The first and second sets of entries for Project Two: Walkings will be drafted in your Google Folder. Later, you will migrate those entries to this space, logging into WordPress and building those early entries, then adding subsequent entries as the project adds up. In time, your full, complete project will be here in WordPress, as the complete set of your ABCDEary entries, each paired with a digitally mediated element, will hold together in a single, large WordPress entry. As of early October, I have created the following Talkthrough along with five examples with annotations to give you an idea of what the entries can look like, what they can include, and how they match up with prompts in the Walkings Stepbook. These materials will remain here for you to consult throughout the duration of the project.

Video Talkthrough: Building Entries in WordPress

C¹Each entry within the larger, collective entry should begin with the selected letter from the alphabet. This will require some planning, double-checking, and creativity to ensure you are not creating duplications for any one letter. is for Call

Prompt 2.04 Overheard, Less Context²Include the prompt number and title from our Walkings Stepbook.; Video and text³List the media types used in the entry.; Friday, Sept. 19⁴Date of walk, when digital media was created.

A⁸Apply a “drop cap” to paragraph text by clicking on the three vertical dots next to the Typography section in the right-hand menu. routine walk on a weekday morning; we have done three hundred times or more. Yet, on a cool morning in early autumn, the grass left long to aid with the distribution of soon-falling leaves, Feta catches whiffs differently than in the heat of peak summer. Hers is a canine translation of scent to vocalization, a howlish bark aired at nothing in particular except the trailing scent. Wildlife makes regular rounds out here, deer, turkeys, and bears, most of all. The call seems to express, “I’m here, spirited and ready.” (90⁹Include the precise wordcount to reflect fidelity with the strict parameters for nineties.)

E is for European Beech Tree

Prompt 2.10 Favorite Tree, A Note of Appreciation; Photograph and text; Tuesday, Sept. 30

Dear European Beech,
When I moved to Blacksburg in August 2018, I walked to campus along a route that passed you twice each day, no matter the weather, rain or shine. This meant that I slowly started to recognize you as steadfast, a regular, the ever-present greeter who was still there for the end of day send-off. Such stature made your presence felt and noticeable. I hope always to remember that sense of “oh, you are here, too,” a feeling of being someplace important, special, and welcoming.
With gratitude, 
Derek (90)

F is for Flights

Prompt 2.22 Stairs versus Elevator; Audio and text; Friday, Sept. 26

The Shanks Hall elevator earned its reputation as a fickle lift over many years of breakdowns and unpredictability. Going up? No. I use it only if I must, as when hauling books. Elevators flag, generally, as too close of quarters. As if the dinky space alone needed any other reasons, consider the germy surfaces, the fogs of perfume or deodorant, the exhales of all who ate salami lunches, the windowless suspension, the awkward pleasantries. I take the stairs. The exercise bodes well for integrated cardio, even better for the soul. (90)

G is for Ground

Prompt 2.18 A Wish for Something to be Different; Photograph and text; Tuesday, Sept. 30

Foreground’s stray glove brought me to a pause as I walked near Pearson Hall East (37.231266, -80.418909). The lost and not-yet-found partner recalls wintertime Kindergarten recesses when cords stretched inside a coat, a clip on each end fastening mittens so as to keep their pairings paired. The photograph elicits a faint wish dating back to this past summer when the Moss Arts Center was renamed, such a curious change to have a prominent namesake to be discarded much like this glove, reassigned to the adjoining lawn, dropped to the ground. (90)

T is for Throwaway

Prompt 2.24 Meditation on Garbage; Photograph and text; Tuesday, Sept. 30

Evidently it is too much work to pick up a sandwich wrapper from that McDonald’s snack. I can see that the packaging didn’t make it to the trash can, since it is here, under foot, trolling the offshed leaves of trees in the midst of their seasonal changeover. Is it naive to imagine a better kept campus landscape where collective care means that people pick up after themselves? Perhaps the McDonald’s sandwich wrapper will join the leaves, tumble into a heap, participate in sheltering insects from the elements. Perhaps not. (90)

Notes

• 1
  Each entry within the larger, collective entry should begin with the selected letter from the alphabet. This will require some planning, double-checking, and creativity to ensure you are not creating duplications for any one letter.
• 2
  Include the prompt number and title from our Walkings Stepbook.
• 3
  List the media types used in the entry.
• 4
  Date of walk, when digital media was created.
• 5
  Include the type of media and its number in the series of that particular media type.
• 6
  The descriptive caption should account for what is in the multimodal element.
• 7
  A parenthetical reference indicates the source and its creator.
• 8
  Apply a “drop cap” to paragraph text by clicking on the three vertical dots next to the Typography section in the right-hand menu.
• 9
  Include the precise wordcount to reflect fidelity with the strict parameters for nineties.