Tag Archives: Posiel

Colouring Clothes

For this week, I followed a patreon tutorial on how to colour in clothes. I noticed during my Arcane art style study, one of my biggest weaknesses was colouring in clothes and making sure that the texture was appropriate for the attire.

Therefore, I decided to go back to an old patreon tutorial that detailed how to colour clothes and apply the right textures ste-by-step. I found that the process of picking colours for the shadows and illuminated parts are slightly different than the colouring process for other objects. Usually, when picking colours for the shaded areas, I would adjust to a completely different hue in order to ensure that the right shade is chosen depending on the environment that dictates the colours. However, for clothes, I would only ever need adjust the shade within the hue to find the right colours. I don’t know exactly why but the artist who stated that during the patreon tutorial stated that this was true and I think the results back up that claim so I am not going to question that. I’m too tired to be asking why it works, I just see that it works and that the process for choosing the colours is simple.

At the end of the colouring tutorial, I felt more confident in my abilities to colour in clothes. So that’s a win.

Colouring Clothes study/tutorial
Clothing colouring tutorial

Arcane Artstyle Study

For this week, I decided to do an art style study on one of my favourite T.V. shows of all time, Arcane. Ever since this show came out in November of 2021, I have completely been enamoured by the art style as it was something so unique. The only animated films of recent memory that had an animation style so unique that could be comparable to Arcane were ‘The Lego Movie” from 2014 and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” from 2018. While both of these movies excelled in their animation in their own ways, I would place Arcane above all of them. Arcane somehow captured all the subtle nuances when it comes to the emotional expressions from the characters. From the eyes twitching to the eyebrows furrowing, these subtle nuances helped make the characters feel more real and believable, as if they were actually alive.

Anyways, that’s enough gushing about the show. I could go on but I wouldn’t want to subject you to that kind of boredom.

I decided to do a painting of a shot of one of favourite characters from the show, Jinx. This piece took me over 8 hours to complete which was a little more than average. What took me the longest was figuring out the lighting and textures on the skin and clothes. It took me a while to find the right colours to match the ambience of the scene.

I think doing one of these studies has allowed for me to appreciate the art style more. While doing this art style study, I picked a lot of little details that I have missed in my initial binge of the series such as the textures on the clothes, the texture of the hair, and the lighting. Now looking back at scenes and noticing these details, I can appreciate the amount of care and details that went into each frame.

Jinx - Arcane Art Style Study
Arcane art style study

Mini-Assignment #5: An Infographic About Me

[Original Post Date: 11/15/22]

For this mini-assignment, we were tasked to design an infographic that summarizes one’s online self. Therefore, I decided to visualize my levels of stress throughout the entire Fall semester of 2022 in the form of a bar graph.

As you can see, the amount of stress sky-rocketed above 100% from mid-November to early December due to the number of assignments, projects, and deadlines. And I think it’s still going up. 🙁

Line graph that showcases the level of stress (in percentage) over the months of August to December

This Isn’t Goodbye

As we come to the end of the semester and POSIEL, I find myself reflecting on the course and everything I have learned. Firstly, I want to say that I had a lot of fun, both in the class and doing my weekly public posts and assignments. This class was definitely the most enjoyable class...

Regarding the Importance of Rest and Community

The End

This site was created as part of a class at Simon Fraser University titled, Publication of Self in Everyday Life. 

As part of the class, we were required to develop one post a week about the process of creating our website. The teaching team supported the course in this endeavour, by providing materials to reference and prompts to adhere to. In the course, we referred to these posts as “process posts”; each and every post on this website that has the word regarding in the title is a “process post.”

This post is the final “process post” that will be created for the class.

Unfortunately, I was sick for last week’s lecture and unable to make it, however, I do know that the lecture was about community and am able to access the readings and slides from the course. Subsequently, this final process post is going to be about the importance of rest and community. 

Rest

Last week, I fell sick. 

When I was sick, I came across a Linkedin post by TED Conferences which made the point “by doing nothing, you are actually being your most productive and creative self. It might feel weird and uncomfortable at first, but boredom truly can lead to brilliance.”

