EXSM 3989 - Digital Storytelling Class Blog

I moved to Yellowknife in 2018. But I feel I’ve just moved. The winter and the frozen lake welcome me to a new reality. This is my first winter following a big decision in my life.

Three years ago, I travelled across oceans for my destination wedding. I vividly remember each detail as if they’re all engraved somewhere on my mind. There is no way for me to bypass this memory, at least for now. Around this time of the year, I left Yellowknife for my wedding and honeymoon escaping the darkest and coldest days of the North. I thought I was lucky, embarking on an exceptional journey, not knowing how events would unfold. I was married on the shortest day of the year, winter solstice.

My short marriage hardly lasted three years. This story is not about my short marriage, conflicts, or separation, but it’s about my new world— having to rebuild and realign my ships following the storm.

I moved to the North before getting married in 2018. For a year, I lived by myself in this friendly northern town. My life changed when I got married. He moved to Yellowknife. The long summer days and cold winter nights melted into each other until I made the most important decision in my life: to end my marriage.

Here is the classic cliché response: travel. Many in my situation would do this. It works for a while because it’s a temporary escape from the reality, but it’s real. I felt the need for a well deserved vacation that would cleanse my mind and help me transition to my new world.

Now I’m in a new world. Yellowknife, that I called home, felt like a new place. I needed a break away from home… or my new home. I recently came back from my magical vacation in Europe followed by a work trip to Iqaluit. Coincidentally, I arrived to Yellowknife around the same time I left to get married in 2018.

Yellowknife welcomes me back following my first overseas trip since my wedding! I needed a vacation in another world to return my new world: the spectacular North.

Here is to my new world and to northern winter!

Feeling anxious at the doctor isn’t uncommon. How many of us have squirmed and shifted while sitting on a paper-covered exam table, anxiously awaiting a scrutinizing gaze and awkward inquiries? On this day at my dermatologist, my anxiety is adding to my uneasiness as I mentally practice how I want a conversation about my current psoriasis treatment to go. It’s not working for me, and I dread asking for a change.

I was originally diagnosed with psoriasis when I was eight years old. The experience was uncomfortable and taught me a hard lesson about the reliability of people’s opinion–even professional ones–when it came to my condition.

At that age, I understood psoriasis to be nothing more than something causing red, scaly patches on my skin and flakes on my scalp. My family always tried to make me feel more comfortable in my splotchy skin and never encouraged me to cover up.

My beside table in my childhood bedroom was littered with ointment tubes and lotions. Occasionally, there would be a bottle of some “miracle cure” that my mother cautiously accepted from this relative or that friend. These “cures” never really did much in the end, but some well-meaning person felt they were worth a try.

I know now that psoriasis is more than just what shows up on my skin. It’s a chronic disease affecting my immune system; the lesions are symptoms of a more complicated issue. But despite what random advice or an ad says, there is no cure for psoriasis right now. It’s the skin you will live in for your entire life, and I’ve spent most of mine figuring out better ways to live with it.

I always tried to explain my condition to other children as simply as it was explained to me. “It’s not contagious,” I’d tell them. “It’s just my body making extra skin.” Most took those explanations well since a few extra spots didn’t seem to matter much on the playground. The children at school were never a problem that way.

No, it was the adults.

The adults who stared. The adults who asked if it was contagious as they unconsciously stepped back. The adult swim teacher who told me it was scabies. The adult hairstylist who hesitated before giving me a cut. And the adult dermatologist who never seemed to listen and became impatient when a younger me asked him questions; the same one I left often in tears.

Those experiences are why I have been self-conscious at times, even on my wedding day. I had to learn patience with other people and myself; I needed a sense of humor to get through the insensitivity.

@alisonincanada

#greenscreen #psoriasis #psoriasisawareness #inspirational #EXSM3989

♬ A Thousand Miles – Vanessa Carlton

But that sense of humor doesn’t always stop the anxious feelings or self-doubt. (Even on my wedding day.) Although I have a great dermatologist today, I worry I’m going to ask too many questions and cause that same impatient response I would get years ago.

When my doctor inquires at this visit how treatment is going, I rush to explain. I hear how nervous I sound. He pauses and checks his notes.

My mind jumps to conclusions: He must think I’m not intelligent enough to understand my own condition.

