Author Archives: melissa wong

Peer Review #3 – Jellylift

For this peer review, I was delighted to find out I would be looking at Antalya’s blog, cleverly called Jellylift, for a couple reasons: 1) I’ve worked with Antalya in previous courses– she’s lovely!, and 2) I am also a hardcore Jellycat fanatic. I mean, what better way to spend (way too much of) your adult money on stuffed animals? (See my prized possession on the Indigo website.) So, when prompted about how Jellylift markets to their intended audience, I immediately think “well… that’s me!” Before getting into the marketability portion of this peer review, I’m first going to dig further into Antalya’s intended audience.

Who (else) Is the Intended Audience?

From the name “Jellylift” and also the About page, it is very clear that this blog is dedicated to two things and two things only: weightlifting and Jellycats. Side note: I have to add to the pre-existing compliment pile for this super awesome juxtaposition– it’s super awesome. Individually, both weightlifting and Jellycats have their own passionate counterpublics, a term discussed by Michael Warner. So, it seems that these groups make up Antalya’s intended audience.

I know that the gym community, both online and in real life spheres, is quite a tight-knit and supportive counterpublic, usually circulating discourse around tips on form, advice on the best pre-workouts, flexing their personal bests, etc. (Is it painfully obvious that I’m absolutely NOT a member of this counterpublic?) On the other hand, the Jellycat counterpublic is bonded through obsessing over and collecting the cutest, softest plushes on the planet. Check out the Jellycat website to see for yourself.

So, Jellylift is clearly a hub for members of both of these counterpublics to enjoy. However, by combining the two comically different interests, Antalya may be single-handedly creating a whole third counterpublic through Jellylift– a counterpublic consisting of those who love to sweat and pump major iron AND embrace their inner child with cuddly toys.

I’ve talked a lot about these people who surely would love Jellylift, but how exactly does Jellylift market to them to solidify this love?

Marketability Through Content and Design

I have determined that both the weightlifting and Jellycat counterpublics are part of Antalya’s intended audience, but this is not to say that you have to be a part of both / Antalya’s up-and-coming third counterpublic to be a Jellylift enjoyer. Take me, for example, who a) would rather die than step into a public gym, but b) has no problem dropping $40 on a hand-sized stuffed cauliflower with legs, and c) loves Jellylift. Antalya does a great job of balancing content about both interests– check out her content categories for Lifting and Jellycats– while keeping them separate enough for pure lifters and Jellycat lovers to enjoy one and not the other. This is important as it opens the door for more (regular) site visitors– I’m not sure the same effect would be achieved if Antalya’s content posts each featured an integration of both interests.

Additionally, the overall ironic and casual tone used across Jellylift makes the content clearly suitable for Antalya’s audience, or at least a subsection of them. She talks about how Jellycat lovers and weightlifters could be generalized into a “youth” demographic in her process post Knock Knock… Who’s There? Antalya’s style of writing definitely sells to this demographic perfectly, as the language she uses is very Gen-Z-friendly, with dry humour, lowercase titles, and expletives used (tastefully and quirkily) in every post.

Jellylift’s blog design also contributes to supporting its marketability to these intended audiences. At first glance, the pastel text against the rich chocolate brown background is definitely not a conventional website colour palette, but it is undeniably aesthetically pleasing to the youthful eye. Jellylift is also very easy to navigate with the clearly-labelled menu, systematically organized and categorized posts, and use of tags. Although Antalya loves to use a fun title for her posts– such as “What the F**k is Content?”– all her posts can easily be located, and are additionally very readable and scannable due to her use of headers and links. All of these elements, according to our PUB 101 Week 10 lecture material, are ingredients for good SEO. And, according to Sam Hollingsworth, having a good SEO is extremely beneficial for marketability. He further explains how site performance suffers if these elements are missing, but Antalya’s got it covered.

Summing Up

Overall, Antalya’s content and design of Jellylift is all noticeably intentional and carefully executed, which evidently pays off in its marketability as well as user-satisfaction (cite: me). I can’t wait to keep up with Jellylift and see what Antalya has up her sleeve for the rest of the semester!

