Together, part 10: Talking

This is ds106 assignment on writing a fanfic about another blogger, taken one step further by being a continuing story written in parts without prior planning, and via the revolving effort of 2 bloggers going back and forth.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, to be continued...

"He knocked on the door and started opening it slowly as he came in. It creaked. The noise was still ever so slightly irritating despite its non-relevance to anything else at the moment. Casey wasn't anywhere around so I assumed that he'd put him to sleep...and not left him somewhere outside in the living room in the middle of the night.

He wanted to talk. I didn't know what he wanted to say but if he wanted to talk then I knew I had some things to say to him so I went ahead and said my part first..

"I didn't know where you were for the past hour, and I couldn't contact you. It's late. What did you think would happen? Do you know how many times I called you? Did you even check your phone yet?"

"And then you come back and I see that you were out shopping..for food! Right after dinner!! You know if you didn't like what I cooked you could have told me instead of disappearing for a midnight snack!""

Go to Part 11 (to be continued).

Together, part 8: Consequences

This is ds106 assignment on writing a fanfic about another blogger, taken one step further by being a continuing story written in parts without prior planning, and via the revolving effort of 2 bloggers going back and forth.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, to be continued...

"I was on the phone making frantic calls to our friend Casey Medsker-Saban when I heard the sound of the door being unlocked. He came back, finally, and although my first thought was absolute relief that nothing had actually happened, my gaze soon fell on the myriad bags of...stuff that he held in his hands. Convenience store bags, filled with an assortment of snacks, microwaveable gyoza and cans of coffee. He was also holding in his other hand what was clearly an assortment of packed oden, still warm despite the chilly outside air.

"Where were you?" I wanted to ask but the worry I had faced when uncertain of my husband's safety and whereabouts turned to anger in an instant, and it was all I could do to keep silent instead of exploding at the figure standing in the doorway, holding supper.

It was beyond me how some people can be totally ignorant of others around him, selfishly thinking about food when others worry. If he was that unsatisfied with my cooking he could have at least told me so. No wonder there was leftover karaage after dinner. I turned about and made my way through the apartment, heading to the bedroom. I had had enough; it was late and tomorrow was a workday, meaning that I could already look forward to a tired commute on the packed morning train. "The dishes are in the sink. Turn off the lights when you're done," I said tersely before going in to the bedroom. The man can do the dishes for once; I certainly do all the cooking. I slammed the door shut behind me, forgetting for an instant that Casey was asleep in the next room. I realised my mistake a second later but the creak of his bedroom door and his light footsteps moments later confirmed that I had indeed woken him, as a brief round of expletives temptingly crept up to the edge of my tongue.

"What's going on mommy?" he peeked in through the door to ask. I moved towards him, bending down and offering a hug in place of a proper answer. "Mommy and daddy are fighting again" isn't something you willingly tell your child late at night before a school day. Besides, if anyone should be offering any explanations Mr. I Got Supper can provide. He should be well enough equipped for that much."

Go to Part 9.

Together, part 6: Missing

This is ds106 assignment on writing a fanfic about another blogger, taken one step further by being a continuing story written in parts without prior planning, and via the revolving effort of 2 bloggers going back and forth.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, to be continued...

"I just finished putting Casey to sleep. It took a while because he started playing with his Pokemon plushies again after everyone left. I closed the door to his room quietly, leaving it open just a crack so that we could check in on him later.

Just a crack by colin.jagoe, via CC Licensing

After leaving the room however another concern came to mind. Where's my husband? He should've been back by now, even a while ago. I went in to the dining room to make sure and everything was as it had been. The table still had a slight spill on it from where Casey had knocked over the soy sauce during dinner, the chairs were still left at odd angles. I moved over to the sink where my husband had been last before going out to the convenience store to "get some coffee". Sure the store wasn't right by our place, but it still shouldn't have taken him this long to come back. I was worried. Did something happen?

