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.

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?

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.