I used the Sound Cloud app on my phone to record this it works really well. Im just starting to get used to hearing my own voice on a recording but still a bit odd I have to admit.
Archive for the ‘magicmacguffin’ Category
Checking In Week 5
Monday, July 2nd, 2012More ds106 Visual Fun
Monday, July 2nd, 2012A ds106 assignment that intrigued me was Newspaper Blackout Poetry. It’s a three star assignment and that seemed excessive to me, at first. Turns out, it is pretty challenging.
I looked at several articles and tried to plan out some possibilities. I actually wanted to avoid this one because it seemed to serious, too raw, too painful. But in the end it was the one that worked best for me.
Here’s the original article:
Here’s the poem once I blacked out a bunch of words.
rape
weeping
seething
harrowing
not usual
critical pain
And with that emotional end, I wrap up the visual assignments piece (a tad late, but it’s done!).
Daily Create Updates
Sunday, July 1st, 2012Catching up from a long DS106 absence….
TDC 153 — Take a picture of an old building and make it look older with filters.
This is Parson Weems’s house (of Washington and cherry tree fame). We visited this house, originally built in the 1740s, in March when it was up for auction. [More about the house and the visit here. ]
TDC 169 — 30 seconds of ambient noise.
http://soundcloud.com/jmcclurken/kitchen-noises
TDC 174 — Tell a short story of a personal camping memory.
TDC 175 — Fill a page with your favorite number.
First Graders with Cameras
Sunday, July 1st, 2012The 2011-2012 school year has been over for two weeks now and I have a bunch of notes in Evernote beginning my reflections and prep for next year. There is a lot more reflecting to do.
Before that happens however, I wanted to share my latest work with teachinghistory.org. I’ve written previously about our field trip to the Tidal Basin and the pictures my students took there. The amazing folks at teachinghistory.org went along with us on the field trip and then joined us when we made the video back in our classroom the next week. They then edited this into a series of four videos illustrating the work my students did.
Watching these videos I am so impressed with my students. They are six and seven year olds using cameras thoughtfully and well. I’m less impressed with myself and have a goal, yet again, to do less of the talking with my students.
Poetry Reading for ds106
Sunday, July 1st, 2012The audio assignments for ds106 have intimidated me a bit more than the design or visual assignments. As a result, I started with Poetry Reading because it didn’t scare me as much as others. This poem, The Country, by Billy Collins is one of my all time favorites.
If you enjoy the poem, you can also hear Billy Collins read it.
Creative Commons Poster
Sunday, July 1st, 2012I found the assignment to create a CC poster more difficult than I imagined, especially after struggling a bit with the Postcard assignment.
The assignment here was:
Use creative commons licensed images to design a poster about how groovy Creative Commons is! Use a tool like Compfight to find creative commons licensed images in flickr (be sure to select the right option on the search pane), and then use photo editing software to add your message, call to arms, rallying cry, urgent plea. Include as well a creative commons logo– look to the creative commons itself for ones to use.
Most importantly, in your poster be sure to give attribution credit to the source image.
I didn’t have an obvious direction I wanted to go on this project, so just browsing CC-licensed images didn’t get me anywhere. My sense of Creative Commons is one of easier sharing of creative efforts, but I didn’t know quite how to convey that. Then I saw an image of a mountain that struck me and I thought of the collaborative work needed for most people to climb Everest and other tall mountains. [I know there are a few solo climbers still, but that's not the norm for most climbers.] It got at the notion of creative practice being a collaborative effort, of building on the work of others, even if we don’t often think of it that way. Unfortunately the image I saw was CC-licensed, but derivative works were not permitted (an apparent weakness in the Compfight search engine, unless I just missed that option).
So then I just started using Flickr’s advanced search for CC-images that allowed derivative works of mountain climbers and found this one from Flickr user hollysuewho.
At that point, it was a matter of getting the right Creative Commons logo (hollysuewho’s photo was Attribution, Non-Commercial, and Share Alike, so my derivative work needed to be the same license), and figuring out the text. I like the top slogan, but the bottom is still to wordy for my liking. Still, it gets at both aspects of Creative Commons that worth advertising: use the CC-licensed materials that are out there AND share your own works that way.
I had some issues with using Photoshop to shading the bottom part and I’m still not happy with how it looks, but I would spent too much time fiddling with it. So, here it is. Thoughts? Recommendations?