Bonus Content: A Short Response to Antalya’s Peer Review

If you aren’t Antalya, this peer review post ends here. Thanks for reading! If you ARE Antalya, keep scrolling.

Hi Antalya! I enjoyed your peer review for my blog so much I just had to respond to it here. Thank you for the kind words, I truly am so flattered that someone I admire so much academically and personally likes melatonin gone missing! I am obsessed with the justgirlythings posts you pulled for me, truly thank you so much. melatonin gone missing feels so seen. Keep your eyes peeled for when those make their appearance on the blog.

Me and you after our peer reviews:

Two buff guys, with their arms around each other, flexing for the camera at the gym. — Source: https://becomingajock.tumblr.com/post/145458793098/roided-as-fuck-bros-posing-for-a-gym-pic-yeah

References:

Hollingsworth, S. (2021, August 9). 15 reasons why your business absolutely needs seo. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved March 29, 2023, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close

Norman, S. (2023). Data and SEO [PowerPoint Slides]. Department of Publishing, Simon Fraser University.

Warner, M. (2002). Publics and Counterpublics (abbreviated version). Quarterly Journal of Speech, 88(4), 413-425.

My Favourite Fictional Man Has A Tail

Yes, you read that correctly.

In high school, my friend and I founded a book club, where we read a book every couple weeks and assembled to discuss it. Nothing crazy or out of the ordinary for a book club. However, this club changed my life because from it, I was introduced to one of my favourite series of all time: The Folk of the Air by Holly Black. Spoilers ahead.

Before reading this series, I was a proud non-fantasy reader. It was just never really my thing, I never even read Harry Potter when I was younger like every other kid. Instead, I stuck by YA fiction, always with romance. However, when the book chosen is by majority vote in our book club, I can’t really refuse. So, begrudgingly and honestly, with some difficulty, I forced my way through the first book of the series, The Cruel Prince. While reading, I remembered why I rarely ever gave the fantasy genre a shot. Made-up, silly sounding words filled the pages, and there were so many characters with similar sounding names that I could barely manage to follow the plot. If I skipped a page, I would miss crucial lore that seemed to be important, yet I couldn’t will myself to carefully read each word and comprehend what was going on in these immortal faes’ histories. Nevertheless, almost nearing the end of the book, I started to become interested in what was going on. Why? It was the scene where Carden, our careless, cruel prince (hah) was strapped into a chair with a dagger held to his neck by our protagonist mortal girl Jude, in a den of spies. Finally, after years of torment by him and his faerie friends, she was in complete control over her enemy and the throne. That’s right, the foundation of an enemies-to-lovers plot was building, and I was hooked.

By the end of the book, not much else had happened to further any potential romance between Jude and Cardan. Still, I was just intrigued enough to know what was in store for them that I told myself I would read the next book in the series.

Fast forward, and I’m reading The Wicked King and right from the get-go, I’m sat and invested. The Cruel Prince left us with Cardan as the king, and Jude as his secret puppeteer. Now, Jude is his seneschal and figuring out her place next to the throne while also holding all the power behind it. Through sly-tongued interactions between Jude and Cardan, we can sift through cruelties and riddles to find that perhaps Cardan feels more than just disdain towards Jude, and through her POV we know that she definitely does, although she refuses to confront this fact. Halfway through the book, Jude gets abducted and taken prisoner in the Undersea, and Jude is forced to realize what she feels for him and her life above the surface. And when she returns because of Cardan’s desperation to get her back, we finally see something between the two of them that is more than just between the lines. This inkling of hope doesn’t last long, when Cardan exiles Jude to the mortal world at the end of the book, and every shred of anything Jude ever felt for him other than pure hatred disintegrated on the spot.

As you could’ve guessed, at this point, I’m on my knees for this series. I’m enthralled by Jude and Cardan’s “two steps forward, three steps back” love and hate dynamic, as well as all the other subplots happening alongside them. Specifically, Jude’s personal journey of self-discovery, perseverence, and ambition in a world full of people who are different and better than her makes her undeniably my #1 favourite female book protagonist.

