christineheartsbio

Hi! Welcome to my blog. My name is Christine, and I am making this blog for my AP Biology class. Throughout the year, I will be posting what I learn and other topics of relevance. This blog will hopefully help me study and prepare for the AP test that I have to take in May of 2016. In case you are curious about me and what this class means to me, you should watch this short video I made:

Enjoy the rest of my blog!!

-Christine

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Are you taking AP Biology next year? First off, CONGRATS! And secondly, watch this short video to find out some tips and tricks I’ve learned over this school year that can really help you succeed in this class.

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I’ve always been in love with computers. My dad introduced me to different CD-ROM games when I was really young and our single desktop computer still ran on Windows 98. Fond memories of playing Sesame Street Baby and Me CD-ROM when I was really young and then spending hours online on the PBS Kids website playing all the different games pop up in my mind. Ever since this early introduction to the internet, I’ve been obsessed. The production of content online has fascinated me so much since then. When I was in elementary school, my best friend and I made a website about dogs (check out the slideshow below featuring the inspirtation for the website, my dog). We tried to create very professional posts and wanted to become internet famous. Obviously it didn’t work in making me famous, but I still maintained my love for the World Wide Web.

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At the beginning of this school year when I heard we were going to be keeping a blog, I got excited but also nervous. I was worried about what I was going to write and whether I would be able to maintain a well-kept blog or not, but I surprised myself. Blogging became an activity that I really enjoy and am good at. Not only did I realize how much I like to share my opinion with the world, I realized the format in which I like to do that. Anything visual gets my attention. I love to work with media that allows me to use pictures, video, and other new content-creation sites. Throughout this entire year, I fell in love with the ease of using iMovie. Suprisingly enough, I find making a ten minute video (click HERE to watch the video I worked the hardest on) easier than writing a 5 paragraph blog post.

Being a visual learner is probably part of what attracts me to focusing on how things look. All the projects I’ve ever done I’ve held to a certain visual standard; they’ve got to look good. There’s a sort of light-hearted joke that goes around social media, that you have to have a good asethetic and follow it. Sometimes the word aesthetic is used as a punch line but other times it is really necessary to describe the style of one’s work. For example, I need everything to look polished and modern. Certain fonts or styles are too cute-sy for me and others are too tough for me. As I’ve perfected my blog,  I’ve come to realize that I the aesthetic that I like the best is a clean and simple one. I want my original content to stand out. In the future, I think I’ll be able to better achieve that goal and truly embody that aesthetic by taking many more of my own original photos to use in my blog posts and videos (click HERE to watch my favorite video I made this year).

I’ll be frank. Many of the things I’ve done on this blog have been done out of pure laziness. Although I enjoy writing for the most part, sometimes it’s just easier to slap a picture you took a week ago onto a blog post. After all, they do say a picture is worth a thousand words. So by following that thought process, I am ACTUALLY writing a super long blog post. So I guess I’m not being lazy, nevermind! Another way I managed to insert my laziness into my blog was by using original content. Through only using images I created or photos I took, I didn’t have to do citations for them (click HERE to read one of the blog posts that I actually did use citations for). It’s a quick timesaver that I personally really enjoy using.

This is a screen cap of my tumblr blog. I don’t want to disclose the url, but I thought I could share this as an example of how I put images together. It may not be obvious that they are all related, but when put together it feels right. The colors work well together. There is a working aesthetic here.

I’m not 100% sure if I’ll continue blogging in the future, but I do know I like expressing myself. There is no doubt in my mind that I will find a way to do so in the future, but if that outlet does end up being blogging, I’ll update you all.  When I was younger I considered a future in graphic design. In fact, I was convinced that my career would be somewhere in the arts because I was always doing some type of art when I was younger. Once I got into middle school, I drew and painted less. Eventually I got to the point were art was no longer something I went to automatically when I was bored. Who knows though? Maybe now that I’ve realized the visual side of things still really intrigues me, I’ll go back to it. Maybe I’ll be the next best designer.

Go Broncos!

So far I’m not sure what the future holds for me. I may be a digital artist, a surgeon (I’ve been watching A LOT of Grey’s Anatomy lately), or the next president of the United States. The doors are wide open, and I intend to go forward without hesitation. However, one thing I do know for sure is where I will be attending college. Next fall I will be an undergrad at Santa Clara University. Go Broncos! And thanks for coming with me on this journey through AP Bio.