Author Archives: dogtrax

A PhotoFridays’ Adventure

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I don’t always blog about it, but the PhotoFridays project that Bonnie started up continues to be a source of great interest. Simply put, participants (and you are invited!) add photos via Flickr to the PhotoFridays group, and then write comments and share ideas, etc. It’s a nice way to mix the visual with the written word.

Bonnie has now launched a project within PhotoFridays in which we are mailing around a pair of California Raisin figurines. When we get them, we take photos of them in our environment and then mail them off to the next person (I said it is sort of like a Flat Stanley project).

When I got the little dudes the other day, I also wrote a short, first-person narrative of their visit, and I am hoping others will follow my lead and do the same, adding the stories both to the PhotoFridays site and also in paper form into the envelope. At the end, it might be neat to see the entire collection.

Here was one of my photos:

And my narrative:

Arrived yesterday. Sick of being stuck inside this envelope. And tired of hearing my brother practice his saxophone. If he plays the melody to Tequila one more time, I am going to squeeze the last bits of grape juice from his body and leave his skin behind. Before the envelope was even opened, I heard a lot of commotion. This must be a busy house, I thought, and I warned my brother. He ignored me and started to work on some Ornette Coleman free jazz lines, which also drives me crazy. Finally, some dude opened us up and took us out. Fresh air, at last. I looked outside the window and noticed all of the trees were different colors. This must be New England, I told my brother. In the autumn, the leaves go from green to red, yellow and orange. Beautiful, man, was all he could say. He so much wants to be the hipster. The dude who took us out of the package them lined us up next to a comic book. A comic book! What are we? Some playthings? The picture on the cover was some scrawny guy, looking like he was running for president. Click. Then, the guy puts us on top of some blocks that were hung on the wall. I noticed some musical notations, and so did my brother. Cool, man, my brother said, and then started to play some Grover Washington Jr. Now, that I didn’t mind. Click. I figured we had some time, but then this guy stuffs us right back into the envelope and starts writing on the outside. Hey, man, that pen hurts! I wonder where he is sending us this time …

If you want to be a recipient of the traveling raisins, just let Bonnie know (you can find info at the PhotoFridays site, including Bonnie’s email).

Peace (in sharing),
Kevin

My Webcomic Writing Adventure

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As I mentioned, last weekend, I headed off to Missouri to give a keynote talk at a conference at the Prairie Lands Writing Project. I also created a shortened version for their website and I figured I would share that out with you. (Actually, this is the main keynote and the smaller presentation on using Web 2.0 in Education I will share out later).

(You can also download a Powerpoint slideshow of this presentation, without audio. Click here to download the presentation)

Resources in my Keynote

Day in a Lyric over at Amy’s

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We have this very neat little restaurant in a neighboring town called Amy’s Place. Great food. Good conversations. A nice hangout. I mention that because this week, we are heading over to Amy’s Blog for the Day in a Sentence. She is tweeking it into Day in a Lyric and would like us to imagine a theme song for our week. (Hopefully, no AC/DC’s Highway to Hell is on anyone’s list)

Head to Amy’s Blog

We hope you join us.

Peace (in melody),
Kevin

Your Days in a Sentence

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Greetings and here are this week’s collection of sentences.

I want to start out with a podcast that I did with a roomful of teachers at the Prairie Lands Writing Project in St. Joseph, Missouri, on Saturday as part of a talk about Web 2.0 and the ability to use the Net for connecting with a community of other teachers (and a keynote address about writing my webcomic). I asked them all to write out a Day in a Sentence, and volunteer to podcast their sentences.

Here we go:

Listen in to Prairie Lands teachers

And now, the rest of this week’s wonderful submissions:

  • I am currently reclining lazily on my leather sofa, watching television, while in the back of my mind, I realize that, because of parent-teacher conferences next week, I have papers to grade, interims to fill out, conference forms to write, and children’s work to gather in an organized fashion to share with their parents. — Karen
  • god, i love friday night football in pennsylvania – it’s a mania unparalleled by anything else i’ve experienced, and the vinegar french fries just take to the next level. — Sara
  • I am convinced of the need for more than 24 hours in day–at least if I want to include enough sleep to avoid feeling constantly fatigued. — Art
  • Today learned from my kindergarten teachers that everyone knows a David or if they don’t, at least their father does. — Eric
  • lately i’ve begun having serious vocab shortages: i know the word i want exists, i’ve used the dang-blasted thing a million times, it’s a perfectly beautifully crafted word that’s hugely better than “hugely” or “normal” or “thing” or “get” or whatever…but it eludes me. it’s not even on the tip of my tongue or the precipice of my brain…it’s lurking in deep depths, far beyond my scanty influence or gravitational pull. and it’s annoying. worrisome. irritating. laughable. (Ok. I’ve abused the concept of a sentence or the idea of a period. But, well, that’s been my week!) — Alex
  • As we head out for our daughter’s birthday celebration at a Malaysian restaurant, I wonder to myself, “how did I become the mother of a 30 year old?” — Delaine
  • Looking back, it’s as if I have been visiting a delightful foreign country over the last few years with all my class digital work; what I must remind myself is that most people I work with haven’t been to that country, and I have to place more focus on being a graceful and inviting diplomat. — Connie
  • Note to self: Lake George Friday, personal day, fun with darling husband, good weather forecast, Fort Ticonderoga! (Apologies for the fragmentation but those have been my thoughts all week long, like a countdown!) — Gail P.
  • I’m ready to unveil my new digital story today at our SI08 retreat. Almost a full hour, it celebrates the work of the community and everyone will take home a DVD copy. I wonder how many will actually pop their disk into a dvd player to share it with others? I wonder if who from this community will move into our larger HVWP community? (It’s 6 AM, pitch black still and I’m up and filled with questions….and of course, Joe is up tonight as the world watches Sarah show her stuff.) — Bonnie
  • Chronic feline illness has afflicted our household with a terrible melancholy, he’s old and not in pain, but barely touching his food and probably on the way out…but we don’t want to send him through the great catflap in the sky just yet. — David