Back to the plot though, we’re onto the third and final installation, The Queen of Nothing. Oh, did I forget to mention? Before Jude’s shocking exile for killing Cardan’s last living brother, she and Cardan exchanged vows and she became none other than the Queen of Elfhame. A mortal queen, nonetheless, and the very first one. While this marriage could be narrowed down to mere practical and mutually-beneficial reasons, it is completely clear that when Jude and Cardan become wed, they do so under a veil of love for each other. A major win for the readers! Except now Jude is back in the mortal world, exiled and seething. It doesn’t take long until she risks it all and returns to pretend to be her twin sister in a murder trial (her sister is absolutely guilty… a win for rage-filled women everywhere!). Cardan, knowing her better than she thinks, catches Jude immediately and confronts her in his chambers, asking what took her so long (whaaaaat?). Before they’re able to get into the nitty gritty, Jude is once again taken away and does not return until much later, where Cardan is under the impression that she’s arrived to execute him. This turns out to be a miscommunication and a trap that Jude walks into herself, as civilians still believe she should be in exile and immediately are prepared to kill her. Fear not, all is sorted once Cardan exclaims, to pretty much all of Elfhame, that Jude is not in exile, but rather is his wife and their rightful Queen.

Now that Jude is properly on the throne, politics ensue and disaster strikes once Cardan falls under a curse and turns into a great serpent. (If you’re still with me at this point, you deserve a pat on the back. If you’re not, I don’t blame you. This sounds ridiculous, but I swear if you know you know.) Just before this, Cardan recites the most beautiful love confession you will ever see in a book.

“It’s you I love,” he says. “I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn’t have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.” He walks to the door to the royal chambers, as though to end the conversation. “You probably guessed as much,” he says. “But just in case you didn’t.”
Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

Before Jude gets a chance to respond, Cardan is lost to his serpent form and it seems that the curse is unbreakable. Wracked with fear, guilt, anger, sadness, and love, Jude deliberates what to do with him and nearly makes many poor decisions. In the end, however, she knows that the only choice that would truly be out of love is to let him go. Against the nation’s expectations and wishes, she slays the serpent, and you know who walks right out of its carcass? Everyone’s favourite cruel prince. While this whole story unfolds, cryptic riddles and intricate prophecies are at work, and it is in this moment when everything clicks and all makes sense. If you read this book for any reason, I would recommend it for this puzzle-y element of the book. It truly makes the story unlike anything I’ve ever read before.

So, Jude and Cardan are reunited, and as she promised to herself while he was gone, she confesses how she really feels. Finally, after hate, lust, and loss, the king and queen finally get a chance to be truthful to each other and be together.

And that is pretty much where the trilogy leaves us. It’s a little more and a little less than a simple “happily ever after” ending, with the remaining effects of everything that happened still fresh and left on a note that leaves readers both satisfied and aching for more of Elfhame’s stories.

Luckily, Holly Black heard this ache, and has since released the first of her new duology, centered on Jude’s little half-brother who is on his way to the throne, but not before he has his childhood unlike Jude whose was ripped from her grasp far too young.

Check out all of Holly Black’s books. You will NOT regret it.

Oh, wait. I never talked about the tail. I guess now you’ll really have to check out these books.

Artificial Intelligence

AI is on a rapid rise in education. Professors and educators have been banning new softwares like ChatGPT and Dall-E with the fear that students will use them to plagiarize entire assignments and diminish critical thinking. However, the use of these technologies is inevitable and increasing in various everyday circumstances. As educational institutions continue banning them, they will just get more and more advanced, which means that at some point, we’ll all have to cope with them somehow. So this week, I tried out two of these technologies: ChatGPT and Dall-E, and found a few ways students might positively use it in the classroom.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an AI software developed by OpenAI that is meant to generate almost-immediate, conversational responses to questions, prompts, and commands. It launched to the public in November 2022, and since then has been a topic of discourse in academia, ethics and technology, and general interest of the common person with free time and internet connection. Its impressive technology allows the responses to be detailed, articulate, and generally factually correct. User input also helps craft desired outputs, as the AI can “learn” and tailor its responses to reflect feedback and critiques. As mentioned, ChatGPT has faced rejection from educators and institutions with its negative implications for students, but there are ways that ChatGPT can be effectively implemented to aid learning and expression.

