Friday, December 7, 2018

Dark Souls Podcast

This podcast was inspired by my friends, and especially my boyfriend, forcing me to watch and play Dark Souls over the past few years. At first I would just watch my boyfriend and his roommate play everyday, every chance they got to play. Then I decided to finally give it a try to play it for myself. Once I realized that I am not very quick, and that I have too short of a temper to play Dark Souls I decided that just watching them play is better for me. I also think it is really interesting to listen to them talk endlessly about a game they love.

I thought that having three of my friends who are very passionate about the game, just talk in a round-table style would work best for this podcast. At first I considered doing individual interviews and having just one person talk at a time, but then I realized that it is much more interesting and comical hearing them talk to each other about their opinions on the game. I had to cut out a decent bit of bicker between them because they would just go off on side tangents but I tried to keep some of it so that it showed character development.

At first I thought it would be really easy and fun to get three of my best friends together to talk about a game that we all love. Then, I realized that working with three guys is complicated. Originally there were supposed to be five guys, but because of scheduling conflicts only three could be together at the time of the recording. Finding a time where we all could get together was a complication, and because I chose this form I had to have them all together at the same time. Another complication that I did not account for was that when people get really excited or really heated about topics, they all want to talk at the same time. I kept having to remind them to not talk over each other because you could not hear everything at one time. I thought it was really interesting to hear their favorite parts of the game, because I have been watching them play for years, so, some of their responses actually surprised me. Although working with guys was not as easy as I thought it would be, it was a lot of fun hearing about their favorite parts of the game.

Image result for sitting at a bonfire dark souls

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Twine Tutorial

TWINE
“Twine is an open-source tool for telling interactive, non-linear stories.”-Twinery.org


Getting Started

Finding/Downloading
The Twine program is already available on all UPJ computers.  It can be found on computers in the Mac Lab (Blackington) by searching the word “twine” or finding it in the applications folder.  
In all other labs:
go to “files,” select “this PC” from the left hand column, under “devices and drives” select and open “OSDisc(C:)”, find and open the file “Program Files (x86)”, find and open file “Twine 2”, left click and select “send to” and “Desktop (create shortcut)” for ease of access while you’re working (it will stay on your desktop until the computers are “wiped”)

If you would like to have twine on your personal computer there is good news, it’s free!  Simply go to Twinery.org and you will see the option to download.  Here you can pick the option for whichever type of device you have (Windows, macOS, Linux).  You should be able to follow your computer’s download prompts and take it from here.

Opening/ Getting Familiar
When you open up the program, if the prompt appears, you can choose “get started.”


From here, choose the green button which reads “+Story” to begin your project.  You will be prompted to name your project. You can name it anything. If you are just messing around, I’d call it “Practice.”  


When you create a new story, it automatically creates a new “passage” for you.  The passage is the white box in the middle of the screen. This passage is what is basically acts as a digital page in your story/poem.  




Before we begin, we need to select the story format we want to use.  To do this, click the triangle at the bottom of the screen next to the title of our project(in this case “Practice”).  Next, select “Change Story Format.” Select, “Sugarcube 2.18.0


To start creating your poem, click on the passage to open it up.  Change the title to something like “Homepage.” Entering in the text is an opportunity to get creative.  Copy and Paste the entire body of text into this first passage. (example: A Road Not Taken by Robert Frost)
This is what it will look like.

(Save Progress by clicking the triangle by the title and selecting “Publish to File”)

From here, we will link to new passages.  To do this, pick a word or words in each stanza which you want to highlight.  Put two brackets around the word or words like this: [[yellow]]

This will create and link a new passage named “yellow”



It will look like this:
We can copy the first stanza and paste it into the passage named “yellow.”

We can repeat this pattern for each of the stanzas.  

This is just one example of how to creatively add links.  Feel free to change it up and add your creative spin here.



