goodbye and good luck~

Finally, here comes the end of the semester. And the last post of I’m a Fake. It feels pretty different, to other subjects at the same finishing moment. Instead of writing a boring research essay, doing this blog project is the most interesting assignment I get during my 2+ years uni study so far.

I used to feel quite puzzled about this assignment. I wasn’t so sure about how to fit blog posts which may have to be kind of formal into a unique and personal space. As getting more familiar with WordPress, I eventually figured out the idea and fun of this new attempt. This blog too helps me to get the most out of the subject.

To be honest, I took this net communications subject because I had to. I had been trying to avoid any subjects about computer and web-based stuff as I just do not have any sense of it. But overall it is an interesting subject I think. It helps me understand more about blogsphere in which I would like to spend my time posting and browsing. I was getting to know something that I have never thought of, ideas like Creative Commons and comment cultures. All of them are quite useful and worth exploring. Blogging is also a very practical assignment. I never get bored because apart from the need of critical engagement I do feel comfortable and enjoy doing this blog for most of the time.

Getting started and thinking of a topic are always the hardest bits for me. It took me a long time to decide on a niche. But it was getting easier once I had the idea and focused on one topic. I think I will get more comfortable if I have more ideas in future blogging if possible.

I quite like to future explore two main issues: balance and style. I wasn’t very confident about the expression of my terrible English. I hope people didn’t get me wrong in most cases. The balance between posts of sort of academic content and informal features of blogging has annoyed me a bit. I wish I could have done better and managed to control the balance in between.

Since this blog was mainly treated as an assignment task by me, I tried to keep the site neat and simple. However, I very like to know more about the manual stuff of WordPress. Having links to more related sites, adding more customized modules, making use of functions can make my blog look more unique. Establishing a cool style is always one of the signatures of a successful blog.

Setting up a blog for this subject is really a fun experience for me. I hope I didn’t screw it though. I’m flying back to Shanghai in a week, and wish you guys all have an awesome holiday~

xxoo

Comment me!!!

Geert Lovink: “Blogs create communities of like-minded people. Debates happen within homogeneous webclouds … Most bloggers would admit that it is not their aim to foster public debate. If you disagree with a fellow blogger, it is even unwise to write a comment. Instead, it is much safer to post the remark on your own blog. “I blogged you”. The chance that someone will respond to it is almost zero. Herein is the limit of blogging.”

Okay, let’s just start with commenting this quote. It is definitely true that blogs group people with common interests together. This proves the Long Tail theory. However, the endless long tail also suggests that the 20 per cent people are scattered over 80 per cent share of different cultures. Blogs are somehow a more personal space rather than a place for heated public debates and discussions. As Lovink notes in his Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture (2007) that “blogs are primarily used as a tool to manage the self”. Blogs probably were once created to be a private place in which people can record their lives and express their feelings. But the paradox is that instead of a personal dairy in your locked draw, a blog site within the online network was born with no chance of privacy. And that’s how blogs has evolved to a medium of sharing ideas and exposing itself to public opinions.

Blogs has once approached the notion of Haberma’s (1989) public sphere, a space where people with common interests can go together and discuss and express their voices about their concerned issues. However, because it is within an online space not a face-to-face interaction, people do not actually have to comment things. They may like to go undercover or just to enjoy watching other people debating. But the most important thing we have to notice is that it is the idea of commenting itself goes consistently with the concept of Haberma’s public sphere. As long as there is no one commenting on any blogs, blogs are no longer a public sphere. And that’s why comment cultures are so essential nowadays.

Celebrities’ blogs are likely to get more comments. It is simply because their fans frequently check and comment on their updates. However, a large potion of the comments you can read everyday from those celebrities’ blogs are often not so relevant to the content of the entries. They are more about the fans’ love or hate towards the celebrities. And the debates are often pointless and ridiculous. In a solid makeup tutorial blog like Michelle Phan’s, you can barely see negative comments as people who constantly visit it are usually her big fans and are always happy about learning new makeup tips. But like a niche blog as mine which wants to make a fun by focusing on the extreme changes by applying makeup may provoke some controversy.

Some comments criticize makeup as it fakes girls’ beautiful faces. Those comments are mainly from male readers. They even come up a conclusion that boys should bring your girlfriends to the swimming pool when you first date to see the truth. The debate that whether these kind of makeup professionals or non-professionals should continue teaching the tutorials are going on between aspired girls and anxious boys.

With Lovink’s argument of “If you disagree with a fellow blogger, it is even unwise to write a comment”, I do not really agree. There is no way for a public sphere to exist when everyone’s opinions are consistently the same. What is meant by participatory cultures is obviously that every body need to participate, and the exchange of information is then possible to happen. I’m very happy to see any pros or cons to niche blog. Both writing a comment and reading a comment are a kind of fun. I think most people enjoy interacting with others online. Offense may happen. I won’t bother to deal with those people with bad intentions, but i very like to have a friendly discussion with those who have different opinions.

