Tag Archives: Posiel

Semester Reflections

Habits for Contentment Is a website that started as a hope I had for the semester. During the pandemic, I had been feeling everything but content, and I wanted to use this blog as an opportunity to build healthy habits into my life. This essay will cover why I created this blog, and what I have learned over the course of the semester.

What is it about and who is it for?

Habits for Contentment is all about building healthy habits into your everyday life. This is demonstrated through blog posts about thankfulness, generosity, staying active or building a morning routine. While this blog can be for anyone that is looking for ways to find peace during the pandemic, it is mainly for students who are also struggling through the hardships of completing a semester online.

One blog I have taken inspiration from is Andi Anne. She writes about nutrition, health, and messy stories from motherhood. I love this website because of its neutral tonal pallet and clean organization. She creates a sense of order in an occasionally chaotic cyberspace. In my website, I hope to use a similar sense of design and layout to engage with my audience. Check out her blog here.

Who is your public image?

The public image I am hoping to create is one that values vulnerability and honesty. One resource I used when I was first building my public image was Creating your Online Persona by Jack Canfield (n.d.). Canfield talks about how first you must decide who you are, then you can begin building your website and advancing your brand with content (n.d.). This article helped me to focus on understanding who I am as a writer and then decide what to post and how to present myself.

I want to use my blog posts to explore new ways of finding contentment in my life, but I do not want to paint an unrealistic picture of myself having a perfectly content life. I will share the success I have in running and painting, but I will also share my frustrations when I sleep through my alarm or cheat on my morning routine. I want to create a public image that is relatable, accessible, and joyful.  

Something I want to try and counter in my writing is the Online Disinhibition Effect which describes how when there is anonymity, people are more likely to shed their usual restraints or integrity (Konnikova, 2013). This can promote engagement and risk taking, but in my website, I want to promote honesty and vulnerability, so I hope to create a different style of engagement with my audience.

This infographic I created talks more deeply about the values of Habits for Contentment. The core values I want to represent through this blog are people centered, vulnerable, honest, and fun loving. Read more about my values here.

How are you addressing your audience through editorial, design, content?

Once I had decided on the purpose of my blog and the online image I wanted to portray, I put together a vision board to help guide my posts, design choice and voice. Take a look at my vision board here.

I want to capture a feeling in my vision board. I want readers to look at my website and feel a sigh of relief like when you take a refreshing walk outside or see a beautiful sunset. My goal is to create a blissful feeling throughout my entire blog.  On my homepage I do this by using a clean font and leaving lots of white space. Additionally, I have a picture of wildflowers as a banner on every page of my website to begin curating a feeling of refreshment and peace. My colour pallet has deep greens to symbolize trees with deep root and consistent growth and includes some light pinks to symbolize fun and curiosity.

This article published by Blogging Explorer discussed the importance of understanding your target audience and how to cater your content online (Mikke, 2020). Two points he made were about how your target audience will help you create better content, and have great post ideas (Mikke, 2020). Understanding your audience will help you to know their needs and desires, and understand what they might be looking for in their digital content. This will help to increase reader engagement and build my audience.

One blog post that highlights the purpose and design of my website is Being Thankful for Rain. In this blog post I wrote about how being thankful for the small things in your life can help you to get through hard days. Making thankfulness lists is one way I try to find contentment in my life and is reiterated throughout almost all my blog posts. The design of this post incorporates lots of white space separated by curated pictures that I took of a recent thankfulness list I had made. Being Thankful for Rain is a post that highlights the values of my blog and captures the design aesthetic I hope to maintain throughout my website.

What value are you providing and to whom?

My hope is that through these blog posts I can provide value by offering practical tips and advice on how to live with contentment and joy amidst a pandemic. Some blog posts that do this are 5 Reasons to Try Running and Morning Mishaps & Daily Routines. Both blog posts offer a glimpse into one habit I have tried to implement in my life, and some practical ways they could be applied to my readers lives. Both posts contain external research into how these habits have been proven to improve your health or decrease stress levels.

