Being a writer or anyone pursuing a creative field is difficult because you have no one to push you to do the craft except for yourself. As a result, it is easy to get burnt out or fall behind on creative work. Therefore, creating consistency through implementing a routine that will help you produce good work is essential.
#1: Eliminate All Distractions Eliminate all distractions by putting your phone away or putting it on do not disturb. If you’re working on a device, clear all the tabs you do not need and close all the programs you don’t need. A further tip is to delete the messing app from the dock to prevent you from being distracted by incoming messages.
#2 Empty Your Mind Before you sit down and start your creative process, you must clear away any distractions. As an overthinker, I find it important to empty my mind by journaling or meditating to clear any lingering thoughts and worries. It is also a great time to set your intentions and be relaxed before you start working.
#3 Set the Mood Whether it’s lighting a candle/incense or playing music in the background, it is important to stay zen and relaxed to help you focus on the task at hand.
#4 Come Prepared with All Your Materials For me, I know when it is time to write when I have all my material laid out for me and a freshly brewed hot cup of coffee. Further, having all your supplies will help you enter a flow state as you do not have to keep moving around and encountering distractions.
#5 Get Working Some days are better than others, but as long as you dedicate even 5 minutes to the craft, you are one step closer to getting better each day. I work organically, and sometimes hours go by, and sometimes I spend more time staring at a blank page but learn what works best for you. You may want to do the pomodoro method or see where the day takes you.
When I opened the “State of Mobile” reading by data.ai I actually laughed as I went to the eleventh page and looked at the “Average Age Group Index Among Top Apps Per Category”. For Gen Z is said the typical apps, apps that I use like Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify, although I was surprised that Tik Tok wasn’t on there. For Millennials it had said WhatsApp Messenger, which I thought was funny because I am on a family groupchat with a bunch of cousins as well as aunts and uncles on WhatsApp and I would say the average age on the group chat falls into the Millennial age category. And than last, but not least, where I laughed out loud was for Gen X and baby boomers where it had in fourth place, Stocard. I laughed because when I am currently writing this, Thursday March 23, my mom had JUST texted our “Jackson 4” groupchat to add her Chipotle card to our Stocard app.
That little starter may not be relatable, but for me it was quite funny. ANYWAY, while starting my website, as I had mentioned in previous posts, I never thought I would actually be writing to an audience. I thought the only ones who would read my posts would be myself time and time again, but then also those who were reviewing my blog as well as whoever was marking it. Little did I know, when I post on Instagram, people actually look at what I post or share. Now, I get an average of 43 people viewing my blog postings when I share a story on Instagram promoting it.
For my audience and my goal as a blog content creator (weird to say that after writing consistently for 2 months), I never really aimed to have my blog show up on others search pages. Sure I could include keywords for people to view my posts, but personally, my blog wasn’t meant for that. My blog was never meant to be a profit maximizing website to capitalize off of the hungry, but rather a way for me to just write about what I like. I have to admit, I hate writing about topics that I’m not interested in, and I have had teachers tell me “Tara, when you like something and are actually interested about the topic, your writing drastically improves”. So when writing this blog feels like a chore, or a job, than I might start to write more dry.
If I just focus on the reasons ten and eleven in Sam Hollingsworth’s article “15 Reasons Why Your Business Absolutely Needs SEO”, which are 10. SEO is PR and 11. It’s a Long-Term Strategy. I believe all Sam’s points are valid and make sense, but his points concerning my website do not coincide. For example, both his tenth and eleventh points relate to the longevity of the website, but for me, I don’t plan on writing posts consistently for the rest of my life or even past this course. Once the course is done, as fun as it has been, I don’t plan on keeping my website going as I have other things in my life I have to deal with and other courses to work on. Anyway, all in all, I have to decide what I want to do and want to complete in the remaining part of this class.
Falsettos is a 1992 musical about an unorthodox family living through the AIDs epidemic while exploring themes of gender roles, sexuality, and Jewish identity in New York City around the 1970’s/80s. The original musical was remastered for a Broadway run starting in 2016, which is the version I intend to talk about today (with spoilers, of course).
There is a primary cast of 5 characters (plus 2 which are introduced in the second act), but I wish to deal with the often underappreciated character of Trina. Trina is Marvin’s ex-wife, Jason’s mother, Mendel’s partner, but she is also a complex person in her own right.
When discussing Trina’s enneagram type, many people instinctively declare her as a 2. I’d like to make a case for Trina being a type 6w7, specifically the self preservation subtype. I’ll go over some core aspects of the two types to explain my reasoning, and then analyze each of her solo songs in more detail.
Twos and self-preservation sixes are commonly mistyped because of their outwardly warm disposition and devotion to others, but the key difference lies in motivation. From what we can tell in Trina’s lyrics, she cares for and attends to the needs of the people in her life in order to gain a sense of security for herself.
There is something to be said about the particular role that Trina is cast into as a housewife in the late 1970s, though I believe that to be ultimately unrelated to this analysis. The character of Whizzer is similarly burdened with unfair gender roles forced onto him, but he is clearly shown to be handling that like a typical 7.
