Random Stuff — Camp Magic MacGuffin

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Final Letter Home

Monday, July 30th, 2012

Queridos Madre y Padre,
(Dear Mom and Dad)

When I first arrived at camp I had absolutly no idea what to expect I was going in completely blind. All I knew was that the entire course was to be online, and having never taken an online course before I could not have been more clueless on how it was going to work. In the end I was very pleased with my DS106 experience I think that the way the counselors set it up was perfect. By posting everything we had to do on Monday and having until Sunday night was very helpful because then I could complete the work on my own schedule which was key with work and other activities. In the end it turned out to be a very enjoyable and educational experience.

Its hard to choose which assignment I am most proud of, but if I had to choose I think I would go with my Postcard from Camelot.(http://kevin4518.com/2012/06/postcard-from-camelot/) I really like this project because it was a lot of fun deciding where the postcard was going to be from and I really like the way this one turned out for some reason. I think it looks just like an actual postcard so that might be why I like this one. I would like to re do is the my re dub of the Pulp Fiction dance scene, I think I could do a better job with a re dub now, I would start from scratch and try something new I think it would be fun.

I would like to keep working on my portion of the radio show, I would try to add more effects especially sound effects like the big radio shows do. I would also make my portion longer with different segments maybe, I would also work on making my audio clearer and more like a professional radio personality. I really just found this assignment fun so if I had my choice I would keep working on and add to that assignment.

I think that the media and editing skills I have gained in this class will be extremely helpful in the future. I think first and foremost this class has introduced me to tons of new applications that I had never used and being familiar with these will help me have an edge if I need to use them again in a class or in the professional world. The skills I gained in this class will help me the most with presentations in the future. I think that I have gained skills that will enable me to create effective yet entertaining presentations for school or work which is an excellent skill considering no one wants to sit through a boring presentation. Finally the experience of the radio show was the first time I had to work on a group project without ever meeting in person, I think that experience will help because much of the business world is international so there are many times where the communication is not in person.

The thing I liked about the class was how I was able to do it on my own schedule which was nice because of my work schedule. I also really like how I was able to choose my own assignments, I mean there were a certain amount of stars that needed to be completed but the actual assignments were up to me. The part of this class that I liked the least was probably the video assignments and that was mostly just because my computer is on its last leg and it gave me some issues but it was not too bad overall. The other part is the lack of classroom atmosphere, I mean everyone was very nice and did their best online but there is something to be said for meeting in person. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience.

My favorite assignment was the group radio project. I liked this assignment because of a couple reasons, my groups topic was that there was a zombie apocalypse and I thought that was a fun topic and working with the group exchanging ideas was very enjoyable. I especially liked the topic because I have been watching the show “The Walking Dead” which is a similar idea. My least favorite assignment was probably creating a story with only sounds, I didn’t hate it by any stretch but it was one of my first sound assignments and I had no prior experience working with audio so I found it difficult and a bit frustrating but overall not that bad once I got a handle of audacity.

I have to say my fondest memory of camp was the whole radio show experience, especially listing to my groups show and finally hearing the other members parts and how they decided to go with the show it was really interesting. Overall I had a good experience with DS106 and camp Magic MacGuffin.

Advice to future Students:

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Week 10 Daily Creates

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

My first daily create was to record a water sound so I was near a toilet so I was like thats easy and I recorded the sound of a empty toilet flushing.

My next daily create was to draw a flower with my eyes closed. Now this was difficult because I struggle enough drawing with them open so I am actually quite happy with how I did I feared it would look much worse.

The last daily create was to record a what you consider to be a very creepy sound so I did my best. I couldn’t think of anything creepier then raspy slow breathing, it is so common in horror movies so that’s what I tried to do.

So that is the last of the Daily Creates I enjoyed them the creators did a great job. Thanks for keeping them interesting!

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Mysterious Camp Magic MacGuffin

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Early this summer I embarked on my journey to Camp Magic McGuffin, I was pretty nervous I had no idea what to expect it had been years since I had been to a camp and I had no idea what to expect. But as camp began my fears began to subside and with my first assignment I began to get more comfortable, I shared a family story which was all but a train wreck having never recorded my self talking before it was awkward for sure.

After that first week I began to get used to the camp and all its inner workings and finally became comfortable and I thought this summer is going to be a nice normal summer camp, and that’s when things got a bit odd. The first thing I noticed was the rumors of the missing Dr,Oblivion and how the suspicious circumstances around it and how nervous the topic of his disappearance seemed to make everyone. After noticing this I decided to try to help out the cause so I created a Missing Persons poster I felt was appropriate.

After circulating the wanted poster I assumed the issue was probably done with and camp would return to normal for sure I mean what else could go wrong. That is when I was made aware of Alan’s unfortunate incident with the strange object in the backpack that sent him to the infirmary and I began to worry this may be more serious than I previously thought.

