Nursing Quote #2

"Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription" - Val Saintsbury

Nursing Quote

"To do what nobody else will do, a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through; is to be a nurse" - Rawsi Williams

Top Ten TV Shows

This is a list of my favourite shows that I believe everyone should at least take a look at!

1) Whitney
2) Dallas (new)
2) 90210 (new)
3) Bug Brother
4) How I Met Your Mother
5) Ridiculousness
6) Boy Meets World
7) Saved By The Bell
8) The Big Bang Theory
9) Duck Dynasty
10) Keeping Up With The Kardashians

My Favorite YouTube Video

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g5SJP3eQNjo

I came across this talented little boy when I was watching Ellen, after I saw this video it brightened my day. This boy is adorable and I showed it to everyone who was willing to watch! I thought this was the perfect place to share it and I hope you all enjoy it!

Weekly Reflection #4

  To start this reflection I really enjoyed doing the six word memoirs. Although I struggled with some aspects of it, it was overall a fun project to take part in and I learnt about new writing techniques that I did not know about. I believe that for myself the writing portion was the easier part of the two things. I found connecting the pictures to the words was the hardest part because for some of my memoirs, the writing was immensely hard to connect to the pictures. When I did find the perfect match of words and picture I was able to elaborate easily on my pictures. You can tell by my writers notes which memoirs were my favourite because I was able to easily expand on my ideas, and the paragraphs of description just flowed. What I learnt about using this microform of writing is that there is a lot you can say in a small amount of words. If you like the topic you are writing about, you have a lot of possibilities to say in a very small amount of words. I was surprised about how easy the words came to me for this project, and surprised how hard it was for me to connect pictures and words together. I thought it would have been really easy, but it was pretty hard. I learnt that I am a thinker and I have a million ideas running through my head at one time, but as a writer I like to elaborate a lot on my small ideas. This is why this project was difficult for me because I am used to writing pages on one small idea but in this project I was restricted to 6 words, which tested my ability to get to the point. I'm really enjoying this course, thus far. I think it is bettering my writing abilities which will help me later in life, and I will have the ability to expand my writing from a  basic essay in university. I really don't have any questions, concerns or sources of confusion for this course.

   In the blogging field trip we took, I commented on things that looked interesting, or that made me ask questions and anything that caught my eye. I found it really difficult to comment, because I did not want to give anyone constructive criticism, I felt that I should not be critiquing on work that someones worked hard on! I just wanted to leave nice comments, being a cheerleader and telling them 'Good job!'. I know this is not a great comment, but it gives people a bit of a confidence boost. A good comment, when commenting on a blog, is a comment where you comment on what you liked about the picture, and than ask a question, or say something that you would do differently. That would be the ideal response. A bad comment would just be a comment where all you said was 'good job', or 'I like the background'. It would be a bare bones comment where you are placing the minimal effort in and not asking questions or elaborating on the topic. Some benefits to commenting on others blogs is that you get to look through other blogs and get ideas for your own blog. Also you are able to tell a classmate or another person what you like about their blog, and give them feedback so they can improve even more on their blog. Lastly some good things about getting comments on your blog are that you getting feed back on your work, hearing peoples likes and dislikes and things they would improve on or change. By getting these comments you are able to improve on your blog and make changes that will make your blog more visited and more liked!

Book: Mercy
Author: Jodi Picoult
Pages Read: 1-111

  I just started the book Mercy, and so far I think it is really good, it is a very serious book, but with more happy notes to it than the last book I read. This is the first Jodi Picoult book I read, and I really like her as an author, she goes into great detail in her writing, and I already know a lot about the characters in my book. The first question I had in the book was why Jamie MacDonald killed his wife Maggie MacDonald. As I continued to read on I found out that Maggie had a terminal illness and she did not want to live on as a vegetable and that was why Jamie had killed her, along with the fact that he did not want to see her that way. My first question was answered right away, but my second question has yet to be answered, my second question is Cam MacDonald, who is married to Allie MacDonald is having strange feelings in regards to his relationship with his wife. He feels almost as though he could have done more if he did not stay in the town they are in. My question is did he always feel this way about Allie, and if he did, why did he marry her. This question has yet to be answered in my book, but I'm hoping it will soon because I really want to know the answer to this. Lastly I made a comment in the book, the comment was, according to Allie her relationship with Cam is good, just going through a few bumps, I just hope that no one tears it apart. I am really enjoying this book and I hope it continues to be as great as it is in the beginning.

