Weekly Summary-Week 11-Much better!
I know last week I seemed (and was) a bit frustrated. However, this week was better!
Saturday
I was off-campus on a retreat with the UMW Catholic Campus Ministry where I wasn’t supposed to have my computer and doing homework would have been against the point of the retreat!
Sunday
On Sunday, I got back in the mid-afternoon, so I had time to start working on this week’s assignments
On Sunday, I did my first Daily Create of the week, talking about what it would be like if the Earth was flat. I thought about everything culturally that wouldn’t exist or would be different. I didn’t even want to try and think about the differences in science or physics!
If the Earth was flat, we couldn't go sledding, we wouldn't have cheese rolling, and we wouldn't have songs and nursery rhymes like Jack and Jill!@ds106dc #tdc2489 #ds106 pic.twitter.com/pnLHZrYJCx
— Francesca Maisano (@FCMaisano) November 4, 2018
I also started to work on the starred assignments. Last week, when I had picked out the assignments for that week, I also had picked out possible assignments for this week. So, I decided on which ones I wanted to do to get to 12 stars. I emailed Professor Bond, as I wanted to make sure that there wasn’t an assignment, like the video essay last week, that I somehow missed on the weekly assignments page. I then started to work on what would become “The Missing Part”. I also started to think about what I was going to do for the assignment that is now called “Through The Eyes Of The Wawel Dragon”.
Monday
On Monday, I completed those two assignments. The “Missing Part” assignment I had actually exported and thought I was done with the night before, but then I realized that I needed to add credits to the video, so I went back and did that. I did most of the research and work for the “Dragon” assignment this day, including the pictures, text, and audio. I actually finished that assignment at around 12:19 in the morning, which is when, when I click on the properties of the video file, it says that it was last modified. However, since I hadn’t gone to bed yet, I am calling it a continuation of Monday’s work!
Tuesday
On Tuesday, I completed my second Daily Create of the week, involving making a commemorative coin. I was trying to think of what to do, when I thought of UMW. It was UMW’s 110th anniversary earlier this year, which is a commemorative vent, so I made a coin for that. I used makecoins.com to make the coin. I chose UMW’s navy and gray colors for the color scheme of the coin and I had the school’s logo as the text around the coin. I also added at the bottom the text “110 years” as the coin is celebrating the 110th anniversary. I wasn’t sure what to put in the middle until I came across the seal of UMW on Google. It’s round, so it fits perfectly with a coin! The picture of the logo I got is from Wikipedia Commons. It says that the picture I used isn’t copy-written. I hope that’s correct!
In honor of UMW's 110th birthday, which it celebrated earlier this year@ds106dc #tdc2491 #ds106 pic.twitter.com/yFQxZplgra
— Francesca Maisano (@FCMaisano) November 7, 2018
On Tuesday, I also uploaded the videos to the two assignments that I had been working on to YouTube and wrote the blog posts for them.
“The Missing Part” was an enjoyable video to make. I got to use the Microsoft Photos app to make it, as this video did require or need fancy transitions or titles or whatever, and that was nice, as the Photos app is easier and less frustrating to use than OpenShot. It was a bit challenging to come up with a story with all of the words, and make it make sense grammatically. Also, as I said I did refresh the randomly generated words a few times, for various reasons! The weekly assignments page says to make it surprising, so there is a turn in here, although maybe the title and thumbnail spoil it! Whoops! I do like the story that I came up with. It’s not a hugely happy story, but more bittersweet. It still makes me feel peaceful and still somewhat happy watching this. I actually liked it so much that it made my “My Favorite Assignments (So Far!)” assignment that you’ll read about if you scroll down to Wednesday.
I also liked making “Through The Eyes Of The Wawel Dragon”, though it was more frustrating, since I did use OpenShot to use the transitions. It was also more challenging because I had to contend with more pictures and audio to make sense, which all required being cited in the video. I had to figure out how to do that, since I sure wasn’t going to make a slow-to-render title card for each citation! I did like researching about dragons and finding that folklore that I didn’t know about. As I said in the blog post, my character Maria would be very interested in the story, as it combines her love and interest in cryptozoology and folklore.
I also started and finished another one of my starred assignments-“Lost Tapes: Strigoi-Framed!”. This was a simpler assignment, as most of it was just explaining in picture-and-text form what this 2-minute video is about and why that frame represents the whole story. Finding the video was not too hard, but I do wish that YouTube had more filter options! Downloading the YouTube video, using 4K Video Downloader was also not hard. However, when I started to work on the video in OpenShot, I did encounter a lot of lag and the title cards took so long to render, so I switched to the Photos app. I wish that I had done that sooner! The only feature that I lacked in the app that I wanted to use was the option to speed up the video. However, I used Kapwing, which I had used before to reverse a video, and it worked here to speed it up. After, all I had to do was have a lot of blank slides and add text to them. Since the storytelling aspect is supposed to be prominent this week, I wanted to make sure that I emphasized that this frame is what tells the overall story of the video. This assignment also relates to Maria, as this completes the last of the 4 creatures (chupacabra, skinwalker, hellhound, and strigoi) that she finds the most fascinating. While she finds the strigoi fascinating, from more of a folklorist way than a cryptozoologist way, I find it scary. I was more than happy to just watch this not-scary 2-minute video than watch the full episode. I know Lost Tapes is not really scary, but more cheesy, but I still don’t want to watch the episode!
