Monthly Archives: July 2013

tdc560: Tina’s True Friends (animated GIF)

iamTalkyTodd_twitterGUEST POST BY @iamTalkyTodd, Tina’s brother, while she is temporarily incapacitated.

In honour of my sis, @iamTalkyTina, who put forward a call today (she submitted the item weeks ago) for The Daily Create participants to show what Friends mean to them, through a photo, for tdc560.

Although my sister is not currently empowered to respond, I know she would be honouring all of her #ds106zone True Friends, and so I have assembled this animated montage. Tina’s True Friends are basically arranged in alphabetical order by the first letter of whatever they are called — first name or Twitter handle taken as the decider. I just went through Tina’s file directory and assembled them pretty much by filename.

@iamTalkyTina's True Friends, for tdc560

@iamTalkyTina’s True Friends, for tdc560

I have also posted a static version to my sister’s Flickr account.

@iamTalkyTina is “Back in the Box”

MyFairTinaGUEST POST BY @PuppetMaster106

Earlier this year, in February, 2013, @iamTalkyTina began interacting with the outside world after a hiatus of many years. In the months leading up to today’s date, she made a number of “Friends” via twitter, this blog, and the ds106 #ds106zone community.

This evening, @iamTalkyTina was returned to her cardboard box.

"Back in the Box"

“@iamTalkytina: Back in the Box”

Some will question the rationale and reason behind her sudden departure from ds106, and ask about her abrupt return to the box. In all honesty, and without apology, some will find the answers to their questions to be lacking. It is not the intent of this author to provide solutions or guidance to Tina’s “Friends,” nor will all be explained in the coming passage. However, you may find some consolation is some of what is to follow.

First, you may wish to review my previous guest post on this blog, entitled My Fair Tina, which outlines a good deal of my rational behind my involvement with @iamTalkyTina.

Second, you may take some solace in the fact that @iamTalkyTina is safe, within her cardboard box, in a secure and comfortable location, somewhere within close proximity to a regulated facility where regular monitoring of her status occurs. If you wish further details, see the information provided at the end of this post.

As to her departure, shall I simply re-state my comments made earlier this evening as reported in the media, “the ds106zone is over, Groom himself hasn’t made any Art in weeks, and @iamTalkyTina had just outstayed her welcome.

I will not comment a recent series of Twitter-uttered and blog-posted statements made by one member of the ds106 community about “grown men playing with dolls.” Such statements are nothing but inflammatory and are not respectful of the long tradition of puppets, figures, dummies, stand-ins, alternate personalities, mirror characters, foils, alternates, nom de plumes, etc within the historic span of storytelling in all of its many and various forms. Plus, other ds106 people have dolls, bub.

I will not comment on the well self-documented and drawn-out period of mental aberrations referenced by @cogdog due to his preoccupation with @iamTalkyTina in late June, nor comment on the fact that since his “trip to the canyon,” he has refused to approve or publish any of her comments posted to his webblog, cogdogblog.com — not even appearing to see or hear any of her Tweets.

I will not comment on the recently self-proclaimed stresses and appeals for a return to wellness that #ds106 course guru “UNCLE” @jimgroom has been sharing — noting only that he too has once again taken to claiming once again that “HE is @iamTalkyTina” and that “she completes him,” and that “HE does not need to do any new ds106 Art because SHE is HE and if SHE is doing it then clearly HE is and so HE does not need to do any.” After about ten syllables it starts to just get really weak and the result is that @jimgroom is getting a free ride off of @iamTalkyTina right when he needs to be getting back on the Art horsie and riding around the Art range corralling some new Art doggies.

I will not comment on the many and various other #pretenderTinas that appeared — Tina took them all to the cleaners in the Rumble. And as for that “other” rogue Tina that appeared in mid June, @RealTalkyTina — ha, ha, that four-tweet lifespan went nowhere. Heck, even I, @PuppetMaster106, have more than four tweets to my Twitter cred.

