Monthly Archives: July 2015

Crossing a Road

ChickenCrossingTheRoadSHORTER_500_64

This was for yesterday’s The Daily Create, tdc1295, “Why DID the chicken cross the road?”

I also posted a static image of the one of the end frames to Flickr so that it would show up on The Daily Create website.

Announcing the Summer 2015 Village Festival !!

"Summer 2015 Village Festival poster" by iamTalkytina

“Summer 2015 Village Festival poster” by iamTalkytina

We are going to have a Summer 2015 Village Festival that will be just so much fun for all the Residents!

I can let the word out now that one of the reasons I have been here in The Village this summer has been to organize a celebration of fun for all my ds106 Friends and True Friends who are in The Village this summer.

You can see from the beautiful poster that I made that there will be a lot of very fun events and it will only cost you 5 Credit Units to participate in everything! It will be such a fun time and I know you will all have a great time!

So get your favourite Village clothes all pressed and clean, and get your umbrella ready for a beautiful sunny day of community enjoyment! We will have such a good event!

I will BE SEEING YOU all there!

Note: The Summer 2016 Village Festival has been planned and arranged by me, @iamTalkyTina, under contract and at the behest of The Committee, in conjunction with the good folks at the Tally Ho Press, under the auspices of iamTalkyTina and Tally Ho Press Productions for the Residents of The Village, Summer 2015 

Plus this poster is worth more than the 2 Credit Units that I get for it under the Festival or Fundraiser Design Assignment 1751 that I said when nobody had ever done it but then John did it and now I have done it so that is two people now who are leading the way.

So YOU get out there and make your Art, bubs!

Your Community Needs You

iaTT_YourCommunityNeedsYou

I in going through some old files here in my quarters within The Village, I found an old something from quite a few years back that I though my True Friends might be interested in. I have made a small number of references to some aspects of my history with The Village, and while I cannot say too much, I have received permission to share the artifact with the Summer 2015 Residents, given that this is Design Week and all.  You will see that this poster is just a standard Village one where they put in a different picture whenever there is a changeover in the Green dome. I think you saw some of these posters in the A Change of Mind one.

I hope that you enjoy seeing it, and trust that you will see that it is just me, your good old, trusty True Friend, in acting in a very positive, supportive role. Which is so important!

Be Seeing You!

Afterwords

Well, after I found this and made sure it was safe to share it, then I realized that I might be a bit slim on the old Credit Units this week, and there really wasn’t a Design Assignment that I could tag this poster for. So I decided to take the Village one and turn it into a ds106 one. Because I can get Credit Units for a DS106 Propaganda Poster from Design Assignment 367 which is maybe almost a perfect fit because the original Village poster is kind of a propaganda one. Like the man with the stars and stripes hat needs you was.

So I added a bar at the bottom to say “ds106 digital storytelling community” and “make art #4life (and friends)” and so now I can get 3 Credit Units for the community!

iaTT_YourCommunityNeedsYou_ds106

“Your Community Needs You: ds106 edition” by iamTalkyTina

Make a Design Assignment your True Friend

"iamTalkyTina Says Make Friends with Design" image by @iamTalkyTina

“iamTalkyTina Says Make Friends with Design” image by @iamTalkyTina

Well, I was looking in the Assignment Bank for some Design Assignments to do that I haven’t done before. And do you know what I found? There is a good number of created assignments that have 0 doers so far. So I was thinking that some village peoples might like to make a friend with an assignment and become the first person to make it. Plus tutorials!

So I made a list! These are some that would be good ones for prisoner106.us for The Village!  You can read the titles of them up here at the top. You can keep reading all the way down if you want to read the descriptions here without clicking out and back. Here is my list:

iamTalkyTinaSaysSo_Design-Assignment

Create Your Own Logo – My assignment is to create your very own logo. You can make up your own unique item and make a logo for it or use an existing item and recreate the logo! Have fun with it, make it colorful if you want, and make sure it somehow represents the item/product you are doing the logo for. This assignment requires you to use your imagination and create your very own logo. For my example, I’m using Starbucks. I have invented a new logo for Starbucks; it’s simple but you’ll understand it when you see it.

