Righty ho! I’ve  realised that up until this point I had no idea what this blog was about, other than to get me to commit to something. But today I decided on it’s purpose, and that is to help me sort out all the projects I have going on at the moment.

I’m going to start simple. I am a third of my way through my A2 year and my graphics project is a mess, naturally, and I only have 6 weeks or so to sort it out! So i’m going to set myself a target or two for it and report back at the end of the week on whether or not I have triumphed! Or just failed miserably….

Target 1

Redesign Willy Wonka! (my project involves redesigning children’s characters by the way)

Target 2

Now now, lets not get too ambitious! Let’s see if we can pull the target 1 off first shall we?

I have armed myself with a camera, so I can take pictures and prove I have done it! Huzzah!

Now back to my Media Studies work, woot… Toodlepip!

JB

We live at some distance from our extended family on both sides. My home valley is between 8 hours (as my speed-demon brother drives) and 10 hours (as more sensible, non-speeding, stop-to-pee me drives) away. My Tall, Dark, and Slightly Neanderthal husband’s family is a good week’s drive away, down on the Gulf Coast. Neither of the Grandmas gets to see our kids as much as they would like, and the Greatmas have it even worse.

(According to my nearly-5-year-old, the nomenclature works like this:

• Mom and Dad
• Grand Ma and Grand Dad
• Great Ma and Great Dad

She came up with it her own self, and she’s not one to brook an argument on the topic. It helps her keep a lot of old people straight, and genealogy is rough when you’re not even eye-level with the kitchen countertop.)

We work hard to keep family relationships strong across the miles. Phone calls are frequent, and we spend a lot of time telling our kids family stories from our lives, and those of the Grand and Great parents. You’ll hear that nearly-5 girl talk fondly about her Grandpa C, though he died six years before she was born. She also gets a little irate that she can’t go visit her namesake Great-Greatma Fern (who died in 1992, at the age of 101 1/2. My spicy child came along nearly 13 years later, for goodness sake, but linear time is a little iffy when you’re small.) She feels connected, because she knows them through stories.

When a friend of mine sucked me into the vast conspiracy and cult that is “Scrapbooking,” one of the first projects I saw a use for was a progressive album for each of the Grandmas. My mom already had an album going, so it was a simple thing to do up simplified pages as I did my own album work, and send over sets to pop into her book. My husband customized a nice binder for his mom, and we send down new layouts already in page protectors, to help her keep up to date on our lives, and how the kids are growing and changing.

I’m not good at contributing to these progressive albums on a regular basis, but I keep it in mind when buying paper; I tend to buy double what I need for my own layout, so I can split the other set of papers into simplified versions for my mother and mother-in-law.

More recently (mid-November), I’ve started another progressive album, this time for my grandmother, who is confined to bed for a bit, recovering from an injury. “Sitting Still” is a foreign concept to her, let alone laying still! To help her pass the time, I put together a smaller, 8×8″ album with pictures from our family’s year, including our visit to her house this summer. I tried to include the stories behind the pictures with short captions on each layout.

I know she’s far more concerned with just being able to see the children’s faces and activities, rather than being impressed by the newest “product”, so the layouts are very, very light on embellishments. I stuck with one color of stamping ink (sepia) and one writing pen color (black), accenting stamped images with colored pencils here and there. Most pages have no patterned paper at all; I cut up a grand total of two 12×12″ patterned paper sheets to finish 30 pages! No stickers, no brads, no ribbons, no stitching, no vellum, no rub-ons, no glitter, no embossing.

The streamlined embellishment still took time, but in about 8 hours, I’d scrapped pictures from February through last week, and I’ll be able to finish the last four layouts (in addition to the current 15) and have the whole album in the mail in the next 24 hours. By the weekend, she and my grandfather will have a new set of stories to read together, and a new set of smiles to light up the room.

I rebel against any generation gap.

What does it take to undo an old fashioned culvert keeping endangered salmon from going a mile or more upstream? Take a look at the three minute time lapse video from near Olympia, where a coalition of environmental organizations pushed for and achieved the reclaiming of a salmon stream. Now only a few thousand more to go!