Thanks to everyone !

We’re going to have a guest host this coming week so be on the lookout for that call for words.

Peace (in connections),

Kevin

Before the Digital Days

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This video is interesting, as it reminds us that before the digital revolution, there was an underground community seeking out art, music, books and movies that fell outside the view of the common culture. The theory of the “long tail” sort of ruins that sense of backroom discovery, I guess.

The ease of digital downloads and digital uploads means we do this kind of discovery from our own home, and we don’t fall into serendipity when uncovering that band or movie or book that will completely shake your world. And it is the hunt for the art, and the process of discovery, that makes the effort even better. (Kind of like the experience of reading a physical newspaper and coming across an article that you would never otherwise have ever seen if you were narrowing your focus).

Or, at least, this is the premise of this video.

And yet, ironically, if not for the digital world, I would never have seen this video in my life, I suspect. There are some strange ironies that go on all around us.

Peace (in discovery),
Kevin

Simply Sentences

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Please consider joining us for this week’s Day in a Sentence. No fancy themes this week. Just good ol’ fashioned sentences. How does it work? Boil down your week or a day in your week to a reflective sentence and share with the comment link on this post. I will collect all of the sentences and publish them (probably on Monday, at this point).

As for me, I am heading off to the Prairie Lands Writing Project in Missouri this weekend to give a keynote talk about writing in the online world, with a focus on my webcomic, Boolean Squared. I will show how I used the Web 2.0 and other technology as part of a writing process for the comic strip, and then, how you might move some of those ideas into the classroom. The conference looks very interesting and I am very excited about being asked to present as the keynote speaker (this is the second time this has happened – Bonnie hosted me last year at the Hudson Valley Writing Project).

My hope is to create an online version of my presentation in the next week or so.

Meanwhile, one of my activities for the crowd in the morning (where I focus on Web 2.0 and education) is to write out a Day in a Sentence and then podcast some of their words as part of our own Day in a Sentence collection. It will add some new voices into the mix and bring Day in a Sentence out a bit further.

I look forward to your words!

Peace (in connections),
Kevin

Moving Comics into Movies

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My friend, Glenn, is an inspiration to me for his work and thinking around comics. As another member of the National Writing Project, Glenn has published a regular webcomic with his regional newspaper that looks at local politics. It was called Nota Bene. I say “was” because after 100 comics, he is now moving on to a new comic strip project.

But he continues to think about ways to push the medium, and this week, he shared an experiment that moves comics into video, with narration. He has taken an issue — Merit Pay for teachers, and the possibilities of competition over students — and crafted this video. The voices are sort of creepy, which is the point.


Peace (in mixing mediums),
Kevin

Don’t Go Disappointing Me

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The elections are fast upon us, and like many, I am keeping an eagle-eye on the developments of the economy, the wars in the Middle East, and the leadership qualities of the two presidential candidates seeking to get my vote. I guess I haven’t made too many bones that I am mostly independent, leaning left on most issues, and I have been impressed by Sen. Obama. (But I also once voted in a Republican primary for Sen. McCain when he was facing off against Bush.)

I was thinking of Obama and McCain the other night, and how they seek our allegiance and then, all to often, abuse it with the whispers in their ears from lobbyists and advisors and others. I always worry they will just disappoint me again.

And so, with some taste of bitterness, I suppose, I offer up this song:

Disappointing Me
(Listen to the song)

I’ve lived a long life
Oh, the stories I could tell
I hope you don’t go disappointing me

The path is paved
with empty words that they will sell
I hope you don’t go disappointing me

Four years ahead of us — The future’s in our eyes
My baby’s getting old — and the world is compromised

They’d tell you anything
to fill your heart with fear
I hope you don’t go disappointing me

I’d like to take you
for a walk around my town
I hope you don’t go disappointing me

Just stop and listen
to the people all around
I hope you don’t go disappointing me

Four years ahead of us — The future’s in our eyes
My baby’s getting old — I hear it in his cries

You’ve got the power
to change the world that we know
I hope you don’t go disappointing me

(You can hear my youngest son in the background, talking and singing his own song and then at the end, asking me to play it again. Very funny).

Peace (in presidential promises),
Kevin