Reading Reflections

Week One - Reflection on htmldogs "Getting Started" through "Images"

This is my first introduction to code as I've never explored it piror to this class. After reading through the introduction of it on htmldogs I found it very interesting. I am a video editor and I found the way you assemble and html site very similiar to the video editing process. I can view the html page as the video editing software, the body as the timeline, and then all the other elements you add after that is an effect or edit. I think that this thought process will help me as I learn how to code.
Furthermore I am overall just very excited to learn how to code and develop a website. I've been meaning to learn for quite some time to make a website as a portfolio for myself. After this weeks reading I am eager to learn more about css and the creative aspect of it as it didn't go into it too much.

Reflection on - Susan Sontag, In Plato’s Cave from the book: On Photography

Every single day, thanks to modern technology in smartphones, we take photographs. I personally take photographs on my phone every day. For me, the images I take are just me showing the beauty in the world that I am witnessing. Taking a photograph is a way for me to capture reality in all of its glory. If I see a particular scene I find visually pleasing, such as a sunset, I will immortalize it by taking a photograph.
With this fact that I take photographs to show the beauty in the world, we can also take photographs to show how ugly the world can be. Through photographs or illustrations we can highlight many things. We can showcase injustices or we showcase acts of empathy and compassion. Through the use of photography we can really give an accurate representation of the realities of the world we live in. For instance, if you want to highlight wealth inequality in New York City you can photograph business men waiting to cross the street next to a homeless man begging. That image would enforce the notion of wealth inequality and hopefully invoke the emotion of empathy in those that view it.

Reflection on - Motherhood in crisis: "The Devil At My Door"

After reading this graphic novel I was left with this melanchonic feeling, while also beeing glad for Aboul. While I was happy to see her child recieve the treatment he needed, it was very heartbreaking to see how the people in Sierra Lione and other under-developed nations live. I assume most people take their children to the traditional healer and they don't survive and that is depressing. As far as the technical aspects of the graphic novel, I really enjoyed it. Visually it was very appealing, I think the art styles used for the characters was the amount of not too detailed while also not that cartoon-ish, i think it really helped keep the reader engaged.
Having some movement whther it be Kadiatu's eye opening in the hospital or the text bubbles appearing on screens kept the story from feeling stale. If it were just still images the story most likely wouldn't of been as compelling as it was. Also not using large amounts of texts was beneficial to enaging with the reader because they are able to fully observe the picture as opposed to having a large text box in the middle of the panel. Overall I thought that this graphic novel was both excellent storytelling with great dialouge, and visually appealing due to the technical choices the creator made. I would reccomend this to a friend.

Reflection on - "Workers in the Global South are making a living playing the blockchain game Axie Infinity"

Just how much and how fast the world is changing is incredible. Who would of ever believed people could make a living playing a video game, and not from streaming the game, but from actually playing it. I will be honest I don't know much about NFTs and crypto-currency but this new economy is so fascinating to me. Turning video game sprites into NFTs and making them worth money seems like it could be a revolutionary invention. Like I said, I'm not all too sure how this works but it does and people are getting real results from it.
In the article it states the barrier of entry is difficult which is disheartening for me because this is something I would genuinely be interested in. I have played Pokemon my whole, since I was 4 years old. I've played so many RPGs, and have wasted so many hours. If I could've turned those hours spent playing Skyrim, or Pokemon into real tangible money, I would be a millionaire by now. As technology keeps advancing and media keeps becoming a more intergral aspect of our daily lives it is very exciting to see what lays ahead in the future. Perhaps, Triple A gaming studios will pick up on this and try to implement something of the sorts into their games later on. It would be interesting to have a weapon in Call Of Duty be a NFT.

Reflection on - "How 'Trustless' Is Bitcoin, Really?"

In this New York Times article they discuss tracking down the original 64 bitcoin miners, the people who really made bitcoin sucessful. This article posed a question I never really thought about, how 'anonymous' is bitcoin actually? I had no idea that there were only 64 original miners, even more so I didn't know there was most likely 5 or 6 actual miners. In the article it even states that at times there are only one or two.
Using data visualization to be able to come this conclusion is truly remarkable. When they displayed the graph of all the original 64 miners, it was really eye opening to me to see just how centralized this cryptocurrency was. I'm sure that most readers had this same effect. Using datata visualization in this way could be a key aspect in many problems we face as a society in the near future, in different aspects of life.