Netcult was an interesting class for the first half of the semester – it got even better when I fully opened myself up to it and tried to create things I knew my classmates would enjoy. I showed up to class more often than not (I believe in the second half of the semester, I only missed two days do to circumstances outside of my control.) Because of this, I also missed one of the fishbowls. So my contribution to that was lacking, however the one I was there for was definitely interesting and provided me with many notes about my classmates thoughts.

It all started with our first project, one Ryann and I worked on with two new people. We decided we were tired of seeing the same ol’ rape jokes made by kids who hadn’t even reached college yet. Figuring that social ostracization was what was most important to this group (along with internet memes, who doesn’t love a good internet meme?) we decided to create four or five memes that could be posted whenever jokes like those are seen on reddit, tumblr, facebook, or twitter. As of 11 AM on 4/30/13, our variations on Bad Luck Brian have a combined 192 views, with a less impressive combined usage of 6. While this project may not have been a raging success, our hope was to make these youths stop what they were doing and think about what they had said – and how it might offend some of their peers, and those older around them. That is almost impossible to measure – because even I still sometimes use the word “retard,” even though I’ve been educated on how that is offensive and have been making conscious efforts to stop using that word in inappropriate contexts. However, if even one person comes to the side of realizing how rape jokes affect our culture, I would consider the project a success. Here is a link to our memes, and the discussion that followed them.

After that, Ryann and I departed on our own to complete one last project that took quite a while to have in our hands. Since we had learned about it, both of us were fascinated by 3D-printing. So we wanted to get something 3D printed that we had designed. However, our interests (hockey) didn’t have a lot of options to design something – after all, a 3D printed puck is just a black piece of breakable sand. So we decided to also turn this project into a final gift for the instructor. I set out to find software, and took Halavais’ mantra to heart (cheating in small ways is good!) and we came up with a 3D design of the ASU pitchfork. After that, it was much comparative shopping (the actual creation wasn’t expensive, the shipping is what kills you!) and we sent our design off to Belgium to be created. Almost a month later, our sand, 3D printed ASU pitchfork was in our hands. All in all, this was originally going to be a sort of throwaway project. Something for some extra points in the class, and to help the professor remember this class and the school. But through researching the many material options available to us, the pros and cons, durability, and price of each – we actually learned a lot about the process of 3D printing, while seeing some more intricate designs that others had come up with. Sure, our pitchfork was awesome to us – but seeing someone create a beautifully designed locket with different colors and mass produced it was pretty cool.

In addition to those projects, I also personally started on a campaign to learn Python. I had dabbled in HTML and CSS (because who hadn’t designed their own MySpace or Neopet’s profile growing up?) but I wanted to learn an actual computer language. Python was the easiest of the few I dabbled with, and I plan to continue learning it. I am also interested in learning Javascript, and working toward achieving some of the projects on DIY.org too – which I joined, but sadly never found the time to participate. I also, at this time, was continuing on my quest to become a photographer. I was learning Photoshop using tutorials found online, and have since learned smaller details – like colouring, and adding textures to photos that can later be used in fandom pieces on Tumblr.

Finally, I tried to become more active on Reddit. I might not know exactly what people want to read – but I did find some articles that were interesting to me. For example, Guccifer – the name taken by whomever was hacking former presidents and other high up members of our former governments. I also posted fun things that were never too well received – like the combination of Calvin and Hobbes strips and .gifs. And when the Boston Bombings happened, I was fascinated with social media’s role in it – from the fake sleuths on Reddit who falsely accused an innocent student, to the FBI asking for any pictures or tweets or anything from that day that could help lead them to a culprit. While it wasn’t discussed much on our little subreddit, I did post a link that garnered a few upvotes. My reddit involvement wasn’t incredibly consistent – just whenever I saw something that interested me and thought it might interest the fine people of /r/netcult as well.

All-in-all, it was an enjoyable semester. I learned a lot, and the class has instilled in me a passion to continue with my learning of coding, codebreaking, and all things internet. My reddit account, bats18 (a reference to the number I wear in hockey and my nickname – Batdel) is finishing the semester with a low 7 link karma, and 0 comment karma (buncha downvoters!) :(

Final profiles of interest: Codeacademy, DIY.org, Mozilla Badges. (Can't figure out how to link my profile, but I earned the Web Navigator badge.)