Say it isn’t so!!

Tell me I didn’t miss some assignments from the Daily Create this week!

*sigh*

It’s a sad, sad week.  When I heard the professors mention, I think during Week 1 or 2, that usually some history paper or other will come along and take their students’ attention away from ds106 a bit now and then, I thought ‘Nay! Not I! I can write papers AND do all the daily creates! Because I am TEH AWESOME!’

This week, I found out that I am, in fact, NOT teh awesome.

But I was engaged, and I did pay attention, and I kept the ideas flowing throughout the week.  And the projects that I felt most strongly in response to, I did.  So here ya go.

Now, I know that I didn’t quite do Monday‘s the exact way requested, but…I really wanted to do this one this way.

I didn’t realize then that Schoolhouse Rock was going to be the theme of the week for me.   But so the nostalgia began.

Tuesday‘s theme was – you guessed it – 3.   Now, here, I must admit.  I didn’t make Monday’s until after seeing Tuesday’s assignment.  Prior to that, I had wanted to use Chicago’s 25 or 6 to 4, for the lyrics reversal they do in the verses (for some reason, I really was determined to do something different than what was specifically requested for this day – not sure why).  But now that the Schoolhouse Rock song mentioned above was in my head, it was all over, and it became the theme for both submissions.

In case you don’t get the reference here, in my favorite part of the Schoolhouse Rock song, they sing ‘A man and a woman had a little baby…yes they did…now there’s threeeeeee in the familyyyy.’ Baby…baby toys…three baby toys…get it?  No?  *sigh*

For Thursday’s, I kept with the baby theme (no, I don’t have baby fever, what are you talking about??  …okay maybe, but seriously, I can’t help it, it’s kinda my life – I’m hopelessly surrounded).

I had concerns that maybe this idea wouldn’t translate either, even though it made perfect sense in my head.  This happened the same day this daily create was posted, and as a result, it really struck me.  The 2.5-year old I was watching was coloring, proudly working on his letter of the week, while my 6-yr old son was working on his language arts. I’m working on introducing a ‘go-go-go-stop’ concept with the baby, a sort of introductory handwriting concept, teaching that when we write, there are separated motions in which we go and stop, go and stop.  He’s really been starting to grasp it, and I had just helped him practice it inside of his E.  Proud of himself, he decided to take his beautiful work and transfer it onto my son’s language arts assignment.  He grabbed Elijah’s paper and started to draw his beautiful straight line ‘go-go-go-STOP!!’ and beamed ear-to-ear.  My son, however, was not so happy.  His work had been vandalized, and he was HOT about it.

I couldn’t help but laugh.  If that’s not the very essence of graffiti, I don’t know what is.

Saturday’s is the next project that I did.  I had a lot of fun with this one, as the subject I chose is very near and dear to my heart.

As a child and teenager, all I wanted was to get AWAY from this place.  But as an adult, as I stargaze and run up and down the driveway and ride bikes and dig in the dirt and shoot basketballs with my kids right here in the same spots as I did growing up, I feel a connection to my family past, present, and future like I can’t possibly put into words.  This dirt holds history, and I think I just might fight to preserve it if necessary.  Makes me understand the wars I’ve read about in the history books much better than I ever had before, too.

So that’s it.  I didn’t post any of these until the last day possible, even though I had them ‘created’ long before.  I really just didn’t feel like anything I had made was good enough.  Still don’t.  But in the end, I guess I’ve got to go with what I’ve got, and, as Ira Glass says, just let my ‘crap’ be crap for a while.  Maybe eventually these beautiful ideas I have in my head will translate into reality.  But I guess they never will if I don’t ever try now.

I’ll leave you with Ira’s thoughts on the matter.   Happy crappy creating!