word. fiona-l.

[feeona-l]

It’s been almost a year

since I left my comfortable and well-paid job for a year of full-time post-graduate studies. As I was preparing to leave my job, I was showered with such kindness and sent off with well wishes from so many people. I was going through my twitter feed today and I came across this message from a work colleague - "I wish you much success, happiness and all the best life has to offer always."

I still remember getting that email and that one sentence brought an instant smile to my face. It reminded me how I felt when I was in the midst of such a big life change - transitioning from my first career job back to being a full-time student. The unknown and “what’s yet to come” excited me. The program description of my post-grad studies awakened my will to learn.

Somewhere along the way, my eagerness and enthusiasm for the study material got buried with the insane workload, lack of exercise and no social life. It has been a confusing year considering where to take my career. I am blessed to have met some wonderful human beings who inspire me to dig deeper into my own creativity. I am interested in seeing how these next career developing years play out.

[indigoelevendesign]

Quote by Haruki Murakami from Sputnik Sweetheart, as requested by kawaiikitto

Brush lettering using Aqua-flo water brush and Ivory Black + Prussian Blue inks.

8.3.2011

[entmagazine]

9 Quotes From the ‘Shark Tank’ Stars to Inspire You to Reach Your Goals

[nevver]

Color Palettes of Hayao Miyazaki, Hyo Taek Kim

[feeona-l]

Case Study: Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood  v.s. Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum

(Video playlist sourced from CBC)

With its recent Parents’ Choice Gold Award win for Spring 2015 Television in the ages 2-5 years category, I decided to take do a case study on Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood and how it upholds the Ontario Kindergarten curriculum. The show is a half-hour animated series produced by The Fred Rogers Company, 9 Story Media Group and Out of the Blue Enterprises. In Canada, the show currently airs weekday mornings on CBC during the Kids’ CBC block.

The educational mandate at Kids’ CBC is to “create and air shows and develop content that is not only age-appropriate, but that also actively promotes healthy child development across all areas – social, cognitive, emotional, creative and physical.”[1] The Kids’ CBC interstitial content, the programs in their lineup and their interactive content are carefully curated in order to reflect a balance of the core developmental areas.[2] The Ontario Full-Day Early Learning-Kindergarten program consists of six areas of learning – Personal and Social Development, Language, Mathematics, Science and Technology, Health and Physical Activity, and the Arts.[3] Furthermore, these six areas of learning are grounded on five developmental domains – social, emotional, communication/language, cognitive and physical. [4]    

Immediately, I can see the value of Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood has to children’s social and emotional development. With reference personal and social development in the Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum, the developmental domains are social and emotional. It is expected that by the end of the two-year kindergarten program that 1. Children are connected with others and contribute to their world and 2. Children have a strong sense of identity and well-being.[5] This aspect of the Ontario curriculum is consistent with the Kids’ CBC mission for developing children socially, emotionally and problem solving cognitively.

An episode of Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood consists of two 11-minute segments that are linked by a common social and emotional theme. Daniel Tiger is easily relatable. He talks to viewers directly, asking them questions and affirming answers. Each show segment has a defined storyline and uses music to emphasize its theme. For example, in the episodes Duckling Goes Home/Daniel Feels Left Out, both segments involve how to deal with feelings of sadness. There’s also a song that was sung in both segments with the lyrics “It’s okay to feel sad sometimes. Little by little, you feel better again.”

(Image sourced via 9 Story Media Group)

Play is also an important part of the Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum. Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood is a great program that has its child characters engaging in different forms of play. I believe it is important to nurture creativity and self-expression in a child. Additionally, child characters are also given roles within their family unit to illustrate to child viewers that they too can be contributing to their world around them. For example, Daniel Tiger assists his dad with grocery shopping and then later helps both his parents with preparing dinner by putting together the salad.  

(Chart sourced from Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum) 

All in all, I think that Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood is sweet and educational preschool show that children can gain a lot from with respect to social and emotional development. The show focuses on preschool skill building for children while remaining engaging and educational through imagination, creativity and music.[6]  Furthermore, storylines for the show are developed in tandem with input from early learn specialists and research-based curriculum. [7] The content of the show is age-appropriate for its target audience and is easy to understand and relatable since Daniel Tiger is a preschooler just like the viewers of the program. 

__________________________ [1] CBC Parents - Whole Child Strategy  [2] CBC Parents - Whole Child Strategy  [3] The Full-Day Early Learning - Kindergarten Program  [4] The Full-Day Early Learning - Kindergarten Program [5] The Full-Day Early Learning - Kindergarten Program [6] The Fred Rogers Company [7] The Fred Rogers Company 

[micdotcom]

Before acquiring the power of expressing their mutual love in articulate language, [men and women] endeavored to charm each other with musical notes and rhythm.

Charles Darwin. Why music really is the world’s universal language (via micdotcom)

[tuneage]

New Music: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful by Florence + the Machine

Over the past few weeks, we Florence fans have been teased with the signs of a third album. The Florence + the Machine Army dropped a surreptitious photo of the final mixing of the album, with the title blocked out of course — a photo which was then taken down. Then yesterday, the FATM Facebook posted an image with no context, the alchemic symbols for air and water.

