Portfolio Notes

·       Putting more thought into what I want to display in myself, I have sort of mapped out some of my objectives:

• My main targeted audience would be potential employers and other Public Relation professionals, as I think I want my focus to be on that work. I don’t have specific organizations in mind yet because I’m not sure where I want to work. Chicago, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Boston are my top choice so far. I’d also try to appeal to anyone else in my field looking for my kind of examples or if they want to see how I’m moving towards the career I want. This could be anyone between the ages of 18 and 30.
• The three pieces that I have decided to use thus far:

·       Interactive Narrative: I think my Company of Wolves project would be a great project to polish up and build upon for this portfolio. It’s a project that doesn’t have to be static and is of course, interactive. I think this is a good sample of work to use for my portfolio because it shows experience with flipbook, different media, and writing, all qualities useful to PR.

·        Infographic: For my internship, I developed a year in review infographic to send to our general followers to show what happened with us/what we did in 2015. It is in online format and I think it is a good example of writing, graphics (obviously), and creativity.

·       Flyers: For UPJ Backroads, I developed several flyers and am currently working on a large poster. I think the flyers really show off some of my abilities on Sketchbook, layouts, etc.

• I plan to create another website to display my portfolio for the ease of organizing it from scratch rather than catering my current blog. I think it will be able to display my ideal self the best (that identity being a PR/writing professional)
• For my final essay, I think a hyperlinked text essay would work well with my medium for the portfolio. I think it will be effective as sort of an introduction to my portfolio.

What Happens When I Experiment with Locative Writing...

I am determined to create the project I had originally intended: using typography at different locations. Unfortunately, these are some not so pretty surfaces. I'll have to wait for more ideal locations and conditions.

I don't want to take every note from Shirley Jackson's "Snow" and only use snow for words, but it's surprisingly difficult to find mud without rocks on this campus.

I'll return to this project some day soon I hope.

Something New

After my last post about blog envy, I realized I needed a new look. Cold starts early here at UPJ and I cannot wait for the snow. So I decided why not some cute pine trees, one of my favorite smells. This just to hold me over before I get down to some real blog revamping.

Before:

After:

Blog Envy

As I've been searing for inspiration on how to present work and blogs, I've come across some favorites. I follow a lot of beauty blogs (Carli Bybel's blog and Youtube channel are addictions of mine), but the blogs I love the most for content and style are actually PR and  blogs. Here you can find descriptions of two PR blogs and a Chicago fashion blog that I am taking style points from.

Millennial Marketing

This is one of my holy grail websites that appeals to a wide range of my interests like food, fashion, digital trends, and social media. I love following it for it's informative and understandable articles on media and public relations. The writing isn't the same marketing jargon you see on a lot of marketing/PR blogs. It's something relatable while also giving expert advice on topics that I would encounter in my desired career path.

Style wise, it's clean and bright and often uses single pictures to articulate article topics. If I were to use aspects from this blog on my own blog or portfolio, I would definitely use the straight forward pictures, the nice use of space, and the blue and white palette.

The Suburban Poppy

Suburban Poppy could be considered "life goals" for this girl. I love everything this blogger covers: art shows, food, projects, fashion/retail, and city life. I am dying to move to a city, so this blog makes me green with envy at every post about urban life and a modern take on PR professionalism.

This site is actually already one of my muses for blog style. I love the pink and white palette mixed with cute graphics and great pictures. IF I were to continue to use this as style inspiration alone, I would change my blog from dark to bright and white, much like Suburban Poppy's and play with creating more of my own media like gifs and graphics.

Taking hints from a writing and content perspective, this is my first choice in conveying myself through a professional but personal website. She is relatable and comes off as knowledgable in her writing, so I would strive for that same persona.

The CHICago Life Blog

As mentioned, I can't wait to move to a city. Chicago in particular is my top choice! This blog may not appeal to as much of my career path as the other two I mentioned but it still appeals to lifestyles and hobbies I enjoy. I love design of all kinds: fashion, interior, makeup, typography, print making, the list goes on. So I love this mix of design and life in Chicago the blog presents.

Like the other blogs mentioned, this blog uses a bright and white layout with smart photo choices. I adore the fonts used on this website and would definitely be snagging them where I can. What I hate is some of the overbearing advertising, so this is a good example of what I don't want on my websites and portfolios. But outside of that, the articles appeal to my interests and I would love to mirror some of its writing.

