Haiku in Haiku

It’s October! Write a haiku about any special October day

When was the last time you wrote a Haiku?  5-7-5?  I am fortunate to live in Haiku, Hawaii and took the opportunity to make a Visual Haiku.  Quite frankly, I need to improve my GIMP skills, so it was a great way to explore layers, typeface and manipulation. Did you know that typography evokes a sense of place?

The papayas were picked on the property.  The background is a placemat that was the perfect backdrop.

I was thrilled that my #designmeld partner +Ary Aranguiz followed my lead with her own visual Haiku.  It's all about inspiring each other to be more creative.

What's your Haiku?

How Do You Know You Are Learning?

List twenty ways you can document your learning. How many have you done this week?

As you might imagine, because this was a written assignment (no frills, no pictures, no html code) I started to generate a list...and then half way through the exercise, I realized I needed to be more creative [duh, it's a Daily Create, stupid]. So I decided to use words that ended with     -ate. It was kind of fun. Did you know that in chemistry, -ate is used to form the names of salts from acids [acetic acid ..acetate].  Sounds like a transformation to me, doesn't it?

Kevin Hodgson @dogtraxx upped the ante when he created a humorous Haiku Deck to illustrate his ideas. Since I had done a Haiku Deck earlier in the week [I really like Haiku Deck, btw], I decided to illustrate my ideas visually as well. Thanks for the inspiration, Kevin.

1. Write a Story
2. Make a Diagram 
3. Record a Poem
4. Shoot a Video
5. Write a Song
6. Post a Blog
7. Take a Picture
8. Create a Slide Show
9. Make a Movie
10. Host a Google Hangout
11. Create
12. Innovate
13. Curate
14. Narrate
15. Illustrate
16. Annotate
17. Meditate
18. Accommodate
19. Debate
20. Bloviate (I love this word.  It summed up the current discussion of the U.S. government shutdown this week).

(NB:  I intentionally only illustrated 10 of the ways that I document my learning using the words that end in -ate).

How do you know you are learning?  How can you document it?

Communication - A Lost Art

Make a photograph that illustrates an aspect of communication.

I enlisted my granddaughter in this exercise.  We seem to be obsessed with communication these days, our cell phones tethered to us wherever we go.  But are we really communicating?  

My initial idea was that I wanted to use a picture that showed communication devoid of technology, something like this (my granddaughter receiving a lei after her dance recital).  

This exercise made me think about what communication is really about these days.  Is anyone listening, or are we just talking...

Make a photograph featuring a path, road, or trail that leads the eye through the photograph.

Sandy Brown Jensen picked up that these lupines were in full bloom and in Oregon, hers were long gone.  Yes, I cheated just a bit.  This picture is our home in Steamboat Springs Colorado.  This picture was taken in early July, but it is the background image of my computer, so I look at it every day.  You can just barely see the road curving out to the right, but it was just such a great image that fit the Daily Create. 

Make a photograph that features a grid of some sort today.

One thing that DS106 teaches you is that if you look closely, you can see many things.  We move too fast to notice the details.  This is actually the table on our lanai that sits on a tile floor.  I love how the grids intersect.  I also started to play with the Rule of Thirds.  I downloaded Gorilla Cam to my iPhone (I don't have a camera) which overlays the grid for you.  

What is Philosophy to you? Record an audio definition in 30 seconds or less

 

This is my first adventure into Audio in a very long time.  As our Headless Volunteers, Christina Hendricks and Rochelle Lockridge pointed out in their DS106 Headless 13 Audio Week 4 Review, the VoiceOver is too low.  I am just learning Audacity, and spent so long just getting the 3 sounds to work together, I let it go at that.  Fortunately, the podcast was full of great ideas, including the simple AMPLIFY to make it work.  Not sure how I missed this in the tutorial, but that's the great thing about DS106, we are all here to help each other.  They also questioned the use of the echo. I was going for the cellar effect, but I see that it did not exactly work.  I should go back and redo it, but I am already launched into Week 5, so we shall see.

