Sunday, April 28, 2019

Final


                                    How Love Changed My Life for the Better



As a young child I guess you could say I had it a bit odd to begin with. My first few years of life I had never even gone out of the house. My mom and dad were so busy with work, one working on a day schedule and the other working on a night schedule that when they came home for the day they were so exhausted and didn’t have the energy to go out or do anything. My first time I left the house was when I was a few years old and It was because my grandma was visiting from out of state. We all went to the natural history museum down in Albuquerque. No one knew how I would react, “you mean, there’s a whole other world outside the house?” my grandma joked about my first thoughts. We went to planetarium as one of the festivities and I loved it. The booming sounds and moving pictures were just great! Traveling away from home was fun!

A few years later I had a above average childhood. I was a single child livening with just my mom. A somewhat short and petite women who did her best to raise a single child alone. Aside from not having a dad who lived with me my mom did a great job making a good friendship with me. She was dating a fellow from Australia at the time which made a fun trip when we went to go visit him. Both my mom and her new boyfriend loved traveling, which made me have great stories to tell my friends and teachers at elementary school when I got back. For presentations I'd make boards filled with pictures, seashells and other trinkets from my travels depending on where I went. The Eiffel tower in Paris, the Old Square in Europe, riding horses in the ocean in Jamaica, the Colosseum in Rome, I had been everywhere! “You’re so lucky! I haven't even been of the state!” Some people would even tell me. However, the life of travel and fun times would not last long.

As a teenager I got into the whole ‘rebellious teen’ kind of attitude. Which is funny cause I remember being a kid with my mom visiting a friend’s house watching an older sibling slam the door on her dad and my mom saying “I hope when you’re a kid you never act like that,” with my reply being “don’t worry mom, I won’t.” While shaking my head and holding her arm tightly. By the age of 12 or so I was no longer traveling over seas with her and just enjoyed being home alone. I spent most of my days cooped up in my room watching T.V. It wasn't as glamorous as it sounds though The only things I watched were mainly Jerry Springer, Steve Wilkos, and Maury. This was because growing up I never had cable, because my mom was too cheap to buy it. I didn't even have Netflix and still do not. This anti-social behavior just got worse as the years went on. I became so antisocial to a point where I would only go to places like church or school. And still do. At the time though, I wanted to be home schooled so I was only going to school once a week through a program called RGES (Rio Grande Enrichment Studies). They give you enough homework to last the week. That was during middle school. In high school I only went for one year. And it was the worst year in school of my life. I hated it. I hated having to wake up at 5:30 every morning and did not enjoy being there one bit. I remember for half of the semester I did not talk to anyone. I sat in the back of every class and ate lunch alone. The only reason I started talking to people was because two girls one day wanted to sit in my spot for lunch. I continued to talk to those girls a little throughout the semester, but we never met anywhere apart from school and were no longer in contact after the school year ended. After that year I was home schooled for the rest of my high school. This meant the only places I was going was church and the store. 

But the past year has been the absolute worst with my anti-social behavior. I still do not go to school, I do it all online, and at 19 I still do not have a job. I still am forced to go to church and volunteer work for a place I don’t even want to be, but am also forced to do, or else my internet will get taken away. My church is small and only has maybe 20 people going. When someone there actually tries to strike up conversation with me, they may ask “what does a fun day look like for you, Tara?” or “what do you enjoy doing?” my answer is always the same; “I enjoy being in my room alone listening to music. I’m not an interesting person. I don’t go out and I don’t do much.” Me being alone is not the reason this year has been so bad though, because trust me, after years and years of not doing anything with anyone you get use to being in the background.

When I was 16 it was back to just me and my mom being alone again. We had no family in New Mexico, it was just us. It was actually pretty nice. I could finally start building a relationship with her again without anyone getting in the way. That was, until one night when there was a really bad ice storm and my mom invited someone over from her work to spend the night because they could not get home. She asked me first if she should and at the time I said sure without really thinking if this man was good or not. Weather or not he might steal something or whatever the case might be with inviting someone you didn’t know much about over. And that one simple “sure” from me was all it took for my mom to invite him over and start a 3-year battle between us. Once again, I was put in the background.