UPDATE: After comments by John and Alan (and conversation with my spouse, @jenorr, I did a new version of the image that I’m much happier with.
Back from Special Assignment
Sunday, July 1st, 2012Hi Campers,
I’m back from the special assignment that I left for on Wednesday. As you may remember, I received a fax fron headquarters Wednesday morning with instructions to meet a driver who would take me where I needed to go.
Yesterday afternoon, I woke up back in my bed in the cabin. I have no recollection of anything since being in the vehicle with the driver. I did find several tweets under my account and a bunch of photos on my camera. There’s also a video I recorded.
I just recorded another video telling a bit more about my experience. It’s very mysterious. I’m not really AFRAID. I mean, after the Shed #4 incidents last week, I feel so at peace with the notion of Magic MacGuffin. But I would be lying if I said this last episode wasn’t a bit…disconcerting.
If you have any idea what it all may mean, let me know in the comments.
Here’s a quick recap that I was able to recreate from my Tweets (there’s a link in there to the video I created while I was “away”):
And here’s the video I just made showing a few more photos I found on my camera… and some other strange discoveries.
Now it’s for real
Sunday, July 1st, 2012
At the outset of episode 7 of the Totally Fun and Good podcast, which is currently in production, I mentioned that I’d just submitted an application with iTunes and set up a Feedburner account for the podcast. The recording was made last Thursday and since then the application has been approved. That means that you can subscribe to TF&G directly through iTunes (click the link above to test it out). Subscribing is one of several ways you can lend a hand to this endeavor.
In addition to subscribing in iTunes, you should also post a review and rating for each episode. Foremost among the several goals I’ve set for this project is to attract an audience of substantial size. According to Karamoon, such reviews and ratings really make a difference in terms of attracting new listeners.
All of this is to say that for the foreseeable future, I shall endeavor to use Totally Fun and Good to once again re-define podcasting. All you have to do to be a part of what promises to be a momentous journey is subscribe.
I took a bike ride to sort out my concerns at camp; I am still…
Sunday, July 1st, 2012
I took a bike ride to sort out my concerns at camp; I am still getting nasty notes, and this Joe Beets character is ruffling my feathers.
The real question I need help with is finding out who is behind Camp Magicmacguffin and what is their ultimate plan? Is it Slude Guy?
Postcards–A Legoland/Minecraft Mashup
Sunday, July 1st, 2012So, after nearly three weeks away for a conference (and panel comment), a new talk for a Civil War Round Table, and a family trip to California, I’ve finally returned to DS106 work. These means that I’m woefully behind as the rest of the class has moved into audio assignments. I’ll catch up as I can, first by doing some of the Design Assignments from Week 4. This one is for Postcards from Magical Places.
The assignment reads (corrected for typos because I can’t help myself):
Design the front and back of a postcard that might be sent from the location of a movie or a work of fiction. Both sides of the cards must be created as graphics.
The front should use graphic design elements that provide a sense of place or use the classic motifs of old postcards (“Greetings from ______”), both pictures and text. The back of the post card should contain a stamp and postmark that fits with the theme of the movie, as well as an addressee and a message that fits the plot as well.
The modification that we had from Alan and Martha was that the image was supposed to come from the DS106 Minecraft server where there is some absolutely amazing stuff created by DS106 participants. Unfortunately, the server was down when I went to it, so I ended up taking an image from a regular Minecraft instance. But that was pretty boring, so I added an image I took on a recent trip to Legoland California. [I took the Minecraft image as the background, and then, using the Quick Selection tool in Photoshop, removed the material in the upper right of the Lego version of Mount Rushmore, allowing the Minecraft background to show. This is all after some resizing of the two images so they matched.]
I then added some text, using a phrase that should be reminiscent on one commonly seen these days to those of us in Fredericksburg, and is an approved font from that institution. The result was this:
For the second side, I created the stamp from the image of Lego Jefferson.* The expensive postcard price is an homage to the founding of UMW (as well as a tease to a relative who always scolds us when we spend more that the needed price on postcard postage). The postmark is a stylized font in Photoshop and refers to the location of Legoland, as well as UMW.
There are a few other nods, if not homages, in the letter and address.
* I think the thing next to his eye is supposed to be a Q-tip cleaning Washington’s ear, but given the past month at Mr. Jefferson’s University, I’m interpreting it as something wiping away TJ’s tears.
