Blog Post #3

When it comes to group work, I would say that I am a combination of a diagnostician and an energizer, also an initiator/contributor. I pretty quick to gauge how everyone's opinion can connect together or not work together, after which I advise my own course of action, which is what the group agrees on a lot of the time. This is can be related to the character Michael Corleone from Mario Puzo's The Godfather saga. Originally, Michael is the child in the family who does not want to get involved in the family's mob business, but after a significant plot scene, he changes into the man who will eventually take his father's place as the Godfather of the Corleone empire. He expresses his opinions, indicates what the problems are, and solves them using his intelligence, which eventually leads his followers and clients into trusting his decisions. He isn't afraid to take risks, provided that the payoff will be high if they work out. I certainly am not as dignified, or as cool, as he is, and while I've never left a gun in order to take a cannoli, but when I offer up ideas in the group, I think it's safe to say I can make people an offer they can't refuse.
I would also say that I have a bit of the feeling expresser in me. This reminds me a lot of Hermione in Harry Potter, as she is always the first one to express her discomfort with the various shenanigans that Harry and Ron suggest that the three of them try. This can be seen in just about every novel in the series, with too many results to list. The most memorable for me is at the end of the last book where Ron and Hermione had a relationship that briefly ended for a few chapters after Ron's jealousy made things difficult. Anyway, I'd say this represents me because I am very good at reading people and understanding how they or their opinions relate to other's opinions in the group, which I can bring up and discuss with the group in order to make things run more smoothly.

Blog Post #2

My score on the practice AP multiple choice exam was not very impressive. It was a 64%. I wasn't sure how I would do on it, I expected a low grade simply because I wasn't as prepared for it as I should have been. A long weekend without much sleep really took a toll on my test taking abilities, but I don't think that was the main problem. I've never had any experience with any type of AP English testing or reading because I haven't taken AP Comp. I'm not sure exactly how much that would've affected my score if I had taken Comp, but I feel like my abilities to understand literature and even just the way AP English tests are written would be much better with the comp exposure. 

I actually enjoyed the chapter one reading. This surprised me because it was a textbook, and the standard textbook isn't exactly a comic book if you were to rate it in terms of entertainment. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, or even close. I think that had a lot to do with the intro, the whole idea of books being considered cultural artifacts, because back when I was younger I loved to read and would read at every opportunity I had, and the whole idea of having a book, something tangible, versus an E-book, has always appealed to me. Something about having a copy of the book you're reading always made it a lot easier for me to connect with the story. The chapter also had a great way of mixing up genres of literature. There were a lot of poems, but none of the poems were hard to understand or analyze, which made a lot of sense to me and also made me confident in my analyzing abilities. 

The chapter also had a pretty accurate foreshadowing of what my weaknesses would be on the practice AP exam. My patience was very low with the exam. I wasn't confident on my answer to the first question, and even though I shouldn't have judged the entire test based on the first question, the fact that I didn't get it right was pretty upsetting. Also, my mind wandered a lot during the test; I couldn't focus and I was losing concentration in the middle of the pieces, which made analyzing them pretty hard. My attentiveness was also pretty low, which tied into why I couldn't concentrate and made answering the questions hard because I had to look back at the text quite a few times. So, to sum it up, the book was completely accurate  in what it advised me to focus on.

It seems pretty obvious that given my low score on the test and my weaknesses, that I should do exactly what chapter one said. My first goal is to increase my stamina when it comes to analyzing literature. I plan to do this by slowly increasing the time I spend focusing on my AP Lit homework every night. It won't happen all at once, because that's not how increasing tolerance works, but eventually I'll get there. My second goal is to use my imagination and creativity more when it comes to analyzing literature. There is rarely one meaning or one symbol, and since a text can be interpreted in many ways, I need to think outside the box and work on interpreting the text in different ways. Finally, I need to realize that I won't necessarily enjoy every text that I have to interpret. I just need to accept what I have been given and work with it to the best of my ability. Hopefully a combination of reaching these three goals will help me improve my 64%.

Blog Post #1

Every project or design will involve type or text in some way, which makes the font choice very important. Certain fonts deliver certain moods and tones, which will affect the way your project is viewed and understood. The purpose of your project also has impact because there are certain fonts that lend themselves to different purposes, such as artsy, classical, or modern fonts. If the font is not the main focus, for example if your project is emphasizing a photo in the background, the font choice should be kept simple so that the viewer's attention is on the photograph and not the font style. The color of the font also makes a difference, as color can dramatically effect mood and emotion, and there is research showing that some light may even have a therapeutic effect. My template mainly focuses on darker blues and some whites, with the blues evoking a calming mood and the whites being readable without standing out too much.