Six Word Memoirs #7

  I chose to take a picture of the University of Manitoba poster to go with this memoir because that is where I hope to go for University, and I thought it was fitting to have a picture of the university I planed to go to.
  The first thing I did while editing the picture was I cropped it, I cropped it because there was a lot of information about the university, and I had only wanted to have the title and the logo in the picture. I chose to have the black bars in the picture because it was a good spot to put the memoir because it did not look very good directly on the picture, and this way you can see the words better. I also made the picture a little pixelated and grainy because I thought it looked kind of cool that way. I also made the picture brighter so you could see the iconic brown and yellow colours of the University of Manitoba. The white/grey marks on the picture were just a result of the angle that the picture was taken in, and I tried to change it, but it couldn't be taken out. I believe it adds to the picture a bit. The punctuation I used to add to my picture was a comma mid way through the sentence, and a period at the end. I thought the break in the sentence was needed. I chose the very rigid font that was in all capitals to go with my memoir because it is kind of intimidating and a very strong which I believe benefits the photo and further shows my message. I chose the white so it did not take away from the picture, and it matches the University of Manitoba title. I placed the font in the left hand corner because you could see the message best there.

Six Word Memoirs #8

 

  This is by far my favourite six word memoir that I have done, I love the colours in the photo, the colour of my dress, and just the pose of the picture. There is a photo credit, it is in the top right hand corner but it is immensely hard to see, photo credit: KNott, Created by: KNott, http://kaitlynscwb.blogspot.ca

  I chose this photo to go with my memoir because it is me with my best friend, who is also my boyfriend, when I wrote this memoir this was the first picture that came to mind because it fit so perfectly with the memoir. I loved the scenery in this image and I believe it was just perfect.

 I use many editing techniques on this photo to get it to exactly the way I had wanted it. At first I made the picture black and white, just to see if I liked it. It didn't look terrible, but I wanted to see the colour in my dress, and the colour in front of us. I made the two of us in the picture in colour so it made the picture much brighter. I cropped the photo so we were the focal point, and the trees on the sides of the photo were gone. I brightened the picture, because we were in the shade so it was a little dark. I also enhanced the image which I thought was the perfect finishing touch. I chose the punctuation to enhance my photo, I chose the comma so it had a pause in the sentence, and made the sentence flow better. I used dots at the end of the photo because I thought it made it show that this was not the end of the sentence, that I have so much more to say that does not just fit in my six words! I chose the font that is hand writing like because I thought it looked elegant and I believe it looked awesome in the picture. I chose the font to be black because I wanted it to be simple and not take away from the picture. Lastly I placed the font there so it was visible in the photo, but the photo was still the focal point, because, after all a picture says a thousand words.

Six Word Memoirs #6

 I chose this picture to go along with this six word memoirs because time goes, on even if you don't want it to. There is no stopping time, once you pass a moment it is gone. Therefore that is why I paired the memoir "I wish, I could go back" with the picture of a clock because I believe this was the best fit.
  The editing techniques I used when creating this photo was first I enhanced the clock, and made it the focal point of the picture so that the ceiling tile. and wallas were very hard to see. I did this because I wanted the clock to stand out, and I did not like the wait the ceiling tiles looked. I than darkened the edges of the photo. I believe that it should not have very bright colours because I believing that wishing you could go back is not a very happy, and bright thing, it is a very sad thing to think about. I believe the punctuation I used clarifies my message because I used two commas for punctuation, I believe that if I used periods it would make it more of a statement, rather than a phrase that makes people think. I think the commas make you think, there is not a definite ending to the phrase if you put commas which is what I was going for. I chose the placement of the font because I thought it would be most attractive there, because of the size of the clock the font fit best in the top corner because you can still see it and it doesn't take away from the picture. I chose the white font because it went with the black, grey and white theme to the photo, there is very little colour in the picture, and I did not want to make it to bright with a coloured font.

