Just The Start of My Animated Life

As I entered Shepherd University in the spring semester of 2013 I knew I wanted to be a teacher. After a single semester, I changed my mind. I spent the next semester taking gen eds and expanding my horizons to the majors of Shepherd. In this time I had a brief, yet influential, relationship. This relationship lead me to my current major, Communication. Interestingly enough, he's a Comm major too. As much as I had wanted the relationship to work, shit quickly hit the fan, so to speak. We both have our own depictions of this but what it ultimately came down to? We are two Comm majors who lacked the ability to effectively communicate with each other.

In this world communication is key! It’s as simple as verbally saying yes but shaking your head no at the same time. Though you have given the verbal positive, your body language is giving a negative. There is then a break in the line of communication. It takes two being on the same page to achieve the desired result. Nowadays, with the advancing technology there's this whole world of communication far beyond the human body! There is also communication by creation. My favorite form of communication by creation is music. Many people can tell you how I'm feeling by taking a quick look at the browsing history on my YouTube for the day. Among others there's also communication by animation. Animation is probably one of the most intriguing creations of communication. Something doesn't even have to be real for one to mentally accept the communication!

As a child we are taught of fairy tales and Disney depicts these using animation. Walt is known as a master of animation. My God child lives through these characters. Each day she is a new princess. Walt captures his viewers by making the story believable- even though they are works of fantasy. Though that’s all for another day!

Animation plays more of a role in my everyday life than I’ve ever noticed before. As an engaged college student in today’s era my fiancé and I spend our broke date nights at home- “Netflix and Chill” as this generation puts it. The Seth MacFarlane trio (American Dad, Family Guy, and The Cleveland Show), Futurama, Bob’sBurgers, Archer, Total Drama, Brickleberry and F is For Family fill my smart tv and blast through my surround sound as my fiancé and I laugh along with comedic animation. With a new little one in the house my early mornings are filled with “cartoon tunes”. We YouTube theme songs from animated shows. Little Einstein’s, Paw Patrol, My Little Pony, and many others. As a new mommy I’m sure this is just the beginning of a long relationship with animation on our screens!

Danielle Corsetto Visited

On Thursday, April 9th Danielle Corsetto visited my Graphic Novel class. She brought with her a lot of talet, wisdom, and inspiration. There was something about her that even a week later my mind is still grasping- her drive. She started out with nothing but an idea of what she wanted her future to look like. She knew that she wanted to make a living out of her passion for graphic novels. Years later, she has done just that! Starting from the bottom and finding her way on top, she has made a boom in the graphic novel world. Her story has inspired me to regain confidence in my dream to make a living off my writing. At one point she was practically begging her readers to send her money for rent and such in order to continue her comics. As it turns out, they did! Maybe, just maybe, I can get one of my stories to the point where I could do the same. Knowing that its been done before helps me fulfill my dream. I'm thankful for her visit.  

Our Love Story: A Graphic Novel Pitch

This summer I hit rock bottom. For a year I thought I had my life on track. I had a job, my own place, and was more independent that anyone I knew that was my age. But then life got in the way. I’d quit my job in February, as my employer was being unfair. Living off of school loans provided an easy and logical fix. I mean, that’s what I had pulled the loans for to begin with. Then in May of last year, my life tumbled quickly downhill. My landlord decided he was selling his property, which in turn meant that I needed to find a new place to live, and QUICK. I found a temporary place in Bunker Hill, which turned out to be a wreck. I had a job for a matter of a month. The mother of my nanny children lost her job so I was no longer of use to her. It was then decided that my summer was to be spent rebuilding myself. After a stressful spring semester, filled with drama and relationship issues, I had been looking forward to making my summer about re-finding myself. Along the way I met a lot of new people and had my heart broken- again. In late July my best friend and I were both having relationship issues so we decided we needed a girls’ night.

After she got off work she came over to my place. We decided we needed food to munch on, Monster to fuel us, and quite frankly my lil Honda Accord, Freya, was out of gas. With all this in mind it was decided we were going to Flying J, just miles from my house and it provided the cheapest gas and cigarettes around. To top it off there was a 24 hour Subway inside. Who doesn’t love Subway at 11 at night? So we ventured off to what we thought would be a quick trip. We were so wrong!

It started off as a normal trip. I parked Freya at pump 16, my normal pump. We went inside to get everything and to pay for gas. Jessi paid for our food while I took a restroom break. I finished and paid for gas, while Jessi took her own restroom break. Upon walking out I noticed two guys, roughly my age, who had been eying Jessi and I since we had come in. They hollered “hey beautiful” at me but I kept walking. I just wanted to get the gas in my vehicle and quite frankly I knew that their claims of me being beautiful was just a ploy. I mean, who the hell would think I was beautiful? My hair was unwashed and still in the same French braid it was the day before, as I hadn’t washed it and I’d been in the creek non-stop since the beginning of summer. I was wearing raggedy sweatpants that had tears in the bottom from being four inches too long and an old tanktop that was once pure black but had faded to a much lighter black after two years of wear and washes. For Pete’s sake, I was even braless! My flip-flops had seen too much creek water and were falling apart. To say the least I was a mess!

