A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
I’m sure you’ve seen the commercials. A very attractive woman wants to know who might be searching for her online. She logs onto MyLife.com and seems delighted to find that lots of people have been searching for her – old high school chums, past loves, etc., etc. She naively reacts as if this is a GOOD thing. Of course, my first thought is – STALKERS! Perhaps the image below is more realistic:
A random link led me to a series of fantastic tonal toys. Some of these are simply diversions, and some are elaborate programs that can be used to create amazing compositions. Here’s a quick run-down of what I found…
Think wind chimes. This little Flash app by Andre Michelle is hypnotic and addictive. Clicking on the black work area will create a circle that expands from the click-point. The circle will continue to expand until it touches another circle, so you need to create at least two for this thing to work. When two circles touch a bell-like tone is generated, and the circles reverse direction. If they had been expanding they now contract. A contracting circle will contract until it reaches a single point, then start expanding again.
The pitch of the tone is determined by the size of circles. A larger circle will create a deeper tone, and a smaller one a higher pitch. An interval is created, but sometimes the larger circle’s pitch is so low that it’s hardly audible. It sounds like the app is tuned to a pentatonic scale to minimize dissonance, much like a set of wind chimes would be be tuned.
Rhythm is determined by the expansion rates of the various circles. You can create very complex patterns by positioning circles closer to or farther away from each other. Circles within circles also create neat patterns. I find it fascinating to start with a simple pattern of three circles, and gradually make the pattern more complex by adding more circles.
Here’s a short video of one of my creations. However, I suggest that you follow the link and create your own to get the full sensation.
Our recent photo trek through Laurens County raised lots of questions for me. I had seen places about which I wanted to learn more. There were the questions about name origins – Ghost Creek Road and Dead Man’s Curve in particular. I wanted to know if there were documented incidents that led to these names. I also wanted to know more about the spring we found on Bramlett Road – what rallies were held here, etc.
Of course, I first turned to online resources to see what I could find. A simple Google search didn’t reveal much initially. In fact, I was getting a bit discouraged. I even turned to Facebook, and was able to get some anecdotal answers, but nothing documented.
I still haven’t found the answers to these questions, but I did find some great reference materials. First up are the ones I’ve mentioned here before – SC DISCUS (requires login), SCIWAY.net, and the new South Carolina Digital Archive. All of these have excellent primary source materials, or links to those materials.
Read More “Archeology and History Resources for South Carolina” »
I had an eye-opening discovery this week. One of our principals contacted me about an e-mail she was expecting that hadn’t arrived. I went into our district spam filter to see if it had been caught there. While looking for the e-mail, I noticed a lot of traffic from Facebook that had gotten caught in … Read More “Facebook and Professional Boundaries” »
One of the reasons I upgraded to an Android phone was my interest in Augmented Reality. I knew I would be doing some traveling this summer and wanted a way to check out items around me quickly, without having to bring my work Blackberry along. I got a chance to put the new smartphone through its paces last weekend in Washington DC, and here are some of my initial feelings about AR…
The folks over at the Google Earth Design blog have been running a series on creating Google Earth tours. They have had some excellent suggestions for creating effective tours. (Part 1, Part 2). It was enough to get me to try creating a tour or two.
For some reason I haven’t done much with GE Tours. To me they seem passive in a constructivist classroom. If I’m doing a presentation, I prefer to use a series of placemarks that I access as needed, rather than a fixed tour. In fact, the GE Design Blog states the following:
If changes of scale and location are not important your narrative it is quicker and just as effective to use presentation software such as PowerPoint.
However, their blog posts inspired me to at least give it a shot. I won’t repeat all of their suggestions, but here are a few things I learned…
In the current political climate of tea parties and voter polarization, the phrase “political civility” seems like an oxymoron. It seems like everything has gotten downright nasty, with each group demonizing the other, and the word “compromise” taking on negative connotations. Ah, for the good old days, when everyone believed in God, motherhood, and apple pie.
…or was it so great?
History is replete with examples of political rivalries that make the current climate look tame in comparison. There is the infamous pistol duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and the caning of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner by South Carolina Senator Preston Brooks in 1856.
By some strange coincidence Houston and Lynda were working on family photos when I posted my piece about Echo Valley. The weird thing was, they were processing photos from 1968, and had just come to our great mountain adventure when we visited the park. These photos were taken by my father. Last night they gave … Read More “Even More Echo Valley” »
Today I discovered an excellent new online resource. The South Carolina Digital Library is a collaborative project between several agencies, organizations, and colleges which brings together several digital libraries. The collections include historical images, documents, audio, and other ephemera. These items are still housed in their previous locations, but the SC Digital Library brings all … Read More “South Carolina Digital Library” »
There’s a new website that’s been getting quite a bit of press lately. It’s called “Please Rob Me,” and it scans Twitter updates for people who have indicated that they are somewhere other than at home. The idea isn’t to enable thieves, but to highlight the carelessness of letting everyone know where you are every … Read More “Please Rob Me” »