Going away and leaving it as it is not the spirit of the online network, isn’t it? A blog’s essence is “the sharing of the thoughts” as Lovink suggests, but not only “the opinions of the bloggers” also the readers. So COMMENT me now!!!

creative commons and intellectual property

Here comes the issue that almost no one can avoid any more nowadays. COPYRIGHT!!!

I remember a couple of years ago, I was working as an editor for my school magazine. I grabbed a picture from the internet and put it on as the cover, and then handed it to my chief. He burst out a laugh right after the first gaze of the cover page. I suddenly realized that the picture had a large “copyright” word embedded in the background, and I made it as the cover!!! It was soooo embarrassing…

That was the first time I had the idea of copyright. I once thought copyright as a barrier. When you look for some academic stuff or software urgently online, there is always a pop-out asking you to buy the full version. You must have found yourself annoyed and helpless. But once I started to post my pictures or other stuffs online, the sense of unsecure came to me. I am too afraid of someone taking and using my things or ideas and even earning money. We all are both a consumer and a producer. And that’s why we need something like Creative Commons to make a compromise.

Creative Commons (CC) devotes to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. Creative Commons licenses are released for free to the public. They allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they yield for the benefit of recipients or other creators. Basically, CC created a third option and platform between two extreme views of copyright protection for more flexibly sharing by shifting “all rights reserved” of copyright model towards “some rights reserved”. David Berry and Giles Moss (2005) have credited CC with generating interest in the issue of intellectual property and contributing to the re-thinking of the role of the “commons” in the “information age”. CC has provided “institutional, practical and legal support for individuals and groups wishing to experiment and communicate with culture more freely” (Berry & Moss, 2005).

However, there is some concern that the CC system does not actually allow authors to obtain a reward for their creations. And this could cause some artists to avoid sharing their work online anymore. Misuses of licenses happen as well. Some creators complain that a number of users incorrectly brand their copyrighted work with CC licenses, and then up-load their works onto the internet. Many users including me myself sometimes get confused about the licenses.

Although criticism and weaknesses of CC can cause some sort of concern, the very nature and strength of it still benefit most of internet users. I have chosen to use a Creative Commons license for my blog. The niche of my blog is to demonstrate the magic of makeup and try to enable girls to be more confident. There is nothing academic! I am very happy to share all the beauty tips, or just to provide some astonishing fun with people. That will be so much fun for me too! You are more than welcome to use the content but just do not use them to make any profit. Just don’t be shy and feel free to let me know if you get any inspiration of makeup from my blog.

i’m a fake!!!

WARNING: Do not read this post if you are eating, drinking or peeling an apple.

 

It is just like how important is the design to a blog. In this world full of fast food relationships, the first look makes a decisive moment when people interact. Women thus try to make themselves look as much attractive at any cost. Ever thought about having a plastic surgery on your eyes or nose? Come on! No necessary at all! Make up can give you a new life.

Since ancient times, makeup has been a number one tool that women use to preserve or to enhance their natural beauty. However, it has become such a solid existence over time. At the present, makeup is the bread and butter for women to look stunning and confident. In fact, some girls can’t even meet people without the magic powder applied on their faces. With the application of eye shadow or blush, you can see for yourself the transformation of an ordinary looking girl into an extraordinary beauty. Let’s see this contrast first…

And after a 20-minute makeup process, she becomes like this…

No, I didn’t post the wrong pictures. Since this is not really a makeup tutorial, I am not gonna show step by step how she applies makeup. But the before and after changes are amazing. If you still can’t believe it, I am showing you another examples.. well.. take a deep breath first please.

I was really freaked out by these!!!

Every woman has her own beauty secrets which she shares with no one. As soon as the real truth turns out to be so astonishing, I began to doubt myself. As a girl myself, I understand and mostly agree such saying like “there are no ugly women, only lazy ones”. But I was still shocked by the magic of makeup this time. It’s just so amazing to see what circles lenses, fake eyelashes, some eyelid glue and makeup can do for your face. The girls above wears 3 to 4 pairs of fake lashes on by the way. That’s why their eyes look so large and charming.

I used to hate wearing makeup because I thought it was way too much work. I rather had half an hour more sleep in the morning. Two month ago, I bought my first pair of colored contact lenses and I got obsessed. You will find that it looks better if you wear mascara at first. Then you think of getting your eyes lined. And then eyebrows, blush and lip gloss. I still don’t want excessive makeup on my face like the ones above which will make me unrecognizable even by myself. But putting makeup on eventually became a daily process to me. I can’t deny that it is an addiction! Most girls are not that terrible if they do not wear makeup, but it just can make them look even more pretty.

Many men have realized the truth under the gorgeous look of the beautiful ladies, and have been gossiping behind us. Well, we wear makeup just like you guys shave your faces before hanging out. We never mean to cheat you. Fantasy is beautiful, however the reality isn’t necessarily cruel.

Yet a friendly suggestion to girls: do not wear too heavy makeup when you first time date a boy, if you really want to develop a relationship with him.

See my before and after~

      

design is life

People are visual animals. This is why design is so important in almost every aspect of our life. From graphic professionals to everyday bloggers, everyone is a designer. In some sense, everyone is trying to be cool.

And so am I.

