Alex Monul's blog

Final Portfolio

Posted April 29th, 2008 by Alex Monul

Portfolio

Playlist:
Reflection: The playlist assignment was one of my favorite assignments. I just love music and this assignment allowed furthering my passion about music by trying to associate music with literature. It was very interesting and challenging to figure out a way to depict someone’s state of mind through music alone. Initially, my biggest issue with this project was trying to determine what character I wanted to choose. There are so many great characters and personalities in literature that it was very hard to make up my mind. I chose the fascinating character of Mrs. Mallard because I felt that she had a very intense intrinsic world and even though the story was very short her character went through some amazing transformations. I have read “The story of an Hour” about 10 times before I even began thinking of songs for the playlist. After reading the story I spent some time and created an outline of the emotional changes that the character was going through in the story. Beginning with the weak heart, going through the unusual reaction, seclusion in the room, some meditation and the feeling of freedom she finally got to the state if the immense shock of seeing her husband alive. After that I spent a lot of time reviewing all of the music on my computer and trying to find songs that depicted the particular state of mind in a particular stage. At the same time I had to figure out if each song would work for the state of mind. In addition I decided not to use the entire songs or video clips from Youtube. I found the songs I needed for the playlist, converted them to MP3 and then cut only the part that was relevant to the characters emotional state. I think that this way of approaching the assignment would not create any questions about copyright laws. For the midterm revision I looked over the playlist and it still looked perfect to me. After the midterm it was brought to my attention that I had not given enough info on the stages of emotional evolution that Mrs. Mallard was going through. For my final revision I went back and added reason for why I thought there were so many and what the specific stages were. At the same time I eliminated one of the stages because I thought that I was splitting hairs. When regarding the final product I am pretty confident about being accurate in my choice of the music for Mrs. Mallard taking into consideration the emotional stages that she went through in the story. This assignment really helped me create a different view on short stories and the depth of characters that seem to be somewhat plain at first sight.

Initial and Revised Playlist: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/24
Final Playlist: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/242

Character Collage:
Reflection: I thought it was very creative and interesting to depict a character through a collage. This was my first encounter with creating a collage. I have had some experience in Adobe Photoshop earlier but I never used my knowledge in creating something literary. I used to tweak images and do some work with design. Working on an actual collage that required some artistic and creative skills seemed like an interesting challenge. The transition to GIMP was not very hard but there are differences between the processes I was used to and the ones used in GIMP. Creating the collages and playing around with all the possibilities was very time consuming. I tend to never be content with what I do, so it was really difficult to stop adding or removing things from the collage. The assignment overall was a lot of fun. Again, as with the playlist assignment it took me a lot of time to figure out what character I wanted to focus on. After some consideration I thought it would be fairly easy to do a collage on James Bond. As you understand I was very wrong. The complexity of his character and moral and behavioral traits is simply overwhelming. The collage should have contained so many things that it seemed impossible to fit them all on one collage. I thought about how I wanted to organize the collage and identified the dimensions according to which I was going to depict James Bond. Then, I decided to have one representing object of the dimension and add it to the collage. The dimensions I came up with were: weapon, gadget, cars, women, drinks, gambling, clothing, habits and manners. After that I just found the best possible object to represent Bond on the collage and combined them all. My initial collage was very crowded. The following alternatives dealt with the idea of including the James Bond Character as a legacy or just trying to put a face on the character. The alternatives also include different versions of organizing the collages. At the same time I chose to make the collage in grayscale so that it shows that James Bond is classic. The individual elements were framed to show that Bond plays by the rules and that he is fairly conservative and gentlemen-like. The final collage was a variation of the initial ones but I think the revision made it the way I intended it to be from the beginning. I kept the aspects of the original collage, but did consider the recommendations I received. During the revision I added some smaller pictures and gave a more accurate representation of both Bond's behavioral and moral traits. I also played around with the opacity and size of some pictures creating a difference in how much particular traits influence his overall persona. This assignment fostered deep character analysis. It also helped find the dimensions that a character has and his complexity. At the same time it improved my skills in working with images.

