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 ‘weeklyletter’ Category
Checking In Week 5
Monday, July 2nd, 2012No Letter Home This Week I’m Afraid
Saturday, June 30th, 2012
The Daily Create 171 – An object that’s hard to find or recognise
I am running out of time before I start packing my suitcases. I am afraid I haven’t got time to record a weekly letter, so instead I will just share this week’s Daily Create assignments.
Above you can see a toy car that is not really a toy car, but my favourite USB stick.
This creepy crawly critter is what I would be terrified of if I saw it in my bunkhouse:
The Daily Create 172 - Sketch the creepiest crawly critter you can imagine
By the way – to create the web-like lines I used Scribbler 2.
Finally, the sound of summer rain after a long period of very hot weather:
The Daily Create 169 - record 30 seconds of ambient sound in your environment
And now I will say goodbye to my friends from the camp and everyone else who is reading this. I am going to a spa and I promise I will come back with a lot of photos and stories to tell.
See you in a week’s time.
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Week 5 – Stepping out of Comfort Zone
Monday, June 25th, 2012
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by LarimdaME
Since Week 5 in Camp MacGuffin is all about audio, we are sending audio messages home instead of letters:
This is not so different from leaving a message on an answering machine and I felt it was OK to improvise rather than read from a paper.
As I have said in the recording, Week 5 was about stepping out of comfort zone. For one of my Daily Creates I had to sing. I mean, I didn’t have to do it, but I did. I don’t want to repeat what I said in the recording, but the atmosphere in the Camp is such that singing felt quite OK. I will even go so far as to embed the recording right here:
The Daily Create 165 – Share a campfire song on audio. Sing of bang drums.
Two days later we had to draw. I am terrible at drawing and I said so:
The Daily Create 167 – Draw a person using only geometrical shapes
Today’s Daily Create wasn’t difficult. We took a closer look at where we spend a lot of free time and photographed something we had never noticed before.
The Daily Create 168
It is not that I don’t notice Leonardo, it is just that I don’t notice him enough. Placed behind my back while I work at my desktop, he has kept me company through all my web adventures.
So, that’s all folks. See you in Week 6.
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Behind Door Four…Design and More!
Tuesday, June 19th, 2012Hi Mom, Hi Dad! 
(**yes, I know they will REALLY see this! I’ve shared my web address with them!)
Week 4 at Camp MacGuffin was Design Week! Learned lots and accomplished a lot, but still lagged by a day or so. So here’s an overview of what the last week held for me in ds106:
I started by researching Creative Commons and copyright. Although I already knew a lot about copyrights, from my time spent as a department manager and copyright manager at Kinko’s…although that was many moons ago now. Creative Commons (CC) was new territory for me and I found it exciting! I chose to license my photos and other image work on Flickr, as well as my this website and its contents, under a the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) license, so that others can share, use, and alter my works, as long as they credit me for the contribution and do not use the work for any commercial purposes. I was a little late blogging about CC in Copyrights, Creative Commons, & Immortality mostly because I was hung up on creating the CC promotional poster and I wanted to incorporate it into the CC post, instead of posting it separately. I spent WAY too much time trying to figure out how to make the background of the logo transparent, but I finally figured it out and I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.
This week’s theme was design. After researching and refreshing my artistic knowledge of design concepts, I went on a Design Safari, scouting for real-world examples of the different design elements. I published the examples and an explanation of each concept individually. I mainly did this so I could feel like I was making SOME progress without waiting until the end of the week to do one comprehensive post. Fallout in Fredericksburg shows symbolism in design and Domineering Downtown Dwelling is an example of dominance. I found these two as I reviewed the dozens of images from my photo shoot excursion to Fredericksburg a week or so ago. Mother Nature’s Mountain Rhythm and Memorial Minimalism in Design showcases rhythm and minimalism respectively. These images were both captured in the Virginia mountains, at two different scenic overlook stops along I-64 on Friday.
Two of our Design Assignments for the week were given to us. Okay, it was a choice to pick 2 out of 3 on a list, but I discarded one, because, well…Minecraft is kinda my worst nightmare. I spent a week or more fumbling around, unable to even move my little guy around. After some help from the oh-so-patient and helpful Martha, I finally got enough of a hang out it to move around, place blocks/items, and blow things up, but flying is dangerous! I got hung in a tree once and several times, I’ve gone flying and can’t get down! I even solicited assistance from my 13-soon-to-be-14-year old son, Austin, who was just THRILLED to know he could teach ME something. Almost. I think I know enough to participate when necessary now. I’m just NOT a virtual world kinda girl!