Chores by ShardsOfBlue, via CC Licensing

The dishes were still piled up in the sink, unwashed. The top plate was the one with the batch of home-made karaage on it and I picked up a leftover piece and munched absent-mindedly. It was cold and I could taste more of the oil than the chicken. I didn't know my karaage tasted this bad. I wasn't hungry.

Glancing over to the dining table once again I spotted my handphone in the corner and reached over to make a call. The dial tone, one ring, two and I realised that my husband had left his phone in the pocket of his coat that he had slung over his chair during dinner. He hadn't taken it with him, a fact that I already knew but confirmed by reaching over the table and retrieving the ringing device, sullying my arm with spilled soy sauce in the process. I didn't feel like wiping it off just yet. I had other things to think about.

Soy Sauce, Shichimi - Ramen Ya - ISO800 by avlxyz, via CC Licensing

Maybe he was just delayed for some reason. Maybe he's reading comics by the magazine aisle and here I am worrying myself silly for no reason at all. My mind came up with a bunch of possibilities of where my husband could be, but a quick glance at the clock was enough to tell me that none of those possibilities could be true. He wouldn't be out this late, this long, especially without his phone and jacket. It was cold outside too. I clutched my own phone in my hands, watching a line of soy sauce make its way slowly down my arm as I lifted. I wanted to leave the apartment, to put on my coat, shoes and head outside even though I didn't have any make-up on. I wanted to head towards the store and see for myself if anything had happened...but I couldn't. Casey was still sleeping just a few meters away. I hope the ringing hadn't woken him up, but it also meant that I couldn't leave him alone in the home this late. What if he woke up to find that no one else was at home? No, I was stuck here.

And I didn't know what to do.."

Go to Part 7.

On sunny haiku, and morning Pikachu

ds106 assignment on Haiku. This assignment has been getting considerable traction as of late, so although I initially resolved to stay away from it for perceived lack of understanding of what actually makes a haiku tick..

"Here in US schools, we are taught the haiku merely as the formula of syllables..."　-CogDog.

I re-thought my stand and am currently in an, "Eh, why not? You guys can bash me in the comments later," kind of mood. Still, I think it's kind of weird how a form of poetry is so intrinsically connected to a particular language and culture (Japanese) that comments such as these can be made, and quite legitimately argued:

"Haiku have very deep system, but it can work for only Japanese language, so this Haiku will be litbit different style from Japanese language Haiku." -Komiyama.

As for me I definitely feel that there is a kind of wall between haiku and any unfortunate non-Japanese (or non-Japanese speaker) who decides to take on the task of making a haiku of his/her own. This wall can of course be true, or only perceived but I'd like to get peoples' opinions on the matter because I'm not entirely sure which it is. Similarly would anyone know of any other form of poetry (or literary form etc.) that might be specific to a certain language or culture? I can't think of any at the moment but I would be surprised if haiku were to be the only case.

So anyway enough stalling. I said I'd present my own haiku and present it I will so here you go:

"Sunshine when I sleep

Comes early in the morning

Not now, Pikachu"


Sunshine by yeow_tuj via Share-Alike, Attribution CC Licensing. It's my photo and I'll do whatever I please with it! :P

I moved into my new apartment about 4 months ago, and while it's awesome there is the slight issue of my sleeping area being right in front of a ginormous (omg this is actually a word?) window. The window's frosted, but that doesn't stop copious amounts of sunlight pouring into the room on sunny mornings and that's what my haiku was trying to convey I guess. Everyone knows the feeling of not wanting to get up yet, but in addition to alarm clocks and lack of coffee I always feel that the sun itself is trying to slap me awake in the morning...and then when I'm actually up and conscious I look at my watch and I actually still had time to spare. And then there's a huge Pikachu head behind me. I need my coffee.