Thanks for listening!

Is God Dead?

What is Philosophy to you? Record an audio definition in 30 seconds or less

As a freshman in college, I was introduced to philosophy through the words of  Frederick Nietzsche.  Nietzsche led to Kierkegaard  and Kierkegaard led to Descartes.  For me, the construction of an argument to prove that God does exist is absurd.  Fortunately for me,  Alan Watts opened the door to Eastern Philosophy, and to this day, through the practice of yoga, I believe that each individual has their own personal philosophy that is an integration of the mind, body and spirit.

This is the first time I have used audio for the Daily Create Exercise.  In her comments,  +Christine Hendricks calls it 'polished.'  I had done an off the cuff version that was 58 seconds and thought the feed would cut it off at 30, so I transcribed the words, cut out the chaff and this is the result.  I was pleased to find out that Black Sabbath had the perfect album cover to compliment the clip.

Creativity...A Daily Exercise

I was feeling like I had done little work this week when I went to look at my Daily Create blog posts.  There were none!  Fortunately, I had participated, I just did not take the time to write up the process (I confess that I don't have a complex process yet for what I am doing).  I will just share what I succeeded at -- and where I failed.  Failure is good.  It is part of the learning process.  I was thrilled when I went to review the Weekly Assignment Checklist to discover that it was suggested to combine the Daily Creates for the week into a single post.  So here it goes...

Take a photo that represents the TDC idea of regular exercises of creativity

This is probably where I got stuck at the beginning of the week.  I wanted to use a rotating 3-D Text animated GIF to use in another daily create.  I was able to create the GIF.  I just did not manage to insert the animated GIF onto the static image.  Despite assistance from Rochelle Lockridge and Christina Hendricks, I did not have the time to stick with it so I let it go.  I ended up using a portion of the GIF for this image.  I never did the Daily Create for this day, but it went perfectly with the title of my blog.  Next time.  

Baby panda bears are happening everywhere! Write a birth announcement for one.

What's in a Name?

需要八個字符的熊貓寶寶名稱

熊貓寶寶出生於2013年8月24日5:32

母親美香和父親是個謎

請幫助我們一起慶祝！

Since I couldn't come up with a pithy little statement that hadn't been done by fellow DS106ers, I decided to use Google Translate for the announcement.  I thought it might be fun for the Zoo to have a contest to name the Panda Cub, because I am fascinated with the importance the Chinese place on the naming of babies (pandas included).

Another custom is to find the newborn baby's Eight Characters (in four pairs, indicating the year, month, day and hour of a person's birth, each pair consisting of one Heavenly Stem and one Earthly Branch, formerly used in fortune-telling) and the element in the Eight Characters. It is traditionally believed in China that the world is made up of five principal elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. A person's name is to include an element that he lacks in his Eight Characters.

Take a photo that represents the idea of clarity

I can see Clearly now...

This is the image that I took that I wanted to have DS106 4Life in a 3D animated rotating GIF. I thought that somehow I could use the screensaver on my computer to capture the image, but that failed.  I did however,  find a 3D Text generator. I also wanted to lift the glass and have it float on a different background, but all the techniques that I tried were hampered by the lack of definition of the color of the glass and the background. I tried many different manipulations and eventually called 'Uncle.'  When I looked at the original image, I actually thought it was quite cool and decided that it was a worthwhile submission. And the bonus is that I have a DS106 4LIFE screensaver.  Apparently, I am hooked.

We predict the next book by @anya1anya is about #ds106. Design her some cover art.

I had this idea at the beginning of the course, and thought that this Daily Create was perfect for it. Unfortunately, I didn't get the entire gist of the exercise and have the image and title, not the whole book cover.  I try not to look at the Daily Create gallery until I have started on my idea so that I am not influenced by others.  In this case, when I saw the other images, I realized that I had totally missed the boat.  I did read with interest +Alan Levine's detailed blog on the creation of his image.  The process and the final image is what DS106 is all about.  

