Archive for the ‘umwsum12’ Category

 

Final Letter Home

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Hey Mom,

Today is the last day of camp, heading home soon. I greatly appreciate you sending me to this camp this year. It has been one most eventful summer that I have lived through yet. You know when I first got here I was super nervous and scared, but I was treated like family. I really expected this class to hard and very strenuous, but it turned out to be very excited. Most of the work was pretty easy once you got going.

We started of the summer very easy. Just doing simple assignments and analyzing stories. Then we moved on up to editing photos and learning how to become better photographers. Later we learned how to do special things with audio. For example, how to talk on the radio and how to make things interesting. I already told you about the radio show, right? After audio we worked on videos. That was probably the hardest thing for me because of some of my software, but in the end I learned a lot. Lastly we worked on Remixing things and how to be creative with other people’s work.

I learned so much from this class that I never thought I would learn. This class really pulled my creativity out. Even when I thought I was being creative, my teachers pulled for more and I gave them what I didn’t think I had. I liked how I got to choose my assignments and my teachers didn’t force anything on us. If I could work on photo editing ALL DAY LONG, I would. The weeks where we worked on photos, I worked so hard my teachers had to tell me to slow down.

My teachers were AMAZING. It was so easy to contact them and when I needed any king of help they were right there. Along with that, there were a lot of people in the class that helped me to endure the summer. There isn’t enough time nor words in the world to allow me to thank everyone enough for how much they have helped. I would have never thought I would make some friendships like I did in a summer class.  The only thing I hated about this class was that I was not able to see people face to face. I wanted to personally thank people for their help and actually greet them. But throughout everything, this class was amazing.

My fondest memory about this class was doing the bunk photo. Even though I wasn’t chosen to take charge I did. During this time I was able to have personally talks with my bunk mates and that allowed us to get closer. When they sent me their pictures, it made me feel like they were really a part of my family. I will never forget the team work from my bunk mates. They were truly awesome.

Weeks 3 & 4

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

This letter was lost in the mail and is just now being sent. 

Dear Mom and Dad,

Sorry I haven’t written in so long. Camp has been really busy. I have learned a lot these last two weeks at camp. I am learning about Creative Commons Licenses. I’ve been learning about being a better photographer and I have been working on lots of visual assignments and design assignments. I attached some of them below:

Common Everyday Object

Make Your Own Jackson Pollock

Draw It: Edited

Warhol Tux

My favorite is the one of Tux. Hope you like them!! Also, I installed some plug-ins on my blog. Now you can see my tweets on it without even logging into Twitter. It’s really cool! I tried playing on Minecraft but it was kind of confusing and I am not too fond of it. I really like everyone in my bunk. They are super nice!

Miss you and love you!

xoxo Marcey

P.S. I got Camper of the Week during Week 4 at camp! I’m so excited!

It’s Never the Right Time to Say Goodbye

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

As Camp Magic MacGuffin comes to an end, I decided to make a short video including all the amazing stuff that I learned and explored in the past nine weeks. Regardless of the hectic weeks, CMM was never short on excitement and happy times. From daily creates, to weekly assignments, photographs, videos, audios, bunkhouse buddies and everything in between. This video obviously does not do any justice to what CMM has given me. Hope you enjoy this video.

The Wildcat in me

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

For today’s Daily Create, I was assigned to take a photograph of an animal that best represents my personality. I choose a wild cat. They are not much different from a domestic cat, however wild cats guard their independence. They are creative, curious, and always out and about or observing the world from a distance. During my stay in Africa, I’ve captured a photo of a wildcat. They are beautiful and free-spirited (not saying all that about myself, but I admire that about them). My tour guide told me that a wildcat would never take a conventional route and prefers to explore life from off the beaten track. They rely on their instincts and powers of observation to guide them through life (sounds familiar). They, however, love their privacy. 

Tutorial “What Color is Your World?”

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Tutorial

What Color is your world?

 

Step 1

On a normal day, make sure to have a camera of a phone with decent photo quality with you. Pick a color to photograph throughout the day, found on different objects like a car, traffic signs, breakfast, anything at all.

 

Step 2

Upload these images onto your computer

 

Step 3

Pick a song that correlates with the color you chose. It can be said in the lyrics, described through different words, certain objects that are the color you chose. For example for the color blue I chose the song “I’m Blue” by Eiffel 64.

 

Step 4

Use an editing tool to upload these images or if you took a short film segment of any of the colors. IMOVIE is a good tool to use or something similar.

 

Step 5

For IMOVIE – go to File-Import for any film segments shot, if uploading a photo on the right hand side in the middle, there is a tool bar of a camera, itunes logo, a T and transition slides. Click on the camera to upload all images.