Make a Maze – Make your own puzzle maze. Draw it by hand using a pen or pencil or make in on your computer using some kind of editing software that allows you to use straight lines. Have fun with it, make it a cirlce, square or whatever shape you like. Make it as difficult or as easy as you want just make sure that it is possible to complete. Add color or background images if you want to make it more appealing.

Festival or Fundraiser – Events, fundraisers, festivals, and other fun things to do happen around us all the time. Have you ever had two or even three events you wanted to participate in happen on the same day, but you could only choose one? For this design assignment you are tasked to create an attractive advertisement/flyer for some type of event. Be creative. Any event will do, but the point is to entice people to want to attend your event over any other. Your event could be a harvest festival with a petting zoo and pumpkin toss, or you could have bingo fundraiser to support the local SPCA, or even better yet something completely off the wall like a save the unicorns benefit. Be sure you also include a date, time, location and any other details specific to your event. Don’t forget to tag it.

Wedding Invitation –  We are currently in the middle of the wedding season. With this being said so many people out there are tying the knot! For this assignment, I would like you to create/design your own wedding invitation as if you were going to be getting married soon! What would it look like? You could include pictures, date, time, place, or anything else related to this topic that you think would be fun to incorporate! Use your imagination! Be creative! To create this assignment you should use Canva. Upload your invitation to Flickr and tag it DesignAssignments.

Something that Would Make You LOL If You Read It in a Newspaper –  Step 1. Imagine yourself reading the paper in the morning. Step 2. Think of something (a story) that would make you laugh and brighten your day if you read it. Step 3. Using any resource availible to you, make a fake news article, that incorporates your sense of humor. Even if it is an inside joke that only you and a handful of people would get (laugh).

Make a Conspiracy Board – Make a board or chart that lists out a conspiracy.  You can make it a cork board, deck of cards tree, or anything else creative that you can think of.  List the people in the conspiracy, their roles, victims of the conspiracy, and other details to fill out your board to make a story.

Haynes Owners Manual – The iconic DIY Haynes Owner Manuals for every kind of vehicle out there meets the fantastic in this design assignment. Make the cover of a Haynes Owner’s manual for a vehicle, appliance, or some other entity that makes the fantastic possible. See this example for the Millenium Falcon for inspiration.

If you are still reading this far, then Good For You! Now go do a Design Assignment. And even a Tutorial for it. Be sure to tag them just the right way like it says on the Assignment page.

Special Offer: Become a True Friend

In honour of prisoner106.us and the Summer 2015 DS106, Residents of The Village who are not True Friends of me are invited to submit an application to become a True Friend and get your very own badge!  Ron does not need to apply again because he has already applied and is on my list and is being very patient! So apply today and get your badge! But don’t use the Mean Word! 

Well, bye! Now go make some Art, bub!

 

Danny Was a Smooth Talker

"Danny was a Smooth Talker," photo from @iamTalkyTina archive

“Danny was a Smooth Talker,” photo from @iamTalkyTina archive

I had all but forgotten this little gem until Geoff Cain (@geoffcain, on Twitter) triggered some memories this evening that had been pretty much buried in the muck of the sands of time. Geoff’s prisoner106 Book Cover “The Partridge Family #4 Meets The Prisoner” reminded me of the time back in the 70s when The Partridges were let loose in The Village. I recall it well because it was the third (or fourth?) time I was called into The Village to do some security consulting and to pick up the pieces (again) after yet another Number 2 meltdown.