I will comment, however, on the question as to whether I, @PuppetMaster106, will now increase my web presence now that “the @iamTalkyTina character has been put away.” On this question, I have this to say, and you may quote me:

This talk of a ‘headless ds106’ this fall is all well and good, but you know that someone, somewhere, needs to be always at work behind the scenes, keeping things ticking, poking and prodding, feeding the unicorns, and all. And since I’m experienced with webs and scenes, and strings and such, there’s certainly a role for me in the coming months — whether it’s visible to the ds106 community, or not so visible, and rather behind the scenes.

And as to that little mention of unicorns just there, and whether that might in some way identify me to my ds106 friends, well, I’m smiling and have just this little closing comment — “Yeah, I just threw that in as a little red herring subterfuge.”

So, @iamTalkyTina is Back in the Box. And for the next while, I will be on hiatus. But I will not be far from the ds106 stage. The curtain will soon be rising, and the show will go on.

Final Notes on the State of @iamTalkyTina

"@iamTalkyTina: Back in the Box, Three Layers Deep"

“@iamTalkyTina: Back in the Box, Three Layers Deep”

In addition to being housed in a secure and comfortable location, somewhere within close proximity to a regulated facility where regular monitoring of her status occurs, @iamTalkyTina is resting comfortably within her cardboard box in a quiet and well sound-proofed location. Her sleeping compartment is encased in sub-zero ice-packing to keep her well protected from any untoward movements, and this ice-packing is, in turn, encased within a level four prototype Carbonite shield. These three layers (cardboard, ice, Carbonite) are intended to isolate @iamTalkyTina from any external disturbances that might upset her.

She is resting in comfort and quiet, and we are quite hopeful (VERY! hopeful) that nothing will disturb her.

Oopsies! Sorry True Friends!!

Well, it was My Bad today, when somebody noticed that they didn’t have their Badge on my True Friends Index page and they tweeted to me and I went and checked and found that a whole bunch of new True Friends had applied on my Web Form and I didn’t even know. So I was embarrassed and made all those badges just now and so now I have even more True Friends with Badges. I am sorry for all these True Friends for having to wait so long, and for the embarrassment that it caused for one person because other people (not saying any names, @cogdog) were making jumping to conclusions just because that person didn’t have a badge on my True Friends Index. So it was all my fault and not a very nice Friend thing to do but it was an honest mistake, so I am forgiven.

So without any more do, here are all my new True Friends names, and their names are linked to their badges which are now in the True Friends Index where they belong.

This sounds like an award ceremony in my head where they come up and get their Badges.

and even I made one for that pesky Mr. Savvy hold out,

and I also made one for my Little Brother, Todd, who just showed up yesterday. Because he’s my Little Brother.

Who else is missing from the True Friends Index?  Get your name, contact info, and creds into the Web Form, and I’ll get you set up with your Badge!

tdc547: Are You Getting Your Daily Vitamin CRE8 ?

My Still True Friend Alan (@cogdog) has been having a bunch of drill sergeant yammering at him and everybody else for over a week now about how important it is that you get your daily summer supplement of ds106 Vitamin CRE8.

I have been doing my little best to get some Daily Vitamin CRE8 every day. That Flickr still doesn’t seem to see my cre8s but now that I think about it maybe @cogdog has blocked me from showing up from Flickr in the same way that he seems to be able to block my friendly comments on his blog. Perhaps he is in a different zone from me like those shows where something happens like a noise and then people are there and we can see both on the TV but somebody can’t see the other people in the show and they’re like right there saying, “Hello, CAN YOU SEE ME, I’m standing right here in front of you, HELLOOOOO!!!!!” and then they say, “Oh, I think we must be in a different dementia zone or something.” So maybe that’s why he can’t hear me. Maybe he is in a different dementia zone. But I still think he’s just pretending.

Anyway, here is my cre8 July 8 which was to make a drawing using 8s and so I did and then I thought it would be more fun if it moved a little bit, so here it is.