Edit Story Stylesheet/ CSS

To edit the style of the font, background, colors, etc.  you can enter in CSS code into the story stylesheet. To find this you click on the triangle next to the title and select “Edit Story Stylesheet.”

I will include code below.  There are many ways you can alter this to make the look fit your poem.  To find examples of code to change color or text, I suggest checking out the CSS page on W3Schools.com.  

body{
 background-color: #ffffff;
 color:#000000;
 font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;
 font-size: 125%;
 font-weight: bold;}
#ui-bar{
 color:#FFFFFF; }
#ui-dialog{
 color:#FFFFFF; }

Inserting Images

To insert images into your story, you should first make a folder.  Put it somewhere it is easy to find (like on your desktop maybe). You should keep the name simple, so it’s easier for you to turn it into a webpage.  Names like, “twine” or “road” are good.

(Move your twine html file inside this folder.)

Within that folder create a folder named, “images.”
This is where you will save all of the images you want to include in your project.  When you place your photos in there you should also give them easy to type names.

This is an example of code you can use to insert an image.  

<img src="images/name.jpg" alt="name" width="70%" height="70%" />

You type it onto the passage which you wish to see it.  
Remember to edit it so that the name of your image file is in place of “name.”


Inserting Audio

To insert audio, create another folder within that “twine” folder named “audio.”  This is where you will save your audio file.

Insert this code into the passage where you want your audio to play:

<audio src= "audio/name.wav" autoplay/>

Remember to change the name of the file to match your file name.  


Website

To turn your twine poem into a website, follow this guide: creating-your-own-website




Monday, December 3, 2018

Digital Poetry Final Poem

This poem was inspired by my last semester of college and the stress of finals week.

http://www.pitt.edu/~aep56/final/Final.mp4

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Final project propsal

For our final project, we were given the task to create a interactive digital story. I planned to work with Mary-Lynn for this project. We were thinking to use either Twine or HTML. I believe Twine will be our best platform for the story we intend to tell. Although we have not completely decided on the story, we are thinking to tell the story of college students. Twine allows for different endings to the same story. 
I was thinking to have the reader start out with a pretty linear story where they are just clicking through the introductory parts about the basics of college life; class, homework, group projects, friendships, etc. Then giving the reader the option to choose what type of college life they want to experience in the game. Do they want to follow the rules and do their homework every day, do they want to party and sleep through class, or are they an athlete that is stuck between excelling in the classroom or on the field? 
Twine will allow us to incorporate sound and images but video clips may be a challenge for us. This video project will really put our talents to the test. We both have used Twine before to make simple and smaller projects, but this will allow us to expand our knowledge of the program. It also will push us to create stories like I never have before. We will have to be creative enough to not only write one story, but one story with multiple endings. This project is going to be challenging but the outcome will be well worth it!


Image result for college life comic strip

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Video Project

My video project is a promotional video for Sodexo dining at UPJ. I am an employee for Sodexo, and I also interned with them a few semesters ago. When interning, I learned how their marketing department operates. We are currently in need of new employees and we were trying to think of a good way to let people know what it is really like working for Sodexo; thus, came my video project idea. I got together with the Human Resources manager and the marketing manager and we set up a plan. We discussed what positions to highlight, key employees to speak with, and also logistics on when the best time to film would be for everyone. They really helped me get my ideas flowing. 

The form for this video is a compilation of photos, video interviews, and voice over descriptions. I did this so that it was not just my voice being heard the entire time. I wanted to feature different employees for my video. 

This video was a challenge to make, but actually a lot of fun! Since I work there, and know all of the employees, I felt comfortable speaking with them and taking photos of them. My favorite part about this project was hearing people's responses to "Why do you love working here?" There were a few responses that surprised me, but it definitely made me realize how lucky I am to have such great co-workers. 

