Thursday 23 July 2009

Post Mortem Report

This information is for the eyes of YokeEe and only hers, less she chooses to disclose it to people.

Assignments
Assignment 1 Facebook
Blog Post on Assignment 1: Post 1. Link to Assignment 1: Link 1.

Assignemtn 2 Twitter
Blog Posts on Assignment 2: Post 1, Post 2. Link to Assignment 2: Link 1.

Assignment 3 Blog
Blog Post on Assignment 3: - . Link to Assignment 3: Link 1.

Assignment 4 Google Map
Blog Post on Assignment 4: Post 1. Links to Assignment 4: Link 1, Link 2.

Assignment 5 Image Editing
Blog Post on Assignment 5: Post 1. Link to Assignement 5: Link 1.

Assignment 6 Logo
Blog Post on Assignment 6: Post 1. Link to Assignment 6: Link 1.

Assignment 7 Audio Podcast
Blog Post on Assignment 7: Post 1. Links to Assignment 7: Link 1, Link 2.

Last Assignment Video
Blog Post on Last Assignment: Post 1. Links to Last Assignment: Link 1.


Other posts are class exercises.


DMF is
the best module i've taken since enrolling in poly
a pressure-less and stress-less module
most fun module ever

a billion thanks Yoke Ee, the icing on this DMF cake

Pain Immeasurable



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt4-lBOqUzk

The cruelties inflicted upon the citizens of Gaza in 30 seconds. May peace be with those that have parted, and may it come to those that aren't. Israel's invasion of Gaza isn't the peace that the world wants to see, it is unilateral peace that Israel is achieving. Their brand of peace. Instead, the peace that the world desires is bilateral peace. Israel proclaims to want bilateral peace, but their actions shows otherwise. WATCH THIS VID, 3-party debate on Gaza's Genocide.



http://www.zshare.net/audio/6307481251e8e28d/

NOTA BENE: THIS ISN'T A MOCKERY OF CHRIS DAVIES OR HIS VIEWS, NOR AM I UNDERMINING HIM, IN FACT I AM SUPPORTING HIS IDEAS AND VIEWS ON GAZA.

Wednesday 22 July 2009

Detergent Opera

I applied the "Director's Cut" to this video clip; made from several different unedited clips, I've amalgamated all of them into this final piece. Applaud before my awesomeness.

Monday 20 July 2009

Tan Yong Hong & the Exhibition

We departed from our usual DMF class, and ventured to an art exhibition known as At Home Abroad hosted by 8Q sam where they featured both local and foreign artists, such as Choy Ka Fai, Sookoon Ang, Zulkifle Mahmod, Jason Lim and Ming Wong. Their collective exhibition blog under 8Q sam can be found here.


This piece reminds me the fragility of life, how it always hangs in the balance of unforeseen events. The chair and table are elevated with the support of 3 wine glass at their respective legs, leaving one leg unsupported. On the chair is one empty wine glass, while the table has several glasses, including broken ones, with 4 glasses filled with water that's supporting several empty glasses vertically, having a round glass coaster/saucer in between them. One thing i noticed that stands out if viewed from afar, other than the black chair, is the branch sticking out at the side of the table.


Well, they weren't kidding about the Advisory bit, warning parents to veil the innocence of their children from the mature-ness(?) of adulthood. This short-film was about the struggles of a German widow finding new love in the form of an Arabian, who's race were regarded as sex-minded and filth's by the xenophobic German society. So I guess, with the cultural diversity that this film is trying to address, it is a paradox then that all the characters of this film was casted by only one same actor.


Among the other exhibits were Choy Ka Fai's Rectangular Dreams,



Zulkifle Mahmod's False Securities,



and Sookoon Ang's White Green,



That's about it as far as 8Q sam's At Home Abroad is concerned. Marvelous exhibition indeed. Now, to more random-related issue.

If you're wondering who Tan Yong Hong is, then ponder no further, he is what, in the language of Japanese, is referred to by me and my classmates as Nakama.

Happy 10 and 8th Birthday

I get sticker-ing the face, but why the nipples too?

Another year closer to old age and death


This post is the current record holder for Most Pictures Post in DigMeFun

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Auditory Orgasm of Melancholic Music

Experiencing Awesome Music for Dummies:
  1. Look for the Imeem Player on this post
  2. Press the Repeat Button for both songs (as highlighted to the right of the image)
  3. Press Play (as highlighted to the left of the image)
  4. Play only one song at a time
  5. Appreciate Fukuda-san's brilliance

Music by Chikayo Fukuda-san, looped by moi with the aid of Adobe Soundbooth.





Mild and elegant yet despondent and pensive. If there's a list of music that I'd die listening, both of them would be definately in it.