Though I was able to ignore the boys Jessi was not. As I finished pumping gas she exited the store and began talking with them. She called me over and told me to pull Freya up from the pump. In my state of mind, I had no common sense. Maybe I needed adventure in my life or maybe I just didn’t feel like arguing with her, I’ll probably never know. My tattoo, Ecc 3:1-8, tells me not to question God’s reasoning, so I try not to. We began talking with the boys together. Somehow they convinced us to chill with them for the night. Our plans of having a girl’s night were thrown to the wayside. Who wants to cry when they can laugh instead?

One of the boys was right up my ally, a redneck gentleman. He made me laugh and smile all night, nearly forgetting about my problems in life. He sang country songs to me and pin-pointed everything I thought was a flaw about me and somehow convinced me they weren’t flaws, but instead beautiful imperfections. I never really believed in love at first sight, but I really think it was just that.

I returned the next day with a hot meal for the boys. My father was a trucker so I had a soft heart for the life style. I’d always been told the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach anyway. They appreciated the food. The southern gent, Ethan, seemed to really take a liking to me. We couldn’t deny the mutual attraction. We knew what we wanted and we made it happen. On September 12^th, he asked me to marry him. I couldn’t be more proud to admit I said yes. Today this man is my whole world. I couldn’t be happier to have him in my life. We're each other's kind of crazy! 

Graphic Novel: Heath Care Reform Framed

Health Care Reform by Jonathan Gruber

Health Care Reform is such a boring subject yet so important in today's society. Jonathan Gruber has found a way to bring attention to the topic that keeps your attention, rather than putting you to sleep. Much like a child's mind the adult mind is also attracted to photos. Instead of reading page after page of pure text Gruber has animated the issues with graphics. They say a picture says a thousand words.

Page 15

The first panel is zoned in on a woman who seems to be panic stricken. The black fill in of the space between the circle and the square panel hones in on the white space and the woman, showing a sense of danger. The panel to the left of that is simple. The side by side shows a line of sequence. As you approach the second half of the page there is no strict paneling. The four circles are not closed in by squares as the top panel is. This gives the feeling of there being no order. The text is next to the circles so it shows the effects without bounding them with a step by step.

Comm 203: My Computer is My Best Friend: A Storyboard

Digital Storytelling Project: How Computers Affect Us

The Facebook Version

Youtube Version- same as Facebook but without the restrictions facebook might have on you

Hope you enjoy!

Comm 203: Innovator and Achiever

After taking the VALS Type test I was given results that I expected. I am an innovator and an achiever. This makes a lot of sense to me. As an innovator I live my life to make something of myself. I find it rewarding to achieve! There's nothing better than when I spend hours on a project and it comes out with this amazing grade and I'm sooo proud of the work. Our last comm project was a pretty good example of this. I beamed with pride as I saw the grade. Innovators and achievers both tend to take charge and are very on top of everything. This is me to a tee. I take charge all the time. I am the group leader because I don't wish to not achieve. I find soo much satisfaction in the end product. I am fully motivated by achievements. When life goes wrong I have the motivation to move forward because I know that if I don't I won't achieve. 

I didn't really learn anything, but my beliefs were enforced. I have had a lot of soul searching in my life so I've already seen this. As for how the information appeals to the consumer side of me, my consumer choices are also confirmed. I buy things in order to make my life easier. One of my most recent purchases was a kurieg. I enjoy coffee but by the time I finish a full pot, my coffee is too cold and I don't like making cold coffee. The kurieg makes it so that I can have a cup at a time and not worry about the consequences of making coffee and not drinking it. Another product I bought was my notetaker program by Sonocent. I LOVE IT! It makes notetaking soooo  much easier. I decided the $150 was worth the ease that came from using the product. I buy things that make my life easier. 

The VALS Type test confirmed my beliefs about myself. I am much of a soul seeker so I wasn't told much I didn't already know, but it was confirmed that I had come to the proper conclusion in my soul seeking ways. 

Comm 203: Generation Gap in Music: A Podcast

The Generation Gap in Music Show Notes in Outline Form

v  Introduce Topic - Generation Gap in Music

v  Introduce Each Person

v  Explain and Introduce What We’ll be Talking About

v  Discuss the Impact of Social Media on the Music Industry, Artists, and the Public

o   Difference in How We Accessed Music News and Saw Artists Now & Then

v  Controversial Stunts

o   Now & Then

o   VMA’s

v  Fandoms

o   Name Fandoms

o   Difference Between Now & Then

v  Analyze & Discuss a Broader View

v  Sign Off 

SSo, we had to get our information from somewhere. Here's our sources:
http://fortemag.com.au/?p=2322
http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/type-music-child-listened-affect-way-behave-19821.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/fcc-complaints-about-miley-cyrus-vma-performance-2013-9

www.crushable.com/2013/12/03/entertainment/crazy-pop-culture-fan-bases-telling-them-apart/2/

http://itstheskittlee.hubpages.com/hub/Music-and-the-Influence-on-Society