Wednesday
On Wednesday, I did my third Daily Create of the week, about something small and easy that is on your bucket list that you still haven’t done yet. Inspired the the UMW coin I designed the day previously, I chose to talk about a UMW tradition. I think it’s a thing-besides orientation and/or open house, I haven’t heard anyone talk about it, so I’m not sure. However, I do walk by the fountain every day, and every day it reminds me that I still haven’t been in it yet. However, considering it’s starting to get cold, it’ll just keep it on the bucket list for now!
Isn't one of the traditions at UMW to jump into or swim in the fountain? I'm a sophomore and I still haven't done that yet-too lazy! I also don't want to get soaked when it's cold out! Whenever I pass by it, which is every day, it mocks me!@ds106dc #tdc2492 #ds106
— Francesca Maisano (@FCMaisano) November 7, 2018
I also started and finished my fourth and final assignment to get to 12 stars this week-My Favorite Assignments (So Far!)”. The assignment is to make a compilation of your favorite things you’ve made in this class. Again, according to the weekly assignments page, it says to focus on the storytelling of the assignments. So, I wanted to tell the story of DS106 so far for me. That is why I start the video off with the numbers of everything I’ve done. I then go into my favorite assignments. This was the hardest of the assignments this week, which makes sense as it was the finale of the assignments for the week. It had the most pictures and videos to add, and I had to do the most to the audio in this one. I had to figure out how to screen-record a video! That wasn’t hard, but I am a bit of a perfectionist, so it did take me a little while to do that for all the posts I needed to! Overall, though, it was nice looking back at these assignments, bringing my mood up after the frustrations of last week. It reminded me of why I actually like this class! If I were to do it again, I would see if I could get the videos to be exactly aligned the same and at the same speed. That might take some doing!
Thursday
On Thursday, I did my fourth and final Daily Create of the week, about a distant memory. I didn’t have to do it, but I forget that I had done three Daily Creates already this week so I thought I did! I have a horrible memory
In preschool, my class hatched chicks! I absolutely fell in love! We would sit on the floor with them and hold them. They were so cute! One of my favorite shirts back then had chicks on it. I actually still have it, though obviously it doesn't fit!@ds106dc #tdc2493 #ds106 pic.twitter.com/vTYWOQr01i
— Francesca Maisano (@FCMaisano) November 8, 2018
I also created and started to work in this post!
Friday
On Friday, I did my commenting of the week.
First, I commented on this assignment by Chlovergarden that was a jumping compilation. The music made the video funny, even if the clips weren’t supposed to be! She said in her post that she timed a specific clip to the “oo” of the song, and I am so glad she did! That is my favorite part of the video!
I also commented on this assignment by Tiffany Tueros where she told a story from her character’s perspective. Tiffany is so great at telling stories! Her voice is really engaging, not flat, when telling the stories and she changes her voice to match her character’s. It made the character feel like a real person!
P.S. For whatever reason, when I clicked on the assignment from the fall2018 tag, http://ds106.us/tag/fall18bond/, it kept me on the website, http://ds106.us/2018/11/08/how-la-senora-luz-met-pipo/. I commented on there, wondered if it would actually appear on the blog, and then finagled my way to the actual blog to comment there.I wonder if both my comments will appear there or not!
Another comment I made was again on an assignment by Emily Hutchins, of a video of a day in the life of her cat (who is standing in for her character Kate’s cat). Such a cute cat! I’m going home this weekend and can’t wait to see my own cats!
I also commented on another post by Chlovergarden, where she used her favorite transitions with pictures of visiting her family last year. I thought the transitions she used worked great with the clips she used!
Finally, I commented on Ora Wilson’s assignment where she did a picture montage of Bora Bora, where she wants to go. The music she used worked really well, as the beat of the music was timed well with the pictures. The music also has the upbeat feel that you want with a vacation/dream vacation video!
I also finished and turned this post in.
This week was definitely less stressful and more enjoyable than last week, even if I couldn’t do any work until Sunday. Part of this was definitely because there was no video essay, which stressed me out! It also helps that this week was easier when it came to my other classes. The part I honestly struggled with the most was actually remembering to take snips (using the snipping tool) of the behind-the-scenes of my assignments. I did enjoy having those pictures, though, since it helped me remember what I did when I went to go write my write-up. I might try and continue! I do think I gained more experience and learned more about how to use the Photos app and OpenShot, I learned a way to record videos of my computer screen, nit just screenshots, and I found useful conversion websites, all of which might be useful later in this class and later in life!
Unlike last week, where I was nervous about this week, I am excited about the upcoming week!
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