The hard part about making this project was the editing part. I had no prior knowledge of video editing, so I basically taught myself how to use iMovie. Luckily, iMovie is a relatively user-friendly application. Although it was challenging, I found out that I actual enjoy video editing. Quite honestly, I surprised myself on what I was able to create. Did you know that it really is not that hard to take just the sound from a video clip? (I thought that would be impossible to do!)

Stylistically, I wanted the color scheme to be professional and to be the same colors as our company colors; blue, white, and red. The segments that were just text, I wanted to keep simple because the rest of the video was a bit busy. I also wanted to keep everything consistent throughout the entire video. For instance, in between the video interviews I would use 4 or 5 five photos. Also, I realized that some transitions work better between some photos than others. Also, I really like the "Ken Burns" feature for showing the image, but sometimes that would not work with photos, so I would put a more intricate transition with those photos. 

This project has taught me much more than I had anticipated. I learned how much goes into video editing. I also realized that just a few seconds a film, requires so much editing time. I really liked figuring out how to layering all of the components, such as, the videos, my voice, and the background sounds. I also learned what it is like to film in a work place. I had to be able to use my judgement of good photos. Because I was filming for a company, I had to make sure that everything happening in the video or photo adhered to company policies for safety, dress code, etc. Another important thing that I learned that I am sure I will use for my career is understanding photo release forms. As well as, trying to figure out what to do if people do not consent to the photo being used. This was especially hard when filming in a group setting.


Here is my project: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10SBAloqytnygAmmVxNzQwScJVwzcrZEN/view?usp=sharing 
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX6cd6m1xac&feature=youtu.be

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Poem #3

This poem was inspired by the words that my friends and family say when I go home for the holidays. There are some good things, but mostly things that stress out college students!

http://www.pitt.edu/~aep56/poem/home.html

Friday, November 2, 2018

Three Videos

During this segment of the course, we are discovering how video essays are created, and the significance of pairing sound with images. The three videos that stood out to me the most were How The Beatles Changed Album Covers,One Step Away, and A Brief Look at Texting and the Internet in Film. All three of these films pair sound and image together to create a video that allow the two factors to compliment each other perfectly.

In the first film, A Brief Look at Texting and the Internet In Film, they show the evolution of showing text messages and internet browses in films. Up until recently, film makers would often just avoid showing the messages by having the actor read them aloud or by cutting out cellphones or technology all together. In this video essay, they show clips of films that have used this old fashion technique. They also show how they were able to start integrating text messages into film, the main film that they referred to was Sherlock. In the video essay, they would have the scene with the messages playing, while havind a voice over playing in the background explaining facts and the timeline of the evolution of integrating texts in film. They would play short sounds from the film in the video to fill in empty space and for transition scenes.

The other video essay that I watched this week was, The Beatles Changed Album Covers. This video essay explained how the Beatles were the leaders in the album cover world in an informative way. He was saying how in record shops that the album covers are what caught people attention and when he said that is when the video was showing people looking through albums at a record shop. They would play some Beatles tracks while talking about it, but for the most part just had light instruments, like strings playing in the background. Description with texts can only go so far, so he showed the album covers as he spoke about them and when he showed The Beatles album he would highlight the specific things he was discussing. He used this imagery to show the audience what he was talking about, and it made it easy to follow along with. This essay could have been just a podcast or voice recording, but pairing it with the video allowed for the audience to understand and visualize the pieces that the speaker was describing.

The third video was titled One Step Away. This was more of a video poem, than an essay. This poem was based off of a dream that the author had. It could have easily been just spoken words and not have video. Although, the video adds emotion that hearing the words would not have been able to evoke. The tone in her voice as she reads, and the video as it takes us through this world of confuse evokes emotion in the viewer. I believe that the author would have paired this poem with this video because they wanted us to see the certain things, rather than just leaving it up to the imagination. She wanted us to see walking in the streets, and nature from strange angles. The music and words, paired with the images created a beautiful and emotional video poem. 


