Ms.Red's Reflection

Farewell, ladies and gentlemen...Don't Cry For Me (Argentina)...couldn't help it :-) though It's so hard to say goodbye *tear*
Because, really, I thought we'd go to the end of the road :-(
Okay, but seriously...while we/I won't be returning to the freezing computer lab every Tuesday and Thursday, what I have learnt therein will go with me...and that's the hallmark of a good class.

Personally, I wish that I was less tired from the first summer class I took and from personal matters (emergencies arise at the worst times, don't they?), but I yet feel that this critical practice class has had and will have a definitive effect on my writing.

I did not come to this class expecting to learn how to be an IT technician (I hear they have to wear monkey suits everyday, ewww...and isn't that line of employ undergoing serious retrenchment in this recession, hmmm, so much for "get a stable computer job" lol), I registered for it in hopes that it would teach me new tools to enhance my writing and ways to market myself as a writer. It all comes back to writing...my writing.

As such, I have learnt that, as per my fourth attempt to create a blog, I am simply not a blogger. Sorry, there is no overcoming this. What I have learnt, however, is that there are quite a few blogs that I enjoy following rather (welcome to the 21st century, me...yaaaay!) and how to add them to an RSS feed and to make my life easier by having them all in one place. I've learnt how to link pictures to my pieces, how to resize and to redefine their tone according to my liking; how to play with my words in font, colour, configuration and code; how to think outside the box (thanks Prezi), what a rich playground the internet is (props to Stumble) and how to, most importantly, embrace change.

As a Gemini, I have two personalities and personas (well more than two, but for the sake of simplicity nuh) and these two vie as relates to the idealistic, romantic, 'rural' etc versus the technological. As such, while I use Facebook...a lot... I have battled that this "ought not to be" the way this world communicates, while I like giving quick, easy updates about myself, I have declared that Twitter represents and reflects a dysfunctional, self-promotional, egocentric etc way of being in the world that is better suited to teens tragically fallen victim to being raised in "The Real World" era. Now I have reconciled myself to my enjoyment of these mediums and embrace them in recognition of that which they positively enable, including my ability to gather more information and to communicate more widely. These forms need not be the fall out of disconnection but can, as learnt via practice and the (at times too lengthy) articles that espoused such, be better facilitators of connection...which is what writing is all about....so full circle back to my reason for being, and for taking this class :-)

But the biggest benefit of all to me...aside from meeting some very cool, and some very interesting characters (ahhh, the joys of being in a Fine Arts programme where commune "the personalities"), was the final project...and how fitting that it should be the arbiter of 20% of our grade ;-) But this is not about a grade for me...I'm a genius, a letter holds no impact upon such. What it is about is the fact that I got to be pushed into venturing further in the development of my craft. While it was a hurried and harried process, the knowledge that I acquired in making my video was sooooo worth it. Ooooh, if I didn't love my MAC before I so do now :-) Garage Band has changed my life. I shall be recording my poems et al by this means for a long time hereafter. I am looking forward, too, to shooting my own video and playing with the footage as per the tools attained in this class and to making my little iMovies, yaaaay. I'm excited!..and thrilled thus that I subjected myself and my summer to this concentrated, compact class that allowed me to do something I've always wanted to do...(isn't that the case with us all though?; we took like ducks to water to that which we had always planned on doing anyway...shout out to you subversive whimsies and your ardent blogging, lol)...So here's to more (and better developed)
oral/video presentations of my writing that may or may not be posted on Youtube hereafter...but at least I know how to should I choose too :-)

So if you do Stumble across my movies enjoy, send me a Tweet and remember I'm an artist and sensitive about my sh!t (Erykah Badu, Tyrone...in case you didn't know), lol...

Enjoy the rest of your summer, all...we've earned it.

Camille