The real design idea for my fake country remained unfinished in a comic book.

It had to begin somewhere back in 1990-91. Therefore, my fake country was still in the storyboard phase in a comic book that my stepsister and I spoofed. 

Fake coins and postage stamp for my country. April 15, 2013

My fake coins
and postage stamp and how they might appear.

Fake map of my made up country. April 15, 2013

My fake map of my made up country and how it would appear.

My fake country's currency and flag. April 15, 2013

This is what my fake money (dollar bills) would look like. Again, this is just a rough draft version. I think my stepsister would be peeved if I smacked her image on a dollar. Also, there's my flag done in a non-mistakable construction worker orange and simple black and white rock n' roll gesture. The rock n' roll gesture was once touted by religious leaders back in the day as representing "666", the number of the Beast, or Satan, rather. Nowadays, it simply stands for "rock n' roll", of which, the late, great, Ronnie James DIO (Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Elf, DIO) made famous. Ronnie Dio claimed something to the effect in an interview years ago that his grandmother used to flash the horns at people to prevent the evil eye. So, there you have it, some interesting rock n' roll history behind the horns gesture.

Create your own country- Paragraph- Description of what my country would be like.

This a rough draft (outline, rather) of my fictional country and what it would be like. It's an oppressive place to live, somewhat. I actually thought of this idea way, way back in 1990 over a spat I had with my parents decision concerning rock/heavy metal music at the time. Please keep in mind, this is was purely going against their ultra-conservative 80's view points, and intended to be humorous. Enjoy! ;)

The U.S.E., ‘The un-democratic state of euphoria’ didn’t start out as the U.S.E. Once upon a time in 1390, two parties of serfs met at their kings boarders. There had been short rations in the Region of Ramen Noodles, and much civil unrest due to a ruling made by the Mean knight that prohibited certain types of heavy metal music. The Kansas Bluegrass Association ruled with an iron fist and this entire panel belonged to the Mean knight and whatever orders he barked at them, they carried out to the fullest extent of the oath they were sworn to uphold. Day and night they fought for a cause they believed in. There was a lot of unnecessary bickering, hand-to-hand combat and lack of communication. And thus it continued for centuries.  

Then in 1991 Haylie bought the entire U.S.E., appointed herself president, changed the name of the capitol to Haylieville, and bestowed upon herself the title of Mayor. Situated in the center of the continental United States, the U.S.E. is a landlocked country, an island of autocracy surrounded by a democratic republic. Her first act as President Mayor prohibited bluegrass music of any kind and all the residents were required to listen to the heavy metal sounds of Danzig, Metallica, Overkill, Anthrax, DIO and all the other bands that were once prohibited by the Mean knight. As her second act as Mayor President, Haylie forced the residents to wear black clothes, prune trees when they disobeyed and when they tried to escape over the fifty foot tall razor topped barbed wire fence that encompassed the entire land. Haylie’s third act as President Mayor was electing her ultra-awesome, misguided stepsister, Emil-Butt to act as her Chief Administrator. However, she also put in a clause in fine print that banned any KISS album from being played on their brand new state-of-the-art national public stereo system because she mistakenly thought the entire band was comprised of dummies who couldn’t play their own instruments. A rare exception was given to KISS’ late drummer, Eric Carr.

Being Chief Administrator wasn’t an easy job to undertake as Emil Butt soon found out. Emil Butt had to develop strong written and verbal skills to effectively help President Mayor Haylie implement all her new laws and sort out the senseless carnage that the Mean knight left behind once his reign of tyranny ended centuries ago. The whole battle of the bands was described as a duel to the death that was penned some centuries ago by Emil-Butt’s ancestor in a comic book depiction, yet her ancestor didn’t finish, leading some to believe that she was either captured by the opposing Bed knight’s army or purposely dropped off the face of the earth and didn’t want to be recognized.

The criminal justice system consists of President Mayor Haylie, who is judge, jury, jailer, and executioner. Interpretation of the law is subject to change based on President Mayor Haylie’s mood on any given day. Lawyers are not allowed in the courtroom. The defendants are appointed a heavy metal musician to represent their interests. The monetary system is unique, in which, all paper money that is printed is stamped with the rock n’ roll horns, a portrait of Haylie, and Haylieville’s new motto: “And Justice For All.” A near invisible magnetic strip is woven into the paper money in order to make counterfeiting impossible. Coins are stamped out of copper, aluminum, and melted down plastic Tupperware containers. No two Haylieville coins are exactly alike. Some contain misprints of the Mean’s knight’s coat of arms that resemble an acoustic guitar and scepter. Concerning trade agreements, President Mayor Haylie only allows business to be done with people who have shoulder-length or longer hair. Merchants are required to have their left ear pierced, and must wear tight-fitting jeans with holes in the knees. President Mayor Haylie is very strict about the dress code. On an unrelated note, President Mayor Haylie recently acquired all Aqua Net hairspray stock and has appointed herself chairman of the board.

