No Letter Home This Week I'm Afraid

The Daily Create 171 - An object that's hard to find or recognise

I am running out of time before I start packing my suitcases. I am afraid I haven't got time to record a weekly letter, so instead I will just share this week's Daily Create assignments.

Above you can see a toy car that is not really a toy car, but my favourite USB stick.

This creepy crawly critter is what I would be terrified of if I saw it in my bunkhouse:


The Daily Create 172 - Sketch the creepiest crawly critter you can imagine

By the way - to create the web-like lines I used Scribbler 2.

Finally, the sound of summer rain after a long period of very hot weather:


The Daily Create 169 - record 30 seconds of ambient sound in your environment

And now I will say goodbye to my friends from the camp and everyone else who is reading this. I am going to a spa and I promise I will come back with a lot of photos and stories to tell.

See you in a week's time.

Technorati Tags: DS106, weeklyletter

My Five Minutes of Fame

cc licensed ( BY NC ND )  flickr photo shared by ~FreeBirD®~

As I said in my previous post, we are expected to collaborate on a group radio show project within our bunkhouses. In Slaughterhouse 4 we chose travel as our main topic and the title of our show is A Tourist's World. I chose a story I often tell - the one about how I visited India and saw the Taj Mahal.


cc licensed ( BY NC )  flickr photo shared by betta design

I am not sure whether I am supposed to share my part of the show on my blog or not, but since I am travelling on Sunday and will not be here next week when the show is broadcast, here's my five minutes:



Looking forward to your feedback.

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Your Magic Carpet Is Here

cc licensed ( BY NC )  flickr photo shared by Heart Industry

It is Week 6 in Camp Magic McGuffin and I am running out of time, since I am travelling on Sunday and will be away during Week 7. Still, I have managed to finish my main assignments. I have created a radio bumper for the show I am collaborating on with other members of Slaughterhouse 4. I have also finished my 5 minutes of the show. I wish I could have worked more on it, but there was no time.

At my bunkhouse we chose travel as our main topic and the title of the show is A Tourist's World. That's why I decided to play with the magic carpet metaphor. I recorded my voice in Audacity, then used sound effects to make my speech faster and my voice deeper. My idea was to sound a little like a British butler. Then I uploaded the Audacity files to Myna and continued editing the bumper. I chose the tracks from the Adventure section in Myna and I almost happy with it. At least, I like it much better than my last week's bumper, but then that means that I am learning. Here it is:



So, fasten your seat-belts and listen to Slaughterhouse 4.

Technorati Tags: ds106, RadioShowBumper

Week 5 - Stepping out of Comfort Zone

cc licensed ( BY NC )  flickr photo shared by LarimdaME

Since Week 5 in Camp MacGuffin is all about audio, we are sending audio messages home instead of letters:



This is not so different from leaving a message on an answering machine and I felt it was OK to improvise rather than read from a paper.

As I have said in the recording, Week 5 was about stepping out of comfort zone. For one of my Daily Creates I had to sing. I mean, I didn't have to do it, but I did. I don't want to repeat what I said in the recording, but the atmosphere in the Camp is such that singing felt quite OK. I will even go so far as to embed the recording right here:


The Daily Create 165 - Share a campfire song on audio. Sing of bang drums.

Two days later we had to draw. I am terrible at drawing and I said so:


The Daily Create 167 - Draw a person using only geometrical shapes

Today's Daily Create wasn't difficult. We took a closer look at where we spend a lot of free time and photographed something we had never noticed before.


The Daily Create 168

It is not that I don't notice Leonardo, it is just that I don't notice him enough. Placed behind my back while I work at my desktop, he has kept me company through all my web adventures.

So, that's all folks. See you in Week 6.

Technorati Tags: DS106, weeklyletter

Taking Back Spam

The Daily Crete 166 - Take a picture of something that makes you sick

I connected one of my Daily Creates with an audio assignment here. Partly to save time, but mostly because I had a hard time remembering something that makes me sick. Because I was working on Audio Assignment 351, I thought I could take a screenshot of the spam I was reading and post it as a photo. A good idea, except that the screenshot didn't look very nice, so I decided to edit it using Pic Monkey. Then I got carried away a little.

And here is the recording:

Bonus track - Reverend Connor Strikes Again

I couldn't resist this. It only came yesterday, otherwise I would have used that one. It somehow tricked my Spam Guard. Maybe Google now thinks I love spam?

Technorati Tags: DS106, AudioAssignments, AudioAssignments351

Time to Wake Up

cc licensed ( BY NC )  flickr photo shared by Gnu2000

For Audio Assignment 466 I created my own alarm clock. The goal was to use sounds around us (no music, no voice). I am not one of those people who wake up easily and there are very few sounds that don't irritate me early in the morning. However, I remembered the recording of nightingales I made last spring when I was in my holiday house in the country. My first idea was to use them to help me fall asleep, but instead they just woke me up even more. So, reassigning them to their new role was a logical thing:


cc licensed ( BY NC ND )  flickr photo shared by Sergey Yeliseev

Technorati Tags: DS106, AudioAssignments, AudioAssignments466

A DIY Ringtone

cc licensed ( BY )  flickr photo shared by aussiegall

For Audio Assignment 152 I created my own ringtone. I used Roc by Aviary, which lets you create your own music. The drums I chose all come from the African Percussion section:



Roc is easy to use, especially if you watch the tutorial first. If you decide to play with Roc (it is highly addictive), you will find out that, due to its repetitive nature, Roc "music" is suitable for ringtones and alarm clocks.

I like this assignment because of its practical purpose. Whether you decide to actually use the ringtone or not, you will have good fun.

Technorati Tags: DS106, AudioAssignments, AudioAssignments152