After viewing the video above I began to worry what is so crazy about this shed #4 and is this something that should worry me as a camper or is this an issue better left to the proffessionals like Alan and Martha so when I found out that they were investigating it I decided to leave it to them and let them work it out. Then some counselors began to disappear and Dr.Oblivion was still at large and I began to think there was a possible connection and maybe some creepier things in play here. So naturally my couriousity was to much to keep at bay so I was forced to go see this shed #4 for my self and maybe put my mind at ease.

When I reached the shed the woods were far to quite and then as I got closer I began to hear a deep creepy breathing and I decided I had seen enough and quickly turned around and left for my own good but before that I was able to record the sound so that I could bring it to the counselors attention. I was happy to hear that Alan and Martha were both going to the shed themselves to investigate.

After consulting with my excellent bunk mates we decided to go out as a group and re investigate the shed and after hearing the same sound I did we all concluded it could only be one thing…the beginning of a zombie apocalypse. I mean it all made sense the strange object that gave Alan headaches, it was a machine designed to create zombies (we assumed it was possibly created by Dr.Oblivion). We then agreed there was only one logical thing to do and that was alert the people. We did our best to accomplish this by recording and broadcasting our own radio show across the ds106 radio. We all did individual shows and research for different areas and then used our broadcast to educate the general population to the crises that was coming.

Later we gathered that we were a bit mistaken and the missing counselors returned and everything seemed to mellow out at the end and the zombie takeover never materialized but if it ever does our bunk is ready we have had a practice run. Plus with the mysterious disappearance of shed #4 who knows what was ever really in there and thought the mysterious package was secured who knows what other stuff was in there but that is a mystery for the next set of DS106ers so I warn them to keep an eye and an ear out for suspicious activity but also to have fun and enjoy camp.

Kevin Murphy over and out.

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Your Big Break

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

I created this assignment because I just got the idea for this assignment when I was sorting my CDs looking at how different all the album covers are and thought it would be a good idea for an assignment to create your own album cover, I felt like this would be a fun assignment to do because you could do anything you want with it its really up to you. So I hope you all enjoy creating your own.

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Deserted Island… Tutorial

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

This is a Tutorial to complete the Deserted Island Design Assignment using the Program Paint or something similar.

Step 1: Open paint and choose a background color using the paint bucket icon.
(You can also find a picture you want to be your background online, then download it and right click and say open with Paint and then it will be set as your background.)

Step 2: Using the Text Icon Insert the Title (Whatever you want to call it)

Step 3: Find online or on your computer the pictures of the three things you consider necessary for you surviving on an Island.

Step 4: Use copy and paste to place the three Items in your Paint Document then arrange them to look the way you want.

Step 5: Use the text icon and label each item to avoid confusion.

Step 6: Finally, add any extra personalized touch you feel is necessary.

Example of mine:

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9 Lives Tutorial

Friday, July 27th, 2012

This is a Tutorial to complete the 9 Lives Assignment using a simple program like paint for example.

Step 1: Open Paint and choose your background color, use the bucket tool from the toolbar to color the background.

Step 2: Find the nine photos that you wish to use and find the years that they were taken.

Step 3: Use copy and paste to put them into the Paint document.

Step 4: Arrange the Photos based on the year I did from oldest to newest but any order would work.

Step 5: Use the text tool to label the photos with the year.

Step 6: Add anything extra things to personalize it that you feel necessary

Example Below but this is a remix using a Dr.Seuss Character

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Letter Home for Week 2

Sunday, June 3rd, 2012

Dear Mom/Dad,

It was in interesting week in camp full of activities and learning. First off I had to get settled which included setting up my blog and downloading some other fun stuff. My favorite part about setting up the blog was customizing it, I got to set the background to one of my favorite soccer teams the Celtic and I set up a couple starter categories to organize it. I found the counselors instructional videos to be really helpful while setting up my blog. The next thing I did to set up was I joined and downloaded MInecraft, I had never heard of it before but it seems like a good was to have camp meetings and I’m interested to see how well it works.

Some other activities I did this week were the Daily Creates the first one I did was I had to record a video of myself saying I Love DS106 ten times. This assignment was pretty fun I had a hard time suppressing laughing because of how focused I was on not messing up and saying the wrong thing as people often do when they have to say the same thing over and over. The next TDC I did was to draw bugs bunny, I am not a talented artist at all usually my artwork would be below par in an elementary school art class so I took some time on this Daily Create. I found a picture I found interesting and I free sketched it and after multiple attempts I had a picture I was really happy with. The final one was to take a picture that represented destruction, about an hour before I saw the daily create my parents were yelling at my brother about how his room looked like a war zone so when I was the prompt I knew what I was going to use a s a picture of destruction. Later when I told him what I did he thought it was funny and I was relieved he was a good sport about it.

Earlier in the week I watched a video of a lecture by Kurt Vonnegut on the shapes of stories. Before I watched this video it had never occurred to me that you could use a graph to describe a story. I though Vonnegut did a good job of keeping it interesting and using humor to keep the viewer interested and I really enjoyed the short clip. So I had another good week at camp Magic MacGuffin hope the next one is just as good.

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Hello world!

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

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