I believe in each of these videos, the pairing of audio, text, and images worked very well. I think that the first two films were informative and so the mono toned voice, and limited background sound was appropriate. On the other hand, the video poem had background music for most of the video and that was fitting because it was an emotionally driven video. I think that when I create my video, it will be more informative so I will most likely look at the first two films as models, but if I was filming a more creative video, like in the poetic genre, I would use the third film as an example. 

Friday, October 12, 2018

Sound track to my world



In my imaginary world, I would have podcasts about many different things. I would have the older people record their stories so that they could be passed down through generations. I would also have musicians document their music and make the different takes of the songs available, from the first take to the last. No one in my world would mind sharing and documenting their ideas, because it will be an open and free thinking world so they would not have to worry about others stealing their ideas, rather they would want to share their ideas with the world. I would also have create podcasts that are set up around comedy. Some of my favorite pass times now are just listening to comedians while I am cleaning or cooking.

Ideally, podcasts and recordings would be used for documentation and for recreational use. We could use them to make educational videos on how to make things, or just learn fun facts about things. My favorite podcast that I listen to now while I drive is How Stuff Works. They tell you cool things about an array of categories. This style of podcasting would work really well with my world because the people of my world love to share their information and no one has malicious intent to steal content. My favorite way to listen to podcasts is through Spotify Premium.
Image result for spotify podcasts






Digital Poem #2

I have created my digital poem using DreamWeaver. I wrote the words that appear to be falling on the right, and the words on the left that are going up are written by famous poets. The poets are listed in the source code.
Digital Poem #2

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Podcasts

This past week we were challenged to listen to three podcasts. I am not very familiar with the podcast world but it was something I always wished I had time to get into. With this assignment, I took the chance to indulge into a few podcasts and it made me feel better because I kept telling myself it was for a class so I wasn't wasting time by listening. The podcasts that I listened to were on Spotify premium. The first podcast was "My Favorite Murder", MFM Minisode 88. All of these podcasts are two women, Karen and Georgia talking about everything under the sun. The read stories that are sent in by fans, the stories in this episode were high suspense and dramatic. These two women had some funny remarks but they also rambled about side tangents, which I did not like very much. It seemed like they were just recording themselves in a studio or a quiet place. I liked that it was easily understood and it was easy to follow along with. I also liked their use of humor to keep the listeners attention. It was an easy listen, but I do not think I would like to have my podcast set up like theirs.


The second podcast that I listened to was from Stuff You Should Know. The episode that I listened to was "How Game Shows Work". I really liked this episode because I like silly fun facts about things, and I love watching game shows. This particular one was a bit long winded but overall very interesting to listen to. It was two men speaking infront of a live crowd. There were times you could hear the crowds cheering or laughing. The men were funny and had voices that were easy to listen to. They essentially went through the history of different game shows then explained how they each were made. They also mentioned notable episodes or notable actors that were on the shows. This set up really worked for them because they were using an informative approach, although I believe that it could have been shortened. I liked how they played off of their audiences reactions. There were times that you could tell if the live audience seemed more interested in certain subjects they would continue talking about that rather than just moving on. I liked this podcast, but for me to make this work I would need a really interesting topic.


The third podcast that I listened to was from I've got a Beatles Podcast. The episode that I listned to was episode 116; Defining McCartney. In this episode the had people call in and say what their favorite Paul McCartney song was and then they talked about why it was, then they played the song. There are two men who are the hosts that seem that they are in a studio. They also have peiople calling in who speak. This was a good podcast because it was easily to listen to and they had a mix of people talking, as well as, music being played.







Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Photo Essay #1- The life of a college student featuring Sydney Butler

The idea for my project came from the story “A Young Father’s Balancing Act” because I liked the idea of talking through everyday struggles. My favorite part of that story those is how at the end of the day the father is still proud and happy to be a father even though it is challenging. My roommate inspired my story because we always sit together and discuss what we have going on that week. We both had a never ending list of things we had to do. This gave me the idea to write about the struggles of a college student. So often, especially at family events, my older relatives or relatives that have never attended college ask me questions about college that make me realize that they have such a warped view of what I actually do with my time at college. They ask questions like “how many classes are you taking?”, “Do you like your professors?”, or even make statements like, “What do you mean you didn’t go to a party this weekend!” Questions like those make my blood boil and made me want to let people know how much stuff most college kids have to juggle on a weekly basis.
The formatting for my project was inspired by Ogier-Bloomer “Books From My Mother”. I really liked the symmetry of having the photo and the captions next to other, it allows for an easy read. I also have it so my slides do not necessarily correspond with the next slide but the overall moral of the story gets built up from the captions.

This project really allowed me to get an understanding of my roommates routine. I saw how much she really has to do throughout the day. I also was able to understand more about her jobs and classes. I had to really learn about her trials and tribulations to be able to tell it to my audience through this story. Because she has so much going on, it was hard for me to condense her life into a few slides with relatively short captions. I had to pick and choose what back story I wanted to cut out so that I could keep the reader's attention but still give them enough detail to understand the point of the story. Another challenge that I had to face was finding time that we both had available to take the photos of her. We were able to work around that by staging some of the photos, but most of the photos used in this project were candids.
I have taken a photography class that taught me how the mechanical aspect of taking photos work. It allowed me to know what type of lighting to use and what format works best with the project I am using. These skills helped me for this especially when I learned that for a photo essay all of the photos must be the same shape. My photos for this project are in portrait mode. This was a challenge because some of the scenes would have been better captured in landscape mode, but the majority worked best in portrait mode.
This type of storytelling allows the words to supplement the photos, contrary to typically stories where the photo supplements the words. These photos do not leave much up to the imagination, but rather allow the reader to physically see the subject of the story and to watch them progress throughout the story. The platform that I used to create my photo essay project was Google Slides. Google Slides allows the reader to click through the story at their leisure and take as much time as they need to on each slide. I like having the words directly next to the photos because it allows the reader to have the image in their peripheral vision while reading the texts. This allows them to easily visualize what is happening before, during, and after the photo was taken. Using Google Slides also allows the reader to go between slides freely, it does not have to be a linear storyline, although it can be. For my story it works out that the reader does not have to go from start to finish in the story and not be able to jump around. It makes the most sense for the reader to go from the first slide to the last slide, but they also have the freedom to go back to previous slides if it helps them remember what had already happened in the previous slides.
This project taught me about formatting, as well as, how important camera angles can be. I did have previous knowledge of the technical side of taking photographs, this project allowed me to expand my creative side of photography. I was able to find the perfect angle, and take a surplus of photos until I got the perfect one. For most of the project, I took many types of photos for one slide, and the ones I liked the most were not the angle I expected to work best for that slide. Sydney is a photogenic person, so having a subject like her made the project just a little bit easier. I also learned how to format Google Slides into an un-editable file. I originally converted it into a PDF file but then I decided that it is more user friendly to just convert it to a un-editable file rather than using the PDF version. That will help me far beyond this class. Converting the Google Slides makes the project so that it is un-editable to the reader. When it is kept in the original Google Slides format the reader can make changes or see the editing tools that I have used. Once it is converted into an un-editable file those edits go behind the scenes. Something that I liked about converting it into an un-editable is that it still allows the readers to go freely between slides, they can click at their own speed and also go back to previous slides. Overall, I really enjoyed creating this project and I hope to possibly use it in my professional portfolio.

Monday, September 24, 2018

Digital Poem

My digital poem was a recreation of my non-digital poem. I used the same idea but I brought it to life. Prezi allows my poem to be interactive and allows the reader to visually see the places I described in my poem. 

Beautiful Europe- Digital Poem #1

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Photo's of Sydney

In this photo, Sydney is walking from class to her work study, where she will spend about 4 hours working for the nursing department. During her work study, she does typical clerical work, such as, shredding papers, making copies, and running paperwork between academic buildings.


