Author Archives: Narz

“In The Fold” A 100 Days Origami Project Day 8 – Cats

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In The Fold 100 Days Origami Day 8

4/26/16 It is surprising that with today’s technology we can now understand cats (or at least i hope). Nonetheless, we may have a harder time listening to something more closer to ourselves. How about our hearts? When was the last time you sat still and listened to your own heartbeat? They say the moment you do, you are meditating and becoming one with your soul.

We sometimes become so lost in this world we check-in on Facebook but forget to check-in with ourselves. Ignoring the signals our body sends us, or the awkward feeling in our chest that might be our intuition pulling at our spirit….

Take the time to LISTEN to your heart. It might be saying something important.

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“In The Fold” A 100 Days Origami Project Day 7 – Pigeons

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In The Fold 100 Days Origami Day 7

4/25/16 Now after that history lesson of pigeons, has your thoughts on a pesky rock bird changed? As humans, we judge everything by their appearance forgetting where the origin lies. From humans, to ideas, inventions, software, and even nature there is substantial history of everything’s existent that we must never take for granted.

In you lies thousands of years of history. The very makeup of who you are is molded, cultivated, and birth from many minds, hands, hearts, tears and even blood shed. Never take for granted that you are extraordinary even if it contradicts or defies what society may say.

Never let society define WHO YOU ARE. There are thousands of years of history inside you.

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“In The Fold” A 100 Days Origami Project Day 6 – Rabbits

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In The Fold 100 Days Origami Day 6


4/24/16 Sometimes I feel like I just can’t win.  Where life seems to fire at me like it’s Open Narz Season or something. Do you feel the same way? Where whatever you do you just can’t seem to make things better or it seems nothing changes the current situation? Well, let me tell you. Even if the situation can’t be controlled, your mindset can. An awful day at work, can turn into a challenging day at work with a different mindset. Once you change how you view a situation, the situation changes to bend to your will.

Change your MIND, Change your WILL.

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“In The Fold” A 100 Days Origami Day 2 Cherry Blossoms

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For only a few months do cherry blossoms illuminate the world with their color. Such fragile plants that spark the beginning of spring. Their colors and presence are so strong and vivacious but yet so short lived. So too are our lives, mere glimpse in the fabric of time that to not live as vivid is such a waste.

Live the of a Cherry Blossom. Full of color, impression, vibrancy and never let the shortness of time catch up with you potential.

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About 100 Days Of Origami

This project is not a cry for attention. It’s not a attempt to ask for anything from anyone. This is an experiment to overcome my fear of rejection. To turn back the time to before I lost the courage to express my truest nature before fear stepped in. This is a journey to conquer my fear through the art of origami and self-expression.

Every origami will be different, with a thought process of my life from this fear. I hope to understand this fear and grasp the processed establishment. To breakdown my fear of rejection with an intuitive voice.

“In The Fold” A 100 Days Origami Project To Combat Anxiety

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When I was in elementary school, I use to borrow origami books from the library a lot. I would make origami for decoration, function, and eventually profit. I charged a quarter for a cup origami so kids could neatly throw away pencil shavings after sharpening. I learned how to do so many different types of animals and cool objects that I would gift family and teachers with one daily.

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When I left elementary school and entered an all girls middle school, my world changed. I left behind all my friends but was thinking I’d continue my identity in a new school. I could still maintain my integrity, my hobbies, and find like minded kids who shared my tastes in Sonic, Sailor Moon, Pokemon, and running. I would find other girls that I could relate and we would express our purest nature that made us genuine beings.

I was Wrong.

From the 5th grade till I graduated high school, I was bullied, shunned, humiliated, sexually molested, robbed, beaten, and harassed by girls. I had no friend I could turn to for support, protection, or comfort. In the eight years I endured this, I lost my integrity and a fear of rejection was birthed. With it came a world of anxiety, self hatred, a desire for extreme solitary, an escape to the online cyber world of role play, and what felt like endless years of grieving for companionship. I’d escape with gaming and anime, but that only widen the gap between me and the world to the point I forfeited my attempts to fit in. I knew I would never fit in…

100 Days Of Origami

This project is not a cry for attention. It’s not a attempt to ask for anything from anyone. This is an experiment to overcome my fear of rejection. To turn back the time to before I lost the courage to express my truest nature before fear stepped in. This is a journey to conquer my fear through the art of origami and self-expression.

Every origami will be different, with a thought process of my life from this fear. I hope to understand this fear and grasp the processed establishment. To breakdown my fear of rejection with an intuitive voice.

