Every Outfit Worn by the Princess of Wales in 2023…So Far. People. https://people.com/royals/kate-middleton-every-outfit-2023-princess-of-wales/
Sewell, K. (2022, January 10). What is the ‘Kate effect’? Red dress searches rocket after birthday portrait reveal. The Daily Express. https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/style/1547761/kate-effect-duchess-of-cambridge-red-dress-outfit-evg
Photos:
Kensington Palace. (2023). [Kate Middleton and Prince William with Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit] [Photograph]. https://people.com/royals/kate-middleton-every-outfit-2023-princess-of-wales/
King, J. (2023). Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales [Photograph]. AFP via Getty Images. https://people.com/royals/kate-middleton-every-outfit-2023-princess-of-wales/
Leal, D. (2023). Kate Middleton [Photograph]. Pool/AFP via Getty images. https://people.com/royals/kate-middleton-every-outfit-2023-princess-of-wales/
Mulholland, E. (2023). Prince William and Kate Middleton [Photograph]. AFP via Getty Images. https://people.com/royals/kate-middleton-every-outfit-2023-princess-of-wales/
Mumby, M. (n.d.). [Kate Middleton] [Photograph]. Getty Images. https://www.instyle.com/fashion/clothing/kate-middletons-most-memorable-outfits-ever
Phillips, J. (2023). Kate Middleton [Photograph]. Getty Images. https://people.com/royals/kate-middleton-every-outfit-2023-princess-of-wales/
Process Post: Breadcrumbs 🥖
My parents always get mad at me whenever I try to argue with them about social media platforms. Of course, I do believe that social media is taking away the mystery of our generation compared to others, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing. My dad is always saying that I am giving away my data and that the big companies are going to know whatever about me, but my response is always “so what”. How bad is it if they know I like to watch videos about murder mysteries, or what TV shows I like to watch. Is it really the end of the world, no, it’s not. Sure, I do think that some people overshare on social media and that maybe they shouldn’t tell everyone where they are exactly at every minute of every day, but posting once in a while with your friends or if you go out for coffee really isn’t that bad.
After reading the introduction of “Digital breadcrumbs: the data trail we leave behind us…” by George Philip, Jennifer Anne Lazo, Rooham Jamali and Rudy Al Jaroodi, I was astounded to realize that my trail is long. REAL long. Even right now, I’m at work and using the mall wifi to use my computer typing on google docs. Anyone who can track that type of stuff, knows I’m at the mall right now using google.
Personally, as I mentioned before, I don’t really care that much about my data trail. Sure, it’s a long one, but overall, the people that get our data are going to get it at some time at some point. Whatever you do, if you search up a store on google, ads are going to pop up for that store the next time you look at something, they are always collecting information and I can’t think of a reason why its bad. If you have self-control and a little awareness about what is going on, they really can’t get to you on their data mining techniques.
When they mentioned CCTV cameras in the article/podcast, I was interested to learn the different opinions of some people regarding them. Some thought it was unnecessary while others thought about the safety it provides. Things like these are what I mean when I say that we aren’t going to be able to stop how far the digital age takes our data trail. Sure we can regulate some things, like how the UK has a data protection law, but there are always going to be backdoors or other ways to get information that we won’t be able to control. Overall, I think as a generation and a population, we need to increase our awareness about social media and the information they can take but think about the benefits this may allow as well.
Process Post #9
Hello everyone! This week I’ve been busy trying to improve my website by analyzing its performance and figuring out new ideas that could help make it even better.
In this lecture, I was fortunate enough to attend a talk given by Trevor Battye from Clevers Media, who shared his insights on monetization and ways to make money from your audience. He stressed that it’s important to identify the needs of your audience and to be unique in your niche when starting a business. One key takeaway for me was that your first business might not be the most profitable one, but it’s a valuable learning experience that can set you up for success in future endeavours.
Trevor also mentioned that starting a business when you’re young can be advantageous because you tend to be more determined and willing to take risks, and people are more compassionate and are generally more forgiving of mistakes. I found this encouraging, as I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, and that’s held me back from starting my own business or even just creating my own public social media pag e. But As a part of Rojan’s Road to Roj transformation journey, I recently shifted my mindset and focused on continuous improvement.
