Last Blog Entry For Class!

For my final assignment I chose to go with Prezi. I chose to do my modules based on Prezi because I find this tool very useful, especially for college students. Even though this website is not a social media site, I thought it would be useful to do the project on it because it is similar in a couple of ways. One similarity is the way that you can share it with friends and with the rest of the world, you can also add people to your presentation. When your video is all done you can even share it and people can comment on it. Most of all many college students use this site for class presentations, just like many young adults use social media sites. Young adults are always looking to use the newest and best sites as they become available. However, it is different in the fact that it is for professional use. Prezi is not a mobile app like other social media sites such as Snapchat or Twitter.

The site itself is really easy to use. For that reason, I knew it would be quick and easy to do a short Screencast about Prezi to introduce everyone to the site. I did not get into much detail with my Screencast video because I wanted to add other tutorials from YouTube to the modules as well. I went through several videos on YouTube looking for the videos that I thought suited best the assignment and used those videos in my final assignment.

Creating a quiz was a little more difficult. It was a little tougher to do because I had no idea what I should put in it. Prezi is simple tool to use, so I found it hard to come up with questions that would be challenging for students to answer. I did manage to get a few ideas at the end although it was only a six question quiz.

This was supposed to be a group project so I messaged people who were supposed to be in my group. However, I only ended up with one partner because the two others had already completed the project on their own. This was fine by me and worked very well in the end. We divided the work between the both of us. My partner created an assignment and a discussion, and I created the quiz and inserted the supporting material that we needed to include about the site Prezi. We worked quickly and great together however, we might have finished too quickly because we made a few mistakes and forgot to include a few things. Even though I watched the video the teacher had provided for us a few times I still managed to miss a few things. Perhaps it was because it was the last assignment before I went on spring break so I rushed it. However, that is no excuse! I need to really watch what I am doing and pay better attention in the future to instructions.

My heart break, finishing a TV show series

https://toriitea.tumblr.com/post/143392890677/old-immortal-memories-when-your-favourite

Post-series depression

As I sit here writing this blog, I am also watching the final episode of the TV show series “The Office”. I have to say, I am feeling a bit conflicted. I had been binging on this show for about a little over a month and to say goodbye to it is a little sad. I actually find myself in this situation a lot. After I finish any TV series or anime I find myself lost and alone. Of course I’m being dramatic but it is still a bittersweet situation. The urban dictionary calls this state “Post-Series Depression”.

Why do we miss these shows so much?

You watch a few episodes and suddenly you find yourself invested in love triangles, story plots, and character development. you spent so much time watching these fake lives go on. Maybe it is that you find a character that you find relatable so you cling to their story line. Perhaps you fall in love with a character that is nothing like you, but you keep watching because they inspire you.  Seeing these characters fall in love, get married, have children, and even die takes you on an emotional roller coaster. I remember crying on a few episodes on Greys Anatomy. That show shows no mercy! I remember watching the anime series Naruto and being so proud of him. He isn’t a real character but I was so proud of all that he accomplished.

Next time appreciate what you have

I didn’t know how good I had it. When you see a series that has a solid 9 or 10 seasons you figure you have time to enjoy before the heart break creeps up on you. However, all things come to an end. If anything the longer the series the sadder it is when it is all over. May I suggest that we appreciate the show as we watch. Appreciate the gold that writers have gifted upon you and all of the wit the actors put into their acting. It may sound corny but some of these shows really help people out. Whether it be taking us to a fantasy world or showing us that there is a chance at love, these shows inspire us!

How to cope

I love Netflix, but at the same time I hate it because I become addicted to so many great shows that all eventually end. Resulting in my heart break. So what can we do to cope with the loss of our favorite shows?  When our favorite characters seize to exist? We can move on, remember the good times and perhaps give Netflix a break. Maybe some fresh air would do us some good, and help us forget the pain.