In the future, I may build monetizing features into my posts such as product promotions or specific collaborations with other bloggers, but these must be directly relevant to my core values and not be misleading to my readers.

What have you learned through Google Analytics?

Google Analytics has been a very fun tool to learn how people are interacting with my website. The most helpful thing I learned was that I had a very high bounce rate, meaning that people would quickly leave my website after visiting the first page. As I was investigating this, I noticed that my home page did not give the reader somewhere to go after reading the introduction. To address this, I linked some of my favourite blog posts to my home page, and my bounce rate has decreased by 15%. There is still lots to learn from Google Analytics, and I have so much to benefit from understanding my audience more and learning how people are interacting with my blog.

Blogging has been an incredible experience in learning about writing, creativity and finding contentment during a pandemic. I look forward to continuing this blog in the future and building my brand image.

Works Cited

Anne, A. (2020, December 02). Andi Anne: About. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://andianne.com/about/

Campbell, G. (2009). A Personal Cyberinfrastructure. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/9/a-personal-cyberinfrastructure

Canfield, J. (2019, November 26). Online Branding: 5 Steps to Create Your Online Persona. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://www.jackcanfield.com/blog/online-branding/

Konnikova, M. (2013). The Psychology of Online Comments. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments

Mikke. (2020, July 24). How to Find Your Blog Target Audience in 2020: The Ultimate Guide. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://bloggingexplorer.com/blog-target-audience/

Reflecting on my Experience as an Online Publisher

This website has gone through a lot of changes since September. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to share my work on a blog since I feel that I best express myself through writing. However, I had never created a website before, so I had to learn quickly. It has taken me a lot of research to figure out everything from changing fonts to using plugins, but I am finally satisfied with what I have.

Masked Retail has been my way of sharing my personal experiences working in a retail environment during the time of Covid-19. Since I started working in retail 2 ½ years ago, I noticed that I would leave every shift with a new story to tell. Through blogging, I have been able to unload some of my frustrations by sharing stories that combine the difficult parts of retail and the pandemic. There is a lot of misinformation that is spread by people who don’t believe in the pandemic or think that wearing a mask represents relinquishing freedom. Masked Retail is my way of countering that illogical narrative by supporting scientific evidence with real experiences in the hopes that people become more conscientious about the way they behave during this time.

Initially, I used this website to rant about how inconsiderate some customers are. After a few weeks, I started to recognize that my peers would be reading my posts and wanted to ensure that the content I provided would be useful to them. I started adding posts that offered advice, such as my post, “When Should I Shop?- Covid Holiday Edition” to help my readers stay safe (Masked Retail, 2020). Other than my peers, my imagined audience comes from a younger demographic looking to learn more about consumerism during the pandemic. Using Google Analytics, I came to the conclusion that the members of my audience are young (under 30 for the most part), which supports the idea that my audience is made up of people who may be experiencing similar things in their work environments. Through Google Analytics, I learned that while there are a lot of bots out there (I assume that I don’t have legitimate readers in China), there are people outside of this class who have viewed my work, including some legitimate viewers from the USA. I’ve learned that most of my audience comes to my page between 10am and 4pm between Tuesday and Friday, which gave me the idea of posting primarily during those days and times. I have also learned that linking back to my other posts when blogging keeps people on my site for longer, as they are inclined to click a link and see where it takes them.

In terms of editorial, I address my audience by being clear about the purposes of this site and by considering their thoughts and feelings when writing my posts. I am constantly aware of the fact that people will view this site, so I ensure that I make things as easy as possible for them. For example, I write all my posts in Microsoft Word so that I can spell-check my work prior to posting. The design of my site is centred around usability. To make my site easy for everybody to use, I use a grid layout for my posts, which includes a picture and an excerpt of the post. As the article “Should the Block Editor Have a Grid System?” points out, grid layouts are great for creating a clean, visually appealing page (Tadlock, 2020). I wanted something that was simple but structured, so this was a good choice for me. The menu and my posts are easy to access, and I have created ways for the audience to interact with me and the site. For instance, I have a contact page, I allow comments on posts, and I use a plugin to allow users to share my posts on social media. By doing so, I encourage my audience to get involved with Masked Retail. As described in the article, “Why We Need Social Paper”, a good public will create space for discourse that can continue even as the audience changes (Glass, 2015). Hopefully, I will have time to keep blogging even when the semester ends, and in doing so I will encourage new types of discourse with my ever-evolving audience. Overall, my content addresses the audience by answering questions that I would ask someone in my position.

