Author Archives: Vanessa

How to Romanticize Your Life

What Does Romanticizing Your Life Mean?

Romanticizing your life essentially means appreciating the little and mundane things about your life. Your life doesn’t have to be particularly exciting or “like a movie” to romanticize it. Your life can be romanticized by simply paying attention to small things that make your life beautiful. This blog post will share ideas of how to romanticize your life and feel like the “main character.”

1. Make Little Things Feel Exciting

One way to romanticize your life is by making mundane tasks something that you look forward to. For example, while doing chores, blast your favourite songs and sing along to the lyrics. This will make the chores feel like a fun experience rather than something you are dreading.

2. Accessorize and Decorate

Another way to romanticize your life is through aesthetics. Making things look aesthetically pleasing will make you feel more put together and will make a situation more exciting. For instance, if you’re making dinner for your family, make the dinner table look cute by including a centrepiece, setting the table in a “fancy way” (set the cutlery and fold napkins in a way that looks like it’s from a fancy dinner party). Or if you’re going out to run errands, take an extra minute to put on some jewelry and you will feel more put together throughout the day.

3. Value Your "Me Time"

Take some extra time to unwind and clear your head. Occasionally take a bath instead of a shower, paint your nails, and journal to release your thoughts. Setting aside time for yourself will help you feel better mentally and physically. “Me time” will give you the opportunity to clear your head, organize your thoughts, and make you feel ready for a new day.

4. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

Stepping outside of your comfort zone will allow you to experience things that you otherwise would have never experienced. This can be as simple as saying “yes” to new things. Exposing yourself to new opportunities will help you grow as a person and will help you appreciate all that life has to offer.

5. Write Down Your Gratitudes

You can do this on a daily basis, weekly basis, or a monthly basis. Writing down things that you are grateful for allows you to stay grounded and helps you appreciate the little things that make life beautiful. Writing down your gratitudes may help you recognize and appreciate things in life that you otherwise would have overlooked. If you are interested in purchasing a journal with pre-written prompts in it, The Five Minute Journal is a great product to get (or you can just copy down their prompts in a blank journal to save money!)

Process Post #12: Website Guidelines

Website Guidelines

Reading the article titled The dark side of Guardian comments explains how comments vary depending on the type of article. It was found that articles written by women got more negative comments, as well as articles about world news, opinion, and environment (Gardiner et al., 2016).

Reading this article made me reflect on the guidelines that I would like to implement on this website. On this website, I have comments enabled; therefore, there is the possibility of receiving rude or hateful comments. One way that I will ensure comments on my website remains respectful is through preventing comments from automatically being made public. The comment settings on my website require me to approve them before they are seen by the public. This way, I can screen through the comments I receive and only approve respectful ones.

Additionally, I may decide to block offensive words from being commented on to avoid having to deal with disrespectful comments. As of right now, the comment section is not my biggest concern; however, as my website starts getting more attention and comments, I may decide to put more limitations on my comments.

Another precaution I may decide to take if comments become offensive is publish a guideline page regarding respectful audience behaviour. I may decide to write about audience expectations on this website to encourage respectful behaviour and to create a community where my audience can connect and share their thoughts.

References

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

Process Post #11: Transmedia Integration

Transmedia Integration on My Website

The article called Pokemon as Transmedia Storytelling shares how this fictional world has expanding to many forms of media. For instance, Pokemon is present in books, TV shows, video games, card games, and much more (Whippersnappers, 2013). Pokemon has found a way to attract an audience in many forms of media.

This made me reflect on my website and if I could create transmedia content. Upon reflection, I do not believe I want to implement transmedia integration into my online website. I believe that transmedia integration would not make sense with my website’s vision. The way that I think of transmedia integration for this website is through expanding my website to multiple channels. For instance, I could create an Instagram account, a podcast, or a YouTube channel as an extension to my website. One thing that I enjoy about my website is the idea of my website being in one place. I like that every piece of content I publish is accessible through blog posts.

One way that I could integrate transmedia content is through providing links to my other platforms onto this website. For instance, if I were to make a YouTube channel, I could have a category in my website’s menu that connects to the YouTube channel. Although I am not opposed to the idea of creating content on other platforms, at this point in my life, I would like to stick to publishing on my website.

Situations where I would consider posting on other platforms, such as YouTube, is if something huge and exciting occurred in my life. For instance, if I were to go on a month long trip, I would consider vlogging highlights of my trips. This video would provide additional content that would support my blog posts about my trip. I did something like this in Mini Assignment #3 where I created a video that recapped my trip to LA in January. I think that if I were to implement transmedia integration into my website, I would do it through short videos.

References

Whippersnappers. (2013, November 21). Pokemon as transmedia storytelling. kevinbrittenylauren. https://kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/pokemon-as-transmedia-storytelling/

Song Recs Based on Books

Malibu Rising By Taylor Jenkins Reid

Malibu Rising follows Nina Riva, daughter of the world famous singer Mick Riva, as she hosts a huge party. Mick abandoned his family and Nina’s mother died when Nina was still in high school. Being the oldest child, she had to step up and take care of her siblings. The themes of this book include sacrifice, family, healing, and independence.

Song recommendations:

Matilda by Harry Styles
Vienna by Billy Joel
You’re On Your Own Kid by Taylor Swift

Love and Other Words By Christina Lauren

Love and Other Words is a romance book that has an alternating past and present timeline. The book follows Macy and Elliot as they become friends (and more than friends) during their childhood. Macy has a vacation home next door to Elliot’s home and they quickly form a bond. Something happens that causes them to not speak for 11 years. The present timeline follows them as adults. They run into each other for the first time since they were kids, where it is revealed why they have not spoken for so long.