Then again, we can also click on the next series on Netflix and start the whole process of falling in love with the show then being heart broken when it ends all over again. Honestly, that’s what I do. Bates Motel, here I come!

Fun time at EPCON 2016

For my next blog I really wanted to talk about my experience at El Paso Comic Con, or “EPCON”. I had such a great time and I enjoyed talking to people about my experience.

Photo from EPCON's Facebook page

The only other comic con I have been able to attend was El Paso Comic Con in 2013. I have to say that this year’s EPCON was a much better convention all around. I would like to be able to attend a lot more around the country; however, they can get quite pricey sometimes and I am always out of cash. I often find myself looking up people’s vlogs on YouTube about them attending different comic cons. I may not be able to afford tickets for different cons, but I can still look them up on YouTube.

This year I was able to go to the convention on two different days. On Friday I helped out an old high school friend at his booth. He wrote and self-published 3 books, he was trying to get the word out there through the convention. So I had a great time helping him out and getting a preview of what was to come.

My friend Bryan selling his book series The Old Dominion Journals

 Friday was the first day of the convention and though there wasn’t as much people who attended the convention it was still a good turn out. I was able to talk to a lot of the awesome venders there and check out their nerdy merchandise. Saturday was the day that everyone showed up. When my brother and I showed up to the convention it was jam packed. I remember being in line for a rather long time but I didn’t mind because we were about to see all kinds of cosplays while we waited. For those who don’t know what cosplay is, it is basically people dressed up as their favorite characters from a movie, video game, TV show, anime, or book. So while in line it was neat to see things like a Harley Quinn and a Joker cosplay while waiting in line with batman right behind them (these people didn’t know each other). After my brother and I got our wrist bands we went into the main room. We felt like we were in nerd heaven. There were great vendors, cosplays, and art pieces. Even the batmobile and Adam West made an appearance.  We bought a lot of awesome merchandise, saw breathtaking Star Wars setups, and saw the cutest children in cosplays.

The cutest Rey and Kylo Ren ever!

Sadly, my brother and I weren’t able to finish a cosplay this year. We were actually very disappointed because the other year that we went we had fairly decent cosplays that we created. I feel like going to a comic con in a cosplay completes the experience. Needless to say I am going to start working on a great cosplay for Las Cruces Comic Con in September. Although my brother and I didn’t finish our cosplay we worked together to finish the sword that went along with the cosplay my brother was supposed to be. The swords name is samehada and it is from the anime Naruto. We decided to take it to the convention because we worked hard on it and felt it was the least we could do if we did not go in a costume.

The sword my brother and I made ourselves.

The thing I love most about Comic Cons or any other convention that are similar is the culture, the atmosphere, and the amazing community of people that come out to these type of events. I do not have a lot of friends that are into nerdy things like I am. However, when you go to a convention such as this you have thousands of people who understand you. I feel like there is an atmosphere of excitement and gratitude to see the cosplays. I remember the year I made my brothers cosplay and he went as Hercule from Dragon Ball Z and people were excited to see him. A random fellow came up to him and said “Thank you so much for coming as him man, it looks so cool”. Whenever I saw a cosplay of a character I really loved I would run up to them and ask if I could take a photo with them. These characters are not really people in real life so people like me get excited to see these characters come to life. 

Awesome Spirted Away and Batman cosplays.

Spot on hiccup cosplay from

how to train your dragon.

My favorite video game character Fox McCloud.

Over all I would have to say I had such a great time. In the future I want to go to as many cons as I can, and make as many cosplays as I can. I encourage other people who have always wanted to go to a con to go and check one out. It is so much fun and you would not want to miss out!

The Twitter Assignment

When it was announced that the next assignments in class would be a competition I was excited, being that I am very competitive. The assignment being that we had to get as much Twitter followers as possible within a week. We also had to get more followers than our classmates. The winner received the extra points. I don’t know how well I did compared to the rest of the class, but I feel like I actually didn’t so well. I think part of the reason as to why this happened is because I was fairly new to Twitter. So I feel as if it was hard to build up followers. The reason I say this is because often when someone looks at your account they look at how many followers you have, and what kind of content you put out. If you don’t have a lot of followers, and if you don’t share interesting tweets you aren’t going to get a lot of followers.   