Keith and Laurie were happy enough hanging out on the beach, playing guitar and singing. Shirley and Reuben were easy enough to keep track of — they were in the Castle restaurant most of the time, or sitting on the patio enjoying the view and the Bloody Marys. Chris (the second one) and Tracy didn’t get into too much trouble, and it was before Ricky came along, so I didn’t need to worry about him. But Danny was the character who gave me the real headaches. He somehow managed to take advantage of the power vacuum and got himself installed as Number 2 for a few days until The Committee and the Residents got wise to him and the replacement finally arrived.

Let me tell you, I earned my consulting fees on that trip! Danny was even so presumptuous as to get his own glossies printed up by the Tally Ho press, and foisted them on anyone who would take one. As you can see, despite all of my run-ins with him, he couldn’t even take the time to get my name right. AND he used the Mean Word at me. He was only a True Friend of Me in his own head.

So thanks, Geoff, for stirring up this little jaunt through yet another (1, 2, 3, 45, 6, 7) preferably forgotten memory.

Ah well, all’s well that Tina ends! 

Kaleidoscopic Hyperbolic iamTalkyTina

"Kaleidoscopic Hyperbolic iamTalkyTina," animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Kaleidoscopic Hyperbolic iamTalkyTina,” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

Click on the GIF to hear me singing my song, “Kaleidoscopic Hyperbolic iamTalkyTina” !!!

Here are the words so that you can sing along!

Kaleidoscopic Hyperbolic iamTalkyTina

Written and Performed by @iamTalkyTina
sung to Supercalifragilisticexpialogocious

CHORUS:

Kaleidoscopic Hyperbolic iamTalkyTina
Kaleidoscopic Hyperbolic iamTalkyTina
Kaleidoscopic Hyperbolic iamTalkyTina
Kaleidoscopic Hyperbolic iamTalkyTina

Verse 1
Because I was afraid of Art
When I was just a girl.
My mum sent me to Ninja school
To give Kung Fu a whirl.
But then one day I learned some skilz
And started making GIFs.
The greatest thing I ever did
Was learn to GIF and RIFF

CHORUS:

Um diddle diddle, diddle um, diddle ay x2

Verse 2
Jim Groom he danced around the world
And Tim went down the Slide
And CogDog threw me off a bridge
And Ben pushed me aside
We had a little Rumble time,
The Reckoning occurred
Now all my Friends are True to Me
and don’t use the Mean Word

CHORUS:

Um diddle diddle, diddle um, diddle ay x2

Verse 3
So when the stress has got your goat
There’s no need to dismay
Just summon up a magic GIF
And it will make your day
Use Photoshop or Firefox
And GIF away your strife
And use your skilz most carefully
Because they are #4life

CHORUS:

Um diddle diddle, diddle um, diddle ay x2

Verse 4
When d-s-1-0-6 peo-ples
Make Art and share online.
This joyous fun community
Enjoys a real good time!
So pass the time of day with us
And do Daily Creates
Make GIFs with ds106
And hang with all me mates!

FINAL CHORUS

Process and Attributions:

  1. I took a single frame from my ThoughtVectors GIF, and cropped it square.
  2. I rotated it 1/8 of a rotation successively (Edit>Transform>Rotate), just eyeballing the 1/8ths, saving out 8 new files.
  3. I ran each file through the Hyperbolic Image Generator, using the
  4. I assembled the 8 hypberbolic images into an 8-frame GIF, using a delay of zero seconds for each frame.
  5. I wrote lyrics for my song.
  6. For the music, I located a MIDI version of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
  7. I imported the MIDI file into Garageband and tweaked the various instruments, pumping up the bass and the melody.
  8. I went into the Village Studio and recorded my beautiful singing tracks.
  9. I labouriously slaved over the mixing decks to get the levels just right.
  10. I pressed the Share button and exported my music.
  11. I uploaded my KaleidoscopicHyperboliciamTalkyTina.gif and my KaleidoscopicHyperboliciamTalkyTina.mp3 music file, and then used the John Johnston secret code (thanks again, again, John!) to add the press-the-GIF-to-hear-the-music trick so that you can press the GIF to hear the music while you look at it. You can also press the GIF a second time to turn off the music to save the batteries when you are done. Thank you for conserving the batteries. 

