Tag Archives: AnimatedGIFAssignments

The #ds106zone

“From The Twilight Zone And Beyond” by @iamTalkyTina

Some of my True Friend readers will know of my previous life as an actress, and might have seen my work on The Twilight Zone episode, The Living Doll. That most people who don’t REALLY know me continue to think of me as that same little piece of plastic from back in the 60s are living in some kind of bizarre creepy world and think that I AM a doll, just because I played one on TV. What kind of goofball is that? ~~That I was typecast because of that role is one of the meanest things people have ever done to me and it’s their own fault if they didn’t live to regret it.~~ I have always been glad to be affiliated with such fine television programming as Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone.

Back in February, I made my own assignment for my ds106 friends, and I have been watching in anticipation for someone to try my assignment. It is called “From the Twilight Zone, and Beyond…” and asks my ds106 friends to make animated GIFs from The Twilight Zone television show, and also from beyond — in the world of black and white television, and maybe movies too. Like I said, I have been watching in anticipation for someone to try my assignment.

Now that my True Friend @jimgroom has said that every single thing from this summer’s ds106 course is going to be about The Twilight Zone, I am thinking that it’s about time for him to step up and try my assignment !!!!!!! And you too, @cogdog. And @scottlo, and @olHatchetJack. And anyone else who wants to have a hope of continuing to be my True Friend. Someone get word to that Cory Doctorow fellow that I’m looking for him to be more than just a pretty face on my True Friends badges page. And that goes for any of the rest of you who want to have any hope of being my True Friend, and getting your own badge! The price of entry just went up! You need to do my AnimatedGIFAssignment 920: “From the Twilight Zone, and Beyond…” assignment now, too. So there!

By the way, I know that sometimes GIFs get WordPressed into .jpegs and all, and it probably happens when the site gets migrated or something, but I spent time making my animated GIF months back just for that assignment page, and I think that someone could take a moment and re-link my GIF back into the assignment page because it really doesn’t look all that good with just that stupid blank Star Trek screensaver of stars. Some one get on that, please. I put the GIF up at the top of this post, and here is a link to smaller copy that I made just special for the ds106 assignment page, because it goes all wonky if the GIFs aren’t just the right size, and so I took extra care with that, too.

As always, I’m watching you, Friends. And True Friends, I’m especially watching you. As for all you hopefuls, remember, along with filling in the form, you need to do this assignment now too, to get your very own very special badge.

But you know it’s worth it. Being a True Friend always is.

I’m Cutting Jack Some Slack. But not with his Hatchet !!

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Spock vapourizes Rock. Repeatedly.

I had to cut Hatchet Jack some slack this past weekend.

Given that Jack had invited me up to the mountains for the weekend, and being a Good Friend as I am, I went along and spent some time visiting with him in his snowdrift. I will confess that I was quite intrigued to hear more of his his tall tale of Colt Wyoming, the author of “The Gathering at Bushnell Falls.” As it would turn out, Jack was fairly mute on that subject.

In fact, I found him fairly mute on most things. He seemed almost tongue-tied and frozen, almost unintelligible.

We did spend some time getting to know one another by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, but I found Jack’s single-minded preoccupation with Rock to be a bit easy to beat. (He seemed to like calling it Ro Sham Bo, but that didn’t make it any harder to beat him!)

After a while, I tried to teach Jack a new version that I just learned, called Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock (I remember Spock from Star Trek — I had a crush on him back then!) but Jack still seemed to like Rock. Again, still easy for me to beat. But fun, because I had a couple choices to choose from. It is always fun to visit with Friends, especially when you are winning all the time. Jack didn’t seem to mind.

I will admit, Jack has quite a frosty environment there. I had to find some winter clothes in my suitcase to keep me warm, as my cheeks and nose got quite rosy while we visited. Jack’s nose looked particularly cold. Luckily, I had an extra hat for Jack.

At the end of the weekend, I tried to get Jack to come back to the Chalet with me, but he seemed to want to stay where he was. He seems quite attached to that snow drift.

It was fun to visit Jack. Perhaps I will have some other invitations from some of my other new friends at ds106 and I will be able to visit with them.

Remember, Good Friends are Forever!

A Valentine Controversy from 1965

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Jeb’s Telescope
from Hatchet Jack

Hatchet Jack posted a Valentine Book cover yesterday that sent my little mind whirling decades back to the sixties. The book, entitled “Jeb’s Telescope,” and written by “Remington Montana,” was very clearly a re-release of a very controversial novel that I encountered way back in 1965.

While the newer cover is in colour, and the title clearly refers to the key plot features of the original (and even the author name is clearly an updated pseudonym), the implications inherent in the original release have been clearly toned down to get the book safely onto to the book shelves and get money out of the book-buyers’ pocket books.

It took me a good day of scrounging around to find a copy of the earlier, release but compare Hatchet Jack’s find above with this:

Original cover (1965) of “The Gathering at Bushnell Falls” (Animated GIF)

I recall a lot of furor in the news when this book first came out. People really raised their eyebrows at the word “Gathering” in the title. There were lawsuits from manufacturers of optical devices. There was a mitigating attempt to re-issue the book with a more accurate and less stimulating and legally provocative title, “The Five Evil Brothers at Bushney’s Falls.” But it was all to no avail. The book was pulled, the author moved out of state (perhaps to Montana?), and everyone forgot about it.

To see that the book was re-released later, after all that spectacle (did you see what I did there?), with the relatively passive title “Jeb’s Telescope,” just goes to show how much folks still judge a book by its cover.

Speaking of which, I hope you are are seeing me in a new light, now that I am out of that old musty cardboard box and taking some time to work at helping folks see me as I truly want to be seen. Perhaps you have been enjoying my newly-updated publicity photo, my very first piece of voice work for ds106radio, and my Valentine shared for all of you yesterday.

I am still waiting for comments to float my way. I currently only have one measly pingback — and it is from myself (although those self-links I just added above should get me more).

I do trust that all my new friends here at ds106 aren’t too busy to pay me a little attention. You know that real Friends don’t forget one another.

That would be a sad thing. And a bad thing. Very bad.

Eyes Wide Open!!

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Eyes Wide Open!! by iamtalkytina

I always pay special attention to my closest friends, and like to make sure that they pay special attention to me, too! You have paid attention to me in recent days, haven’t you friend? You have left me a special comment, yes?

Now, Both Eyes are Watching You!

I still can’t believe my publicist okayed that photo way back in 1964 — the one of me with my eyes closed, and — can you believe it — mashed potatoes on my face?!!?

You will never catch me saying that I have been bitter for decades as a result, I’m just glad that I ended that relationship! Unfortunately that photo was one of several that all but ended my career! I’d never say that I was typecast after that, but it certainly has been ever so difficult to present a nice, clean girl image since then.

So, waking up now in this age of “social media,” and image curation, I’ve had a little work done, and am now going to see if this new photo can work to undo a lot of that negative publicity. I hear that my newer, more positive presence on the Internet can, over time, serve to undo any potential negatives. You know, 80% positive can overshadow the 30% negative. This will be one of several re-released images that I will share to help tell my true story, and present a more positive face!

Perhaps you can help me, my new friends, by sharing and helping to promote “the ~~new~~ true me?”