Initial Character Collage: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/128
Alternative Character Collage 1: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/243
Alternative Character Collage 2: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/244
Alternative Character Collage 3: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/245
Final version of the Character Collage: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/129

Poem Collage:
Reflection: This assignment struck me as very hard at the beginning. I wasn’t sure I could accomplish visual representation of a literary work as a whole. At the same time I don’t really like poetry so I had to experience something new. I had the hardest time picking a poem, since I have never studied English poems. With a little help from my ex-girlfriend I found an English translation for a good Russian poem. I chose this poem because it made a lot of sense to me. In my opinion the story about The Sail parallels human life. The poem was kind of straight forward at the first sight. I didn’t quite know how to depict it. I really thought the initial background would be a good representation of the poem. I found the background in an encyclopedia. Once I started the collage I kept analyzing the poem and finally noticed some dynamics. The fact that the Sail was striving for something created the opportunity for me to add on the background and create a story. I didn’t quite enjoy finding the right pictures, but was very interested in playing around with different sizes, color scales, and opacities of objects. The original collage was very bad, but I was still experimenting at that time. I think there is nothing like failure to boost someone’s determination and make them strive for the best. The initial try was overcrowded and the color scheme was inappropriate. After some consideration my revision consisted of re-doing the entire collage. I found the perfect picture for the background and made it look golden. This color played a great role in the collage. Later I added the smaller pictures of other sails around, showing the dynamics and how the initial Sail strives for movement. The smaller pictures were ships in storms and waters with high wave and represented the state that the initial Sail wanted to be in. For the final revision I added some transparency to the smaller pictures as if showing that they are not real but something in mind. In addition I think adding the test of the poem to the collage was a good idea. The readers can read the poem and get an instant visual of what the author meant. This assignment taught me how to analyze poems and look for the meaning in between the lines. It also helped with visualizing what the author had in mind.

Initial Poem Collage: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/130
First Revision Poem Collage: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/247
Final Revision Poem Collage: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/131

The Yellow Wallpaper Annotations:
Reflection: I really liked doing annotation to the Yellow Wallpaper because initially I had no idea about the depth of this story. I never thought that such a short story can contain so much information and so much meaning. I loved the “The Yellow Paper” story, because under the surface some very controversial issues were discussed about the injustices towards women in the past. This assignment helped show that if no serious thought is put in every story that we read, we might overlook important information that the author wanted to convey. It was very complex and contained at least one very complex character that was developing throughout the story. This assignment was very helpful in developing my analytical, communication, and writing skills. It also fostered looking deep into a story and analyzing its themes, symbols, and characters. I think the assignment got everyone involved in analyzing the story in an equal manner both in participation and discussion. This helped share ideas, but most of all see what other people think about the same issues. In addition to all the videos we watched adding notes about the story and reading what other people had to say helped me greatly in understanding the story. The assignment also encouraged research on specific aspects of the story that helped relate it to the times it was write in and the issues that were prominent at that time. The research also showed the authors past and political views on the issues. The main character was more than just an insane woman; she represented all the oppressed and silenced women of that time. One of the main discussions was the fact that psychological issues were not treated at that time and the fact of hiding a member of the family from the outside world because of shame. One of the down sides of this project was the fact that the easiest comments possible were made first and a lot of times people had already said what I wanted to add. On the other hand this encouraged me to come up with something that no one else had thought of. I think this was a great project and I contributed accordingly to it.

Video:
Reflection: This assignment was a really good experience with Windows Movie Maker. It was fun, educational, and fostering thought. At the beginning I thought the video would be easy to accomplish. After some consideration on the topic and the quality of the video that I wanted, I understood that it would be time consuming and it would require me to generate some good ideas. Movie Maker was really easy to understand and assemble videos. My original video took a very long time, because I had to find more than a hundred pictures and had to add the title to every single picture. The process of adding the pictures to the video, creating titles and coordinating the music was very time consuming. The worst thing is that when I finished it, I understood that I hated it. I didn’t even want to post it. For the revision I created a different video on a whole different topic. This topic was much more literary and more interesting altogether. The revised video is on the “Evolution of Jazz”. It basically shoes how Jazz came about and shows the types of Jazz and Jazz musicians that were prominent in the past. My video contains dynamic images, frames with text explaining the story and videos of musicians. At the same time I focused on the most prominent artists in the type of Jazz I depicted. The songs that play in the video correspond to the era of Jazz that the visual images describe. I used effects on all the still frames and had transitions among all the non text frames. The text frames are black with white writing and they fade in and fade out every time. I kept this pattern because I think it creates a feel of authenticity. For the final revision I extended the time of some text slides, I tweaked the musical transitions and rectified the 2 spelling errors that my friends found while watching my video. At the same time it was very interesting to see what other students came up with. I think this assignment was very helpful and valuable because it allowed a free topic and let every student show his imagination and skills.

