DigMeFun

Post Mortem Report

2009-07-23T18:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-23T01:10:00.000-07:00

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.

Detergent Opera

2009-07-22T06:20:00.001-07:00

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.

Tan Yong Hong & the Exhibition

2009-07-20T15:13:00.000-07:00

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

Auditory Orgasm of Melancholic Music

2009-07-14T20:18:00.000-07:00

Experiencing Awesome Music for Dummies:

Look for the Imeem Player on this post
Press the Repeat Button for both songs (as highlighted to the right of the image)
Press Play (as highlighted to the left of the image)
Play only one song at a time
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.

Blue and Orange

2009-07-13T02:12:00.000-07:00

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

はなことば

2009-07-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

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.　僕の斬魄刀侘助は。全ての斬魄刀の中で最も。その三番隊の考えに即した刀だと僕は思ってる。　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

Bregalad's Lament and Mine

2009-07-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

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

Oath Fulfilled

2009-07-10T06:47:00.000-07:00

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.

Last Bottle of Bird Food

2009-07-08T03:59:00.000-07:00

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 Jot t 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.

Jonnelle Marte, Check Twitter for Bargains, July 12, 2009.
Lexton Snol, Twitter Suggested for Nobel Peace Prize, July 12, 2009.
Andrew Redfern, Twitter and Twitter Marketing, Jully 10, 2009
Daily Record, The Queen Signs Up for Twitter, July 11, 2009
Murray Wardrop, Tweet for a Taxi: London Cab Service Launched on Twitter, July 10, 2009

People You Wouldn't Want to Mess With

2009-07-07T00:38:00.000-07:00

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:

He has the third eye
He has the Sharingan (notice the pupils of his left and right eye)
He has killer facial hair
He has a pet sabertooth
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)

Sequel to Armageddon

2009-07-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

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.

Smack Them Visuals

2009-07-05T01:49:00.000-07:00

It has come to my attention that my posts were too dull, in every sense of the word. And I agree, words alone can't make an excellent blog, especially one that is about Digital Media. So, I've visually ameliorate the earlier posts, and I'm considering embedding videos of tips and guides instead of just linking them. Thank me. That is all.

T for Twitter

2009-07-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

Attwention!! This is no mere trifle trash-talk! Today, thou shall be Attwacted, transfixed and thoughtlessly thrown into the terrific and tremendous thing that is Twitter, not tardy but timely where none remain tacit of their trivial or telling thoughts! Thus, I truthfully tell to those who are still Illtwitterate or a Trivilian, tarry not and try Twitter, transpose thyself into terrific Twittaddicts and Twitterholics!

I thank thee for tolerating my tautological and tedious introduction on Twitter.

For those who could not decipher this coded jargon, I am bringing to light the online service called Twitter. It's similar to the RSS function but instead of having just headlines, you receive bite-sized updates and information on whomever you're following, you'll learn more about your friends, discover the normal life of celebrities, even and get up-to-date news from around the world. And if you're wondering how Twitter is different from blogs: Twitter has a limit to each Tweet, forcing you to give the gist of your message per Tweet, saving you from the arduous task of reading a lengthy post. This is permitted by the quota of 140 characters, not words, per Tweet which is Twitter jargon for Post.

Speaking of Twitter jargon, for those adventurous few who are looking to decode my turgid introduction, other than suggesting an online dictionary I would recommend you try This Website and if you still can't find the meaning of that word, Google it! Don't expect me to excessively spoon feed you. Anyway, by familiarising with some of the terms not only will you be able to unravel my introduction, but also fit in effortlessly with the Twitter community (like duh!).

Here are 4 common examples:

Tweet: single message seen on Twitter
Replies: directly replying to a person who tweeted you with an @username at the start
ReTweet/RT: tweeting a content posted by another user; similar to quoting someone
Thin Tweets: a tweet with a single layer of information/notification

If you're a major Twitaddict, then you'd want to have these softwares: Twhirl or Tweetdeck. It's like a Windows Live Messenger version of Twitter, ridding you of the troublesome task of constantly clicking the Refresh icon on your web browser just to get the latest updates on Twitter. Also, you can use your mobile phone to Tweet on the go. For Singaporean users, register at Tweet.sg (credit to my classmate Shi Peng for the Website) for this useful service. Standard text charges apply but there will be no additional charges incurred for this service, so in a way it's free. Go crazy. And for those who are Facebook freaks, like my friend Man, you can have a 2-in-1 desktop software called Seesmic, that gives on-the-spot updates of Facebook and Twitter! More convenience made available to you by modern technology (and more spoon feeding!).

AND if you're still unconvinced about using Twitter, then you're an idiot (if you think it's a joke then it is, if not then suck it). Continuing: I shall no longer rely on only words but also sound and moving images. Video brought to you by CommonCraft, through YokeEe.

ADDITIONAL LINKS provided by my DMF tutor YokeEe & my classmate JANE

David Pogue, Twittering Tips for Beginners, Pogue's Posts blog (New York Times), January 15, 2009.
Laura Fitton, Twitter is my Village, Pistachio, January 10, 2009.
Craig Childs, Twitter: Use it Productively, Lifehack, February 9, 2007.
Also an extremely useful Blog with more info on Twitter and other Online Media, Sliver In SF
Corey Flintoff, Gaza Conflict Plays Out Online Through Social Media, NPR.org, January 6, 2009.
Craig Colgan, How Frozen Peas Started A Movement: Cancer Patient's Blog Builds Web Community, LoudounExtra.com (Washington Post), January 10, 2008.
Xeni Jardin, Tweethearts: blogger proposes to nerd girlfriend over Twitter, she tweets back acceptance, Boing Boing, October 10, 2008.
Lindy Brown, Twittering Libraries, fall 2008.

Pilot

2009-07-02T01:36:00.000-07:00

Once there was Man. Man met a Woman and fell in love. Man dedicates lifetime to Woman. But Woman had to migrate leaving Man behind. Fortunately Man found Facebook and their love survived. However, Woman broke up with Man due to Man only socialising with Woman at Facebook and not wanting to meet Woman personally. Man dedicates lifetime to Facebook.

Now the question we need to ask here is, why did Man dedicate his lifetime to Facebook?
Simple, it's because Facebook offers a plethora of simple easy-to-use online application to Man, that connects him with his old friends and new ones, and serves as a medium for socialising be it in the form of games, poking each other, tagging photos, and even real-time chatting. This, sadly, addicts Man to Facebook.

After spending a day using Facebook, Man discovered an application that allows him to create a Group/Cause of any kind where people of same interest can gather and rub shoulders with. Thereafter Man created 2 Groups, one of politics and the other of self-interest. Here are the links to both of them: JAPAN-x-KOREA and Arab-Israeli Conflict

Be sure to join and comment. I'll cover the details about Groups/Causes in another post.

N.B. Man is a fictitious character. Any resemblance to anyone is purely coincidental.

ADDITIONAL LINKS provided by my DMF tutor YokeEe and ME

Kathleen Parker, Mainstream Media on Life Support, Washington Post, January 2, 2009.
Clive Thompson, Brave New World of Digital Intimacy, New York Times Magazine, September 5, 2008.
It's Facebook's World, We Just Live In It, Youth Cutlure Research, January 15, 2009.
Jenna Wortham, The Value of a Facebook Friend? About 37 Cents, Bits blog, January 9, 2009.
usfblogtastic, 71 Million and Counting...., April 1, 2007.