Anyway, back to the Design Assignments. In addition to the CC poster from Copyrights, Creative Commons, & Immortality, which was one of the mandatory design assignment choices, I reviewed another ds106 assignment from DS106 Inspire in Designer Breakfast with a Berry Splash. After getting the required ones out of the way, I went to work looking for the additional ones I’d do this week. I settled on Apocalypse Anyone?, The Big Picture Captioned Courtesy of Maroon 5, and my absolute favorite assignment yet…What People Think I Do as a Proposal Manager! I shared this with Facebook as well as my colleagues at work and it was a HUGE hit! Now I’m entertaining Alan’s suggestion that I get it printed on a die, so I can roll it and let fate decide which side of me they’ll get that day!
The Design Safari sorta replaced The Daily Creates this week. I didn’t get any time to devote to Daily Creates, much to my disappointment. Maybe I can circle back and do some of the ones I missed out on! Or, maybe…the Camp MacGuffin Directors will give us a “freestyle” week to focus on the types of art we enjoy most! Hint, hint…? 
I’m having a lot of fun figuring out the capabilities of this blogging thing. This week I figured out how to link text to other sites ALL BY MYSELF! So, please, feel free to click around and see where it takes you!
I’m not looking forward to the next 2 weeks, as we explore audio assignments and radio, but maybe I’ll find some fun in there somewhere.
Until next week…
**Update: I can’t believe I forgot to mention that I MADE CAMPER OF THE WEEK! Much to my surprise I might add! Check out the badge on the right corner of my blog!
DS106 Week 4 – Wrapping Up Loose Ends
Tuesday, June 19th, 2012
Original photo on Flickr by Paul Bica
If you have been following this blog lately, you know that there has been a lot of activity here ever since I joined Camp Magic McGuffin. I am a little tired, which is why I have decided to send a postcard home instead of my usual letter. I believe it is the right thing to do after a week devoted to studying design.
I would also like to share with you three of my Daily Creates.
In this Daily Create task we were asked to draw an object with our eyes closed:
I am terrible at drawing and my flower wouldn’t have looked much better if my eyes had been open, but this way at least I have an excuse.
This is a recording of street noise:
But my favourite Daily Create this week was mood inversion – reading something banal and making it sound profound. Here is my modest contribution:
See you in Week 5.
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Hey me, Hey mama
Sunday, June 17th, 2012Dearest Fam,
I’ve concluded my fourth week here at Camp Magic MacGuffin. So far, so good. I got some feedback from my esteemed directors early in the week, and I really took it to heart. I started working on my design assignments a lot earlier and posting them throughout the week instead of all in a clump. I also got more active and remembered to check Google reader for updates from my fellow campers.
On another note, I’ve started my first week at a new camp as a staff member! It’s a 7 week camp at UVa for academics, tennis, and golf. I’m an RA, but really I’m a camp counselor who is in charge of making sure nobody sneaks out at night. Or sneaks in… It’ll probably get difficult to split time between the two camps I’m simultaneously participating in, but being able to take breaks at the one I’m at physically to attend the one I’m at virtually will be a great help. I have lots of down time, and luckily I enjoy doing ds106 activities.
This week, I focused on design. I used both Photoshop and GIMP for my assignments. I had two really really favorite assignments I did, which all turned out in the same style-esque.
The above photo is the most recent assignment. It’s a Minimalist Travel Poster and it looks so inviting! I think? It was a definite favorite and you should read my blog post about it! Definitely a favorite.
And also, I’m very proud of this assignment I did for Minimalize your Philosophy.
I’m going to give myself a pat on the back for these, because not only did I greatly enjoy doing it, I’m very pleased with the final product, and also another pat on the back for bragging to all my fellow staff members about how much better my online summer class is than their boring history, econ, etc., classes.
Also, on another note, I did some stuff with CreativeCommons this week, including changing my flickr account to BY-NC!!