But I’m met with kindness and understanding, and we work out how to better fit the treatments to my situation. I leave today not with tears but with a smile on my face.

Ever since the pandemic was declared more than 2 years ago, everything has taken a turn for the worse. But for the better, we’ve all learned a new skill or two during this pandemic. For me and my family, food is particularly important. We all know the feeling of  “hangry” and food always makes us happy and satisfied. I’m proud to say that I’ve experimented and challenged more recipes than I ever have and I have gained more confidence in doing it myself.

Lately I’ve tackled a recipe that I wouldn’t even think I would be able to manage due to the time consuming and labor intensive cooking method it involved; and that is Chinese classic comfort food, Chinese Sticky Rice 糯米飯. It is also a staple dim sum item which we also missed going to, hence the courage to take on this recipe. 

After comparing and finding the right tutorial video and repeatedly watching it numerous times, I’ve prepared myself for the arm workout. The traditional way of making this dish is by taking uncooked sticky rice that has been soaked for hours (also a must), and stir-frying it until cooked, which can take from 20-30mins of cooking time. There is a cheat to shorten the cooking process by cooking it in the rice cooker but the moisture and chewiness of the rice grain is just not the same. 

My Take on Chinese Sticky Rice:
Recipe Instructions

Ingredients

• 2 cups uncooked glutinous rice (soaked for 3 hours or overnight in water)
• 2 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
• ½ cup chicken stock
• 1 tablespoons oil
• ¼ cup dried shrimp (soaked for 15 minutes in warm water)
• ¼ cup dried scallop (soaked for 15 minutes in warm water)
• 3 dried shiitake mushrooms (soaked in warm water until softened and diced)
• 1 links Chinese sausage 臘腸 (cut into small discs)
• 1 Chinese Cured Pork Belly 腊肉 (cut into small cubes)
• 1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
• white pepper (to taste)
• 2 scallions (chopped)
• roasted peanuts (optional)
• julienned egg crepe (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Add Chinese sausage and cured pork belly and stir-fry until all the fat is released from the meat. Add the mushroom, dried shrimp and scallop to absorb all the fat. Add the Shaoxing wine and stir-fry for another 2 minutes. Remove from pan. 
2. With leftover grease in the pan, add the uncooked glutinous rice and your arm workout begins. On medium high heat, stir the uncooked rice, from bottom to top throughout, add a few tablespoons of chicken stock at a time. Once you feel the rice is dry, add more chicken stock and stir until the rice is almost cooked. 
3. Add all the ingredients back into the pan and stir. 
4. Add the sweet soy sauce and stir-fry until the rice is uniform in color.
5. Garnish with scallions, roasted peanuts and julienned egg crepe.

Instructions adapted from thewoksoflife.com

The Verdict

I mean my arm got real tired after just ten minutes of constantly stir-frying. For the amount of labor, it was worth it! A few family and friends have tried it and the feedback were all positive. Definitely will save this recipe for special occasions.

This project is a remix of some of the concepts and content work done throughout the course to demonstrate examples of what I’ve learned about digital storytelling for this assignment.

In this long-form blog we look at how different mediums including text, photos, graphics, and video can be used to enhance the story of “Big Timber” and the Wenstob family that owns  Wenstob Timber Resources.

Storytelling has evolved to a complex artform with our increased abilities to express ourselves on digital media platforms such as blogs, social media, and video. Each platform’s messaging and content must be carefully constructed for that platform’s requirements to enhance and shape the storytelling experience for its unique audience.

Although medium is foundational to experiencing the message, many universal principles comprise good storytelling.

How to Make a Story

Every engaging story has a beginning, middle, and end during which protagonist(s) and antagonist(s) engage in conflict and then work out a resolution. But there’s much more. We must relate to the characters’ journeys. Good stories tug at our emotions as we recall life feelings and experiences universal to humans on this earth regardless of where we live. We care about the protagonist and want him/her to win.

An example of great storytelling is the story of the Wenstob family from Wenstob Timber Resources.  Ken Wenstob, logger, and sawmill owner is a larger than life opinionated force to be reckoned with. This story depicts the universal theme of the heroic individual, which is Ken the protagonist, leading his team through everyday life experiences that compound to become immense obstacles, the antagonists, that they continually overcome.  The audience identifies with these real-world aversities as pain or learnings in their own lives and is therefore drawn in emotionally as Ken’s team pushes all human and equipment limitations to exhaustion to meet their time sensitive goals and arrive at a new place. 

