My piece on their Piece called "Emmett"

VIDEO WARNING: INTENSE CONTENT. For this post I didn't pick a theme, I just want to post a video with a piece that I enjoyed when I saw it and feel as though it should be shared. It is a piece about Emmett Till. I'm sure everyone knows that story and I'm not here trying to teach a history lesson, so if you don't know -- google is your friend. I like this piece because it used different perspectives and voices. The black males are the misunderstood hurting black teens that represent Emmett Till and the white females represent the white women of the 1950s. The line that stuck with me and I found very touching and brought tears to my eyes was  "didn't his mama warn him not to look in the wrong direction, about looking too confident in our direction-- the only thing his eyes should have flirted with was the ground he was going to be buried in." This line touched me so much because it really portrays how people thought then and how crazy and extreme it was. A line I have found to be true is the line "boys like us are always thought of as polution" because of how society is so bent against men like the ones in this video. "They beat his face 'til -- Till -- even God didn't recognize his own child," this line was very clearly felt by the performers and made it even more meaningful than it would if it was written. That is one main thing I like so much about spoken word is the amount of emotion that is able to be expressed through words. I love how they ended the piece with a positive note about fighting for the boys like Emmett Till and themselves. This video is very real and very intense and I absolutely love it and its message and I think it was needed to be shared.

Source of Inspiration: I Googled Patterns

I actually googled patterns a while ago and found these images that inspired me I just forgot I did it. I literally just searched "patterns" and so many pictures popped up. First I found a picture that I found the design appealing and easy to look at. I then found the template that most closely represented the image because I liked it so much. It had a pattern of circle shapes with other shapes inside of them.

I feel as though my background resembles this in a more abstract way. I then found a pattern that resembled the colors I liked also, but in a pattern for -- not two bottles sitting next to each other. I found a picture that had plenty of blue-green shades in it that I liked a lot and thought complimented each other nicely. 

I love the way all of the shades go together and the resemble the colors I like and would like to have on my blog. I like them because they're cute....I mean look at them!

Source of Inspiration: Forever 21

I know when I was reading the assignment sheet and saw that I needed to have a post about my text inspiration I didn't know what I was going to do! In honor of Black Friday shopping -- which I didn't even do, ugh -- I am using a clothing store website for my text inspiration! I was on the website for Forever 21 and thought about this blog and posts I had to make for it so I looked at the text for the title.

The title is all caps in a simple font and I liked it. My title was a simple font but not all caps, so it inspired me to change it because I like how it looks. I chose the font I did because it's not too weird or childish looking, but professional. I then proceeded to see the text type for the rest of the website. 

The text for the rest of the website is the same font as the title. Mine was not that way, so I was inspired to change it. I think the uniform text look is very professional and easy to look at so I applaud Forever 21 for that. I went into the website more to find how they put together their headers and the text under them. 

The headers bold and the page content in the same font as the title and header. My post titles were bold but the font was different from the rest of the page. It wasn't until I saw this website that I realized my post title being a different font didn't look all that cute so I changed the font to match the rest of the blog text. I think the text on my blog now looks a lot more uniform and professional thanks to the inspiration of the Forever 21 website.

My Piece on her Piece called "Explaining my Depression to my Mother"

The theme I picked this week was the idea of people speaking on the disorders they have. This girl's name is Sabrina Benaim and her video was posted on Button Poetry as well. This poem is about depression and explaining it to people and how difficult that can be. She describes depression as making her a shape-shifter "one day it is as small as a firefly in the palm of a bear, the next day -- the bear." This poem is very different from the other one because this one doesn't make a positive light out of the problem the person speaks about. I like this poem for the artistic view she puts on the idea of depression. I think the two poems this week show my two favorite ways of writing poems about things aren't necessarily positive: 1. shining a positive light on them and 2. making them artistic. I love her passion and her metaphors a lot and I appreciate her strength shown in how she talks about her depression and how she can write about it.

My Piece on his Piece called "OCD"

The theme I picked this week is the idea of people speaking on the disorders they have. This guy's name is Neil Hilborn and is a part of button poetry. He has OCD, which is obsessive compulsive disorder that is when people have obsessive habits. He wrote this poem to explain what it's like to be loved by someone with OCD and what it was like loving someone while having OCD. I like this poem because it explains the idea of OCD and love from a very interesting view. I like how he compares the obsessiveness of doing things over and over again to wanting the relationship to be perfect. He looks at OCD in a more positive light and sees the good side of it when it comes to a relationship. I love when people make the most out of their "problems" and look at them in a more positive way. This reminds me of the guy that had a stutter on America's Got Talent that makes his stand up comedy about his stutter solely. I believe in making the most of whatever situation you're in and I believe that is what he's doing.

Source of Inspiration: VSB

When I first read the requirements for the amount of gadgets we needed in addition to the ones we already had I found myself at a loss for what I could use. I just recently added a search bar to the top of my blog page and another blog was the source of inspiration for that part of my design layout. There is a blog called VSB (Very Smart Brothas) that I read as often as I can, that has been my inspiration for this search bar. I know, reading through the blog, the search bar has been very useful and effective for finding things I like to read about or I've heard about. Their search bar is located at the top of the page, where I placed mine as well -- I mean, that only makes sense! When the search icon is clicked on it looks like this.

Now, this blog is clearly way more extensive than mine is so their search bar is far more needed. But, even after this class is over I plan to continue my blog because I've become so attached to it and then my search bar may come in handy for future followers or people who look at my blog. The search bar comes in handy when looking for posts on specific topics when there are a lot of posts, like on VSB I searched the term "black" and the results were crazy. 

1530 posts! This shows how useful the search bar gadget actually is! This inspired me to add one because it give me hope and positive vibes towards the growth of my blog itself!

Source of Inspiration: Green is my Fave Color

My favorite color is green! I am absolutely obsessed with it. Green has been my favorite color for almost 12 years now. The number of years is so specific because when I was seven my grandma passed away and her favorite color was green so -- as a seven year old -- I thought the best way to remember her was to take up her favorite color as my own (my logic was flawless). I still love green until this day and I literally try to incorporate it in everything that I do. One morning I was brushing my teeth and I realized the green color of the soap on the sink was amazing!

 I mean, look at it! Honestly, if I could find that green in a paint I would paint my room at home that exact color. I would paint it probably with a different shade of green as well. I then realized that the Purell sitting on the other side of the sink was a lighter green and fit with this green. I was like BOOM this is it!

I put the two next to each other and I was obsessed with the combo. I then realized that if I could find a combo of light green and dark green for my blog it would make it so pretty and subtle and soothing. I make posts about some very uncomfortable topics for some people so I am trying to make my blog look as appealing and inviting as possible. I like green and I think it's a nice color so making my blog a combo of two greens was a good I think.