I feel like the value Masked Retail provides is insight. Not many people get the opportunity to share their work experiences with the internet, and I am glad that I get to show what working in retail is like from all angles. I try to make relatable content and empathize with how people may be reacting to what is happening in the world. There are things included in my blog that I would never have thought about before I started working in retail. For example, I used to be shy and would never ask for or accept help from a retail employee. Looking back, I know that I had nothing to be afraid of, and I am more conscientious now with how I approach and treat retail workers when I am the customer. I hope that this blog does a similar thing for my readers by providing industry knowledge and tips for success during the time of Covid-19.

So far, I have not received any comments on my posts, so I cannot say that comments have really influenced me. Based on the article, “The Psychology of Online Comments”, I think that if I were to receive hate via an anonymous comment, I wouldn’t be too hurt (Konnikova, 2013) and I would simply delete the comment. Even if an anonymous comment were positive, I doubt I would be very affected because the sentiment of the comment seems less real without a name or face attached to it. Comments that are attached to a name would have a bigger impact on me, whether that be good or bad.

Prior to this class, I had a very outdated perception of what publication was. All that I really considered was book publication and notable companies. I never would have imagined that I could run my own publication from my computer! Now, I see that there are so many ways to be a publisher, and that there is no correct way that it must be done. Though the semester is ending soon, I am optimistic that I will continue to blog. This pandemic and my job are not going away anytime soon, so I am sure that I will have plenty of material to draw upon. Years from now, I would love to be able to look back at my posts and remember who I was and what I experienced in 2020. Ultimately, my hope is that even once the topic of Covid-19 is no longer relevant, I will be able to use the knowledge and skills learned in this course to establish some other online presence.

References

Masked Glass, E. (2015, December 11). Why We Need Social Paper. CUNY Academic Commons. Retrieved from https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/papers/45249/

Konnikova, M. (2013, October 23). The Psychology of Online Comments. The New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments

Masked Retail. (2020, November 10). When Should I Shop? – Covid Holiday Edition [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://maskedretail.com/blog/when-should-i-shop-covid-holiday-edition/

Tadlock, J. (2020, April 27). Should the Block Editor Have a Grid System? WordPress Tavern. Retrieved from https://wptavern.com/should-the-block-editor-have-a-grid-system

(Featured Image by Pepe Reyes on Unsplash)

Community Guidelines and Online Bullying

Community Guidelines for my Blog:

  • Be kind in the comments you post
  • Respect other perspectives and points of view that you may not agree with
  • Do not use hate speech
  • Do not bully or harass anyone in the comments section
  • Do not copy or use the content on this blog without permission
  • Do not pass off any content on this blog as your own

Please follow these guidelines on my blog. This is a safe space for everyone to access fun bookish content, and share their love of books. As a result, we do not want any negative comments or bullying to occur.

I have seen many cases when people have been bullied, cancelled, or harassed on the internet. This is very sad and should not be happening anymore, to the extent that it is right now. I, personally, have not had this problem with my blog or website, which I am very glad about. I know that social media is a common platform where this usually occurs, and have seen many people behave negatively on them. An example of this is on Instagram, people often find accounts who take their content, create fake profiles under different names, or post negative things about others. In these cases, it is always important to report bullying or harassment you see online. If you ever see bullying or harassment being done, make sure you report it, and spread awareness that this is happening. We live in a generation where screens are constantly within our reach, and technology is always being used within schools, worksites, and in our homes. As a result of this, it almost becomes impossible to escape the constant ongoing world of technology.