When I started off the assignment I had 22 Twitter followers. By the end of this assignment I had 84 followers. I feel like I could have done better, but at the same time I feel like I tried my best. I thought about strategic ways to try to gain followers. I thought about what kind of followers I wanted, and what would work.

What I ended up doing was following some of my favorite famous Youtubers and commenting on their tweets. I thought that would work, but in reality it did very little. I ended up getting a few followers because of one of my favorite interests, anime. I started following a few fans of the popular anime Naruto. After that the followers came rushing in. However, after I realized what my follower base was I think I tried too hard to win more of those type of people over. I commented on their posts and shared Naruto related vines with hashtags that I thought were related. Even though most of my followers are Naruto pages or fans, I feel like I had a hard time getting those followers.

I realized what I needed to do to get followers, but I realized what I needed to do a bit too late. I realized in the last hour that following everyone would help you get followers because they usually follow back. I also realized that retweeting helps a lot as well. And to be honest, I didn’t even realize all of this. My friend Randy told me all of this information at the last minute, turns out he could have helped me get more followers. #regret

What is funny is that I feel like I got the most likes on my tweets when I wasn’t trying as hard. When I posted for myself, and when I posted my interests I received the best responses. On one of my first posts I retweeted a funny picture of someone trying to hypnotize their crush. I retweeted the gif and titled the post “notice me senpai”. The phrase “notice me senpai” is used a lot in anime. It is used when someone wants a teacher, master, or someone they love to notice them. It is a very well-known meme in the anime community. As soon as I retweeted that, the account that I retweeted the image from retweeted my tweet. I got over 30 likes on it thanks to them. Today I also retweeted a picture of foxes running in the snow. Guess what? Rich Moore liked my retweet. Rich Moore is one of the directors who worked on Zootopia, my recent favorite movie. I guess we both have a love for foxes. Life is funny that way, twitter is funny that way.

The Midnight Surprise

Last night my friend came over around 12:30am so I could bleach and dye her hair, ironically the hair dye was called “After Midnight” Which was a really dark shade of blue #Latenight #Bluehair.

At this time, I heard my dogs barking and going insane. This is around the time my cat usually meows to come inside, so I told my 12-year-old brother to let the cat in.  #Meowmeow

My younger brother closed the door quickly with a shocked expression on his face I asked “Where’s Todd (the cat)?” He said “I don’t know but there is a guy outside.” My brothers have this habit of pulling pranks on me, so naturally I did not believe him, my 20-year-old brother is always telling me that people are outside when there is no one out there.  #Prankster

I called my little brother a liar, but he swore that there was a man outside. My friend didn’t believe him either but she checked outside just in case as she opened the door a man approached the stairs #Strangerdanger #Whodis

We had no idea who this guy was, my friend did all the talking because I was too scared to do it. He was asking for a ride, a phone charger, or for someone to help him with his car. The only ones who were up were two 23-year-old girls and a 12-year-old boy so we didn’t feel comfortable letting him inside to use a charger or make a call. #Awkward

While my friend was talking to the strange man, many thoughts were going through my head. Thoughts such as what should I do should I get my dad should I get a knife, should I call the cops #Paranoia #WhatshouldIdo

I ended up waking my dad up and telling him there was a man that we didn’t know at the door. My dad asked what he wanted and he said his car broke down and he was asking for help. So my dad got up to go see what all the ruckus was about. He went outside to talk to the strange man and came back inside five minutes later for his keys. We asked what happened, he said the guy was just drunk and needed a ride. #Dadtotherescue #Daddyshome #Daduber