"Sit With Me" Locative Project

As cliche as it can seem, campus has been the most important location to my life. Despite the traveling I've done, this has been a home I've made. So I decided to celebrate the location and the two and a  half years I've been here. I wanted to demonstrate what it means to me that I met my best friend at this location. 

I originally wanted to make a Locative Narrative that resembled "Snow" by Shelley Jackson, but if I wanted to make typography, I could only find a few sights on campus with a soft, flat surface. If only it had rained more. 

I chose to use Google Maps as my tool to demonstrate this narrative. I actually really enjoy how this turned out and have put below the full text, though it is short. While I have listed in a chronological timeline, you can view them in whatever order you feel. The locations of the events are what matter to me more so than the order.

I didn't want to pick out every single location that demonstrated how our relationship grew, just the ones that are the most important to me. Hence why it is in first person primarily. After walking around campus, I realized that my favorite thing to do with my favorite person is to just be still, sit a while. So I tried to capture some locations on campus that meant something to me when I sat there with him.



I was new and unprepared. All I had to do was turn to see the laugh that I knew would belong to someone important. We were sitting, he and I. I was sitting one row ahead with only him in my sights when I turned around. He wore the same shirt I had: light blue, white text. I couldn't hide my smile. 
Down the hall. He was just around the corner from me. Walk with me. Talk with me. 
Sit with me. "Sit with me," he called across the room. English Composition I. I was taken.
Hours and hours. Fog in front of our faces in the cold air. Hours of us on this bench. He took the time to know me. He gave me his coat to sit longer. Hours before he kissed me. He kissed me until morning.
"You're my favorite person." his shoulder being my familiar lounge for almost two years now. Rain dances under the lights and I'm wrapped in him. His hoodie, his arms, his smell. I couldn't be warmer. I sit with him for hours.
Home. This blanket, this wall, and this nook in an otherwise shitty dorm is home. Sit with me. Stay with me. 

Locative Narrative Practice

To start, I don't know where my mind has been this past week and a half. I am falling apart at the seams in one way or another. Time to snap out of it.

I've been working on a lot of projects recently, many of them being at my internship. Program ads, catalogs, and one-sheeter handouts seem to be running my life now. But I'm happy with that. I've been feeling really important with I'm doing. As for classes, a subject I'm dipping my feet in is Locative Narrative Writing.

I teamed up with a classmate (Rachel Addoms) and tested out some Locative Narrative methods by mixing photography, storytelling, and social media. It was a simple recipe: take pictures around campus, geotag them, and tweet a little story pertaining to the photo. We were of course using daily life at UPJ to demonstrate this.

We didn't post them in the best order possible, but I've arranged them into the narrative we were after here:

In the crisp morning air, I make my daily trek to one of my writing classes. pic.twitter.com/P0yiJigq50

— Victoria Kelly (@vicrum113) November 16, 2015

My morning fix of caramel and cream. I don't know how I'd get through the fall chill without it. pic.twitter.com/XxtF2Lc0D7

— Victoria Kelly (@vicrum113) November 16, 2015

I take breaks where I can find them. Today I had the luxury of silence and a room to myself. pic.twitter.com/HHPXkoodJh

— Victoria Kelly (@vicrum113) November 16, 2015

"Can I have the 1/2 Sandwich and Cup of Soup Combo, please?" Tomato Bisque warms my soul. pic.twitter.com/iqdsJ0l8N7

— Victoria Kelly (@vicrum113) November 16, 2015

As I watch the sun set, it reminds me that I'll be returning here for my night shift in only a few hours. pic.twitter.com/9bCzeLQMje

— Victoria Kelly (@vicrum113) November 16, 2015

A bed to myself. A nap until 11. It's the little things that keep me going before my night shift. pic.twitter.com/txg7q4LmeZ

— Victoria Kelly (@vicrum113) November 16, 2015

Looking at what we came up with, I'd say we have it sweet here. Despite a night shift and some noise (we couldn't capture hustle and bustle so late in the afternoon), our campus is easy going. Of course I wanted to include food. How can it not be someone's favorite thing?

RJ's Cafe and Lounge on Main in Johnstown

Having an internship in the city, I have a few more options for lunch than the usual Sodexo or Sheetz (aka the life blood) of eating at school. I'm trying to get out there and test out more restaurants. Of course I'm itching to have dinners, but lunches in Johnstown will have to do for now. 