I have seen many people speak about social media breaks, and the benefits they have on people’s minds. Click here to visit an article explaining why social media breaks are necessary. Social media breaks help us focus on the present moments in front of us, as opposed to constantly texting or checking the news. With social media breaks, our minds are able to rest from staring at screens, we are able to spend more valuable time with our friends and/or family, and we can also achieve goals we have set for ourselves that do not include screen time. For example, I can only achieve my reading goals if I set my phone aside to pick up my book. Another example of this is gardening. So many people love to garden and spend time outside, but this cannot be possible if they are constantly on their phones or tablets.

It is important, especially in this generation, to spread awareness of the toxic effects technology can have on us, and to spread kindness as opposed to bullying online. One way to do this is by creating community guidelines, and I have posted community guidelines above, at the beginning of this post, for my blog.

Online Shaming, Cancel Culture, and Community Guidelines

This week’s lecture and assigned readings were particularly interesting to me because even though I have yet to witness the harm that online comments can have on my site, I have seen it happen to more people than I can count. While we may not know the people who use online comments to shame us, I imagine that the understanding that they are real people is quite disheartening to the person being shamed. Maria Konnikova’s article “The Psychology of Online Comments” highlights how we are unlikely to have our opinion changed by an anonymous comment. That makes plenty of sense to me- why would I listen to someone who is afraid to show themselves? But if they are not anonymous? If you can gain information about their life, their job, their family? It quickly becomes apparent that this person is so confident that they are right that they show themselves while in an argument against you. That must be one of the worst feelings in the world.

When watching Jon Ronson’s TED Talk, “When Online Shaming Spirals Out of Control”, I was instantly reminded of how “cancel culture” is currently used in society. Upon discussion with my classmates, what became clear is that some people can be “cancelled” and have their life ruined, while other can be “cancelled” for similar reasons and continue with their lives without consequences. The middle-class women mentioned in Ronson’s speech were destroyed by the online scrutiny they received. But people in positions of privilege, white men in particular, can go about their days as if nothing happened. The example of Chris Pratt that my peer discussed was a perfect example of this. In the future, I plan to be more critical in analyzing the way cancel culture presents itself to different types of people, and I hope you do too!

I think it is important to remember that we all make mistakes, and that by nature of the internet, more of these mistakes get displayed publicly. I think that by cancelling people for little mistakes, we are responsible for criminalizing mistakes that could be undone with a little help. Obviously, there are some people that should stay away when they are cancelled. Like, we don’t need to hear any sympathy pleas from Harvey Weinstein. I’m talking about the people who are open to self-reflection and respond to feedback from others. If you can own up to your mistakes and make amends to the people you harmed, shouldn’t you be forgiven? Growth comes from learning from mistakes, and if we don’t let people come back from mistakes, how many “good” people will remain? We need allies in the fight against the patriarchy, racism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, etc., and the way to obtain these allies is through teaching, not shaming.

In saying all of this, it’s inevitable that I recognize the benefit of having Community Guidelines on my site. That being said, I have yet to receive a comment or email on Masked Retail. My thought is that if I find that I can continue posting here during the next semester, even though I won’t be in a Publishing class (☹), I will implement these guidelines. Given where I’m currently at, though, it does not seem necessary to do this right away.

(Featured Image by Crawford Jolly on Unsplash)

Working on Black Friday… Was Surprisingly Okay?

Last week, I posted a gif on this site that summarized how terrible I expected Black Friday to be as a retail worker. This was my third Black Friday working at my retail store, and in previous years it was SO BUSY. I would come home after those shifts and sleep for 12 hours just to let my body recover from the insanity.

Even with the Covid-19 pandemic this year, I still expected Black Friday to be busy. This past summer, we would have long lineups of people waiting to get into our store, so I expected that Black Friday would be even worse. Despite the rising Covid cases in BC, my faith that people would stay home this year was pretty low.

Well, I guess I was wrong! My store did not have people lining up to come inside. It was maybe a little bit busier than the average weekend, but not by a lot. At first, I wondered if only my store had been affected by this, but when looking at other stores in the mall, it seems like we were all in the same situation.

