Hi, my name is Jocelyn Maldonado Vera and I am addicted to social media. My blog mainly consists of: Art. Movies. TV. Books. "We are nothing more than stardust…"
A semester has already passed and I still feel like the scared, shy freshman that came here not so long ago. My experience in MED 130 has been an incredible one for many reasons. Reasons such as; This is the FIRST class I have encountered that allows me to create videos for the use of class, I have been exciting to do this ever since I started my major, and this class has let me develop my creativity within those assignments. Also, I have always loved to write small pieces of fiction and post them on the Internet, and to see that one of our blog posts consisted of that, made me joyful and excited to use my ‘skill’.
Being a ‘rookie’ into the world of media production has made me learn new skills by myself and with the help of other, this class consisted of both. The assignments were dedicated to test your abilities and allow you to see how far you could come. Thanks to this class, I have started interacting with my major more now and I know that I will have to learn how to do different tasks like I did in this class. The use of a blog was a new concept to me, but I am glad I came across such an opportunity, in the future if I ever need to create another blog for a job or other reason, I will know how to operate one thanks to my experiences in this class.
I have also learned that there are different ways to portray a certain topic more efficiently than just a boring and simple blog post with text, there are: videos, podcasts, etc. Some media templates tend to work better with a certain topic. The creator of such, should analyze and conclude which option will carry the message better.
There is a lot of process that goes into creation viral videos, podcasts, etc. The brainstorming part is the hardest part for sure. You have to be able to view the assignment in your head thoroughly in order to start creating it. Listening is also a hard part, just because you have a certain view of the topic and are not welcoming other ideas from your classmates does not make you better, criticism was very helpful in this class, it allowed me to make simple changes so the viewers and myself were more satisfied with the end product.
To conclude my experience about this class, I can only say Thank You. Thank you Mr. Wagner for allowing me to attend your class and to be a part of your students. The environment that our class had developed allowed me to feel comfortable enough to speak up at one of our discussion moments regarding racism and reverse racism, I did speak up, even if it was once. That was a big accomplishment for me as well. I have learned a big handful of useful knowledge in this class compared to the boring propaganda strategies in my MED 304 class. Please don’t tell him I said that…
Finals are coming up, are you guys as excited as I am????!
ME:
Fear no more! The Fab 5 have come up with an instructional video on how to deal with finals! 😀
(Disclaimer: we are not responsible for you failing your final exams…well, maybe we are a little bit responsible, oh well.)
The Fab 5 hope you follow these tips as shown in the video and we hope you join us in Monday’s MED 130 lecture class so we can cry together about finals and we might even sign some autographs, idk…
I laid on my bed and stared blankly at the ceiling. Ignoring the wretched screams between my stepfather and my mother. If only I could escape all this, if only I could simply ‘disappear’. I shifted uncomfortably to my side and pulled a pillow over my head. And with that, all the sounds around me ceased, except for the beating of my heart. It wasn’t annoying, it was rather peaceful, like hammer against cloth.
I enjoyed moments like these. Where it was just me and no one else. Not my drunk careless stepfather or my heartless ignorant mother, just me. I allowed my eyes to close and in a matter of minutes I was fully asleep.
My slumber was suddenly interrupted with the sound of the doorbell ringing.
Must be some of Ron’s disgusting friends, my stepfather.
I slowly opened my eyes and allowed them to adjust to the brightly lit room.
I propped myself up with my elbow and moved my feet to the side of the bed.
I simply sat there while rubbing my eyes. I was still sleepy. After a short time,
I finally got up and walked over to my window.
I let my arm rest against the wall and looked at the shimmering sunset. Getting lost with the many colors portrayed against the slightly green grass.
“WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?” I heard Ron scream from downstairs.
Well I guess it must be someone else.
Probably a salesman, Ron always treats those guys terribly.
I returned her attention towards the window. I imagined myself running away,
far away from all this chaos.
There was probably something better waiting for me behind those big thorny bushes in her backyard.
Maybe, just maybe.
“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE, THE LOT OF YOU!!!” My mother screamed
at the top of her lungs.
I began to grow curious. Who could be so persistent? Whoever it is must leave now, before he or she
gets their brains blown out by my stepfather.
I suddenly heard faint footsteps. They grew louder and louder as they were
coming up the stairs.
I launched towards the door and quickly locked it. The footsteps stopped in front of her door
and the doorknob tried to turn.
I heard someone sigh in annoyance.
“It’s locked Charles.” A deep voice said. I quickly stepped away from
the door and let my body back up against a corner of my room.
I let my body slide down and I then hugged my knees.
“Move aside Erik.” A soft smooth voice said. The doorknob slowly half
turned and then completely.
