I have to say that this series by Greg Easton Photography that visually narrates the adventures of Stormtroopers using the Star Wars action figures is hysterical and pretty amazing.
Though my favorite is this one, with the “Nuke Canada” arcade game, how do I get my hands on that one?
Image credit: Greg Easton Photography’s “Death Star Arcade (Explore)”
I’ll let Cracklin Tulip’s Photos do the talking on this one….
Image credits: Cracklin Tulips’ “Sesame Street Clubhouse,” “Untitled 1” and “Untitled 2”
Image credit Cracklin Tulip’s “Play Family Village Outside”
I spent hours on end moving between the jail cell and the phone both, that is afer hanging out listlessly on the roof and putting out a fire or two.This was truly a classic amongst classics, and in my mind is yet another example why Fisher Price’s Family Play sets ruled.
Be sure to view the larger image of the play set here.
Image credit: Cracklin Tulip’s “It’s in the mail”
Image credit: Cracklin Tulip’s “Swiss-styled Chalet for the Little People”
after that image, do I really need to say anything? Fisher Price may have made some of the best toys ever, and the “A” Frame is a brilliant example of this. It is the Fisher Price Play Family line that I really wish they still made, brilliant designs.
There were many Super Jocks, but in my mind there was really only one: Super Toe.
This was one of those toys that seems ridiculous, and that within minutes you would be bored to tears by it, but it is quite to the contrary. We took this thing around the house for hours on end trying to kick the football into weird cracks, crevices, and openings, it became almost an obsession. And I always liked that the kicker figure looked so pissed, it was a huge selling point. I love this thread of nostalgia at Retro Toys about this one.
Also, here is the commercial:
Image credit: Ryancr’s “Sharing”
This semester has been a whirlwind, and while it has been great in many respects regarding the work we are doing at DTLT—more faculty and students than ever experimenting with UMW Blogs, some larger recognition, as well as a more expansive network of peers from a variety of institutions around the world—I feel one crucial element has fallen by the wayside—featuring the work out faculty and students are doing at UMW. In many ways the output has become so great that it hard to keep up with, but that’s no excuse.
In my mind, the crux behind fostering a community is letting others know you’re reading their work, and more than that giving them some much deserved recognition for the work they’re doing through a simple system of featuring. I’ve dropped the ball in this regard, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the community suffers some as a result.
People joke about how much I blog, but in reality, blogging needs to be a central component of the work we are all doing, and it needs to focus on the work happening at our institutions, as well as elsewhere. I’m gonna commit to doing more of this over the next year, as well as getting back into the hacks and sharing them back—which has also suffered as of late, but I don’t mind that nearly as much because there are so many great folks out there doing that far better than I ever could, just look at the work from cats like Boone Gorges, Andrea and Ron, and Joss Winn—to name just a few.
And then there’s the inimitable Luke Waltzer whose recent four part post series that recaps the work he and Mikhail Gershovich have been doing with Blogs@Baruch (you can find all their development posts under the wpmued tag on cac.ophony.org here) and I have to say it is very impressive. Not only has Luke blogged the thinking behind the redesign of Blogs@Baruch, but he also wasn’t afraid to blog about some of the difficulties they’ve had with administering and maintaining the system, and for me that is key.
What is most important about the work we’re doing at our own institutions, is narrating the process so that others can benefit from our problems and successes. It’s time to move away from the myopic logic that we only talk about the successes and promise of this stuff without narrating the difficulties and problems. Fact is, if we are only concerned about how we look to the administration or our fearless “leaders” the less we truly realize the transformative power of the simple act of sharing all elements of our struggles by honestly narrating the work we do amongst peers within and beyond institutional boundaries. We’re not running ad campaigns that are pushing products, we are connecting with other people that want and need guidance and ideas for avoiding issues and generating new ideas. Therein is the power of sharing your work, which necessarily includes all the issues and failures accumulated along the way. Hats off to the crew at Blogs@Baruch, their willingness to lift the branding veil and openly share both the triumphs and the tribulations is refreshing and essential, and a true sign of caring.
While up late last night with newly minted Tommaso, I couldn’t help but thinking about the character Guy Woodhouse (played brilliantly by John Cassavetes) from Polanksi’s brilliant Rosemary’s Baby (1969). Thinking about how Guy sold out Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and his unborn child to the local Satan worshippers in order to further his acting career ranks him amongst the scummiest husbands in film. Here is the scene where Rosemary figures out the whole craziness, and Guy tries to reassure her that he was promised she wouldn’t be hurt:
So then I started thinking, who are some other scummy husbands in film, and the list i starting to take shape: Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) in The Shining (1980) is a layup. Jerry Lundegaard from Fargo (1996) would rank right up there, and Jerry Blake (Terry O’Quinn) from The Stepfather (1987) is a candidate as well. And if we head back, I imagine Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer) from George Cukor’s Gaslight (1944) and Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) from Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder (1954).
