LAST BLOG!!!

This class has been pretty great to be honest. I really feel like I was connected with my major, and all the aspects it has to offer. This class dealt with social media, recent film, the history of technology, and much more. I really liked this class because I felt like it dealt with our world today, and not the past. All my classes have been about how we got to where we are now, but it was never where we were going in the future, until this class. I had fun with all the projects, especially the Pinterest one. I really like how this project was over the course of a month and I got to do something I really have an interest in, which is baking. I also really like the app Pinterest so it was fun to utilize what is actually on app, rather than just repin things to my different boards. I'm glad I was able to take this class because I learned a lot that goes on around the world, as well as on our campus. I'm excited to utilize the skills I've learned in this class in the future, and my career. I do take a huge interest in social media and I think working or interning for a company such as Instagram or anything in that realm would be really cool and interesting. This class was very fun and challenged me to think outside the box. Thanks for a great semester!

DIY PART 4/GIVEBACK

I cannot believe that the last weekend for this project is already here...and gone since I am done with my instructables project for good :) For my giveback I decided to make a christmas sign. Now it doesn't seem like much but I was really in the spirit of christmas, and I love arts and crafts. I have made a few before, but never christmas themed, so here are the steps in making a DIY Christmas Sign. The amount of time it look me to do this was over the course of 3 days, and a total of 5 hours.

1.) Google sayings for the sign/examples
2.) Write down all the supplies you will need so you don't have to go to the store more than once
3.) Budget yourself. You never want to spend too much money on a DIY project
4.) Go to the store and get supplies. Supplies for this project are, square piece of wood, sponge brushes, regular paint brushes/paint pens, paint, snowflake stickers, paper towels, cup of water, and newspaper.
5.) Start by painting the piece of wood your base color. Mine in this case is red.
6.) Do a double coat so there are no streaks, or blank spaces.
7.) Paint the borders of the piece of wood. In this case my border color is gold.
8.) Let it dry for 20-30 mins
9.) Write with a pencil over the paint what you chose your saying to be
10.) Take your paint brush/paint pens and paint over the letters. (TAKE YOUR TIME)
11.) Let the paint dry again (same amount of time)
12.) Place stickers and YOU'RE DONE!

This Pinterest/Instructables project was quite challenging, yet very enjoyable. My first three projects consisted of baking with two of the same ingredients, but different recipes. I thought this turned out way better than I thought because I am not a very patient person, and to bake it takes patience. I managed to pull it off, and the recipes all tasted very good, according to my boyfriend and his friends who ate them all every week. (Reason why I didn't have anything to bring to class, sorry guys). I learned that having all the right ingredients, and timing is everything in baking. When you miss an ingredient the texture, taste, or volume of the recipe could be off, and if you over bake or under bake, that's never good either. I feel as if I achieved a lot with this project. One thing being that I completed all the hours needed for this project, and another being that I know how to bake. I've always liked to bake things, but I feel as if I got a lot better at it over the past few weekends. My baking products were normally given to my boyfriend and his friends for a sunday night football dessert.

For my christmas sign give back, I am planning on hanging that in my apartment for a holiday decoration, and from that project I learned to also have patience, and be very steady when painting. I am not the best artist, so this did come out a little messier than I thought it would, but I'm still proud of my artwork and might make another one. I think I will do more creative projects that I find on the internet because they're fun, and always include the steps for success. I feel as if the internet has some of the most amazing recipes, and DIY projects. I'm glad we did this project because for one I love Pinterest, and two it was a great learning experience.
Here are pictures of my christmas sign!

Anonymous. Expect Us.

Okay I just have to start off by saying that that video was the most intimidating thing I've ever seen, and I am happy that they uploaded that for the world to see. ISIS needs to be exposed for the terrorists that they are such as any other group including the KKK and Al Queda. These attacks were just so unnecessary, and I hope ISIS gets what's coming to them. Anonymous is no joke when it comes to exposing people, as we all know from the government hacks. My response to this video is simply to find these people and do onto them as they do onto others, which is nothing but terror. I believe these people need to be punished for their actions, and I hope Anonymous wins the battle. I think they are doing the right thing by "hunting them down like they did to those who carried out the attacks on Charlie Hebdo." I feel as if ISIS thinks they are invincible and can never be stopped, however I think by Anonymous exposing them, they will crumble little by little until they are nothing but a terroristic group of the past.

