Tag Archives: ds106

My first animated GIF

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After seeing a call by Alan Levine on Twitter about a certain animated GIF festival under way, I began to see more of the familiar DS106 animated gif on different sites I follow. I’ve never made an animated gif before, and to be honest, I’ve never understood the cult-like fascination with them in DS106: “What do those guys do in DS106? Well, they make animated gifs. Word.” And so much more! What this means is I’ll start making many more animated gifs to keep the DS106 energy going over winter break. It wasn’t until I saw one by Andy Forgrave, Zack Dowell, Brian Lamb, and then the great Reverend himself, that I finally decided to give it a shot. I’m not one who’s inclined to follow tutorials in general. I end up learning much more about my own process while stumbling along the way toward the light. Having the community chime in via comments is especially helpful. Still rather new at the blogging scene compared to folks out there who model best practices and who’ve been at this since the beginning, I’ll follow their lead and leave comments enabled on my site. I’ve never understood why some well known and established bloggers disable comments on their sites. So, back to the lecture at hand, I’ve revise and improve thanks to you kind folks out there giving advice. While I know there’s a more acceptable way to do this with all due DIY artistic merit and pride in mind, here’s how I did it. I did a quick web search for animated gif generator and found Image Flip. Jim Groom’s Gun Crazy Gifs post is inspirational and right on the mark about the bigger picture context of American civilization in the wake of the Newtown tragedy. It really got me thinking about the obsession American culture, for good and bad, mostly worse, has for guns, violence and rugged-individualist machissimo. I chose Clint Eastwood in the unforgettable role of Dirty Harryin the most memorable scene from Sudden Impact. Harry soberly mutters early in the morning and before his first cup of coffee: “Go ahead, make my day.”

Using Image Flips’ markers, I isolated the segment and executed its automagical workflow to produce the animation. Only thing is, when it came time to embed it in a post, there wasn’t a share html embed code to use. I poked around a bit trying different code samples but to no avail. How does one get it disappear? Pretty lame. So I ended up downloading a trial copy of Screenflow and recorded about 2:30 minutes of my desktop playing the file. Then I used the cropping tool to isolate the clip alone and exported and uploaded to YouTube as an mp4. Voila! The Demo Copy watermark is there but hey, I’m now giffin’ it… sort of… not. My make-believe creation would be far more subtle and devious had I managed to conceal the video player controls at the bottom, set loop=true, etc. Almost fooled you, eh? Not too shabby for winging it and having a blast.

When North Korea met Austin Powers… on Twitter

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Last night, I once again was reminded in a very positive way just how connected I am with others on social media and Twitter in particular. Such powerful connections give rise to a sense of immediacy and proximity to real events as they occur. This also provide the basis for experimentation and creativity in ways that align with DS106, my favorite online community for digital storytelling. For example, as I came online after dinner, I started seeing news tweets flash by that North Korea had launched a missile. Indeed, it raced southwards and was spotted by the Japanese on the island of Okinawa.

Other news sources began to light up as well. I got a bit nervous thinking that perhaps something big was going down… yikes – just what is the payload in that rocket?? But shortly afterward, it was confirmed that North Korea had fired a rocket into orbit to launch its first satellite. In the end, all was fine… at least so it seemed. But this got me thinking about this country’s insane leadership and the nefarious ways of dictatorships in general. Something about a missile and evil of course took me back to Mike Myers as Dr. Evil et al. in Austin Powers II, right at the point when Dr. Evil and Mini-Me are launched into space.

This prompted me to send the following tweet to my followers: “Did North Korea just launch Dr. Evil into space? Someone call Austin Powers.” And wouldn’t you know, shortly after publishing it, Austin Powers responded to my tweet, through his own dynamic search of the Twitterverse, by making it one his favorites.

Austin Powers favorites my tweet

This could be a cool assignment for DS106 students: based on a real life event, engage historical figures (real or fictional) on Twitter.  What’s ironic is I didn’t tweet this message at Austin Powers; in fact, I had no idea there was some character out there pretending to be Austin Powers! Could it be Mike Meyers, as in, could the real Mike Meyers stand up, please? This is also what makes Twitter so great- a place to create and co-create meaning with others while also keeping a watchful eye on authenticity, purpose, and one’s very own crap filter.

Stellar views of Wäscälly Wäbbits’ Bunk 2 at Camp Magic MacGuffin

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Yes, these are the Wäscälly Wäbbits you’re looking for! Check out Bunk 2 where there is plenty of room to dig and explore. As we get settled into camp, I’m looking forward to exploring the petroglyphs up on the cliffs.

Breaking Camp

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Hatchet Jack told us the other day that the hills and lake in the Camp MacGuffin vicinity are inhabited by Big Wäscäl Wäbbit, a huge seldom-seen critter that leaves a gigantic paw print similar to Sasquatch. If you see a paw print please take a picture and tweet about it.

Breaking out the camping gear for Camp Magic MacGuffin

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Dear Family: Well, blame it on ds106, but it’s about time I get my act in gear if I’m going to Camp MacGuffin this summer. Hey Bunk House #2: please save me a spot by the fire, my gear and my bones are on their way! So here is my camping gear I picked up back in 1990. Good quality materials and of course I take care of my stuff. It has served me well all over the world. And still shines on. My Lowe Specialist Cloudwalker II has carried many different objects all over North America, Europe, North Africa, South Pacific, the Caribbean, Central and South America… The Marmot sleeping bag has kept me cuddly snug and protected in the high backcountry of the Sierras, Rockies, Pyrenees, Alps, and still has decent loft on standby in my dry basement. I’m ready to go camping! Do not worry, dear family and friends, I’m in very good company at Camp Magic MacGuffin. I promise to keep in touch this summer. I’ll be creating and sharing art with you over the Internets!

Camp gear from 1990 still kicking

 

Left to my own devices

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I’ve owned several record players over the years. I remember thinking from way back that I should probably squirrel one away in storage just in case. I’m pretty sure the last player I owned was accidentally thrown away while I was living overseas in the 1990s. It was stored in my folks’ basement. I did manage to take my Yamaha amplifer and a 5 disc Sony CD player with me to France. And all my CDs! But I left the record player at home. Why would you take a record player to France in 1994 anyway? A few years ago, a family friend retired and downsized her house in the Bryn Mawr area outside Philadelphia. She kindly gave my parents a number of vintage LPs, some of which are now in my possession. I would love to listen to them but am now tasked with finding a record player. My friend Dr Garcia kindly recommended one. Here’s another: the Crosley CR40 Mini-Turntable from Sears. But I’m keeping my eye out at garage sales for a real bargain. In the 70s, we had one of those all-in-one humongous furniture type devices. I think it had a built-in radio. It looked very similar to this one for sale now on Craigslist. It was a great hand-me-down from someone! I wonder where it is now? Is it still spinning vinyl in somebody’s living room or perhaps it’s stored in a basement or storage locker? I’ve got some albums I’m eager to listen to and share with others. Here is a future ds106radio show in the works… Oh, be sure to hold onto a VCR. I’ve got two. In another post, I’ll share how a friend and I rigged up a transformer to convert the 220V to 110V so I could hear my tunes in France. This setup worked great for a few years until it failed one day and gave both devices too much juice. Its last song ended with a bang and a puff of smoke.