magicmacguffin — Camp Magic MacGuffin

Archive for the ‘magicmacguffin’ Category

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

I like you, You like me. Let’s make a photo. The last Daily Create of the Seven Day Challenge is to make a photo that illustrates the idea of attraction (this is one we borrowed from our inspiration, the Daily Shoot.)

Alas, our crew has dwindled to 15, do you seek more abuse? I will skip. Coming up in a next post will be the challenge wrap up, which is to make some new art out of the pieces we have collected.

Here are some I really enjoyed, just a scroll down past the blog fold…

Lisa Lane makes a clever metaphorical attraction by dance shoes (leading me to have fun imagining the dancers we cannot see)

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogroo

All the way from Melbourne, Australia, Rowan Peter has a sticky situation…

cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo shared by Rowan Peter

Also from Australia, Malwyn weaves dust and family photos into the theme

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by malynmawby

UMW student Kavon found some cuddly ones

Andrew Forgrave adds some wheels of coins to his iPhone case using magnetic action (and he even turned it into a new ds106 assignment, we love that)

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by aforgrave

In 97 degree hot weather, Norm is attracted to cool stuff from Abbotts (including “c tard”

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by wwnorm

Raealex must be a scientist!

Dr Coop finds a chemical attraction in her kitchen

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by dr.coop

Audrey Watters makes for a simple but effective example (I think they are “in clove” with each other)

cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo shared by audreywatters

Okay, that is seven in a row.. now onto the last part of the challenge.

Posted in 7dayChallengeTDC, Blog Pile, dailycreate, ds106, magicmacguffin | Comments Off on Day 7: Illustrate Attraction

Remixed Album Cover

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

Rihanna is my favorite artist(if you all haven’t noticed by now) and I know every single one of her songs. When I saw the album cover assignment, I knew exactly what to do. Rihanna has a song called “S&M” which in reference to sexual acts. It stands for Sadism and Masochism-The practice of using pain as a sexual stimulant. That is NOT the reason why I chose this cover. But on the “S&M” cover, she appears to be eating something, so I changed the “S&M” to Spaghetti and Meatballs.

This was very easy to do. Here are the steps

1. Went to Google

2. Typed in “S&M” album cover

3. Downloaded it to my cell phone

4. Opened up “PicsArt” (or whatever photo editor you have)

5. Imported the picture to PicsArt”

6. Selected “ADD TEXT”

7. Typed in what I wanted, dragged and dropped it on the picture.

It only took me about 15/20 minutes, but that was without WIFI, so it should be easier.. I hope you like my new creation.. and if you want to here the “S&M” song.. ->Click Here. –>S&M -Rihanna<<–

For More. Click Here. –>>[Remix an Album Cover]<<–

Posted in Assignments, bunk3, magicmacguffin, MashupAssignments, MashupAssignments211, umwsum12 | Comments Off on Remixed Album Cover

Hang Loose Haoles

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

I continue to slowly work my way through the four plus hour Northwest Passage fanedit version of Twin Peaks in search of GIF-able sequences. The GIFed scene above is from Dr. Jacoby leaves Conference Room A after a curious conversation with Special Agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman and occurs at the two hour mark.

I’m enjoying the combined experience of revisiting these awesome moments of a remarkable TV program while honing my animated GIF assembly skills. It’s kind of a win-win situation. Though there have also been some frustrating moments such as with the image above.

The sequence I originally selected for this loop was 12 frames and included Dr. Jacoby delivering my favorite line from the entire series: “Hang loose haoles.” Jacoby’s gesture and facial expresson looped seamlessly. The only problem was that a slow camera drifting movement caused way too big of a jump between the first and final frame.

The four frames from the GIF above also loop the foreground motion without much seam. But there remains a small version of the background jump.

My preference would be to have Jacoby’s motion isolated against a static background. I’ve gradually been figuring out how to assemble such a background. The Bolger, Hamlisch, and Crosby GIF was my first experiment with this. It is a fairly straight forward process but is also time consuming.

Time permitting, I’ll try to use that same process on some of the Twin Peaks scenes I’ve passed by because of too much background motion.

Posted in Animated Gif, just plain blogging, magicmacguffin, openonline | Comments Off on Hang Loose Haoles

State of the Profession as Seen by NVWP Teachers

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

We are now a third of the way through the Northern Virginia Writing Project Invitational Summer Institute (ISI) and I have not blogged about it at all. I’ve done a ton of writing, of course, but not here. One of my goals on the very first day was to blog about it twice a week. I set that goal to help myself reflect. So far I have failed. All I can do now is to give it my best from here on out.