Where’s Snyder Cove/Creek? If you use Google Earth, it’s here:

Enjoy !
Unfortunatly, it is not available for a large type of platform. Just a question of time.

Still Someone will be having a “signing station” at the Home for the Holidays 5K in Upper Sandusky on Saturday, December 5. Stop by John Stewart UMC after the race at 9AM and sign a card for a senior!

Full size image

Full size image

Videos of the Organic Electric Project

As I said before, I have recently started a new job.  With that has come a new, but bland, office.  So, I got to work.  The first project I have completed is a table for the office.  I found this ugly guy with a paper top for a couple of dollars at the thrift store:

I started by sanding the wood legs and sides a bit and then painting them black.  I then used scrapbook paper on the top.  I taped the paper down, starting with a full sheet in the very middle of the table.  When the sheets were lined up nicely, I used ModPodge to cover the sheets, using a foam brush.  I did several coats of this, drying in between. 

Black and white, of course!

One thing I learned from using the ModPodge was that it makes the paper wet, so at first it will bubble up.  This smooths out as it dries.  But, I did make the mistake of lining the paper sheets up perfectly edge to edge.  Lining them up with a bit of overlap would have prevented the sheets from moving as they dried.  I do have a few tiny spots where there are gaps between the paper now.  I learned!

Today we went to the Computer room to  use the projector and listen to your  power point presentations of  the city outing. Only two groups managed to meet the deadline and finish the work. I know that some people had technical problems and other people were ill but next time you must organize your groups more effectively.Two groups did the presentation today, it was a good job but there are some things that can be improved. We learn from errors, don’t we?  here follow some hints:

Regarding the slides:

• Check spelling. If you work in groups, a person can type and the others check that there are no spelling mistakes. The questions were in the dossier, so there is no excuse for making so many errors.
• Follow the instructions. If the instructions say ” write a caption” , the task is not completed if you do not write a caption.
• Do not copy things you do not understand.

Regarding the oral presentation:

1. Introduce the topic and the group  to the audience.
2. Keep eye contact
3. A power point is a visual help to make what you want to say clearer to the audience, use it as a visual aid not as a book.
4. A power point is not something you just “read”. Do not read all the time. There is no point in presenting a power point to an audience if you only read what is written in the slides.
5. Be natural
6. Make spontaneous comments. (it was a nice day! Look at that, Can you see…?, please, can we see the next slide?)
7. Ask questions to the audience. ( do you understand? shall I repeat? is it clear? or any other questions that make your presentation more interactive)
8. Practice pronunciation
9. Use body language and point with your hands, cursor or pointer to the area or aspect of the slide you are commenting
10. The way you present the information is as important as the slides
11. You work in group, so every member must collaborate and pay attention to what is going on.
12. Thank the audience for their attention and ask for questions or suggestions

The groups that have not done the presentation yet have an advantage. They can practice. Have these 13 points  in front of you and rehearse the presentation. Check that you follow the instructions.

Congratulations to the people who did it first and good luck  to the rest of you.

Pep Toni, Xisco and Guillem’s presentation

Miquel Angel, Laura and Marta’s presentation

POST 74  HOMEWORK: copy the hints for a good oral presentation in your notebook and keep these hints in mind while doing the presentation. Practice with your group before Friday.

I’m going to be starting on a couple of new things that should start showing up around next week. Concept art, Preview Builds, and and couple of visuals of whatever I’m able to come up with using GameMaker 7.

Thanksgiving Break is here, which in academia means one thing: Try to get all your procrastinated school and house work done in a week. My break is bookended by baby showers and Thanksgiving meals, so I’ve got three effective days at home for the house projects, but the papers will follow me from event to event like Dickensian orphans. Here’s what’s in store (feel free to share your own lists, and we’ll be miserable together):

• Grade 55 ethics term papers
• Review 8 ICA submissions (by Dec. 3-7)
• Read 2 grad student research proposals
• Complete Social Media class syllabus
• Get tree stand, set up tree, and decorate it
• Hang lights on house and bushes
• Set up Christmas village
• Unpack and set up/put away baby shower gifts
• Bag and drawer comic books

Just for reference, most of my week will involve taking things from here …

… and putting them here …

… and here.

Back to work.