As for the considerations I tried to follow the "rules" that I got from some related blogs (CogDog, Hamazaki, Komiyama, Lockman). Each of them brought something different to the table, which was nice when trying to compare and contrast and see what has to be done and what can be left open to interpretation...but at the same time it became a little confusing? CogDog and Lockman's takes were quite thoughtful, with the former taking on an almost philosophical air and the latter being quite emotional/personal. Contrast this to the wildly differing styles of Hamazaki and Komiyama, wherein I found the former's to be very instructional and insightful, almost rigid in its "professional" take (I wonder how long the post took..), while conversely when reading Komiyama's haiku I get a very light-hearted, sentimental and playful feeling coming across that might or might not adhere as soundly to the principles of haiku, but definitely comes across to this uninformed non-Japanese as so much more engaging...on a fuzzy feline kind of level. I like cats, call me biased. :P

Going back to Hamazaki's post however, I definitely found the write-up to be the most informative, with the general guidelines of:

1. Use three lines of up to 17syllables. (I split mine into 5/7/5)
2. Use a season word (kigo). (Sunshine in the morning? Maybe Summer-ish. As CogDog says, "...no idea where they fit in the Japanese seasons." But then again as Hamazaki says, "almost all the nouns were categorized into one of the four seasons a hundred years ago, but we cannot do that any more in these days," so maybe I'll be let off the hook this time..)
3. Use a cut or kire (sometimes indicated by a punctuation mark) to compare two images implicitly. (The last line)

So in conclusion there you have my haiku. Maybe it's off, maybe it's not. Maybe Ben's comment is right? What do you guys think?

"I'm not sure it's the translation into English that a Haiku potentially loses its authenticity, but rather then different pace and tone that many westerners, particularly Americans, bring to the form." -Ben.

Together, part 4: Outing

This is ds106 assignment on writing a fanfic about another blogger, taken one step further by being a continuing story written in parts without prior planning, and via the revolving effort of 2 bloggers going back and forth.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, to be continued...

"I'm exhausted! We spent the whole day walking around and just got back. Daddy's in the shower now so I thought I'd spend a few minutes writing this but I'm kind of dozing off myself. Casey doesn't seem to mind though, or should I say didn't seem to mind. He's asleep now. I'll try to type quietly..

Keyboard Standing in the shadows by wickedboy007, via CC Licensing.

So like I said today was a busy day. Daddy didn't have work over the weekend so we finally made plans to go to the Pokemon Center and Casey was overjoyed when he heard the news that he's been making sure to watch the anime every day "just to keep up". I don't know what he's trying to keep up with but he's barely been able to sit still! It's been quite tiring trying to match his pace.. I don't know how kids get so much energy (maybe I shouldn't have given in and let him have that ice-cream after lunch?). I blame those ads we saw on the train-ride there.

DSCF0072 by t.ohashi, via CC Licensing.

So what did we do? Well our original plan was to spend some time at home after lunch before setting off for the Pokemon Center, but Casey couldn't wait so we ended up going straight after (after he had his ice-cream too! Maybe we're spoiling him, just a little?). We reached the place at about 2, and I thought it was still quite early but there were a surprising number of kids (and older Pokemon fans too) that we had to queue in lline for quite a while at the cashier on our way out. Casey got a giant Pikachu and a blue Pokemon plushie that he keeps calling "Derpy" for some reason. I don't know why. Maybe our friend Casey (Medsker-Saban) told him something. I should remember to ask him about that when we meet next weekend for dinner. He might teach him other strange words.. That's Casey.

Speaking of dinner we spent more time than we planned at the Pokemon Center so we actually had to rush off on the way out. My mother recently gave us a free voucher for a cruise from Hamamatsucho Pier so we decided to take advantage of that and get a free cruise around the bay at sunset, as well as a great dinner! (we barely got on the boat in time though, the sun was already setting!)

Edited (copy/paste image from screen→Photoshop→new layer with a coat of orange-beige applied→colour overlay set to "multiply" in layer styles) screen-capture from Google Maps.