Monday 13 July 2009

Blue and Orange

Raster and Vector. What is the difference? I shall save your little grey cells from pre-maturely committing the seppeku by just showing you a "video" prepared by my DMF tutor YokeEe on the difference between Rastor and Vector. Thank her for making it, thank me for uploading it.

You might want to go fullscreen and hit the pause button every few seconds.




This is short post

Sunday 12 July 2009

はなことば

Literally translated as Flower Language; Hanakotoba, the Language of Flowers, is an allegory of flowers in Japanese Culture. This relationship of flowers stretches back to feudal Japan, where many nobleman such as the Samurais were aesthetes though it's after the WWII that Hanakotoba began to bloom with the introduction of European flowers.

Even till today, this elegant and poetic fashion of conveying a message is being used by people in Japan; in the form of Celebration Cards, Poems, Gifts, and even Manga/Anime. One of which would be Kubo Tite-san's Bleach. The use of Hanakotoba is apparent in this Manga adopted Anime, by the 13 Division Imperial Guards or Gotei 13 where each division bears a flower, which is usually reflected of the divisions style. For example, the third division bears the flower Marigold.


(Image Courtesy of kurosaki4)

As Kubo Tite-san in the form of Izuru Kira (one of my favourite characters), perfectly puts it
三番隊の隊花は“金盞花”。 花の持つ意味は“絶望”。 それは即ち三番隊の矜持だ. 戦いは英雄的であってはならない。 戦いは爽快なものであってはならない。 戦いとは絶望に満ち. 暗く。 怖ろしく。 陰惨なものでなくてはならない。 それでごそ人は 戦いを恐れ。 戦いを避ける道を選択する. 僕の斬魄侘助は。全ての斬魄の中でも。その三番隊の考えに即しただと僕は思ってる。 斬りつけたものの重さを増やし続け。斬られた相手は重みの耐えかね地に這いつくばるそして必ず。侘びるかの様に。頭を差し出す.故に。「侘助」
which translates to (credit goes to SleepyFans)
The 3rd Division’s flower is the Marigold. Its meaning is Despair. That is our pride. War is not heroic. War is not exhilarating. War is full of despair. It is dark. It is dreadful. It is a thing of sorrow and gloom. That is why people fear war. That is why people choose to avoid it. I believe that out of all the Zanpakutos (Soul Cutting Swords), mine is the one that most closely adheres to this philosophy. It increases the weight of whatever it hits, until my opponent can no longer bear the weight and falls to the ground and then they bow their head, as if in apology. That is why it’s called the Apologiser
かっこいいな~

Apologies for the major digression. I couldn't help myself. Anyways, here are 2 of the flowers from Bleach that I've made using Illustrator's Shape Tool and Pathfinder: The Marigold (3rd Division) and Daffodil (10th Division).


2 Less Petals for this Marigold

By using the Shape Tools and Pathfinder Shape Modes, you could avoid using the onerous Pen Tool, proving useful for noobs. I mean beginners, useful for beginners. Here're some tips to get you started on using Shape Tools and Pathfinder:

The Shape Tool (the rectangle box) can be found on the panel to the left side of your screen. It has 6 default shapes, including a Flare Tool. To reveal these tools, click, hold and slightly drag your cursor. Additional tools that are hidden are marked with a small triangle at the bottom left corner of each icon.

When creating an even shape, press and hold the Shift Key of your keyboard. This will prevent you from creating shapes with disproportionate dimensions.

Other than using the Selection Tool (Black Cursor) to rotate, you could use the Rotate, Reflect, Shear, and Free Transform tools for your reshaping needs. This four tools can be located just below the Eraser Tool.

For the alignment of the Shapes that you've created, higlight (click and hold) your shapes and look for those (See Image Below) icons at the top

of your screen and click one of the icons, depending on what you want. Note that this set of icons will only appear after you've highlighted your shapes.

For more shape manipulation, you'd want to use the Pathfinder, which can be found on the panel to the right side of your window. Then experiment with the useful functions that it has. If you still can't find the Pathfinder, press and hold Shift+Ctrl+F9 on your keyboard.

Here are other examples of what you can achieve with those simple tools.


Mechanic & Chef

Saturday 11 July 2009

Bregalad's Lament and Mine

I'm very ticked off about my blog layout, doing injustice to this beautiful poem crafted by JRR Tolkien in the form of Bregalad. Please don't be put off by the seemingly low-quality image you see before you. Click the image to enlarge. O Orofarnë, Lassemista, Carnimírië. The text that's mirrored of the title is Sindarin for the names of the 3 rowans.