Song recommendations:

Traitor by Olivia Rodrigo
18 by One Direction
History by One Direction
Daylight by Taylor Swift
Last Kiss by Taylor Swift
New Year’s Day by Taylor Swift
From the Dining Table by Harry Styles

The Song of Achilles By Madeline Miller

The Song of Achilles is a greek mythology that follows Achilles and Patroclus as they grow up together and fall in love. Eventually, they must fight in the Trojan War. The themes of this book include love, sacrifice, and betrayal.

Song recommendations:

The Great War by Taylor Swift
Safe & Sound by Taylor Swift
Dark Red by Steve Lacy
Pluto Projector by Rex Orange County

Red, White & Royal Blue By Casey McQuiston

Red, White & Royal Blue follows the First Son of the United States and the British prince as they are forced to hang out together and pretend to be friends for publicity reasons. As they fake their friendship, their bond becomes closer than they expected.

Song recommendations:

London Boy by Taylor Swift
American Boy by Estelle
Only the Brave by Louis Tomlinson
Who Cares? by Rex Orange County
Late Night Talking by Harry Styles

The Summer I Turned Pretty By Jenny Han

The Summer I Turned Pretty follows Belly as she spends her summers in a beach house with two brothers whom she has known since they were kids. As they’ve grown up, feelings start to develop.

Song recommendations:

Silver Tongues by Louis Tomlinson
Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift
Tongue Tied by Grouplove
Heat Waves by Glass Animals
August by Taylor Swift
Summer Love by One Direction

Mini Assignment #5: An Infographic of My Online Self

I decided to make an infographic that explains my behaviour on various online platforms. My online identity varies tremendously on each platform. For instance, my LinkedIn account is full of personal information such as where I go to school and my work experience, while my YouTube account has no personal information on it; I don’t even go as far as to comment on videos. I find it interesting seeing how my behaviour changes depending on the app I’m using and who I believe will see it.

Journaling Ideas

Why Should You Journal?

Healthline lists stress reduction, emotion processing, and self-discovery among some of the benefits of journalling (Tartakovsky, 2022). Some may use journalling as a place to write down thoughts, while others use it as a creative outlet. This blog post will list some ideas of what you may want to journal about if you don’t know where to start. This list includes a range of written prompts as well as more artistic page ideas.

Journaling Ideas:

Lists:

Your Favourite Things
Your Bucket List
Things That Make You Happy
Wish Lists

Trackers/Ratings:

Monthly Song Tracker
- Keep track of your favourite songs from each month
Book Tracker
- Keep track of the books you read and write a small review of each book
Song Tier List
- Rate all the songs in an album from your favourite to least favourite
Sleep Tracker
- Track how many hours of sleep you got and rate your quality of sleep

Artsy Pages:

Random Art/Doodle Pages
Vision Board
Tattoo Ideas

Written Prompts:

Write About Your Gratitudes
Write About One Good Thing That Has Happened Recently In Your Life
Trip Recap
Your Favourite Quotes & Song Lyrics
- Write them down and reflect on why you like them
A Letter To Your Future Self
Appreciation Pages
- Dedicate a page to your favourite show/artist/movie/book, etc.
Write About What You Dreamed About The Night Before
Things You Love About Yourself
Write a Letter To Your Past Self

Reference:

Tartakovsky, M. (2022, February 22). 15 benefits of journaling and tips for getting started. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-journaling#takeaway

10 Self-Care Ideas

Self-Care

Self-care is an important part of one’s well-being. These are little things that you can do for yourself and yourself only. It could be something productive or simply a meaningless activity that makes you happy. This blog post will you give some self-care ideas.

10 Ideas:

1. Listen to music

Drown out life for a bit.

2. Read a book

Escape from the stresses of the real world and enter a fictional one.

3. Retail therapy

You don’t necessarily have to buy anything, window shopping is also fun.

4. Move your body

Go to the gym, walk around your neighbourhood, go on a hike, dance, etc.

5. Have an “everything” shower

Put on a good playlist and have a shower where you do everything (hair mask, exfoliate, shave, etc.). You’ll feel like a new person when you’re done.

6. Journal

Release your thoughts onto paper.

7. Touch grass

Go outside and get some fresh air.

8. Go to sleep early

Get a good night’s sleep so you feel energized in the morning.

9. Drink lots of water

Stay hydrated!

10. Engage in those little things that make YOU happy.

Whether it’s going down a rabbit hole of cast interviews for a show you just finished or crocheting a cardigan, make sure you take part in hobbies and interests that you enjoy doing!

Process Post #10

Organic Search Traffic

This week’s reading on 15 Reasons Why Your Business Absolutely Needs SEO makes me reflect on how challenging it is to have your website appear in searches. The article’s first point is titled “Organic Search is Most Often the Primary Source of Website Traffic” (Hollingsworth, 2021). However, how often does my website appear in an organic search?

Looking at my Google Site Kit, it appears that the Search feature is not doing much for my website. The only search query that led someone to my site was when “vanessa planet” was searched. I am guessing that this search was made by someone in this publishing class, most likely the student who was writing my peer review, as this is a really specific search. This shows that I must change my publishing strategy to show up in more search queries.

I do not mind if my site has no audience. I am mainly creating this blog for myself; however, I think it would be cool to have an audience, as it will allow individuals with similar interests as me to connect with my website. I will change my posting strategy by adding more keywords and tags to my post in the hopes of attracting an audience.

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

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:

http://completelycass.com/personalblog/

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