I want to become the friend I didn’t have to someone. A lonely girl like me, desperate for a friend.

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The Crane is a symbol of hope and healing during challenging times. The perfect origami to start with.

Social Media And How To Grow Your Influence!

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So you want to be the very best. You want to be influential and have tons of fans, right? Spamming people to follow you or posting links to communities and private messages will get people’s attention, but it won’t get people to press the follow, subscription, or Like button to keep updated with what’s going on. So how can you make this whole ‘become a influencer’ business work?

Your Identity is Your Brand

Who you are is going to be a critical aspect of your brand. Sure, what you do is important, but that follows only after if people can connect with you. So let’s say your brand is a League of Legends comedian, you want to ensure your brand expresses that. So let’s break up the basics shall we?

The first thing you will need to do is take a good profile photo and keep that photo consistent throughout all social media. After that start breaking down what your profiles will be about. Write a bio of who you are and what you do. Without an image or bio, there is no way anyone can relate to you. Next, figure out what your going to be talking about. What are your tastes? What do you like? What are your hobbies? Audiences connect with brands that they can connect with, like if you had a horrible experience with American Airlines, so has billions of others! You can even spin it off in your style but adding comical humor and imagery. What you share on social media will help viewers identify who you are. Compile topics you wish to share and start sharing them. If you create your own content, you should incorporate sharing them 30% of the time. Why? Because you will get more attention if you begin to retweet and promote other people’s work more than your own.

Each social media platform works differently so focusing on just one is not the smart thing to do. You need to utilize all platforms and organically integrate them into everything you do. Let’s divide them up shall we?

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Tumblr

If you never used it before, it’s fine. You can start now! Whats so special about Tumblr? It can act like a ‘home base’ for everything that you do. Most likely you’ll need some sort of home base, blog, or website to systematically display everything you do. Having a website is great and all, but if you hoping for something minimalistic, i suggest this platform highly.

Tumblr allows you to post all your video, articles, photos, and thoughts quick and easy. With their millions of viewers, tagging your pieces spreads worldwide! Having built 4 websites(and counting) over the last 4 years, I wish i knew more about Tumblr way before I invested all my time and effort into a website. There is a lot that goes into a website from design, hosting, domain purchase, and maintenance. There are full time jobs dedicated to website development and maintenance so if you really want a website, be prepared for the workload!

Pinterest

Pinterest

If you never used Pinterest before, it is literally like a bulletin board of everything on the internet. You can find memes, home decor, fashion, DIY ideas, art and many other things. Sometimes it gets way too cluttered, which is why having your category lists are perfect for managing different things you and your audience may like to share!

I have a list for just video game home decor, video game pets, and memes. Why? Because my particular audience is more likely to respond to them on other social media outlets because of my brand revolving around video games. So if I find a cute Legend of Zelda dog costume, I can easily push it to Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr to let everyone know! In addition, viewers may even go to my list to see other stuff I categorized and subscribe! You can even search during down time and add items to your list whenever you can. When you run out of things to post on your social media, go to your lists to fill the gaps.

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Instagram

Most will wonder what the point of posting pictures on Instagram? Well the whole point of being in influencer is to have the capacity to be compelling. In this day and age, images and video are what marketing companies, teams, and businesses are using to capture audiences. Though before you go take 100 selfies, it is important to note that people “Like” things that give more of a positive feeling. Not to say your beautiful selfies aren’t positive enough (*wink), but generating positive feeling is a key step in garnering initial likes. Images that stir a mix emotional reaction are more likely to be shared or Liked. So cute puppies trying to swim have a increase probability to gain attention, but you shouldn’t be discouraged from posting a cute outfit either.

It isn’t all about the ‘Likes’ either. Followers need to know your active everyday. Posting a minimum of two images/videos a day is recommended. Also, to get people to follow you explore base on hashtags and begin liking other accounts images that you genuinely associate with. More times than not, the same account will check out your account and follow.

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Facebook / Pages

Facebook can also be used as an alternative to Tumblr, however, the interactivity of Facebook pages feels more like a community forum than a one way information feeder of your content. Most businesses use Facebook to keep their audiences informed of latest news, updates, products, and events. As a brand, it’s a great place to promote your content but also gain valuable data on what your audience feels about you, topics, news, and interests. By doing so, you become the influencer in your own community and this places you at the hem of your content and brand.

