Alyssa Williams Public Feed

Advanced Essay #1: Loss

Posted by Alyssa Williams in English 3 · Block · Y Band on

NTRODUCTION: My essay is centered around loss, I wanted to bring attention to the fact that loss is not something that you get over easily. I thought that a good way to do this in my scene of memory is to talk about a time I lost someone and how that affected me and how it still does. I am proud of how I framed my scene of memory and how I then tied that in with my development of larger issues. Overall I am proud of the fact that my essay had a nice flow and good transitions between the different parts. On my next paper, I would like to improve how I developed my larger ideas because I feel like I could have expanded on it more to really improve my essay.

Advanced Esasy #1: Loss

I remember the day that they told me, how the whole family was together; my brother sitting at the table with my sister. My parents standing up in front of the coach…I had just walked into my house, keys still dangling from my pocket, the house was quiet when I walked in, and my music was loud. I pulled my headphones out of my ears, music still playing, as I dropped my backpack onto the floor. I peeked into the family room and saw that everyone was there. I walked in and everyone looked up. My brother got up and just gave me a hug, as I looked over to my mom and saw that she was wiping tears from her eyes. My father reached across my sister to hand my mom a tissue. My sister glanced over to me and then continued to stare into the kitchen as if she had somewhere better that she wanted to be. Everything seemed wrong, nobody was acting like normal. I did not understand, I looked around the room, nothing was out of place, everyone was there, nobody was hurt, what could be wrong…All eyes were on me, then each other, my mom spoke first. “Mama…” she choked. My dad put his hand on her shoulder, as she started to cry again. He turned to me and said, “Grammie died last night.”

I looked down at the floor, then up at my mom, I knew this was harder for her than it was for me, she lost both of her parents, I am blessed enough to still have both of mine. I was ready to walk out, I was ready to go in my room and break something, I was ready to release all the anger that I had built up, I was mad at the world, mad at God, because I did not understand why this had happened. I did not understand why God would let something like this happen and why I could not prevent it, and why I did not expect it. I walked over to my mom and gave her a hug, I let her cry onto me, I just wanted to be there for everyone else, I knew that they all wanted to be there for me but I wanted to show them I was strong. When I got into my room, I shut the door, dropped to my knees and cried, I cried and cried and cried and just let everything out, and now sitting here in the same spot that I was when I first found out, tears are falling again.

I tried my best not to lose myself, I tried my best to come to terms with the fact that I could not take back what had just happened. This was not something that I expected. Eventually… yes I knew this would happen because nobody lives forever but I did not think it would be then. I didn’t think my whole world would explode, I figured it would happen when my world had already exploded but nothing ever happens how we expect it to. The day after I found out, I went to school, I did not want to let this stop me from continuing my normal routine, I even went to my volleyball game. I remember being on the bus crying, trying not to hide it so my teammates would not know, I did not want to burden them with my loss. I looked out the window hoping that if I pretended that everything was fine then it would go back to normal, but of course that never actually happened. It is almost a year later and I still have not come to terms with the fact that my grandma is no longer with us.

I guess that says something about how I deal with loss, about how we deal with loss. It is not something that is easy to accept or get over, in fact, some people never recover. I do not know if I ever will but what I do know is that things will never go back to the way they were, and that is something that we all have to accept. We can never truly grieve if we do not accept the fact that we can not go back and change what has happened. You have to move on, never forget the person you lost or how that made you feel but at some point, you have to continue on.

Element Printmaking

Posted by Alyssa Williams on
​I was assigned Nickel for my project, Nickel is a chemical element with a symbol of Ni and an atomic number of 28. Nickel was first discovered in 1751 by Alex Fredrik Cronstedt. My element is often used to plate other metals to protect them from corrosion, it is also used in toasters and hot ovens because it resists corrosion even when very hot. Nickel is also used in coins, the Nickel (5 cents) is 25% nickel. 

For my image, I got my inspiration while reading an article on the history of Nickel. In this article I read that the name, Nickel, is the shortened version of the word Kupfernickel which loosely translates to "devils copper". This is why that the word copper is in the middle of my print. If you look on the "o" in Copper I drew devil horns on top of it, also on the end of the "r" I drew a devils tail. This is all to represent "devil's copper". 