Six Word Memoirs #5

  I chose a simple picture for this six word memoir because I believe this is a very strong and personal message to me. I chose the heart with a black back ground because the heart is a symbol for love. I chose the black background because it is simple, it did not over power the tiles or the vibrant red heart in the middle.
  The editing techniques I used on this photo were I made the colours brighter, I used a filter that would enhance the gold in the tiles because that was where the focal point of the picture is. I cropped the excess black away from the picture so that the it was smaller and did not have any wasted space. I did not use any punctuation for this picture because there was no scrabble tiles with commas of periods. I loved the idea of the use of scrabble tiles for this six word memoir, I used this because my grandparents taught me a lot including spelling and Scrabble is a spelling game. The tiles also
have a rustic and vintage feel to them which i believe just adds to my overall photo. I paced the tiles in the middle of the photo because I believe they should be the focal point of this photo.

Six Word Memoirs #4

 

  I believe the image and words fit together because the picture shows a calender with appointments written under dates, and the words 'I always thought tomorrow was gauranteed'. I believe they fit because as much as you plan you never know what tomorrow will bring or even if there will be a tomorrow, you never know. This is why I chose the calender for this visual because I believe this was the most fitting.

  The editing techniques I used was I first made the colour black and white, but I then added the sepia to it to make it look like a vintage picture. I really liked the way the colour turned out. I cropped the picture a bit so the focal point would be the calender and there would be space for the words so they would stick out. The punctuation I used was dots at the end to extend the sentence so it would make the reader think about what this statement means. Commas did not seem fitting in this picture and I thought the dots would be most effective. I love this handwriting style of font because it just looks good with the message and fits within the picture. It does not go with the words, but it looks good for what the message is, it almost looks like calligraphy which is a vintage technique of writing and I tried to make my picture look vintage. I chose the plain black colour because I did not want anything to bright because none of the colours in the picture are very bright.

 

Six Word Memoirs #3

   I believe the image and the six word memoir fit well together because it shows many kilometres on the dash of a car, it does not show anything about hate but it proves that no matter how far you, there will always be hate, that is just a reality in the world we live in.
   The editing techniques I used on the photo were I enhanced the colour a bit, and I made the picture darker. I tried to make the kilometres more focal but the way I took  the photo made it more difficult to do so. I also softened the picture a bit to make it look better. I used one period in my photo because I wanted to be direct in this picture, there was no pauses in what I was saying, it was a statement, therefore I did not feel there was a need for any commas or extra punctuation. I wanted to get to the point. I chose red for the colour of the font because red is sometimes associated with hate, so I believed it was fitting. I chose a very rigid font so it stood out, and was not soft. It was all capitalised because it makes the message even more prominent in the photo. I placed the words underneath, because I believed you could see it there best.

Six Word Memoirs #2

   I chose to take a picture of my friend sitting awkwardly because it matched the message "awkward, doesn't even begin to describe it" because I was stuck without a picture for this memoir, at first I could not even think of a picture that would best pair with it. I then realised that I have a very awkward friend who was willing to take a picture for me! The words and the picture fit together perfectly because it is such an awkward pose she is sitting in.
  The editing techniques I used was I softened the colours of the photos first, I did this because we were sitting directly under a light which made the colours of the picture kind of funny looking. I then cropped the picture to get the area around her out of the picture because it did not look proper with the desks behind her, I wanted it to be just her and her desk. Lastly I darkened the ground and her surroundings so it did not take away from her pose. The punctuation I used to enhance my message was I used the comma because I wanted the word 'Awkward' to stand out, and have a pause after it, because that is what the memoir and picture are all about. I used the font that was kind of scribbly and an odd sort of font because I believe it fit well in the picture. I placed it where I did because, there was an open space and it fit well there without taking away from the picture.

Six Word Memoirs #1

 

   This is one of my favourite pictures of me from when I was a child, I spent every summer out at my cottage, and I never wanted to leave the beach. It was my favourite place because my whole family was there and I was able to spend time with everyone. I believe that the words and the picture go hand in hand because I am in fact knee deep in the water. It connects to me because the beach will always be my favourite place and it brings back important memories when I'm at the beach and in the water. I believe that the punctuation I used, although very minimal makes sense for my picture. When you are at the beach you are layed back, and do not have a ton of structure, this is why I used only one comma because I did not want it to be as structured as normal writing is, because a day at beach is not as structured as a normal day! I chose a fun font with a bright colour because it was a sunny day in the picture so the yellow fit, the font I chose was a font that fit well with beach theme of my picture. I placed it in the bottom corner so it is a focal point but you are able to see the picture and the water.

