This week in DS106 felt a lot less hectic than the first. For the first week, I had to set up accounts on new platforms, engage with accounts I hadn’t really used before, and familiarize myself with software that I had never used. Now that I have gotten the chance to work with these digital mediums for a while, I feel a lot more confident in using them to post my work for this class.

As with last week, I bagan by putting all of the assignments that needed to be done into my planner. The first thing I did was customize my blog. I changed my blog’s theme because, while I liked the way the default blog was set up, I wanted something a bit more refined. I finally landed on the Cloudpress Dark theme. I do really enjoy the theme, however, I have had difficulty figuring out how to change the header image. There is an option to upload a new header image, but that merely creates a new header above the blog’s title. Other minor customizations include changing the color of the “read more” and “search” buttons and using one of my Daily Creates as my site icon.

This week, I also completed a visual assignment, a design assignment, a writing assignment, and 5 Daily Creates, whose creative processes I go into more detail on their respective posts.

Despite achieving all of the above tasks, I do feel as if I am underperforming with regard to my participation in this course. I do a very good job at responding to comments directly on my blog (as of now, there is not a single comment that I have not replied to), however, I am not particularly good at posting a comment on another’s blog or even on Twitter. In order to help combat this, I started following a few people who had posted their Daily Creates on Twitter and I have set up daily assignments in my planner to make sure that, going forward, I comment on at least 3 people’s posts every day. I know this may not seem like much, but the serotonin that comes from seeing the number of things I have to do each week decrease is a huge motivator for me.

This coming week I hope to continue creating artistic work that meets standards while also increasing my engagement with others’ through twitter and their respective blogs.