Until then,
KG
My Week in Review (Week 3)
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012Wow, was it a busy week! I may have bitten off more than I can chew this Summer but I’m trying hard to stay on top of everything. In addition to ds106, I am also taking a course at Germanna Community College to fill in some outstanding general elective requirements. That course is fairly easy for me and not too time consuming…at least not yet. I intended to take a third online course this summer as well, but I am seriously rethinking that idea! As desperately as I want to finish my coursework and graduate next May from UMW, I don’t want to set myself up to fail or lower my GPA. Yeah, I know I am hard on myself about my academics, but it’s too important to me not to be. Anything worth doing is worth doing right!
And when it rains it pours! Work has been a little hectic as I am now the only Proposal Manager still standing in our organization. One quit and walked out, the other just went out on medical leave for an undetermined amount of time. I am frantically trying to carry my workload and get up to speed and assume their former projects as well. I hope my upper management hires the replacement as soon as possible—I’m not sure how long I can keep all the balls in the air without dropping something.
The good news is that as busy and work-intensive as I am finding ds106 to be, I am thoroughly enjoying it! It is providing me the opportunity (ok, really the requirement) to be creative and contemplate things around me differently. I am still a little behind the curve, I think, due to my learning curve on some of the technologies and tools involved here, but I am having a blast learning this way.
So what have I accomplished this week, you ask? Well, here’s a rundown:
- I managed the complete 5 of the 7 Daily Creates (tdc). My original goal was to complete them all but I intentional skipped the sound recording one, and the other, I just didn’t get to on Sunday. If my schedule ever opens up and I get a grip on this camp, I might go back and do some of the ones I missed. I especially enjoy the photography challenges. The photography tips tricks and hints were very helpful in getting better photo compilations. If you haven’t been following along daily, you can see a review of my tdc submissions from Week 3 in my last post: A Daily Dose of Creative Photography
- For Visual Assignments, the requirement was do complete and blog 10 “stars” worth of project (or I like to think of them as challenges) from the ds106 Assignment Repository. Again, I wanted to do more, but time is my biggest hurdle these days. And since I haven’t done a lot of photo editing before, learning the ins and outs of some of the programs has been challenging and time consuming. I think my favorite to do was If you’ve got them… followed by Seasonally Friendly?. The Average of Lily and The First to Admit It (Checking Out) were fun and fairly easy to do, but it didn’t include any “original” work on my part…just following instruction and seeing want happens! I’ve had a little blogging trouble that apparently left Art that Pops sitting in a draft vortex way too long, but I realized it was missing and was able to publish it this morning.
- I got Google Reader up and running and subscribed to all the ds106 blogs, but I am ashamed to admit I have not been as active commenting on my bunkmates’ and fellow campers’ blogs and assignments as I should be and/or WANT to be. I need to step it up a notch there!
- I have also spent a significant amount of time this week investigating many photo editing tools, including web-based tools (Fotoflexer, Pixlr), free download software (Picasa, GIMP), and iPhone/iPad apps (Snapseed, Photoshop Express). It’s been a lot of fun playing with them. My strategy is to write a tutorial or two, showcasing a tool that hasn’t already been described in past tutorials. Especially for those of us who can’t afford to invest in PhotoShop or want to have a mobile option through apps.
I’m proud of this week’s accomplishments, but I’ve run into trouble along the way and getting lost in the forest once or twice. I will give Jim Groom props for twittering me a few links to help me with my blogging issues on Saturday. I’ve been having some issues with sizing photos in my posts. I *think* I may have figured it out, but we’ll see…
I usually avoid any and all virtual worlds, simply because my real world keeps me busy enough that I don’t have time to run a fake one! I briefly dabbled in Farmville, but gave it up when I couldn’t keep up and my crops kept withering! So Minecraft is foreign territory to me!!! I got it installed, but I am completely lost at how to move around, do anything, or find anything, or anybody for that matter. I need to do some further research on how to work that world! Maybe I can get in there with someone else, who knows what they’re doing, to help me figure out the basics. Since our next Campfire is being held in there…and finally at a time I can join…I guess I better get it figured out fast!
That’s all for now…marching forward with week 4….
Greetings from Beyond
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012
Dear Beloved Family,
I’m writing you following the third week of camp here at Magic MacGuffin. Above, you’ll see a postcard that I created that reflects my feelings this week. On the one hand, camp is a blast, and I wish you were here. On the other hand, I feel a strange, blurry darkness descending and I fear what will come next.