I would love to think that this is all related to people finally realizing that they should stay home when possible, but I feel like there is another factor at play. Black Friday is not so much a day as it is a week. Most stores, mine included, have Black Friday deals going for several days, and don’t necessarily provide an additional discount on the Friday as opposed to Saturday or Sunday. If consumers have begun to realize this, it could be another reason why it wasn’t so busy on Friday- perhaps people are spreading out and shopping on different days. Whatever the case, I am glad that we were able to provide a safe shopping experience and that I only needed to sleep for 10 hours to recover from this year’s Black Friday😉

(Featured Image by Markus Spiske on Unsplash)

Week 12 – Diving into the Deep End of Comments

The comments section can be a nasty place.

We learned early on about the online disinhibition effect, which implies that anonymity may allow one to shed their usual restraints or integrity. This means that you may say something you wouldn’t normally or engage in a conversation you would usually avoid because no one actually knows who you are.

This is easily facilitated throughout comment sections that allow people to post anonymously. An article from the New Yorker discusses how comments are often uncivil because there are no consequences for your words. Posting anonymously allows you to say whatever you want and then hide away and pretend it never happened.

“Without the traditional trappings of personal communication, like non-verbal cues, context, and tone, comments can become overly impersonal and cold.”

Maria Konnikova

This article also notes that anonymity is not always bad, but it can promote engagement, risk taking and creativity. Konnikova discusses how people may be more likely to participate in a conversation.

Another article posted by the Guardian talked about who faces the most abuse online. This article showed data revealing that women, people of faith, or members of the LGBTQ+ community received the most abusive comments.

I have often left comments on friend’s posts, or community events, but I often leave this section alone because of all the hate and abuse that can occur. It hurts my heart to see the words people post when they are protected by the anonymity of their computer screen.

But can these interactions be turned into something good?

We watched a Ted Talk in class from Dylan Marron that showed how negative comments could be turned into positive interactions. He has received tons of internet hate from the videos he has created, and he decided that he would call them to try and regain the humanity behind their comment.

A lot of these phone calls went really well, and Marron was able to prompt commentors to think before they post. The most impactful thing he said was that empathy is not endorsement. We can disagree with someone but still try and understand their viewpoint.

“Empathy is not endorsement.”

Dylan Marron

This is so needed today. There is so much hate and division between people with different political or cultural views.

Empathy allows us to extend understanding to the people around us.

Empathy allows us to realize that we all have different upbringings, relationships with our parents, and histories of abuse.

Empathy allows us to see the human in the person before us and take a moment to understand before jumping into hate.

There are people behind every post. Extend empathy before posting cruel messages or a critical comments.

Enjoy the sunshine today friends 😊

Mini Assignment #6 – Gif

Friends! We’re almost at the end of the semester!!

Online school has been a roller coaster. There have definitely been fun moments, but I think we’ll all be feeling a bit of relief once we can finally close our computers and get ready for Christmas.

One day at a time.

Week 11 – Time for a COVID style rant.

It’s time for a COVID style rant.

I have been trying to maintain positivity throughout the semester and see the benefits that have only happened because of this pandemic, but really, everything has sucked just a little bit more than usual.

Last week I was starting to feel particularly drained from school, life, and being stuck at home. On Wednesday I was called into work in person, which was surprisingly so wonderful! I had not realized how much I was missing casual interaction with people until I saw my coworkers and was instantly in a better mood.

I am extraverted, which means I replenish my energy by being around people, but I did not realize how true this was until we had our second lockdown and I noticed myself getting more and more tired and sad. I couldn’t identify what was going on until I had some work interactions and I felt energy again!

How strange is it that now talking to strangers is almost frowned upon, and having people over is banned. This is such a contrast to the start of our semester where we discussed the mental health benefits of talking to strangers and filling your day with small positive moments.

I have really appreciated this class, but I miss classmates.

I have loved the creative outlet of blogging, but I miss personal feedback.

I have learned through zoom calls, but I miss the easy interactions of being in a classroom.