Original Video: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/237
Revised Video: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/238
Final Video: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/239

Final Podcast:
Reflection: Working in groups is always challenging. Working on a literary piece of work in a group with every person’s perspective is even more challenging. Good thing I like a challenge. This assignment was different because it required coordination with other students on one project. It also helped go back and refresh my memory about the stories from the beginning of the semester. At the same time the value that this assignment gave was the fact that we got to explore themes across stories, and not themes within one particular story. This allowed me to see a pattern or a trend in the writing of a specific time period and how one specific theme could be witnessed in many stories with minor differences. My group focused on three themes in two stories. The stories were “The story of an Hour” and “A rose for Emily”. The themes we explored were the theme of death, seclusion, and male dominance in the 1900’s span. This assignment fostered a lot of idea sharing and delegating. We approached the problem in the following manner. Initially each member picked 2 stories out of the semester and came up with the present themes, characters, and settings. After sharing all the information we observed which stories shared the same themes and we went with those. When we figured out the stories and the themes we divided the themes and stories among group members. At the same time in the Podcast every member would add to what the required members said. I think my group did a great job of exploring very deeply the themes in both stories and keeping a conversational tone at the same time. Even though this was not very different from individual podcasts it was much more interesting and fostered even more sharing ideas and helping each other.
Group Podcast: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/205

Comments and Blogs:
Reflection: I thought we did a very good job about discussing the stories in class with podcasts, chats, videos, and discussions. It was really hard to go home and make blog postings about something that we have extensively explored in class. I decided to focus on commenting about other students’ work. I always encouraged them and provided them with constructive criticism. I definitely looked at all the new posting and the additions to the image galleries, and commented where I thought necessary. At the same time I feel I was very active in class when discussing stories and tried to provide a different perspective. Commenting on people’s work I found the weaknesses in my own and made the necessary adjustments. Even thought I haven’t participated in the blogging experience extensively I think I was fairly active on the course of the semester.

Midterm Letter/Reflection:

My midterm summarizes all the work that I have done for the class in the first half of the semester. The portfolio depicts all the interesting projects that I have been exposed to with the help of our literature class. The class is innovative and fulfills more goals at the same time. The methods of teaching help us learn fiction in a new, fun way. When I signed up for the course I expected to do a lot of reading and writing the reflections in long, frequent, and boring papers. The tasks that we did so far, made the subject matter a lot more interesting, and helped retain information about literature for a longer period. The portfolio also encompasses the knowledge about using graphics software, media files, and the HTML writing language. Overall the portfolio is a great tool to show all of the work, step back and reflect on it, seeing the progression as time passed. It also facilitates remembering what we have done in class in the beginning of the semester. The blog aspect of the class was very helpful in aspect of receiving comments from other students and sharing ideas and different views. The proposed assignments have really developed me as a writer because they are not the writing assignment in typical English classes. The podcast assignments for each week helped me stay on track with the readings and when I was called out I had the opportunity to share ideas that I otherwise would have not. The individual assignments help improve my regard of literature and literary writing. Generally I have had problems being creative in writing but the collages, playlist and video allowed me to be creative in a literary environment without actually writing something. So far I have enjoyed the relaxed and discussion style of the class.