Now, not 30 minutes ago, they dropped some of the first sounds from the album, or so we can assume. This little comeback video has Florence interpretive dancing with herself (?) under a massive tree in a flora-surrounded amphitheater. As her haunting voice cries faintly in the background, Florence dances to brassy instrumentals. It’s nearly a combination of her Gaia-like affinity for nature’s sublimity found in Lungs and the triumphant orchestra of Ceremonials. Perhaps this little taste of music is foreshadowing Florence going back to her Lungs-era persona and sound.

[feeona-l]

No more singing about building a snowman, y'all! Check out this DIY Indoor Fort video that my colleagues and I created for our TV production course! 

All views, likes & shares are appreciated!

[alpha-peasant]

[feeona-l]

beauty. 

[feeona-l]

If shame is the universal fear of being unworthy of love and belonging, and if all people have an irreducible and innate need to experience love and belonging, it's easy to see why shame is often referred to as "the master emotion." We don't have to experience shame to be paralyzed by it -- the fear of being perceived as unworthy is enough to force us to silence our stories... Shame needs three things to grow out of control in our lives: secrecy, silence, and judgement. When something shaming happens and we keep it locked up, it festers and grows. It consumes us. We need to share our experience. Shame happens between people, and it heals between people. If we can find someone who has earned the right to hear our story, we need to tell it. Shame loses power when it is spoken.

Dr. Brené Brown - The Gifts of Imperfection (2010)

[feeona-l]

[feeona-l]

Social Media Advertising + Youths

In the past couple of years I’ve noticed the increase of unsolicited advertisements on social networking sites – from promoted posts on my Facebook newsfeed to promoted tweets on my Twitter homepage to sponsored posts on Instagram homepage, it seems like advertisers have weaselled their way into our specifically curated online lives – and personally, I’m not a fan of it. However, for youths, social media plays a big role in making brands relevant.

Millennials are the leaders in all-things digital in this hyper-connected technologically driven world that we currently live in. Youths are generating tons of content and data at such a rapid pace that brands are utilizing this data to try to engage and form stronger bonds with their target consumers. [1]

In the past couple of years, advertisers have spent billions of dollars on social media advertising. Social media advertising dollars is expected to exceed $14 billion by 2018.[2] According to Hootsuite, in the third quarter of 2014, Facebook brought in $2.96 billion in advertising revenue (66% of its total revenue from mobile ads) and Twitter generated $320 million (85% of its total revenue) just from mobile advertising.[3] It is proven that social media advertising is tangible and is a driver of consumer engagement, leads, and sales. It makes sense from a business standpoint to tap into these social networking sites filled with hundreds of millions of consumers. There’s no doubt the users of social networking sites are willingly inputting their personal information, their likes and personal opinions on to these various websites. And it’s completely logical that brands would use this data to in hopes of engaging with their target consumers.

(Image sourced from DOMO)

While social media is not a bad thing - as it assists in maintaining connectionswith people from all over the world and letting users stay up-to-date with theirspecifically curated newsfeeds – the amount of unsolicited advertising has become invasive. With so many distractions in the physical world and the digital world, advertisers are repeatedly subjecting people to products and encouraging immediate purchases.[4] As Big Think so eloquently wrote, “the more distracted we are, the easier it is for such messages to influence our thinking, including on a subconscious level.”[5] Persuasion research suggests that there are three types of rational influence appeals – that includes appropriateness, consistency and effectiveness. [6] With that being said, when bombarded with specifically targeted ads it is hard to tune out what is force-fed to us online. Dangers lie when consumers fail to be critical and begin to be unconsciously persuaded by the great number of repetitive unsolicited messages. So what does this mean for youths? How can we educate them to be more critical of advertisements that they are unwillingly being subjected to on the digital channels that they peruse? 

Answer: Media literacy 

_________________________________ [1] The Guardian - Social data's pulling power: know what the youth wants [2] Hootsuite - Beginner's Guide to Social Media Advertising [3] Hootsuite - Beginner's Guide to Social Media Advertising [4] Big Think - Are You or Your Children Easy Targets for Social Media Advertising? [5] Big Think - Are You or Your Children Easy Targets for Social Media Advertising? [6] Big Think - Are You or Your Children Easy Targets for Social Media Advertising?

[feeona-l]

I AM SO EXCITED!! I just watched the first two episodes which I PVR-ed.  The show is hilarious and relatable. I'm rooting for this production 110%!! 

[garden-of-vegan]

Roasted Veggie Quinoa Bowl via ilovevegan.com

[feeona-l]

YUM!

[micdotcom]

She asked the Internet to “ask an Asian” anything — and the results are as racist as you’d imagine 

Why do Asians wear masks? Why are they such bad drivers? These are two of the questions comedian Jenny Wang addresses in BuzzFeed’s video series, “Ask An Asian,” which tackles racist stereotypes, one ignorant question at a time.

BuzzFeed received thousands of submissions with questions. In the video, Yang answers 11 of them — and makes one really good point about that last one.

[zooportraits]

ALPACA by Yago Partal 

for ZOO PORTRAITS 

[feeona-l]

What's difficult in life is to stay centered when somebody does or says something that tempts us to close our hearts because their heart was closed. That is hard. But that is also how we grow. We go through those circumstances in order to evolve into people who can hold to our loving center no matter what the world throws us.

- Marianne Williamson, best-selling author and motivational speaker.