This project is a collaboration of Ruth Tringham (UC Berkeley/MACTiA), Steve Mills(University of Cardiff, UK), Michael Ashley (UC Berkeley/MACTiA/CIO/IST), Colleen Morgan (UC Berkeley), Eric Blind (Archaeology Unit of the San Francisco Presidio Trust) and Jason Quinlan (Çatalhöyük Research Project).

Ruth, Steve, and Michael after Sunday brunch in Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco

The project aims to share the multisensorial experience and memory of a place, specifically Cultural Heritage sites. Media through which this challenge is approached include VideoWalks, Video(Pod)casts, audio recordings, interviews of remembered sensations. The first site in which the project has been developed is the 9000-year old mound of Çatalhöyük, Turkey.

This image is licensed by a Creative Commons attribution 2.5 license

Ruth and Steve Mills preparing their peripatetic video at Çatalhöyük, july 2005. Note that I am using Mike Figgis (“Timecode”) FigRig as a steadycam for my beloved Sony VTR2000. The usual question at airports is “what happened to your car, Madam?”. Steve is using a digital soundrecorder with some kind of GPS attachment. Very cool!.

The project was created in the Fall of 2004 with some video interviews of Çatalhöyük archaeological team members on their memories of sensual experience at the site. The idea was to create a database of these memories and add to them multi-sensual memories of imagined residents at the site 9000 years ago. in July 2005 we added the dimension of layered videowalks that were filmed during the excavation season. At this point the project was called CatalVideoPlace project.

In May 2006 we all got together in San Francisco for a month. The project expanded to include the San Francisco Presidio, which was in continuous use as a military post from 1776 to 1994, spanning the Spanish, Mexican, and United States periods. It is now a National Historic Landmark District. At this point we renamed the project the Remediated Places Project.

In July 2006 Colleen Morgan (Anthropology, UC Berkeley) continued the project at Çatalhöyük, while the rest of us were enjoying the summer scene in San Francisco. She has now joined the collaboration.

An article that sets the scene:
Putting Vision in its Place: the interweaving of senses to create a sense of place at Çatalhöyük]. I gave this at the Stanford University “Seeing the Past” conference in February 2005. This version does not have any illustrations (yet).

Abstract: Putting Vision in its Place: the interweaving of senses to create a sense of place at Çatalhöyük

In this paper I look at the visualization of a place that exists in the present and existed in the past – in this case the mound of Çatalhöyük – through filter of present “viewers”. Following on from some of the “Sensual Geographers” such as Tuan, Porteous, and Rodaway, I consider the complex interweaving of all of our senses that – at different scales of perception – contribute to our own memory of a place and its visualization as a place that might have existed in the past. In using the word “visualization” we are following the dominating metaphors that are inspired by the sense of sight. This dominance perseveres in many of the computerized “visualizations”. My argument here is that visual memory, dreaming, and imagining of places may seem to be based on vision, but that other senses – and especially their complex and subtle interweaving – are actually playing very important roles, When taken into account and even problematised, these roles can help to transform the computerised expression and visualization of past places. Through a series of interviews, videos, still images, soundbytes, and other tricks of the trade, I attempt to demonstrate the importance of putting vision in its place in creating the sense of place at Çatalhöyük.

http://traumwerk.stanford.edu:3455/31/319

about Mobile Geographies
Mobile Geographies is a project that aims to create a platform for the production and dissemination of geo-tagged urban information – including historical facts, individual experiences, neighbourhood statistics, planning information and other information deemed important by a community of users. The goal is to connect virtual narrative layers to tangible places, providing a ghosted space where stories, histories and statistics reveal patterns of associations or visions of the future. Mobile phones serve as both the input and output devices of information in this project.

This project is a collaborative effort between students and faculty from Mumbai at the Rachana Sansad Academy of Architecture and students and faculty from The New School, including Parsons Communication Design and Technology department and the New School for Social Research’s Anthropology department. Lead faculty are Colleen Macklin, Stephanie Owens and Vyjayanthi Rao. You can email us for more info!