The best part of such a train of thought, is that it could go on for a long, long time….I can see it now, “The Top 100 Husbands from Hell.” I know it’s an odd moment to be thinking about such things, but for some reason Rosemary’s Baby, like The Shining, is just one of those films I can’t shake, and when it’s late at night with a baby in your hands, one needs things to think about. So, who would you add to the list?
UMW Magazine cover Winter 2009
Well, it’s a proud time for the folks at UMW’s DTLT these days, we’ve been a tight group, and I think our personal dynamics have as much to do with our success as the fact that we all share these common goals: experiment, iterate and open up. And I have to say it is very cool to see the feature article authored by Gardner Campbell in the latest issue of UMW Magazine narrate the genesis and realization of some pretty amazing work over the last five years. It’s always good to get some recognition at home, and we can’t thank Neva Trenis and Anna Billingsly enough for providing the platform for such a tribute. (You can download a pdf version of the entire magazine here.)
As for my part in the puzzle, it often gets over emphasized because I have such a big mouth and seek attention at every turn through UMW Blogs, but let there be no mistake that what has happened at UMW has everything to do with the formation of a sick group of folks: Martha Burtis, Jerry Slezak, Patrick Murray-John, Lisa Ames, and Andy Rush—as well our student aides current and past: John McMahon, Shannon Hauser, Serena Epstein and Joe Calpin. These are the people whose contributions are all too often elided by the Jim Groom factor, and let me tell you—they are far more gracious with all the nonsense and attention I’ve received at their expense than I would ever be, so this is both my apologia, and meager attempt to set the record straight, at least in this post 😉
And I think what sets UMW apart from many a school is quite simple: early on Mary Washington made a conscious choice to invest in people rather than technologies. That is the real difference in our environment, and when you think that we have a group of six people for a campus population of 4500, it quickly becomes clear why we’ve had such a great impact at UMW. But, I would be remiss here if I didn’t mention the simple fact that the UMW faculty (and students) made our success real and I, for one, have been riding on the shoulders of their hard work for over four years now. They refuse to stop innovating despite a 4/4 load and more committee work than any mortal human being should be exposed to. So while this is a celebration of DTLT—and rightfully so in many ways—I think the larger point is that our students and faculty have been willing to take this ride with us in order to realize some amazing possibilities for re-thinking the pedagogical paradigms through technology.
More importantly, this is a good day for everyone at UMW, we are an amazing school with some unbelievable resources that may not manifest as a state-of-the-art gym or pimped out dorms, but rather as a gritty community of people dedicated to thinking about the relevance and immense possibilities of a public liberal education for the 21st century, and we’ve only just begun that journey. Avanti, bambini, avanti!
Aaron Fowles sent along this video from Fox 5 News in Memphis, Tennessee that highlights the MidSouth Technology Conference, which is an edtech event for K-12 teachers (warning–first 30 seconds of video is an obnoxious Xmas ad). And while I was watching the video for the EDUPUNk reference at 1:11 (it’s actually a fleeting image from Aaron’s presentation) I was struck by the message that Fox took from the conference in it’s two minute report: school’s are engaging free web-based technologies for quick and easy innovation. Say what? Fox News 5 nails it?! Jesus, they are starting to look pretty good compared to The Chronicle and the like. I was ready for the fear and loathing, but it never came, and from what I can see of the conference, it looks like we really are starting to see the wider trend of free, web-based tools take hold as an alternative philosophy to expensive and proprietary systems.
What’s more, is that Aaron was presenting on creating your own Whiteboard using a Wii remote—-something I know Grant Potter and Patrick Murray-John have also been experimenting with—which is pretty crazy when you think about it. You take a $2,000-$4,000 (note: changed pricing by a decimal point thanks to that jackass Tom Woodward) piece of equipment that schools are buying up to suggest they are using edtech, and you reproduce it with less than $100 worth of equipment that’s is highly portable. Now that’s impressive, and whether or not Whiteboards are the best use of instructional technology resources becomes that far less an issue because they’re cheap, you can hack them to do what you want, and you’re freeing up funds to invest in people to imagine what they can do rather than investing in soon to-be-outdated proprietary machines. Edufabricators 🙂
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