Sydney spends time on the computer while at ehr work study. Often times she is juggling multiple projects at one time. Her boss knows that she can handle whatever tasks she gives Sydney, but sometimes she overdoes it. Similarily to her work study position, people know how hard of a worker Sydney is that sometimes they over extend her by asking her to do to much at one time. Because of the nature of her personailty, Sydney tends to have a hard time telling people "no", even if that means she is running herself mad.



Sydney is a Junior Psychology major. She has maintained a 4.0 during every semester so far except for one semester. Her studies are very important to her and although she is very busy, she never lets anything interfere with her schoolwork.



With her crazy schedule, Sydney always finds time to study and do her homework. The studying technique that works best for her is using flashcards to study terms. 





Sydney is the president of a club on campus at UPJ called Kickstart Kids' Hearts. This club raises money for kids with heart defects. She organizes all of the meetings and manages the events that the club has.



At the end of her long days of class, studying, her work study, and homework. Sydney heads home to maintain some of her personal upkeep, like exercising, laundry, showering, and other household maintenance.





Because she has so much on her plate, she often times finds herself being up late studying or working from her phone. One of her favorite things to do to maintain her sanity, is nap. Her favorite nap spot is on the couch of the home we share during the school year. 

Sydney is a Network Marketer for a company called It Works Global. She started at the very bottom of the food chain and worked her way to earn the third highest ranking in her company. She now manages 3 Instagram account and about 100 employees. If you are interested in learning more about her business follow her on Instagram @Sydney.jordann. 




One of the most important and time consuming rules that Sydney plays, is being the big cousin. Sydneys' Uncle AJ and Aunt Heidi are the parents 5 beautiful children, 4 of which were adopted from Ethiopia. This past year, her Aunt Heidi, who was only 38 years old, was diagnosed with stage 4 Bile Duct cancer. When this diagnosis occurred, Sydney had to up her game from just being the big cousin, to now also being a caregiver to her aunt, as well as, all 5 kids. Heidi had recently lost her battle in August 2018. To learn more about who Heidi was and the type of family Sydney has, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPqAKuE-C_I


In addition to the passing of her Aunt Heidi, the same night Sydney had also lost her wonderful Uncle Tom. With the strain put on her family from all of the most recent events, Sydney became the shoulder to lean on for all of her family members. She has to be the strong one that everyone calls when they need something. On top of her own busy life, she also has to be the anchor for her family.




Friday, September 14, 2018

A Day in the Life on a College Student- Featuring Sydney Butler



Let's get to know my travel partner and roommate. I have traveled the more places with this girl in the few short years that we have been friends than I have any other friend. We have visited cities together in 3 states, and 9 countries. I wouldn't trade her friendship or our experiences for anything in the world. So now you guys can get to know my best friend----
Sydney Butler is a Junior Psychology major at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. She is not just a student but she is also, a roommate, girlfriend, sister, daughter, cousin, travel partner, niece, work study employee, friend, fitness enthusiast, as well as, a business owner. The list continues for the rules in life that Sydney plays, so obviously this is a busy girl. Sometimes she is spread so thin that she has to make very tough decisions to decide which rule takes priority of her time for that day.

During the school year, Sydney typically starts her day very early. Being one of four roommates, she is usually the first one that is up and out of the house. She typically starts her day by getting a little bit fo her work down on her phone while relaxing in bed. Once she finally rolls out of bed, she gets up to make breakfast, her favorite breakfast is when she mixes Keto Coffee, chocolate shake mix, and chocolate greens. After getting breakfast, she gets dressed and gets ready to head out and start her extremely hectic day. She is currently taking 5 classes, and is excelling in everyone of those classes. Although she makes getting a 4.0 look easy, this girl studies her butt off everyday, and never misses a homework assignment.