This new guy seemed to be a good match for my mom. A taller, white haired blue eyed guy with a nice build who had the same interests as her. They both loved the outdoors and traveling and had much more in common with her than I did.It was hard for me to relate to them. But for the first few months I was of course suspicious of him. This new guy had already moved into our house. I was constantly watching him and whispering to my mom. I didn’t trust him. My mom was blinded by love though and didn’t hear one word I said about me not liking him. In one ear out the other, sometimes not heard at all. I was use to people not hearing me though. Years with no friends also makes you not develop a voice or opinion. I always say I don’t speak unless spoken to and my main form of communication is three words; “Yeah,” “Sure,” and “OK.” Even with my own mother I had no voice of protest. How could someone not listen to their own child? I felt like a kid in a movie when the parents have a new born baby and the kid feels ignored. The only difference was this was not a made-up story for entertainment and there was no happy ending of the family getting back together In the end.

It’s ironic in a way. I always liked movies that didn’t have sappy happy endings. Too mushy. And now my own life is taking that turn. I am 19 now and have almost cut off most communication from my mother. I live in a different state, and am going to move away from the same house I lived in my entire life. It’s going to be hard, but it’s for the better. If this is what it takes for me to finally get that push onto my own two feet then so be it. I am ready to start my own life without being a follower. I am moving to a state with better job opportunities, which will be good once I get my degree. So in a way, it is better for my adult life which in the long run might actually turn out to be a happy ending for me. I will have already moved to the state I wanted to live in since I was a kid and can make a life for myself. I don't have to be pushed aside for other people and can now focus on my own life. 



Sunday, April 14, 2019

Week 12


For my rough draft I was having a very hard time coming up with what to write about. This does not usually occur to me. Probably the reason I am hesitating so much is this is a story that other people aside from myself are going to read. I usually write epic fantasy tales with magical creatures, but something halted me into doing that this time. “It’s so immature,” my mind kept telling me “Nobody is going to want to read about talking animals!” So for this assignment I am actually going to do something a bit different that is unlike myself. I am going to write a non-fiction story describing how my life went from something people were jealous of, to being cut off from the ones I loved. I can imagine this digital story being told as a kind of a “draw my life” form like the videos seen on YouTube.


                                                
                                          
                                                    

                                    How Love Changed My Life for the Better

As a young child I guess you could say I had it a bit odd to begin with. My first few years of life I had never even gone out of the house. My mom and dad were so busy with work, one working on a day schedule and the other working on a night schedule that when they came home for the day they were so exhausted and didn’t have the energy to go out or do anything. My first time I left the house was when I was a few years old and It was because my grandma was visiting from out of state. We all went to the natural history museum down in Albuquerque. No one knew how I would react, “you mean, there’s a whole other world outside the house?” my grandma joked about my first thoughts. We went to planetarium as one of the festivities and I loved it. The booming sounds and moving pictures were just great! Traveling away from home was fun!

A few years later I had a above average childhood. I was a single child livening with just my mom. A somewhat short and petite women who did her best to raise a single child alone. Aside from not having a dad who lived with me my mom did a great job making a good friendship with me. She was dating a fellow from Australia at the time which made a fun trip when we went to go visit him. Both my mom and her new boyfriend loved traveling, which made me have great stories to tell my friends and teachers at elementary school when I got back. For presentations I'd make boards filled with pictures, seashells and other trinkets from my travels depending on where I went. The Eiffel tower in Paris, the Old Square in Europe, riding horses in the ocean in Jamaica, the Colosseum in Rome, I had been everywhere! “You’re so lucky! I haven't even been of the state!” Some people would even tell me. However, the life of travel and fun times would not last long.

