Hi Mom, Hi Dad!

(**yes, I know they will REALLY see this! I’ve shared my web address with them!)

Week 4 at Camp MacGuffin was Design Week! Learned lots and accomplished a lot, but still lagged by a day or so. So here’s an overview of what the last week held for me in ds106:

I started by researching Creative Commons and copyright. Although I already knew a lot about copyrights, from my time spent as a department manager and copyright manager at Kinko’s…although that was many moons ago now. Creative Commons (CC) was new territory for me and I found it exciting! I chose to license my photos and other image work on Flickr, as well as my this website and its contents, under a the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) license, so that others can share, use, and alter my works, as long as they credit me for the contribution and do not use the work for any commercial purposes. I was a little late blogging about CC in Copyrights, Creative Commons, & Immortality mostly because I was hung up on creating the CC promotional poster and I wanted to incorporate it into the CC post, instead of posting it separately. I spent WAY too much time trying to figure out how to make the background of the logo transparent, but I finally figured it out and I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.

This week’s theme was design. After researching and refreshing my artistic knowledge of design concepts, I went on a Design Safari, scouting for real-world examples of the different design elements. I published the examples and an explanation of each concept individually. I mainly did this so I could feel like I was making SOME progress without waiting until the end of the week to do one comprehensive post. Fallout in Fredericksburg shows symbolism in design and Domineering Downtown Dwelling is an example of dominance. I found these two as I reviewed the dozens of images from my photo shoot excursion to Fredericksburg a week or so ago. Mother Nature’s Mountain Rhythm and Memorial Minimalism in Design showcases rhythm and minimalism respectively. These images were both captured in the Virginia mountains, at two different scenic overlook stops along I-64 on Friday.

Two of our Design Assignments for the week were given to us. Okay, it was a choice to pick 2 out of 3 on a list, but I discarded one, because, well…Minecraft is kinda my worst nightmare. I spent a week or more fumbling around, unable to even move my little guy around. After some help from the oh-so-patient and helpful Martha, I finally got enough of a hang out it to move around, place blocks/items, and blow things up, but flying is dangerous! I got hung in a tree once and several times, I’ve gone flying and can’t get down! I even solicited assistance from my 13-soon-to-be-14-year old son, Austin, who was just THRILLED to know he could teach ME something. Almost. I think I know enough to participate when necessary now. I’m just NOT a virtual world kinda girl!

Anyway, back to the Design Assignments. In addition to the CC poster from  Copyrights, Creative Commons, & Immortality, which was one of the mandatory design assignment choices, I reviewed another ds106 assignment from DS106 Inspire in Designer Breakfast with a Berry Splash. After getting the required ones out of the way, I went to work looking for the additional ones I’d do this week. I settled on Apocalypse Anyone?, The Big Picture Captioned Courtesy of Maroon 5, and my absolute favorite assignment yet…What People Think I Do as a Proposal Manager! I shared this with Facebook as well as my colleagues at work and it was a HUGE hit! Now I’m entertaining Alan’s suggestion that I get it printed on a die, so I can roll it and let fate decide which side of me they’ll get that day!

The Design Safari sorta replaced The Daily Creates this week. I didn’t get any time to devote to Daily Creates, much to my disappointment. Maybe I can circle back and do some of the ones I missed out on! Or, maybe…the Camp MacGuffin Directors will give us a “freestyle” week to focus on the types of art we enjoy most! Hint, hint…?

I’m having a lot of fun figuring out the capabilities of this blogging thing. This week I figured out how to link text to other sites ALL BY MYSELF! So, please, feel free to click around and see where it takes you!

I’m not looking forward to the next 2 weeks, as we explore audio assignments and radio, but maybe I’ll find some fun in there somewhere.

Until next week…

**Update: I can’t believe I forgot to mention that I MADE CAMPER OF THE WEEK! Much to my surprise I might add! Check out the badge on the right corner of my blog!