I shrieked in surprise and dug my nails to the side of my knees. OH GOD NO. I stayed there, petrified.
My adrenaline was pumping extremely fast, it was scary.
I had never been so scared. My whole body began shaking as the door slowly opened.
I shut my eyes and hid my face behind my arms, which were still gripping to my knees.
I could hear the footsteps shift around my room and a few mumbles here and there. My shaking slowed and I finally had the courage to lift my head.
I slowly opened one eye and I saw one of the figures walk around my large window.
I opened both eyes now and began looking for the other man. He was standing over my bed, awfully close to where I was.
I quickly hid my face behind my knees again.
“She’s not here Charles!” Said the tall man by my window.
“She has to be here. I I can feel her presence.” He said looking all around him. My head peeked up again.
They haven’t seen me yet. How? He’s right in front of me and he’s actually about to
“Ow.” I said as the guy stepped on my right foot. I stared at the figure above me.
He narrowed his eyes towards me and crouched down.
He extended his hand and hovered it inches away from my face.
“Olivia? Are you here? Please do not hide. We are not here to hurt you, we are here to help you.” He said in a smooth calming voice.
I looked at him in confusion and allowed my muscles to slightly relax.
He let out a sigh of relief and a big smile appeared on his face.
“Hello Olivia. I’m glad we can finally see you.” He said while extending his hand for me to take.
I hesitated but placed my hand into his.
He pulled me up without any hesitation and he then walked over to his friend.
I stood where I was, not knowing if I should really trust these guys. Charles took a step forward and pointed his finger at me.
“That’s an exceptional power you have there. Invisibility, how marvelous!” he exclaimed.
I looked at him with even more confusion, letting my eyebrow rise as I said “What are you talking about?” He let out a small laugh before looking over to his friend.
They exchanged looks before he returned his gaze towards me again. “Well surely you must know…”
“Maybe she doesn’t know Charles.” The tall man named Erik said.
Charles turned to look at him and then at me and then towards his friend once more. Erik shrugged his shoulders towards Charles.
Charles placed a hand on his face in shame. “Oh my god. I’m soooo sorry.”
He buried his face in his hand before saying “I thought you knew.”
” Knew what!?” I said rather annoyed.
I hate it when I don’t know what people are talking about!
Erik took a few steps forward and stood right in front of me.
” You see, we were not able to see you when we came through the door.
We looked around but were not able to find you.
You were nowhere to be seen.
You were-” Charles interrupted him “You turned invisible. There most have been something that triggered it for the first time.
Fear, Hate, Love. Something you experienced for the first time today.” He said with all seriousness.
“Wait,what!?” I said rather loud.
Charles stepped closer to me and placed his hands on my shoulders.
“You are a mutant, Olivia.” I pulled away from his grasp.
He placed his hands to his sides and mumbled sorry.
Erik turned around to look at the window behind him and said “Indeed you are, Olivia. Indeed you are…”
*Goes into Google and types in ” la-la-la-la” because that;s the only part she remembers from the song she just heard on the radio*
Does this ever happen to anyone else besides me? I just rely on Google to find out the name of that exact song and sometimes I am successful in the search, other times I’m not…
I present to you the Top Ten Pop Songs of the year 2014, they are listed in order of preference from yours truly with a small interesting piece of information after the song is introduced, so stay tuned and enjoy 😀
*Drum roll*
I apologize for my awful sick voice, it kind of reminds me of Izma’s voice on The Emperor’s New Groove, the part where she turns into a cat and says” Is that MY voice??”
First of all, I want to apologize in advance for the repetitiveness of the words “Um” and “Like” in this podcast, I tend to say these things when I am nervous or hungry, I was nervous in this situation. I believe podcast are a wonderful thing due to the fact that you don’t have to inconvenience yourself by watching the individual that is talking, you can just listen to their voice and still understand what they are talking about without having that visual.
Plus, you guys will never know if I made this podcast without pants *wink wink*
Please enjoy my silly sick voice in this entertaining piece of audio covering the topic of “Digital Footprint”.
I did not appreciate the fact that Facebook was allowed to post all that personal information about myself with a simple search of my name, but in the end, I remember giving Facebook and other types of social media my permission to get ahold of my information and do whatever they please with such info in return to use their website.
Please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times. Thanks.
I started using the Internet when I was around 8. I didn’t have any MySpace or MSN Messenger accounts at time, but I would normally log into CartoonNetwork.com and play games on there. Growing up in household where our Internet source would be Dial-up was F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-I-N-G. Now, there is a sense of happiness and excitement when I come across the old Dial-Up sound, it brings back memories. Not all of my memories with that type of Internet source were pleasant but it’s nice to remember the ‘old days’ of my Internet experience.
