On Top of the World

I had to go back and look at the list of assignments for this week in order to remember everything I have done. I feel super accomplished. I think I may set a personal goal for myself each week to finish my assignments by Saturday.

I started out the week by reading three of the noir readings. The Postman Always Rings Twice took me a while to get into, but once I pushed past the halfway point I had to find out what happened to these ridiculous characters. I am not the best at actually doing reading assignments, so I am very proud of myself for reading not only this story but also The Shadow and The Killers. I responded wrote a response post to these noir readings. I definitely think that taking the time to read all of these stories first helped me gather more a noir feel in creating my own writings later on in the week.

Once I finished all of the reading, I chose to use The Postman Always Rings Twice for my alternative ending assignment. Not because it was my favorite (The Shadow was definitely my favorite), but because the ending had annoyed me and I wanted to re-write it. It took me awhile to come up with an idea for the alternate ending, but once I did, I really enjoyed flipping the characters’ roles around.

I participated in three daily creates. Making those each day was quite an experience. I had a lot of fun using editing software to make the cat, on a synthesizer, in space. It was something I had never done before, but I was really excited to learn. I tried to use different fandoms I am a part of in my pictures as much as possible. The yodeling and the eye selfie I did not find nearly as much fun. I found making these kind of uncomfortable, and I was very self-conscious about my yodel. But I had no idea what the next daily creates would be so I figured I should just go ahead and make them. This class is supposed to make you step out of your comfort zone a little, right?

I really enjoyed writing the character dossier. I was not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. I even tweeted about it.

i am oddly fascinated by the life of this character I just created. I think I have may have done too much #ds106 #timeforbed

— Lauren Falkenstein (@laurenfalkens) January 23, 2015

I created Sarah Mustard using the mysterious woman trope and I am very excited for what the future holds for Sarah Mustard. My friend of mine joked that if this whole finding a job thing doesn’t work out, maybe we can just write stories for our various characters. I have really enjoyed reading other students’ characters and commenting on them as well. I really like this version of storytelling and seeing all of the different routes people are taking in creating their characters.

Finally, I completed three writing assignments adding up to eight points. For two of my points I talked about I how I received my given name. I thought that assignment was nice, giving more insight into who I am. While I enjoyed writing that assignment, I had a lot more fun with my other six points which revolved around Sarah Mustard’s story. First, I wrote a short story with 10 randomly generated words in which Sarah is out working on a case and she makes a new friend. The other writing assignment related to my character was my monologue of a household tool, which was probably my favorite thing I have done all week. I love writing stories from unique perspectives. I really enjoyed thinking like a lamp. It really brightened my day.

I attempted to customize my blog a bit more. I messed with some new themes. I wasn’t really digging my old one. I added more to my about page as instructed. I was very excited to install the plug-in that blocked spam, as I had already got a bunch of spam for some reason! The other plug-ins were helpful as well. Also, I had fun creating a new “logo” for my blog, because who doesn’t love Elsa from Frozen playing with pi?

I feel like I have written so much this week! I realize this week was writing week so I shouldn’t be surprised, but it was a lot more work than I was anticipating. I guess ds106 is not for the fainthearted. I feel even more successful for getting everything done and am curious to see what next week will bring.

And that’s what you missed on Princesses and Pieces of Pi.