So I tried RJ's Cafe and Lounge on Main and I wasn't disappointed. I ordered a club with their chips. The club was with really thick turkey, ham, bacon, tomato, lettuce, and avocado on Italian toast. It came with the side of chips and they were surprising in being perfectly peppery (I'm not a black pepper kinda girl, so this is big). 

All of it was really fresh and the portion was huge. I only ate half at lunch and saved the rest for the inevitable night hungers of a college student. Even after sitting in my dinky fridge, it tasted fresh and satisfying. 

I would highly recommend RJ's lunch! I hear nothing but good about their dinner. They have an adorable atmosphere (though, I was only there for a few moments to carry out my lunch), great food, and an impressive bar for its size. 

They have a wine and craft beer selection but those seem just a tad pricey. I'm in love with Not Your Father's Rootbeer by Small Town Brewery (which I'm so glad to see its rise in popularity and production), but they sell them for $4 a pop. Maybe I'm just that new to buying at a bar, but I'd rather go hunt for six pack of them for that price. 

Another perk of RJ's lunch, it makes for quite the desk accessory. 

"Urban Decays" Generative Project

Taroko Gorge poems are interesting in that they never stop generating content. They are the epitome of Generative Literature for giving a new text at every view, using a logarithm as a set of "rules" for generating the text, and questions the role of an author.

I decided to take Taroko Gorge code and change the subject matter to be about makeup. Specifically, Urban Decay makeup. While most of the verbs consist of makeup techniques and gestures, the nouns and adjectives are terms of the face, makeup textures, and Urban Decay cosmetic names. I chose names that could be ambiguous and taken in one of two ways with the title: those familiar with the brand would know these colors, and those who don't know it could end up with a different, more literal interpretation. "Urban Decays" could be taken as literally city rot and my poem of random smudges, gunmetal, busted, blackouts, etc.

This project took some html that I was fine with until it came to completion. Being generative, I couldn't seem to find a way of hosting it without some lag time. So please excuse my hot mess html before viewing my "Urban Decays" poem.

Iguana Love Poems

Dear heart,

You are precious things. My pretty hero extraordinarily shining your luminous truth.

You are my azure flame.

Yours sweetly,
Eyes

It's funny that little, romantic quip was basically made from a mad lib. After dissecting a piece of writing for nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs, I simply plugged them into a "formula" for a love letter. 

Dear [noun],
You are [adj.] [noun]. My [adj.] [noun] [adv.] [v.] your [adj.] [noun].
You are my [adj.] [noun].
Yours [adv.],
[Noun]

I chose to comb "The Iguana" from Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen). It is one of my absolute favorite novels and I especially love the short stories within it. The story is about how the author coveted the iguanas' skin and wanted to use it for other pretty things. But after shooting one, she saw the once beautiful colors turn to grey. She compares this to when she saw a litter girl's leather and beaded bracelet and bought it from her. Like the iguana, she saw the colors and life fade from the bracelet once she put it on her wrist.

This excerpt is full of beautiful imagery and adjectives; however, being mainly about a big lizard, the nouns are not too romantic. So I had a thought to make this love letter from the perspective of the stone that the iguana sits upon: 

Dear Iguana,

You are luminous colours. My strange heap lively swishing your light blue skin.

You are my leather fish.

Yours nobly,

Stone

And for the sake of showing you this lovely little short story, you can find it after the jump.

Cut-Up Method

As you can see from my post last week, I'm playing with Generative literature. William S. Borough's Cut-Up Method renders some pretty interesting results. Unlike the "rules" I had set up for the True Detective quote, this is a pretty pure exercise.

I was simply given a handful of words and I created poems with that (free to punctuate how I see fit, thankfully).

The words and phrases I was given:

their dad, when I first picked, to school anyway, to great things, with crushed mulberries, one evening, the goose-feathered pillows, because that's how, unconscious and unresponsive, so strong it rips, against ocean view, and the prominence

Here are some of the poems I came up with (voiding a phrase here and there):

No. 1:

Their dad, unconscious and unresponsive, one evening.

When I first picked the goose-feathered pillows and the prominent

Because that's how, against ocean-view,

with crushed mulberries.

To great things, to school anyway so strong it rips

No. 2:

One evening, with crushed mulberries 

and the prominent to great things,

The goose-feathered pillows against ocean-view

So strong it rips.

Because that's how when I first picked.

Unconscious and unresponsive.

No. 3:

When I first picked their dad one evening,

the goose feathered pillows and the prominent.

To great things, so strong it rips.

Against ocean-view, unconscious and unresponsive, to school anyway.