As a teenager I got into the whole ‘rebellious teen’ kind of attitude. Which is funny cause I remember being a kid with my mom visiting a friend’s house watching an older sibling slam the door on her dad and my mom saying “I hope when you’re a kid you never act like that,” with my reply being “don’t worry mom, I won’t.” While shaking my head and holding her arm tightly. By the age of 12 or so I was no longer traveling over seas with her and just enjoyed being home alone. I spent most of my days cooped up in my room watching T.V. It wasn't as glamorous as it sounds though The only things I watched were mainly Jerry Springer, Steve Wilkos, and Maury. This was because growing up I never had cable, because my mom was too cheap to buy it. I didn't even have Netflix and still do not. This anti-social behavior just got worse as the years went on. I became so antisocial to a point where I would only go to places like church or school. And still do. At the time though, I wanted to be home schooled so I was only going to school once a week through a program called RGES (Rio Grande Enrichment Studies). They give you enough homework to last the week. That was during middle school. In high school I only went for one year. And it was the worst year in school of my life. I hated it. I hated having to wake up at 5:30 every morning and did not enjoy being there one bit. I remember for half of the semester I did not talk to anyone. I sat in the back of every class and ate lunch alone. The only reason I started talking to people was because two girls one day wanted to sit in my spot for lunch. I continued to talk to those girls a little throughout the semester, but we never met anywhere apart from school and were no longer in contact after the school year ended. After that year I was home schooled for the rest of my high school. This meant the only places I was going was church and the store. 

But the past year has been the absolute worst with my anti-social behavior. I still do not go to school, I do it all online, and at 19 I still do not have a job. I still am forced to go to church and volunteer work for a place I don’t even want to be, but am also forced to do, or else my internet will get taken away. My church is small and only has maybe 20 people going. When someone there actually tries to strike up conversation with me, they may ask “what does a fun day look like for you, Tara?” or “what do you enjoy doing?” my answer is always the same; “I enjoy being in my room alone listening to music. I’m not an interesting person. I don’t go out and I don’t do much.” Me being alone is not the reason this year has been so bad though, because trust me, after years and years of not doing anything with anyone you get use to being in the background.

When I was 16 it was back to just me and my mom being alone again. We had no family in New Mexico, it was just us. It was actually pretty nice. I could finally start building a relationship with her again without anyone getting in the way. That was, until one night when there was a really bad ice storm and my mom invited someone over from her work to spend the night because they could not get home. She asked me first if she should and at the time I said sure without really thinking if this man was good or not. Weather or not he might steal something or whatever the case might be with inviting someone you didn’t know much about over. And that one simple “sure” from me was all it took for my mom to invite him over and start a 3-year battle between us. Once again, I was put in the background.

This new guy seemed to be a good match for my mom. A taller, white haired blue eyed guy with a nice build who had the same interests as her. They both loved the outdoors and traveling and had much more in common with her than I did.It was hard for me to relate to them. But for the first few months I was of course suspicious of him. This new guy had already moved into our house. I was constantly watching him and whispering to my mom. I didn’t trust him. My mom was blinded by love though and didn’t hear one word I said about me not liking him. In one ear out the other, sometimes not heard at all. I was use to people not hearing me though. Years with no friends also makes you not develop a voice or opinion. I always say I don’t speak unless spoken to and my main form of communication is three words; “Yeah,” “Sure,” and “OK.” Even with my own mother I had no voice of protest. How could someone not listen to their own child? I felt like a kid in a movie when the parents have a new born baby and the kid feels ignored. The only difference was this was not a made-up story for entertainment and there was no happy ending of the family getting back together In the end.

It’s ironic in a way. I always liked movies that didn’t have sappy happy endings. Too mushy. And now my own life is taking that turn. I am 19 now and have almost cut off most communication from my mother. I live in a different state, and am going to move away from the same house I lived in my entire life. It’s going to be hard, but it’s for the better. If this is what it takes for me to finally get that push onto my own two feet then so be it. I am ready to start my own life without being a follower. I am moving to a state with better job opportunities, which will be good once I get my degree. So in a way, it is better for my adult life which in the long run might actually turn out to be a happy ending for me. I will have already moved to the state I wanted to live in since I was a kid and can make a life for myself. I don't have to be pushed aside for other people and can now focus on my own life. 



Sunday, April 7, 2019

Week 11


Welcome back everyone. For this week’s assignment I was going to draw out a mind map on my digital plans but I figured Id rather write it out. My first question I asked myself was “Who would my audience be?” I would probably be reaching out to people my age, although really all ages could listen to me. People who could relate to my interests. Next I had to come up with ideas on what I would talk about. Here are some of the ideas that came to mind.