Childbook Mashup- March 7, 2013

Okay, this assignment from ds106 was a blast to create. I took two of my all time favorite children's books and mashed them up. This was a little tricky for me to design in Adobe photoshop, but hope that it turned out okay. The books I selected were: "When I'm six, I'll Fix Anthony" and "If Dinosaurs Were Cats and Dogs".

design safari collage- March 5, 2013

Here it is. My design safari collage that I created. I probably missed a picture or two when creating this, but it's difficult to keep track of everything that I've done in the last couple of days.

I am From Poster with Opacity design March 2, 2013

The re-designed version of my "I am From" poem with Opacity design. March 2, 2013. What made this difficult for me was that I never used Wordpress and was extremely unfamiliar with its layout and design elements. I seldom ever used PDF formats and grappled with uploading several of those. I'm strictly a Jpeg gal and have exported more files into Jpegs than any other file format. So, here's my re-vamped poster design with opacity and my poem. :)

Minimalist Book Covers- 3 1/2 star rating ds 106 Feb. 26, 2013

Minimalist Book Covers - *** 1/2 (3 1/2 star rating)- Feb. 26, 2013

Compilation Album cover and song list. 2 star rating

This is my design for the compilation album cover design assignment on ds 106 ** (2 star rating). I know this is one of the lesser star rating assignments, but couldn't resist adding a touch of long forgotten wax cylinder records and 78's (my hobby).

Why did I write "The Joys of Digital Storytelling" on twenty 2 minute black wax cylinders? And what are cylinders, exactly?

Black wax cylinders (records) were just two minutes long with just enough room for the announcer to say who the artist was and the song title. In these very early days of making records Edison held the market along with others such as Everlasting, Oxford, Columbia, etc. And in order to make a series like that of a lecture, then one would need a lot of cylinder records on hand. Back in the day they even had home-recording equipment designed for these black wax cylinders. To my knowledge, Edison dropped the announcer sometime during 1909/1910. So if there are black wax cylinders that cut right to the song, that explains why. The announcer (I've read thus far) was Len Spencer, who was also a frequent artist on the Edison label. Now for the songs (and some of these I made up). Here's my list of ten:

"You'll Be Back" (You'll Come Back- Stella Mayhews Edison 2 minute black wax cylinder)
"Nobody Told" (Nobody Lied- Marrion Harris)
"Twiddles-two step" (Toodles- one step Lopez and Hamilton's Orchestra)
"The Joy of Digital Storytelling" (Around the World on a Phonograph, 2 minute black wax cylinder, Thomas Edison)
"No! We Have No Homework" (Yes! We Have No Bananas- Billy Murray)
"ds 106 blues" (St. Louis Blues- Al Bernard, Edison Diamond Disc)
"The digital hour" (The Wooing Hour- Edison Diamond Disc)
"Yesterday in the computer lab" (Last Night On The Back Porch I loved her best of all- Fox Trot)
"That's a lot of art, damn it!" (That's a lot of Bunk Fox Trot- Ernest Hare and Billy Jones)
"Jump drive shuffle" (Shuffle Along Medly Fox Trot- Edison Diamond Disc)

Snow day, Monday Feb. 25, 2013

This is just part of the Design Assignments my digital media 1 class is doing for (last week Feb. 20) and this week, if I read my assignment correctly. Since today was a snow day and the campus was closed, I decided to work on more of my Week 6 Design Assignments and have been super busy with the fifteen stars worth of design assignments. Most of them are harder than they appear, others only seem easy at first. I never did figure out how to create an animated comic book using a GIF. The last time I tried to follow GIF instructions on the internet, my computer was stricken with malware as a result. It was the most annoying time I spent with hijacked browers. I finally got that cleared up once the weather improved and was able to get the needed software to tackle that.

Instead of doing two daily creates like ususual, I did more than that, but wanted to wait and do some over the weekend as well before posting my daily creates, so here they are:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/antiquemystique/8501922943/in/photostream   Feb. 23, 2013

http://www.flickr.com/photos/antiquemystique/8499567154/in/photostream Feb. 22, 2013

http://www.flickr.com/photos/antiquemystique/8496943882/in/photostream  Feb. 20, 2013

I've also been tagging on the design safari on part of this week 6 ds 106 assignment. However, it took me some time to figure out how to use the document to add in my Twitter handle and upload my flickr photos to the assignment. I listed mine under the "found examples" of color, metaphors/symbols, minimalism/use of space and form/function/message.