Use a Story Spine

Online video channels like Netflix support visual storytelling.  In the “Big Timber” series, each 45-minute episode is delivered through clearly defined five phase story plans where Ken and his team undergo a journey to solve a problem and ultimately end up at a new normal or stasis. This formula of structure also known as a story spine  is the timeless “secret sauce” proven to be a corner piece of a what makes many stories exceptional.   The five phases unfold as Beginning, The Event, Middle, The Climax, and End.

The story spine for each 45-minute episode of “Big Timber” runs something like this:

• Once upon a time there was a heroic entrepreneur named Ken Wenstob who operated one of the last privately-owned sawmills on Vancouver Island
• Every day, his team brings logs from their timber claim on the mountain to keep the sawmill running and turning logs into lumber
• But one day, he is locked out of his timber claim because the road at the bottom of the mountain is closed
• Because of that, he has to find another source of logs
• Because of that, he has to get his old barge and boat yarding logs on the inlet shoreline
• Because of that, he fixes his equipment and builds a dock
• Until finally, Ken goes all out with new team members and fixed old equipment
• And ever since then, Ken has another ongoing source of logs to supply the sawmill

How does that story spine work in visual and digital storytelling?

New Media Storytelling

We can present the same story spine text as an Infographic. This visual representation makes the information easier to retain and apply. In this case, all the words are there, but it is much easier for our brains to understand the visual layout to quickly grasp the content than it is with the text format above.

Read the infographic story spine below to see if you agree.

We can also reconstruct the above story spine word content into a story thread for a Twitter audience that likes short text. We tell the story with snippets by condensing a 45-minute episode into a few linked short text posts with some branded images, based on the 5 phases of the story spine.

Or, we can give different insights into the story using an image-based platform like Instagram which allows the business (brand) to interact more intimately, personally, or one-on-one with its fans. We see and hear the Wenstob family storytelling, chatting, relaxing, playing a guitar at night around a campfire near the water in this IG post.

Storytelling with Video

The “Big Timber” story breathes strong storytelling principles, is inherently visual, and is highly suited for a visual digital medium. In addition to enjoying the interactions of the Wenstob team, the audience is continuously drawn in by the spectacular landscape colors, pictures, and movements of the immense equipment in the forests.  The visuals of logging equipment and the operations team cutting the giant trees on the mountains are breath-taking. In reference to Marshall McLuhan, Canadian philosopher, the medium does become the message in this case.

What About Season 2?

At the end of Season 1, the team achieves 220 loads of logs or 10% more than the required goal for the winter. There is a team celebration lunch on the mountainside. Although it was a very challenging year, Ken announces he has purchased another claim for the next year.  

At the end of Season 1, there is also data that tells a story about the journey’s of those people who watched the season on Netflix and who engaged with the various social properties. From that data, the producers can extract stories and then make decisions regarding whether or not Season 2 should be produced, and to drive the right visuals and narrative.

In Conclusion

Storytelling across platforms is the new normal. It allows us to create stories that engage audiences using various technologies that permeate their daily lives. The media deliver unique content creations that are linked together to enhance and complement the story narrative. Ideally, the content pieces are in synchronization together.

#Storytelling, #EXSM3989, #WenstobResources, #BigTimber

As a 20-something, I never felt pressured to leave my parents’ house. I was lucky that we had a great relationship. They had made it clear I could stay at home as long as I wanted. Though, there was something inside me that questioned it and wondered when the time would come for me to leave.

I weighed the pros and cons of living at home many times and the benefits would always come out on top.

Though, after a camping trip with a couple of friends in May 2021, my dissatisfaction began to grow. Two had been living on their own in their own apartments for a few years and the other had just bought a house. I can’t quite describe the feeling but I remember coming home from that trip, wishing I was in my own place.

It just so happened that our washing machine was no longer functional and it would take a week to get a new one. I was extremely frustrated that I couldn’t clean up from my trip the way I had planned.

