When I was deciding which classes to take at registration, I knew I wanted to take a Freshman Seminar. I had heard from everyone that they are such good classes, and a nice refresher from the 300 person lecture classes so often found at Carolina. But, registration proved to be extremely stressful and disappointing because I got almost none of my first picks. Also, I was in the last time slot, so I didn’t even have a chance at getting a seminar. Because of my registration disaster, I was constantly looking for classes during drop add. At one point, I actually started going through the seminar book and typing random courses in the system. Finally, I saw that this class was open so I immediately signed up and secured my spot. After reading about this seminar I got pretty excited because, honestly, it looked fairly easy and it gave me some kind of connection credit. However, I didn’t really know what to expect as to what we would learn in the class.

Now that I have been in this class for a few months, I feel like I have really learned a lot. On the technical side, I have learned how to use html codes in a blog, how to format and make playlists and other blog entries, and how to record a podcast, among other things. But, on the side of literature, I really feel like I have learned to make deeper connections with the readings in new and different ways. For instance, in my playlist, I had to go deep inside Noah’s character and think about his emotions, his motivations, and his feelings at certain parts of the novel/movie. I needed to understand the character before I could pick songs that fit his life. Also, in the My Sister’s Keeper collage, I had to really think of the important aspects of the novel and of what images would best represent the character’s life and feelings. These projects really help get you inside a character’s head and understand where they are coming from.

Besides computers and literature, a surprisingly big aspect of this class was music. I am not a music buff so I wasn’t sure how well I would be able to find songs for my playlist or how easily I could talk about an artist in my podcast. But, I feel like these projects actually got me more interested in music and helped me learn to listen to the lyrics and the music more than I had before. Honestly, I picked John Mayer for my podcast mostly because my best friend loves him and I figured she could help me. But after doing the podcast and dissecting the songs, I found I didn’t need her help and now John Mayer is actually one of my favorite artists.

I feel like this class has helped me connect all three of these aspects together. Music, literature, and technology can all be interwoven and each can be used to understand more about the other. Songs that have powerful lyrics can even be considered literature in themselves and can be used to help describe and analysis books and characters. And technology can be used to do this in a more innovative way, keeping literature up to date with the more and more paperless world.

Playlist

Final Draft of Playlist

I really enjoyed this playlist assignment but, I have to admit, I didn’t think that it would be as hard as it was. When I first sat down to do it I thought that I would just be able to copy and paste the lyrics and links into the page and just be done with it. I didn’t realize how many tags and formatting codes there were and I it took me awhile to get the hang of it. Especially when I was showed how to create tables, I thought it was extremely complicated. But, after messing up quite a few times and after doing it a lot, I got the hang of it and now if I need to make a table or edit something in my playlist I can do it pretty easily. I’m really glad that we did this just so that I could become more familiar with all of the tags and the ways to put thinks on the internet.
This assignment was so different than I thought it would be because at first, I thought that finding the songs was going to be the hard part and the formatting would be easy. It turned out to be the opposite, because I found that finding songs was surprisingly simple. I had already had a couple in mind, like the Taylor Swift and John Mayer songs. Those are two of my favorite artists and I knew that I would be able to use at least one of each of their songs. To find other songs, I was able to either search through my Ruckus songs or ask my friends if they could think of any songs. I thought to use “What Hurts the Most” because I searched the Notebook in YouTube and someone had put together a video of scenes from The Notebook to that song (which I posted on my playlist).
This project really did help me think deeper about the characters in The Notebook. I would be so surprised how much certain songs fit to Noah and Allie’s emotions. I really do think that I understand both of their characters better now and I feel like if I watch the movie again, I would notice little things that I didn’t notice before and I think I am going to like it even more than I did before this project.

I accidentally forgot to save my first edition of my playlist, but I only had to make some minor changes. I added some more detail about some of the audio aspects of the songs, as well as some more detail about specific lyrics. I played around with the format a little as well. Most importantly, I changed the last song, which used to be Love and Memories by OAR. That song was just a little to fast and upbeat for the final song of the playlist. I feel like the Alan Jackson song fits a lot better because it is slower and softer and relates well to the end of the novel when the couple is old and dying, remembering their lives together.

Podcast

First Draft of Podcast

The podcast assignment was, in my opinion, a lot more difficult than the playlist. It took me awhile to figure out who I was going to do for my project, but I finally settled on John Mayer. At first, I just picked him because my best friend (aka you who is reading this) is basically obsessed with him and I figured she could help me if I get stuck. I had no idea what to write about when I first started so I just listened to a ton of John Mayer’s songs for days straight. It made me realize how much I like him and how good of a songwriter/artist he is.
Once I knew which songs to use I decided to go on youtube and see if I could find any interviews with Mayer so I could have something rather than just me talking. Luckily there were a lot on the more popular songs that I had chosen. Next came the hard part: putting it all together. The work of putting sound clips together, at the right volume, and at the right places is so tedious and time consuming, especially at first. It took me so long to tone down the music/interviews just the way I wanted them and to make sure everything flowed together smoothly (something I still have some work to do on before I post my final podcast). Learning how tedious the process is and how confusing this type of programming is really made me appreciate the work of radio personnel and simply anyone who makes their own podcasts.

As you can see I haven't put up a final podcast yet. That is because I still have some work to do before I’m done with my final draft. There are only some slight changes that need to be made to this podcast that I will try to do as soon as possible. The song Something's Missing plays a little too long, so I will have to cut some of the lyrics out. I would also like the talk and explanations to go a little deeper on a couple of the songs. There are a few volume issues that I would like to work out as well.

Collages

Character Collage First Draft

Poetry/Song Collage First Draft

At first, the collages were extremely frustrating because I could not figure out how to use the layers for the longest time. I would just sit in front of my photoshop playing around with pictures forever, making no progress because I couldn’t figure out how to work it. However, when I finally got the hang of it, it was so much easier. Once I figured out how to work the opaqueness and work with the layer menus, I was able to make the collage look the way I wanted it too. And even thought the first collage took me a ridiculous amount of time to start and get finished, the second collage took me almost no time at all! Now that I know how to work it, these collages are definitely my favorite project that we did. I really like the one I did of Wagon Wheel, because that is one of my favorite songs and it was such an interesting way to represent the lyrics.

Final Character Collage

Final Poetry/Song Collage

Comments

The blog is a great way for the class to keep up with each other's thoughts and ideas about the stories and projects we are working on. It is also a great way to get opinions and criticisms on your work. I wish I had gotten the chance to post a lot more, and I have definitely been trying to post a lot more frequently. That is the major thing I'm going to work on during the second half of the semester.

Here I wrote my opinion on who i consider to be one of the greatest poetic artists ever.

Here I wrote a reflection on my playlist.

This comment was in response to the Burning Barn story.

Here responded to Caitlin's Love Story collage.

Here I made a comment about Meredith's collage.

Here I responded to Kevin's revised collage.

These are my first thoughts about No Country for Old Men