And while I was doing my fifteen stars worth of design assignments, I was unknowningly tagging them as "designblitz" instead and thought that these were part of the design safari. I reviewed the other examples submitted by others on the ds 106 website and stayed up late to post a few of my own. Since I'm snowed in I had to rely on stuff in my own environment for the time being and the assignment was confusing me at first. I have not officially turned in this design safari week 6 assignment yet, because I might find more found examples to add to the list. Plus, I'm not sure how many from the list we're supposed to find on the design safari or if its just a few, like four, for example. I've been keeping track of what I've submitted thus far for the design safari.

What's In Your Head Design Assignment feb 23 2013

What's in your head? Design Assignment for ds 106 and part of the Design Assignment for digital media 1. Feb. 23, 2013

Weird Book Room Assignment- Design Assignments ds 106

A cover design of a book that might be found in the weird book room.

Vlog response to Media Fast assignment.

I tried to create my first vlog, but don't think it worked out. All I used was my digital camcorder that Wind. Movie Maker doesn't like since I lack a computer microphone and a webcam. So... my intro is completely deleted and all a viewer hears is the tale end of my vlog reflections, of which, my raspy voice hardly picked up on on the playback. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_vJICqDNOM

Black History Month Paper- half page essay, Vaudeville actor George Walker

George Walker was born in 1872/73 in Lawrence, KS. During his career as a vaudeville actor, he popularized “the Cakewalk” dance with his stage partner, Bert Williams, who he met in San Francisco. Together they had a successful stage career, incorporating elaborate costumes and stage set designs. I researched George Walker for my Black History Month assignment because not much is known about this vaudeville actor, for one. Secondly, I felt Walker’s contributions to vaudeville (during a time when unknowns later went on to find fame in early Hollywood), is vastly forgotten nowadays. Third, I have a love for all things vaudeville and reading up about the bygone medium that was in vogue from the 1890’s-1930s. My research took me to Wikipedia and it seemed to be the only place I could find any information on this unknown vaudeville actor. Google’s search results brought me nothing but frustration and I had to wade through pages dedicated to George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States. However, I carried on with determination to find as much information that I could about George Walker. He didn’t live very long and passed away in 1911. Thus could be why I didn’t find out much about him. Some of Walker and William’s stage plays include: The Gold Bug (1895), Clorindy (1897), The Policy Player (1899), Sons of Ham (1900), Abyssinia (1906) and others. George Walker was married to dancer and choreographer, Ada Overton Walker, who later passed away in 1914. The imagery I would have liked to include would have been their stage performances of the aforementioned plays, like playbills from that time period, for example. Yet, I realize finding such material even on the internet would be a like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Black History Month Paper- Hattie McDaniel half page essay

Out of the twelve subjects I researched for Kansas Black History, I chose actress Hattie McDaniel. She was born to slaves in Wichita, KS on June 10, 1895. Out of thirteen children, she was the youngest. Her father fought in the civil war and her mother was a singer of religious music. Hattie moved to Denver, Colorado, where she graduated from Denver East High school. In 1920 she received her next big break and toured with Professor George Morrison’s Melody Hounds. By 1925 she entered radio and sung on station KOA in Denver and recorded songs for Okeh and Paramount 78 record labels during the mid-late twenties. The imagery I used for my second draft poster was a sepia-toned photo, a color-tinted photo in her role as “Mammy” from Gone With the Wind and found an image of her song, “I thought I’d Do It” on Okeh and incorporated this imagery into my second poster design. I also felt that her musical talent went unrecognized nowadays and wanted to reflect on it as well. Her musical career displayed many different facets of this fascinating actress and songwriter, of which, gave me a better understanding about her career in early radio when it was still in its infancy period throughout the Twenties. Not only was she dynamic as a radio personality, but also very popular. Despite this, however, she still worked as a maid because her wages were low. Later in her career she was involved with radio and TV and became the first African-American to star in her own comedy series, Beulah.