Final Letter/Reflection:

This English class was different from the usual English classes and definitely a lot more interesting. It challenged me both in terms of fiction, creativity and some technological issues. I have completed tasks and projects that I will never probably do in my life. I am a business major and I really like computations and numbers. I have always had trouble with creative projects. I think the collages, playlist, podcast and video brought out my creative side and made me think critically about the literary pieces we read in the class. Since the class had a different format I enjoyed spending time on more creative assignments. I was a little hesitant and embarrassed to share the more creative projects. But with time, that changed and I had no problem with the public aspect of the class and even shared the links with friends. The fact that everyone could see the work only fostered constructive criticism and helped see other people’s work and their views on different things. The entire experience helped me become more exposed and create different views on various controversial subjects.
The property of the portfolio that you can view a summary of your entire work for the semester helps see how far a person has come and how they have evolved. This property helped me realize that I have learned much and have come a long way from the beginning of the semester. At the same time it foster continuous revision to previous projects and I think this made my final product a lot better. I have made changes to all of the assignment and tried to keep close to what I originally intended. In some cases I decided to redo the entire assignment because I was not content with the result I got. The assignments also helped me with character analysis, themes identification, and identifying ideas that the author intended the reader to grasp. At the same time the projects helped students like me express their thoughts in new, interesting, and creative ways.
The course has a great selection of stories and I think the curriculum is very well developed. The length of the stories is rather short and aid students to better understand the objects of the course. The stories were rather interesting and struck me as very simple at first. Later after some discussions I understood that my comprehension of the stories was far from full. The class discussions revealed the multiple layers and themes within the stories. The podcasts together with discussions answered many of the questions I initially had after reading the stories. I think the professor did a great job about tailoring the required time to specific stories. I enjoyed that we had at least one story that we analyzed thoroughly and now I know the required criteria and dimensions to analyze a story. Overall the course is very well planned and the technology aids the students in understanding the topics, sharing ideas, and developing creative projects. I enjoyed all the aspects of the course and I am happy that I took this section of the class.

Revised Playlist

Posted April 29th, 2008 by Alex Monul

Playlist

This is the revised playlist based on the emotional changes that Mrs. Mallard was going through in “The Story of an Hour.”

1) First, Mrs. Mallard is described as having heart trouble. This is important because it explains why her sister took great care to break the news to her. The part of the song I chose parallels the situation in the story with that in waiting room in a hospital. In both instances the bad news has to be presented in a very gentle way, with lots of consideration.
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE LYRICS - "What Sarah Said"

And then the nurse comes round and everyone will lift their heads
But I'm thinking of what Sarah said that "Love is watching someone die"
So who's going to watch you die?

2) “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms”. The state of shock and simply the need to let the emotions out are depicted well in the excerpt of the song that follows.
SUGARCULT - "Crying"

You keep crying, crying, crying
Till you cannot see at all
You keep crying, crying, crying
Till you cannot breathe at all
What do you do when you’re alone?
What do you do when no one’s home?
What do you do when you’re alone?
Out of control, Now on your own

3) “When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.” Not many people realize this, but I think that for a split second she actually missed her husband. This could be caused by the fact that she simply did not know of such a way of existence, without her husband.
JEM – “Missing You”

I wish this could be
a happy song
But my happiness disappeared
the moment you were gone
Tell me it's not happening
Say it's not as it seems
Tell me that I'm gonna wake up
It's just a bad dream
Please tell me that it's fiction
Tell me it's just a lie
Whatever you choose to tell me
Please say he didn't die
And I, yes I, miss you
and it's killing inside

4) When in the room I got the feeling that there is a transition where she takes time and thinks about her current situation. She feels physical exhaustion and is deeply considering what to do next.
DEPECHE MODE – “Enjoy the Silence”

Vows are spoken
To be broken
Feelings are intense
Words are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Words are meaningless
And forgettable

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

5) Next, the newly widowed woman is looking out of the window and sees spring and all the new life it brings. The descriptions used now are as far away from death as possible. "The delicious breath of rain...the notes of a distant song...countless sparrows were twittering...patches of blue sky...." All these are beautiful images of life. I think the instrumental piece transfers the feeling of something new, a new beginning.

