Dear Reader,
          I want to share with you the experience that I have had in my first-year seminar, Computers and English Studies. When I was trying to decide on a seminar, I spent the most time looking at those under the "English" heading. The description for this course stated that it would "explore ways that technology reshapes the study of literature and the ways writers compose." This caught my eye because I am planning on majoring in Journalism and I thought that the influence of technology on literature, which is the idea I pulled from the description, would be a very helpful thing to study. Aside from that, it simply sounded interesting. As it turns out, the focus of this class is not necessarily on the effect of technology, but rather on the way in which technology and literature can work together to express ideas. This has been an extremely positive learning experience for me.
           This class has really tied together two of my greatest interests: music and literature. The great focus on music surprised me; all of our projects and many of our discussions have involved music in some way. I have truly enjoyed this because I have always been passionate about music and in many ways college has limited my ability to be involved in it, so to have a class that actually focuses on music has been great. Also, all of our assignments have allowed for a massive amount of freedom in choosing topics to work with. This gave me a chance to revisit some of my favorite works of literature and also to incorporate and discuss my favorite musicians and songs. However, I feel that this has also caused some amount of inconsistency in my work. I think that my strongest project is the playlist, for which we had to create a list of songs that described a character. Since first reading The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger has been one of my favorite authors. I was definitely excited to have the opportunity to work with one of his characters, Seymour Glass. I honestly believe that this is the reason I feel the best about my playlist; I have a love for the character, a genuine desire to analyze Salinger's writing, and an interest in expressing my thoughts through great songs. This same idea applies to one of my collages. On the other hand, I've had a difficult time with the projects involving topics that I'm not necessarily passionate about, such as "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and The Beatles. Though I gained a greater appreciation for them through the assignments, it was much more difficult to connect with them and without that connection the projects seemed to be lacking in some areas. This is something that I worked to improve through revision.
          Something that I have realized about this class is that it really stresses the fact that the same general themes and ideas are continually expressed in many different ways, though this is easily missed at first glance. All artists are human and all humans share similar ideas, emotions, struggles, and joys; in art, the primary difference lies not in the expression itself, but in the form the expression takes. It's great that we have been able to see this by looking at novels, poems, songs, images, and films and drawing connections among them. I think this is a really important part of being able to understand and appreciate different art forms; I am more inclined to appreciate literature rather than photography, but in creating a collage that illustrated one of my favorite characters I recognized and did my best to utilize the power of images. This is something that cannot be taught, but that must be experienced. This concept is so effectively applied when it comes to our projects. We are not under strict instruction that would inhibit personal experience and discovery, but are given a general goal that can be reshaped according to our own curiosity and creativity.

Playlist (original)
          My first reaction to this playlist assignment was definitely a positive one; I love both music and literature and I was excited about tying them together. Although I did enjoy working on the assignment, it proved much more difficult than I expected. I chose Seymour Glass of J.D. Salinger's fictional Glass family, the focus of most of his short stories. At first I thought of working with Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye, but after further consideration I decided that the analysis of this character would not be as interesting because he is one of the most famous characters in the history of American literature and has therefore been analyzed over and over again. Also, J.D. Salinger is really only known for The Catcher in the Rye, so I wanted to spend some time with his other work. I read most of Salinger's short stories the summer before my senior year of high school, so I was excited about revisiting them. Choosing which character to work with was difficult and deciding how to organize my playlist was even more difficult. I eventually chose to order the songs according to the reader's gradually increasing knowledge of the character, mainly because each story reveals different aspects of Seymour. There is not one story that completely describes his character; the reader has to create this description in his or her mind based on the separate pieces of information provided. After I had a general idea about how to organize my playlist, I realized that finding fitting songs would be pretty tough. At first I thought I would be able to use my own music and just browse my iTunes library, but I found only a few songs this way. I enjoyed being forced to listen to different genres of music that I don't necessarily like, though. I think it gave me a wider appreciation for music in general. This was a great assignment and I learned a lot.

Playlist (revised)
          I did not make any major changes to my playlist. The main thing I focused on was trying to explain further my reasons for choosing certain songs, particularly related to the instrumental or vocal aspects. I also made sure to expound on the connection between my character and the song "Sweetness" because this was one of the weakest points. I fixed a few things related to the layout and rephrased a couple of points as well.

Podcast (original)
          I was a little unsure of the podcast assignment; it was definitely something I had never had experience with, so I didn't know quite what to expect. I chose to focus on The Beatles. My original thought was to prove that they were literary based on their lyrics. However, after having some difficulty narrowing down songs, I decided to change my thesis. The thesis for my podcast became "No band will ever be able to match the accomplishments of The Beatles." This actually broadened my lens as I had to look outside The Beatles at the history of the 60s in order to fully understand why they were such a big deal. I had a great time learning about the band and working on my podcast, though it was definitely an extremely slow and sometimes painful process. It took me a while to get used to the program, but once I did things started running a bit more smoothly. I did encounter a significant problem with information overload, as The Beatles are overwhelmingly popular and widely discussed in all forms of media. It is also difficult to figure out the best way to speak and to make it sound natural and not forced. I sound like I'm reading much of the time, which I was, so this is probably something I could work on.

Podcast (revised)
          My podcast was very long and a little too broad, so when I revised it I worked on making a more specific point and cutting out unneeded information. I removed a portion of The Beatles talking, altered the narration and recorded all of it a second time, and generally cleaned it up. I also edited the introductions to several of the clips.