The Internet brings back a lot of memories; when I was living in Mexico my only way of communication with my American family members was through email. We still wrote each other letters and we would mail them, but Internet communication was much faster. Me and my twin brother would make PowerPoint presentations and we would attach silly pictures to each slide, my cousins would do the same on their presentations. Once I hit my rebellious teenage years, I started using MSN Messenger to talk to my friends and cousins. Messenger was really popular in Mexico for some reason and I don’t know why, I just went along with it. After my first chat experience program, I decided to give into joining Facebook and eventually Twitter and recently Instagram.
As to my recent Internet years, I started off joining the odd community of Tumblr. My Tumblr experience developed into an addiction when my few minutes would turn into looooooooooong hours. I started becoming more and more comfortable with the environment of the site and I eventually published a couple of ‘fanfiction’ stories there. I wasn’t trying to become a popular author on Tumblr but I was just trying to contribute into the community and make myself write more since it truly is my passion. Once I got a real life outside of my computer, I decided to take my writing into other bigger and better writing websites like Mibba and Quotev, but that’s another story…
The Internet has taught me many things, but let’s just focus on the positive things… I came across a video of this girl making Mike Wazowski out of clay and I was intrigued as to how someone could make a figure out of clay! After doing some extensive research I found out that this type of clay was called Polymer Clay and it was oven-baked clay. Since I was living in Mexico at the time I knew it would be hard to get a hold of this type of clay since it was American and we usually don’t get a lot of American products in small towns like my hometown. I waited until I got back to the U.S. and rushed to the nearest Michaels and bought all the amount of polymer clay $10 could get me. I have Youtube to thank for my new acquired. (The following are pictures of my polymer clay creations)
Viral videos are a trend in this futuristic era, they’re basically videos that become popular on the Internet. Everybody has different likes in what they want to see, but sometimes a certain video with different characteristics than what we’ve see before emerges and it suddenly becomes popular. In this blog post I will be analyzing and discussing 3 viral videos. Autor’s note: these viral videos are all above 25 million views.
I am a die-hard animal lover, especially a cat aficionado. This video just made me smile very widely with an immense amount of joy, a joy to see this cute baby kitten alive and semi-well. It is wonderful to see that there are still good people in this world. I am not entirely sure that Firemen have the duty to rescue animals on their job, but even if they aren’t, to see this kind individual go out of his way to carry this kitten outside, give it oxygen, pour some water into this poor creature to make sure he’s fully conscious and at the same time the water helps treat the kitten in case it might have some fire wounds, and finally, give the little animal some ‘cuddles’ to make it all better. I can take a guess why this video went viral: anytime there are cute animals involved in a video, people tend to tune in more than if it was just a normal boring human video. The other case with this video is that it shows a sense of heroic action from the Firefighter, once he saves that kitty we can all kinda fell proud of humanity in a way and happy that the cat turned out alright.
This video is titled “GoPro: Fireman Saves Kitten” with a total view amount of 25,734,115.
I grew up with Disney movies, so as soon as I saw this video I immediately liked it. This is another example of a different type of viral video, this one has singing and humor into it. As a matter of fact, humor tends to be the number one category of viral videos so this is the likely explanation as to why this video became so popular at 45,192,494 views. Any Disney movie lover can appreciate the sing-along jokes this guy put into his video. Image is another factor put into viral videos, the guy who appears in the video is a funny, likable, handsome guy so he’s likely to be liked by his audience. Another excruciating factor is sympathy: people like to see other people who they can relate to and the viewers can identify someone on their lives who this funny video would appeal to, basically anybody who has watched a Disney movie in their lives.
P.S. I was never comfortable with the plot of “Beauty and the Beast”, so seeing ‘Bestiality’ as the concept to make fun of from that movie was perfect.
Another humoristic video appears as a viral video on Youtube! I happened to come across this one about a year and a half ago and when I watched it I could not stop laughing. Now that I look back at it I can see why it was funny: the silly personalities and actions the protagonists play to resemble animals and how they exactly eat. The amount of aggressiveness might have been a little too much but that is exactly why this video is so darn funny and so popular. People like to see other people getting hurt and this is exactly what this video is about. Although there is no blood to be seen from their aggressive movements, we can still imagine that smashing your head against a cardboard box is not the nicest feeling in the world either. This video beat the previous viral videos mentioned in this post with a shocking 111,302,323 views.
I believe it’s safe to conclude that viral videos come in all shapes and sizes, and it’s a matter of luck in some cases for videos to go up to the spotlight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jocelynmve 