My dad was off to give the man a ride. My brother and friend and I said we would give them a time limit of fifteen minutes than we would call the cops. What was going through my mind was that he could be taking my dad to something dangerous, he could turn on my dad. We just weren’t trusting of anybody knocking on our door at this time at night. We are wondering why he did not go to anybody else’s house, why he was so trusting of strangers, and lastly if he actually drunk. The reason my dad gave him a ride was because he said he had felt bad for him because he was a young guy, he didn’t want to call the cops and get him arrested. #Generous #overthinking

My dad ended up getting home safe and sound fairly quickly. We locked the door and went to bed, as I laid in bed with my lights on I couldn’t sleep. Every time I heard a footstep or heard my dogs bark I thought somebody was coming. #nosleep #noonewasthere

Once the morning came I realized that I was being a little dramatic. However, I had been watching cannibal and serial killer documentaries lately so my imagination went wild. Still, it could have had been a dangerous situation, so I don’t want my dad giving strangers rides anymore. Maybe I just worry too much. #worrywart #THEend #callmecrazy #documentaries

Why I Use Facebook vs Why I Use Periscope

Facebook and Periscope are both social media sites. However, that is where the similarities end. Facebook is more about connecting with people you know. It is about messaging friends, posting thoughts, and sharing family photos. We can see what our childhood friends are up to, or if our crush is single or not. Periscope, on the other hand is about connecting with complete strangers. One person records themselves doing whatever it is they want to do. People from around the world can choose to click on the video and leave comments that last 3 seconds long, or they can press the screen to leave hearts.

I recently got into this site called Periscope. I only signed up for an account with Periscope to see one video. However, once on there I actually found the site very entertaining, and if the right people are on, very addicting. I wasn’t able to fall asleep one night and watched a few of the people’s Periscope ideas out of curiosity. The first video I clicked on was a man from England taking his dog for a morning walk. People that saw the video also got to see the sunrise live as he saw it. I found it to be super interesting, not only to see how another person stared their day but it was also, lovely to see some landmarks and parts of England live. The second video I clicked on was a guy drawing silly pictures. If we commented our names he would draw a face that he though went with the face. The commentary he gave while drawing and the music he had playing in the background made it a very entertaining and a funny stream to watch. The third video was of a lady from Brussels. She was Pericoping live from the airport that was attacked. She showed the viewers as she and a group of people rushed out of the airport. Of course we didn’t see the actual attack as it happened live, but viewers of this lady’s periscope that day saw part of history happing live.

There are all types of Periscopes, people pulling pranks, people telling jokes, seminars, people’s daily lives, and events they are attending. This is a very different form Facebook in the way that you are connecting with strangers. I think it is curios how others live their lives or what is happing somewhere else that makes this sight interesting. On this sight there was also a lot of people doing Q’ & A’s. One man titled his Periscope “what it is like to be black in Japan”, and another titled his “Ask me questions, I’m Muslim and live in Palestine”. I watched both for a while and they were very interesting, and through this site you can ask the type of questions you always wanted to know.

Facebook on the other hand, is completely different. I use this site to see what my friends who moved far away are doing. I have friends Las Vegas, Hawaii, and Malaysia, so I find Facebook most useful when trying to connect with them. I also share funny pictures and videos with my family and friends through Facebook all the time, it really catches my attention. I find Facebook very addicting, and although I don’t use it as much as I used to I still love logging on to see what everyone is sharing. I find that Facebook used to be more about sharing your thoughts. Now it's slowly moving throwers sharing other people’s photos or memes. However, what keeps me coming back is the hope that I see some exciting news from one of my friend’s posts. Like last week my friend posted that the baby she was having was a girl through Facebook and it was so sweet to see all of the love she received through the comment section.

The Social Network Assignment Collaboration.

By Delyla Alvarado, Briana Escajeda, Jocelyn Pallares, and Victoria Gonzalez.

Zuckerberg’s role in relation to his Harvard peers, especially cultural differences between the he and Eduardo Severin, Sean Parker, and the Winkelvosses.