Because that's how with crushed mulberries.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween, without a doubt, is my favorite holiday of all time. While I do celebrate it all October, I wish it were longer than one day. Not to mention, it is my birthday! The big 21, guys. But I'll keep those festivities off the internet the best I can.

I decided to go cheap as possible this year (still on that college girl budget) and just went the face painting route. To get this little number going, this was all I needed:

$1 dollar tube of face paint

+

$1 cheap ass liquid liner 

(I didn't want to muck up my usual stuff)

+

"Crave" on Urban Decay's Naked Basics

+

a whole lot of blending

Unfortunately, UPJ is not as festive as I would like it to be. Apart from the Humanities Department and a handful of students, I was an odd man out. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?! It's the day before Halloween people! It was worth the stares though, as some came with complements. 

True Detective Cut Up Poetry?

A new form of literature and art I'm really interested in learning about is Generative. While I'm more interested in a sort of coding-based technique to learn about, analog Generative Literature is really interesting. 

I decided to just test out an analog method by taking a quote from Detective Rust Cohle from True Detective. My "rules" for this was to delete all but every third word and I may go in later and put in punctuation and such for my own sanity.


"I'd consider myself a realist, alright? But in philosophical terms I'm what's called a pessimist... I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware. Nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself - we are creatures that should not exist by natural law... We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, that accretion of sensory experience and feelings, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody's nobody... I think the honorable thing for our species to do is to deny our programming. Stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction - one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal."

myself alright? philosophical what's pessimist... human a in became Nature aspect separate - creatures not natural law... things under of self, of and with that each in nobody... the for to to programming. walk hand  - one brothers opting a...

After looking at what is left, some making no sense at all, I decided to play with some poetic breaks. A new "rule" developed: any ellipsis found will make a break; hyphens and periods make a new line. While the end result still could use some filling out to make sense, I like the cool, choppy structure it developed. 


RUST

Myself alright? 
Philosophical what's pessimist

Human a in became Nature aspect separate 
Creatures not natural law

Things under of self, of and with that each in nobody

The for to to programming
Walk hand  
One brothers opting a...

My Interactive Narrative: The Company of Wolves

I am obsessed with the horror genre of film and books. So I thought it would be perfect to combine the both of them into an interactive novel-like structure.

One of my favorite movies is The Company of Wolves, a British-gothic horror from the 1980's. It is based off of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and they both use cues from werewolf lore and Little Red Riding Hood tales. Something I love the most about the film is the use of physical effects (I will always appreciate them to computer generated).

In the spirit of the Halloween season (aka the greatest time of year), I wanted to develop a project that really told all the stories within the story of The Company of Wolves. I took quotes from both the film and The Bloody Chamber and then created my own story by filling in the rest and tweaking some endings here and there. I wanted to be able to move through the stories without any definite direction. Overall, I think it turned out pretty well using a flipbook maker. It was hard to find a free maker that gave me exactly what I wanted but FlipSnack definitely gave me the most. To link stories together, I put them in both the flipbook and a blog on WordPress.

To navigate this interactive story, you can either go to the DigitalWolvesProject page and read from there or follow the story through the flip book.

I'd like to add, most images are from the film but several images including the one shown above and the cover were edited by me.



I suggest reading it in fullscreen, but to open a link you must either have your pop-up blocker off or escape fullscreen and click on the widget.

A Look Into Student Work: More Interactive Narratives

Your Hero: The writing in this was really impressive in my opinion. It was to the point and you guys created endings within the story that were both realistic and interesting to follow. I felt for the characters and was actually excited to read through and find out all the endings.  I really like “Choose Your Path” storylines and this was a great example of an ambiguous perspective. Your choice of phrases, quotes, and scenarios for the path options were really smart. Is the reader Ryan? Gracie? Are you just an onlooker? It changes and I think it shakes up the narrative’s direction a lot.

Cabin by the Lake: This piece was actually both thrilling and quirky. The writing is full of imagery that really immerses you into the spook of it all. I played through all the possible combinations of moves and really liked the in depth deaths. I actually laughed at the matter-of-fact “You are dead” at the end of each death scenario. I think it made it cute to contrast the scariness. The fact that it’s a group of young adults follows that timeless theme of kids getting in a sticky situation with a killer. It’s good. I would suggest adding more actions that influence the other people’s deaths. It looks like that is in the works with the last scenario. I think it will really add a layer to the game. It kind of reminds me of Until Dawn (A video game located in the deep woods and a group of friends are surviving certain occurrences. Your actions as different characters influences the lives of your other characters). I’m also assuming that the “You do/don’t die here ;)” are place holders so I’m excited to see what happens. I really enjoyed the overall narrative of it all. It sort of follows a CYO format, which I’ve mentioned is something I like.