Yesterday we did a round robin State of the Profession. We moved all the tables back to sit in a circle (more like a really big oval, there are thirty of us) and each person shared their greatest concern or challenge. It could be focused on their school, their district, or even broader. Whatever is speaking most strongly to them.

We’re teachers from first grade through university, private/independent schools and public ones, teaching students from all socio-economic levels, countries of the world, and colors of the rainbow. In spite of all our differences we felt great connections around the group.

Here are some of the comments that struck me most strongly (in the order shared):

fragmentation – lack of ongoing conversations between colleagues and across age levels
negativity – we need to focus on solutions and positive thinking
lack of control professionally and the sense that we’ve relinquished that control
inability to focus on teaching because of the myriad other demands on teachers
need for community in a school, ownership and vision
too much emphasis on grades
inequity for students
national perception of our profession
need for teachers to model life as learners
culture of complaint – complaining about the teachers who taught our students before us
need for meaningful collaboration
need for classroom to be a safe place for students – physically, emotionally, and intellectually
parental expectations for students and for teachers
narrow definition of success in our society
teacher exhaustion
goals constantly changing from administration at various levels
need to support children in our society – food, safety, support in all ways
need to question more, to ask why we do things
student proactivity vs. parent control – students do not take action due to parents doing so for them

It was a powerful time. Everyone listened in silence to everyone else. In spite of the focus on concerns and challenges it was not whiny. In fact, many people included things for which they are grateful about their school or district. I feel blessed to be spending four weeks learning with these amazing teachers. I firmly believe that our profession would be in a much better place if every teacher had the opportunity to engage in this sort of collaborative learning experience with dedicated colleagues.

How about you? What is (are) the greatest challenge(s) facing you as a teacher?

Posted in bunk4, magicmacguffin, nvp, NVWP, openonline | Comments Off on State of the Profession as Seen by NVWP Teachers

7-day Daily Create Mash-up

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

About a week ago, I resolved to do some of the Daily-Creates for ds106. In perfect “make a resolution” style, I promptly failed and didn’t complete the first one on July 9! I was able to do the second and then in my Tweetstream I saw:

Now that I had started I surely couldn’t stop… So, for the past 7 days I have completed the Daily Creates. Most have taken me longer than the suggested 15-20 minutes (usually due to some random software issue or life just calling me to do other things…) However, all have been rewarding in some way and I am going to make it my goal to complete each day’s throughout the rest of my summer (except when I am travelling).

Truth be told I had forgotten that there was also a component to link them all together at the end of the week. Here they are, my 7 Daily-Creates linked into one story.

Take 1: My own work

I went outside to cut some herbs for dinner.

The weather forecast mentioned a risk of tornadoes and, when I looked at the dark sky, all I could think was “there’s no place like home”.

Thankfully, the threatening weather passed and all I could see was a single cloud that looked a bit like a horse.

When I returned to the house, the phone rang. On the other end of the line was an annoying telemarketer.

The only way to react to this was to use their own energy against them, like in karate.

I remember a time before all these impersonal robocalls.

But I certainly wouldn’t give up my iPhone that lets me take photos, make videos, draw, edit photos, record

All kickstarted thanks to ds106

Click image for ds106 logo
Anyone know how I can embed just a part of a video here???

The original work can be found here:

184 cloud photo (horse in the sky)
185 Tornado drawing (Wizard of Oz)
186 No human artifacts photo (herbs)
187 Cable 106 video (ds106 logo, keynote about UK)
188 Annoying telemarketing call (salesperson)
189 Tech you can’t live without video (old tech)
190 Flip the decibels (karate)

Now to mash-up the work of others as part of the Week 9 ds106 Assignments.

Posted in bunk5, Camp Magic MacGuffin, ds106, magicmacguffin, openonline, sevendaychallenge, The Daily Create | Comments Off on 7-day Daily Create Mash-up

Day 6: Flip the Decibels

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

Your week of Daily Create Challenges is almost over. Are you still in it? Today is another audio one, “Flip the decibels- Make a loud sound soft or a soft sound loud” — and very clever because the creativity is both in the choice and thinking about it, and the execution of it.

While 25 people joined the Soundcloud group, as of today I see 12 sounds, which leads me to think people are still working on it (if they do not, the drill sergeant is going to make them run laps all night in the rain).

I really enjoyed the variety here, and these are going to be very interesting media used for the final mashup challenge. A few favorites sit below the blog fold.

Brushing the teet was VEYR LOUD! I hope I do not get spit upon…

Norm lives on a street with an army of loud bugs

Cris records someone who is very very very thirsty

I am worried that Mohamed tossed out an important piece of paper (no, not his ds106 grade)

Andrew again mixes sounds richly, so we have a loud fan and a soft lullaby

Melanie stay with a troll unicorn theme- I guess the trolls are quiet? And the unicorns sound like normal horses!