Needless to say it’s been a challenging semester, but a growing one nonetheless. I am so looking forward to the time when we can talk about having to stay six feet apart from each other as just a distant memory.

How Clean are the Products in Retail Stores?

Yesterday, I was asked a question by a customer that prompted this post. The customer showed me a product from the sales floor and asked if I could bring her the same item but from the back room. I told her that unfortunately this was the very last one of these items that we have. Her complaint was that since it was on the sales floor, she figured that many people would have touched it already. This was really funny to me, considering she had been touching all sorts of products and was planning on purchasing several other items. At this point, I had to bite my tongue and just apologize for the inconvenience.

What I really wanted to say was that customers touch everything. I can almost guarantee that all the items on the sales floor have been recently touched by a customer. Sure, we don’t have our fitting rooms open, but that doesn’t mean that people don’t still feel the material of a shirt or hold up a pair of pants against their body. Hopefully, these people are following protocols and keep their hands clean, but that is impossible for us as a company to guarantee.

If you go into a store and find yourself touching products that you don’t end up buying, you should assume that others have done the same.

It’s just so ironic to me that the people who complain about this are also contributing to the problem. If you are worried about other people touching your products, why on earth would you go to a mall? Online shopping exists- try utilizing it. Finally, if you are buying something from a store, you should absolutely assume that someone else has touched it and you should wash it when you get home and/or quarantine it for a bit.

(Featured Image by Becca McHaffie on Unsplash)

Reading Online vs Physical Copies

Many people read online, these days, whether this includes ebooks, blogs, company websites, or news. Due to the difficulty and effect of screens on our eyes, we often read at a slightly slower pace on screens. Reading online can have many benefits. Some of these benefits include: being easier to read, with photos being featured on the internet, being more accessible, and being easy to carry around. When we scroll through a story or website, it is not necessary to look at every detail on the website, but instead we are able to quickly scan the page for anything we may find interesting or stop at certain information that catches our attention. Many people are able to scroll quickly through a website, and stop suddenly to read a section because they saw a phrase or image that interests them. I used to do this all the time when I was looking through the TV guides. I would flip through the pages very fast, and stop when I saw the title of a show I liked. This is one of the key benefits of reading on the internet. Another way people are able to do this is by searching for specific words on a page. For example, if someone is on the page of a long news story, and they are looking for a certain section, with the knowledge of one word or phrase in that section, they can search for it by clicking *command F. The page would quickly show them everywhere that word or phrase is used in that news article.

While there are so many benefits to reading online, there are also many benefits to reading a physical copy of things. These benefits include: it puts less strain on your eyes, it allows you to physically write on the document, newspaper, or book, and you can also organize your papers easily in a folder. Reading formats always depend on the type of person you are, and your preferences, but there are always pros and cons to consider for each format. Personally, I love to read physical copies, but if a book or document is not available to me in a physical copy it is very helpful to have it on a tablet instead. When we read physical copies, we also most often read everything on a page, so that we don’t miss anything important, while people who scan through online pages may miss key information that they did not see.

Overall, I think it is helpful to have both options, but I prefer physical copies of papers and books. While scrolling through online information, it is very helpful to have fun colours, links, and photos in a website because they catch viewers’ attention very quickly. These are most often the things that cause people to stop scrolling to check what it says.

Behind the Scenes with Google Analytics

Given that this site is still new, I came into this guessing that there wouldn’t be that many people reading by blog, and that most of the views would be from people in my class. So, I was pleasantly surprised with what I found with Google Analytics.

In the last week, I have had 6 users visit my blog over 9 sessions, which is less than previous weeks. While at first that looks discouraging, I am also keeping in mind that there was no peer review in the last week, so my numbers would have gone down from the week when more people would have had to visit my site. In addition, I assume that fewer of my classmates have time to browse sites as the semester gets really busy. However, I am super happy with my bounce rate! When I checked this last week, my bounce rate was 52.7% and I wanted to lower that. I can’t believe that my bounce rate went down to 11.11%! This shows that the people who are seeing my site are viewing many parts of it, so I will call this a definite win!