Interactive Narrative in Video Games

I am in love with Interactive Narrative games. For the sake of inability to go into detail about each one, I'm going to get into my two most enjoyed Interactive Narrative games: The Sims and Alien Isolation.

I have owned all four of The Sims and have bought more expansion packs and DLC than I am proud to admit. You can create a beautiful, utopian family/neighborhood...or you can remove all the doors in your home and watch your sim go insane with incontinence and bad moods. You can do anything with millions of options as far as interactions go. Glitches are always welcome for the entertainment or the horror.

That being said, I think outside of when I owned it on Gamecube, I mainly used Sims for the houses. I just love building/designing houses and interiors. I actually use a lot of other 3D “home building” and contracting programs just for the hell of designing houses without the limitations of Simoleons or unhappy Sims (though I always used cheat codes, I’m that guy).

This is my chance to nerd out about my newest favorite interactive video game, Alien Isolation. This is a daithful adaptation of Alien, one of my favorite movie franchises.  I'm embarrassed to say though, I have yet to actually “beat” the damn thing. It is so interactive and dependent on your actions, that every decision you make (conscious or otherwise) dictates something. This can be the xenomorph learning your moves, other survivors reacting towards you, or the ship itself being "unlocked" by your actions. So many of my actions end up being impulsive and unwise under the pressure of danger (It’s scary, okay).

The story follows Ellen Ripley’s daughter, Amanda, on a Weyland Corp vessel where she not only has to cautious of a xenomorph on the loose, but desperate survivors that could betray her. The creators did a fantastic job mirroring the original Alien design of the ship, so of course that's enough to get me fangirling.

If you're not a fan of the standard interactive survival/visual novel/"choose-your-own" adventure game set up with physical paths, you should really give Alien Isolation a try. It is far from dull, you don't really know what your actions are going to result in, and it's really well done.

MAKEUP!

I'm finally posting about one of my many loves, MAKEUP. The money and time I have spent on anything cosmetic related is horrifying but almost makes me proud. One day I'll show off my little collection of cosmetics.

But to start off my makeup-related posts, I'll give you a little introduction to my tastes:

My everyday makeup is a blended, neutral crease and winged liner with nothing on my lips or cheeks. I usually like a little highlighter along the top of my cheekbones, browbones, and cupid's bow. I normally don't put anything on my waterline but when I do I mainly use bronze, gold, and purple. I also love a smokey eyes, but you rarely see me without winged liner and I try not to mix the two for everyday wear. When I do wear lipsticks, I'm obsessed with burgundy, plum, and nudes that lean towards the pink side. And of course I've been in love with dark eyebrows well before the bold brow trend, I'm just lucky to have them naturally and only have to define my tail.

That's my makeup in a nutshell, not to say I don't like to shake it up every now and then and try a green cut crease or what have you.

COOL-TONED FALL LOOK

Today, to match my favorite rainy weather in fall, I went on the cool side and wore a light grey crease and a muted purple eyeliner with the same grey eyeshadow blended on my lower lashline. Cool tones are usually great for any eye-color, and I'm always looking for ways to make my eyes look a little less caca-brown. Purple or golden shadows are my usual colors of choice if I'm working with color at all. Nudes nudes nudes are forever my favorite shadows.

PRODUCTS

• Maybelline Eye Studio Master Smoky in "Smoldering Violet" (615)
• Urban Decay Naked Palette (Using mainly "Gunmetal," "Naked," and "Virgin")
• NYX Tame & Frame Eyebrow Pomade in "Espresso"
• NYX Matte Liquid Liner
• Urban Decay Perversion Mascara (Without the primer today)

Thinking of Spring So Soon

It's only October. I haven't had most of my midterms yet, I'm balancing my work/school/love/clubs/sleep/free time like a Chinese circus, and I just want Halloween here tomorrow. But it's already time for... Spring Enrollment.

I've never liked spring semester at school. I may adore snow and chilly weather but I lose all motivation to be anything but a lump in my comforter. Which makes it difficult to schedule classes I will adore knowing how I'll dread trudging to them through the unkempt ski slopes sidewalks of UPJ (I'll rant about our useless maintenance another day).