Great stuff, tomorrow is the LAST day (but no reason to stop creating daily!) STAY FIT, SOLDIERS!

Posted in 7dayChallengeTDC, Blog Pile, dailycreate, ds106, magicmacguffin | Comments Off on Day 6: Flip the Decibels

Day 5: Technology You Cannot Live Without

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

The Daily Create Seven Day Challenge piles up hard this week, with another video one today (I did not even look to see what was lined up when I made the challenge). For today’s we have 18 Challengers still standing, which is respectable. Where’s the others? preparing to have sand kicked into their faces, I bet?

Today was another in a series suggested by @noiseprofessor, a philosophy series, “What technology you cannot live without?”:

What can you expect? Mobile phones? Web sites? Computers? Cars? Check out some favorites below the fold…

Audrey Watters reminds us of the crucialness of vision, get up close to her contacts

This is one I agree with totally, cannot life without the brown magic liquid

A beautiful (and philosophical) response by someone in the southern hemisphere! (is this you Malywn?)

Melanie cannot live without the technology handed to us by Sir Thomas Crapper (makes a decent place to read books too)

I love the live drawing by raefaring on her connective technology (we guess she can pass on the cars and planes)

I knew my gadget freak friend Coop would choose her Android phone!

Andrew Forgrave goes miles beyond the expectations for a TDC (this ought to be an example for an assignment) of his watery tech

Lisa Lane (great to see her in the mix) has FIVE! Let’s hear it for indoor plumbing, penicillin, pencils, lined paper, refrigeration

These are just the samples, see the rest at http://tdc.ds106.us/tdc189/

Posted in 7dayChallengeTDC, Blog Pile, dailycreate, ds106, magicmacguffin | Comments Off on Day 5: Technology You Cannot Live Without

TDC: Flipping decibels for the 1812 Overture

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

It just kinda begged to be done.

1812 Overture by LisaMLane

Permalink

| Leave a comment »

Posted in magicmacguffin, openonline | Comments Off on TDC: Flipping decibels for the 1812 Overture

Speed Cooking show

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

For this mission I had to create a 30 second documentary that showed, rather than told.

I decided to document something I’m amazing it… making sandwiches. I’m good in the kitchen (but no baking, can’t bake to save my life), the only thing I’m probably better at is eating and enjoying food (I have to soul of a 300lb chef).

I decided to make it a bit amusing by speeding up the process (I did so manually- as in a made my sandwich extremely quickly lol) and by taking myself VERY seriously. The sandwich is sauted chicken breast and a eggplant based paste called “Baba Ghanooj” (its like humus, except with eggplants… its amazing). Nothing fancy, but a masterpiece nonetheless because … well it was made by me.

As funny as it is, I think it has a deeper meaning. That sometimes the attitude is what makes it a feast, not the food. A slice of pizza and a soda can be turned into a feast if the approach is proper. This is a huge part of me. I’m big on sharing meals, and really appreciate good food; I think it is a universal that brings people together.

Well enough of my rant, here it is…….

Posted in bunk1, magicmacguffin, umwsum12, VideoAssignments, VideoAssignments408 | Comments Off on Speed Cooking show

Bad parenting* (or how I got to watch great movies as a kid)

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

When I think back to my childhood, I think about ice-cream sandwiches, playing Barbies, hours of swimming with my cousins, making clubhouses in a copse of spindly trees, the babysitter asking me if it was ok for her to smoke in the house (turns out it wasn’t), and watching some great, but entirely inappropriate, movies. In my early years of elementary school I was watching Jaws, Halloween, and The Shining. I discussed the merits of Nightmare on Elm Street on the school bus. Jesus, was I eight-years-old when that came out in 1984? I definitely didn’t see it in the theater, so maybe I was 9 or 10. My point is that I was young.

It’s not like I was sneaking around to watch these movies. My parents knew that my sister and I watched horror films. My cousins’ parents knew what they were watching too. It was all perfectly fine as long as we didn’t have nightmares. It may sound like a totally insane parenting philosophy, but I’m thankful that I grew up that way. There wasn’t a lot of parental oversight when it came to what I watched, read, or listened to. If something made me uncomfortable, I stopped watching. If a book was over my head, it was probably boring, so I stopped reading. I appreciate that autonomy, and hope I can raise my son with some modified version of that. I think I’d like to have more open discussion concerning the media and art he brings home when the time comes.

So here’s a short video on three movies that impacted the most. They should’ve been terrifying. They should’ve left me afraid of the ocean and afraid of the boogeyman, instead I’m left with some unforgettable memories of growing up free range with my sister and cousins.