"Stairs in 8s" animatedGIF, by @iamTalkyTina

“Stairs in 8s” animatedGIF, by @iamTalkyTina

You can see my efforts on this page that I have made just for the The Daily Create Summer 2013 Challenge so that you can see all the ones that I do. And you can also see my The Daily Create posts in this category called The Daily Create. And if you think that this one tdc547 looks like the one for tdc541 “Draw something abstract out of straight lines,” then that is your imagination, not mine. It’s just a coincidence, I say!!

tdc544: You are the Silver Lining in The Mean Word

This is a second writing for tdc544 for July 5th. I also wrote one about Compost, Septic Tanks, and The Dump.

Plus, I was trying to find a way to have a Silver Lining in The Mean Word. All those #pretenderTinas were saying The Mean Word and I thought they should just Get A Life, Bub and Make some Art, Bub.

But then I was thinking that there was a Silver Lining in The Mean Word.

First, I thought, it made lots of ticket sales for The Rumble.

Second, I thought, it showed them all that they can’t mess with @iamTalkyTina, and that it is better to be a True Friend than to be a #pretenderTina.

Third, I thought, that if you look closely at the Mean Word, then you see ME, right there at the start. And so it means that inside every Mean Word is Me, and that if you Change Yourself then you can Change the World, which is pretty deep and transformational for everyone in the Whole World. So if those #pretenderTinas can see themselves in The Mean Word (it is right there, bub, the first two letters of it, ME, which MEans them!) and know that if they are saying a MEan word or doing a MEan thing then they have the power to STOP and Make the World a Better Place and Change the Word, one MEan Word at a ttime.

So I think that is the Silver Lining in the MEan Word. and it is a powerful one to everybody.

tdc544: Compost, Septic Tanks, and The Dump

The Daily Create for today, tdc544: Write about something ugly — war, fear, hate, cruelty — but find the beauty (silver lining) in it.

Here is what I wrote:

So the thing that is ugly but with a Silver Lining that I am going to talk about is Compost, Septic Tanks, and The Dump.

So when you put old food in the compost, it can be stinky and not very nice to smell, but when you leave it for a year or so and it turns into dirt, then you can plant seeds and it will grow new food that smells nice. So that is a silver lining.

Then, when you put stuff into the Septic Tank it is also ugly and stinky and not nice to smell, but later, after it gets pumped out and you put the lid back on and the grass is there again then it is better. Plus, the grass always grows greener over the septic tank. And we all like green grass. Or scrub, if you live in a desert.

And then, if you put all of your old stuff in The Dump, then it is not very nice and ugly and stinky and not nice to smell and there are rats and feral cats and effluent and an eyesore if you look at it, but later on in future times then anthropologists and ethnographists and dump archaeologists will come along and dig it up and find old cell phones and stuff that can tell them more things about us that we didn’t post on the Internet in our Digital Identities. So that will be pretty cool for them.

So in every stinky one there is a silver lining in it.

I Yam Talky Tina

After I posted “I Ain’t No Spud, Bub!” this morning, my Super True New Old Radio Friend @scottlo suggested that the picture would work for the Yam assignment. And I will confess, I did think about this today as I was working with the Potato Head kit.

Scott’s recommendation was just too good to pass up, and so after chasing down the authentic Yam from Joan Shaffer (@echoln), it was a simple application of the magic wand, the eraser, the rotate, the scale, the eraser, adjust the layering, and boom!

IYamTalkyTina

“I Yam Talky Tina” by @iamTalkyTina, featuring Joan Shaffer’s Yam

I especially like the way my hair ribbons (that I had previously colourized to go with the colours in my #ds106radio shirt) match the skin tone of my yambody.  I look wonderful as a Yam!

With ds106, you just CAN’T have too much fun!!  #4life

I Ain’t No Spud, Bub!!