Despite the inevitable loss of drive I'll have, I can't wait for more courses! I'm making a point to take several more digital media based courses because I truly think what we are learning is valuable. The courses I'm looking at include courses that will give me more experience with photoshop and two more digital narrative/writing courses with two of my favorite Humanities professors on campus: Dr. Cox and Dr. Justus. Other courses will be in marketing/communication.

I'm the type of person who needs to see everything planned out, color-coded, and visualized. So I think a really great tool a lot of people skip out when scheduling is My Student Center's Planner.

It may not be pretty but it's organized. You really just have to look at your major requirements, browse the course catalog for what you want, and add them to your planner as you go. I take it the extra step of breaking them into the exact semester I plan to take a course up until I graduate. I also have an extensive document that truly shows my need for planning where I made a grid to check off each graduation requirement I finish.

Excited or not, I still need some time before I can start thinking about spring.

Mambo No. 5 Disney Mashup

This project was based off of the idea of "remixing" and appropriative narratives. That can consist of taking pre-existing ideas or products and shaping them in a different way (through editing chronology or audio, overlaying different artifacts, or in some cases just changing authorship).

With three other classmates (Rachel Addoms, Kayla Stockdale, and Kylie Truscello), I was able to do not only a collaborative project, but an appropriative one. Two of these classmates, Kayla and Kylie, worked with me on my recent Pinterest project, so don't forget to check that out!

Our main goal in mind was to create something light-hearted that appealed to nostalgia and humor. We are all "90's babies" and that meant having some iconic entertainment in our childhoods. With that in mind, we chose to appropriate different dancing clips from both new and old animated Disney movies. The result in mind being a dance sequence, we needed a song that almost every person our age has heard a million times and still hasn't tired of it. We chose Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5" (I know, basically the best dance song ever made).

Overlaying this song lined up perfectly with our video montage and it was actually a fun experience to polish our project up to make certain clips match the beat. We mostly used various YouTube videos and cut them to our liking on iMovie. A lot of our footage was from Tarzan's "Trashing the Camp" scene because of just how much their movements went with the song.

All in all, I could not be more pleased with the result and how easy it was working with my group. The video turned out cute, clean, and fulfilled our goal of nostalgic entertainment from our childhoods.

UPJ Backroads

Something I've mentioned before is the UPJ's literary magazine, Backroads. I'm the Art Editor and am very excited for upcoming work with this club! Something I'll be somewhat in charge of is the website, promotion, and some of the artsy stuff. Exhibit A being flyers!

...

What I'm posting about this week is the celebration of collaboration, much like my post last week about using Pinterest as a collaborative medium. This magazine is made up of student or faculty submissions in poetry, photography, prose, and art. We also have a website not only to archive, but to display student work that can't be on print like music, video, or other digital art. We publish it yearly after gathering and voting on submissions.

Right now we are in the phases of calling for submissions, holding events, and fundraising. I was put to work at developing some more stand-out ads to catch interest before I develop more informative flyers and eventually a poster.

This has actually given me a great opportunity to play with more digital art platforms. The vague brushstroke backgrounds were my own quick creation and the middle poster used to be my own artwork until my Autodesk Sketchbook app started bugging out. Now there is a placeholder drawing that I will soon replace with a drawing of my own. After all, we are a club centered around celebrating the creativity and skills of students.

UPDATE: If someone were glancing at this post and my blog you would think I am obsessed with pinks and yellows (ironically, my favorite colors are black and grey). Really I was just looking for colors that pop against our class buildings' dingy blue walls and the sea of blue and gold pageantry.

Upcoming Writing Project! Birdman Analysis

Last year I had turned in a final paper on the topic of Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) for my American Literary course. The movie is riddled with references to Raymond Carver works and even a little Macbeth. It was a paper that I struggled with but enjoyed writing because I am a diehard movie lover. I adored this movie and everything about it and jumped on the chance to write about not just the literary importance, but the cinematic value and themes of "reality versus perception" that the film explores.

With the advice of one of UPJ's Literature professors, Dr, Jeremy Justus, I'm returning to this paper and focusing more on those themes of reality. I'm hoping to really dig into this project and get a bearing for film analysis. I'm hoping, too, that the material I develop has enough weight that I can present again at UPJ's undergraduate research conference, SPACE. Even without that honor in mind, I want to polish this for my own growth in writing and humanities research ability.