On top of her intense class work, she is also a very passionate business owner. She works as a Network Marketer for It Works Global. She started at the very bottom of the food chain and worked her way to earn the third highest ranking in her company. If you are interested in learning more about her business follow her on Instagram @Sydeny.jordann. On top of running her own business and managing about one hundred employees under her, she is also a work study for the universities nursing department. She has manage to squeeze in an average of 10 hours a week at her work study. She typically finds time to work between classes and tends to work through her lunch time.


Aside from her academic and professional life, she is a very dedicated friend, girlfriend and family member. Her family is very important to her. While her parents had been divorced for the past eleven years, she has to not only find time to spend with her old sister Sabrina, but also she visits her parents separately. One of her favorite people in her life in she maternal grandmother whom she refers to as "Gaga". Sydney loves to bake with her Gaga. Her little cousins look up to her as their idol, she always has to keep them in mind when she is living her life, because they always have eyes on her and always want to copy everything she does.


Her friends and boyfriend bring her pure happiness. While her life may be complete chaos, she manages to make time to unwind with her friends, and boyfriend, Tyler. Whether it is "$10 date nights" with Tyler, girls night with wine and movies at home, or a big party with her closest friends, Sydney always keeps her bright smile and exuberant personality so present. You know when Sydney is in the room, and those who surround couldn't be happier to have her around.


Stop back next week to see this story brought to life with the use photographs. I plan to just hang out with Sydney for one or two days straight and continuously take photos of her during her day to day life. I intend to really capture her character, and allow her facial expressions to show what conflicts she has going through her mind. These photos and short captions will truly exemplify how strong of a person she is, and what it all takes to pull off her crazy lifestyle.

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Beautiful Europe- a poem

The trip has just begun
A new world for me to see
People, places, things all so new to me

Southern Europe is where we start
Where the wine is fresh
The pizza is thin
Honestly, one of my favorite places I've ever been
Italy, you have filled my belly
But even more so, my heart
And for that I thank you
For such a great start

Next stop, we head to the top
The alps are cold and crisp
The livery roam free
There is no place I would rather be
Switzerland, I'll see you again soon
Don't forget about me

Here we are now
A place rich with history
Where the people overflow with knowledge
While they drink down their beers
You were so good to me Germany, cheers!

We are now heading further north
In a place where the croissants are fresh,
The tower stands tall
A place where my love grew deeper for a place I'll never forget
France, you were so much fun for us all

It's colder in this place than most
Where there is afternoon tea
And where royalty still reigns
I've seen the clock
And I've ridden the eye
London, I promise this is not goodbye

It seems we have reached our final stop
We have enjoyed our paella and tapas
You have shown me sangria
Which has shown me how to dance in the streets
Spain, when you think of my time here
Please, have a drink for me!

Europe, I loved our time together
Our laughs, memories, and love
You have shown me more beautiful places than I'd ever imagined I'd see
For this I am forever grateful
That you have shared your beauty with me

Friday, September 7, 2018

A refreshing and ever changing world

Before we start traveling around my world, I'll give you a little insight on what to expect. My world is a balanced yet chaotic mess. It's the type of mess where things seem to be scattered everywhere and have no rhyme or reason to their placement, but for some reason I know exactly where everything is. My world is a place where people can be weird, they can be open and free, and they can be totally just them. I am who I am and you can be whoever you want to be. I like to let everyone do their own thing, and if you offend anyone in my world then well....you can fuck off and go to some other miserable planet in the universe. To be honest, if you are easily offended then my world is probably not for you either. So, if you are trying to have some good vibes and not complain to much then my place is the place for you.

I do not have time or patience for politics and the corruption so we can just leave all that bullshit wherever it came from. A pug represents my world's political presence(or lack there of) because they stand for peace, ample sleep, and their main cause is to make sure living creature has a full belly. This world allows all of its visitors to express their emotions. We are always open to change on this planet.