If I was to do a digital story such as pod casts I would first want to figure out what I would want to talk about and make a series on. Would it be educational or entertaining? Knowing me it would not be educational. One of my ideas for putting in educational was talking about history but I Know nothing on history and it is a subject that bores even myself. So talking about that would not be a good idea. Another thought I had was doing educational pod casts on animals. But I felt like that would not be a good idea either. So I moved on to entertainment. What could I talk about that would be entertaining? My first thought was of course, music. I could talk about all my knowledge on different bands and maybe even the history on them for education. I could talk about how certain genres became what they are today such as Viking metal or black metal.

Aside from the history on music and genres and different bands I could also introduce people to knew bands because I know a lot of great ones that for some reason people who have the same taste in music as me don’t know about. I call these bands “hidden gems.” A good way to introduce this new music would be editing parts of the song of their best songs. I do edit a lot of my music and can do that pretty well and make my own ringtones and all. My only issue with that is all the copyright strikes I would probably get. With my mind on music my thoughts would be if I got popular I could maybe start interviewing band people and get their story.

Other then bands if I was to digital stories another thought that actually just came to my mind was narrating my own stories. What I mean by this is I use to write my own stories a while back and came out with two books and lots of short stories. If I went back and revisited them now I bet I could make them a whole lot better, action packed, and detailed. They all did have lots of action and battle sequences, but my writing skills have improved lots more over the years. I feel like a few people might listen to that. I wouldn’t need a webcam, just my microphone. My only issue with that is my voice inst very powerful. There isn’t much emphasis in my words. I am kind of bland. If I did that I would need to really try to make it sound exciting.

Now if I was to do a digital story on just me, I actually do have a pretty interesting story to tell about my life which not many people can tell the same. I could inform people on what it is like to travel over seas and visit exotic places. When I was younger I use to travel quite a lot, visiting places like Paris, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Jamaica, and more. I could talk about the different experiences I had while doing a slide show of my adventures. I have learned this semester that with this type of narrating, leaving music out would probably be a good idea so people could focus on what I was saying.

All I all if I was to do a digital story, I actually think I like the travel video the most. Mainly because I would not have to worry about copyright, and it would be a video on just me and the interesting things I have done and experienced. 

Saturday, March 30, 2019

Week 10


Hi guys, today I am going to be talking about how I would do my own podcast. Now, I know podcasts these days are popular and all, but quite frankly I have never been that interested myself. I don’t listen to them much. So, when it comes to writing about how I would do my own, I am kind of unsure. A podcast to me is someone just talking about well, whatever they want to talk about whether it be educational or entertaining.  But my interests are pretty limited so that is probably the reason I don’t listen to them is because someone just talking inst that exciting to me. It takes skill to make just talking entertaining, like adding emphasis to words. Maybe if I found one that was on a topic I could relate to like for example, music, I’d stick around. But if I was to do my own personally, I would try to sound out-going and enthusiastic about what I was talking about. My topic would probably be on something like heavy metal. With this I could add some of that music in for examples. But the cool thing is I edit a lot of music so I could create something of my own that would fit into the podcast perfectly or to the tone of the video.

Saturday, March 23, 2019

Week 9


Welcome back everyone! Today I’m going to be writing about how I would make my own web series. After watching some of the videos this week I noticed that these videos had a lot in common. The main thing that stuck out to me was the lack of any form or music or sound aside from the person talking. I don’t watch many blog videos so this actually was quite striking for me. The second thing I noticed was there was not really any shaky camera angels. It was stationed and focused precisely on the person so they could be in the middle of the frame. These two elements helped the story because it helped you stay focused on the person talking. If I was to start blogging and making videos about me and my life I would defiantly keep out the music. Even though it would be hard for me, I learned that for this style of video it benefits the video having it out. If I was going on a road trip, I would also use text to describe what was happening around me, maybe my feelings too.

Saturday, March 16, 2019

Week 8


Hi again everyone. Today I am going to be discussing what makes a good story. Everyone is going to have different opinions on what makes a good story. For me it would have to be how much it relates to stuff I like. For example, I like fantasy and horror subjects, so a good story for me would maybe be set in a far way fantasy realm with unfamiliar and deadly entities. A story that would not be so interesting to me would probably have to do something with nonfiction like history. But what makes a good story isn’t just things we have an interest in. Now I don’t do a lot of reading now a days. But I can tell you that both paper and digital stories both require some of the same things to make them entertaining. Lots of things can make any story interesting like conflict; obstacles the character has to face. We can relate to this because everyone has to deal with some sort of obstacle in their life. Conflict in a story is relatable and entertaining. Through conflict we can learn more about the character and their true personality and how the people around them will react to this. Conflict and the hardships we go through define us, or as my parents would say “it builds character.” Another thing that makes a story entertaining is what is the risk the character is taking? If there are high stakes and a lot that the character can lose if they fail, it draws us in. It makes us want to cheer on the character in hope that they don’t fail their quest. This makes the story more suspenseful and intense.