To give a preview on what this will be about, I'm focusing mainly on the three realities of Birdman. There is the objective reality of the film's world, the subjective reality of Riggan Thomson's (Michael Keaton) mind, and the objective reality of the audience's world. I'll be looking at the diegetic elements of the film as evidence of which reality is present at which time and explain where they parallel.

I actually made three completely different drafts for the original paper and am pulling from all four versions along with additional research for this updated project. There is still a lot to decide if I want to keep the literary allusions as a topic (because they are important still) or if I want to keep this purely cinematic. For now, I'm just excited to be working on this topic I love so much again.

Let's Talk About It

Collaborative writing is a great way to expand on ideas or create really interactive dialogue. What's even better about it is that you really don't have a set template for what makes collaborative writing or projects. Twitter threads, image storytelling, google docs, the possibilities are limitless.

I collaborated with two classmates of mine, Kayla Stockdale and Kylie Truscello, by using a Pinterest account. We came together with a common academic interest in communications. Both Kayla and Kylie have communication majors and I have a communication minor (though I'm always tempted to dual major). We decided Pinterest was a great medium for collaborative writing in that we can use shared pins and talk about them individually through captions, but organize them into a bigger idea through boards.

With this Pinterest account, the three of us all pinned different topics, tips, and infographics of why communication is important in our daily lives. Our topics include communication in the workplace, in relationships (both plutonic and romantic), when resolving conflict, and other methods like intercultural or non-verbal communication. Our goal was to demonstrate the importance of different communication strategies using Pinterest to organize our information. The project itself was actually very fun and I was impressed with just how many informative pins were available on this topic. Check out our Pinterest board and see if you learn something new!

Visit Let's Talk About's profile on Pinterest.

I'm sick

Thanks to the turning of the seasons and probably not enough Vitamin C, I am sick. All last night I was a mouth-breathing, nose blowing, dry coughing mess. Head cold, you are never welcome, so why don't you just leave?

Never have I wanted sleep so badly than when I woke up at 6:30 this morning to get ready for my internship. Thankfully I love being at the office, but I didn't know how happy I could get over a can of tomato soup and Goldfish crackers for lunch. But it's 6:30 PM now, I'm done with classes and done being in business casual.

HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OUT OF BEING SICK: 

An Excuse to Do Nothing

Step 1: Are you still in real pants? Get rid of those immediately. And take those heels off like they were illegal.

Step 2: Make enough tea to fill your whole electric kettle.

Step 3: Set up the cave that you'll be disappearing to for a few hours. A fuzzy blanket being the main priority so you can become a human burrito. Oh, and more tissues would help, you walking plague. 

Step 4: Entertainment media time (tonight, your third fourth fifth Sex and the City marathon).

Step 5: Cuddle partner options vary from a Chestburster plushie (seen above), someone with paws, or the human pillow, Sean (but better not get him sick, too).

Great, now I miss my cat, Cassie (aka bed hoglet)

Press Bistro in Johnstown

I ride the bus to my internship and I can usually get to Johnstown from UPJ about and hour before I need to be at the office. So around 8 AM, I have some nice downtime to myself to explore and take a walk in the morning.

Honestly, when I first came to UPJ I was very skeptical of how I would like being away from places that have so much to offer like Pittsburgh, Cranberry, and Monroeville. The longer I've been here, the more I'm surprised with what I found around Moxham and downtown Johnstown.

What I discovered on Thursday morning was the Press Bistro! It's located on Franklin Street and occupies the corner of a business office that, on the outside, looks extremely dated. I cannot really knock them on that considering they can't really modify the building itself. I was pleasantly surprised to walk in to a relaxed and warm atmosphere with some coffee-house-cute qualities.

Not only was the interior inviting and cute, the service was so friendly. I had missed the rush that you can usually see coming in and out of the Press Bistro every morning so I was able to ask my cheerful server a few questions about their events. I am an officer of UPJ's literary magazine, Backroads, and I wanted to know if they would mind us joining their Mic Nights. What I don't have pictured in their rather large space is their couched area and their impressive bar of craft beer and wine.

I ordered their medium Chai Latte. I'm admittedly obsessed with tea (anyone close to me has seen each of my purses has a small pocket dedicated to tea bags), and I'm kind of picky about chai. If it's in the morning, I like sweet pick-me-ups and any other time I'm just looking for some warm spices. The Press Bistro's latte was a perfect mixture of strong, sweet chai and a whole lot of creaminess. Also, before I smothered it in lipstick, the cup is adorable. My favorite color is grey and I love the satin-like look of this cup that is distinctive to the Press Bistro.