I am not surprised by the ages of the people visiting; I expected most of my audience to be young (especially since may are my classmates), though I am happy to see that I’ve managed to attract people from all age categories!

I was surprised to see that I’ve had viewers from outside Canada. I’m guessing that it is mostly bots (it seems unrealistic that 9 people in China care about my blog), but I am hopeful that some of the viewers from the United States are legitimate people!

Finally, I am happy to see that I am attracting more new visitors while also having some people who keep coming back for more!

There is so much more that I could get into, but those are some of the important things that I noticed!

(Featured Image by Ricardo Resende on Unsplash)

Fighting Fear in Fear Obsessed Media

Let’s talk about fear.

COVID has been a scary thing hasn’t it? I was reading a friend’s post online about how this pandemic has been a shared traumatic experience and this is consciously and subconsciously affecting all of us.

Recently I’ve been feeling discouraged. I’ve been feeling like things are continually getting more bleak and less joyful. Maybe it’s because of the rain or the shorter days, but I think it’s also due to the underlying fear a lot of us are feeling with the looming numbers of COVID-19.

So how do we deal with fear? Do we run away and pretend it’s not there? Do we get angry and blame the people around us? Or do we confront it and try to find what’s really going on within our soul?

This podcast from Bridgetown Church features Tristen Collins, a therapist in Portland, Oregon, and she talks about how fear can often hinder us from living a life that is free and filled with joy. Take a listen to hear Tristen’s definition of fear, what fear looks like in different individuals, and how we can address the fear in our lives.

Tristen Collins shares about fear and learning from our emotions.

This presents a Christian perspective on fear and how God views emotions, but it also presents practical advice on how to address our fear and begin moving past it.

Throughout the podcast, Tristen reminds us that all of our emotions are good and valid, even though not all of them feel nice. She quotes Mr. Rogers who said, ‘There’s no should or should not when it comes to having feelings. They are part of who we are, and their origins are beyond our control.”

Tristen emphasizes that all our feelings are valuable, and what we do with them will affect the rest of our lives.

There’s no should or should not when it comes to having feelings. They are a part of who we are and their origins are beyond our control.

Mr. Rogers

I hope this podcast brings you peace today and reminds you that there is healing from the pain we are currently feeling.

Keep journeying on friends 😊

GIF Assignment

I initially had no idea how to make a gif, but Giphy.com made it fairly simple. I wanted to create something that represented how I am feeling given that Black Friday is in 3 DAYS and will likely be an absolute nightmare for me as a retail worker.

I wanted to make something that looked sort of ominous while still being funny, which is why I used a sort of blurred filter and static sort of effect on the words. The original clip is from Glee, and I accessed the clip from here.

(Featured Image by Markus Spiske on Unsplash)

Let’s Do The BC Mask Mandate Right

Just yesterday, Dr. Bonnie Henry announced new regulations to slow the spread of Covid-19, one regulation being that masks must be worn in indoor public spaces and retail stores. You can read more about the new regulations here.

THANK GOODNESS!

I feel like this is long overdue, so I am so relieved that this mandate is finally being implemented. While my store already had a mandatory mask policy, these government regulations will help us by showing that we were in the right all along. Some customers would complain that we didn’t need a mask mandate in our store if the government hadn’t deemed it necessary. Hopefully, those people will shut up now!

Now, if only people would learn how to wear a mask properly…

At my store, I’ve seen all the incorrect ways to wear a mask: not covering the nose, not covering the mouth, hanging off the ear, sitting only on the chin, etc. It’s really not that hard to wear a mask correctly. If your mask keeps slipping off your nose, buy a new one; seeing as we are over 8 months into the pandemic, you’ve had plenty of time to get a mask that fits. Also, you don’t need to take off your mask to take a phone call. You’re still in a store with other people, so be respectful and always keep your mask on.

One other note that I’ll make is that mask use, while being very important, is not 100% effective. Please continue to physically distance from others. I’ve noticed that more and more customers come way too close to me, almost as if they think that wearing a mask allows them to disregard the 2-metre distance between us. PLEASE keep your distance even when you wear a mask- combining these two methods is essential to keeping you and others safe.