It is quite disappointing that the free templates of WordPress cannot be modified unless you upgrade the service. You can’t make the template 100 per cent unique with your own design ideas. I was frustrated. But I was lucky to find this one which is pretty close to what I imagined about. The whole style I want my blog look like is simple, elegant, and of course COOL.

The words in the header “I’m a fake” indicates my idea of the niche. Magic of makeup makes girls a fake. lol. By the way, it is inspired from the song of the Used, I really love the song. I took a lot of time in changing the picture of the header. Sometimes the size doesn’t fit well, sometimes the color. Finally, I decided to use a simple black and grey roses because it fits pretty good with the orange font color and looks quite elegant.

The layout I have chosen is two columns with a black background. Two-columns looks clean and simple, and doesn’t have much things messing around. Black background. I aaaaalways love black background. It is neat and cool. It differs my blog from most others. The most important is that the dark background can efficiently emphasize the contents especially pictures and videos. And I supposed that the visual content of my niche blog will be the most shocking parts to the readers. Black is gonna play a big role.

I add just a few widgets – a picture, a calendar, categories and the Creative Commons license. Just some basic stuffs and won’t take away much attention from my blog posts. I put an image of a gothic styled girl on the top of the right column. The girl’s black tear due to the heavy makeup she wears kind of implies the idea of girls’ makeup and fake face in some way. I was trying to get every element in my blog to be an echo to the niche.

I love to put pictures and videos in my posts, but if only not equivalent weight in each entry. It will depend on the genre and the content. Because I don’t like fixed routines or style. There is at least one picture which must be sort of related to the content in every single entry. The one with the most unusual content will definitely have plenty of explosive pictures.

I always have a lot fun when doing blog design. It seems like there will always be something unexpectable happen every time you click modify and preview. It is a direct way of showing your style and saying that “See? I am cool!”

Niiiiche Analysis~

I haven’t been blogging for so long since I quitted xanga! Well..let me just get a brand new start by creating this niche blog sitting in the long tail!

Within such a huge social and informational network, everyone is both a consumer and a producer. We are exposed to massive number of choices all the time. And we all have become demanding and are looking for something unique. The Long Tail Theory starts to play.

The Long Tail theory was first coined by Chris Anderson in 2004. It suggests that a large-scale of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a normal distribution. It is traditionally acknowledged that 20 per cent products in markets can usually make 80 per cent of the total sales. However, what the Long Tail theory implies is that selling a large number of unique items in relatively small quantities to many customers is more important and profitable. Anderson takes an example of Amazon.com to support his argument. When people look for an obscure book, they usually do not go to traditional bookstores because the books being sold there are mostly mainstream ones or bestsellers. Obscure books that are not available in normal stores are more likely to be found on Amazon, and a significant portion of Amazon’s sales come from them to cater a large range of consumer interests. Internet makes the Long Tail more possible and successful. And indeed, those so-called “non-hit items” can collectively make up a market share that exceeds the relatively fewer popular ones.

Okay! So what is my niche this time then?
I was thinking of a lot of topics..but all of them just flashed and disappeared. But after I got terribly shocked by a set of pictures showing how different girls could look before and after makeups, I finally decided to do a blog of makeup stuff. So here it is. My niche is about the magic of MAKEUP!!! It is not about commenting any products but how makeup can turn a person into a Cinderella. But the contrasts will freak you!!!

The two blogs I have chosen to profile are www.michellephan.com and mymakeupmania.blogspot.com.

MichellePhan

Her blog was actually moved from xanga. I encountered her blog randomly when I was browsing xanga 3 years ago. I was fascinated by her makeup tutorial videos.
Michelle Phan is a Vietnamese-American makeup artist and currently spokesperson for Lancome. She is well-known for her blog posting of makeup tutorial videos that incorporate her voice over instruction with music and text subtitles. Her popular tutorials include “Romantic Valentine Look”, “Brighter Larger Looking Eyes”, “Mysterious Masquerade Look”, “Seductive Vampire” and her famous “Lady Gaga Poker Face Tutorial”.
She has her unique blogging and video style–black and white titles, soothing music and her gentle voice. As she getting more famous, some trace of advertising especially those having her as spokesperson can be found in her blog. But it is not that significant and annoying, because readers may be more willing to see what products she uses to apply those makeup. Michelle Phan’s philosophy is not only to teach women how to apply everyday makeup, but also to show how makeup can empower them and to encourage women to become more self-confident.

My Make-up Mania

This site is created by a South Korean girl Anastacia Park. She is not a professional makeup artist but just a huge makeup lover. Her blog posts are mainly about creating exaggerating eye look with bright colors and fake eye lashes. You can see that she has a great passion towards eye shadows. She updates entries with large number of pictures almost every single day with different looks.
Her site has been sponsored by some makeup or beauty related companies to provide their line in her blog. Anastacia sometimes does some reviews for their products as well.
Anastacia’s makeup tutorials may not be suitable for daily look. But it does provide a lot of fun for those who like to play with colors and are obsessed with creative face painting.
The style of her pictures is quite unique, often with a high angle to focus on the bright eye shadows. It may be a bit scary for the first gaze, but it certainly has become an icon of Anastacia.