The price was around average, a little on the higher side for my college girl budget but not high enough to keep me away. I'm excited to try out their dinner soon and even more excited to attend an event or two.

UPDATE: After grabbing a small coffee a few weeks after this visit, I saw that they give college students 12% discounts!

Day of Digital Humanities

UPJ held the "Day of Digital Humanities" conference on Saturday and I was able to attend several panels and workshops. The panels were packed full of information about different subjects in the digital humanities including narrative structures, several genres and art forms, and scholarship approaches. It was a huge learning experience for me to see different uses of digital humanities in a wide range of mediums such as writing, video games and art installations, and data formatting. The majority of the speakers present were UPJ's own Humanity Division professors so it added another level of intrigue seeing them speak about mediums they have experience in or speaking about humanities in general.

What I personally benefitted from the most were the two workshops held in between some of the panels. The first I attended was taught by UPJ's Dr. Justus and was called "Making Stuff by Breaking Stuff." What I enjoyed most about this workshop was some hands on HTML play, which is something I've been trying to teach myself and gain experience in. We were able to learn a few tricks in image source manipulation and self generating poetry and I believe it was a valuable session.

The second workshop I was able to attend was about creating some digital narratives through resources like google maps, something I had never even thought to use before. This workshop was taught by a Robert Morris professor. Both sessions opened up new resources and mediums for me to use and I'm excited to try these new things out.

The last panel I attended was an art installation that really displayed the wide range of mediums that can be found in digital humanities. It had tumblr stories, audio of poetry to related footage, and interactive pieces. The whole experience in the panels and workshops was very inspiring to really bunker down and develop something new and exciting.

Of course what tied the whole thing in to being a perfect Saturday to muse about was the rain. I adore rain and grey is one of my favorite colors, so that mixed into the slowly turning leaves made for a beautiful view in between panels and the lunch hour.

...

I'm an Intern!

This week started an incredible professional opportunity I have this semester at Johnstown's Community Foundation for the Alleghenies (CFA). The Community Foundation for the Alleghenies is a philanthropic group dedicated to the betterment of the Somerset, Bedford, Indiana, and Cambria counties through donor contributions. I will be their marketing and public relations intern with most of my work will be towards their press releases, E-newsletters, Social Media, and other such professional writing for CFA. I'll be under the guidance of their experienced communication specialists Angie Berzonski and Danielle Krout-Kaza.

This year actually marks CFA's 25th Anniversary and there is a major project in particular that I am fortunate to have been a part of today. They are taking on the usually intimidating task of redesigning a website. Fortunately, they have discovered a fantastic developer called JMG Systems. 

JMG is located out of Hollidaysburg, PA and is actually looking to expand thanks to their growing number of clients. The CFA has been one of their larger projects because of the large amounts of funds, scholarships, news feeds, and data. JMG has been working so diligently with CFA to create a website that is clean, effective, and still meeting every wish of the CFA. 

I was able to sit in on a meeting today at their Hollidaysburg office and reviewed the new website as it's closer to the final product. The meeting was extremely interesting and informative and really had me thinking about collaboration, something I will be exploring in several of my courses. From just this one staging I was able to see three members of JMG's team at work. They were the ultimate combination of technical prowess and creativity.

They were a perfect trio to deliver a clean and effective revamping to the CFA website and a great representation of what collaboration can create. They were communicative, personable, and definitely deserve their upcoming expansion.

I'm a Junior

It is my first week into my Junior year at UPJ. The summer beforehand had given me a lot of unease and feelings of inadequacy and now I'm not sure why I was so stressed. This is the first year I've felt that I am in control of my future. In fact, I am genuinely excited for each course I have this fall partly because they are all of my choosing. I am done with the gen-ed game, these classes are my actual interest with use to my future's path.

I am studying as a Professional Writing (in Media) Major with Art History and Communication Minors. My dream career is something in the public relations field but I have a lot to learn. I really need to crack down on software experience. Which is why I am so looking forward to getting hands-on-experience in both multi-media formats and public relation projects this semester. I'm really hoping to learn as much software and mediums as I can this fall.

Digital media is something we use on a daily (if not hourly) basis so it's a big deal. I really want to become a part of that world. I want to have that ability to be an outreach, modification, or resource to entire networks of people. 

I can feel that I'm as over eager as a Freshman on move-in day to eat this shit up. But now I'm a Junior, and while my fellow upperclassmen are jaded or distracted, I've never felt so new and so ready.