 

Life in 5 seconds

While drawing my life in 5 seconds I learned that visual story telling is a really great way to tell a short story and you can get much more detailed without using a million words. I can go into much more depth because a small visual goes along way. The order if very important because it illustrates the series of the events, it also makes it clear so you are not confusing the audience. A group of symbols can be more direct and detailed in some cases and I believe the episode of Dallas I used works really well because it is a very intense episode and I would have has to write a novel if I had to use words. But by using the symbols I can go into depth because I am able to tell what's next with a character in that same area. I believe it is almost easier to tell some stories in this way. It can be more fun for the audience as well because its almost a puzzle they need to connect to get the plot. This was probably my favorite daily cre8tve so far!
I believe this could help me with my 6 word memoirs because now I know just how important the visual portion is. It is not just all about the writing and words the visual element is what makes the message more clear. I now know that I have to go I to more depth with my pictures instead of so much focus on my choice of words. Although the words are important. I am really struggling with finding very symbolic pictures. I believe this is a very challenging project for me.

Weekly Reflection #3

Book: Hate List
Author: Jennifer Brown
Pages Read: 220 - 405 (end)

The first comment I made this week during my reading was how bad I felt for Valerie because of her family situation. With her parents going through a brutal divorce, and the discovery that her father was cheating on her mom for years, Valerie feels as though she has no one, no where to turn. I feel like she had made so much progress throughout the book, and her dad just dismisses all of it like she is still this huge burden to her family. Valerie asks her father if she can forgive her, and his reply was ""No", he said, without facing me."Maybe it makes me a bad parent, but I don't know if I can. No matter what the police found, you were involved in that shooting, Valerie. You wrote those names on that list. You wrote my name on that list. You had a good life here. You may not have pulled the trigger, but you helped cause the tragedy". I believe her father is completely out of line for saying such things to her after all the things she has gone through the past year. Her father continued to treat his daughter horribly and also cause her little brother to turn against her. I at first like Valeries dad as a character, but the last 7 chapters of this book really showed his true colours as a person which made me really dislike the character and route even more for Valerie and her mother.
I had made a prediction when Valerie began to talk about going to a party with her new friends (all the people she hated just months ago). I made the prediction that something terrible would happen at that party, the author used foreshadowing to show that this was going to happen, the circumstances were just not right and that's what caused me to come to this prediction. After continuing reading my prediction was right and not only one thing went wrong it was just a series of horrible events. The worst event of the night would have to be Valerie being threatened by her friends brother, he said ""So was this the kind of gun your psycho boyfriend used?" he asked, turning the gun in his hand contemplatively. He aimed it at my leg. "Do you recognize it? It's not so tough to get ahold of one. My dad hides this one in the rafters downstairs. If I wanted, I could make people go away, just like Nick did." I believe this was by far the worst event of the night because Valerie was being watched over at the party by some guy so she didn't kill anyone there, and than to have her life threatened by a friend? That has got to be the worst, I believe Valerie did not deserve what had happened to her but she should have seen what was going to happen. If the person who is throwing the party doesn't want you there, its probably a bad idea to go.
Lastly I just finished the book this week and I am shocked at how great of a book it was. I would recommend it to anyone, it was a very heavy book though and some people just do not like that type of book. It was the type of book that you have troubles putting it down. The book was light hearted at times, but most of the time it was heart wrenching and I felt as though I was cheering for Valerie the entire time. The book was also relatable because of how the high school was portrayed, because there are cliques, distinct social groups, and bullies in every high school. This is an everyday reality for us. although this book is a few years old, it is still current enough that it is a great representation as an incite into high school life. I hope that something like this does does not happen to our school because of the size of our school population it would hurt even more people and families. All in all I hope to pass on this book to friends in this class and await their opinions on the book. Also I think it would be a great book for lit circles in high school because of its relatability, and the content of the novel.