Create an interesting high contrast black and white image of an easily overlooked object.

A Dying Breed

This is the cover of the Maui Wrap which is delivered free to our mailbox.  It is the only print newspaper that I read anymore.  Hence the title:  A Dying Breed.  When I posted to Flickr, I got a comment on the article itself by someone who thought I was referring to the Outrigger Canoes.  I appreciated the opportunity to have the conversation.  This is another attempt at attempting to insert an animated GIF into a static image (newspaper boy in upper left corner over mailing label).  Again, unsuccessful, but with experimentation, I was able to get a negative image which reminded my of the original type presses.  

In looking back over the week, I had actually contributed to 5 of 7 Daily Creates.  While I was unsuccessful in executing many of my original ideas, I learned a great deal.  I also realized the importance of mastering the animated GIF, as well as other basic PhotoShop (or GIMP) manipulation techniques.  I appreciate the time that seasoned DS106ers take to document the process for newbies such as myself.  I appreciate the opportunity to be in such a creative community.  Indeed, I am in DS106 4LIFE.

Every Refrigerator Tells a Story

tdc#609:  Fridges are Cool! Make an image that shows how hip a refrigerator can be

Ok, I'm not sure if it is cool, but I thought the transparent image of the front door and the inside of the fridge was pretty neat, IMHO.  It also gives me a chance to practice with layers.

If you look closely, you can see the pictures that my granddaughter Sophie drew for me.  The picture on the left is of the spider that lives outside the dining room window.  When she asked me what I should draw, I said, why don't you draw Charlotte?

As I get more adept with the software, I realize that I could make both pictures the same size so that they overlay directly over the picture.  I was going to try and do this, but I realize that I haven't written my weekly summary, so there's always next time!

Imagine Whirled Peas

TDC #605:  Can you find calm in chaos or the opposite, take a photo.

I came up with this idea right after the Senate committee approved the resolution authorizing U.S. strike on Syria.  I am also the primary caregiver for my 98 year old mother-in-law who has dementia.  Often times she gets frustrated and angry with me.  In order to maintain my sense of humor, this is how I imagine her brain.  The Buddha is holding kyanite, a crystal that has a calming effect.

I borrowed the background image from yowzers.com.  I hope that is ok for a newbie.  Perhaps I can learn how to whirl peas through #ds106.

The concept was easy, the execution was more difficult.  I do not have Adobe Photoshop, so I downloaded ArtWeaver, which is very similar.  I managed to learn a little more about layering, which I can see is a must have for #ds106.

In the immortal words of John Lennon...

(Note:  I also learned how to embed a video in Blogger!)

What Does Your Key Chain Say About You?

Who would have thought your key chain could tell a story....

Participating in DS106 in GMT-10 is a bit daunting.  Even though I am an early riser, by the time I look at the Daily Creates, there are already several posted.  Not wanting to influence my ideas, I wait until I have finished uploading my image/video, and then enjoy watching the others.  Not this time.

I must say that I never thought about the story my key chain tells, but a story it does tell.

My analytic brain immediately thought video and so I decided to use Vimeo to assemble it, as it has the ability to add both sound (narration and sfx) as well as still images.  I shot each element of the key chain and then recorded narration for each segment.  Editing in Vimeo is easy, unless you add a still picture (or maybe there is a length limitation).  Not sure which, but I finally gave up on my last "closing" slide, and posted the video, as I had already exceeded the recommended 20 minutes.   Of course, I  forgot to put tdc603 in the title so it won't appear in the feed.  Did I mention that the images were poor?

Later in the day, I had the opportunity to view other videos -- and realized that I took a very simple task and made it exceedingly complex.  Damn.  I could have just used my phone (better camera) and told the story. Duh! So, what did I do?  I did the whole thing over in 5 minutes (not including upload time).  The result is below.  

On the plus side, I now feel like a pro with the Vimeo video editor.  Still unable to load directly from my phone to YouTube, but that is another story.....