PLEASE CLICK THE PICTURE TO ENLÄRGE
BETTER QUALITY AWAITS BEHIND THIS PIXALISED VISÄGE

Friday 10 July 2009

Oath Fulfilled

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I'll cover the details about my Facebook Groups in another post, so here we are.

When I first began Facebook-ing, I didn't know how to create a group. So to avoid anyone else falling into the same pit as I, here's some 101s to making a group/cause.

After logging into your account, locate a tab at the bottom of your screen, just above the status bar, and click Applications>Group. On the next screen, look for the +Creat a New Group button.


Thereof, its easy as ABZ. Fill in the required fields: Group Name, Description and Type of Group. And you're done. Upload an image as a display picture for your group. And since you're the creator, you're the Admin as well allowing you to edit/moderate your group anytime; you could also promote some of the members to be Admins.

and finally, What you can do now:
  • Create a Discussion.
  • Invite your friends to your group.
  • Add photos, links and videos for your group.
  • Create an Event.
Additional Tips:
For your group's display picture, you might want to create (using Photoshop/Illustrator) a logo, instead of Googling for an image, as I did initially. Here's an example of what I'm using.


Killer quote from Michael Franti

If your group characteristics permits, take/create a photo of yourself involved with anything about your group and add it in. Here's an illustration of what I mean.

[Photo Removed]
(also, FUCK YOU RUL, YONG)

After creating an event, you might want to use the online-application Google Map so that those who're attending can easily find the location of the event. Though, you need to create a free Google account first. For my group I've created 2 maps:


Click Here for a better view. A map of only Isreal attacks on Gaza.
It was emotionally painful and mind-boggling to see such cruelty and savagery done to the innocents at this present era. I was particularly and most infuriated when i read these 2 articles: Israel Soldiers on Gaza: Excerpts and Breaking Silence on Gaza Abuse.



Click Here for a better view. A map of only Gaza's retalliation to Israel's attacks.
This reminds me of a quote in St. Augustine's book City of God, "Because I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor". Or smth along those lines. If only I have my own army...

So if you've yet to create a group, let alone joined Facebook, then do so now. Don't procrastinate. And if you've yet to join my groups, please do so. And add me while you're at it.

Wednesday 8 July 2009

Last Bottle of Bird Food

It seems that I've overlooked certain info and details that I'd initially wanted to post. So instead of re-editing the earlier post, I'll make a new one. This shall cover the A.E.I.O.U Tweet, and provide you with more reasons as to why you should join Twitter.


A.E.I.O.U is an abbreviation for Already Existing Information Optimally Uploaded, and not your average vowel. This term is coined by an established professor in the field of Media Studies of the University of San Fransisco, David Silver. I hold him in high regards, and so too my tutor YokeEe, so you better do too. An AEIOU Tweet refers to, in the words of David Silver, "already existing information (blog posts, flickr sets, foghorn articles, USFtv clips) and optimally upload it to twitter. already existing information optimally uploaded, or aeiou, in 140 characters or less." If you prodigies still can't comprehend that simple explanation, then allow me to translate: what it means is to Tweet on any sort of information such as this, so that the world (or at least your followers) know that such information exists. I think it's an attempt at curbing the TMI problem, but I'm against the idea of TMI. You can never, and I mean not ever, have too much information in the world. Why? Read this.

Back to the topic. In 2007, David Silver was invited to the ACRL Conference in Baltimore to give a talk on his concept of A.E.I.O.U.
Albeit the conference was 2 years ago, there were fellow bloggers who commented on the event and David Silver's talk. Here are excerpts from 2 different sites:
David Silver from the University of San Francisco media studies department talked about what he called "already existing information optimally uploaded," or AEIOU, and encouraged librarians to consider blogging as a means of sharing and recombining information that's already available in other contexts (both digital and analog). I liked his emphasis on using online means of drawing students into the offline world, and the student projects he described that mingled blogging with some fairly extensive archival research at the library.
From Householdopera

He spoke about AEIOU, Already Existing Information Optimally Uploaded. His view is that information is being lost because it is not being presented in sense-making formats. He encouraged everyone to blog, although you may feel you have no time and no money; so much information is already out there, but it needs a voice, it needs to be made public to create new forms of knowledge.
From ALA


Well, that's about it for A.E.I.O.U. Now, more verbal induction in the form of additional links and a video, for those few who've yet to use Twitter.


Well this video "demonstrates the use of Twitter and Jott in the World Simulation, a radical experiment in education". It is somewhat fast paced, so you might want to re-watch it once and hit the pause button a couple of times. Marvel at the power that is Twitter.

ADDITIONAL LINKS provided by ME.