I continued to waffle for a few months after that trip but began to realize it was time for me to leave. The one thing that still kept me at home was our dog, Cinnamon. She had been diagnosed with kidney disease in mid-2020 and I knew she didn’t have much time left. I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could before she passed. I didn’t know when that would be and I slowly started to think about leaving without her. In July 2021, she took a turn for the worst and 6 days after her 16^th birthday, she passed away.

@jennaexsm3989

#exsm3989

♬ Puppy? Cute Puppies! – SiLLy ViRaL

After many years of internal debate, I finally felt it was time. I began conversing with friends and people at work about the idea. I think I wanted to put it into the universe to make sure I would actually do it. If I said my plans aloud, it would be harder for me to back out.

Like I had done many times before, I scoured rental sites including RentFaster. This is where I found a place I was seriously interested in. I was still too scared to reach out to the poster but a friend said I should. I built up the courage and did it. I didn’t get a reply.

Not long after, the posting said rented. I wish they would have responded even to say it was no longer available but alas, I was left in the dust. It was okay though, it was only my first try.

Very aware of my plans and willing to help me, my friend was also on the lookout. She had come across a link to a place on Kijiji. She was familiar with the building and had looked at a place here, herself. So, at her recommendation I reached out to the landlord. I was scared it wouldn’t be available as the posting had been up for a while. But I got lucky this time and it was! We made plans to go look at it on Labor Day. And once again, I began to freak myself out. I had never lived on my own before, never had a lease. I had no rental references. Would this be a problem?

Various articles also told me that my rent should only be 30% of my income while others claimed the 50/30/20 rule. Based on my current income, I wasn’t going to fit into either of these categories. Would this be a problem? Would the landlord deny me because I didn’t make enough money?

• Rule of Thumb: How Much Should You Spend on Rent?
• How Much Should You Spend on Rent? Ignore the ‘30% Rule’

Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much that weekend because I was so scared of being denied. The day came and my friend and I met up in the parking lot. The landlord met us at the front doors and we went to look. I probably should’ve looked a little harder at some things but at this point I just wanted to move out so bad that I didn’t care. I did also have my friend there who’s lived in three places herself. Had she noticed anything alarming, she would have mentioned it. I already had the rental application with me, ready to go.

And as luck would have it, I signed the lease on the spot. All of my worries had been for nothing as they so often are. My landlord had no worries about me moving out for the first time and only commented that I worked full time, not worrying about the amount of money I was actually taking in every month. I signed the lease for the 15^th agreeing to move in on the 18^th.

It was a rush, a serious anxiety inducing rush. I had nothing. I hadn’t built up a stash of things to bring with me when I left my parent’s house. I didn’t have anywhere to store them. I signed the lease only 3 weeks before I was set to move in.

So I continued to panic. I began shopping around for the stuff I wouldn’t be able to live without, pots/pans, cutlery, toilet paper and the like. Furniture wise, all I had was my twin bed and an outdoor patio set a friend happened to be giving away. That was it.

I did what I could in the weeks leading up to the move, packing my stuff in boxes, getting renter’s insurance and scheduling my Internet installation. The “adult” stuff you don’t really think about until you have to set it up for yourself. After trips to Walmart and and a few other places, I was as ready as I could be.

Saturday, September 18th I moved in. With the help of a Home Depot van, my dad and friend, it only took two trips up the elevator.

That first day was weird. I remember thinking I should go home soon, only to realize I already was home. As days went on, the place became more familiar to me. It was a pretty empty box for a while but it slowly began to fill up with furniture purchases from IKEA and the Brick.

Now, It’s been almost three months since move-in day. When I made my final decision to move out on my own, I truly thought it would take a year to get everything in order. I’ll continue to collect bits and pieces in time but I’m quite proud of how it’s turned out in only a few short months. I may spend more now on rent and food but the freedom and extra space has been worth every penny.

So Cute!

It all began at meal time. Who knew such a sweet, adorable puppy could turn into a tiny little monster! I mean, look at that face:

Fussy Eater

Oscar is our eight-month old Shorkie, who doesn’t like to eat from the cute little stainless steel bowl set we bought for him when he came home.

We tried placing the bowl in different locations around the kitchen, and separated the set, and tried a few other things, but Oscar just skirted around and backed away from the bowl, refusing to eat and looking forlornly at you with his big puppy-dog eyes.