Allow me to explain.
I’m finding that my life at camp is beginning to get the better of me. I am so deeply embedded in the virtual and real world of the Mountain that I cannot clearly distinguish what is real from what is unreal.
Yesterday, I lost my glasses. I searched my entire cabin for them. They weren’t anywhere! I was really getting stressed, so I did what I usually do when I need to FIND something. I went to Google:
At the time, I was really mad at Google. The results it was giving me were TOTALLY unhelpful. But then, later, I thought perhaps Google isn’t what I should have used? I mean, I can’t remember if that’s how I usually search for lost things. I’m so confused.
Then, I was reading some amazing new posts from some of the campers on my iPad. I was so engrossed, I reached around to turn the page. But, there was no page to turn! Did iPads used to have pages? How I am going to keep up with the camp reading if I can’t turn pages, anymore?! Am I missing something…?
My head hurts.
Then, this morning, I woke up from an amazing and insightful dream about camp. I thought, “I have to blog about that!” But then I remembered that I had installed the DreamPress plugin, which automatically blogs your dreams, complete with dreamshots. BUT, when I went to check my site later, I couldn’t find the plugin anywhere! I couldn’t even find it in the official WordPress plugin repository.
Someone is obviously playing tricks on me. I hate to say it, but I suspect my co-director, Alan. He’s been very mysterious lately. He SAYS he’s at camp, but I can never FIND him. Sometimes, I hear him around the campfire, but when I turn to look at him, HE’S NOT THERE.
Today, he’s supposed to meet me at Shed #4 and introduce me to “Marco.” Does anyone want to come with me? I’m nervous…
On the bright side, we had a great week at camp learning more about photography and visual storytelling. I’m most proud of this picture I took after hanging my hammock outside of my cabin. I didn’t have the energy after putting it up to climb into it, so I lay down on the ground underneath and took a nap. When I woke up, this was the view:
Lovely, I think. I think. I think. I think I’ll take a nap.
Until next week,
Martha
Activities of Week 3
Sunday, June 10th, 2012Dear Mom,
I accomplished a ton this week at camp, I had some fun to. This week we started photography which is interesting to me and I had to do a bunch of assignments and some fun daily creates.
The first daily create I did this week was using my phone I took a picture of our backyard with the black and white effect turned on. I hardly ever use my phone to take pictures for some reason but I think I will start because the camera seems to work pretty well. The next daily create was to take a picture of something I envy. I chose to take a picture of my friends car which happens to be the same as the one I used to have before it broke down. I know have a much older model so I miss having a newer car. The next one was to take a picture that includes water, rocks, and the sky. I used a picture I took last week when I was at Yellowstone park
The assignments for this week were really fun, The ones I found to be the most fun were making a poster to demotivate and the Nine Lives assignment. In the demotivate poster I used a picture of Wayne Rooney who is an English soccer player, and just put a caption on the picture. I had a lot of fun looking through funny pictures and choosing that one. I also enjoyed looking through my old pictures and reminiscing on my child hood. Out of the five assingments I chose to do I found those to be the most interesting. Well its been a good week at camp cant wait for next week to start.
Sincerely,
Kevin
My First Letter Home from the Camp
Tuesday, June 5th, 2012
My Daily Create Number 164 – a picture of water, stone and clouds
Dear Mom,
I am really sorry I left without letting you know where I was. I knew you wouldn’t have let me come to Camp Magic Macguffin. You think I am too young to travel on my own, but, Mom, you need to understand that I am a big girl now and perfectly capable of taking care of myself.
I am also sorry that I didn’t write. Here I am now, Mom, and I am going to write to you regularly.
Everybody is very kind at the camp. I am staying at Slaughterhouse Four with 12 other people. I know what you are thinking – it is a bit crowded, but everybody is great. I have my own canopied bed. You know I always wanted one.
I also have my creature comforts and I am happy:
Photo on Flickr by Martin Gommel
Photo on Flickr by Jen Chan
There are jasmine bushes all around my bunkhouse and they smell really sweet:
My Daily Create Number 147 – Out of Focus
I am having a lot of fun at the camp, but I am also working very hard and doing my homework. So, please, stop worrying.
Love,
Your daughter
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