Time Management

Time management is something I do struggle with but I have gotten better at it. The weekly calendar seems like it'll be a great tool to help me keep onto of the workload. Reading was something I didn't do a lot during the first year but now I'm going to make an effort to read as much of the lecture notes as I can and take notes as I do. I want to try get some extra work done to act as a buffer in case I can't complete a task for whatever reason during a week but I'll have to see as I'll have to balance my work of the other modules. Working ahead is a great idea and I'm going to try and do that but again, I'll have to see given that I have balance my other modules too.

The read two articles. The first one I read was How to Beat Procrastination by Caroline Webb. I found the article to be really helpful. All the advice in it is simple and easy to do and I feel it'll help me when doing my college work. The second article I read was The Myth of too Busy by Tim Grahl. I found the advice in it good but I didn't like the tone of it. It felt kind judgmental in my opinion.

(An image representing procrastination. Found here.)   

Technology Tools Impressions

I'm not a technologically inclined person so most of these technology tools are new to me. I've known what blogging is for a while now but I've never made one til this class. So it's something new to me but it seems quite simple and easy to understand and use. I know and have used bookmarking before. I use it all the time when finding websites of interest that I want to visit again in the future. Though I did learn the basics of photoshop in first year, image editing is still new to me. I'm a little nervous about it since I wasn't good with photoshop but hopefully this'll be much easier to understand. I've never done graphics creation before but it looks interesting but also somewhat intimating given that it's new to me. In terms of Padlet, Unity3D and WordPress, those are new to me so I can't really comment too much on them at this time. All in all, a lot of these things are new to me but I feel if I just keep up the with the work and follow the website I can get to grips with all them.

(A laptop to represent the course. Found here.)

Class Assignments Impressions

My first impressions of the core assignments is that it looks very fascinating but it also looks quite intimidating. The reading assignment is quite simple and straight forward and it can be quite interesting with the subject matter. The Unity3D honestly seems very intimidating. I have no experience or knowledge of video game development so I am a little worried about it but it as is something new and exciting so it could be fun. The blog comments assignment seems like another straight forward assignment since it's just giving each other criticism. But that too is a little concern of mine. I'm a little concerned about possible hurting someones feeling if I don't phase my comments correctly. The project assignment is intimidating because Unity3D is involved but again, it could be fun. The project feedback assignment seems like another simple one, quite similar to the the blog comment one. In terms of the extra credit assignments, I think the two I'd be interested in are the Tech Tasks and Growth Mindset ones. The Tech Tasks interests me because I would like to learn more about web based technology and I'm interested in the Growth Mindset assignments because after learning it I feel it could be of great help to me and my work. 

(Unity3D in action. Found here.)

Growth Mindset

This was my first time ever hearing about the Growth Mindset and I'm glad I discovered it. As someone who struggled greatly in school because of not being too intelligent, this way of learning feels better and more fair then just rewarding students who are naturally intelligent. I'm someone who has a fixed mindset as stated in the video. Every time I failed or mess up something in school, I'd just runaway from my mistake and not engage with it and that still is the case with me today. I'm glad to have discovered it and I'm going to try use it in all my modules and even in my day to day life. 

(A caterpillar becoming a butterfly, representing growth. Found here.)

Introduction to a Media Student

Howdy. My name is Nathan Harte. I am a college student who is attending TU Blanchardstown, studying my year of creative digital media. I am twenty two years old. I live in Walkinstown, Co Dublin (I have to get two buses everyday, both ways, to come here. Yay.) with my mom and dad, older brother Thomas and my dog Russell. My main hobbies include writing and playing video games. I'm basically a big (and annoying) goofball. I love cracking jokes and sharing memes with others. I'm also a big nerd/fanboy. I'm prone to gush over the movies, shows and games I like. I know more about Transformers lore then Irish history. I know I should like more adult media but hey, what's wrong with enjoying the fun, goofy stuff? My favorite movie is the original Ghostbusters, my favorite show is My Hero Academia, my favorite game is Shovel Knight and my three most favorite franchises are Power Rangers, Transformers and Overwatch.

I chose this course because I have an interest in media and would like to get a job somewhere within the media industry. Before coming here, I attended a two year level five and six film and television PLC course at the Dun Laoghaire Further Education Institute. My first year of this course didn't go too well. I wasn't ready for what full college was like and it was all a bit of a shock. I was prone to getting overly stressed and panicking. But as the year went on, I improved myself. I learned what was expected of me and how much work I had to put in. So through sweat and tears I got all my assignments done. I did very well, way better then what I expected.  I passed my modules with C's, B's and the odd A's. I struggled greatly in secondary school, barely able to scrape a C at best. But I never felt more proud of myself. So hopefully, with a new sense of confidence and a lot of work and determination I can continue to do well. (Hopefully saying that doesn't jinx it.) 

(A picture of Russell)

Multimedia Development Workshop 01

On the 18/09/2019 we attended the first workshop of the module. The first thing we did was an exercise. We were put into groups of three and working from an illustration of a four way junction, we first had to describe in plain English how the traffic lights at the junction work. The second part of the task was for us to create flow charts that details the steps. It was a cool exercise but given that it was at 9:00am, I and everyone else were still walking up so I feel it was kinda lost on us because we weren't able to think properly.

For the second part of the workshop, two questions were put onto the projector. "What worked well for you last year?" and "What would you like to change or improve on?" We wrote are answers down and some of us read out them out. My answers were "Sitting down at the library or home by myself to work." and "Reading over the lectures and writing the notes at home or at the library." I found this part of the workshop good since it showed how we've both grown but still have room to improve as students.

The last thing we did was going over what the content of the module is. We learned was had to make a blog where we have to talk about are progress in the class and tying into that, our end of year project. We discovered that we have to create a simple within the game engine know as Unity and we have to record and share are process with the rest of the class via this blog. I found the blog part simple to understand but I did get lost and somewhat intimidated by the game project. But I chop that up too never doing game development and it being the very beginning of the module so I'll hopefully full understand when we get started in the labs.

(Picture of me giving a thumbs up)

Favorite Game: Shovel Knight

Shovel Knight is an indie pixel art 2D platformer created by Yacht Club Games. It is about the titular Shovel Knight, who must go on a quest to rescue his lost friend and free the kingdom from an evil order of knights.

(Official poster for the game. Found here)

Test Post

Testing, testing, 1,2,3