Even adding treats to the bowl couldn’t entice Oscar to eat. He would take pieces out and eat off the floor instead!

So, we did a little research and experimentation, checking out different websites such as Pet Dog Owner  and Ruffle Snuffle and even asked questions on Facebook groups for Shorkie owners.

WOAH!

And that’s when we discovered the monster!

He knew when we were preparing a treat for his dinner and waiting so patiently, like the well-behaved puppy he normally is.

And then:

The crazed monster came out and even came after me, and tried to take a bite out of my toe!

My scream must have brought him to his senses and he scurred away to hide.

And now he’s back to being his cute, adorable self.

But, when that time comes around, we watch for the lurking monster within!

I remember being in high school and wanting to fit in with most of the girls, straightening your hair was one of the first things you would usually do along with tweezing your eyebrows the thinnest it could possibly go without you being completely browless. I also remember a 13-year-old Firdous with a very curly and frizzy mane and it was spectacular! (I really wish I had pictures) but sadly I don’t. I was confident at the time with my hair, but the pressures in high school to look a certain way got to me and I decided to go for a treatment that would basically remove my curls and make it easier for my hairdresser to “handle”.

Doing this treatment called the reverse/straight perm was one of the biggest “beauty” regrets I had made in life so far, still competing with the very thin eyebrow phase. I continued doing this treatment for years – every six months continually for about 12 years. My curls were completely fried with years and years of blow drying and reverse perm treatments they were non-existent.

In 2016, I decided I was gonna “go natural”. I wanted my curls back and wanted that 13-year-old hair I once loved so much to make a comeback and I then decided to do the “big cop”. The big chop is basically cutting off all your damaged hair, and mine was very close to the roots which was quite a lot of damage. My first reaction after my big chop was “ what the hell did I just do?” I was very concerned about what people would say because trust me IT WAS NOT A GOOD LOOK, lol. 

My new look was very different from my long straight hair but I quickly became accustomed to it. I had curls on my head, for the first time in many years, there were a few, but I could see them popping and I was extremely excited about that. 

At first, I was trying to do everything I could to ensure my hair would grow as fast as it possibly could. I watched every Youtube video I could find, and tried every method and product I could afford. I was impatient, I wanted quick growth but it just didn’t happen.  

Patience is the most important part of your hair journey. It will allow you to enjoy the process and learn throughout your entire transition phase. It’s a difficult time, many days (especially the days when you want to go out) it was fueled with frustration and annoyance because I could not do much for it to look cute but once you put aside the growth process and concentrate on the health of your hair you will start seeing the results you desire.

I hope that anyone looking at transitioning and having a “big chop” as a 2022 goal, just know that it takes time, it causes a lot of doubts but it’s all worth it. I have never been happier with my hair, the way it looks and feels even on the bad hair days, It’s rewarding every step of the way!

What the hell did I just do?

Decorating for Christmas. It’s a time of year and activity that so many cherish and look forward to. Taking a Sunday afternoon family drive to the local Christmas tree farm, pulling the decorations down from the attic, and sipping eggnog while perfectly placing the ornaments on the brightly lit tree. By now you’re probably picturing a scene from a movie or pulling from your own fond memories. But what may come as joy and warmth for some, doesn’t resonate with everyone. Somewhere out there, is a child, teen or adult for whom this time of year doesn’t bring immense delight and cheer. One of those adults is me – or at least it used to be. 

Now, I won’t let you jump to conclusions and paint my childhood Christmases with a completely terrible brush. So let’s start from the beginning. Every year my Jewish-raised mother forced my Scrooge-like father to climb into the attic and drag out the tree and boxes of garland, beads, and ornaments. My mother and I would stand holding the ladder as dust and who knows what else fell on our heads as my father would curse that he couldn’t believe it was that time of year again already. The minute he climbed down, Mum and I were on our own—he wanted no part of what was to come next.  We were never really sure why he hated Christmas, or claimed to—a family mystery that’s yet to be solved. Now, he had his own way of enjoying the season, primarily through music. Each night through the month of December he would put on his favourite Christmas album to accompany dinner; sounds I can still hear when I close my eyes. 

