Visual Design

This week has been really hectic for me so I think that the assignments in this particular class were like a breath of fresh air. I found the assignments entertaining and fun.

Going outside to find the letters of the alphabet on campus was interesting. I noticed that I began to observe things like I had never done before and even noticed some new things around campus that had never caught my eye before. I started to make "something out of nothing", like a gum stain into the letter O. After listening to some classmates talk about what they were finding, I felt a little embarrassed because my ideas weren't nearly as good as theirs. All the things we are learning are new to me so I hope to learn things from others in the class that seem to be way ahead of my thinking and abilities.

After reading the McCloud comics and his notions about icons, I started to think about his ideas. Icons really don't mean anything, we assign the meaning to them. Also, with the font exercise in class, I noticed that I began comparing the shoes to the font. I found it funny that the fonts did go well with the shoes- two things that I never thought of comparing before!

I have realized that design requires thinking outside of the box. You need to be able to see beyond the big picture and notice the little features or need to examine things from multiple different points of view. Mastering this would be great because then maybe I could step up my photography skills. Though I have none besides the basic, I have always looked at other artistic photographs and wished that I was able to take great pictures and learn how to edit them and incorporate them into different types of work.

Maybe I'll be like this guy someday

Audacity

Audacity was so hard to learn for me! As I mentioned in my previous blog, I had to miss three classes due to medical reasons. This made me get so behind and it gave me anxiety about the project. I downloaded it and started messing around with some of the tools that I saw. I didn't have access to internet down in Mexico so I couldn't watch the tutorials until I got back.

Once I was back professor Dean helped me with some of the basic tools. He helped me with recording and with using the envelope tool. I found that the envelope tool was a little difficult to use. I'm not sure if it was just me because I know nothing about these softwares, but I found that using the tool with the Mac keypad was a little difficult. I wasn't able make it entirely even. I think this process would have been easier if I had a mouse to make it more precise.

Getting my song from the Creative Commons- Soundcloud link to Audacity was also a little challenging. When I finally got the New Girl theme song into my podcast, I was excited! I feel it went perfectly with what I was speaking about and emphasized my liking for the show and the "quirkyness" that is involved in it. Once I figured all the audio out, I started recording.

Luckily, my roommate was gone for the night so recording wasn't extremely awkward. I started recording, trying to show enthusiasm, and then listened to myself. I sounded so funny and weird! I had never done something like this so hearing my own voice over and over again was something that I'm not used to.

I had to record myself multiple times because I found myself sounding monotone. After a while, I did finish. I was proud of my final project, especially considering the amount of time I had to do it.

Response to Podcasting 101

After looking over the reading about Podcasts, I finally got more of an idea about what they even were. I had never even heard of such a thing so I was a little bewildered.

The reading says that podcasts give you the power to communicate and have an equal voice. While recording one, you are allowed to break all the rules.

I agree with the article in that the podcast was somewhat easy to record and it is useful because the podcast is available all the time, it’s portable, and usually free.

Getting started was difficult for me due to missing school and not being able to attend the lectures and tutorials. I wasn’t quite sure what kind of topics people were going to discuss. I didn’t really have an idea what everyone would be interested in listening to.

Then I stumbled upon one of my prized possessions- my New Girl DVDs. New Girl is an American television sitcom that is rising in popularity. I started watching the show on one of my medical trips to Mexico. At first I only watched it because it was the only show that was actually in English. I had heard of the show only because my brother has a crush on the main actress, Zooey Deschanel. After watching the show for a few minutes though, I realized it was great! It was really funny and a little bit weird- the perfect combination! I went straight to the store and bought both seasons on DVD to catch up.

Spreading the word about this show to the class seemed like a great idea. I feel like the show is underrated so hopefully I inspire someone to watch the show with my podcast.

The writing process for this project was different for me because I was working on things extremely last minute. Two days before the assignment was due I was scrambling and trying to catch up and learn everything on my own. The topic was the easy part. Then I wrote down my knowledge on the show just from watching it. I researched a few facts about the show including the rewards it has won and the real names of the actors so that I could also include that in my script.

The writing in this differed from other work because I improvised a lot while recording. I found this interesting because I then heard my thoughts in the recording. I realized some of what I said sounded like total nonsense while some other stuff ended up being better than what I had originally written down!

Melissa Gwynn Bio

My name is Melissa Gwynn and I am a junior transfer at UCSB. I am a psychology major and am hoping to get into the Multimedia Writing minor.

This is my second quarter here at UCSB and I love it so far. I live in Isla Vista, but I don't party and I actually haven't even gone out once. I'm not the type of person who likes to go out a lot. I would rather be at home in my PJ's. I'm a hermit.

I don't have any selfies at the moment so here is a picture of my beautiful poodle, Kelly. Kelly is 12 years old. She has become such a big part of our family.  I have a weird obsession with all animals, especially my own dog. I would like to one day incorporate animals in my work. I want to become an Animal Assisted Therapist.

My goal is to get my bachelors degree in psychology and go on to either get my masters in something like Occupational Therapy or possibly just get a certificate in Animal Assisted Therapy.

I want to open my own business one day, so hopefully everything goes as planned.

I don't have any experience with softwares like Photoshop, but I am very interested and excited to see what I will learn this quarter. I am not tech-savvy at all. So I hope that I don't struggle too much with all the new software and programs.