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What the post explained, is the value that you receive when you take time to sit with your ideas. It explained that when you take time to do nothing, you are allowing your brain to process all the information from your life so that you can spend time daydreaming and realizing your aspirations in life.


Truthfully, over the course of the semester, I cannot help but feel that I have spent too little time doing that. 

However, it makes sense. Just see my post 30 Minutes: Working a 99 Hour Work Week. Since making that post, I did experience a period of severe burnout but thankfully recovered quickly after having a few days of rest. 

When I was sick last week, I had the opportunity to spend some time reflecting on my life, and as a result, I honestly feel much more in tune and aligned with myself than before I was sick. 

Ironically, having no rest is what truly has allowed me to realize the value that rest does provide.

Community

On the internet, there are communities, that would not exist if it were not for the internet. 

One such community that I am incredibly thankful to have participated in is Lookout Landing, a Mariners fan site, with an incredibly loyal audience and fun community. 

I found the site sometime in 2016 and have ever since been a follower of the site. In fact, almost every morning one of the first things that I do is take a look at posts which the site calls Moose Tracks. Moose Tracks are daily posts that share links to news around baseball. However, the content of the posts themselves are only a small part of the Lookout Landing experience, the comments below each post is where you actually get the opportunity to engage and talk to individuals in the lookout landing community. Typically Moose Track posts have around 300 comments per day, and if something big in baseball happens you can guarantee that these posts will have 500+ comments. 

Although based off my initial explanation it may not seem this way, Moose Tracks are actually only a small part of what makes Lookout Landing what it is. The staff of the site also posts game recaps, game threads (for discussion), game charts, analysis, creative writing pieces and more. All content based around the Seattle Mariners. 

Although I myself rarely comment and am a bit more of a lurker, I still feel very much a part of this community and it has helped fuel my Mariners fandom.

Lookout Landing most certainly is my favourite online community, they have a fantastic audience, great policy, and even better writers. 

If you are at all interested in the Seattle Mariners, I highly recommend checking out some of the posts on the site.

The Secret to Maintaining Energy and Creating Great Products

We are a product of the people around us. 

This is a fact. Simply start hanging around a different group of people and evaluate your speech pattern before and after. It will change. 

People around you also influence how you think of and view yourself as a person. A lot of the time, the people around you will either provide you with energy or drain you of it.

Community is key to shaping who we are and providing us with energy to move forward.

We are a product of the decisions we make.

The decisions we make, forge the path that we take and subsequently shape the history and future of our lives. When we do one thing, it will close some doors and open others. 

Oftentimes, the decisions we make are impulsive. When we are well-rested and aligned with who we truly are as people, these impulsive decisions can be effective. However, when we are tired and in dire need of rest, we often make poor and sloppy decisions.

Rest is critical to the decisions we make.

It should also be noted that we all have the opportunity to choose who it is that we spend time with. Rest enables us to choose the right communities for us to be a part of.

To maintain energy, be our best selves, and subsequently make great things, it is critical we are well rested and engaged with the right communities.

References

Zomorodi, M. (2022). By doing nothing, you are actually being your most productive. Ted Conferences. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ted-conferences_by-doing-nothing-you-are-actually-being-activity-7003032527359672321-dEjR/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop 

Mini Assignment #4

The Mini Assignment called for us to remix something. In order to achieve this I used Dall-E, the AI art generator, and experimented with creating iterations of images through multiple prompts that I felt were related to the content of Kafe Corrective. For the first iteration I used the phrase: An oil painting of a person stress baking. Resulting Images: For the second iteration, I slightly changed the the used phrase to: An oil painting of a person stress baking while ranting. Resulting Images: For the third iteration I decided to add the phrase “digital art”, as Dall-E kept recommending the addition of the phrase for higher quality images: An oil painting of a person stress baking, digital art Resulting Images: My experience with using Dall-E overall was very entertaining. The program generates four images based on the prompt entered into the prompt bar. For all my prompts I decided to stick with oil painting as the style, just as I like the look of a painting rather than a more realistic image. Something that surprised me was the speed and quality of images generated. Typically each round of iterations only took about thirty seconds to generate, and all images resulted in cohesive art pieces that clearly convey their respective prompt. Another thing intriguing about the AI technology is it’s ability to incorporate certain societal nuances when generating pieces. For instance, a majority of the artworks came back with female subjects, when the gender was not actually specified within the prompt. Through using Dall-E to create these remixed images, it was interesting to see the capabilities and quality of artificial intelligence generated artwork.

