The summer online version of ds106 that Martha Burtis and I are teaching is off like a rocket- but there is no reason why you cannot jump on board; just head over to Camp Magic Macguffin and follow the right side link to sign up. There is no worry about coming in later, although our bunk house groups are coalescing and currently bonding, kum bah ya-ing.

As a point of notice (or to help me sort out my own blog personality disorder), I will be doing any assignment work right from here, the home blog, under the ds106 tag. However, as part of the storytelling of the storytelling course, I decided to play with a video blog, hosted under tumblr, but mounted here under the subdomain, macguffin.cogdogblog.com:

I have noticed, and came across a few references to it elsewhere in the google-verse, that tumblr blogs are rather long cached, and feeds may not update for like 12 hours. I cannot locate any official statement on that, but I have noticed a lag between the posts and the feed.

I am primarily doing it as a video blog for my reports from camp. If you followed ds106 last year, you know there was a lot of weird shit that went down, with revolutions, kidnappings, banishment, chainsaws…. weird. The whole premise of this year is to bring a sense of calmness and safety to a fun camp experience, all about artistic creativity and self-actualization. Rainbows and unicorns are our mascot, even if there is a counselor running around with a hatchet, and apparently Uncle Hector is loose in the woods.

@mikeberta FYI a large crate addressed to you on camp loading dock from Cryogenics Inc. Its busted open, Uncle Hector IS LOOSE IN THE WOODS

— Alan Levine (@cogdog) June 1, 2012

SO far, I have had to fly to Canada for my orientation with the camp holding company, CVI, and met our operations manager, Mr E (odd dude). The made me do some sort of survival things in the woods, which I guess I passed, and then I was dropped back in camp last night with some mystery package I am instructed to give to Marco, the facilities guy. My curiosity got the better of me, and I peeked inside the package, and have been suffering intense headaches since then.

But our campers are right on target, our UMW students are up and blogging, we have had some great campfire discussions (especially the last one with Bryan Alexander) that have worked out well with the live broadcasting and auto archiving of Google Hangouts.

We’ve handed out some camp badges, yes BADGES, BADGES, we got bad ass badges! See the bottom of the week 2 newsletter for our campers of the week, and Martha has even gone and made a flickr group so anyone can make and give out badges. We know that Counselor Doodlebug has been sending some out as well, like:

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by giulia.forsythe

I think things are going well, there are a few anonymous notes whining “where is Jim Groom?” – and Jim and I have chatted much of the time- he really wants to be a camper and work on hos bead necklaces and sand paintings. It’s time for a new change of ds106, don;t you want to be part of the merriness?

And remember, ds106 is the place to come this summer as a break from those silly old MOOCs! And remember, NOTHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN THIS SUMMER, NOTHING!

Wow, I need some rest, tomorrow is another busy days, chasing campers and keeping tabs on the counselors. We hear there might be some ruckus between bunks four and five.