I’m still looking for the mess hall, but I’m groggy from last night’s long trip. Starving! Lots of new campers arriving, and I’m starting to get nervous. Hope they don’t run out of food. I’m trying to make sure no one messes with my stuff. That’s one of the most important things to me — that my stuff stays un-messed with.
I have a footlocker that I’ve always slid under my bed, and the beds here are too low, so I’ve got to have it NEXT to my bunk, which means everyone can see it. So, I have to padlock it (thank goodness I went to Dollar Tree and got the necessities!).
These campers look a little too “eager to learn,” if you catch my drift. I’ll have to keep my eyes open. For now, I want to find the nearest Sloppy Joe (yes, ladies, I’m talking about LUNCH!).
Camp Magic MacGuffin has begun! I’m very excited about it. Meeting the other DS106 participants is one the best parts about the class, seeing who takes to it immediately, seeing who evolves into the course, and just getting to know everyone!
I’ve got a couple projects that I want to get done by tomorrow night that are camp-related. So, looking forward to that.
For some reason, animated GIFs have become an important part of the ds106 experience. Everybody, it seems, loves looking at them. And the process of making them is not as daunting as most may think. Prior to ds106, I never thought I could do one.
I remember with glee the moment my first effort at making one finally “played” the way I’d hoped it would. It took a long time and many mistakes were made along the way. But it was a learning experience. These little moments of personal accomplishment are valuable and important. One of the things that I most adore about ds106 is that it affords these sorts of opportunities for those willing to dive in.
So I was wondering what sort of role animated GIFs would play during this Camp Magic MacGuffin version of ds106. I was blown away when Ol’ Hatchet Jack made one from my first campsite photo from Second Life. I typo on my part in the comment on his blog referred to his effort as “an animate GIFt.” But in a sense, that what his remix of the photo was: a GIFt.
This morning I asked myself if it was possible to work with animated GIFs in the virtual space. As I didn’t know the answer, Google was used. It turns out it’s easy peasy. Perigrine Salon has a web application that will upload and convert your GIF file into the appropriate file format and provide a script of making the animation run once it’s attached to an object in Second Life. Well maybe it’s not easy peasy until you get the hang of it. But it works like a champ.
The video above was another chance for me to practice doing machinima and to demonstrate how the Buddy Holly GIF I created a few months ago look in Second Life. If you want to see it in person, all you have to do is teleport in to Corona Cay.
I’m hopping on the DS106 Minecraft server to search for camp! I know Martha suggested simply respawning in the area, but who wants to do it the mundane way? I’m up for some adventure!
This was mostly an experiment to figure out how to do a machinima video. As the recent spate of blog post would indicate, it looks like my participation in Camp Magic MacGuffin will have to be from the virtual world unless or until I’m able to get the motor home unstuck from the sand. I’ll do my best to participate as fully as I can.
Making this movie was fairly simple, though it was time consuming. The video was captured with iShowU and edited with iMovie. The camera movements were done with a Space Navigator.
The musical selection should have been attributed on the video as well but I wasn’t able to get the titles to work in iMovie. The song Relaxing Birds is by tigabeatz and can be found on the ccMixter website.
Upon waking up and checking the twitter this morning, I noticed that Leezlebub had already sparked the magic with her first ds106 assignment for Camp Magic MacGuffin. The name of this fun and intriguing visual assignment is Pitch a Tent in Camp Magic MacGuffin. I was so excited to see Leezlebub’s awesome work that I swore that I would do my own before retiring for the day.
So when I finally got back from work I logged in to Second Life and hopped in my new 1973 Winnabego RV and set my course for Camp Magic MacGuffin. I stopped on a quiet beach at Corona Cay to see if the place had changed since I last resided here a year or so ago. The trouble began when I tried to leave. It seems the wheels of my RV got stuck in the sand. The sucker wasn’t going anywhere.
It looks like this locale will have to serve as my base of operations for the duration of the camp. Fortunately there’s good wifi access and I should be able to stay in touch with the rest of the campers. Who knows, some might even want to pop in world and see if there are any possibilities for a ds106 approach to learning Second Life.
Apropos of yesterday’s post, I’m still flying by the seat of the pants. But it seems that things are converging in curious ways. Writing a blog post and doing a ds106 assignment while sitting next to a camp fire near a high-centered RV seems as right as rain. Let’s see what happens next.
Pitch a Tent in Camp Magic MacGuffin: Help create Camp Magic MacGuffin! Visualize the tent or cabin you’re staying in; show us what Lake MacGuffin looks like!
I was really excited about Camp Magic MacGuffin, and I wanted to set up at my cabin right away! I threw together a quick little shelter inspired by a trip to Mexico I took several years ago. Then, with the help of Photoshop (a popular place to visit), I crafted a sign to warn paserbys that things might get crazy while I’m at work. I pulled out my laptop (on loan from katsushiro on Flickr), proudly erected the Camp flag, and called it a day. Wooh!
Camp is now over (see the final story. If you are craving an experience like this, head over to ds106 and see how to participate. For more on the Summer of Magic Macguffin, see.....