Character Collage
          I was not looking forward to the challenge of expressing literature through pictures, but I was still excited about the collage assignment because I have always been somewhat interested in graphic design. It is not that I consider myself particularly gifted in that area, but I enjoy organization. For my first collage I wanted to portray Benjy Compson, who is a character in William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury. This is one of my favorite books for many reasons and I think it contains some of the greatest characters in the history of American literature. The part of making this collage that I did not like was searching for images. It ended up being very tedious for me and I feel like it took me much longer than it should have. This is especially true of my search for a picture of a girl to represent Caddy. In my mind I was picturing a young girl smiling, but I never found an image that clicked. This forced me to consider a different type of image, and the one I ended up with actually seems perfect to me now. Once I had all the images that I wanted, I really enjoyed organizing and editing them in different ways. I had never used Photoshop Elements before, so I made extremely slow progress, but I am glad that I now know much more than I did. Actually making the connection between the character and different images was very interesting. It forced me to be a little more open-minded, as I already had developed certain ideas about what everything looked like when I read the book, but this is a good thing. It also caused me to consider the huge amount of symbolism that exists in The Sound and the Fury; most of my images are related to this. The cross represents Benjy's entire character; the clock, along with the fact that it doesn't stand out, symbolizes that Benjy has no concept of time; the leaves and the quote, which appears multiple times throughout the novel, represent Benjy's perception of Caddy; and the dead rose symbolizes Caddy's promiscuity and loss of innocence, which ultimately led to the downfall of the majority of the characters in the novel. I was surprised at how well I feel the collage represents Benjy's character. This was further proof that similar ideas truly can be expressed in several different ways.

Poetry Collage (original)
          Honestly, I have no idea why I chose to portray "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein. I was looking through different poems on a website and I for some reason got stuck on it. I remembered it from when I was younger, so it was interesting to revisit it and actually make an effort to understand the point Silverstein was trying to make. My collage seems to portray the poem in a pretty direct way and I'm not sure I like that, but just about every image created in the poem itself is symbolic so it was difficult to get around that. Making this collage was easier than the first since I had some experience, but the process still had its difficulties. I used several more images, so I think it may actually have taken me a longer amount of time. I want to work more on this collage; I don't like it as much as my first one, partially because I have a much stronger connection with The Sound and the Fury than with this poem.

Poetry Collage (revised)
          To revise this collage I decided to focus on the feedback I received. I used the sidewalk to divide the image, generally placing everything dark on its left and everything light on its right. I had to remove several images to do this, so I think it also simplified the collage a bit more; it was pretty crowded before, so this is a good thing. I believe that this revision improved the collage visually and also made it a better representation of the poem. Silverstein actually focuses more on the place where the sidwalk ends than he does on the world around it, so the lighter part of my collage should carry greater emphasis than the darker part. Also, utilizing the placement of the sidewalk in this way created more obvious contrast, which is one of the more significant elements of the poem.

Video
          This assignment was a great way to wrap up the semester. I was very much looking forward to creating a video. However, I did not want to focus on either of the films we watched in class. Though I was able to appreciate both films, I did not enjoy No Country for Old Men and did not feel much of a connection with O Brother, Where Art Thou? Since this was similar to problems I had encountered in past assignments, I decided to choose a subject that truly interested me. I did not know where to begin. I started thinking of my favorite movies, but realized that these were simply films that I enjoyed watching and not necessarily films that I wanted to delve into and analyze or anything along those lines. I wanted to work with a film that was truly artistic and unique. I then thought of Edward Scissorhands. It was a perfect candidate. However, I had trouble coming up with an angle using just the film itself. I recalled watching Edward Scissorhands for the first time with my mom several years ago. I found it bizzare and was almost disturbed by it and my mom said something like, "Well, that's Tim Burton." I had never heard of him before. From that point on, I looked forward to films such as Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when I saw Tim Burton's name on the movie posters. It was not that I loved Tim Burton's style, but more that I was curious to see what he had done. I still would not say that I like Tim Burton's style, but at the same time I would not say that I dislike it. I am simply intrigued.
          I revisited the three prompt options for creating a video and was thrilled to see that one of them was a perfect match. Is there a greater example of an auteur than Tim Burton? This kicked off my project. However, creating the video proved quite a difficult task. I had never used the program before and definitely had a slow start. Also, I ran into a few roadblocks looking for clips to use. This caused a pretty big delay, but once I had everything I needed I worked basically nonstop to complete the video. It really was fun and I believe I learned a lot.

Comments
          The website is a great aspect of this class. We are able to interact with one another through different posts and can give each other input on assignments by leaving comments. It has been really beneficial to me to be able to look at others' progress and read what other people think about certain things that we have discussed in class. The comments that I received, particularly on my podcast, were definitely helpful. These are some ways I have contributed to online discussion:

I talked about what I consider to be one of the greatest poetic songs ever in response to a blog post.
I commented on Thomas's playlist.
I wrote a reflection on my playlist.
I created a blog entry in response to one of the short stories we read.
I commented on Emily's playlist.
I created a blog entry to share my podcast idea.
I commented on Kevin's podcast.
I commented on Mark's podcast.
I commented on Meredith's podcast.
I responded to Joey's collage idea.
I commented on Meredith's collage.
I commented on Joey's collage.
I commented on Jordan's collage.
I commented on Caitlin's collage.
I commented on Mark's collage.
I responded to Scott's blog entry about No Country for Old Men.
I resonded to Emily's blog entry about movie soundtracks.
I responded to Jordan's blog entry about a character in No Country for Old Men.
I commented on Ashton's video.