With recent changes to Facebook, you can hold polls, as photo albums, giveaways, play games, and even market your brand without any issue. Facebook ads are invaluable tools to promote events, brands, products, and businesses! You may think you yourself “I would never pay for an ad”, but let’s lay some ground. Paying $5 for an ad that will show your brand to pinpointed targeted markets is in investment that does not hurt you at all. Yes, it’s $5 but compare it to the 2,000 people you would never have been able to reach otherwise now following you via Facebook!

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Periscope

I am fairly new to Periscope, but have already been hearing how amazing the app is. Compared to it’s older alternative, Periscope is a live streaming program that generates ranking via hearts. In lieu of major streaming success with Twitch, Periscope offer streaming capabilities right from your mobile devices. Granted good megapixels and internet is necessary, the direct communication to a brand or influencer is something many audiences just don’t get and appreciate when they can.

Uses of periscope revolve around offering behind the scenes view of events, interviews, webinars, and Q&A. This is invaluable if your a brand that wants to sell a product. When it comes to selling your brand (aka YOU), this is a perfect opportunity for fans to talk to you directly. Periscope also offers features to block trolls from your streams permanently and blocks them from your audiences watching as well.

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Vine

A quick prerecorded way of sharing your stuff is Vine. Think of it as a mini-YouTube platform. Each video must be about 6 secs long and offers no video editing. (You can use video editing tools like Viva Video to help with that) Vine is in interesting platform because of the short amount of time for each video. Once the video is done it restarts the video again automatically. The site records how many times it looped and values higher numbers of looped vines over lower ones.

Having vines that loop well is all about how much impact your video offers in 6 secs. Are you telling a joke? Doing a skit? Or did you catch something unsuspecting on video? Experimenting with video editing and different ideas can help pinpoint what your audience will find most entertaining when checking your account out! In addition, you can re-vine friends and others on the platform sharing and building relationships.

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Twitter

The simple 140 character ‘train of thought in an real time’ chatroom concept may seem weird, but Twitter is actually pretty good form of conversing in real time with pretty much the world. It might feel like your constraint to 140 characters, but research states that conceptualizing your thoughts into a simple concise form helps spread information faster than writing a long speech. It’s like the ultimate TL;DR of world social platforms! ( TL;DR = the long story short)

In our world, information is zooming by us fast. Videos with 6 secs have more impact than 20 mins videos, so lines of sentences have a tremendous benefit over paragraphs of info. Images can be packed full of info to render text almost useless. When tweeting, always add images, polls, links, and hashtags to build more traction with your engagement. You’ll gain views, clicks through, and followers if you sharing engaging discussions that evoke a response. As mentioned before, positivity evokes interaction. Simple tweeting”Good Morning Twitter~! Have a #HappyDay!” can stir audiences to answer back. Why? Because that is what it means to be an influencer, to get audiences to feel compelled to interact with you or your brand. Also with Vine, you can push videos straight to your Twitter audiences which cultivates your creative content much easier!

Final Notes

You maybe confused and flustered on how do you keep up with all of social media? Simply put you have them cross integrate. Have Instagram push to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr. Have Facebook push to Tumblr and Facebook. Pinterst push to Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter. Vine to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr. (You get the idea) Most apps have push features built in them, but for those that don’t you can use IFTTT to generate recipes to have some cool cross integration happen automatically! IFTTT has a huge array of many different softwares, apps, and cool recipes that can do things like automatically turn on your computer when you arriving home. (Crazy!)

Hoping this helps some of you lost in the social word, but if you have more questions feel free to drop me a tweet!

Video Games and Emotions?

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So I wrote a blurb about the partnership of Affectiva and iMotions it’s effect on gaming in the future. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The partnership with Affectiva and iMotes announce the newest facial coding and emotion analytic software on the iMotions Biometric Research Platform: Affectiva’s Affdex. Combining eye tracking, brainwave measurements (EEG), and physiological sensors (GSR, ECG, EMG) with traditional surveys and questionnaires enables researchers to assess the impact of new digital and learning experiences like gaming, media, and entertainment. The concept will help understand how digital age technology affects humans during interaction, cognitively, and ultimately user behavior. Using this tools, better evaluation of audience engagements via TV and movies can help researchers understand more of the behavioral science and well-being of the audience.

Read more on GirlGamerVogue!

League of Legends Summer Split Finals After Party w/ SonicBoomBox

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Working with SonicBoomBox is always fun. I love every minute of creating and cultivating a rich dynamic holsitic gaming community. It’s my passion! We’re all gamers after all. Lots of great guests came out too! I need to be more mindful to take photos with friends. Anyhoo, Enjoy these photos from the night!