(Featured Image by Cory Checketts on Unsplash)

Week 10 – Analytics & Friendship with Google

Holy, I cannot believe how fast the semester is going!

I was reflecting on my first process posts this week, and all the fumbling I did initially with Word Press. I started to feel oddly nostalgic about the beginning of this website and how far it has come. It has been so fun to grow in writing, aesthetic, and overall vision.

This week we talked about Google Analytics and SEO. Woah.

Google Analytics has been a really fun tool to experiment and learn with. It was great to have the demonstration in class walk us through some of the more complicated information that is collected through Analytics.

One important thing I noticed is that my bounce rate is quite high at 70%. This means that users are not usually staying on my blog long enough to view content or enjoy the media. I clicked on my homepage to investigate, and I noticed that while my home page is colourful and well organized, it may not be leading viewers into the right area of content. After reading through the welcome message, there is no clear direction for the user to go.

This was confirmed when I looked at the flow of behaviour of users. Most users started on the home page, and then about 50% dropped off after their first interaction. I could decrease my bounce rate by increasing engagement at my home page and directing user flow.

I am going to improve this by updating my home page with a more active vibe, linking users to content and posts that they may be interested in. This way, users will have a clear direction of what they should look at after being introduced to my website.

I am looking forward to seeing how these small changes may affect the way users interact with my blog!

Life Update -> Engagement!!!!!!

Crazy news: I got engaged this weekend!

Okay real talk. I have been so distracted this week by thinking about wedding things, how COVID will affect things, and just general JOY that I have not really been able to get any school work done, so I thought for this next blog post I would write a little bit about what happened and what’s next!

A couple of weeks ago, my boyfriend (Jeremiah) and I drove up to Whistler to hike and enjoy the outdoors. It was a great time, but when we got home I realized I had left my purse in a café we stopped at during the day.

My whole purse. Wallet. Keys. ID. I was freaking out.

Thankfully, we had been planning to spend some time together that following Friday, so we decided we would just drive back up there, get my purse and enjoy the snow.

Meanwhile, Jeremiah was out buying champagne, tuxedo cake and wrapping a decoy gift in preparation of proposing!

The funny thing was he told me he was doing all of these things, so I just thought he was trying to cheer me up and plan a fun date. I had no idea what was coming.

Friday arrives: We both work in the morning and then head out around 2pm to retrieve my purse! Thankfully the shop owner has contacted me and let me know we could come pick it up. That was the biggest relief!

Our mission was complete and it was still quite early in the day, so Jeremiah suggests we go play in the snow! Why not? We are in Whistler after all.

We drive up to this lake we had been to before and there is so much snow! We put on our warmest clothes, grab the champagne and head outside!

We find a spot to sit, and Jeremiah pops the champagne and pours it into some glasses. He sets it up fancy and then tells me we need to take a picture to capture the moment. It’s dark by this point, so he asks me to stand in this spot and shine a light so we can get a good shot. At this moment I stand up, thinking he’s being a little bit silly, and then he gets down on one knee, and asks me to marry him!

The picture from right before he proposed!

Okay. At this point I thought I would be so smooth and graceful. But in reality I was surprised and awkward, but so so thrilled! I fumbled out a yes and here we are!

The week following has been really funny. We are trying to let all our friends know while abiding by COVID guidelines and it’s all been a funny combination of excitement, anticipation and stress.

With all of that being said, this is good news.

I didn’t want to share this story to paint a picture of my beautiful life and distort reality, but I wanted to share some good news in the face of a world that seems to only generate bad news.

Our relationship has been far from perfect. I am constantly freaking out and making mistakes, and we are constantly learning to forgive and understand one another. Each day is a journey that we are taking toward creating a healthy relationship.

I hope this post brought you a little bit of joy today. And if the world is making you feel overwhelmed and afraid, I would like to leave you with some wise words from Abraham Lincoln:

This too shall pass.

(Onward to Pinterest boards and wedding planning!)