Instrumental Piece

6)"When a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams." This song in translation is about a woman crying. I found the song so deep and emotional that I simply ad to use it for this instance. This instance is more of internal crying, not showing it physically.
REBEKAH DEL RIO – “Llorando”

Tu amor se llevó
todo mi corazon
y quedo llorando
llorando (x5)
por tu amor.

7)"There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air." The following song represents Mrs. Mallard's expectation of something unknown, something new. GREENDAY – “Are we the waiting?”

Forget me nots and second thoughts
Live in isolation
Heads or tails and fairytales in my mind
Are we, we are,
Are we, we are the waiting unknown
The rage and love,
The story of my life

8) At this point she seems to have found a way to rectify what she thought wrong in her life. Mrs. Mallard then realizes in a rush of emotion and relief that she is Free! Body and soul free! She views the world with a fresh outlook: one where she will be her own person, answering only to herself. The particular part of this song shows the passion for freedom.
THE VINES – “Get Free”

Save (save)
Me (me)
From (from)
Here! (here)
(come here x 12)

I'm gonna get free
I'm gonna get free
I'm gonna get free
Ride into the sun
She never loved me
She never loved me
She never loved me
Why should anyone?

9) “She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead.” Here for a moment she thinks about the funeral. This following instrumental piece shows a theme related to death in my opinion.
Instrumental Piece

10) “A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.” This moment of illumination is showed very well in the following song.
MOBY “Porcelain”
no words

11) This last phase occurs for less than a moment, and represents the shock of seeing her husband alive. There is much irony in this particular twist. The song, however, relates the emotions.
TRANS SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA “Requeim”

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Final Revised Video

Posted April 29th, 2008 by Alex Monul

After showing my friends the video I found two spelling errors in the text and the fact that the time allocated for reading the longer texts was too short. I changed that and also tweaked the transitions of the songs from one to another. I added the song names and musicians to the sources list as well.

In addition I have fixed some grammatical errors pointed out by my teacher. Now it is much closer to being perfect.

I hope you enjoy my video.

p.s. When resizing the video, some quality was lost, but if anyone is interested in a high quality version it weighs about 70mb.

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Jazz Evolution Video

Posted April 29th, 2008 by Alex Monul

After failing miserably with my first video I decided to make an informative, literary, yet interesting video. All the Jazz fans will appreciate this video. In this video I simply show how Jazz came about and evolved during the years. Traits carried from West African black folk music developed in the Americas, joined with European popular and light classical music of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, became the syncopated rhythms of Ragtime and minor chord voicings characteristic of the Blues. Ragtime later evolved into the first forms of jazz. Most early Jazz was played in small marching bands or by solo banjo or piano. The dynamic of Jazz improvisation arose quickly but as an ornament of melody and was not to come into its own soloing styles until about 1925. The 1950s Jazz scene faced new competition from other forms of entertainment. The growing popularity of television helped to introduce new popular music trends but shrinking Jazz audiences. Then Jazz music suffered an almost fatal trend upheaval first from the record industry's frenzy over Rock & Roll in the mid 1960s and followed by the Disco dance fad in the early 1970s. Many Jazz artists crossed over to more popular venues or joined the new Fusion school of Jazz. During the 1980's, the Jazz time line continued to evolve on a somewhat lateral direction with a multitude of influences, the most significant of which was the retro surfacing of it's own roots and styles. In the present the style called "European" is most prominent. Since its birth, well over two dozen distinct Jazz styles have emerged, all of which are actively played today.

If you think this is too musical for you, just listen to the music in the video and you will understand the differences. The video also provides details about each style and the most prominent musicians in the specific periods.

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First Video Attempt

Posted April 29th, 2008 by Alex Monul

Attached you will find the first video I made about the topic. The story behind the video is that: A frozen person was found from the 1900 and was defrosted and brought back to life. The video is just the visual aspect of a futuristic machine that can project images into people's brains. The video is intended to show the person that missed the last hundred years about the achievements and main things that happened in that time span. It focuses mainly on the events that touched the entire world, inventions and movements in music, film and art. The song I used as the background is one of my favorites and shows the intensity of the things happened in the past and the main negative aspect. Even though many inventions were created to better the world, the two world wars and the atomic bomb tilt the scale to the negative spectrum in my opinion.

