Tag: ds106

Broncos aren’t just for Super Bowls

1915, Oregon. Bonnie McCarroll didn’t have any trouble with the Broncos. Must not have been a Patriot.

Bonnie-McCarroll-thrown-fro

Week 2 Roundup

Week 2 is in the past. It’s now been a fortnight. What did I learn, you may ask? Or you may not. Either way, keep reading to find out.

Well, GIFfing ain’t easy to do as I blindly stumbled through figuring out GIMP and other GIF making things. But the results are fun so I’ll try it again sometime.

A little bit of western kindness was sent out to the Syrian Refugees settling in to our area quite nicely. Almost don’t really need any words to tell that story. Just need to see the smiles on their faces.

smile

A couple of Daily creates involving cows kept me up and running. These are the lifeblood of the experience for me. Baby steps for me.

And the biggest step forward, almost a grown up step, was what I learned about building your own Personal Cyberinfrastructure.  It was a great big realization for me. An epiphany even, if that’s not too strong a word. I work in a place where learners are trying to become more independent, adult learners. Putting the building of their own infrastructure into their own hands is a great big, key idea. The ideas and tools put forth in the lectures and article made a big shift in my thinking about how to achieve this. Thank you for that #Western106!

Let’s see where next week takes us! See you out in the wilds!

 

Western Kindness

Daily create is to tweet some kindness to someone you don’t know. No simpler kindness than to say thanks.

So I’d like to say thanks to some Newcomers to Canada for reminding us that the cold, white stuff bombarding us at this time of year in Canada actually has some simple, fun applications. Look at the smiles on their faces!

 

Approaching things

Just catching up on weaving my web… Yesterday’s daily create was to depict this here life pro tip visually: Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from either side.

That puts Mitch (a noted fool), this bull and this horse in a real sticky situation.

 

Have a Cow, Man

Today, the daily create is to paint a cow. I for one chose not to paint, but instead to spin around 453 times under the instruction of my two year old daughter and see what a cow looks like then. The result is above. This method causes no trauma to or paint on the cow. You may not want to do it to yourself more than zero times though.

 

The Lonesome, Crowded CyberInfrastructure

Full Disclosure: As an Open Participant with full-time work and a lovin’ family, I ain’t got a lot of time to ruminate on this here course. So what I got to give (and get), I got to give and get it quick. Enjoy it, but quick.

Today I watched the lecture and read the article about our Personal Cyberinfrastrcuture. And let me tell you, I dig this stuff. And the Wild West motif fits so well. Progress is messy and we don’t know where to start without a little help. Give me an idea of the equipment I can use and which stuff works and I’ll get started. Without the equipment, I’m just going to lie down in the sun here. Get some rest. Then get some more. With this stuff I’m gonna saddle up and go looking for gold in exciting places. 

This course/not course has given us that equipment by suggesting to us what to go out and get. Now I got a bunch of stuff, some idea how to use some of it, and most importantly, a drive and excitement to see what comes of it. I have a Soundcloud app on my phone. Still don’t know what it’s for exactly but I look at it with fun anticipation rather than thinking of a future chore. That’s because the other things I got and have used for this (like WordPress, Twitter, Digital Comic Museum etc) have been fun, useful and productive. Building a Personal Cyberinfrastrucutre could be a lonesome, overwhelming chore, but with a guide and some  pardners, it’s exciting personal progress. I reckon I’m gonna gonna do some panning for gold. Maybe make some myself (probably the fool’s kind, but it’s shiny, too).

Here’s some gold for ya to brighten your day

Daily Create: Home on the Range

A new verse of Home on the Range, for Daily Create #TDC1471 in honour of my furnace.

Home, home heat exchange

Not working, no heating today;

Today often is heard a discouraging word

Through three sets of chattering teeth.

Where the air is so cold, cuz it’s from outside,

The windchill so %$^&* unkind,

Yes I would exchange my home on the range

for one in a warmer clime.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/139056912@N05/24435275006/in/photostream

Where is the West?

The term ‘Western’ draws to my mind dusty, sandy land with craggy mesas in the back ground. Small towns in the middle of nowhere thrown together in no time at all. Men usually look dirty and smelly. Women often wear outfits so complex you’d think they would get in it just the one time and stay in it forever, yet they somehow always look crisp and clean. Approximately 30% of people are wearing ponchos. Holsters are everywhere. When you live in a place where the law is not quite in control, you’d probably want to be able to shoot your way out of trouble. This may still be a problematic attitude today.

Where is ‘The West’? Well the obvious answer is it’s over there to the west. Somewhat south, too because it usually seems hot. Maybe it’s Mexico. Mexico is probably close by anyway. I remember seeing Unforgiven when I was quite young and thinking it was a weird Western because it didn’t seem so hot all the time. So am I wrong or is Clint Eastwood? It might be me. I’m just describing to you how I have ‘Western’ stored in my brain. I haven’t seen a new Western since maybe Django Unchained, but that was kind of a Southern wasn’t it? Was that a ‘Southern’? Being from Canada, I think we should start a new genre called ‘Northerns’ where we just re-shoot classic westerns in snowy locales where we can see our breath and we have a tough time shooting with mittens on. The trailers for Hateful Eight show snow everywhere all the time. What are you doing to my understanding of ‘Westerns’, Quentin? You’re messing it up.

In my dusty, hot Western world imagine how uncomfy it would be after a big rain? Mud everywhere, can’t just throw your stuff in the laundry. You probably have to hike to the top of the mountain to find a creek to rinse off and beat your clothes with rocks while you freeze nearly to death in your birthday suit.

Anyway, this important piece of literature you just read was to let you know what a Western means to me right now. Let’s see if that changes as I continue to sit around this #Western106 campfire. See y’all next time!

 

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