As a writer in the past, I related to the last point they made in the video we had to watch which was what else made a good story was how in depth the character was. How advanced is their personality? How deep is their conflict? How far are they willing to go? Coming up with characters and their backstory’s whether it was tragic and heartfelt or fairly average was always fun. Sometimes it was relatable and maybe based on your own life, sometimes it was completely made up. Either way, even if people had not gone through the circumstances themselves, they could still understand how hard it was for your character. The cool thing about story telling though is even if you have not gone through a scenario which the character has gone through, through good story telling it still makes you feel as if you had a connection to them. It brings out emotions in us. And digital story telling can use some more elements to bring out the story better such as music. Which of course, normal books can’t do.

In conclusion, what makes a good, entertaining story is things like conflict, risk, and character development and depth. Without these key elements, your story and character would be bland, dull, and overall just pretty boring. There would be nothing to thrive for and nothing to lose which would make your audience lose interest. “For a given audience, a story is a sequence of content, anchored on a problem, which engages that audience with emotion and meaning.” (Alexander, Brian 13)


D4Darious. “What Makes A Good Story?” YouTube, YouTube, 24 Mar. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=394&v=DCzcoyDp2fY.

Alexander, Brian. “The New Digital Story Telling.

Saturday, March 9, 2019

Week 7


Hi again everyone. Today I am going to be discussing what makes a good story. Everyone is going to have different opinions on what makes a good story. For me it would have to be how much it relates to stuff I like. For example, I like fantasy and horror subjects, so a good story for me would maybe be set in a far way fantasy realm with unfamiliar and deadly entities. A story that would not be so interesting to me would probably have to do something with nonfiction like history. But what makes a good story isn’t just things we have an interest in. Now I don’t do a lot of reading now a days. But I can tell you that both paper and digital stories both require some of the same things to make them entertaining. Lots of things can make any story interesting like conflict; obstacles the character has to face. We can relate to this because everyone has to deal with some sort of obstacle in their life. Conflict in a story is relatable and entertaining. Through conflict we can learn more about the character and their true personality and how the people around them will react to this. Conflict and the hardships we go through define us, or as my parents would say “it builds character.” Another thing that makes a story entertaining is what is the risk the character is taking? If there are high stakes and a lot that the character can lose if they fail, it draws us in. It makes us want to cheer on the character in hope that they don’t fail their quest. This makes the story more suspenseful and intense.

As a writer in the past, I related to the last point they made in the video we had to watch which was what else made a good story was how in depth the character was. Coming up with characters and their backstory’s whether it was tragic and heartfelt or fairly average was always fun. Sometimes it was relatable and maybe based on your own life, sometimes it was completely made up. Either way, even if people had not gone through the circumstances themselves, they could still understand how hard it was for your character. The cool thing about story telling though is even if you have not gone through a scenario which the character has gone through, through good story telling it still makes you feel as if you had a connection to them. It brings out emotions in us. And digital story telling can use some more elements to bring out the story better such as music. Which of course, normal books can’t do.

In conclusion, what makes a good, entertaining story is things like conflict, risk, and character development and depth. Without these key elements, your story and character would be bland, dull, and overall just pretty boring. There would be nothing to thrive for and nothing to lose which would make your audience lose interest.

D4Darious. “What Makes A Good Story?” YouTube, YouTube, 24 Mar. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=394&v=DCzcoyDp2fY.

