– I thought Ms. Oblivion lived in physical isolation from people?  Who’s the person in the chair next to her?

– Jim is THE TA.  He’ll kick your ass if you steal his job XD  But still, I must wonder if he is merely using her as a distraction while he prepares himself for the live feed…Could the entire ds106 experience be some kind of conspiracy…

– Who is this John Oblivion?  He needs to provide proof of his legacy and relation to the good doctor.

Now, let’s get into the meat of the video.

– Teaching ds106 shouldn’t have to revolve around the failure of fair use and copyright.  All you have to do is release your stuff under the right license, and make sure that you get the right permissions to use or remix somehthing that doesn’t belong to you.  Don’t be a “hero” and try to fight this system unless you have the money.  This is the world we live in.  Unless the powers at be start caring, or unless we make them care with our superior numbers, deal with it.

– ds106, to me, doesn’t seem like it’s focusing on the culture we’re in, making us comment and critique on it, to paraphrase Jim Groom.  It seems like we’re just learning how to use tools like flickr and twitter and WordPress, GIMP, MS Paint, Adobe Photoshop, etc etc.  Maybe I’m missing something profound here, but I’m a down-to-earth kind of guy.  I don’t do theory, and I don’t do fuzzy thinking.  I do concrete, immediately practical stuff.  Do I need to flex a little beyond this?  Yes.  I’ll have a chance when I take CPSC 326 – Theoretical Foundations of Computing.  If it doesn’t make me abandon CS as a career choice, then I’ll probably appreciate theory more.  Digressing….

– Open sharing of your material, like photographs and art, is DEFINITELY a wonderful way to get yourself out there.  Once you’re noticed by a prominent person that’s taken interest in what you’re doing, maybe you can make some money on it.  Having money as your primary motivation, “what can I make and how much can I make”, is the path to the dark side.  It leads to frustration with yourself for not making enough money if you’re not as successful as you want to be, and that can make you give up altogether.  In the end, you make no money.  And it’s not just limited to art.  I am in the process of rewiring my brain to find a CS job that I actually like with fun, Christian people that I can get along with and build a friendship and spiritual bond with, rather than focusing on how much money I can make.  There’s so many variations of this saying, and this is probably one of those mutations:  “Find a job you love, and you’ll be rewarded with more than money.”  If you love your job, then your finances will satisfy you.  But if you don’t, then not even the money will make you happy, even if you have a huge monthly income.

Now, I’m going to bed after I post my third design project.  I’m suffering from poor sleep, and staying up till 1:30 am every night is making it hard to function at work.