Mark Zuckerberg is the founder and CEO of Facebook. Mark created Facebook who also shared his idea with Eduardo Severin. Eduardo is Mark's best friend, as well business partners. Zuckerberg and Eduardo were nerds and hardly went out as much. They really didn't have anything in common, Mark Zuckerberg was the jerk of the film he didn’t care what he had to do to get what he needed. Eduardo in the other hand was more of the ethical type he cared about himself but also about his friend Mark. He had morals. Mark was very intelligent and had ideas left and right popping into his head, while Eduardo had the money. Eduardo no longer works with Facebook and ends up suing Mark Zuckerberg. Another person who plays an important role to Facebook is Sean Parker, who eventually becomes the company’s founding president. Sean has a big ego and Mark likes the confidence he has and basically he falls for his input. On the other hand, Eduardo didn't like or trust that guy he questions his motives of joining the Facebook establishment. Not many communication goes on between Eduardo and Sean. In the film we see he had big parting ways which contributing to him leaving the Facebook company for being arrested on drug charges which have never been proven to be true but he left. The Winkelovess brothers were the initial ones who thought of the social networking site Connectu. They came to Mark Zuckerberg to help create the site Connectu, which Mark initially stole the idea and created his own very successful social media site. The Winkelovess had no communication with Mark, resulting for the twins to despise him. They later on settled on 65 million dollars. Facebook has a lot of history and who knew Mark would get into so much trouble by creating someone else’s initial idea.  Even with different backgrounds they have a successful social site.  Opposites attracted and get along. The site now has more than twelve years of being successful with no crashes or bugs and has maintain to protect the person's page and significant privacy settings.

Venture Capitalists and their role in the creation of Facebook?

Venture capitalist are investors or people who provide capital to start ventures. They normally support small companies they believe will be successful such as Marks company or for instance ConnectU to get a profit when they finally go viral. Eduardo is a huge part in the creation of Facebook by simply just handing the money over to Mark to help get started and move the company over to California. Facebook has been successful since February 4, 2004, twelve years now. Mark Zuckerberg is making money even if Facebook is at its best or its worst. He has made millions in venture capital that people give his company to gain success. Eduardo’s money helped the company stay afloat for a long time because it was able to hire new coders, new equipment so that the site would never crash. It was highly important to Zuckerberg that Facebook never crashed because he wanted a quality site, he claimed it was what differentiated their site from others. Eduardo went to New York to find investors for Facebook because the company was getting very big in a short amount of time. Eduardo was not able to financially support the company all by himself, so this is why he had to go do some networking. The company caught its huge break when Peter Thiel made an angel investment of half a million dollars. An angel investor is not usually part of the company but provides financial backing for a small business. So Eduardo was not an angel investor because he was a part of the company. Peter Thiel’s angel investment helped launch the company even further. Thiel set Facebook up with and office and helped get the company get reincorporated. However, once Eduardo signed papers leaving him with little to no ownership of the company the company lost its first and most important venture capitalist. This also hurt the company because now not only was the Winklevosses suing Zuckerberg for millions, but now so was Eduardo. This took a huge toll on the company, the Winklevosses were received a settlement of 65 million dollars. It is not known how much Eduardo received in the settlement but the friendship between himself and Zuckerberg was never the same again. Nevertheless, the rewards seem to outweigh the costs because now Facebook is now occupying billions of active users every day, and is worth 100 billion dollars according to Tim Worstall (2015). 

