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!
The idea in coming to Cedar Island to watch a sunset while listening to a smooth and comforting stream via Luxuria Music was to find a wee bit of solitude and inspiration to write a blog post. I’d hoped to be able to explain why I’ve recently decided to return to and blog from Second Life. It would also have been nice to sketch out some sort of bigger picture as to where this Scottlo Radio Blog project might be headed. The funny thing is that after an extended stretch of pounding the keys I remain just as befuddled as before – if not more so.
I mean this is supposed to be a radio blog, isn’t it? But there really hasn’t been much blogging about radio. And the podcasting thing, what ever became of that? And wasn’t 2012 supposed to be the year of the Lo?
So the process of thinking and writing has revealed far more questions than answers. I really don’t have a clue as to what this is all about.
Oddly, perhaps, that uncertainty feels comforting. I intend to continue plodding along with a hunch that a clearer picture will soon emerge. But the only way that can happen is to continue plodding on. So at least something was figured out: the journey continues.
Imagine a life where possibilities are opening at a speed that veers unpredictably between exhilarating and terrifying. The familiar, precisely because it’s familiar and safe, still tugs at you, but even so, you want out because your old life constricts as much as it comforts. Besides, your social milieu, which often feels like an endless struggle to achieve, or resist being slotted into some arbitrary niche—pretty, ugly, smart, dumb, athlete, klutz—is changing fast. You feel driven—by inner need and outside pressure—to make choices. Meanwhile, the manipulative, often harsh, powers that be, who created the larger world they’re busy shoving you into, have clearly not done a bang-up job of it, either in their personal lives or as part of society. And they want you to get out there and ?x their mistakes—just at a moment when worry over the imminent demise of their entire socio-economic structure is never far from the surface. It can be cruel and scary out there. Dystopian, even.
Chances are, anyone not imagining this life, but actually living it, is a teenager.
In some ways, I guess it is natural that the TALONS class would incorporate into its evolving storytelling and myth-making the influences of dystopian literature, fan fiction, and the classic zombie film. In the background of the class’ study of novels, history, and current events, math and science, the approaching Adventure Trip (constituting the class’ Leadership 11 Final Exam), the class blog has become the setting for unfolding video, and literary riffs on the classroom setting, as well as TALONS characters enacting both a five part series of zombie films and an epic, multi-authored fan fiction bringing the Hunger Games to the afternoon corhort.
There is no avoiding the violent nature of the Hunger Games, and each post begins with a variation of the following caveat:
(Warning: The following post depicts scenes of violence, using fictionalized examples of real people. Please do not read if you might find any of this offensive / disturbing. This narrative is for educational purposes only. Any references and ideas taken from the Hunger Games trilogy are the strict property of the brilliant Suzanne Collins).
But what I find remarkable about the TALONS versions of each story – and perhaps what constitute each genre’s appeal with today’s young people – is an awareness and an articulation of the human qualities that perpetuate our survival in desperate times, whether in real life, a zombie movie, or young adult fan-fiction. Each are excellent examples of using an existing structure of genre or plot-line to tell a story that is uniquely personal.
Check them out (and don’t miss the informative ‘Legend‘ to help see into the intricacies of the class dynamic at work in the story):
The platforms stilled, each tribute squinting in the sudden light, trying to adjust to their surroundings. They were standing in the middle of a field of grass, an enormous ancient stone city before them, practically crumbling before their eyes. Behind them was a forest, thick with every kind of tree, green and lush with life. The tributes looked around, dazed by the beauty of their surroundings. For a moment, all thoughts of death and murder disappeared out of their heads, but seconds later, the gong sounded and each tribute shot off their platform, scattering in all directions.
Morning came and Bronwyn wasn’t prepared. She had hardly slept that night after yet another cannon had roared, causing her to wonder who had died this time. She exhaled softly and packed up quickly, sliding down the tree ready for day 2. The moment she hit the ground, she heard the sound of feet running. She ran and leapt behind a bush, peering through and seeing, to her surprise, Leanne. She was standing in the middle of a clearing, holding a badminton racquet. Bronwyn frowned. A badminton racquet? What kind of a cruel trick was that? But suddenly, the small hole Bronwyn had been staring through darkened as someone stood in front of it.
Chelsea climbed up the tree, searching for a place to stay. Sean climbed close behind, trying not to look down. He didn’t know why he had saved Chelsea, but he had. Shaking his head, Sean called up to Chelsea that he had found a branch. Swinging sideways, Sean landed on the branch and pressed himself against the trunk, closing his eyes and listening for any noises. Instead, the anthem played and Sean blinked and looked up at the darkened sky.
