hippiecow

Five Card Story: How the silence a Five Card Flickr story created by Anna Cow flickr photo by bionicteaching flickr photo by bionicteaching flickr photo by Serenae flickr photo by Serenae flickr photo by cogdogblog We never hear anything from the house...

On my search for books with a common theme I found these three titles all about death in some way. The book of Harper Lee is partly a drama with murder and death. 
The second book of Agatha Christie uses death as a means to have fun. The attraction of somebody’s  misery  for recreation. 
Neil Postman is warning us against the brainless uses of broadcasting television. 

lamb

A cow from France 

would  extremely love to dance

She wrote on twitter

an invitation to dance with her

"But I don’t want a man,

Because j’aime le can-can

This is a nice old brooch my granny gave me. Dear souvenir of a great cow. tdc841 this is what I would grab in case of fire. https://www.flickr.com/photos/120371802@N02/14060333565/in/photolist-nqsTje-ns6itM-no8bsA-nrHEb2-nsbGFt

Do A Selfie Badly

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 10:00 PM PDT

So hip, so trendy are selfies. Let’s go against the grain; review some of the advice such as Anatomy of a Great Selfie or How to Take Good Selfies and try to break as many rules as possible. Make a terrible selfie.

Editors note to Sandy: Don’t get mad at me! We like to do ‘em counter the norm

Upload your photo to flickr and tag it dailycreate and tdc837

Postcard from space: Postcard from space #ds106

Book Cover Use GIMP look for a background photo ad text try again, and again try different colors different fonts

tea gif

The ds106 Tshirt. This silly cow did wear it inside out. Now it is OK.

The DS106 office.The entrance has a warning for Cow Dung. I think that is specism, The Cog Dog has no warning sign, nor the Humans!

My perspective on What a story is. 

Long time ago my father used to tell stories. At breakfast he told his dreams, and in the evening he told a story sitting at the fire. When we were walking in the woods he told stories. Listening to him was connecting to him. He was a great storyteller.

Telling a story, even reading a story to somebody is a magic experience. Looking into the eyes of the children who you tell a story is a blessing. The silence when a good story is told is emotional. And gives energy to the story teller. 
The listener trusts the storyteller to be careful and tell a good story.

A story is a way to talk to your audience and show, from behind the curtain of the story, who you are.

Digital storytelling seems to put a distance into the relation between audience and storyteller. But digital stories do make me smile and sometimes the magic is in digital storytelling too. Does it need more care and craftsmanship to make a digital story work?

The story must have a bait and the bait must activate the listener first. The story Under One Roof inhttp://ds106.us/2014/03/16/gmu-week-1/#exploring-the-shape-of-stories did not attract my attention. No bait. No reason to watch, to listen, to care.

The other story up there Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek does have a bait. I did start to read and watch this story about a woman in an avalanche. But when the avalanche ended the story went in another gear. No bait for me there. 

A story needs kind of power to attract attention. 
Ira Glass wants a story to ask questions. Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek did not ask good questions.

My father only said, “once upon a time”, and we all listened. Because we trusted his stories to be good. When you are new to the audience, your bait must be more than just “once upon a time”. 

Andrew Stanton wants the story to make a promise, that reading will be worth the time.
He says absence of information is what makes us follow the story, we want to solve the problem and get a picture. Give your audience 2+2 and not the 4. Make them do the thinking.

Wonder is what a good story makes, it makes you wonder.

The story of the Heffalump is in Winnie-The-Pooh. You know that book.  

One day Piglet and Winnie-the-Pooh want to catch a Heffalump.
Winnie falls in the Very Deep pit. His head in the honey-jar.
Piglet peeps into the trap, and the Heffalump is there!
Christopher Robin comes to save the bear.

The shape of the story

I prefer another metaphor to picture the shape of the story.
The story starts with a blue sky.
Winnie falls in the pit, the sky is dark and cloudy.
Christopher comes and the sky is blue again. 

Vonnegut would say this is a man in hole story. 

Pixar Rules

In the story the characters have opinions. (Rule #13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.) That is the fun part of the story. Winnie has opinions on honey and on self-confidence (“I was right. It is honey right the way down.”)  and Piglet has opinions on bravery. (for the word which was really jiggeting about in his brain was “Heffalumps” )

The story spine

It is a once upon a time story. 
Talking about Heffalumps. W & P dicide to catch a Heffalump.
Than, because of that they dig a pit and put a jar of honey in it
until finally
W falls in the pit. The head of W is in the jar. 
Piglet is afraid of the Heffalump in the pit. 
Here the spine has a new element, a savior. 
Christopher comes and saves both. 

Baby for neighbors 

Little lamb and mother feeling well. Congrats. 
Always beautiful pictures, mother and baby. 
And the drinking baby always wiggles its tail. (that could be a nice animated gif) 

Hallo to you 

I like this book The Cow Who Fell In The Canal by by Phyllis Krasilovsky, Peter Spier (illustrator). 
Hallo to you, nice to meet you. I am very exited about this course digital storytelling. I did see some glimpses of ds106 and saw new ways of telling stories.
To me Tumblr is a new blogging experience. I am used to Wordpress, but want to try this blogging app.

Sweet boy

<a href=”http://ds106.us/category/the-site/spring-2014-gmu/”>course</a>