Sincerity

Hi Isis Ardalan, 

I'm just going to write the truth, and I hope you see the sincerity. Thank you for appreciating my work, and thank you for understanding me. I see God in you just from your willingness to help and teach. And from what you shared with me, I think people can see God in me too.

I learned so much from you. As I'm sure you learned a lot from me too. From you, I learned how to go beyond my comfort zone even if I'm not successful in the attempt. 

I have learned so much this semester in general, and I am glad I had the opportunity to experience it. I would be lying if I said everything was easy and I never got frustrated but it was all worth it. I explored new tools, and the tools have already helped me beyond class.

This semester I had the opportunity to just be really open about God in a digital and old school platform. I see some alchemy occurring simply from my ability to do that. 

I know deep down our friendship isn't over, and I look forward to working with you again. See and ttyl!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Quanesha

TO HAVE A SPIRIT OF SHARING

      Today, I realized @arenalit on Twitter shared my a memory and a poem post. I am grateful and glad people enjoy my work enough to share, comment, like, or all three. I realize I can still do better with networking, but I am proud of myself and what I have accomplished thus far.

     Later while I was on Twitter, I also came across a tweet from @Isisdalan. She wrote a story that was very interesting. I loved how there were ingredients that were incorporated into the story. I also love the fact she was so willing to let me discuss/reflect upon her work. I am looking forward to reading more work from Isis and who knows maybe a friendship will develop.

" 'THE REPRESENTATION' " DOESN'T HAVE TO BE BAD!

 I just want to use this blog to mainly talk about the bus stop in Egypt. What I learned more than anything is that we rely on cues like facial expressions to tell us when something is a lie. What happens when the cues are not there? Will we still be able to separate "the truth" from the lie? Will "the truth" and the lie change if we are just listening compared to listening and watching? And, just because I say it's not real is it really not real?

To answer one of Dr. Zamora's questions, I think it is "possible to develop a cohesive view of student experience" but hard. After all, other students would have to experience what you did as a student. 

To be honest, I think we all present representations of ourselves and only a few people if any know what is real. Because of the way society is nowadays, representation is important. You have to know when to present " 'the real' " and when to present a representation or a (lie). And just so there is no confusion  " 'the representation' " or the lie does not have to be bad. For example, I could be angry but present myself as being fine. 

My figuring out the lie skills were off! I had a lot of fun! Thank you! https://t.co/mLAs2ZGVCm #netnarr @MiaZamoraPhD @cogdog @Bali_Maha

— Quanesha Burr (@QuaneshaSB) March 30, 2017

A MEMORY AND A POEM

Memory

I enjoyed thinking about the memory I shared with my dad on campus. Sometimes, it takes a while for me to think about an idea, but the memory I shared came to me rather quickly. I am not really sure what connection others will make as far as what it says about Kean University as a whole but maybe it can represent Kean being a place of laughter and happiness. 

Sharing My Poem in Class

When our professors told us to bring in something creative, I started thinking about all the poems I wrote for my Advanced Writing Poetry class. I really wanted to bring in something new but like I expressed in class due to time I haven't been writing poetry lately. Last Wednesday, I decided to go with Paper Clip. I knew it was still a work in progress but it was one of those poems I still liked with it being a work in progress.

Paper Clip

I want my relationship with God

to be like the relationship

of paper with paper clips.

I want to hold on to him 

like the clip.

I want him to be able 

to trust me with 

texts or valuable 

information.

I want him to be able to use me

time and time again

like the paper clip. 

I'LL STICK TO SINGING!

Early Noise/ Morning Sounds

So,I knew I would struggle with the activity this week. When I first scanned the assignment, I was already frustrated because it just sounded complex. I began by downloading everything before class. Then in class we did a mini activity that made me feel better about the assignment, but after I gathered all my sound files and started to convert them/export them to mp3 I was feeling uneasy again. I took the time out to read the blog post thoroughly and realized our Professor Alan Levine had a longer tutorial. The tutorial made me feel better again and it prompted me to import and export all my files again to follow what he did more precisely. Now, all I had to do was test it out. So, I went to the Young Writers Project and figured out how to download my sounds. There wasn't much on there when I attempted to do this and continue my homework so I just listened to three and attempted a draft of what I wanted to say. When I revisited the homework assignment again, I listened to the sounds harder and tried to come up with something creative but realistic. 

Here is the final product using three of gg sounds: 

Ending to Overlap with gg sounds

My parents always claim I make to much noise so I go to my car which allows me to be free and escape. 

More Practice

So, for more practice I decided to do "Have a Phone Conversation with Yourself." Based off of my solo conversation, I captured the idea of "holding down both sides of a conversation" and "using the pitch changer." I actually enjoyed this activity even though it took me a while to figure out how to make my voice go even deeper. I started off already speaking in a lower tone and just used Audacity to make it less obvious and a little deeper.