Tuesday 7 July 2009

People You Wouldn't Want to Mess With

Tupac Amaru Shakur, Eikichi Onizuka, Kim Jong-il, Chuck Norris, Adolf Hitler, Gollum and Shinigami-sama. What do these 7 beings have in common? They are beings of the past and present that you would never ever want to mess with.
(I didn't include Zohan because he's an idiot)


For a time, there hadn't any beings worthy of inclusion of that list. But up until yesterday, I have managed, with the help of Photoshop CS4, to create a worthy 8th member of the People You Wouldn't Want to Mess With. In his previous life, Salvador Dali was an artist who was back then and even now, famed for his surrealist approach to art. In the creation of his new life, I've amalgamated, through the use of Photoshop, several new *features* to his face and his cat. Now, he is ALIVE! (and also, now I know how he felt) Before & After pics coming up.

BEFORE; Artist you know as Dali


After; A Guy You Wouldn't Want to Mess With


5 extremely excellent reasons you should Never mess with him:
  1. He has the third eye
  2. He has the Sharingan (notice the pupils of his left and right eye)
  3. He has killer facial hair
  4. He has a pet sabertooth
  5. I wouldn't mess with him
Nuff said.

Want to learn more about the magic of Photoshop and feel good about yourself?

Then subscribe to this GENIUS.

He has a collection of videos in YouTube on tips and guides of Photoshop. I recommend you watch them all.

Here are the relevant videos that he made, which partially aided me in recreating Salvador Dali to the awesomeness that he is now. What aided me mostly was YokeEe's guide. I'll get her permission to allow me to include/post her guides in this blog. (For the record, I'm prone to procrastinate)










Monday 6 July 2009

Sequel to Armageddon

Apparently, the F.B.I and C.I.A gathered Intel, from the same source that initially told them Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction, that those weapons left behind by deceased ex-Iraqi Prime Minister Saddam Hussein was somehow relocated from Iraqi soil to the moon. The American government fears that Al-Qaeda and other "terrorists" (notice the inverted commas, implying the controversy in the word terrorist) would remotely launch all those Nuclear Missiles from space and into earth's atmosphere with United States of America as its target. Now in order to prevent America getting obliterated, they've assembled a team based on my recommendation to dispatch to space in a Seek-and-Destroy mission, code-named Apollo 21.


[Click the Picture to Enlarge]

By using advanced high-technology science, their scientist managed to resurrect some of history's most feared people. And also, somehow unbogused Gollum and convinced Kim Jong-il to fight for America. Here's a group shot of them before getting catapult to space.

Oh come on Hitler, smile. Look even Gollum's smiling. Or smirking.

From left to right: Smeagol/Gollum, Tupac Amaru Shakur, Kim Jong-il, Adolf Hitler, Chuck Norris, Eikich Onizuka/Sorimachi Takashi.

In other news, those same scientist that resurrected the team for the mission Apollo 21 have been trying to find a cure for the grim phenomenon referred to as Conjoined Hands, a sub-catagory of its more known counterpart Conjoined Twins. Most victims of this unfortunate phenomenon are located in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan. Foreign scientists and historians have cited the cause of this to the controversial Nuclear Atomic bombing of those two prefectures back in dusks of WWII.

The reason why it remains an issue till today is due to the fact that America were on the brink of winning the war, after defeating Germany and their ally Italy. Furthermore, they have severed Japan's food supply by blocking all sea imports of food; the Japanese went one whole year without eating their staple, rice. It was only a matter of time that Japan would be forced to surrender. But instead of choosing the peaceful method of out-waiting the stubborn Japanese leaders, they hastily dropped the atomic which ended lives of thousands of innocents and continued to haunt many more that survived. More information on this miserable and tragic event can be found on Wikipedia, Commondreams and this Website.

Anyways, those scientists tried using other forms of nuclear radiation to counter the lingering effects of the horrid bombing. The results were confounding.



The patient's skin pigment began changing to a greenish-teal colour. In this green-state, they converse by replacing the personal pronoun with nouns or their name, avoiding all forms of verbs and excessively using the word "smash" and "crush". Fortunately, the patients only exhibit such signs when angered. A term has yet to be coined for this unusual transformation.


Since you've read this far, I shall reward you with the generic steps of how to create these double-exposure images. (For the Apollo 21 image, refer to this post)

Basically, it's about manipulation of layers; which the ranking of the layers determines which image belonging to that particular layer will appear first. So for example, Image_A is on Layer01, and Image_B is on Layer02. If Layer01 is above Layer02, then on the artboard Image_A will be above Image_B, and vice-versa.

Here comes the double-exposure bit. Under the Layer Tab, which can be found at the bottom-right corner of your screen, hit the triangle to reveal a set of options.



The one that I'm using is Linear Light. You might want to experiment on other options.



Of course, it goes without saying, that you should already have the images you want to double-expose on 2 seperate layers.