Geocaching

Before going Geocaching, I did a little research.  I found an article on Online Athens, that gave a little description. They related it to treasure hunting as a kid, which I thought sounded really fun. I also joined geocaching.com.  It tells you everything you need to know about the rules, etiquette, recording your adventures, etc.  I also downloaded the app, which made it easier to find the caches. At first, I thought we were going to be geocaching experts.  Although it took us a little while, we found the first cache pretty easily. We were really amused by all of the little toys we found inside. We didn't have much luck with the other two caches. We traveled through woods just to find they were missing or had been trashed. I would have liked to find some more caches, but the free app would only let me see three caches. I think geocaching really promotes creativity. Everyone has to find different ways to hide the caches, make up different locations, clues and put something creative in the box or container. I think I will continue to geocache for fun!


References:

Geocaching. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.geocaching.com/guide/default.aspx

Vanhoose, J. (2010, March 05). Geocaching a fun way to hunt for treasure. Online Athens. Retrieved from http://onlineathens.com/stories/030510/liv_570866542.shtml

Mobile Apps

Researching mobile apps that promote creativity was a bit tricky. I began by typing "creativity" into the app search bar. This proved unhelpful. I tried searching terms such as "children" and "art" and sifting through the different apps. In this method, I found quite a few apps that I wanted to try. Some were really cool and others not so much. I tried to pick a variety to represent in my reviews. Then I tried googling "Apple apps that promote creativity".  I found a neat article called 20 Creative Apps for Your iPhone. This was a really neat article that opened my eyes to apps I had never heard of. I decided to check out some of these apps and represented a few in my review. Honestly though, there are a ton of creative apps out there and doing this project will really push me to invest some time into using those!


References:

Wescoat, N. (2009, August 29). 20 creative apps for your iphone. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/08/29/creative-iphone-apps/

Blogging

Blogging has always been something I wanted to learn how to do, but I never made the time. For my creativity contract, I chose this option because I thought I would really enjoy it. So far, I do. I think with time I will get better at it, but it is kind of hard. I have to remember to thoroughly describe things so people understand what I'm trying to convey. Also, it's something you must keep up with. My blog is about learning to cook, so I will really have to push myself to continue to cook, even though I don't enjoy it that much, and record my adventures accordingly.

To learn about blogs, I took a look at some blogs that I thought would interest me. One was Emily Maynard's blog called Lifestyle and Fashion by Emily Maynard. Although I couldn't make my blog look quite as snazzy, I thought this was a great example. She really takes clothes and accessories and describes them eloquently. She makes me want to go out and buy those same clothes. Her language is colloquial and makes me feel like she is my best friend. I hoped my blog would do the same.


References:

Maynard, E. (2013). Lifestyle and fashion by emily maynard. Retrieved from http://emilymaynard.com

Images

For the image portion of my creativity contract I chose to take one picture and alter it using different photo editors. I took a picture of my roommate's dog, Bella. Because I often use programs such as Photoshop, Instagram and PicStitch, I was really hoping to broaden my horizon of editing programs with this project. I though it would be fairly easy, but I did have some struggles. For the project I used iPhoto, CollageIt, FunPhotos and Fotor. It was difficult learning the different styles of each program. After a little practice, I started to feel comfortable with the new programs and I think I really created some neat images.

To learn a little more on the topic of images and publishing them online, I researched the sites provided.  The site I read into was Cyber Bee. Here I was able to learn what images you can and cannot use online. Also, I discovered how to give images from other people credit when using them. I also found a neat site called Photo Editing Tips. This site provides everything you need to know when editing photos. It touches on a wide array of topics including blurring, cloning and removing red eye.


References:

Copyright. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf
Photo editing tips. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.photoeditingtips.info