 

Step 6

Once the images are in place, I made a transitional phase for each photo such as “dissolve” or “open door”, to do this click on the box that has two sideways triangles facing each other. There are multiple options to choose from, pick whichever ones are the most interesting to you.

 

Step 7

The next step is to click on the music button and choose the song that you wish to choose for this assignment. Drag the song and place it in the “project” portion of IMOVIE. To fade in or fade out click on the star located on the green bar, shown in the images below.

Bluescreen1 © by katherinekd101

Bluescreen2 © by katherinekd101

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 8

An additional edit I made was putting filters on each image. Below are snapshots of how this is done.

BlueScreen3 © by katherinekd101

BlueScreen4 © by katherinekd101

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bluescreen2 © by katherinekd101

BlueScreen1 © by katherinekd101

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 9

The final step is to export the finished product. Go to share then press export movie.

 

Step 10

Upload the film onto YouTube and tag it with the appropriate tagging

Camp Magic MacGuffin: A place of mystery and intrigue!

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Have you heard about Camp magic MacGuffin?! What a fun and fascinating place to spend the summer! But there’s some strange things going on there!

I first raised my eyebrows at this strange character, Jim Groom. I  missed whatever started the commotion but he managed to get himself sequestered into a separate bunkhouse in the first couple of weeks of camp. Looking back over the summer, I have to wonder…is Jim Groom behind all the strange happenings at camp? Is Shed #4 really Bunkhouse X, aka Jim Groom’s lair? Is he responsible for the disappearance of camp counselors and the peculiar behavior of our beloved camp directors? Or was it the derecho that hit camp? Did we hit a nerve with our zombie apocalypse radio show? Hmmm…

Apocalypse Bumper by Chanda Sorrell Cowger

As I look back, I knew something peculiar was going on, but tried to mind my own business, even though the level of mystery was rising

Then, I think I touched a nerve…or at the very least called unintended attention to  myself.

 

Would I become the next target? Campers and counselors were all around at the beginning of camp. Slowly but surely they started going silent, disappearing. Even our directors, Alan and Martha seemed to be acting a little strange. I found this very distressing! They were our leaders, our guide through this adventure. Alan kept disappearing and reappearing in the new places, irritating Martha. Or was Martha’s moods being influenced by someone or something else. She got more excitable and a little paranoid as time passed. Was it the crazy weather and heat causing her confusion? Did the derecho leave something unpleasant behind that would infect us all with the same affliction that had its grasp on Martha?

I became very concerned for Martha…and the effect her apparent altered mental, emotional state would have on those of us that still lingered at camp. She keeps rambling about Shed #4 and, in this video released earlier today, appears to be “jonesing” like an addict when Shed #4 inexplicably disappears!

I know it might seem a little far-fetched, but here’s my theory about what happened at Camp MacGuffin this Summer:

Someone…I’m still unsure as to who…came to camp with a sinister agenda, ready and waiting for fresh meat for their experiments in mind-control. Was it Jim Groom…Hatchet Jack…Uncle Hector…or even Slide Guy? I don’t know, but whoever it is constructed Shed #4 and ds106 radio to distribute…a virus or infection of some kind?  Once infected, the victim becomes addicted, obsessed with the ds106, its participants, the assignment repository, the daily creates, any and all creative media projects and collaboration…a zombie of sorts. Over time, these victims, also known as #4lifers, become so creative that it takes a toll on their mental and emotional health. Their logic and reasoning skills are changing, perspectives evolving. It’s already taken so many…including directors Alan and Martha, nearly all of the counselors and even some fellow campers like poor Kavon! Some must have run away…or were taken. In any case, campers that made it to the end of the season, appear to be showing signs of possessing this #4life contagion.

And now I fear…it has ME too!

Day 2 diary at Stafford Lakes by Chanda Sorrell Cowger

Given all that’s happened here this summer, I had a great time and learned so much!

DS106 I’ll Have What She’s Having… by Chanda Sorrell Cowger

 

Wrapping Up Daily Creates for Camp

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

I have enjoyed The Daily Creates of ds106 and will strive for continued participation in this creative outlet even after my educational enrollment in the ds106 curriculum comes to an end. Here are the 3 daily create assignments I completed for the last week of ds106 and Camp MacGuffin…

tdc198 – Draw a flower with your eyes closed.

Flower drawn on the inside of my eyelids

I’m not that great at drawing on a good day.Ask me to do it with my eyes closed ensures a disaster in the art department. Knowing this would be the case, I want to add a twist…to make it more interesting. So I used Flamepainter to blindly draw this flower. This made it look more abstract and colorful, standing out from the other pen and pencil renditions of this challenge!

tdc200 – Take a photograph of animal you think represents your personality.