Gender relationships, particularly the way the main characters interact with women and what role that had in the creation of Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg undermines women from the beginning. In the film they depict Mark as having a hard time after his breakup. Not knowing how to deal with his emotions he got drunk and went to the internet. Blogging and then creating a site that compares local university girls with each other. Zuckerberg exposes many secrets of his ex-girlfriend, whether they were true or not. Even to the extent of calling her inappropriate names on the internet, which immediately gets many people’s attention. This was unfortunate for his ex-girlfriend, since he sabotages her life within a matter of minutes, but this was very fortunate for Zuckerberg since that gave him the motivation to make Facebook big hit. He did this so he could feel someone, someone girls would want to be with, Zuckerberg wanted to be the big shot and create the next big thing. The fact that a simple post attracted an audience Zuckerberg knew this was a great idea. By posting a comparison picture and asking for others to choose a picture got 22,000 hits in two hours. By exposing woman in the way that he did, embarrassing them and his girlfriend, he was able to capture attention and momentum for his next big project, being Facebook. Each time that Mark and Eduardo had an encounter with women, or the subject of women came up, a new concept was added to improve Facebook. Such as the idea of identifying whether someone relationship status as single, married, or in a relationship. Mark knew this would be a great deal to incorporate into Facebook to attract members of both sexes. This was part of the, “college” experience that Zuckerberg was trying to implement on Facebook.

Every time Mark and Eduardo had an encounter with women it gave him new ideas. Zuckerberg stated that, “The website would never be finished, just like fashion. There are always innovative ways to enhance the site”. Adding pictures, profiles, and messages is what the site needed to attract people without it feeling like a dating site, but instead a “cool place to hangout online”. Initially “The Facebook” was just for college student’s. Then of course because of the amount of users made up of only college students, led to the expansion of making it a public social network. Being a jerk to his ex-girlfriend online, while intoxicated, had a major role in the creation of Facebook.

Zuckerberg's attitude towards exclusivity of networks (Open or Closed).

Mark Zuckerberg was a natural when it came to creating websites, people found the sites he made entertaining and addicting to be on. The Winklevosses brothers took notice at his talent and realized that their website idea needed a mind like Zuckerberg’s to make “The Facebook” a big hit. When the Winklevosses presented the idea to the idea to Mark the explained the website as being exclusive to Harvard students. The Winklevosses revolved their idea around females, they believed girls would want to talk to men of prestige and that is what would bring people to the site. Zuckerberg loved the idea of exclusivity, and that is why he jumped on the opportunity to work on “The Facebook”. However, Zuckerberg took this idea to another level. Mark liked the idea that you had to know the other person to send a friend request, he wanted quality. This is what separated Facebook from Myspace or Friendster. Facebook was supposed to be more than a yearbook. Facebook let friends know if their friends were single, what they were doing for spring break, and what they were thinking. It was the next big hit. The smartest move Zuckerberg made was slowly expanding to schools so that they could use Facebook as well. Then eventually everyone was able to use it. Facebook was no longer exclusive to Ivy League schools, but the concept Zuckerberg had in mind would be. The Winklevosses had the idea to make a site exclusive to Harvard students, which led to the controversy because Mark Zuckerberg did use this idea, however he expanded on it. In fact, Zuckerberg expanded all over the world and now we see users as far as India, Malaysia, and Nigeria. So although the exclusivity is not what it used to be, the concept of adding your friends, and putting up your own information for them to see is still very present. As Zuckerberg said in the movie “People want to go on the internet and check out their friends so why not build a website that offers that. Friends, profiles, pictures, why not offer that? Whatever you can visit, browse around, maybe it was just somebody you met at a party.” This is the exclusivity Mark wanted, he wanted to put the experience of college and making it a social network. Whether it be for networking, friendships, work, school, or romantic purposes. You would be able to deny or request whoever you wanted on your own account. Mark described this exclusivity as being a final club, and the user is the “President”.

References

Fincher, D. (Director). (2010). The social network [Motion picture on laser disc]. United States: Sony.

Worstall, T. (2015, January 23). Is Facebook Worth $8 Billon, $100, or $800 Billion to the US Economy? [Editorial]. Forbes.com. Retrieved from   Retrieved from                                         http//www.forbes.com/sites/ timworstall/2015/1/23/is-facebook-worth-8-b illion-100-billion -or- 800-billion-to-the-us-economy/#6f145c4f2d75

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