The first of three solo songs performed by Trina is “I’m Breaking Down”, a satirized version of a cooking program with plenty of innuendos and thinly-veiled metaphors. It is a tragic first glimpse into Trina’s inner world, filled with nods to her unfulfilling life before the musical takes place. Trina’s desperate motives line up with a typical 6, showing a deep sense of responsibility while also lacking confidence in her own judgement. This leads Trina to seek out someone, anyone, with whom she can satisfy her need for companionship and safety.
“I only want to love a man who can love me…. Or like me… Or help me…”
Trina’s emotional reactivity is on full display and her sense of self clearly hinges on the attachment to important people in her life (both traits of the harmonics and object relations group that 6 belongs to).
“Trina’s song” (which is grouped together in the official recording) a few minutes later shifts the tone quite considerably, serving as a pained letter to the men in her life. At this point, Trina’s primary strategy for staying in control of her life is to lie low and take on her assumed role. Appeasing other people to assure a support system that won’t leave you is a defence mechanism commonly seen in self-preservation 6s.
“That said, I’ll be his wife I’ll wed and change my life”
The last song that Trina plays a primary part in is “Holding to the Ground”, which is perhaps the most obvious example of her true feelings. Trina grapples with her assumptions around how families are defined and the pressure placed on her since birth to live within the mainstream narrative. She also deals with themes of trying to find comfort in a world unlike anything she prepared for.
“Life is never what you planned Life is moments you can’t understand And that is life”
Trina discovers a certain clarity at the end of each of her songs, in which she attempts to solve every problem in her life with carefully planned actions (which never work). After this realization, Trina gains the insight necessary to cope with the reality that her world will be changed at every turn.
Trina’s character development is firmly rooted in breaking out of the expectations placed on her and learning to trust her own guidance and strength. She experiences immense progress from act 1 to 2, and ultimately is able to find solace in the found family she has cultivated, despite being so completely different from what Trina or her parents would have expected.
And she’s definitely a 6.
Trina is one of my favourite characters from Falsettos and I appreciate that she isn’t shoved aside by the writers for the sake of the main 4 men in the show. I had no idea what to expect from her on a first watch, but I found her character to be deeply relatable and immeasurably important to the story.
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.
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.
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
For this week, the readings have made a shift in content. Although these shifts happen every week, I thought that this week was different from the rest. While one of the readings involve the basics of SEO and other things, the reading that caught my attention was the data on mobile usage and apps. The data collected was from 2022, and the article is called “S T A T E O F M O B I L E 2 0 2 2.” This study collects data on apps downloaded and where it is downloaded in each country. The article states that there are “Globally 230 Billion Downloads…” (data.ai, 2022, pg. 7).
Some examples of data that I found interesting was the use of apps from each generation, one of the top most used apps by Gen Z according to data.ai is Instagram, followed by Spotify, Netflix, then Snapchat. I was also surprised that male and female usages were different for the top-used apps. Accordingly, males’ top downloaded app was WhatsApp Messenger, while females’ top downloaded is Facebook. Overall this article is a great source of collecting and looking at data, and I suggest that you take a visit to it as well.
References:
Unknown. (2022). S T A T E O F M O B I L E 2 0 2 2. PUB 101: The Publication of Self in Everyday Life. Retrieved March 22, 2023, from https://posiel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/dataai__state_of_mobile_2022__en.pdf
My swan has been improving! It still isn’t great, but to be fair I haven’t looked up any sort of tutorial so I’m going off of what I think I am supposed to do when I really have no idea. However, I like being creative in this way and just making whatever works!
In recent years there has been news of copyright plagiarism, so what is copyright and under what circumstances can you be sued? What is the content they publish? Who actually copied who? What is my copyright? Faced with some of these questions, I can’t get answers.、
My friend is a nail artist, and she always puts her own watermark, only her own watermark, on her finished artwork pictures, and she told me that this way she won’t be saved by her peers to post on her own platform. For example, every time I upload a picture on my blog, a picture of my dog or my life, a picture of a landscape, wouldn’t I have to put a watermark on every time? No, I think that’s too much trouble, I just want to show my life among my blog. Now there are a lot of impersonating a person to create another platform account, I don’t know what the point is, money or what? So would it be useful to sue in this case, just to be on a social networking site and steal someone else’s photos to post on your own social account.
This week I’m reading“You Say ‘Tomaydo’, I say no copyright infringement: Recipe book not an original compilation” by Peter Henein, The defendant take-out catering business recipes, in this case, signed an agreement attributed to the original recipe and a copy of the original.The text states that “a compilation is entitled to copyright protection when the selection and arrangement of the compilation is made in an original manner. However, copyright protection is limited to the original part of the editorial; it does not protect the underlying non-original elements. I have a different point of view. In the case of protecting one’s copyright, if it is limited to the editor’s original part only, then if it is a combination of both original content and non-original content, it will not be treated as plagiarism? To what extent does the law allow certain things to change in the face of litigation?
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.
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.
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!
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!
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
“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
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.
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.
A kinesiologist and personal trainer, Ashley is also the founder ofElevate 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!
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!
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 BodiiInstagram 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!