Sunday, March 3, 2019

Week 6


For this week’s reading I will be answering if the game “A Summer Story” is a story or a game or both. After playing it, it is safe to say that it is definitely a story. But is it also a game? It is not as interactive as some of the other activities we have done in this class like the cave game last week. In A Summer Story all I did was basically click enter and sometimes get the choice to pick if I wanted to venture off or turn off my phone to conserve battery life. I think this could have been enhanced if the story was longer but I got through it relatively quickly. Now this story definitely isnt something as advanced as an MMORPG (which is what I play a lot) so for me to say it is a game is kind of hard for me because I am use to using a controller and having combat and an open world experience, not just reading and getting to choose two options a couple times. However, letting me even choose a few options does enhance the story because it makes it more interactive, it personally makes me concentrate more so I can pay attention so I feel like I can choose the best option for me to make in the story. One literary element that made this story more entertaining was the sound effects. When I chose to go wander around the town looking for Ai’s cafĂ© but ended up getting lost at night and heard the jingling sounds of something metallic brought on more intensity in the story.

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Week 5


Hi again everyone! For this week I will be answering the question “Is interactive fiction (such as Colossal Cave) a good way of telling a digital story? Why? How is it different from traditional storytelling or from other digital stories we’ve read so far?”
Well personally, I think interactive fiction is a great way of storytelling. I love being the one being able to make the choices of where the character or I will be going next. As for the online version however I did not like how there was no go back button or how you could not scroll back up to see what was previously said. Unlike a book where you could backtrack, on this version I found myself repeating the same words over and over because I could not remember what I had previously tried typing. I like how with interactive story telling it makes you think more. With this game in particular it made you think more about what was aorund you, but also how to interact with those objects in your own way.  Overall it was a good experience, reminding me of my childhood when I use to read the Goosebumps books where it let you choose your own path and then skip to whatever page number to follow the path you wanted to go down. It differs from what we have read so far because with normal books the path is already laid out, you don’t get to choose, only follow.

Monday, February 11, 2019

Week 4 Final Draft


Welcome back to my blog! This week I am comparing the two stories “Zombie Attack” and “The Dionaea House.” In this blog the subject I will be comparing is point of view. Point of view being the eyes we see the story though whether it be our own, or a character in the story. I chose to do these two stories for their similarities in posting styles. One is posted in short sentences over twitter while the other is similar although it just uses longer posts through email. Both of these stories use first person view. One is describing what it is like to survive years in a zombie apocalypse, all the things we encounter, and witness, the other describing the strange events that led up to a group of friend’s friend shooting two people and then himself in a restaurant when it was completely against his nature the previous years. With “Zombie Attack” I felt like if you read it backwards and forwards it would still make sense. In fact, half way though I did and noticed I thought that is still was readable. But with this blog, the short tweets, along with skipped days, makes for large gaps. It doesn’t go into very much detail. This increases the suspense and there is more confusion as to what is going on. Things are escalating and since there are these gaps, its harder for us to know exactly what is going on and why. It makes the reader work to make sense of it and also makes our imagination run wild as it tries to fill in those gaps. The ending is very short, and  it’s clear that things have degraded into utter cautious and everyone is just trying to survive with no conclusion whether they live or die or not. The story leaves us hanging. "All the kids are dead. Every man for himself!"
As for The Dionaea house “I know how you feel. It’s hard not to think of the times he sat next to us at the table, smiling like a fool, rolling dice and moving his pieces around the board.” “That’s Andrew in a nutshell yeah, at least that’s how I remember him. He got on my nerves sometimes, but damn if he didn’t love being part of the gang.” We find out how he had to house sit for a family member for a few days and came back different. “Was that the start of his madness? Or whatever it is that drove him to shoot up a diner? Were we there to see him first lose his grip? Jesus, Eric, why the hell didn’t we say anything?”  By using the first person narrative, the story grabs our attention by making it feel like we are actually the ones in the story witnessing/ seeing and feeling everything that is going on. It makes the story feel more personal.

Attack, Zombie. “Zombie Attack (@Zombieattack).” Twitter, Twitter, 30 May 2014, twitter.com/zombieattack.

“The Dionaea House.” Creepypasta Wiki, creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Dionaea_House.