Paris Attacks

The Paris Attacks are nothing short of devastating. This is the second time Paris has been attacked in a year, and I mourn for them. After reading these articles, I understand point view points. I think in the first one it is more of what happened while the attacks were going on, and to show the rest of the world what had been going on. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing because the rest of the world should know when another country is being attacked, especially by a terrorist group like ISIS who has harmed and put out several threats towards America and other countries. I also think without social media it would be harder to get the story, and having live footage can help identify the people who did this, and how dangerous they really are. On the other hand, social media does do the unnecessary, such as the french flag Facebook filter. I think it had the right intentions, however it isn't helping them in the least bit. These people of Paris are in mourning, and suffering. We shouldn't disturb that by trying to over step our boundaries with hashtags and Facebook posts. I do agree there is some self-centerdness within people's posts/tweets. I feel as if when something happens in another country America is the first to try to give their blessings, but are we really doing it for the mourning country, or are we posting just to post about it? I don't ever know because someone could have a direct relation to the attacks, and others not so much. It's hard to say whether I disagree or agree if this is slacktivism, however I do think social media can be overwhelming with unnecessary hashtags/posts when it comes to tragedies such as this one.

Lesson Learned

In class this week, the topic I found most interesting in our lesson is the selling of the body on EBAY. Ebay is a site on the internet that you can sell things on, buy things, bid on things, etc. See how I'm stating "things" as what you can buy, however I guess it's a thing to sell your body/sex as well. Now I personally think this is horrific and disgusting, however I guess someone didn't when they paid 780,000 dollars for a girl's virginity. I mean really are you that desperate that your paying that amount of money to have sex?? Anyways, this auction of "selling virgins" was created in Australia. The girl's name that being auctioned off was Catarina Migliorini, 20 years of age. That is literally my age so that's just disturbing. The winner was a japanese male, named Natsu, who's age goes unknown. Although Catarina was going to give a portion of her funds to the poor of her city, the question still remained as to what this girl was thinking by doing this. The way this happened was she was to board a plane with her buyer between Australia and the U.S. so it was legal, and she claimed "if you only do it once in your life than you are not a prostitute, just like if you take one amazing photograph it does not automatically make you a photographer"...whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. According to the huffingtonpost website, it said the deal was never complete, but she did try to auction off her virginity a second time. She did it through her own website and stated "well after being featured by so many media outlets in so many countries, I decided to actually auction off my virginity." This was back in 2013, but she told one brazilian website that she was hoping to raise 1.5 million. This story is just absolutely nuts to me and I just don't understand it.

DIY WEEKEND PART 3

WOW this project has been so time consuming, yet so fun. I truly have a passion for baking and cooking, and this project gave me all the more reason to try some new recipes out utilizing my favorite ingredients, chocolate and peanut butter. This week's recipe I decided to do chocolate fudge brownies with layers of peanut butter semi-sweet chips. Making brownies seems easy, however if you put more oil or water than your supposed to, it turns out awful. That didn't happen to me though, THANK GOD. Anyways my ingredients this week included, chocolate fudge brownie mix, vegetable oil, water, 1 egg, peanut butter chips, and chocolate fudge frosting. The steps for this recipe were to mix the brownie mix, add the fudge packet, put half the mix in a baking pan, add a layer of peanut butter chips, add the other half on mix on top and then put another layer of the chips on top of that. Next was preheating the oven, and baking them for about 28-30 minutes. I always do 28 minutes because I like them to be moist and not over baked. Next was taking them out of the oven and letting them cool down till they were ready to be frosted. The cool down took about 15-20 minutes. I applied the frosting, and then added another layer of peanut butter chips because why not. Overall with going to get the ingredients to making the brownies, it was just over 2 hours. I've completed my 6 hours and  I couldn't be more happy!! Can't wait for next weekend to show everyone my give back project, but here are some pictures of my chocolate fudge brownies with peanut butter chips :) sorry again that they were eaten within 20 minutes and I couldn't bring any into class...

GPS Artist

Stephen's GPS art is actually amazing. He is so skilled in what he does, and I believe it takes true talent to create art just using a GPS. Stephen has created works for miles, and it's so shocking to me how they can come out the way they do. I really enjoyed the one that was a tribute to the soldiers and service members whom have risked their lives everyday. I also really liked the birthday ones. I thought they were very creative and GPSed perfectly (if that's even a term). I think this relates to the Data Visualization lesson we learned in class because he is using a simple application for something to big and creative. He utilizes all the application's features and turns it into these art pieces that are just astounding. To me, the digital world is taking over in a huge way, and GPS art is just one piece of the puzzle in creating a whole new world for Data Visualization.