Why Deep Fakes Are Both Amazing and Terrifying

[Original Post Date: 11/1/22]

In one of the readings titled ‘Here’s How Worried You Should Be About Those Tom Cruise Deepfakes’, Vice News author David Gilbert writes about a viral video on Twitter of a guy imitating Tom Cruise. However this video doesn’t just showcase some guy doing some half-assed impression of Tom Cruise by exuding his mannerisms and voice. The guy doing the impression is using AI technology to place Tom Cruise’s face on his. This type of process is called a ‘deep fake’. What the AI is essentially doing is mapping out Tom Cruise’s face using either the images that are given to it by the user or scanning the internet (cause there’s a lot of pictures of Tom Cruise’s face on the internet) while simultaneously scanning the face that its going to place Tom Cruise face on. The images that are being scanned look for details involved whenever one person is expressing a certain emotion (think of wrinkles around the eyes when one is genuinely smiling) and banking that information. Therefore, when the original face is expressing an emotion, the AI knows what details to place and for the most part, it does a pretty good job.

I think this type of technology is interesting but certainly terrifying. In this day in age where misinformation and disinformation spreads quickly across social media platforms, this type of technology can cause chaos and panic. Anyone with the knowledge and capacity to use deepfakes can essentially imitate anyone, especially people with power such as politicians. Furthermore, if that person has the same body type and hairstyle as the person they are imitating, deep fakes would be even harder to spot. With deep fakes now, people would know what is a deep fake if they know what they are looking for but with average viewers, they may not be able to tell. With AI getting better with each day that passes, it is going to be difficulty for both average and knowledgeable viewers to determine what is real or fake.

Review of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

It has taken me a while to write a review of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) because I find myself getting stuck on what I want to say. I watched the film opening day on November 11, and instantly thought it was such a deep and culturally impactful film. Most times I can formulate my thoughts on a movie and convey them with ease. However, with Wakanda Forever, there is an immense number of layers and weight that surround the film as a whole.

Being a sequel to the critically acclaimed Black Panther (2016), the movie needs to effectively build on the last film and evolve the world of Wakanda and its lively characters, while also managing to live up to the massive expectation put in place by the last installment.

Furthermore, Wakanda Forever must also fit within the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe, that has started to become more and more critiqued post Avengers: Endgame (2019). Most fans seem to be unsatisfied with many of the newer MCU films and television series. While I agree with many of the critiques regarding the MCU formula growing stagnant and stale, I find many of these people who are critiquing Phase 4 of the MCU to perpetuate hateful ideologies. For instance, it seems many of these “fans” that hate She-Hulk (2022) and Ms. Marvel (2022) are actually just toxic men who are irrationally angry and criticize the show for baseless reasons. This increase in toxicity within the MCU fandom discourse has bleed into Wakanda Forever. Much of this toxic hate stems from problematic views surrounding underrepresented minority groups such as the LGBTQIA2S+ community, women, and people of colour. Therefore, a film like Wakanda Forever, that prominently features each of these communities will be targeted with unwarranted hate.

Additionally, amid the challenges COVID-19 presented to the film industry, Wakanda Forever also had to navigate through controversy surrounding lead actress Letitia Wright’s alleged anti-vax position.

And finally, the heartbreaking passing of Chadwick Boseman who played King T’Challa, the Black Panther deeply impacted the production of this film. Originally, the movie was written around Boseman and his depiction of the Black Panther. But, after Boseman’s tragic death, Ryan Coogler, the writer and director of Wakanda Forever had to completely rework the film to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman, and address the absence of T’Challa from the story.