The cruise itself was wonderful. Casey was fully absorbed with his new Pokemon toys, which gave daddy and I a little time alone after dinner to watch the last rays of the sun go down over the horizon. Along with the sea breeze and the refreshing smell of salt it's definitely a memory I won't forget, even if I forgot to bring a proper camera!

So that was our day. Casey fell asleep on the way back, I guess all the excitement finally wore him out. And daddy's-..Oh looks like he's just done with the shower so I'll be going to freshen up soon. Before I forget though, remember that image Casey drew the other day? We actully did decide to frame it up. We'll put it in Casey's bedroom sometime tomorrow...wonder if he'll notice? (there's no Pokemon...or Vanilla Cats so...). Oh but I'm starting to doze off so I'd better get in the shower myself before long. Till next time!"

Original image by Casey Swadloon, framed.

Go to Part 5.

Together, part 2: Daydreaming

This is ds106 assignment on writing a fanfic about another blogger, taken one step further by being a continuing story written in parts without prior planning, and via the revolving effort of 2 bloggers going back and forth.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, to be continued...

"I just got home and set the keys to the front door down on the dining table. It's quiet now with no one else in the house; my husband left just a few minutes ago with his black office bag and our son Casey in tow. He's going to drop him off at the nearby elementary school before going to work.

Keys on yellow table by rogergordon, via CC Licensing.

I started tidying up the dining table, just a little before I had to set off myself. Cups, dishes, cutlery, into the sink for the time being and then the several strewn bits of paper and markers that Casey had been playing with during his morning meal. He's always drawing! I picked up the loose sheets and took a look at what he had scribbled; all the images were of Vanilla Cat, a character from a game that Casey had really been getting into lately. Some of the images were a bit different from the actual character, and maybe it's just a mother's bias but I think he actually did a really good job. I guess it's no surprise since his dad is a character designer for a game company...maybe our Casey will grow up to be an artist too. That would be nice.

Original illustration by Casey Swadloon.

I was sitting there, slightly crumpled piece of paper in hand and sort of daydreaming about what our Casey would be like a few years from now. He only just started elementary school, but then again it seemed like just days ago that he was rolling around in his crib, not yet able to walk or speak. He seemed so fragile then! So maybe thinking about how our son would be like a few years from now would be nothing more than a daydream, and who knows how he would change as he grows up and makes more friends at school, finds different hobbies... Maybe he'll even put the Vanilla Cat character aside! ...although I kind of wish he wouldn't because truth be told I'm kind of fond of the little white cat myself.

Still, who knows? Lately he's been getting into the Pokemon cartoons on TV, and daddy promised to bring him to the Pokemon Center over the weekend so maybe that'll be his next craze. It's impossible to say!

Pokemon Center by ksuyin, via CC Licensing.

Still, whatever Casey gets into I'm sure he'll still be our good little boy. Even after he's all grown up which might not be something he'd like us to say in front of him (you know how kids get about that sort of thing!), but I'm sure that my husband and I will always see our little Casey as the good little boy who likes a little white Vanilla Cat.

Oh but look at the time! I guess I got too caught up in my thoughts and spent just a little too long daydreaming! I rushed out of the house hoping to catch the next bus in time, but not before taking one of Casey's drawings and putting it carefully into my purse. Maybe on the way back I'll stop by the photo shop and have them frame it. And then we can all decide where would be the best place to display our little boy's art."

Original illustration by Casey Swadloon.

Go to Part 3.

On explaining 1 quote a day, and #8

So first off let's get this thing going. ds106 assignment on quotes.

Guess the source and/or complete this quote:

"Henshin-a-go-go, baby!"

And now that we're done with that I thought quote #8 would be a good time to provide a little bit of a primer on what this whole 1QAD thing is all about for those of you who are just joining us. So what is it? Well it's basically an idea inspired by 2 things: An in-class assignment on pop culture, and the Daily Shoot website, which tasked participants with taking and submitting 1 photo a day according to a provided theme.

