CogBlogged from ‘May, 2011’

Since I have asked others to share an Amazing Story of Openness, it is only fitting that I do one myself. This is a new one that happened this year: The story really played out on flickr, where I have crossed comments many times with Di (or "windsordi"), here she comments on my pile of firewood Where she says: I'm crying right now… as I look at some of the spalting in that gnarly wood, I'm seeing GREAT pen turning opportunities… I've added some notes to a couple of the logs… here's what I'd be doing with them…  Feel like cleaning up a block or two of the wood? (no bark across the border) and I'll send you back a pen? ;-) I did send a log to Canada, and got these in return All from a photo! Published originally on Posterous (email) http://amazingstories.cogdogblog.com/flickr-photo-a-log-from-arizona-and-a-pen

cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by .m for matthijs I’m hoping to carve out some time soon to get back to the garage and return to tinkering with WordPress. To that end, I spent some time categorizing new and old posts, so I have a collection now of things blogged about using WordPress at http://cogdogblog.com/wp. Here at CogDogBlog, I’ve had some challenges with what I think is memory issues- lots of 404/not found on admin pages, and worse, strongs of deadly 500 Internal Server errors for visitors. Not good. No, not good. My web server error logs are full of the not very helpful “premature end of script headers” for index.php. You could spend years combing through the google results for this. What follows is not a definitive answer to this situation, just some guesses and results of my attempts to make it stop. To [...]

It was a windy day at the Grand Canyon, but it’s clear the vistas and grandeur brought some clarity to Jim Groom’s perspectives on who has the greatest blog. Yeah, 4Life!

cc licensed flickr photo shared by @DrGarcia This photo says almost it all about the six hour ds106 radio jam camp at the Sanctuary in Vancouver, the night after Northern Voice 2011 closed. It went like this until 3am! If Jim Groom has any wondering where his voice went, look here (but it was worth it). This is what makes it worth attending a conference.

cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by your neighborhood librarian What else would you rather do on a Saturday? This looks like a lot more phone that silly rapture crap. Today’s bit is some combo of image (above) and me trying to read a short poem by Billy Collins, with some Blend Lemon chanting some Saturday music in the background. Saturday That’s my Saturday story, whats yours? #4Life! cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by Tina Vega

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by woodleywonderworks It has been a little over two months since I left the building at the NMC, two months of not working, not getting a paycheck. How is it? If you’ve been around me lately, you know my new favorite theme song. If you are not a reader of this here blog, then you don’t know the story. If you are affiliated somehow with the NMC, then all you know is that, in an unusual break from my pattern the last 5 years working there, I’ve not blasted you with email nor been part of a webinar nor posted anything on their web sites. Beyond that, my presence is only an absence. I’ll refrain from saying much more, but lest you miss something between the lines, let me say that sometimes taking the high road is a PITA when others decide [...]

Today was an epic road trip with Jim Groom- we hit Flagstaff, the tacky Flintstone Village at Valle, and then many of the viewpoints of the Grand Canyon out to the east exit, ending with an epic pile of Navajo tacos at Cameron Trading Post. This day was great, so f***ing great (f-word warning for the music in this video).

I was excited to have my session on Looking Through the Lens accepted for Northern Voice 2011. I had done this one before, but infused a few more new bits for this audience. More or less, I used photographs to talk about what we can learn about learning from the act of photography: The mechanics and art of photography unveil an intriguing metaphor for thinking about learning and our world view. For a photographer, the operation of cameras– exploiting apertures, shutter speeds, optics, — coexist with the artistic skills of pre-visualization, framing, composition. It is no longer a field dominated by pros with expensive gear, we can all make photographic art, damnit. Taking the metaphor farther, creating an engaging learning experience is much more than point and shoot or flipping the settings into automatic mode. Photography is a beautiful example of how you can get better at doing something just [...]

The first working title for this post had a reference to “This one time in Jamcamp…” but the metaphor fell down a dark gurgling hope. But time cannot pass without reflection on the experience of “Nobody’s Listening” ds106radio crew 6 hour music jam at Northern Voice. I think my ears are still reverberating; and that intense, in your head beat is a feeling I hope to not forget. But the experience has me thinking about amplifiers. Not just Marshall stacks– which are everything their reputation builds them up to– but the gathering of Northern Voice is the amplification of online relationships. To me, me wrong way of thinking of amplification is “turning it up louder” or more volume. Anyone can twist a knob, even me (but darned if I could ever find the right knobs in the dark). Done well, it is an increase of intensity of many senses- not [...]

Like a flying cannonball, like a balloon full of bricks, my goal to do a digital story a day for May has flopped mercifully: I’m not going to apologize, that is for weenies. It was a tough pace I was holding, but last week’s travel did me in… and frankly, well nobody cares if I keep these silly challenges. So I wave my FAIL flag proudly. I went down blogging. Or not blogging. At least I got my cheese. cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by j.gurian