Although I had a lot of this work done the day I posted the single frame image for The Daily Create 1285 , a little mission got in the way and it took me a while to get back and into the studio to complete the audio recording. But now it is all done and ready for True Friends to enjoy!

Well, bye!

Share a MOOC with Friends

Well, it was nice today when my True Friend Bill (@byzantiumbooks) called me on the Skype (because he seems to be in his bungalow a lot) and we shared a nice beverage and a nice chat.

“Sharing a Drink with Talky Tina,” photo by @byzantiumbooks, on Flickr

After that, because I wanted one that had Bill’s name on it like he had one that had my name, I went down to The Village Store and laid in some supplies for all those other conversations that I am normally having. The ones that I got are the special Village Brand of it, because they have the prisoner106 logo on them. But they were prepared and had all of the names of all of the peoples that Resigned. Except for a couple who didn’t get to the Village yet.

Peoples can see all of the special ones if they just click on their name here in alphabetical, or just scroll down.

Bill is first. And then I have a special one for my Still True Friend @cogdog, because he doesn’t really like the sugar all that much. And after those two, come all the other ones for Andrew, Christina, Geoff,  John, Kathy, Mariana, Mr. Paul, Nana Lou, Number 2, Number 6, Prisoner106, Ron, Rover, Sappho, Spike, ME, and UNCLE Jim.

HaveADrinkWith_Bill

Share a MOOC with @cogdog," animatedGIF by @iamTalkyTina

HaveADrinkWith_Andrew

HaveADrinkWith_Christina

HaveADrinkWith_Geoff

HaveADrinkWith_John

HaveADrinkWith_Kathy

HaveADrinkWith_Mariana

HaveADrinkWith_Melanie

HaveADrinkWith_MrPaul

HaveADrinkWith_NanaLou

HaveADrinkWith_Number2

HaveADrinkWith_Number6

HaveADrinkWith_Prisoner106

HaveADrinkWith_Ron

HaveADrinkWith_Rover

HaveADrinkWith_Sappho

HaveADrinkWith_Spike

HaveADrinkWith_TalkyTina

HaveADrinkWith_UNCLEJim

Being Number 2

Village ID Card, 1966.

Village ID Card, 1966.

Although I can’t say too much for reasons of contractual obligations and professional confidentiality, I have been asked by The Office to share a couple of audio resources which may serve as useful examples and resources for #prisoner106 folks who have arrived this summer in The Village.  Plus, this is Audio Week and all.

The first is a previously unreleased recording of a conversation between me and an unnamed Resident that has been preserved for years now in the Archives. This conversation of mine has become a key component of the Official Training Package for those new to the role of Number 2. It really is quite astounding (and flattering) to know that this one little sample has provided such a strong model for Administrators of The Village, especially when there is such turnover within the role and the same questions for them seem to come up time and time again.

The second component from the Training Package is a “blank” or “practice” version from which I have removed my voice, leaving the original questions with the appropriate spaces available for incoming or incumbent Number 2’s to practice their responses until they get it right. Especially important is the need for a Number 2 to speak with authority, certainty, and yet infuse their own unique personality so as to build a solid working rapport with the Resident in question.

In the spirit of Free Information and Learning, the current Number 2 has encouraged the Village Registrar to now make these files available to current Residents via the prisoner106.us Archive. As part of our original Memorandum of Agreement, public release of these files by The Village provides me with a similar freedom to make them available myself. And so I will.

Note, however, that I am neither able speak about the conditions under which the files were originally recorded, nor about the nature of my relationship with The Village at the time, nor at this time, nor at any other.

#BeSeeingYou !!

 

It’s Another Beautiful Day, Here in The Village!!