Personally, all these factors wrapped Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) in layers of complications that had me worried. However, I am greatly happy to say that this film not only lives up to the first film, but in my opinion surpasses it.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) is able to achieve this by continuing to explore many of the themes that underlie Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Most, if not all of Phase 4 has been touching on the grief that many characters possess because of the personal losses they experience (ie: Wanda Maximoff in WandaVision, Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home), the pressure a superhero legacy inflicts on the individual (ie: Sam Wilson in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), and shared trauma within a community (ie: Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk). Wakanda Forever, thematically explores each of these elements. This is on display in the profound conversations the main antagonist Namor, played by Tenoch Huerta MejĂ­a has with other characters. Namor can serve as a foil to our heroes while also challenging their beliefs around grief, legacy, and shared trauma, which solidifies him as one of the best antagonists in an MCU film. This exploration of themes the MCU explored in Phase 4 makes Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) a beautiful conclusion to this chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This film also features some of the most breathtaking visuals and settings in the MCU. Since audiences were introduced to Wakanda in the first movie, it has gone on to become an important cultural moment in film history. Practically everyone knows the “Wakanda Forever” salute. And many people can now recognize the iconography of Wakanda. With all this in mind, it was absolutely amazing to witness the sequel able to effectively deepen audiences’ connection to Wakanda by exploring more of their culture. Moreover, this film introduces a whole separate culture with the underwater kingdom of Talokan, and their radical leader Namor. Their society and culture are given an immense amount of development which strengthens these two warring nations conflict.

This film was essentially a tribute to Chadwick Boseman, and the palpable sense of loss the black community, MCU fans, and his friends and family experienced. Therefore, the cast had to provide some of the most powerful performances I have ever seen. The character interaction between Letitia Wright as Princess Shuri, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, Tenoch Huerta MejĂ­a as Namor, and Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda were all massive highlights.

Overall, the film was brilliant! Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) had the impossible task of making a movie that could live up to the legacy of Chadwick Boseman. I personally thought that the cast and crew did a fantastic job, and I loved every second of the movie.

Design Critiques on YouTube

[Original Post Date: 10/25/22]

Link to Website: https://www.youtube.com/

After learning about best design practices from our guest presenter, Mauvé Page, I decided to take her lessons and conduct a small design evaluation on a website.

Therefore, I decided to do a quick basic design evaluation on YouTube’s user interface as it is a website I frequent.

Screenshot of YouTube's homepage
Screenshot of YouTube’s Homepage

I first took a look at the contrast and saw that YouTube uses a dark grey background with light grey for all of the text elements. The contrast between the background and the text makes it so that viewers will have an easier time reading the necessary information related to the video at a quick glance.

An example would be as shown within the video underneath where the text elements denote the information of the video such as the title, the uploader, the number of views, and when it was uploaded. Viewers would be able to quickly glance at the text and discern the information being conveyed easily.

Furthermore, the font weight chosen helps establish a hierarchical order. Thicker font weights call for more attention than thinner font weights as they take up more space and are wider, creating more contrast with the background than thinner font weights. Therefore, using thicker weights for the title elements I think was a smart choice by the design team at YouTube. It also helps me discern which text element I should read first, which was the title of the video. For the rest of the test elements, a thinner font weight was used throughout, thus establishing the order to be read from top to bottom.

To add to that, close proximity was used effectively with all of the elements of the video including the images. Due to how all of the elements could be defined in one square, the images and the text elements are associated as one item on YouTube’s homepage. None of the text elements or images overflowed into other video items, thereby eliminating potential confusion as to what text elements belong to what video item.

Screenshot of Markiplier's video titled 'drowning... | RAFT"
Screenshot of Markiplier’s video titled ‘drowning
 | RAFT”

Community Guidelines

Community Guidelines

I have decided to enable comments on my site. However, please be respectful with all your comments. I will reserve the right to delete the following types of comments:

 

  • Comments that use slurs
  • Comments that threaten me or any other person
  • Comments that are blatantly racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, or transphobic
  • Comments that are completely irrelevant to the topic
  • Spam 
  • Hate speech or any content that advocates for violence

If you violate any of the above, your comment will be deleted, and you will be blocked from commenting again. 

 

If you have any questions about the comment section, please email me at selawa@sfu.ca.


However, if you have a different opinion on a topic than me, please feel free to voice it in the comment section. I am not a trained doctor, psychologist, dietitian, or personal trainer, so if you have expertise in any of those areas, I would especially love to hear your feedback. I want this website’s comment section to be a place for open dialogue where we can all learn from one another.  

Guidelines for Comments.