I never uploaded this video because I didn't really like it after I finished it. I realized it wasn't very literary and even though it was very time consuming with creating titles for over a hundred pictures and adding the soundtrack it was simply bad. But, I will upload it and you can imagine how much time I put into it.

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Everyday Use Discussion

Posted March 18th, 2008 by Alex Monul

After reading the story I did some research on it. The story addresses the generational gap between older generations and people that were born in the nineties. The younger generations don't have the knowledge about the two events (Black Power Movement and the Second Wave of the Feminist Movement) that greatly influenced writers and the general public about racial issues and the purpose of higher education. I have to say, I did not know the specific movements that happened in history, but I had some idea that some turn points had to happen to get the big shifts in our history. The fairness of the events is paralleled in the story when Mrs. Johnson snatches the quilt from Dee and gives it to Maggie, thus refusing to give away part of her heritage to be used as an article of fashion. This also acts as punishment for Dee for her negative attribution towards the house, things they had, and generally to her heritage. In conclusion, I think the story addresses more controversial topics but this is the main topic of the story.

Midterm Portfolio

Posted March 18th, 2008 by Alex Monul

Portfolio

This is my midterm portfolio. It summarizes all the work that I have done for the class so far. The portfolio depicts all the interesting projects that I have been exposed to with the help of our literature class. The class is innovative and fulfills more goals at the same time. The methods of teaching help us learn fiction in a new, fun way. When I signed up for the course I expected to do a lot of reading and writing the reflections in long, frequent, and boring papers. The tasks that we did so far, made the subject matter a lot more interesting, and helped retain information about literature for a longer period. The portfolio also encompasses the knowledge about using graphics software, media files, and the HTML writing language. Overall the portfolio is a great tool to show all of the work, step back and reflect on it, seeing the progression as time passed.

Mrs. Mallard's Playlist:
http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=blog/8

Reflections: I did not make any changes to the original playlist. I put lot of effort into picking the songs appropriate to the emotional stages that Mrs. Mallard was going through. Some revision can be made by adding to the reflections on the songs, because what I initially thought was self explanatory was not clear to everyone. The stages that I indentified in her emotional states are numerous and reflect how her internal world is rocked by the disturbing news and all the consequences and thoughts that the news caused. The lyrics I chose to highlight from each song on the playlist represent a good description of her emotional progression. If you take the words that I showed out of the context of the entire song then it really begins to make sense.

Initial draft of the Character Collage:
http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/128

Final version of the Character Collage:
http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/129

Reflection: The initial character collage is my first attempt at a collage. I wanted to convey so much meaning and traits of the character that I didn't pay much attention to the aesthetical look of the collage. It could use some smoothing out of the edges and some color. When revising the collage however, I decided to keep it in the grayscale, showing the type of personality Bond has. He has all these new gadgets and is up to date on everything, but his way of doing things and behaving is fair and old-fashioned. During the revision I added some smaller pictures and gave a more accurate representation of both Bond's behavioral and moral traits. I also played around with the opacity and size of some pictures creating a difference in how much particular traits influence his overall persona. The more boxy aspect of the collage represents a great value of his character, being within bounds. I think the revision, although not mind-blowing, made the collage better.

Initial draft of the Poem Collage:
http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/130

Final Poem Collage:
http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/131

Reflection: I had a really hard time with this assignment. Using GIMP was no big problem, but coming up with a poem and trying to create a collage that conveys the meaning that the author intended was very challenging. I chose this poem because it made a lot of sense to me. In my opinion the story about The Sail parallels human life. I think the initial collage is awful. That was my first try at conveying something deep, and I got carried away with the number of pictures and the color scheme. It was overwhelming, very busy, and hard to focus on one specific thing. I started revising it immediately, and decided to do the whole thing over. I like the more golden color that turned out from playing around in GIMP. I also like that the revised version has meaning and is not too busy, and allows viewers to focus on the main sail. I left the smaller sails in boxes to represent that they are part of a entirely different reality, or they are part of the imagination, as opposed to the main Sail that is alone in real life. The transparency adds to the differentiation between the actual and desired state. The revised collage is easier to look at and the integrated text in the collage helps read and visualize the ideas at the same time.