ORSTRESSDER

     GIF and Memes

           I have to admit I was not excited about this week's activities at all. I felt like a lot of people were, but these were two areas I did not have much familiarity with. In fact, Wednesday was the first time I made a GIF. I was content with the GIF based off of Howard Rheingold's Alchemagickal Lucid DreamBox and my knowledge, but the GIF was not one of my favorites. In terms of what I produced for the homework, I really like the idea behind it. I see places where I could probably do things a little different, but I decided to stick with what I had. After all, I did so many videos just to get to that one. But the idea behind the GIF was to start off in a state of chaos. I was stressed and overwhelmed. Then, to move to a place where I decided to pray. To write and turn to God, will put my chaos into a state of order.

     
          I think it is important to know sometimes it is hard to pray, but what I learned from Pastor Simmons is "God is a God of order." The GIF was inspired by several Pastors, Dr. Zamora's comment in class asking "does anybody keep a journal of their dreams" (that made me think about my journals), past comments people I know made about a journal, and my own engagement with written prayer and turning to God during chaotic moments in my life.

         In terms of the memes, I was inspired by a photo I took in the past. I made both the order and chaotic memes, and I used pictures I took for both. I just felt the need to claim the order one/make an account because my poem is incorporated. I tried to go back and do the chaotic one but for some reason it did not work. Anyways, the order photo has one of my favorite poems. I wanted it to represent how your work will turn out if you turn to God. Praying to God can lead to great sharing results, and you can even get ideas. For the chaotic photo, I decided to just take a photo of just blank sheets of computer paper. Sometimes, before you turn to God you feel confused, empty, stressed (just chaotic). Finally, a song that kept popping in my head and is a source of inspiration is "Nothing Without You" by Jason Nelson.

Network Effect

       When I visited Network Effect the only connection I could really make is so many other things are taking place in the world, that are sometimes more exciting, during the time we spend on the internet. 

Studio Visit with Howard Rheingold and Mamie Rheingold

      Once again, I feel like I said majority of my feelings about the studio visit Wednesday. To me, a balanced life as a digital citizen is knowing when you need to get off the internet and focus on what is more important. Sometimes, I literally have to avoid Facebook because I know it will distract me. My best practice thus far, has been getting off of Facebook completely for weeks. I know it is good for me but it is also hard.

     

CAN YOU HEAR ME?

So, this week I learned so much goes into audio that you sometimes do not even consider/notice. Professor Levine was right when he said, "with sound you do not have to pay attention" and at times I found myself trying really hard to keep paying attention.

Furthermore, we did an activity Wednesday in class called blackout poetry that was both complex and fun. I chose to work in a group, and I expressed in class I think it made the activity harder. I was very satisfied with my group though and how we all worked together to get the assignment accomplished. I even loved the fact me and @le petit jo was able to put our own sentence/sentences aside and just focus on editing what @Bcre8iv21 had. Sometimes, that can be difficult depending on who you are working with. After completing the activity and reading the homework requirements for week five, the class was asked to "NOT use text to fill out the story." For some reason on the first try, I did it anyway. I liked what I created so I figured why not share. Nothing wrong with adding right?

First attempt

So, I really liked the line @RissaCandiloro used when she posted/shared her blackout poetry, and I thought it was a great opening that flowed so I decided to use that first. "Considering time when time began . . . . or perhaps the way it will end." "The first morning Pollo dreamed of a monk and crawling boiling phenomenon" (Professor Levine).  The astounding morning dreamed then visited the faceless monk, Pollo, briefly sending pigeons dead as their men. "The skeletons had piled ruins of events in twelve million centuries" (Professor Levine).  

Second Attempt

1. "Incredible beasts still call in the morning but only briefly abandoning scandalous actuality" (Stephanie Jones). 

2.

3. 

Trying to create a story without words was hard. At times, I added sentences then took them away because I felt like it was giving away to much information. So instead of writing all the sentences, I used photos as replacements. I believe the photos incorporated multiple sentences. So, I still used four lines and had the photos capture them. As far as the sound, I like nature jam. I hear the birds but it also has this chopping/smashing element to it which I think works well with the pictures/sentences.

In conclusion

I honestly feel like I shared a lot of my thoughts about the studio visit in class on Wednesday, but now I feel like the studio visit helped me way more than I originally thought it did. For this week's homework, I took the time to also find the trailer to one of my favorite movies Tears of the Sun. I have to admit I looked at the trailer. But when I thought about it after, the sounds in the background lets me know there is going to be death and it creates suspense. And when listening to the Truth's It's Going to Change Your Life, sometimes I felt like I had to tune the words out to fully listen to the sound. Moreover, I think it is possible to do a blackout with audio. In fact, I think Professor Levine already did when he "took a 55 minute RadioLab episode and edited it down to about 9 minutes." I feel like I am constantly learning this semester.