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 PIXALISEDVISÄGE
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 neverever 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 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)
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.
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.
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 tutorYokeEe & my classmateJANE
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.
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.