To view the previous party photos and details please click here. To view more details of the previous League of legends event, click here.

Financial Health Indicator of Mental Health? Let’s Gamify that!

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Reading an article on Forbes about the connection between one’s financial health being a a good indicator of their mental health really got me thinking. According to research that examined 65 studies on debt and mental health, researches concluded having a mental health problem is three times higher among people with debt. Mental health issues contrive of depression, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders among other mental illness experienced with debt. In addition, suicide is linked with debt as people are eight times more likely to commit suicide if in debt. People in debt are more likely to have drinking and drug related problems.

Mental Health Vs Debt

It is unsure whether the stress of debt causes mental illness or mental illness causes stress. It could also be said they might become integrated and fuel each other. The point of the article, however, was to articulate that debt in itself is solvable. Money management and debt consolidation are practices that can help alleviate some of the mental burden. This can also help pinpoint if the mental health problem is the root cause or if the debt itself is the issue.

Gamify That!

If there is anything I would of love to learn from college that I didn’t was money management. Sadly, now most Americans have to learn it the hard way, but what if we created a game that taught financial management? Even better, how about a way to cope with debt? If we can understand what good and bad debt is, how to maintain our debt, and cope with it wouldn’t more Americans recognize the link between debt and psychological distress much more? Games like SuperBetter help players achieve their health goals whether it’s physical or mental. By combining knowledge and stress management, we could see people understand their debt in a entertaining and informative environment that is stress-free and resourceful.

I Want to Be a Mad Scientist When I Grow Up

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Ok so, technically I am a ‘grown up’ but then again I am not. I’m not there yet. Let’s face it, ‘growing up’ is becoming more and more a spurious idea that attempting to fulfill is a like finding Fenn Foster’s missing treasure chest. However, we do come to points in our lives when we think about being asked as a child “What do you wanna be when you grow up?” and then thinking of our current situation and see that they don’t sync. We wanted to be ballerina, veterinarians, circus clowns and we turned into accountants, hedge fund investors, and lawyers. There isn’t anything wrong with changing your paths, but the moment you turn back and contemplate “What if” is when you shake the foundation of your identity.

My father works a world renown Jewish appetizer store where everyone wore a white coat. I took it one day for my 5th grade career day presentation where this same question was asked of me. When it was my turn, I stood tall with my big bottle coked glasses and oversize white lab coat draping over my body and blustered “When I grow up, I want to be a Mad Scientist!” You’d think the room would roar in laughter, but till this day I never fully understood why the room fell silent. Maybe it was the force behind my small petite voice that articulated such a menacing exclamation. Quickly passing me to the next person, I remember still proudly tripping about as if I had prophesied a miracle, but would it truly come to pass? Would I turn evil and run amok like the greatest villains in comic books and anime culture?

Madness Assumes

As I grew up, I became aware that “madness” is subjective. One person’s insane is another sane. Playing video games so much as a kid was ‘crazy.’ Now, if you playing video games for a living your ‘cool’ making millions a year. If your into computers and technology, your ‘hip’ and successful. Dorks in the 90s are CEOs in the new digital age. Kids bullied are now hiring the bullies to do their dirty work. ‘Madness’ is at it’s climax right now.

So what is my madness? I’ll tell you. It’s the idea the video games can change the world. When we play video games, we gain reinforcement, recognition, entitlement, socialization, accomplishments, love, happiness, and more by the Eustress we put in. Eu- is the Greek word meaning either “well” or “good” so when we attached the word stress it literally means “good stress”. This is the self-fulfillment we lack in our daily lives. To say gamers ‘escape’ from reality to virtual reality isn’t far from the truth. However, what if we take components of the virtual and made life more meaningful? What if we had meetings at work with the same positive reinforcement mechanism? What if schools change their curriculum from test taking to simulation assessments?

The problem with this idea already is you think I’m ‘mad’ or out of my mind for thinking to put video games in anything else besides entertainment. In which I retort, “No I think your mad for not thinking beyond the limitations it offers.” We simply look at video games as entertainment but it’s not. Just like books are windows into new worlds, music tap into emotions and experiences, or photos are memories.

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Life is strange. More and more I feel madness becomes that to which we don’t care to understand. What turns out to happen is those that can’t understand something or cope with it’s evolution fall behind. A revolution is coming if it’s not already here. To get a better glimpse at what I mean, take a look at some articles on the combination of video games and psychology.

Let the madness unfold.