Dear Nick and other readers,

My first semester at UNC is winding down and it has been a crazy one. As expected the classes here are more challenging than those at Charlotte. I knew this coming in and needed to register for a "slack" class. This was the class that I chose. English 052...What could be easier, right? Wrong! I soon found out that this class was a lot of work, and I found out the hard way. By the time I got my wake-up call I was three assignments behind and not in good shape. I contemplated dropping this class, but in the end I decided not to. I think that that was the right decision now. Through my experiences in this class I have learned a lot about myself as a student and a person. I realized how much I could get done in such a short time. I would definitely change the way that things happened if I could go back, but I am glad to have experienced this. My assignments are definitely not the most polished pieces of work and I know that I definitely do not deserve an A+ or anything. I have pushed myself so hard to finish all that I have done and I am quite pleased with the final product. I learned to use new programs and I had a lot of fun in the process. Well, I have rambled quite enough for now, let's get into this final portfolio.

Playlist- http://www.teachmix.com/litcast/node/334

Draft 1-http://www.teachmix.com/litcast/node/60

The playlist was the first assignment we did and I thought it was an awesome idea. I chose Solomon because Blood Diamond is one of my favorite movies and I thought it might be an easy way out. Soon I found myself thinking extremely hard about what songs to choose and what kind of mood was taking place throughout the movie. I feel that in my first draft I chose a lot of really good songs that fit the movie, but i did not really expand on why they did. That is why my final version is called the revised/expanded version. Daniel told me to expand on what the melodies were saying, and I did. This really bought everything together and made my playlist a lot better. Again, I did not change the songs just because I felt that the ones that I had were quite alright. I liked this assignment, but it proved to be one of the easier ones that we did. From this we moved right on into the collage....

Collage- http://www.teachmix.com/litcast/node/225

The collage was the assignment that I really had the most trouble with. I had never used photoshop or gimp before. It seemed like it might be fairly easy, so I kind of put it on the back burner while completing assignments in other classes. This proved to be one of the worst decisions that I would make all semester and was just the beginning of events that would set me back a few assignments. In the end, I chose to do Scarface because I feel that it is one of the greatest classic movies and needed to be paid a tribute. I started with the classic Scarface picture and added some of the most important elements of the movie. I am really pleased with how it all came toghether, especially considering how much trouble that I had with it. Even though this class may be essentially over, I did not get to revise this but I plan to. I think it would make an awesome wall paper as a finished product. I am proud of myself for even putting this together. I look at everyone elses collages and I know that they are far superior to mine, and that is the product of doing things as the come along. This is one of the things that really made me realize that I need to get things done that way and this mistake will not be made again in the future. After the collage we moved on to one of my favorite assignments, the podcast.

Podcast- http://www.teachmix.com/litcast/node/247

The podcast is another thing that I am really proud of. Again, I do not have a revised version as everyone else does but I think that this is a really good version. I chose TI because I feel like he is a big star, but people do not know so much about him. It is as if they just skim through his music as opposed to actually reading into it. Using audacity was not something that I was fond of so I used a program called Acoustica. This proved to be a lot better for me and I would suggest that Daniel possibly use it for future classes. This is another assignment that I definitely plan on polishing up because I think that it is a really good assignment and with improvement it can be great. All of the advice that I got from Daniel will be used and I am sure that I will post the final version of the podcast on this site still. The last assignment that we had to do was our video.

Video- http://www.teachmix.com/litcast/node/332

I had never made a video before this class and this one really came out good. I had trouble deciding what to do it on but in the end I feel like I made a good choice. This is the one that I probably had the most fun with because it was cool to mix up two things that were not made with any relation to each other. Hopefully you all like it as well.

In the end, I am really proud of all the things that I have done in this class and while I may not have gotten the A that I expected, I feel that I really pushed myself to get a grade that is better than it was looking a month ago. The grade is important, but the more important thing that I have gotten out of this class is the growing I have done as a student and person. Thank you for reading, and this will not be the end!

, Mark Jusino

P.S.- here are links to my other postings

http://www.teachmix.com/litcast/node/44 -intial playlist ideas
http://www.teachmix.com/litcast/node/24 - stating the case for Nas as most poetic artist
http://www.teachmix.com/litcast/node/157 - trying to get in touch with the group after missing the bus.
http://www.teachmix.com/litcast/node/262 -comments on the Harry collage
http://www.teachmix.com/litcast/node/273 -showing my support on a sweet video
http://www.teachmix.com/litcast/node/279 -feedback on a Twilight collage