I met with two representatives from Brescia’s Communications and Marketing department this morning to discuss a work placement opportunity for next term. I have to admit, I am very interested in the projects they have up coming for 2010 that I could be a part of. They are offering a variety of marketing and communications experiences: which is what any graduate student would want. I still have one more placement to consider and I am meeting with them later this afternoon. Brescia’s Communications and Marketing department’s placement offer is definitely going to be tough to beat.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but blogging is really a feast-or-famine kind of thing. You have a great weekend with time enough to think and read a book, and suddenly you have like 6 posts all thought out, including a societal indictment and discussion of good bras. This after the last month where you hoarded and scrimped anecdotes in a desperate attempt to make your life sound interesting, at least to yourself.

Well, I’ve discovered that hoarding good blogging material is a little like hoarding Thanksgiving leftovers — if you don’t use them right away, they go bad. So you might as well whip up a nice tall open-faced turkey sandwich and enjoy already.

Fantastic!

This weekend was marked on the calendar as “Brenda is Fantastic” weekend. I put it on the calendar so I would take it seriously. There are always things that need to be done, and making myself look and feel good is usually at the bottom of that list. That’s ok short term, but sometimes you need to invest in yourself in order to give as wholly to the other people who count on you. “Brenda is Fantastic” weekend started at 1:30 at Intimacy Copley Place in Boston. I’ve spent the last 5 years pregnant, nursing, trying to get pregnant, rinse and repeat. The body changes involved in that have made any investment in undergarments a losing proposition. That time is now over, and I was ready to invest.

I figured a really good bra would cost about $50. I added $25 on to my estimates to be safe. I had trouble imagining a bra could cost more than $75. The fitting was interesting. My fitter had a zip up dress so she could model the combination she was sporting that day. (In her defense, it looked great on her 10 months post-partum self!) She sat me down and gave me the lecture on proper care of my bradrobe. (I’m not making that word up.) Then she brought out the samples. I figured I’d start with two — one that would work under anything and one that would be very, uh, appealing.

None of the bras had price tags on them. This should have clued me in that I was in over my head.

I got two bras that were — are! Fantastic. They look awesome and make me feel awesome. One is extremely comfortable, and I suspect the other will be once I break it in.

But man, I totally and completely underestimated just how much a bra could cost. I’m pretty sure if I’d been shopping in a less, uh, intensive environment I wouldn’t have bought the more expensive one. I’m pretty sure if I’d seen a price tag, I wouldn’t have tried it on in CASE I liked it as much as I ended up doing. I find myself ashamed to have paid so much for something — this is a kind of indulgence I don’t really feel comfortable with. The more expensive bra cost $180.

I walked out of the store sort of shell-shocked into this mall that takes it for granted. The beautiful people all around me were likely all wearing $200 bras and $500 shoes. I looked around and I felt like I was all wrong: my shoes are a little scuffed, my pants are not designer. I was wearing makeup (unusual for me) but we’re talking Wet-and-Wild folks. My top, which seemed pretty in the morning, seemed dowdy and unsophisticated in the glare of the marble. My favorite courduroy jacket seemed threadbare in the soft lighting. My purse is hopeless — a $20 Target creation overflowing with children’s toys and touched by white wall paint in the corner. I hugged it close to my body hoping no one would notice me. As I hunted desperately for safe ground (aka Starbucks) I hoped no one would see me or call me out or notice how wrong I was. I wondered just what criteria the numerous lurking security officers used for escorting someone out. (One hopes more than a terrible purse.) I felt like there was exactly one part of my entire self that was ok for this place: the new bra.

These environments are set up to make you feel like you are not good enough. They also try to let you know that your failings are not permanent — if you spend enough money, pay enough attention and do the right things, you might perhaps hope to walk those halls between the Prada store and Monolo Blalik with confidence that you are all right. You are presented with the false hope that this is a winnable path to being acceptable.

I choose not to play that game. I vehemently reject the premise that “good enough” has to do with the right shoes and right clothes and perfection of physical attributes. It was a with a great sigh of relief that I crossed the busy street to Back Bay T stop, to a more normal world where I’m a perfectly ok person.

