Podcast Intro!

Hello everyone! In this post, I am going to be discussing the Podcast Intro that is displayed above! The Podcast Intro is a short 1 minute clip that will play before all of the videos that are going on this page.

Overall, the time it took to create the intro was roughly an hour or so. I began with my script for the intro. I wrote down what I wanted to say and the message I wanted people to have over the direction of my website. I decided to include the purpose of my site as a whole so that new viewers could easily understand my motivation for creating the website. Furthermore, I emphasize the idea that the individuals that I showcase on the site are unique and stray from the typical stereotypes of minorities. This is the biggest thing I want to emphasize with regards to my purpose so I made it a point to mention it once or twice in the introduction. Finally, I encouraged users to check out the site more thoroughly and to see if they had anything in common with the people mentioned in my posts. In doing so, I’d be fulfilling my purpose of informing users that minorities are unique and different.

The actual creation of the intro, itself, took a longer time to work on. I downloaded Audacity, a platform for sound mixing, in order to record my voice and blend it with a song in order to make the intro pop out more and make it more enjoyable rather than simply a voice speaking for a minute. Next, I went to the Free Music Archive website where I was able to search for music that I found fitting for my introduction. I spent almost twenty minutes looking into different genres and dabbled with jazz and soft rock. I really wanted the song to have a Latin vibe and to sound relaxed. I wanted it to be a song that you’d hear in a coffee shop or in a very mellow setting. Eventually, I found the song Siesta by Jahzzar. It’s a simple tune with that begins with a guitar and follows up with drums and some techno beats; however, it only plays for about a minute so you only really get a sense of the guitar and drums. Nonetheless, I felt that it blended perfectly with the mood of the site and the message I was sending.

I recorded my voice first. After a few takes, I was able to record the script without my accent getting in the way of the pronunciation of words. Next, I imported the song and began mixing the songs. I incorporated a Fade In effect onto the beginning of the song so that listeners weren’t overwhelmed to hear the song. Next, I placed my recording in the middle of the track and added a Fade Out effect towards the end to indicate that the intro was over. I had to cut the actual song to only a minute in order to make it a short intro. I did a little bit of sound mixing in order to lower the song to make it a background song and raised my voice sound so that people could hear what I had to say, but were also able to enjoy the song. In the end, it produced the roughly 50 second clip you see above!

I hope you enjoyed this read over the Podcast! I had an enjoyable time making it and can’t wait to use it for some videos!

The Website Header!

Hey everyone! This post is going to be dedicated about the website header that’s posted on my home page! This header is unique from my other headers on different pages because it is the only header that is not personally mine. If you go on my other pages (like contact or meet the editor), the photos that you’ll see there are photos taken by me! Like I mentioned earlier, I’m into photography so a lot of the photos that I’ll post on this site are my own! However, the one that you see above on the home page is unique because I took photos from Pixabay (a free photo site).

I took two photos, one of Peru ( which is linked here) and a picture of the North American continent (linked here). I chose these two photos because I felt like they related to the person I am. I’ve probably mentioned over a hundred times that I’m Peruvian so I decided to use that as the main header picture and decided to include the North American continent because that is my current location. I thought it was an interesting blend because it symbolizes the idea that I live in the United States, but my background is based out of Peru where I grew up in. Anyways, I blended the two photos to create the header image that you see before you. I also did some minor adjustments to make my two pictures work better. I took the Peru picture and messed around with the colors and hues to sort of take the coloring away and make it grey-ish. By doing this, I made the North America picture more visible because the real Peru picture was full of colors that made the other picture not that visible. I also darkened the outline of North America to make it more visible amongst the background picture. Those were the two minor adjustments I made to make my photos work and I hope you guys enjoy it!

Just a small note, I don’t want to make it seem like this header was easy to make, it actually took around two hours. I spent a lot of time brainstorming and thinking about what two pictures would work well together. I looked around for themes regarding scenery in North and South America just to compare the two areas and emphasize that I was from both of the areas, but I didn’t want to just put two pictures next to each other because it wouldn’t be that unique. Instead, I decided to work with a minor logo and a background picture because it seemed more simple and neat. My first draft of my header included  background pictures of New York, Colorado, and other places that were recognizable around the country and I was going to connect that with a thumb print that had the Peruvian flag on it. I went with this concept to show off my pride for my country while also emphasizing the idea that I live in the United States. The blended pictures came out well for the most part, but they didn’t appear appealing on my page. The colors of the Peruvian flag  didn’t clash well with the yellow of the site and it came out very blurry on the website so it didn’t look that professional. I decided to scrap that idea and sort of switch the pictures around and eventually got what you see before you! So I just wanted to say that because I didn’t want you guys to feel like I got it right the first time. It took some time and a lot of thinking to come up with an idea of how I wanted my website to be portrayed. Anyways, that’s my blog post for today ! I hope it was an enjoyable read and it gave you insight as to creating content for a site and also about who I am as a person (sort of a perfectionist and heavy thinker). Thanks for reading!

Also, I just wanted to state once again that my header was comprised of two pictures found on Pixabay and are intended for reuse. AND I wanted to note that the rest of the pictures on my page were provided by me and my camera. I hope they’re nice to look at and I’ll be posting more about my photography soon!

** Here is a formal citation of the images! **
Header Image Sources:
Map-North America-Canada-USA-Mexico by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay (CC0 Public Domain) and Fog-Hill-Landscape-Mountain-Mist-Mountain-Outdors-Peru by Pexels from Pixabay (CC0 Public Domain)

¡Bienvenidos!

Welcome to the first blog post of the website! I’m excited to start an interesting journey with this blog and see how it progresses within time.

I will be utilizing this information to post things that interest me so you, the reader, can get to know me a little more. But, I’ll also include things about other people to get their stories out there too! The whole purpose of this site is to get people to see what today’s minorities are really like. It’s a very strange time to be a minority in the United States right now following the aftermath of a crazy election!

Nonetheless, I think millennial minorities are really interesting. All throughout social media, you see us posting, tweeting, and writing about the issues of our country. We try to get our voices heard to the masses and we’re truly passionate about it. I think it’s amazing time for us who are proud of where we come from and we’re not afraid to talk about it. Through the blog, I will try to display these passionate people that I find in order for you readers to familiarize yourselves with the people you read about on social media.

I think that the media, over the years, has portrayed in an odd and un-appealing way. The stereotypes we grow up on and hear about are far from the truth of who we are. We’re all unique, cool, weird, funny, and genuine people and I hope that you guys will notice that throughout the many posts.

Before I sign off, I’ll just add a couple of things about myself because I wanted to mention something about me for this post. I’m Rodrigo! I’m a proud Peruvian (here’s a picture of Machu Pichu in Peru!) with Brazilian and Chinese descent and I’m a second year student at Rutgers University. Oh, and I play the ukulele! With that being said, enjoy the site!