About half an hour later, Alisha was happily roasting several chunks of meat over a spit. She leaned forward and studied them carefully, inspecting them and making sure they were cooked thoroughly. Then, with quick and precise hands, she whipped out a handful of Japanese Yew berries and stuffed them into the meat.
Humming to herself, Zoe loaded up Jonny’s crossbow, and crouched down, lying on her belly and began to aim. Alisha had been right. Only one could win.
Yup, jus like the one in that thar film. Jeremiah Johnson. Ha, just kidding. I don’t really talk like that. But I do love the movie Jeremiah Johnson. And not to worry, I ain’t a madman with a hatchet. My real name is Billy, but you can call me Jack.
“What we plan for the use of something is not necessarily how people will use it and we don’t necessarily dictate how they use it. We open it up and we hope for the best and a lot of the times we are surprised.”
What surprised me the most was that someone wanted to use to my photograph and use it for a completely different purpose. It’s likely the friendly request to use my photograph by the co-author of the book would not have occurred if I had not been sharing my work out in the open. Sharing this way allowed my photograph to be easily discovered by others and helped to create what Alan Levine calls a potential energy for happy accidents to happen.
Having a calm and relaxing time on Harbour island in Second Life. All is well. In fact, I’ve just come to realize that this virtual world program works great as a word processor. At this moment, I’m sitting on a dock below a rusty crane listening to some soothing electro-ambient music while writing this message. Pretty amazing times we’re living in, eh?
Speaking of amazing times, don’t forget that the Magic MacGuffin summer camp begins in two weeks (on May 21). Alan and Martha recently put a video telling you what it’s all about and what you need to pack in your duffel bag. I’d been hoping to volunteer as a camp counselor but circumstances got in the way and I wound up missing the deadline. Instead, I’ll be take part in this latest iteration of ds106 as an open online participant.
Get in touch if you’d like to meet up in either Second Life or at Camp Magic MacGuffin.
Minimize Your Philosophy: Pick your favorite quote OR make up your own phrase which describes a philosophy that you try to live by. It can be about love, friendship, family, education, culture, health, charity, etc. Design a minimalist poster depicting the concept.
The quote is from a well-known part of a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt. Although the entire speech is called “Citizenship in a Republic,” this famous portion is known as “The Man In the Arena.”
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
It’s a paragraph that has always given me chills, and its sentiments are things I’ve tried to live my life by. I’m a shy and anxious person by nature, and when I was younger I found myself missing opportunities because of it. When I heard this speech, I decided I would never let fear keep me from doing something I wanted. Whether my efforts ended with victory or defeat, at least I would have been in the arena.
I used Adobe Photoshop to manipulate one of the “Gladiator” posters, painstakingly erasing the littlest bits of the image I didn’t want. Then I used a filter to render the image as you see it (sorry, I forget which filter I used), and paintbucket’d the beige background color. I wanted a dirt-color, but not too dark so that it wouldn’t take away from the contrast of Crowe and the arena itself. Then it was a simple matter of putting the text in and adjusting it to the appropriate size.
There is one small snag … this application requires users to connect to IceCast using Shoutcast-compatibility mode. Â Once of the key elements of #ds106radio is the ability to ‘kick’ the /AutoDJ rotations out when someone connects /LIVE. Â Shoutcast-compatibility mode users connect via listener sockets – which works fine, but listener socket connections do not support fallback points. Â The fallback points are the little magic IceCast2 functionality that allows /LIVE cut-ins to scheduled playlists.
But … by setting up a second server for Android connections using listener sockets, #ds106radio can be configured to effectively listen for any/all activity on any mountpoint and relay broadcasts to /LIVE #ds106radio. Â At this point there is about a 40second delay between the relay IceCast server and the main #ds106radio server when someone connects – I’m working on reducing this delay. Â Happy to report the sound quality is excellent. Â May a thousand Androids bloom.
@draggin has been in the contact with the developer of this application who has indicated that he is considering direct support for IceCast2 – this would eliminate the need for a relay – allowing users to connect directly to #ds106radio from their Android devices … stay tuned … looks like a promising $4.99 option.
Here are your settings for Pocket Transmitter:
Server: Â 69.90.148.151
Port: 8000
Password: ds106
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.....