When I think about a comment section on social media, I immediately think toxic. I think about the no-filter responses people give without any thought of repercussions.

Comment sections can be detrimental to some individuals’ mental health and well-being. Comments can be utilized to tear people down and isolate them.

In my opinion, over the years people have become more aware of the issues regarding the comment sections on differnt social media platforms. Although people have become more aware, the problem is still exists.

For example, when I was in middle school and high school there was a social media platform called ASKfm. ASKfm was an online platform where people could anonymously ask other people questions or leave comments on their pages. ASKfm was used to create cruel rating systems of peopel and to anonymously leave hateful comments.

From a greater perspective, the whole idea sounds harmless. However, in application, it was horrible.

Trying to navigate middle school alone is a challenging time, but adding social media bullying to the mix, made it a struggle.

The whole idea that people exude hate on the internet is exhausting. The more ideas of comments, the more I think of differnt social media platforms. For instance, I think of the early days of Instagram, where people would post and rate each others pictures and posts. For example, people would rate a photo out of 10 on how “attractive” someone looked in a photo. 

Social media comments are not built for success. 

When I think about Lyz’s (2022) story, I can understand and support why she would make those comments. Living in the world of social media platforms is difficult. Comments are a free space where people can comment whatever they feel.

The one slightly good perspective of comments is the opportunity to share information. For example, sharing recommendations for places to go, or commenting on where someone purchased a item. Therefore, using the comments as a place to distribute information.

On certain platforms, the idea of negative toxic comments is highly unlikely. To some extent, I believe trolls and scammers are not be looking at unpopular websites or media. Trolls and and scammers are more likely to spend time on platforms that generate more attention. 

For my website, I choose to have the comment section available. Based on my posts and the platform I created, I believe the idea of negative comment curating is low. Of course, if someone were to comment anything hurtful or toxic towards someone else, I would address it and remove it. For right now, I don’t think my website needs the comment section removed.

References 

Lyz. (2022, February 2). That’s how it works when you’re a woman on the internet. That’s How It Works When You’re a Woman on the Internet. Retrieved from https://lyz.substack.com/p/thats-how-it-works-when-youre-a-woman?s=r 

In Summation

Process Post 12

Throughout the entirety of this course, I feel as though I have been very lucky to get to work on a passion project of mine while also working towards a potential future career. I’ve enjoyed the process of getting to sit down and actually write out these posts, though it took me a while to get into the swing of things. You never really realize how much work goes into something until you actually give it a shot yourself. I certainly have a newfound appreciation for all the cooking blogs I mercilessly scrolled through in the past, wondering why they haven’t posted anything in six months. I know that I had it easy, given the fact that I’ve been posting tried and true recipes that have been handed down through my family. Even then, I wasn’t able to get something up every single week like I had wanted to at the beginning. I also think that being able to have an independent, online space for me to work through my personal musings has been incredibly helpful. I didn’t realize how much of my experience with online spaces involved being saturated with targeted content and algorithms until I took a step away from it to create a digital garden space of my own.

Furthermore, I’ve really appreciated getting to learn about each individual aspect that goes into running a website. From the ground up, how business construct their sites can make or break the reach that they might attain. Using keywords, SEO, ads, and looking up the name of your website before settling on a domain are all key parts of making sure that you’re going to be recognized based on what you actually want to represent in your work. Ads themselves are an entirely different ball game, it was incredibly interesting to see a little of the process of how ads come to be and the thought processes behind them. Additionally, I’ve gained so much more experience with running a site through WordPress, and I’m very happy to have re-familiarized myself with the tools given the fact that I will be working with them again next semester in my co-op position.

PUB 101 has been a wonderful class overall, I’ve gained a lot of valuable knowledge and insight on how to best present myself online, and represent the versions of myself I want to be visible. I really enjoyed running Considering Cardamom this semester, and while I know that it will be difficult for me to continue to run the site while in school, I wouldn’t mind having the opportunity to come back to it every now and again to pick up where I left off.