I emerged from my cocoon…a Butterfly

“Just when the caterpillar thought its life was over, it became a butterfly.”
A butterfly is an accurate reflection of my life to this point, especially the last few years. I recently had this beautiful reminder tattooed on my ankle for my 35th birthday…to always remind me that change is ineviditable, so make it beautiful! I will blog separately about this in the near future, to give the the whole story, my story and why this holds such a powerful significance to me that I would tattoo on my body. Look for it, if you really want know what’s really Behind Blue Eyes.

tdc201 – Make a short audio of the sound of water pinging, flushing, splashing, roaring, tumbling…

Bathroom H2O by Chanda Sorrell Cowger

To create this sound clip, I recorded a few sounds of water in the bathroom. The shower running, toilet flushing, sick faucet flowing. Again, easy to do using the SoundCloud app on my iPhone to record a short bit.

Letter Home: Week 9

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Second to last week… unbelievable.

I did a lot this week, and really creatively challenged myself. I found it especially interesting to take other people’s creations and recreate them into something that was distinctly mines. It really brought to light a very important part of DS106, and the concept of an online identity and community. We don’t only create for ourselves, we do so in order to inspire others to. This Remix/Mashup section of camp I believe is the very heart of DS106….

Making up for Lost Time

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Ah, yes. I am far far behind in the going-ons of camp. I lost myself in my other camp job, which I openly admit was my fault for poor time management.

Regardless, I finished up today and I’m going to do a literal sprint to the finish. I’m embarrassed at how far behind I am, but I’m not a quitter.

So, first comes my audio work for week 5.

I decided to write a homophone poem.

Homophone Poem

There I stood in the tide, straight and bold as I peered beyond the waves

to see the buoys that lapped along the edge of the loch.

Ahead in the sea I sensed a lone ark, the seine hanging low, baited for prey.

The bow gazed forward in the night.

Behind me, a bare beach, barren not due to weather, but the hour.

My doused jeans were soaked as the tide rolled against my feet.

Suess-y

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

I’ve had a difficult time with the audio assignments this week. I kept getting very frustrated with my tone and volume while talking that I must have read 5 different Suess books 20 times each aloud.

I finally settled on this version of Hop On Pop, by Dr. Suess.

I chose this book for a few reasons… It’s short. It’s hard to say. It’s funny. It’s illogical.

Anyway, I had a nice time with it. It’s a funny story when  you actually read it. The words and the rhythm of Dr. Suess is fun and admittedly very tongue-twisting.

I hope you enjoy my audio recording!

Below is also a transcript of what I’m saying… It does get hard to understand because the words are so similar.

UP PUP Pup is up.

CUP PUP Pup in cup.

PUP CUP Cup on pup

 

MOUSE HOUSE Mouse on house.

HOUSE MOUSE House on mouse.

 

ALL TALL We all are tall.

ALL SMALL We all are small.

ALL BALL We all play ball.

BALL WALL Up on a wall.

ALL FALL Fall off the wall.

 

DAY PLAY We play all day.

NIGHT FIGHT We fight all night.

 

HE ME He is after me.

HIM JIM Jim is after him.

SEE BEE We see a bee.

SEE BEE THREE Now we see three.

THREE TREE Three fish in a tree.

Fish in a tree? How can that be?

 

RED RED They call me Red.

RED BED I am in bed.

RED NED TED and ED in BED.

 

PAT PAT They call him Pat.

PAT SAT Pat sat on hat.

PAT CAT Pat sat on cat.

PAT BAT Pat sat on bat.

NO PAT NO Don’t sit on that.

 

SAD DAD BAD HAD Dad is sad.

Very, very sad.

He had a bad day. What a day Dad had!

 

THING THING What is that thing?

THING SING That thing can sing!

SONG LONG A long, long song.

Good-by, Thing. You sing too long.

 

WALK WALK We like to walk.

WALK TALK We like to talk.

 

HOP POP We like to hop.

We like to hop on top of Pop.

STOP You must not hop on Pop.

 

Mr. BROWN Mrs. BROWN

Mr. Brown upside down.

Pup up. Brown down.

Pup is down. Where is brown?

WHERE IS BROWN? THERE IS BROWN!

Mr. Brown is out of town.

 

BACK BLACK Brown came back.

Brown came back with Mr. Black.

SNACK SNACK Eat a snack.

Eat a snack with Brown and Black.

 

JUMP BUMP He jumped. He bumped.

FAST PAST He went past fast.

WENT TENT SENT He went into the tent.

I sent him out of the tent.

 

WET GET Two dogs get wet.

HELP YELP They yelp for help.

HILL WILL Will went up hill.

WILL HILL STILL Will is up hill still.

 

FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER

That one is my other brother.

My brothers read a little bit.

Little words like If and It.

My father can read big words too.

Like CONSTANTINOPLE and TIMBUKTOO.

 

SAY SAY What does this say?

seehemewe

patpuppop

hethreetreebee

tophopstop

Ask me tomorrow but not today.