Elegant in its Simplicity

This orchid sits in my kitchen window.  I removed the background using Clipping Magic.  Nature, for me, is the most elegant that any 21st Century gadget will ever be.

Backwards = The Perfect Ten

Backwards = The Perfect Ten

This is TDC 601! That is 106 backwards! Draw something 106ish backwards

Now that I seem to be getting the hang of the Daily Creates, I went back to Paper53 for inspiration.  The first thing I did was try 106 to see if I could "see" anything.  Adding the arrows helped, but then I dead-ended.  I wanted to add the question mark, so I brought it into another program for emphasis. I then decided to flip the image upside down when I saw the 901.  

My analytic mind jumped behind the steering wheel and came up with 9+1=10.  While not a really great idea, I liked how both sides of the brain complimented each other.  Upside down and backwards equals the Perfect Ten.

A Symbol of Longevity

600:  A Symbol of Longevity

Celebrate the 600th Daily Create! Express 600 in a drawing without using numbers.

Where do they come up with these ideas anyway?

My analytic mind immediately wondered what 600 symbolized so that I could come up with an image to represent it.  We all know that storks ares symbols of fertility and associated with Springtime and birth.  But did you also know that because they are rumored to feed their elderly parents, storks are a symbol of filial piety or gratitude. They are emblems of immortality and longevity. Legend says they live an incredibly long time. When they are 600 years old they stop eating solid food.  

Now, I did no fact checking on this, but it did give me and idea for an illustration.  What happened during the process was one of those "nuggets" that we were warned about in DS106.   "Do not try to create and analyze at the same time.  They are different processes."  My creative unconscious actually took over during the drawing and this is what evolved.  While it is by no means a work of art, to me it represented my analytic self getting out of the way in order to unleash my creative juices.  Yeah! 

This image was created using the simple app "Drawing."

Birthday Wishes for Guilia

Birthday Wishes for Guilia

It’s Her Birthday! Doodle @GiuliaForsythe some visual notes on the ideal way to celebrate!

This was extremely difficult exercise.  In fact, I had decided after trying numerous different iterations that I simply was not going to make a submission for this day.  

It was not until Rochelle Lockridge @rockylou22 expressed a similar feeling and then was able to breakthrough using Paper53.  A colleague had turned me onto this app and I found it easy to work with -- and was able to execute my idea.

The presents for Guilia include "copyright" because, in fact, Guilia did teach me a lesson about copyright when I began my MOOC expeditions in December 2012.  Thank you Guilia and we hope you had a most excellent birthday!

Scared of a Cuddly Bug?

Cuddly Bug

#598:  Draw an insect in a way that makes it cuddly or adorable

For the next Daily Create, I was very intimidated (which I can see from other ds106 posts, many others were as well.  Taking iPad in hand, I used DooDoo Lite (they need to change the name), which I downloaded for my granddaughter so that she could do original art for her dioramas.  She loves to draw and we like making them together.

Before you start laughing, remember, the purpose of the Daily Create is to get the juices flowing.  I think he's kind of cute.

My Digital Footprint

My Digital Footprint

What is a Daily Create Anyway?

We encourage you to challenge yourself to create something new each day instead of using older photos or videos. But there are not rules- if you re-use media, think how you can make it new by re-editing them.

The assignments are designed to be quick to do and should not need any or much post-editing. Consider trying several different approaches to each assignments. Often your first instinct might not always be your best work. Experimentation is key, and as always, the one hard and fast rule is MAKE ART DAMMIT!

For these experiments in daily creates, I have been using my iPad in order to become more familiar with the creative apps that are available.  My first attempt was "Impression".  I used FrameArtist (as I did with the Headless image above).

#596: Make an impression: take a picture of an indentation

It seemed natural to me to take an image of my footprint on the beach. Recently, I have been working on a Professional Development Module on the importance of crafting your own digital footprint.  It is a work in progress.