I think that if I did this projectly differently I would not have written a word for my print. I would have put something symbolic to represent nickel. I would do this because I think it would make my project more interesting and engaging. Many of my classmates thought that my element was copper, I think that if I had done a symbol or something that represents Nickel my print would be much more thoughtful. My favorite part of the project was when we had to sketch out our designs on paper. This was my favorite part because it taught me a lot, I had to redo my sketch of my element many times, I also changed ideas many times. I think that this was a good experience because I also got frustrated a lot but I pushed through and came up with a pretty good element print. I also liked this part because of the freedom we had, we could draw anything that we wanted to represent our elements and we were really able to use our imaginations. 

Negative/Positive Space Cutout

Posted by Alyssa Williams in Art - Freshman · Hull · d1 Band on

Negative space is the empty space that is surrounding an image or an object. For every piece of positive space there is a piece of negative space around it. For example, if I were to show you a tree, the negative space would be the spaces around the tree and in between the leaves and branches. In my cut out, I found the negative space by looking at all the empty spaces, all of the places where there was empty space in around the bird. It can help an artist to see in negative space because it helps to define the image. Negative space is just as important as the positive space and the object itself. Negative space is so helpful to artists because it helps to balance the image and to define the shape. I think that seeing things in negative space can enhance drawings in some ways and in other ways it cannot. For example, when you draw the negative space of an object, you are leaving out many details of the object itself which can be important depending on what you are drawing. However, drawing just the negative space really provides an emphasis on the object and outline/shape of the object itself.


negative space cut out (1)

Remix 1 Google Slide

Posted by Alyssa Williams in Technology - Freshman · Hull · d2 Band on
Remix 1 Slide
I learned a lot from the critique  that i was given. My first slide was very distracting, and the images that I put on there were also distracting and clashed with my background image. One of my friends pointed out to me that I did not have a color theme and that having a theme might help so that my slide is less distracting and conflicting. 

When i was thinking of doing my new slide, I wanted to make it a much more simple, but still with something important to me on there. I thought...what is  one of the most important things to me and I thought of my faith and my friends. So I chose a bible verse about friendship. I wanted to make the colors pop, so i bolded them and put them in white so that it would really pop off of the background. I put the bible verse in the top center because that is the focal point of my slide. That is the thing that I want people to look at and read first. 

The research that I did helped me to realize that I needed to make a simple slide. I needed to limit the colors that I used so that they did not clash and I had a solid theme. For my research, I used Presentation Zen. The main point that I noticed was "One Slide. One Point." I used this in the recreation of my slide because my first slide was very crowded. In conclusion, I think that the recreation of my one slide project is much better because of the research and the critique that I received from my classmates.  

One Slide Assignment

Posted by Alyssa Williams in Technology - Freshman · Hull · d2 Band on
For my one slide project, I kept the slide simple and open. I put a few key things on the slide that are important to me. I didn't want to crown the slide or make it hard to understand so I only put a few key things from my identity. I made my name in a big font, in a color that contrasts with my background. This makes it easy to read at a single glance. On the Presentation Zen website one of the many things that I learned was to make your presentation visual. This way, it makes it more interesting and the readers won't be overloaded with words and information. Instead of writing my actual date of birth I put a picture of my zodiac sign. Also, instead of writing that volleyball was one of my interests, I put a picture of a volleyball. From these pictures on my slide you guys can infer that I am an Aries and that I play volleyball and enjoy it. My pictures have designs on them that make them stand out and easy to notice at a glance.
1 Slide- Week 4 (1)

Home Network - Alyssa Williams

Posted by Alyssa Williams in Technology - Freshman · Hull · d2 Band on
1. ​I am in a family of five so I have a lot of devices on my home network. We have five smartphones, 3 laptops, four tablets and three printers. We also have computers, tvs, and game systems that are not connected wirelessly. 

2. I learned a lot about networks, I learned about the different kinds of connections, chords, and how different things are connected to my network in different ways. 

3. I would tell people that it is very important  to know as much as you can about your home network. You want to know how to connect certain devices, and what chords to use to do different things. These are all some of the things that i learned from our tech lesson on networks and the internet. 
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