From that I was musing about the possibilities and potential of quotes, which I personally believe is a strong indicator of one's interests and influences (and just for the record when I say "quotes" any text-based line is basically good for the taking; catchphrases, taglines, memes et al).

The Shadow knows.

The kinds of quotes people know and can identify with will differ from person to person, and there's also the possibility of being taken down memory lane when hearing a quote from years ago that never would have come up otherwise. In fact, when speaking of the surprising reactions and correct responses to my quotes one case that comes up in particular would be my #5, which I personally thought was kind of an obscure reference that perhaps nobody would be able to identify. Nevertheless several people did and now I know that one of my favourite movies is actually a lot more recognised than I thought, which is nothing if not cool. :)

So with that you basically have the idea and intention behind Project 1QAD. The Project actually started first on Twitter, and I believe a few people are still on that which is awesome, but my submissions will be continuing via this blog/ds106 for the time being so if anyone's interested feel free to join in, with your own quotes or just by guessing where each was taken from. See you on the Project!

On 1 quote a day, 7

ds106 assignment on quotes. Hint: It's not a movie this time..

Guess the source and/or complete this quote:

"Do a barrell roll!"

Oh and when you're done with this go check out 1QAD's latest member!

On 1 quote a day, 6

ds106 assignment on quotes.

Guess the source and/or complete this quote:

"You..shall not..pass!"

On 1 quote a day, 5

ds106 assignment on quotes. This might be the hardest one yet..

Guess the source and/or complete this quote:

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?"

On 1 quote a day, 4

ds106 assignment on quotes.

Guess the source and/or complete this quote:

"Are you not entertained!?"

On 1 quote a day, 3

ds106 assignment on quotes.

Guess the source and/or complete this quote:

"Why is the rum always gone?"

On 1 quote a day, 2

ds106 assignment on quotes.

Guess the source and/or complete this quote:

"Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?"

On trolling superheroes

ds106 assignment on Triple Trolling.

Image: Superman Returns movie poster.
Quote: Spiderman.
Signature: Iron Man.

Wanted to go a little fancy this time and did a full movie poster troll. The idea came from realising the similarities between Iron Man, and Superman who is sometimes known as "The man of steel" (in fact I think it's gonna be the title of the next Superman flick).

With that the only thing left was to add a famous comic book superhero quote and when searching for good Superman images Spiderman's line on power and responsibility just seemed to fit the pose.

Tackling an entire movie poster this time presented its own unique challenges I think, and the main difficulty was in putting all the elements together without something giving it all away. That something was Superman's chest, as all of you spelling bee champs know, "Iron Man" does not start with an "S". Oh no. The solution was pretty simple once I realised it though, and a simple attempt to have glow lighting obscuring the "S" brought with it more context than I initially intended when realising that Iron Man himself has a bright glowy thing right there. :D

Video tutorial to follow. Full size here:

On 1 quote a day

ds106 assignment on quotes (and the guessing thereof), adapted from the Project 1QAD on Twitter.

Guess the source and/or complete this quote:

"Where on Earth is Ca______________?"

On recasting Vaders

ds106 assignment on recasting another ds106 assignment.

Assignment: Triple Troll Attack, GO!
Recast: Done in reverse! Triple trolling in search of the truth! The question is: Who is Darth Vader really???

With a little help from Wikipedia:
Image: James Earl Jones (voice of Darth Vader in Ep. III & IV)
Quote: Darth Vader in Ep. V
Signature: Played Darth Vader in Ep. II & III

I originally had an idea for a new assignment while in that most holy of places...the bathroom. The idea was to have a reversed Triple Troll assignment, where instead of going for a common theme of image, quote and signature spread out, one would think of a character/person who has been played by different people (say, cartoon characters' voice actors) and seek to portray a more "complete" picture of that character through the troll image (as above). Ironically this consisted of using the troll format to present a more accurate depiction of who that character really is, so remember kids, even trolls can be the heroes! (oh, and go use the bathroom more often kthxbye)

On the replay value of dead people

ds106 assignment on reappropriating game screenshots.