Media Fast- Sunday Feb. 10, 2013

Reflections of my media fast: The assignment was tough when I listened to my instructor run down the prohibited media on the list (and threw in a few) that weren't on there as well. It sounded simple enough; drop all forms of technologically advanced forms of media like texting, internet surfing, computer, email, cell calls. However, I was surprised to learn that old media including books, newspapers, magazines, TV, Atari games, and antique media including Victrola and all things that had to do with an Edison phonograph were included as well on the prohibited list. I had grown partially accustomed doing without years prior. However, going through a twenty-four hour music withdrawal came with a myriad of emotions. Therefore, instead of sitting down with a pen and paper, I jotted everything down in a small notebook using a fountain pen and an inkwell. I've been writing with a fountain pen for quite some time and it does take some practice to get used to versus the standard pens. I began my media fast at 1:45 a.m. on Sunday and didn't end my fast until 8 o'clock or so, when I took a call. Here's my long journal entry: Feb. 10, 2013- (Sat. going into Sun.) 1:45 a.m., page 1: "I simply couldn't get the Oliver 1914 typewriter to work. The ribbon snapped due to age. The backup, an Underwood typewriter 1905 is a little worse for wear as well. Therefore, the fountain pen and inkwell are my unique standbys for this extra special assignment, of which, will be the toughest assignment I had to do. Rarely am I ever seen without my MP3 player or even a pair of my favorite headphones. It was about 1:45 a.m. and I've decided to start my media fast for the next twenty-four hours. Page 2: Even before I began, I sweated, seated there in class, listening to the instructor go over the the list of prohibited media-- But I had lived life in similar fashion for nine years just about. However, the stipulation of this assignment was very unique-- no Victrola, Edison phonograph, CD's, MP3 player, TV-- No silent films, Buster Keaton, and-- no Charlie Chaplin. :( Long before the assignment began my day was stressful. I felt depressed when I heard the "no Victrola" and "no Edison", either in class. For myself, these were-- and still remain positive influences in my life. Page 3: The music, although very much before my time, was still intriguing to me when I first heard it years ago when I was just thirteen. And it will always remind me of my late great grandmother. This assignment will be a lot harder than I originally thought. I can forgo the common luxuries like TV (if cable), but do watch my Dvd's once-a-month or so. I seldom listen to the radio because all of the good stuff is gone-- including the D.J.'s. I'm keeping my journal as true to original form as possible. I hear nothing but the dryer and the heater kicking on. And the key wind clock ticking softly. Page 4: I might turn in soon. Besides, I've been up since 8:30 a.m. My grandparents stopped by early and gave me my uncle's stereo. The phonograph will need a cartridge magnetic moving stylus to operate. And then require audio cords to hook up in back. However, I'm happy with it. In fact, I'm tickled pink that it powers up when plugged in. I was told before hand the stereo was ruined. Gladly though, I accepted it "As-Is". This day turned out to be productive. I did some major closet cleaning. And dumped one bag of clutter, mostly paper and odds and ends. I've been known to be a pack rat. However, I do throw stuff out when I can't find a use for it. Page 5: I suppose I'll write my grandparents and uncle a thank you card now. I will keep updates of any music withdrawals. I also keep in contact through snail mail. My grandparents don't have a computer." Page 6, 8:20 pm, Sunday evening: I mainly got caught up on my sleep. I didn't have my fan turned on, either. I woke up at little after 2 pm. The winds were blowing in gusts. I didn't step outside until after 4 pm to take out the trash. It was sharply cold out. I fed my outdoor cat, then went in and got caught up on the rest of the house work. Boring stuff like laundry, dishes (I don't have an automatic dishwasher), and made the "Apricot Bake Thing", which is pie crust with Apricot pie filling cut into squares and sprinkled with sugar. Didn't notice too many withdrawal symptoms without media or music. However, the temptation was there to pop in a movie and watch it once I finished with my house work. But, I didn't. Page 7: I don't think I did too badly. I guess I fell off the wagon tonight to take a call from my mom. I have a busy day tomorrow. Therefore, I will retire early tonight."

sound effects. Feb. 11, 2013

Sound effects. Feb. 11, 2013. My instructor allowed me to borrow a small, sleek digital recorder over the weekend, and once I figured out how to record on it, I had a lot of fun with it. I gingerly packed the small recorder on my person, made my daily rounds and evening routine as well from my environment. The reason why I selected my sound effects from pull string dolls, crier composition dolls and everything else was so I could encompass just a fraction of sound. The process used for these sounds was simple and used a hand-held digital voice recorder. It was awesome! Going up the stairs with a slight creak at near the end. Going down the stairs. footsteps and a door opening. thunderstorm and rain https://soundcloud.com/emil-tron/rain-feb-7-2013 Rain https://soundcloud.com/emil-tron/typing-on-the-1905-underwood Typewriter Chatty baby https://soundcloud.com/emil-tron/im-hungry-tiny-chatty-baby1962 Chatty baby https://soundcloud.com/emil-tron/winding-of-the-hall-clock-feb Hall clock https://soundcloud.com/emil-tron/youre-nice-tiny-chatty Chatty baby https://soundcloud.com/emil-tron/water-running Water Running https://soundcloud.com/emil-tron/making-a-rotary-call-on Rotary telephone dial https://soundcloud.com/emil-tron/door-closing Door closing https://soundcloud.com/emil-tron/crier-compo-doll-2-pre1920 Composition doll 2 https://soundcloud.com/emil-tron/crier-compo-doll-1-pre1920 Composition doll 1 https://soundcloud.com/emil-tron/cat-and-wind-chimes-effect-feb Cat and wind chimes https://soundcloud.com/emil-tron/olympus-and-edison-movie-feb-4 Phonograph-mechanical (non-electric)