Here is what my world flag looks like:
Image result for pug flag

My world constantly has some strange song playing in the background and you are really not sure where it is coming from but it seems to be describing how you feel at the exact moment that it is playing. The songs be a range of genres, but are mostly songs that you can sing along too--- sorta like songs that you can sing in the shower. Sometimes the song gets skipped and sometimes the same song plays on repeat for what seems like centuries, either way, we are jammin'. 

There are animals everywhere and we treat them with the utmost respect and we love and cherish each creature individually. There will be animals roaming around freely everywhere we go. The animals bring my world solidarity.

The air in my world is fresh and clean. I live very simply in this world and live off of the land as much as possible. We do not have any manufacturing on my planet but we do export our fresh and natural resources to other planets. Electricity is limited but can be used if and when it is necessary. One of our biggest imports from other planets are books. There is no ban on the amount of books that can be imported here. There are no limits on music equipment either. I encourage everyone who visits my world to expand their minds as far as they will go. 


This world is crazy. This world is free. This world is happy. This world is mine. Welcome to Planet Springs -- where anything I imagine is possible. 


Friday, August 31, 2018

A trip around my world


"I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way"


In order to join me on a trip around my world you need to know a little bit about me, your totally qualified tour director, so that you can brace yourself for what is about to go down. My name is Amanda Esperanza Potts, I am 21 years old and sometimes my life gets wild.

First things first, it is suggested for your safety to not speak to me within 30 minutes of me waking up. Preferably wait until after I eat breakfast to ask me any sort of question. I am not a pleasant person when I'm tired. I love sleeping so there will be scheduled naps throughout the entire trip. Now that we got the basics out of the way I can tell you a little bit about the fun little details about me.

I am open to listening to just about any music. I prefer to listen to very minimal amounts of heavy metal, and hard rap isn't my favorite (unless I wake up feeling gangster that day). My music choice strongly depends on my mood and what I am doing at the moment. I really like country music, and the concerts are even better. I also really enjoy listening to vinyl records. Most of my vinyl record artists choices would be Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and mostly any Christmas album.  I am a huge fan of The Beatles and my favorite past time thing to do is listen to Beatles records with family.

Side tangent: I absolutely love The Beatles. Paul McCartney is my favorite member of the band, and he was SO cute when he was younger. Anyway, the summer of 2018 I was privileged enough to travel Europe with my best friend. In my travels, we visited the famous Abbey Road in London. I got to see Abbey Road Studios, walk across the famous Abbey road, and buy Beatles records from near by record shops. To say the least, I have never fan girled so hard in my life. I traveled to 9 countries in 30 days with some of the most amazing and interesting people I have ever met. If you would like to see more about my trip watch this cool GoPro video my friend Gregorio made: Grand Tour of Europe!



Anyways, back to more things about me. I absolutely love pugs. They are my biggest weakness and I may or may not have cried more than once just by simply seeing cute pictures of pugs. I can not wait to get a pug of my own, but I know that I need to have a bit more stability in my life before I make that commitment. During our trip you will also meet my favorite person in the entire world, my boyfriend, Seth Hitchens. He is my absolute best friend and knows me better than I know myself. He's amazing. I'll leave all that gushy stuff aside, just know he is a huge part of my life and if you want to deal with me, then you have to accept that Seth will be there too!

While we are traveling, I will complain about being hungry about every few hours. I am not a picky eater but the only thing I really do not like is mayonnaise.  I prefer to eat a local diners rather than chains restaurants. A few of my favorite chain restaurants are Chipotle, Texas de Brazil, Chik-Fil-A, and just about any place that sells sushi.  For breakfast I love to have cereal and cold milk but every once in awhile I don't mind switching it up and having pancakes with nutella. If I am grumpy feed me and everything will be better! :)

I am so excited for you to join me in this adventure around my world! I hope you are ready to experience things from my perspective. I can't wait to share my ideas, my stories, my photos, and other things I find really cool with you! I hope you stick around for the ride, things are about to get real rowdy! ;)