Author Archives: PERFECT HURRICANE

Process Post #3

I really like the current layout of my website. I tried to make it as user-friendly as possible and also functional for myself. My PUB101 content will live on the page “PUB101”, organized under the categories “Process Posts”, “Mini Assignments”, and “Peer Reviews”. My content will be separate from my assignments for PUB101 under the page “Content”. I’m not sure if I will have different categories for this page yet. I’ll decide on that once I start posting more content on my blog.

As I’m reading the article “Calling My Attention Back” by Craig Mod, it’s making me reflect on my own online habits and how glued to my phone I can be on a day-to-day basis. In the age of 10-50 second content on Tiktok, has it affected our ability to pay attention? I find myself gravitating back to my phone even when I’m streaming a movie. In fact, I’ve gotten distracted by my phone about 5 times while writing this. Also, when I’m out to eat with my family or friends, almost everyone is on their phones, and only glancing up and talking periodically. Honesty, I don’t think that I could be offline for a whole month. I think that I’m too reliant on technology to do that. Here are some examples: I need the internet to access my assignments on Canvas, I communicate with most of my friends online, and I watch movies, tv, and Youtube during a lot of my free time. But, that’s not to say I couldn’t cut back on my screen time. Perhaps cutting back and spending more time meditating and reading could really benefit my mental health. It’s definitely something that I would seriously consider attempting.

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

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.