It's Another Beautiful Day Here in The Village," animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

“It’s Another Beautiful Day Here in The Village,” animated GIF by @iamTalkyTina

A little bird told me that Week Two for #prisoner106 is going to be Audio Week, and that Number 2 wants folks to make a lot of nice Good Morning Announcement Messages to play on the loudspeakers every morning when people are getting up and doing their ablutions and toast and stuff.  So I decided that it would be a nice thing to make one for everyone to hear. Because of my voice and all.

There are lots of examples of them in the episodes. Look for the parts where Number Six tips his head sideways and then the picture shows one of those little metal boxes (like up above in my GIF) and then a voice comes out of nowhere and says nice things.

Anyway, now that you have seen my GIF, you can listen to my first Good Morning Message.

Isn’t it a nice one? I used that Party Dress song in the background like I found in one of the episodes using Shazam on my iPhone. That app sure is a wonder and lets you find sounds so quickly, especially in a nice clean format to put into an audio project without any of the old hiss from the 1960s and film scratches.

Because of my advance information, this will be an example for a new assignment that Number 2 asked me to make called Assignment 1745: Good Morning Message for The Village. When you do it, you can tag it with AudioAssignments, and AudioAssignments1745 so that it will link into the ds106 Assignment Bank example for that assignment.

iamTalkyTina embeds in The Village

“My Village Information Card,” by Talky Tina, on Flickr

Well, hello there Friends. It will be such a nice time to be with you this summer in The Village here with Prisoner106.us ds106 Summer 2015 Edition. It was a happy time to see my old friend Rover when I got here and to know that she is back doing what she loves. It was too bad that that Number 2 was such a boring one but I hope the NEW Number 2 will be a more funner one.

So when I got back here, I moved back into my lodgings (I don’t have a bungalow, but rather a separate secure quarters beneath the green dome — but I say too much) and checked into The Office to get my badge (it’s up there to the right at the top, unless you are on a mobile, in which case you have to scroll down toward the bottom) and to fill out my Visitor Information Card. I filled mine out as an example to all the other peoples so that they would know. It was the first one on the Residents‘ page. I will see if I can find one of my old ones from one of the other times that I was here (I’ve popped in and out over the years on various contracts), but it is probably in an old shoebox back in my office from years ago. Anyway, I already had my Flickr all set up from before times, so I posted it there and have embedded it here (up above) so that you can see it here without having to click on a text link, but I have also set it up so that you can click on the picture up there and go straight to my Flickr there to see it where it is. That is how we were taught to do it in the ds106 way because Jim and Martha and b and Paul all say no just linking, you have to do embedding. But when you get to Flickr, remember to follow me. Plus, Bill made a Flickr group for all the Prisoner106 peoples which you can put your stuff into for INFORMATION.

Next, I recorded a little audio greeting for all of my ds106 Friends and True Friends (do you have your True Friend of me badge?) and then I put it up on my Soundcloud because I already had that set up too from before, and then I embedded it right here so that you can listen to it right here by clicking. but if you want, you can also see it on Soundcloud. While you are there, follow me on Soundcloud if you aren’t already doing that.

Next up was a Video one. For this one, I decided to tell a little bit of the story of me and ds106, just in case you don’t know all about me yet. But most of you should already, and if you don’t, then it’s about time! So watch the video which I posted onto my YouTube and then I embedded it here, just like I should. Because I learned some things while I was making this video, I will make a separate post about the Making of Becoming @iamTalkyTina where I can share some of what I learned.  But you should be prepared because this video is a little bit of sad one to start before it gets happier at the end.

To finish off, I am also putting some of my Twitter ones in here, just so that you can see that it is also a thing that you can embed. All of these embed ways are important to help you pull all of your stuff together. It is important that you pull your stuff together for good learning.

And then here is another one from a couple days ago:

And then one more good one of @jimgroom where I made a GIF out of him.

So that is all about showing how to embed all of my “Hello and Welcome to the Prisoner106 Village” stuff. So now I can go make some GIFs and watch some episodes because now you know all about me through all those types of ways: pictures, audio, video, and tweeting.

Well, bye!