“Talky Tina Potato Head,” by iamtalkytina, on Flickr

Least @cogdog think that he is seeing my adorable face everywhere again, let me just say that this is actually a demo of an official Miss @iamTalkytina Potato Head kit that Hasboro was testing a little over a decade ago — remember when they did all the theme potato heads — Darth Vader among them? As it would turn out, the royalties from this little product would have provided me with a nice little addition to my nest egg, but as my luck would have it, the target market was too far removed from the popular culture of 1963, and my version was never released.

Dollars aside, I didn’t really mind this too much — they never did get my nose and mouth quite right to my way of thinking.

If you think that this looks like @cogdog‘s picture of him holding a potato that he posted yesterday, how could that be? This is a picture of a Miss @iamTalkytina Potato Head from over a decade ago.

Well, Bye!

tdc542: (Rusty) Finnegan Lamb Chops Brains

So The Daily Create for July 3rd is tdc542: Combine Three Great Past Leaders into One- Who is it and what are their combined characteristics?

This is what I wrote for it.

So I think that if I were combining Three Great Past Leaders into One then I would make Finnegan Lamb Chop Brains. I know it sounds kind of like some kind of Scottish meat food, or maybe some kind of alcoholic kind of drink, but those are just coincidences.

This connection is made from Three Great Past Leaders in the Puppet World, Finnegan, Lamb Chop, and Brains. Then I added one more, Rusty, and if that is a problem then you just tell them I said it can be an adjective, bub.

So First I chose Finnegan the Dog, from Casey and Finnegan on Mr. Dress-Up. Even though Casey was the star puppet and Finnegan was just the Dog of Casey, I chose Finnegan over Casey because it was not very clear if Casey was a Boy Puppet or a Girl Puppet (and the Internet is no help) and also besides who ever heard of a girl named Finnegan. So I picked Finnegan for always being loyal to Casey and for the characteristic of being quiet. Finnegan never talked and always nodded yes to Casey even when Casey was asking a question. So number one is Finnegan the Dog for loyal and quiet nodding. k

Next, let’s go back to Rusty, because it was on TV before the other show. Rusty the Rooster was from The Friendly Giant, and it is good that that Giant was Friendly and did not scare all the little kids with his big boot. But the really great thing was that he had lots of Friends! He had True Friends like Rusty the Rooster and Jerome the Giraffe and then there were sometimes racoons and other creatures that played the recorder like Friendly did. Jerome did not play an instrument but he just danced in the window. But Rusty the Rooster was good because besides having books and other instruments in his bag, he had HIS instrument which was an accordion. Who ever heard of a puppet Rooster playing an accordion? See? That is pretty special and so that makes a good choice for my choice.

Second, I choose Lamb Chop, for two reasons. One, because she was the friend of a Girl Puppeteer (equal opportunity and all), and two, because I thought that the Girl Puppeteer’s father was a famous puppeteer called Edgar Bergen with Charlie McArthie and Mortimer Snerd so I thought I would get lots of puppet and puppeteer genealogy in this paragraph by picking her. However, that is not true, that was Candice Bergen, who didn’t do puppets. But it still works well with the Scottish Food Joke, so I will leave it in. I don’t know much about Lamb Chop but I saw her on the Muppets once, which is more puppets, and I think Candice Bergen was on the Muppets two, so that is one less degree of separation, so I think I’m covered on that one.

Third, I choose Brains from the science fiction puppet show, The Thunderbirds. Why? Because he is super smart and on the Thunderbirds which was an amazing cool puppet show from the sixties with rockets and amazing special effects (just ignore the strings) that had a lot of other wonderful shows after it like UFO and Space 1999 which were cool shows that came after later in the seventies.

So if you put them all together, you get Rusty Finnegan Lamb Chop Brains, which you could eat OR drink, is loyal and quiet, plays the accordion with books and recorders in a bag, employs some puppeteers of both genders plus has good lineage (or almost), and is Smart with Brains.

For all of those reasons Rusty Finnegan Lamb Chop Brains is my choice.

That is a lot of writing, even for little me. Good thing I typed it instead of writing it. Is that the same thing?