Friday, February 1, 2019

Week 3 Blog


Hello again everyone. This week I chose to write about the visual story telling story “Tell a Story in 5 Frames; Gender Miscommunication.” They say that a picture speaks a thousand words. In this Flicker piece, we have 5 pictures which together, make for one simple, humorous situation. No words are needed. We see in the first of the series of photos a young couple sitting together in a setting that could be a movie theater. The photos focus on the young woman and her expressions. We notice in the background, another young couple, sitting close and obviously enjoying each other’s company. Our young woman watches them. She must wish that her boyfriend would also show this much attention. She hints that she is cold, hoping that her man might move closer and perhaps put his arms around her. He chivalrously removes his sweatshirt and gives it to her to keep warm. That is all he does. Her disappointed expression tells us all we need to know, while the couple in the background embrace in a kiss.
The center of attention on this series of photos is the young woman, whose expressions and actions, tell the story and we can easily imagine what is going on in her mind. The situation is funny, and one that most of us can relate to. That is the object of our affections, is often clueless. The comments which follow the pictures show just how much people can relate to the situation. One of the first comments says, “a good argument for the direct approach!”
As for the literary web of theorists and how it ties in with this story, I think the best way to describe this microblog would be conflict. In this blog we can tell there is a subtle conflict going on; the girl is looking for affection.

https://www.flickr.com/groups/visualstory/discuss/72157594311362023
Flickr, Yahoo!, 2 Feb. 2019, www.flickr.com/groups/visualstory/discuss/72157594311362023.

Saturday, January 26, 2019

My MicroBlog


Hello everyone. For this week blog I have decided to write about the Creepy pasta Slenderman. Why do creepy pastas have such a following with today’s youth? What is there appeal?  I have to admit, that I too, have always been a fan of horror and scary things. But as far as creepy pastas go, why is Slender man so iconic out of all the stories out there? This particular Slenderman story is very short compared to a lot on the website. Maybe what makes this story so creepy is because it is so normal for anyone to feel safe in the comfort of their own home. But we all know that feeling of being watched or a presence of something being there. The setting also sets the mood for this story, especially when things get intense, like when Lindsay is trying to escape from Slender man who is behind her front door trying to get in. “She shoved herself away from the door with the hand still pressed against it. The scalding mug of coffee fell, the liquid burning her bare legs as she fell backwards and tried to crawl away from the door. She knew, somehow, that her mind hadn’t been playing tricks on her.” Self-doubt also plays a factor in everyone especially young people. This is why I think Slenderman is powerful in its appeal to young people.


“Slenderman.” Creepypasta, 9 Oct. 2018, www.creepypasta.com/slenderman/.
http://www.creepypasta.com/slenderman/

Friday, January 18, 2019

About Me

Hello Everyone, my name is Tara Conrad. I am a 19 year old girl with no siblings, but I have 2 cats and a gecko to keep me company. The cats are rescued from the Humane Society, I have had them both for almost 10 years now. Their names are Stormy and Electra. I am a big lover of animals and often pet sit for people. In addition to watching people's dogs and cats, I have also taken care of exotic birds, sugar gliders, and even chickens.
I am a native New Mexican. I am also a full time CNM student, looking for a part time job.  During this time I am currently studying Digital Media. I plan on doing something revolving around CGI and special effects or 3D animation. I am currently self teaching myself 3D animation through software called Blender. In the future I am going to hopefully build a good desktop which high rendering/processing power so I can do more animations quickly with less rendering time. One day I might want to work at Netflix or eventually my dream job would be working for Pixar or Disney. Using digital storytelling would come in handy and also interests me because I like to write my own stories and make my own artwork. If I eventually get a job in digital media this would eventually come in handy for me. My favorite media for digital story telling is definitely online comics and video games.
A little bit more about me is I spend a lot of my time doing volunteer work at places like the Natural History Museum where I help out in the Naturalist Center and the education collection. For the past year, I have helped a lot at Storehouse West, which is a food pantry. I spend probably around 22 hours a week helping people less fortunate than me. It has been a great experience. 
Another cool thing about me that even though I am a shy and introverted, I usually surprise those around me is that I like heavy metal music. I could be considered an intense metal head. I love all kinds of metal, preferably heavy metal, black metal, speed metal, and death metal. It is strictly all I listen to. My favorite bands include Iron Maiden, Slipknot, Steelwing, Ram, White Wizzard, and Carach Angren. If anyone reading this is as into metal and NWOTHM (new wave of traditional heavy metal) as me, feel free to start up a conversation! This is how I connect with people and would love to talk!
Anyways, I hope you all have a good semester, good luck!