I’m having a blast with creating GIFs for the ds106 GIFfest, but I’m also enjoying Stella, the excellent Atari 2600 emulator that Jim Groom turned me onto before Christmas. I spent a few good solid hours playing some of my old favorites, including Miner 2049′er (just as difficult as I remember), Moon Patrol, and Missile Command (still as good as I remember). I wanted to create a bunch of separate GIFs from these games to...

In the midst of the ds106 GIFfest came a flurry of posts from Jim Groom in which he animated some classic Atari 2600 games. His 8-bit Noir was brilliant, comparing Night Driver to the classic black and white film, The Killers. What really got me jonesing pretty bad to create one of my own was his Haunted House GIF. I’m not going to try and pretend that I have the same sort of nostalgia for Atari 2600 games the same way Jim and those a...

I wanted to take a moment this evening from all of the animated GIF creations to send warm wishes and good tidings to all of those wonderful people in my life that support me, challenge me, and help me make it through each and every day. From my fantastic co-workers and hard working educators in Mattawan Schools, to my loving family and close friends both near and far, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! To my ds106 brothers and...

In yet another installment of the ds106 GIFfest, I decided to tackle Michael Branson Smith’s animated GIF assignment and produce a Muppet GIF. It was actually pretty easy, as YouTube is overrun with great video clips from both the classic era of the Muppet Show, and the more modern Muppet creations. As soon as I accepted this growing GIF challenge, I knew I wanted to to capture the classic “Kermit arm flail“. It’s...

You get at least one of these children in your classroom every year; the overactive student. He or she is that one child that makes the Energizer Bunny look like Droopy the Dog. If you’re quick witted, and a bit lucky, you can usually figure out what makes that particular student tick, and find ways to channel and harness that extra energy for productive work in the classroom. Some days you’re not so successful, and you wind up...

It’s official, the ds106 GIF Fest is upon us! Just in time for the coming Mayan apocalypse no less, huzzah! I thought I’d set the bar really low, to see if I can anger the GIF gods to come and make something better. That, and I thought it might be nice to create a GIF that many of my educational technology brothers and sisters could use in a pinch to illustrate the frustrating nature that is the 21st century work place; we seem...