So there my mother would stand in front of the large bay window, fussing and fluffing the artificial tree and cursing under her breath as she painfully strung the lights. In those moments I learned a valuable life lesson: buy a pre-lit tree. Then came the ribbon, followed by the ornaments, where I came in to assist. Every year I watched my mother struggle and sweat to do something for her child and thankless husband after she’d worked all day, commuted home, and cooked dinner. As an adult, I now understand how valuable those evenings are and how much work was put into making the house Christmas ready when all she wanted to do was sit and breathe. Hours later my father would emerge from the basement, nod and say “oh, you did it like that this year,” or if he was in a good mood, a simple, “looks good.”

They’re vivid memories that fill me with stress and anxiety and just a hint of happiness. The weeks leading up to Christmas Day were filled with more Scrooge-like tendencies from my father and my mother working so hard to make happy memories. I’d wait to open presents on Christmas morning until my father got home from work, then find my mother crying in the kitchen as she slaved over the turkey and inevitably cooked 10 pounds of potatoes unnecessarily. Unable to read a room, my father would then call the turkey “dry” followed instantly by my mother chucking a dinner roll at his head. Now, it wasn’t all horrible. (In fact, you may even laugh, because by the food fight, I was). There were happy memories, laughs, and fondness when I look back on those times. It just wasn’t how Hallmark portrayed it. And maybe Hallmark is who I should blame for my Christmas traditions not living up to the idyllic imagery they adorned.

But what happens when you meet your future husband who was raised in an over-the-top Christmas loving, Hallmark-infested household? You choke all those feelings of dread, anxiety, and disappointment down. Far down. And you pretend to love it for as long as you can.  You watch his parents be infantilized by the holiday season, trimming not one, but two trees. You watch painfully terrible Christmas movies with them like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation that apparently every child but you grew up watching, and you throw yourself into the family gingerbread house decorating contest. Exhausting is one way to put it. Pretending to be someone you’re not, is another. And then comes the day that you admit that while you’re very happy for them and their traditions, Christmas just isn’t very much your thing. And you watch their faces glaze over with horror and confusion. 

And that might be the hardest part of it all frankly. When others are so mesmerized by the allure of Christmas that they can’t possibly fathom someone not being filled with utter glee and amazement during the most joyous time of the year. In fact, my story is just the tip of the iceberg for many who struggle with the holiday season, and for reasons much more detrimental than mine. Some have struggled with losing loved ones around the holidays, faced financial peril and stress over making the holiday season special, or endured abusive households at the hand of increased holiday-stress. But before this gets too dark, let me tell you about the other side to my Christmas-loathing coin. A side where I started to find balance.

As my husband and I merged our lives and consequently our holiday traditions, I’ve tried to err on the side of softness when it comes to Christmas. I try not to let the idea of decorating for Christmas fill me with stress and anxiety, and he doesn’t force me to play the role of Mrs. Claus that I was never destined for. He respects my no-decorating until the first of December boundary and I do my best to get into the Christmas spirit when we drag the tree up from the basement. Luckily, I’ve used my love for interior design and home decorating as the positive light in my adult Christmas journey. I’ve found joy in sourcing beautiful Christmas decor, styling shelves with bottle brush trees, pinecones, and tiny Christmas houses. I carefully hang the garland on the mantle above the fireplace and begin to trim the tree. Naturally, I suffer from Perfect Ornament Placement Disorder, sometimes referred to as P.O.P.D., but I’d like to think my husband finds it endearing when I fix every Christmas ball he’s placed on the tree. In fact, this year, I went WAY out of my comfort zone and placed some unconventional ornaments on my tree! Check them out here.

Christmas morning is no-longer filled with waiting and deciding it will be a disappointment before it’s even begun. We make homemade pizza on Christmas Eve and cinnamon buns for Christmas breakfast like his family did, while adding in mimosas (hold the orange juice!) and bagels and lox like mine. At the end of the day,  I’ve grown to realize Christmas is now about creating our own traditions. Traditions for the family that I’ve chosen and for my children to come. Despite some of the challenges my childhood Christmases encountered, and the unsettling feelings I still carry, I’m grateful for my experiences and the good memories I do have. I know to respect those who find that this time of year brings pain, stress, and guilt, and have learned to set boundaries and dabble in a little compromise. 

Check out some behind the scenes thoughts and photos from when we decorated our house for Christmas this year! Are you a pre-December first decorator, or a one-month and done person, like me!