One thing that really resonated with me was Trevor’s experiences with selling candles. As someone who wants to get a publishing minor, I’m eager to learn more about these kinds of experiences in this field by taking the PUB 456. Overall, it was an inspiring and informative talk that left me feeling motivated to keep pushing forward with my own projects.
As a content creator for my blog, I’ve become increasingly aware of the digital breadcrumbs I leave behind daily, from checking the weather on my phone in the morning to using my contactless card to buy coffee, various apps and technologies record and track every action I take.
But what does this mean for my readers and me? Who has access to this information, and how can it be used? These are essential questions to consider as we navigate the world of big data.
According to Dr. Elisa Oreglia, a lecturer in Global Digital Cultures, a digital trail is a trace that we leave behind through technology. This can include our location information, app usage, and internet searches.
But where does all this information go? Dr. Oreglia in “Digital breadcrumbs” explains that it’s stored in various places, from our mobile phone network to GPS satellites and data centers scattered worldwide. And while there are laws and processes in place to protect our digital privacy, it’s essential to be aware of what data we’re sharing and who we’re sharing it with. For example, when I search for my name on Google, I still see some very old profile pictures. Although I don’t want them to be public anymore, I cannot delete them because I can no longer access those accounts.
I believe I am responsible for informing my readers about the digital breadcrumbs they may be leaving behind, especially in this digital age where companies like Amazon are trying their best to make every action digital and collect every single piece of data from users.
Also, Suzanne Norman’s experience in “Trying not to drop breadcrumbs in Amazon’s store” when visiting Amazon’s first physical store was mind-provoking, as she could not purchase a physical book with cash, which is scary for me as a reader as well. By sharing this information, we can all become more mindful of our digital footprint and take steps to protect our privacy online. So, the next time you check your phone or purchase with your card, remember that your actions leave a trail of data behind you. Stay informed and stay mindful.
Besides, this week I made some changes to my design website based on the peer reviews I have received. I was glad that both of my peers were engaged with the overall design decisions, the flow of my content, and the consistency of my website for my audience. Both mentioned that my logo might not represent the intention behind my overall blog content and the other homepage elements. At that time, I had not yet posted my content about the transformative miracle of meditation and yoga on my journey and the following posts on topics such as my “ACL surgery” and “bypassing materialism“, which these practices have had a huge impact on my life, bringing me a new sense of balance and helping me to form this new perspective.
On this blog, by sharing the stories of each step of my transformation journey, I want to show the balance I have gradually gained through all these stages, wether in physical, mental or social stage. Thus, the Lotus pose is a powerful symbol of the balance between mind, body, and spirit (Luthra, 2021) and this is the reason I chose it as my logo 
Also, to make my header image more balanced with the overall homepage aesthetics, I updated the images of the featured homepage slider. I made it consistent with my header image. As Cass mentioned in her peer review # 2 I also added more pictures to my content posts and process posts to make them more engaging. I also shortened my paragraphs, as Ashley mentioned in her peer review #1, while reducing the white space in each post. I am grateful for the constructive peer reviews I have received so far.
Bibliography:
Affeldt, C. (2023, March 9). Peer Review Number Two. Completely Cass. http://completelycass.com/personalblog/peer-review-number-two/
Chia, A. (2023, February 7). Peer Review #1: Exploring Rojan’s Road to Roj. Two AM Thoughts. http://twoamthoughts.com/posiel/peer-review-1-exploring-rojans-road-to-roj/
Luthra, A. (2021, October 30). Padmasana Benefits. Be Body Wise. https://bebodywise.com/blog/padmasana-benefits/
Norman, S. (2016, March 7). Trying not to drop breadcrumbs in Amazon’s store. Publishing | Graduate and Undergraduate Studies – Simon Fraser University. Retrieved March 25, 2023, from https://www.sfu.ca/publishing/news/editorials/trying-not-to-drop-breadcrumbs-in-amazon-s-store.html
Pod Academy. (2015, September 28). Digital Breadcrumbs: Our Data Trail. https://podacademy.org/podcasts/digital-breadcrumbs-our-data-trail/
Digital Footprints, Analytics, and Monetization
Digital footprints, digital trails, and digital breadcrumbs – the data trails we leave behind us when we use technology are something many of us have been warned about our whole lives.