Did I mention I picked up “Twilight” to read during my sojourn? I enjoyed it as I switched from the Orange to the Red line. You see, I know Forks. My father lived there for a year when I was in my late teens. A boyfriend and I on a date had once wandered our way across the Olympic Peninsula, to many of the spots mentioned. I was that love-lorn teenager wishing to be called out as special in that tiny Northwest town. The bits about the sports — Volleyball etc. — ring very true. She must’ve grown up there too. So in addition to being a fun if flippant read, it made me rather nostalgic. Thank heavens I didn’t encounter it when I was 16 or I would’ve thought that FINALLY someone UNDERSTOOD me!

Anyway, on to my next stop. I got off at Harvard Square, with fading self-consciousness, and went to DHR to get my hair cut. Dale did an amazing job — I think this is the best cut he’s ever given me. I opted not to add some clarification to a rather vehement opinion Rob held about the middle ages (see also: completely monolithic society with total control over everyone — so not possible), and switched conversation safely over to “Red Dwarf” instead (they’re huge sci-fi fans).

And I emerged looking fantastic. I went home and had dinner prepared by my husband, got the kids in bed, and finished reading Twilight in the bath.

Truly, fantastic.

Not sure if you can really see the haircut -- I should've used a better backdrop

Shutter speeds

With the camera in a fixed position and focussed on a moving subject, take a series of exposures at different shutter speeds.

For this exercise I used my daughter as my subject and got her to scooter past the camera at a relatively constant speed.  I used my 50mm prime lens.  The camera was hand-held.

I then took another set of shots trying to pan the camera to keep the subject in focus.  I found this quite tricky, as I had to move the camera sideways to follow her movement. The three best shots are below.

I’ve arranged a couple of interventions to run at unCraftivism

12/12/2009 – 13/12/2009 : Arnolfini, Bristol (UK)

Sock_em : a collaborative networking game date tbc

A playful intervention based on exposing hierarchies in network systems.

Collaborative research seminars date tbc

Presentation of works and discussion with David G. Johns and David Strang (davidjdavids), Helen Pritchard and one more tbc.

Exploring the synthesis of arts practice and research.

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More about the event at craftivism.net

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“unCraftivism is a satellite event of Craftivism.

unCraftivism is uncurated.  Your work will not be judged, or restricted by a theme, nor does it have  to be finished. unCraftivism is self-organized. You organize and promote  your own event, whether an art piece, a performance, a talk, a workshop,  a meal, a song, a party or an undefinable event.

have you ever wished you could find paper and stickers for a special trip you took – to a city, an area, a state, how about a country?

well wish no more! REMINISCE has just introduced a new line called PASSPORTS. there are 72 – that is SEVENTY TWO different destinations included in this line! each destination has it’s own two-sided paper and matching sticker sheet.

here’s a layout i did using the CHICAGO paper and stickers…

to create the skyline at the bottom of the layout, i used a craft knife to carefully cut out the skyline on the blue side of the double sided CHICAGO paper. then i backed the space with white cardstock.  I mounted the cut out skyline on a piece of white cardstock and cut it out again, then outlined it using a white gel pen. It has been adhered to the layout using 3D Dots. I moved it down and to the right of where it had been on the paper to create a “shadow” effect.

and, if you don’t happen to travel much, don’t worry, you can still think of fun ways to use this line! we love lots of different ethnic foods, so i decided to create an INTERNATIONAL RECIPE BINDER for some of my favorite recipes. i used the CHINA, INDIA, MEXICO, ITALY, FRANCE and SPAIN papers and stickers…

!!!

want more ideas for this line? then head over to the REMINISCE GALLERY and see more projects from the reminisce design team!

want even MORE ideas? then check out the REMINISCE BLOG,  there are some more awesome ideas there too!

Classwork

In today’s class we began finished talking about the main characteristics of stars and then used the H-R diagram to show how a star’s brightness in related to its surface temperature.      

Homework

Complete the “H-R Diagram” worksheet (2 sides).

Help Sessions

There will be no help session this Wednesday due to the early dismissal for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  Students needing help or who need to complete missing assignments should plan to attend my help session net Wednesday.

Notes

The notes for the Astronomy unit have been placed on the “Student Shared Drive” in the school’s computer system, but there are no notes for the engineering project

Projects

The “In a Galaxy Far, Far Away” project in due on December 7th.