straight down the line

Week Two Summary

By stephaniebwhite | January 25, 2015 | 0

Week two definitely went a lot better than week one did for me. I was able to post things without struggling to figure out how to do it. I also got the hang of how to do new things. I have really enjoyed seeing everyones tweets on twitter. I downloaded TweetDeck, which has made Twitter SO much easier. If you haven’t already downloaded it, I highly recommend it. It has helped me immensely this week. I also felt a lot more connected this week!

I found @jimgroom’s tweet to be very true after doing this week’s work. There was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun! Even though it was fun and enjoyable, it is still work!

I can also relate to @miaboleis’s tweet…I HAVE SO MANY TABS OPEN it’s not even funny!

Readings:

This week, we were assigned to read several pieces of noir.

The required piece for this week is “The Postman Always Rings Twice” by James M. Cain. This piece was pretty racist in my opinion. There was a lot of stereotyping happening in the beginning. At the end of Chapter 2, things took a turn and I could definitely see how noir is a theme in this piece. The piece was very descriptive with vivid imagery, so I could almost picture it. The vocabulary was very much outdated, but it did a good job of putting an imagine in my mind while I was reading. It gets pretty violent at point and the story line is very strange. It’s actually a very twisted piece. The later half of the piece and the ending really threw me for a loop. It is a piece unlike anything I have ever read before. After reading this piece, I can definitively see how noir is tied in and how this piece is written in a style of noir.

This week, we also had to read a couple of choice pieces from a list. When choosing these pieces, I looked to see which titles seemed intriguing to me. Then, I skimmed the first few pages to make sure I picked something I would enjoy reading. For the first choice piece, I chose to read “The Shadow” which is a script for The Death Triangle episode starring Orson Welles. This script was written in December of 1937. I like how the script gives very vivid descriptions on what is happening, what is being heard, etc. These very vivd descriptions are incorporated into the script and give the reader a sense of what it is like to be there. I found it very creepy how The Shadow was dictating Dr. Evans. The Shadow was used in multiple ways. The Shadow was a character in the episode, but The Shadow is also a figurative way of denoting something is there. In a way (though it’s a different form) it’s kind of like a hostage situation. I found it very creepy how at the end the script stated that “the shadow knows…”. Creepy! The plot/story line was all over the place and it seemed to be very twisted, like the other story I read. For the second choice piece, I chose to read “The Killers” by Ernest Hemingway. This piece was written in March of 1927. The language in this piece is very vulgar and racist. I did not like this piece at all. It made me very uncomfortable. It seemed to me that they were doing things for absolutely no reason or the background reason wasn’t given. When they do give a reasoning it is like a “just because…” I was glad that even though the title suggests killing, nobody was actually killed in this piece unlike the other pieces I read. This piece was definitely less gruesome, but still descriptive.

We also had to choose one of the stories from the fiction section of the Noir issue of Shenandoah Literacy. I chose to read “Driftwood” by Michael Caleb Tasker. The language in this piece was very vulgar. When I was reading there would just casually be a curse word when I least expected. The term “drifters” in this piece is referring to homeless people who are “drifting” or wandering. This was a very complex and hard to read piece, in my opinion. I found myself to be very lost at points. I liked the descriptions a lot, but I was slightly confused.

I see a common theme among all of these noir readings. They are very twisted. Killing (each other) also seems to be a common theme. All of the pieces are very descriptive. When I was reading them, I felt like I was there. I liked reading these noir pieces, they definitely got me thinking, but they are not my type of reading style. I still enjoy discovering them.

 

Character Dossier: 

Creating my character dossier, Shirley Mayfield was one of the most enjoyable things on the list of things to do this week. I had a lot of fun exploring my creative side and making my own original femme fatale character.

Betty Compson -1929-The Great Gabbo

You can find Shirley’s full biography and story on my blog. I hope you enjoy meeting her!

 

Assignments:

For one of my week two assignments, I chose to do the assignment, Sharing a Book that was submitted by Ana Muñoz de Rivera Blasco. I am in the Elementary Education program at the University of Mary Washington. Last semester, I was assigned to write a children’s book. If you would like to see the book, I have uploaded it to flickr as well as posted it in my blog. I hope you enjoy! The book is entitled Never Give Up!

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For one of my week two assignments, I chose to do the assignment, 1o Seconds of Thanks that was submitted by Ben Rimes.

The assignment is to “1. Using a timer, write what you’re thankful for in just 10 seconds! Anything and everything that you can think of being thankful for is fair game, but stop at 10 seconds.
2. Share what you’ve written on a blog, wiki, or some other digital space that others can comment on.”

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I really enjoyed doing this assignment because it made me aware of how much I have to be thankful for. I need reminders sometimes. I also like how I did it on a post-it note, so I am able to put it in my planner to serve as a daily reminder. I need to remember how blessed I truly am even though life isn’t perfect, there is always something to be thankful for.

For one of my week two assignments, I decided to make an alternate ending to Ernest Hemingway’s “The Killers”. The assignment is to write an alternate ending to a novel, movie, short story, poem, etc. What else can I say but make it damn good! I decided to write the alternate ending to “The Killers” because even though it was a really weird piece, I enjoyed reading it this week. Read the alternate ending on my blog!

For one of my week two assignments, I decided to do the Tell Us About Your Future Life assignment that was submitted by Alison Thoet. I decided to do this assignment for the assignment that had to deal with our character dossier. I remixed this assignment to make it about Shirley Mayfield’s life instead of my own. To read about Shirley’s future, check out my blog!

 

The Daily Creates:

I do have to say some of the daily create assignments really make me uncomfortable. I had a really tough time picking which assignments to do this week, but after thinking about it, I realized that I need to jump outside of my comfort zone. These assignments are meant to get people thinking and make people show their creative side. I really jumped out of my comfort zone this week when I completed the yodeling assignment. I would NEVER do something like this, but this class is teaching me that it is important to realize that you can do something and we are all in the same boat, so it is okay.

The Daily Create Assignment on Wednesday 1-21-2015 was to make a cat, on synthesizer, in space.  At first I was like what on earth? Then I was like oh whatever, just go with it. I would never even have thought about a cat being on a synthesizer in space until I took this class, but hey whatever works haha! So, I present to you…a cat on a synthesizer in space…

A cat on a synthesizer in space

The Daily Create Assignment on Thursday 1-22-2015 was to record myself yodeling. I do have to say, this is quite possibly the weirdest thing I have ever recorded. I definitely stepped out of my comfort zone to do this. I almost thought about skipping this daily create, but I wanted to do something that I wouldn’t normally do. I don’t think that I ever would have done something like this until I took this class. Here is my awful yodel haha… #Idon’tgiveayodel

Only at UMW…

Posted in #characterdossier, dailycreate, digital storytelling, ds106, noir106, noir106burtis, Syndicated, tdc1109, tdc1110, tdc1111

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