I don’t want to type out a boring blog post, so I’m gonna get a little silly. I am a non-explorative brainlet. The Dark Souls player in me was sorely disappointed this week. The one and only Jen Simmons taught me that I can format my images in HTML, turning billboard size pictures into postcards. My How To guide is populated with billboards. My ignorance to this property of HTML led me to a realization: I let myself be a “bare minimum” type of person for my project. That is a harrowing thought. That goes against everything we’ve talked about over the last two months. That goes against SIFT, file management, and low fidelity digital rhetoric. My personal food for thought this week was that exploration of a new tool or concept, no matter how challenging, is the right thing to do. More than that, it makes the tool being explored more enjoyable. HTML and CSS are struggles for me, but the more I explore what I can do with them, the better I feel, and the more fun I have making things look pretty. My lack of exploration of HTML led me to feel really dumb, especially considering the thing that I learned is so easy and convenient. Exploration has a positive relationship with enjoyment to me.
With the silliness out of the way, I’m going to pivot to some things I discussed and considered this week. There are two projects coming up. The first is a “Verification Quest.” I’ll have to pick a piece of misinformation, trace it to its source, research it, and debunk it. I watch a lot of the ARG/Horror side of YouTube, so I’m actually really excited to work on my Verification Quest. The project that I’m a little less excited for is the “Interactive Nonfiction” project. “Why?” I hear Dr. Detweiler ask. For starters, it’s a group project. I still have trauma from general education group projects where one person doesn’t talk until the night before the project is due, one person expects too much from the group, and no one wants to meet outside of class. Now, I know this is an unfair accusation to levy at my exceptional classmates, but group projects have never gone well for me. Secondly, I have no ideas about what to do a project about. That one is my fault completely. I think my brain is a little fried on the topic search front. The thing that I’m most excited for with this project is seeing which wacky topics my classmates come up with. I would love to see someone make a text based RPG about something in real life (if Twine can do that, I haven’t explored it at all).
All in all, it has been a busy week. Exams and projects galore. I’m excited to work with CSS and HTML some more. I’m even more excited to find a crazy ARG controversy like World Corp Industries and debunk it with pretty text. What a good time to be a Digital Writing student.
Comments
3 responses to “Summoning Jen Simmons: A LinkedIn Tutorial”
I can relate quite a bit with the feeling that maybe I didn’t put that much effort into this first project. Between making sure I get my graduation requirements figured out and making my filmmaking capstone, I have not been able to put much thought or care into this class even though its really cool!
Your comparison of the Verification question to ARGs on YouTube is actually really creative. I didn’t think of it that way, but it is very similar the process of being led to different sources: websites, images, codes, videos, etc. That honestly would be a really cool way to the project, or even the final project could be cool to do that way.
I hope you find that the group project isn’t as daunting as it may seem right now, you seem to have a really cool outlook on these projects and an awesome mindset on learning HTML and CSS!
First off… the title for this post made me laugh so hard. I love it so much. Secondly, I feel a lot of us can relate to not feeling the most confident about our first project. I know I was proud that I got my images to finally show up, but the actual format of it and the HTML behind it was quite… lackluster. So, I understand the feelings you feel regarding that project (feeling like it was the bare minimum).
Also, I am excited for the next two projects for this course! I think it will be fun to do the actual research for the projects, but I am not excited for the coding. I barely made it through the Markdown language, I am not ready for using HTML and CSS in full. I am nervous my project will be even more lackluster than the first.
I also understand your sentiment about group projects. Unfortunately, that’s a very common experience students have with group work. Hopefully it goes better for you this time around!
I love the title first of all lol. Also, I unfortunately relate to the bare minimalism. I worked hard on the written part of the guide but when it came to the images I was struggling so hard and eventually I just gave up and settled for the oversized images I managed to cram in there. I also agree with your point that experimenting with these tools makes them a lot easier to use (who would have thought practice actually helps right?) so I’m hoping that I gradually start to suck less. Also I don’t think anyone blames you for your group project PTSD haha.