The Mainstream

Diversity is always something of a tricky question for me. I find it odd to think of myself as diverse, considering how I just exist. I never really thought about how things like representation or seeing my culture appreciated by people outside of it might be important until recently. As I’ve mentioned before probably countless times, I grew up in a very white environment. We lived just off of the Bible Belt in the Lower Mainland. All my neighbours were white or mixed, most of the kids I went to school with were white, and all of my friends were white or East Asian. Whenever there were kids of South Asian descent in my classes, I always felt like I had some weird obligation to be their friend, even if I didn’t like them very much, based solely on the fact that we shared a culture. In the fourth grade, there was a new girl who came to our school, and she was from Sri Lanka. Even though we did not look anything alike, we had entirely different names and I had been in the same class as most of my peers for four years up until that point, we would get confused all the time. It was as though we were synonymous with one another. I’ve only recently started to look back at such interactions and think about how that probably should have bothered me.

I couldn’t blame the kids, of course, they had no way of knowing the difference between India and Sri Lanka. First of all, they were fourth graders. Aside from a Diwali presentation that my mom sometimes would give to my and my sisters’ classes, they really had no knowledge of Indian culture. Unlike my isolation from people who shared my heritage, this phenomenon lasted a little while longer. I remember being in high school and bringing daal to school only to be asked excitedly what it was that I was eating. It blew my mind to think that people had no idea what it was. Even further back, we had family friends that would come over every year for New Year’s to have my mom’s butter chicken, because they had never had it anywhere else and swore that hers was the best.

Nowadays, things are slightly different. Indian culture is not at the forefront of many people’s minds, but it is not as invisible as it used to be. I’ve seen characters in popular fictional works that are coded as being South Asian, like Inej from Leigh Bardugo’s books. South Asian beauty rituals such as hair oiling are going viral on social media apps. Even the restaurant where I work has added butter chicken to their menu! There is still a long way to go when it comes to the representation of South Asian people in popular media, but I’m optimistic given the changes I’ve been seeing in the past few years, and I look forward to seeing where it goes.

Costco? UnderRated.

In general, shopping is a struggle. 

Whether it’s grocery shopping, clothing shopping, furniture shopping, or anything else, it’s a struggle. Running from store to store for the greatest deal can be exhausting. Some stores are so far from one another, they are not in the same vicinity. It can be so time-consuming!

For me, shopping and running around used to be the worst. 

Until I started going to Costco. 

Costco has seriously been a lifesaver. 

When I moved out, I thought I couldn’t possibly shop at Costco. At Costco, you buy in bulk. I thought it would be WAY too much for myself and my partner. But wow, I was wrong. 

Costco has not only saved me money but time! 

I sometimes laugh at myself thinking about my newly found passion for Costco. I used to say to myself, I will never get excited about grocery shopping or buying furniture. But, here I am. 

I am now that person who will buy clothes at the same store I buy my groceries. 

Food-wise, my partner and I eat a ridiculous amount of food. I used to find it a real challenge to keep the fridge and cupboards stocked. Shopping for food at Costco has made a world of a difference. We buy fruit and vegetables, meats, crackers, cheese, and bread! 

I know, you may think, wow food must spoil. But surprisingly enough, we have yet to let food go bad. Keeping in mind, we do cook a lot of food that involves throwing everything in the fridge into a pot and calling that dinner, but still, we eat it.  

Shopping at Costco has allowed us to save money on food and allow us to buy more luxurious items with our savings. Sometimes we even buy organic! 

Grocery shopping at Costco also equals free samples, so that’s always a win. 

Clothing-wise, Costco has some great deals. I have found great clothes for everything. I have bought a layering jackets for hiking, everyday walking socks, and blouses for work. Who cares about the name brand, if it’s quality, I’d say it’s perfect! 

Furniture and fun items are something else. For instance, I went to Costco this weekend and I found the cutest Christmas snowman to add to my dĂ©cor. The snowman is so cute, he is holding a little lantern. The funny part about buying my little snowman is I originally went in for groceries… Oh well, it was a deal.

Honestly, Costco is an adventure. I used to think I was too cool for Costco, but now I’m thinking Costco is too cool for me. 

The ONLY struggle with Costco is that you may come out with more than you bargained for. But honestly, that’s part of the fun. If you are struggling with shopping, I recommend trying a store like Costco. Make grocery shopping fun!

Costco? UnderRated.

