Alright. Call me crazy, but, I really did miss going to class this week. I mean I love my other classes, but they just don't compare with the excitement that is MCom.

Speaking of Mcom, you've probably noticed that it's quite applicable to real life. Writing our "CLOUD" paragraphs was quite useful for me this week, as I just wrote things I would normally write, but applied the magial acronym to them. Having to go back and check that they lived up to the standards of the all-knowing CLOUD formula made my writing top notch. It was then that I decided... I'm going to use CLOUD style writing... for the rest of my life. I hope my future spouse is OK with that.

Let's see if I can remember what CLOUD stands for off the top of my head.

• C-cohesion
• L -Length
• O-
• U-Unity
• D-Development

So, I can't remember what O stands for. But I'll look it up and memorize it, because, like I said, this is going to be a lifelong commitment. 

-Coleman

PS I've been dying to talk about "twitch plays Pokemon" with all of my classes this week, but the opportunity has never arisen, so you, my friends, are the lucky ones. Basically, 90,000 people are all playing Pokémon as the same character, at the same time on the internet. It's absolutely brilliant.

Here is the explanation:

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/02/22/twitch-plays-pokemon-its-history-highlights-and-bird-jesus/

Here is the actual game, streaming live (you can control it, just type in your commands):

http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon

This Week in My Life

So writing is so useful! I write all the time. I didn't really think about that until this week. I do. Quite often. Like I am... right now. And probably will later.

This week I helped my friend Nic write some Facebook posts for our band. We did a contest to see who is the "sexiest man" is in the band. We had to come up with creative and funny bios for each member. He asked me to write mine at like 1 a.m., so I was a little "tired drunk" as I like to call it. I came up with some HILARIOUS stuff. Here's a sample of what I wrote for myself:

"Meet contestant #3 - Coleman Barker Edwards. A man of many colors, Coleman is from the heart. He isn't always, but when he is. If he isn't alone, he's with someone. His mission statement: http://i.imgur.com/7gIyAxS.jpg As Finn the human from Adventure Time said, "Like BAM, fresh out the grease." Couldn't have said it better without... himself."

Yes, I purposely used incorrect grammar, because it's funny that way. It was so fun though to write stuff that people would laugh at. I came up with a bunch of other stuff, but that was the best of it.
I am excited to keep writing throughout my life, and keep all of the things I've learned in MCom too!
-Coleman


Here is the link to my band's Facebook page. Also, I will shamelessly admit that I won the contest.
www.facebook.com/redyetimusic

I'm very happy with our presentation this week! I think people were entertained with how we taught. Hopefully they learned something too.

Sadly, the comments didn't work on the GoREACT video! I was super bummed. But the video itself did, so I was able to at least watch our presentation and look for interesting things we did. Here are some thoughts I had:

1. I CROSS MY ARMS TOO MUCH. Seriously. At the beginning and end, my arms are crossed the whole time. It probably shouldn't be like that. It was kind of distracting and made me look like I was scared or something.

2. We got feedback from the class that we looked at the screen a lot. I think all of us in the group could work on that together. We'll talk about it!

3. I think we could have split up the CLOUD acronym to have two people teach it. I think it went a little long. Kim did an awesome job presenting it, totally no fault of hers. I think it was just a lot to cover.

4. A little bit of a funny note. My hair looked crazy. Just saying. Haha.

So yeah, that's my feedback. It was a great learning experience. I've seen a lot of bad presentations in my life, and it was really nice to practice somewhere that would allow for me to learn in a non-threatening environment. I'm really glad I did it. Oh and my group was awesome!

-Coleman

PS- I REALLY DID CROSS MY ARMS A LOT (see below)

One thing that will help you learn WAY better than you are now

As I was helping with our group powerpoint presentation this week, I realized the things I've experienced throughout my life have made me become who I am today. When we were trying to figure out how to format our information, Kim, in our group, looked at me and said, "You seem like you'd know how to do this." Well, I do.

Turns out I've taken classes in media-related subjects since elementary school. It started with Mavis Beacon (and Oregon trail) in 4th grade, continued in a multimedia class in middle school, and ended with 3 years of graphic communications classes in high school. Throughout all of them my knowledge of technology and software improved, culminating in what I know now. It hit me hard today that I choose those classes. I decided what I wanted to learn, and I am a product of those things. I learned that learning is a decision.

It's true that some things in life we can't control. You can call it fate, destiny, luck, or whatever. Learning, however, IS something we can control. If you want to learn powerpoint, it's up to you to open it up and start making things, or take a class about it, or ask that paperclip guy in the bottom left corner of the program that's always yelling at you. Either way, if you want to learn something, you can. Just choose to do it. That's how you will learn better than you are now. Choose to do it, and do it.

I hope I can continue to learn, because someday, someone else is going to think I know how to do something and I want to be able to say that I can.

-C


PS- Originally this post was going to be called, "Nothing that has happened so far has been anything we can control", named after a song I like by the band Tame Impala. Well, turns out that song name is the exact opposite of the point I'm making, so I changed the title. BUT here is the song. It's super trippy and awesome. Enjoy.

I USED THINGS I LEARNED IN CLASS THIS WEEK!

So, I work doing social media publishing at a PR and marketing company. It's great because I have to write things all the time, so I get to use my writing skills that I learn in class at work! I get paid to apply my homework to real life! So cool.

Well this week at work, I was writing some posts that needed lists. I KNEW TO USE A COLON AND NOT A SEMI-COLON! It was so satisfying typing the colon followed by the list, separated by commas  (except the last word however, because we use AP style, NOT Chicago style). Also, later in the week, I was considering using a semi-colon, but luckily, I caught myself. The first clause of the sentence was an independent clause; the second was a dependent clause. I could have looked like a fool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi23Cz4EW1o

^Enjoy.

-Coleman