Introduction and Background
A few posts ago I caused much confusion here on my blog when I wrote that I had an illegal alien visitor. The consternation was even greater at home after I published the post of him with a photograph of him getting friendly with my naked Art Deco Lady figurine! This was purely accidental as Stanley was in such a weakened state when he arrived that she was simply propping him up! I quickly realised that it would seem really inappropriate to some parents and teachers even though the children have seen far more risque things on the Simpsons.
I also took the opportunity to research Stanley and found out that he was a grade school boy …here I was thinking he was an adult …. I had planned all along to do a story of an illegal alien or how he was here incognito! After a few days of pulling my hair out we had the worst rain we have had in years. Of course here in Australia we do not mind the rain and after years of drought we certainly do not wish it away! However it just kept teeming down and as Stanley had arrived here 28/5/08 and had to be home by 12/6/08 the clock was ticking! So we dressed in polar fleece and boots and scarves and wraps and that’s just CJ, and hardily ventured forth to get some photos of nearby landmarks. The Bridge and the Opera House was out as Stanley would simply have blown away, never to be found. So out of this tricky situation the story about illegals and Stanley’s secret mission continued to unfurl. With the photos I had managed to take of him in my everyday life and with the addition of the photos of some historic buildings I strung together a story based around the actual photos.
As I had read that the Stanley project had won awards in the early 2000′s I thought that it would be good to showcase the new technology available to children and adults in various forms today. This involved my favourite photo site and that led to an actual group there where people worldwide can see Stanley’s adventures. After that it made sense to have the story up in blog format because that is how Alyssa and I met through her mother, in November last year. A few months before we met I could barely send an email, had to ask my son every two minutes what to do and ended up having a three month break from blogging as sheer terror set in! Yet here I am choosing to do this project using multi media ie photo sharing and blogging and e-books! I simply cannot believe myself!
I hope Alyssa and her classmates have fun with this…I picture them accessing this via the blog or the photo sharing site on a television linked to a computer somewhere in their school and then later sharing it with their families on their home computers. We truly live in a wonderful time. I would like to thank my son CJ who taught me most of what I know and Alyssa and her mother and her teacher for letting me have the time of my life!