A person posing with a shopping cart full of food outside of Costco
A person posing with a shopping cart full of items outside of Costco

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Dear Posiel,

So long, farewell, bon voyage. Today marks the last day of Poseil đŸ˜„ (emojis courtesy of Jim over at Slice of Jim, otherwise I’d still be googling emojis and Ctrl+c & Ctrl+v-ing them like a peasant… Thanks Jim!). As it is the last day, I would like to dedicate some of this post to how I believe (know?) my experience went.

Before we get into that though, I know the process prompt is supposed to be about community guidelines, but honestly, I feel like I could care less what What the Cat Said‘s community did (if there was a community in the first place). What exactly would I be guiding? Article commentary if there were any comments I guess? Write whatever you want! I don’t think that I will be moderating anything too closely as long as it doesn’t get all Ye up in here.

Young Kanye West wearing a shirt that says, "Say NO to Nazis New America"
đŸȘŠRIP

So with that said, run rampant, go crazy, start a fire, start a flame war, tell someone you love them, I do not care. Ok maybe don’t start a fire? Unless it’s cold and you need it for warmth, IDK, IDC. I couldn’t have made this section longer if I tried.

Ok, moving on.

Posiel, Posiel, Posiel… Where to start… This class has been one of the most laid-back classes, if not THE most laid-back class of my entire undergrad. Don’t get me wrong, it was work, but not the kind of work that sprouted a garden of silver hairs upon thine crown. It was fun, dare I say, therapeutic work.

With my CS undergrad, I don’t get many chances to be creative. Yes, there are opportunities to design and develop applications, but most of these projects have been group work, and not truly, solely my own. This blog is my own. These words are my own. These thoughts are sometimes my own, but they are also explanations of already documented topics in my own derivation (it’s something, ok). I like having a space where I can just be myself for a moment. This space is not something I’ve had before or believed I needed until it was in front of me.

From start to finish, these blog posts have been helpful in breaking the monotonous mould of code this, code that, and they have really allowed me to find a voice in something for the first time in a long time.

The random girl from the movie, "Mean Girls" that confessed her feelings to everybody. The text says, "I wish I could bake a cake made out of rainbows and smiles."
“She doesn’t even go here!!”

Ok enough sap, after today I may still post here and there, but probably not weekly. Although I’m planning to take 4-6 months off after I graduate (burnout is my best friend) so maybe this blog will be more in the forefront of my noggin.

So, with that said, thank you for being there on this journey!

Adios! It’s been a slice, and I’m excited to see what life beyond graduation holdsđŸ‘©đŸ»â€đŸŽ“. Good luck with your life! Byeeee.

A picture of a very excited grad.

Week 12: Community Guidelines

Since, the beginning I have wanted my website to be a place where my content and online persona would basically be very true to who I am in real life. I wanted it to be a place where I can post my writing stuff without judgment and without worry. That is also the type of community I want to create. The type of community that helps each other, gives advice, gives feedback, and is just a place to be your true inner self.

Over the past couple of weeks (more like months, but let’s go with weeks) I have been creating, developing, and improving my website and my content to fully show my online persona, both my website and my creator personas, as well as look further into my audience and other key aspects of my website. Thinking about all that made me realize that I should probably create some community guidelines and figure out ways to implement them as well (even if I don’t actually have a community).

Alright, let’s do this! First things first, the community guidelines for my website. Let’s get this thing started, the community guidelines for my website are basically like any other guidelines that people with any basic human decency already follow. These basic guidelines include the usual
 

  1. Treat others how you want to be treated (I know it is cliche, but it is important)
  2. Be respectful of other people and their opinions
  3. Communicate with kindness
  4. Be polite
  5. Do not post personal information
  6. Report anything that is rude, harmful, disrespectful, etc.
  7. Be mindful of your behaviour on the website and toward others
  8. Treat everyone equally
  9. Do not share other peoples’ stuff without their permission
  10. Remember to express yourselves (in ways that do not harm others)

I personally believe that the best way to implement these (extremely basic and common) guidelines would be to obviously set an example and follow them perfectly to the very last letter. Another way to implement them would be to keep an eye out to see how my (non-existent) community interacts on my website and take action accordingly if someone were to go against the community guidelines.

