North Central College Media 200 Class

 This takes a little bit of a different direction of the music theme of this blog, but I think it is something that was part of my life for a while. I mentioned this before, but I used to be a band kid. From fourth grade to the end of eighth grade, I played the alto saxophone in band. So back then when I said I liked music, I meant I liked playing it. Now when I say I like music, I mean I like listening to it. The tables have turned, but my appreciation for music hasn't. I remember when my school started encouraging students to join band in fourth grade, as that was the time we could start learning and playing. I had decided I wanted to play the saxophone with no second thought, because it looked so cool and I was eager to learn an instrument since I hadn't ever played before.  I had such a fun 5 years playing, and all of that goes to my teacher, Mr. Cash. He was so funny, entertaining, and he was brutally honest but I learned so much from him. Although it's been years sinc...

One thing that I will always be grateful for is music. I think sometimes we all forget to appreciate the little things, and for me, music is that little thing. Although I wouldn't necessarily consider music a small part of my life, because I value it a lot.  I've gone through a lot of phases of my life, some cringe, some annoying, but the type of music I listened to during those periods of time has adjusted to whatever phase I was going through. I didn't really start exploring music until summer before my freshman year of high school. Some would say I was late to the game, but others would say it's never too late. That was my "emo" phase I guess you could say. I was listening to Panic at the disco, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, and all the bands part of the emo crew. I would wear vans and a t-shirt every day. Typical. Sophomore year was when I discovered the whole world of kpop. I never let language be a barrier in what music/media I consumed, in fact I w...

Something I'm content with where I am and yet still always willing to learn about is video editing. I started when I was about 9 years old, making stop motion videos with my American Girl Dolls when I discovered there was a whole community of girls who made videos with their American Girl dolls on Youtube. This point in my life was probably where I learned the most and made the most of the little materials I had. I was influenced by them and wanted to learn all the things they knew. A lot of the girls I watched had DSLR cameras and higher end editors, while I was stuck with Movie Maker on Windows and my iPod for a camera. As you can imagine, the picture quality was iffy, but it really could have been worse. Stop motion were the first type of videos I learned how to make. They take a lot of time and commitment but they were still a lot of fun. Not to sound cocky, but I think it's impressive an 11 year old could do that kind of stop motion. Especially since I didn't have many...

  Lifestyle: Getting Organized The year is coming to an end, and you know what that means? "New year, New me". There is no better feeling than going through your stuff and getting organized. Whether that be donating clothes you don’t need anymore, throwing away old pantry items or just simply wanting to reorganize what you have. Here are a few things I use to help inspire a good cleaning. This is a Mintwood cotton rope basket that I use to hold my blankets and pillows. It is great for storage and also a cute piece to have at home! I really enjoy these storage cubes because they help clear up my room. They come in all different sizes which means they can hold all sorts of things!

  If you’re not already aware of the world of cryptocurrency, it’s essentially a collection of digital currencies that each have their own price—kind of like stocks. The price of a cryptocurrency (also known as a crypto token) can fluctuate by going up and down and the degree to which this happens is called its volatility. You can make money with cryptocurrencies by buying a token a certain price and then later selling it at a higher price than what you paid for it. So if you paid $100 for Bitcoin, and then the price of Bitcoin rose 10%, then you can sell all of your Bitcoin for $110, leaving you with a profit of $10 (the opposite could also happen where you lose $10). Of course, you might be wondering where you would actually go out and buy crypto. You would do this by using what is known as a cryptocurrency exchange, which essentially like an eBay but for cryptocurrencies. This whole act of buying and selling cryptos is known as trading and is essentially one of the best ways tha...