Game: Pac-Man

Original context: Eat dots, avoid ghosts. This is 1980! There is no context!

Reappropriation:

"Day 1000. I still don't know how I got into this maze, or if I'm ever going to get out. Frankly the way this is going I'm beginning to give up hope. Occasionally I find fruit on the ground though...which despite the mystery of how they got there proves a necessary, even delicious source of sustenance. Nevertheless I feel that my time may soon be up; I have begun hallucinating, seeing multi-coloured ghosts floating around these bland, blue halls. Little by little everything is becoming so colourful to me...and I can't help but feel a sense of twisted melancholy at this unforeseen development..."

Original screenshot here. One interesting consideration this time was how to integrate text into a game as old as this without it seeming out of place and what I opted for in the end was to use a "dot-style" font to try and camouflage the line in there with the white dots, with the intention of blending dots with the "..." that might be part of the line itself.

As for the "how", well there wasn't much photo manipulation done this time around, but a big part of the process, as mentioned, was applying the right "dot-style" font so I guess I'll elaborate a little on finding and installing new fonts to your computer. What you wanna do is basically do a simple Google search on "free fonts", which will give you a list of sites where you can download...well, free fonts! (surprised?)

You can search for basically anything (even ones which mimic a specific movie font) but once you have your file downloaded you wanna go and unzip the folder (it's usually zipped), look for a file with the font name that ends with the extension "TTF", "OTF" or similar, and do the following:

1. Go to "My Computer"
2. "Local Disc"
3. "Windows"
4. "Fonts", and basically drop the TTF/OTF file in there.

After that...well there's no after that actually. The next time you open any font-using program (can you say Photoshop?) your new, shiny font should be added to your list of selectables! Go ahead and use it for your next assignment!

On the replay value of Poke-stalkers...

ds106 assignment on reappropriating game screenshots.

Game: Pokemon Yellow Version
Original context: Pikachu is the protagonist's main pokemon, and follows behind him obediently wherever he goes.
Reappropriation:

"I met it one day while out walking in the tall grass. It was yellow...with pointy ears that stuck out from the green around it. I don't know why but our eyes met, if only for an instant and in that moment I saw the depths of absolute terror in its beady, black little eyes. This was a monster. I ran like the dickens for my very soul...and have been running ever since..."

The process here was a simple Google image search for an appropriate screenshot, with the subsequent addition of the text and textbox. I think the fact that Pokemon is such a popular franchise and that the game itself looks old-school adds to the fun of reappropriation...I'm in ur Pokemans, messin' with ur childhood!

On Pokemon consumers

ds106 assignment on reinterpreting a logo with the inclusion of what one buys most at the place.

And the original 7 & iHoldings logo:

So here's the rundown: For those of you not in the know convenience stores in Japan are really living up to the name (being convenient, who would've thought it!). I go there all the time to buy food, stationery and other miscellaneous stuff but the one thing I go to 7-11 specifically for is Pokemon merchandise; cards, lucky draw prizes etc. simply because the other convenience stores don't carry that particular item (they've got other awesome stuff but that's for a different post).

Given the above I decided to go in and reinterpret the 7-11 logo with a Pokemon twist and the above image is the result. My considerations this time were about how to balance the iconography of the original logo with the Pokemon reference(s), and what really got me started I guess was the circular "swish" that the 7 & iHoldings version had, which I reappropriated into a pokeball. Other ways of balancing the two elements were by maintaining the original logo colours, and trying to keep each object (the ball vs. the "7") from becoming too prominent.

Video tutorial of some of the processes to follow (full size here):

On spubbles and tigers and bears, oh my!

ds106 assignment on spubbles. Stay away from tigers 'kay :( Oh and I lied about the bears. No bears here.. >_>