Wikipedia Yellow Paper Contributions:
http://www.teachmix.com/litwiki/index.php?title=Special:Contributions/Mo...

I really enjoyed this assignment and think we should do some more. This helped share ideas, but most of all see what other people think about the same issues. I never thought that such a short story can contain so much information and so much meaning. I loved the “The Yellow Paper” story, because under the surface some very controversial issues were discussed about the injustices towards women in the past. This assignment helped show that if no serious thought is put in every story that we read, we might overlook important information that the author wanted to convey. In addition the assignment provided valuable knowledge about how to contribute to the Wikipedia website.
Comments on the class website:
http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/70#comment-161
http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/97#comment-160
http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/125#comment-159
http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/95#comment-158
http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/104#comment-157
http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/84#comment-156
http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/66#comment-155
http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/64#comment-154

Reflection: This is an area that I can definitely improve on. This class is my first experience with blog posting, and I still feel awkward about just writing stuff I think and throwing it out there. I will definitely start posting every week and commenting on people's thoughts more often. The comments I posted were mainly about collages. In the comments I shared what I think people did good and what in my opinion can be improved on.

Mrs. Mallard's playlist

Posted January 23rd, 2008 by Alex Monul

This is a playlist I composed based on the emotional changes that Mrs. Mallard was going through in “The Story of an Hour.”

1) Initial emotional state, weak heart. The bad news has to be presented very carefully.
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE LYRICS - "What Sarah Said"

And then the nurse comes round and everyone will lift their heads
But I'm thinking of what Sarah said that "Love is watching someone die"
So who's going to watch you die?

2) The initial shock upon receiving the news. Weeping…
SUGARCULT - "Crying"

You keep crying, crying, crying
Till you cannot see at all
You keep crying, crying, crying
Till you cannot breathe at all
What do you do when you’re alone?
What do you do when no one’s home?
What do you do when you’re alone?
Out of control, Now on your own

3) Realizing the loneliness and abandonment.
JEM – “Missing You”

I wish this could be
a happy song
But my happiness disappeared
the moment you were gone
Tell me it's not happening
Say it's not as it seems
Tell me that I'm gonna wake up
It's just a bad dream
Please tell me that it's fiction
Tell me it's just a lie
Whatever you choose to tell me
Please say he didn't die
And I, yes I, miss you
and it's killing inside

4) Thinking and analyzing the situation, alone in the room.
DEPECHE MODE – “Enjoy the Silence”

Vows are spoken
To be broken
Feelings are intense
Words are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Words are meaningless
And forgettable

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

5) Physical exhaustion. Remembering what once was…
GREENHORNES – “There’s an End”

Words disappear
Words weren't so clear
Only echos passing through the night
The lines on my face
Your fingers once traced
Fading reflection of what was

6) New beginning.
Instrumental Piece

7) Childlike crying…
REBEKAH DEL RIO – “Llorando”

Tu amor se llevó
todo mi corazon
y quedo llorando
llorando (x5)
por tu amor.

8) Expectation of something new.
GREENDAY – “Are we the waiting?”

Forget me nots and second thoughts
Live in isolation
Heads or tails and fairytales in my mind
Are we, we are,
Are we, we are the waiting unknown
The rage and love,
The story of my life

9) Feeling of freedom, exhilaration, and an increased pulse.
THE VINES – “Get Free”

Save (save)
Me (me)
From (from)
Here! (here)
(come here x 12)

I'm gonna get free
I'm gonna get free
I'm gonna get free
Ride into the sun
She never loved me
She never loved me
She never loved me
Why should anyone?

10) Thinking about the funeral
Instrumental Piece

11) Self assertion and illumination.
MOBY “Porcelain”
no words

12) Shock of seeing husband, death.
TRANS SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA “Requeim”

Something literary in my opinion

Posted January 13th, 2008 by Alex Monul

This is a video I found, but it is actually not a video but rather a slideshow with music, that I think is something literary.
At least it triggered emotions and encouraged some analyzing and deeper thinking...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5Z1K8G21iME

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Something literary in my opinion

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