Author: Sam

For this assignment, I listed the four main parts of the class work that helped me progress throughout the semester. It can be easily seen through these four sections, which I see as the overall writing skills, the podcasts, non-linear comprehension, and the side quests. Side quest are daily work, they are interesting little activities, but they allow for constant stimulation during down time. Overall writing skills helped me to comprehensively reflect on my poor English skills and hone them. The podcasts helped me, by utilizing teamwork, communication, analysis, and video/audio production. Lastly the non linear comprehension of the assignments benefitted me to think outside of the box and put more effort into my work without the downside of an “impossible” assignment. These portions built the class to a point of stability and likeness to where I got through.

I absolute hate my own voice like most people, but to try and do a Russian accent is even harder when I cant hear myself. Even though it may not seemed like it this was my tenth take. I have a hard time with “public” speaking and even more so in a foreign accent. This scene is from the TF2 trailer series specifically i chose meet the heavy. It was fun but not enjoyable.

As I joined for the first time and I was amazed by the colors that were presented tome, but then all of a sudden I got a chill down my spine as the hand crumbled away as we were sent spiraling downwards into the unknown. I felt as though I was with this statue, almost reminiscent of hos Steven Universe has the statues throughout the series of the show foretelling something that hasn’t been found or something that was loss.

Now, I start running through this unknown territory and eventually encounter a white wisps that follows me around. Maybe it is there to remind me of something that is loss, but follows me in spirit.

I continue through the puzzles with the white background until I take a turn and stumble onto this new Red society. A place filled with harsh winds and heavy blocks. I felt that my time here was very rage induced, but only ends up hurting myself. This is countered by becoming this large block that helps me gain stance and mobility through this tough time.

In the next area, the land of pink, I found myself walking normally. Then, I discovered this little cube fellow sulking on a rock. He runs away, but I end up chasing him and we become my companion for a short period of time. This helps me gain some help from others, but Im not quite sure how it fits together.

After my unsuccessful attempt at the temple, I start to feel loss and which lead perfectly into the next area of the game. This is the underwater portion, the land of deep sorrows that cant be expressed in words. I feel as though I don’t know exactly what is going on in the game at this point, but I can relate to the background of how the game made the water suppress the thoughts and ideas of positivity and just left you alone. Going around with this looming cloud of naught, left me drained.

I brought some personal feelings into the game at this point and I couldn’t continue as my feelings became to strong for enjoyable gameplay. I understand now that this is the purpose to explain the levels of grief without a textbook or some man with a degree diagnosing you with such and such.

For some background knowledge, the two blue smiles are magnets that were sold together, much like a salt and pepper shaker. When combined they make a sphere shape and this got me thinking about halves combining to make a whole. This led to my creation of the two smiles representing yin and yang. They are the two halves of the whole balance of good and bad, but we all know that we cant have good without some bad and vice versa. They smile upon us as we live our lives and serve as a reminder that we need to balance our lives to maintain a happy for ourselves and those around us.

I was looking around my room for inspiration when I noticed my water bottle sitting on my desk. Then I started to think what fun things I could do with a water bottle. Eventually I came up with a play on words of Bottle rocket. As a kid I would make these cute little rocket with an Alka-seltzer tablet and some water. When we got into high school my my friends and I used dried ice and they flew way higher. I wanted to express my love for this weekend activity and fill viewers with that nostalgia from childhood.

The hardest part of making this photo was the formatting the layers. It was my first time using some form of Photoshop that was more than just Snapchat. All my previous experience of photo editing was writing the letter “S” for my streaks. It is quite exciting to learn something new in life on my own. I feel as though the past 18 years have been so guided, so this approach to something new has relaxed me.