cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by hey mr glen
The worst kind of blog post opens with some sort of apology for not blogging. It’s a good thing I am not doing that correctly? Because the only one I should every be sorry to ius myself, my personal audience of me who reads what I write. And if I don;t read, I think I still know what’s going on.
The passage of time being quick, rapid, dizzying, seems an understatement. If you see my lost time, and those 9000 pair of unmatched socks, and the pile of car/house/gate keys, and that 1971 Hank Aaron baseball card, please let me know.
One thing that seem to have fallen off my track are photography. The daily habit is hung out on the line. But really, who am I answering to? I more or less did regular daily photos since 2007. I’m on sabbatical.
Actually, i seem to be doing more with the iPhone, which is not to say I am hanging the DSLR up. Not in the least. It is still one of the things I enjoy the most, and had a fun resurge today. I went up for a rainy day rendezvous with my sisters (who are in the Baltimore area) and we had a great day at the National Portrait Gallery / Smithsonian Art Museum, conjoined museums which makes it interesting to pass from one to the next.
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog
I never thought much about a portraits being of interest, but I was rather intrigued by the micro stories of biography you get there, one person per painting/photo/statue, each an invite to go more.
Like Bucky Fuller, what is inside the geodesic head?
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog
Anyhow, that thing of photography I enjoy most is finding some interesting frame of detail.
Blogging to has gone a bot ragged. But I’ll be f****ed if I am going to blog about not blogging.
Next.
The days go fast at DTLT at University of Mary Washington, and the pace is frenetic. I could not be at a better place. Some of y’all seemed to have missed the memo; I have not been here just teaching ds106, I am on full time at UMW.
And yes, teaching ds106 – what a ride that is now into the last week. I’ve got a backload of reflections. I have a truckload of “things I would like to do better”. I am super impressed with the output of many of my students, yet still struggle to feel good about the way I have been structuring the class time. Getting the engagement level on that stage has been frustrating for me, and a number of the students seem in it for just doing the assignments, getting the grade. Where’s the “#4life” in that?
The exciting thing has been crafting the new ds106 Remix machine, and starting to plan with my summer collaborator, Martha Burtis, on the ds106 online summer course we will co-teach starting in (yikes!) about a month.
But let’s keep that glass half full.
New on the to do list is doing more biking.
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog
The country roads around here have been wonderful diversions of exploring, if a bit wanting on decent shoulders and lanes, once you get away from the traffic, there are tons of quiet back roads. But I am getting in gear here- I signed up to do a 100 mile ride in late August with D’Arcy Norman up in Banff, so I have some serious training to do. I maye even retool the old “I Hate Running” blog – that URL still works for a biking blog.
Other things on the horizon will be a 3 week extended visit to Vancouver, to pilfer the minds at UBC on their uses of Mediawiki, plus to hang out with the East Van gang (Will the Soundlab still be around, Jason?) as well as getting to hang with Bryan Jackson and hopefully Scott Leslie. And attend Northern Voice.
And then! I’ve got a green light to work.teach remotely in July, so I am headed back to my home in Strawberry for a repsite, and to clean the weeds. In the yard.
I find some pangs of thinking back to a year ago, when I was ramping up my year of freedom, and in Junem when I started the 6 month road odyssey. I’ve not progressed much, if any, with what to do, if anything, from that experience. Writing a “book” makes me yawn. But I have a ton of media, not to mention the 3 tons of media in the StoryBox. I have been dabbling some with Jux to publish some bits and some (unblogged) (yet) dabbling with a year later’s reflection in Cowbird.
Time. Where are you? I know you are out there.
Sorry? Nah.
cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by dmixo6
I hate running, too. But I fracking LOVE riding 🙂 Can’t wait for the gran fondo. August in the rockies, without having to worry about traffic on the highway? awesome.
I’ve been doing the daily-photo thing for years now, too. I’ve totally changed how I approach it – I no longer meticulously tag a photo as being “365photos” or anything. Whatever. I do it how I enjoy it, and I answer only to myself. I think my OCD is a little too strong to let go of it, but I do reshape the practice. And the photo-every-100km. and a bunch of other nonsense that seems to keep me sane…
The portrait gallery is one of my favorite places at the Smithsonian but we really enjoy most of the museums! I finally broke down and bought a DSLR and I’m learning to take better pictures. I will start teaching in July for 4 weeks at Furman. We have decided to take our travel money for this year (to protest the high gas prices) and make our side porch into a sun room plus replace the 80 year old windows throughout the house. It’s amazing what a facelift can do for an old house! I also enjoy reading about all of your adventures!
William Stafford: “No shame. No blame.”