I Know A Lot About This
Like my previous post on digital literacy, I’ve learned quite a bit about digital footprints, especially as a Communication major. In one of my classes, I even produced a 10-minute documentary on the effects of digital footprints on future employment opportunities. But in that documentary, I emphasized individual actions and the implications of “cancel culture,” and how to mitigate the impacts of digital footprints on young people’s futures.
But on Pod Academy’s podcast, they explain that digital footprints don’t just encompass people’s individual actions and choices made on the internet. A lot of information is spread unintentionally when using any sort of technology with a chip in it. For example, when I use my phone, it’s constantly communicating with cell towers and the internet too. That means that my phone’s always giving apps information about me and my environment.
And as an avid technology user, this is a little worrisome. I don’t exactly want my phone tracking me and giving all these apps tons of information at all times. But also, I’ve sort of gotten to a point where I don’t care. Like many others expressed on Pod Academy, the creation of our digital trails has been so ubiquitous that people simply don’t worry about it anymore.
Google Analytics
The information collected from our digital trails or footprints is often used to improve outreach and grow audiences. For example, for my own blog, I installed Google Analytics, which allows me to track people’s browsing habits on my website.
As of March 18, 2023, within the past 28 days, I’ve had 35 users visit my site. I can also see information about my most popular pages and top content, and how visitors experience my site such as how long pages take to load (which 9.4s, considered poor… oops). This information should help me build an audience and engage them effectively. However, to be completely honest, although I have been checking my Google Analytics from time to time out of curiosity, I haven’t been using it to help improve my site for my audience.
I think that a big reason why I haven’t been doing so is because my site is turning out to be more like a digital garden than a blog. Digital gardens, according to Basu, are spaces that do not focus on growing audiences and having huge viewerships. Instead, they focus on personal growth, which is exactly what Spilling the Royaltea has been about. As my blog has developed, although I do have a target audience in mind, I’m not too worried about growing my audience, getting famous and rich, or any of that kind of stuff.
For now, I’m using my analytics simply as a way to satisfy my curiosity about who’s looking at my blog. I’m really enjoying my blogging process and especially like the lack of pressure to gain huge audiences, so I think that’s what I’ll be doing for the time being.
To Monetize or Not To Monetize?
So, all of this leads to the question of whether I should monetize my site. With the whole concept of digital gardens in mind and the idea of creating a space for me and my thoughts, I don’t foresee monetizing Spilling the Royaltea anytime in the near future.
Based on my own experience with monetized sites, I felt like ads make websites feel distant, incohesive, or even disturbing, since many of the ads from Google Adsense are often inappropriate. I want my blog to be as inviting and welcoming to users as possible and I want it to retain its intimate, personal feel. I don’t want users to believe I’m “using them” by exploiting their information and digital trails to extract money from them. With my own apprehensions about advertising and data collection in mind, I don’t want to create a space where others feel the same kinds of fears.
I also want my blog to reflect me and my thoughts only and with a third party who imposes their ads or has input on what kinds of content I post, it takes away from the intimacy of my blog. For me, the content I post is what matters, and I want users to focus on this too.
So although Spilling the Royaltea is simply a passion project (…or a school project) without any financial gain, I’m very satisfied with how the experience has been so far. It’s the joy of blogging that matters, not how much money I can get from it.
References:
Basu, T. (2020, September 5). 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/
Pod Academy. (2016, May 3). Digital breadcrumbs: The data trail we leave behind us. http://podacademy.org/podcasts/digital-breadcrumbs-our-data-trail/
Wong, O. (2023, March 14). All About Digital Literacy. Spilling the Royaltea. http://spilling-the-royaltea.com/process-posts/all-about-digital-literacy/
Photo:
Lean Plum. (2019). [Monetization] [Stock Illustration]. https://www.leanplum.com/blog/free-app-monetization-methods/