Idea Generation

Writer’s block is pretty inevitable for any class, especially PUB 101, where I write two or three posts a week. With a simple prompt, ChatGPT can generate ideas to take inspiration from for essays, assignments, and blog posts. This could yield excellent results, as each student would be able to spend more time on the execution of their project, rather than spending time brainstorming ideas that are often too simple to accurately and rigorously demonstrate their learning. To bypass the possible concern that this would limit creative thinking and be a case of plagiarism, I must clarify that in fleshing out projects from a mere concept to execution still requires a lot of creative thinking, and by referencing the software’s assistance it would steer clear of plagiarism claims since the ideas would in a sense still be the student’s own based on the prompt and information fed.

Keyword Generation

In PUB 101, I’ve learned that inputting keywords in posts is extremely important. They help improve the SEO and my website’s reach. ChatGPT could effectively help generate some of these keywords to benefit each post on my blog. So, I decided to type the following into ChatGPT: what are some keywords to include in a blog post about reviewing Taylor Swift’s album “folklore”? Here’s what it generated.

A ChatGPT response to the prompt "what are some keywords to include in a blog post about reviewing Taylor Swift’s album “folklore”?"

What is Dall-E?

Dall-E is an AI software, also developed by OpenAI, that generates complex creative images from text prompts. Prompts can include things like recreating individual artists’ styles, using various art mediums, and ultimately absurd visuals that one would not expect to see in one image. Like ChatGPT, the use of Dall-E has been a controversial topic. Specifically, when is it ethically permissible to use it, especially in academic contexts?

Creating Visual Interest

My content posts often use a lot of images from the internet. While this is useful in many cases, especially for posts that take on a more editorial-style, I think that adding pictures created from DALL-E could enhance the personalization of my posts. It could make the blog reflect me and my own personality instead of always relying on other people’s pictures and using generic-looking stock photos. For example, my post about crocheting could have included Dall-E pictures to create added entertainment, visual interest, and personality.

Oil painting of girl crocheting. — Dall-E generated image using the prompt “an oil painting of a girl learning how to crochet”.

Citing and Copyright?

Since ChatGPT is such a novel tool, traditional citation styles have yet to cohesively come up with solutions for ways students should properly credit the use of the technology in their work. However, as a student and a blog-owner, citing your sources is a critical step in ethical academia and success. Suggestions have been made for citation style from APA, for example, an online library guide for a university suggests, “This technology is new and we are all learning about generative AI resources and how to ethically use them. Consider making the ChatGPT conversation retrievable by including the text as an appendix or as online supplemental material.”

But then again, would we even need to credit the model if it’s not really taking from other people’s ideas? If things are written by ChatGPT, who owns the copyright? The human who generated the prompt, or the creators of the model? Only time will tell.

References:

Antonelli, W. (n.d.). How to use dall·e 2 and Craiyon, the AI art tools that can generate images from any text prompt. Business Insider. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/dall-e-mini

Dall·E: Creating images from text. DALL·E: Creating images from text. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://openai.com/research/dall-e

Introducing chatgpt. Introducing ChatGPT. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/

Johnson, A. (2023, January 31). Chatgpt in schools: Here’s where it’s banned-and how it could potentially help students. Forbes. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/01/18/chatgpt-in-schools-heres-where-its-banned-and-how-it-could-potentially-help-students/?sh=130da4506e2c

Research guides: APA style 7th edition: Chatgpt & ai tools. Humber. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://guelphhumber.libguides.com/c.php?g=716556&p=5279441

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