Author Archives: NomadWarMachine

the view from the telescope⤴

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Magpie in a telescope
Magpie in a telescope flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

Today’s TDC says

Is it possible to contribute to the present moment in any meaningful way while being wholly engulfed by it? Perhaps, it is only by stepping out of it, by taking a telescopic perspective, that we can then dip back in and do the work which our time asks of us.

Show the view in your telescope.

This morning, when I opened the curtains, I stood for a few moments watching the birds in the trees at the end of the garden. I watched this magpie fly from the rowan tree to perch on the top of this pole, and opened the window to take a picture.

Later, as I sat at my desk and found that my email would not load because of an MS Outage, I chatted to colleagues over Teams message (sadly that is still working) about the suitability of different birds to carry messages. We settled on flamingoes, but I do wonder about using a magpie.

Gesture Your Opus⤴

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Today’s TDC says

This is wild that it can be done in a web browser. Visit gesture.live where you can create music simply by moving your hands in front of the web cam. Do not be like me and just make noise, read the guides and understand how to change the chords. Or just make noise. Use it to record your 30 second opus to DS106.

I admit, I just made noise – the instructions were far too detailed and I am having a stressful day at work. Also my PC was refusing to acknowledge my camera so I had to get out my tablet and wait for it to run a zillion updates. Cool site though, worth spending time on.

The question is?⤴

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Forty Two
Forty Two flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

Today’s TDC says

As Douglas Adams tells us in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the answer to the question is 42. But what’s the question? Tell us, in a toot or a blog post, using exactly 42 words.

Here’s my version of the question:

How many different ways can we respond to a Daily Create? How many possibilities emerge when we remix, reinterpret, reinvent, collaborate, experiment, play and borrow? Is there a limit to creativity? If you had to give a number, what would it be?

Literary Clock⤴

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Literary Clock
Literary Clock flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

Today’s TDC says

This is very fun- go now to the Literary Clock  which every minute gives a different literary quote where your current time is mentioned.

Fun, eh? Watch it change every minute.

Save the text of one and find some way to depict what the passage suggests. Maybe with a photo, a drawing, or even resort to tossing a phrase in one of those generators…

I was distracted with work emails as I was doing this, so I didn’t manage to grab the text from the first couple of responses. But here’s the one from 10:38:

There must be a solution, there must be. Frantically I scan the cans of products stacked on the shelves. Stain Away. Vanish. There has to be a remedy. … I just need to think. … 10:38 OK, I have the answer. It may not totally work—but it’s my best shot. ― Sophie Kinsella in The Undomestic Goddess

I gave NightCafe the text, and you can see the image it gave me at the top of this post. I was amazed to see that it has got the spelling right!

Batwoman⤴

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Batwoman
Batwoman flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

Today’s TDC says

Austin Kleon loves drawing Batman. He says:

Drawing Batman, it turns out, is a great comfort to me!

You don’t even have to draw Batman from a movie or from scratch: If you have a black pen and a magazine or a newspaper in front of you, you can turn anybody into Batman.

Take inspiration from Kleon and turn somebody into Batman

I took today’s page from my daily calendar and attacked it with a Sharpie. The original was “Portrait of a lady, previously identified as Lady Jane Grey”

Circle of François Clouet - Portrait of a lady, previously identified as Lady Jane Grey

 

Moving Image Archives⤴

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Frog eyes
Frog eyes flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

Today’s TDC says

The Moving Image Archive is chock full of interesting videos. See what you can find, then share or make something new.

From the site:

The internet is full of forgotten films, and this archive is a growing library of that collection. When synthetic footage can now fabricate the past, preserving verifiable history matters more than ever before.

I didn’t really know what to do with this, so after looking at lots of clips I settled for screen grabbing the image above.

Troll⤴

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troll
troll flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

Today’s TDC says

What do you think trolls look like? Show us by any of the usual ways.

Years ago we had a troll. She seemed lovely to everyone else, but she took against our lurker research and followed us around making spiteful comments whenever we posted. Eventually I blocked her, and last I heard she had retired and vanished. Good. Anyway, here she is at the top of this post.

Eastern Bloc Visuals⤴

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Pennine Tower
Pennine Tower flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

Today’s TDC says:

We found some great historic images in Mastodon posted by @eastblocvisuals Explore their feed, and find an image you can add a caption to bring it into modern times.

Better yet, meme it! Does anyone even create meme images anymore or is it GenAI all the way down? The simplest create, adding text to an image. Also, please credit the source image with a link, eh?

Here is the stylin’ wheels in the capitol of Uzbekistan in 1969…

I looked through the feed and saw pic of a building in Prague called the Cube, previously called the Koospol Building

From here https://zpravobot.news/@eastblocvisuals/117541137352347480

It really reminded me of the Pennine Tower at Lancaster Services (see the image at the top of this post).  I always try to get a photo of this as we drive by – this one is from July this year. On looking online I found that the Cube was built in 1074- 1977, while the Pennine Tower was earlier, opening in 1965. Both are Brutalist architecture though – which is a style I find strangely beautiful.