Sid the Kid

I am Sidney Conklin. I was born in Nova Scotia, although I am not biologically Canadian. My mother, Rochelle, is from the Bronx and my father, Ryan, is from Pittsburgh, PA. Currently, I am a student at the University of Pittsburgh and I work at Starbucks. My mother is not with us anymore. She died when I was three from cancer. We lived in Nova Scotia until I was 4. My father decided he needed to be close to home to raise me on his own. My grandparents (Grammy and Paps Conklin) live 10 minutes from us in Pittsburgh. My dad is an event planner for just about everything except weddings. My mother, before she passed, was a florist.

Right now I'm pursing a degree in English, specifically creative writing. I write songs and play the acoustic guitar and piano, for now. I look up to artists like Michelle Branch and Alicia Keys not only for their musical talent, but for their pride in themselves as women.

I have a golden retriever named Duke who is five years old and a fish tank full of exotic creatures. I know Italian fluently and will be visiting Italy for ten days really soon. I love to travel. I love seeing and embracing other cultures.

I'm usually really busy, so I haven't been able to keep up with my facebook or myspace page, but the links are below. If they don't work properly, just search for me!

Myspace Profile
Facebook Profile

I Will Take Captives -- No-one Left Behind

Well I'm going to have Sidney search for some friends by her interests and I will ask them to tell me about themselves and go with whatever they say to get them more interested in me. That's the key I think. I need to have the person like me because I let them spill over about themselves.

I'll put up a variety of pictures and make up some great stories to draw people in. Maybe have a poll of what I should do in certain situations. I'm going to target guys to fall for Sidney or the idea of Sidney. That would be funny. I doubt there are guys out there that will romantically "link up" with a random chick from PA.

We'll see. I'm trying to get friends for my chick, and I thought about getting people from class (their creations) to be Sidney's friend and make up some crazy connections to make a story. What do you guys say?

FRIEND SIDNEY! SHE NEEDS FRIENDS!

Not a place, not a thing, TOTALLY a person.

My roommate and I are going to combine some bad and good qualities of the two of us. I'm going to use her as the image and photos of this person. The two of us are going to brainstorm more about how to display this individual. This weekend we will go around taking pictures and making up stories about Sidney.

Her name is Sidney Conklin. Born in Nova Scotia, now resides in Pittsburgh. She is 21 years old and is pursuing a career as a musician. Her likes are sushi, rock music, bad reality TV, sports, Ben Stiller movies... more to be added later. She loves going to concerts, the beach, snowboarding, traveling, more to be added later.

Project #3

I'm really not sure how I'll do this. I don't know what kind of person to create, because all I know is me. I thought about mixing and matching some of the things I like with my friends and maybe even enemies and seeing what that creates, but I don't know how that will go over. I haven't picked a sex or a name yet. I'm just really at a loss for the creation of this character. I'll brainstorm tonight and over the weekend when I'm home visiting my parents and preparing for my Italy trip. Maybe I'll sit in a coffee shoppe and watch people. We've all done this. Don't judge. :)

As for the blog and other requirements, I think that will come easier when I define the character. I guess this is why I never got into acting/preforming/theater. I can't assume a different persona willingly.

Reflection to Project #1

Wow, it's done. Although I loved the idea at first of sharing my Wall of Randomness, I just couldn't focus on which stories to tell. There are so many good ones. I included tons of images to leave nothing to the imagination. This is as real as it gets. It might be confusing having it skip from future (tearing down the wall) to past (how the items got there), but I think the reader understands it's a flashback story. I broke up the stories into what I thought were logical chunks giving the audience a taste of my life in different areas (Morgantown with my birthday, Wheeling with the articles, and just random great stories). It's never a dull day in my life.

As for the process, I decided to write out the story first, then logically place images and the Google map for my birthday since it was a chain of events. I gave the reader the choice of what to read and options to go back and reread/replay (like in Reliving Last Night) or skip to the end after reading Burrito Man. The game time is much faster than reality time. These events took place over two years of time but I was able to retell it in less time. In the time it takes the audience to read one paragraph of my story, it could have taken anywhere up to 30 minutes in real time. Also I mapped out the different stories at the bottom of each entry allowing the reader to see what was ahead or navigate easier through my story.

I was obviously the narrator of the story; however, I felt it necessary to include side comments that reflect my personality and the thoughts that rushed through my head at the time. I hope others enjoyed reading about certain parts of my crazy two years in this house as I did living it.

The Foundation of the Wall

The wall

A Birdseed-loving Squirrel

Fuzzy and cute.