I guess those are my very simple community guidelines that should be extremely easy to follow! Always remember that this website was created by a weirdo (me), so that I could finally have a place to be free to post my type of writing content and I want to keep it that way!

Sign that says good vibes only

Week 12 Process Post: Community Guidelines (for now) + Farewell (for now)

Apparently, I need to have some sort of Community Guidelines… For who? I guess Suzanne and Lauren may be thinking that I have actually gathered Dished viewers to Vancouver Gems. As previously mentioned in process post 11, I would have to actually expand myself onto other platforms.

Though hypothetically, my community guidelines would incorporate approving comments on my website. If you scroll to the footer or look to the right, it says “No comments to show.” Well, that is because I haven’t enabled them. Enabling comments would be suitable for my blog as engagement and traffic would grow.

Implementing this will hopefully not attract bots…not that it has happened before…

FAREWELL!

I guess this last process post is also a farewell, farewell to PUB 101. Is it an actual goodbye? Nope! See you in PUB 201! (if I decide I can handle next semester’s course load)

Update on the Audience

This post talks about the audience of my blog after starting to personalize the site more.

Since the last time I posted, I have made quite a bit of change to both the visual and the content visibility of the site. I mentioned in the process post back in October that I would like to make this site feel more like me and start to do something else that is not writing. Since then, I have started uploading podcasts every week and recently posted unedited videos on the site. Surprisingly but not really, I find joy in the uploading process again! Although I know that it will not be perfect like my YouTube videos, I can speak my thoughts and keep those funny little moments. Those moments are the portions that make my posts unique. I laugh at myself, I make jokes, and I ask questions. The audience can be a part of the conversation. Instead of making it a monologue, it is more like a dialogue.

Once I start creating this vlog, I get to put the pressure off as an “Influencer” and become who I am both in person and online. The audience is informed about who I am as a creator through my choice of content on the page. Putting myself outside of my comfort zone during the most stressful semester I have ever experienced, I can feel like myself again. And the audience can feel that! Although I still receive no comments on any posts, I see an increase of numbers in views on my YouTube videos. It would be impossible for people to find my content since I haven’t posted anything for the past 3 months, other than checking this blog out! I am excited to see this site grow and see the potential of what I can do as a creator! More to come!

Process Post #11: Transmedia Integration

This process post was intended for Week 12, November 29, 2022.

Am I doing this transmedia integration stuff right? I do have two social media accounts as an extension of my current website. So I think I am on the right track? According to the blog, “Pokemon as Transmedia Storytelling” from Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com (2013) with words from Henry Jenkins, “Transmedia storytelling is a process. Elements of a fiction get dispersed across multiple media for the purpose of creating a coordinated entertainment experience” (Jenkins, 2009). While transmedia integration does not directly mean social media integration—that’s the way I’m going to interpret it for this process post.

After reading the Pokemon blog, I had a good idea of what transmedia integration was— simply put, it is creating something that can be translated across different forms of media such as magazines, movies, tv shows or even a video game—these were things I knew weren’t really possible for my TessDrives site. Something that is possible for the website is the social media aspect of it. Currently my website translates across two different social media sites, YouTube and TikTok. In a way, you could say I’m on the right track?

My YouTube channel currently has a total of 1,327 views and my TikTok currently has a total of 1093 views. These are some pretty impressive numbers given the amount of subscribers and followers I have across both platforms. If I have to be honest, I did start my YouTube channel much before this Pub 101 class started but the TikTok account was actually created during the first week of class—so I am definitely impressed with the latter.

If this class were to extend longer, I would definitely work on establishing TessDrives as a recognizable username that translates across all social media platforms. Those who prefer longer educational videos would turn to YouTube, those who prefer shorter videos would go to TikTok, and those who prefer looking at photos of my Tesla would go to Instagram. I believe this would be an effective way to capture a larger audience with different types of preferences.

Featured photo from: B. Tenderich (2015). Transmedia Branding vs. Integrated Marketing: What’s the Difference? LinkedIn. Retrieved from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/transmedia-branding-vs-integrated-marketing-whats-burghardt-tenderich

References:

POKEMON AS TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING (2013). Retrieved from: https://kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/pokemon-as-transmedia-storytelling/