For this assignment we were supposed to create or mimic a cartoon voice. I’ve been told that I have a decent “Stitch” voice, although I disagree, and it may sound a little weird recorded, but if you know Stitch, he’s pretty weird! As I recorded my voice of the Blue Punch Buggy scene, I thought it was pretty dull of me to just say the quotes. So instead, I took the audio from the actual clip and took out Stitch’s voice and replaced it with my own. I’m not the master of audio or audacity, so I didn’t know how to keep the background noise while I cut out the … Continue reading →

Week 6 was like Week 5 but vamped up with a taste for design. This we I created art, altered existing pieces, and examined art in my environment. We had to do an assignment similar to the Photoblitz this week, so I had to beg my girlfriend for her camera back…and then I forced her to go on a walk downtown with me so I could take photos. Luckily the rain decided to hold off this week. Our main assignment was a Designblitz which asked us to take photos throughout the week of different designs in our surroundings. More can be found about my blitz here and here is the … Continue reading →

This week’s main assignment was similar to last week’s Photoblitz. This week we had unlimited time to take photos throughout the week of different design in our surroundings. The designs we were looking for had to deal with color, typography, metaphors, minimalism, form, balance, rhythm, proportion, dominance, and unity. At the end, we were asked to pick our 4 best photos and describe them. Here are all of the photos I took this week for the assignment: And here are the 4 that I chose as my best to describe: This is a church in Downtown Fredericksburg, and I find that this is a good example of a symbols. Churches … Continue reading →

Being an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and spending nearly ALL of my time outside of school volunteering and working in the Emergency Medical Services(EMS), I thought it necessary to create an app that can save someone’s life: Okay, well that’s actually a snapshot of my phone and some of my apps, but the one in the bottom right (A.E.D.) is the one I created. A.E.D stands for Automated External Defibrillator. A.E.D.’s are a simplified device that provide a shock to a patient that has gone into cardiac arrest. In Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) classes, you are taught how to perform CPR and how to use an A.E.D. You are also taught … Continue reading →

Is not a popular novel, but To Kill A Mockingbird is, and that is the book I chose to recreate. The assignment was to create a computer book for kids. Some examples can be found here. I know To Kill A Mockingbird isn’t exactly a “kids” book, but it is a well-known and awarded novel. From there, I took a lesser known email software, Thunderbird, and combined them to create To Kill A Thunderbird. I went online and used the cover of the book and the Thunderbird logo and came up with this book cover: I started by editing the original mockingbird off of the cover by selecting an area … Continue reading →

At least when it comes to finding the letters in your surroundings! I couldn’t find many places that had R-O-B-E-R-T hidden in the area, so I just went around and cropped letters off of different signs. I was going to post all of the pictures that I used so you could see what I worked with, but then I realized, we’ve made photo sets on flickr…why don’t I embed one and it won’t take up so much space? BAM! Pictures. Working with GIMP has been getting a little less frustrating…not because it no longer sucks, I’m just learning to cope/accommodate for it’s suckiness…Nonetheless, I’m not letting it get the best … Continue reading →

I don’t want to spoil the show or anything, so don’t continue reading if you plan to listen to our show!!     But if it’s necessary, we were required to make a poster for our radio station this week and this is what I came up with!     So I don’t want to give up many details from our show, but you should get the idea. This poster actually took some effort…and tons of frustration. I almost quit on GIMP today because it wouldn’t do what I wanted it to. Thankfully what I couldn’t do/figure out in GIMP, I was able to do in Paint. I’m proud of … Continue reading →

Chugging along the DS106 Design week, I created the lovely “What people think I do” meme. Staying true to the Emergency Medical Services, I created this: Okay, so I cheaped out and used a meme generator that was given on the Assignment page. I originally was going to make my own…until I went to the page for reference and realized they had a link to the site where you placed your photos and wrote your text and it placed it! Sure, this would have been a quick create in GIMP, but why pass up an opportunity to just drop in some photos and have the computer do the work…that’s why … Continue reading →

I bring to you… Fall Leaves and of course, everyone’s favorite….PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES!!! Wait, seriously? That’s what time of year it is? (Well, yes, but..)HELL NO!!!! It’s time for zombies, guts, and horror! Check this out: The Walking Dead returns to AMC on October 14 at 9p! YES I CANNOT WAIT!!! and Paranormal Activity 4!! Saw a preview on TV the other day, sweeeeeet! But that’s not why I brought you all here, we have DS106 Week 6! Also known as Design week, and I chose to turn myself into a ZOMBIE! Haha, YES! And this was sooooo simple! What a great way to start my design week. And, if … Continue reading →

Week 5, Visual Storytelling, was a fun week for me. I enjoy taking pictures of random things and then sharing them and explaining how I view what I see. I think that is the greatest thing about pictures, and art in general; You can interpret it ANY way you wish, and you will never be wrong. I learned from a freshman art history class, your opinion is strongly valued and can bring ideas to others. As for camera use this week, I wanted to take some higher-quality pictures, and unfortunately my iPhone 4 didn’t make the cut. Instead I borrowed my girlfriend’s Canon Powershot(or something like that) and went downtown … Continue reading →

Another exciting visual assignment for week five, “A-Z Photo Collage“. The objective is to create an alphabetical collage with a theme. My theme is ME! You could probably learn a WHOLE lot about me, who I am, and what I like by viewing my collage… This one was actually the most time-consuming of the assignments I did this week, I guess that’s why it deserved 3 stars! It took time getting the photos, resizing them, and then making the file fit here on the page. I also enjoyed brainstorming what to use before I started the project…got stuck on a few, but the girlfriend helped me out! Do you know … Continue reading →

This weeks big assignment was to do a Photoblitz: Basically, you have 20 minutes to take as many pictures as possible and try to complete items that are on the list. I uploaded my whole Photoblitz on flickr: We were supposed to pick out 5 of our best shots, can you guess what these are? START ABSTRACT 2 THINGS THAT DO NOT BELONG TOGETHER DOMINATED BY A SINGLE COLOR CONVERGING LINES SOMEONE ELSE’S PAW END I met a friend down at the rescue station after work to do my photoblitz. We were going to walk downtown…but it decided it was going to rain from about 4pm -ALL NIGHT! So we … Continue reading →

Don’t know what Daikatana is? Me either. BUT, I did land on it randomly by doing my fourth visual assignment, “An Album Cover“. I think this is the coolest visual assignment I’ve done yet. Click the link and learn more if you want to make your own album cover! Here’s how I made mine. Step 1. Click for the random Wikipedia page. This will be your band name. I got Daikatana: Step 2. Get a random quote. The last few words of the last quote is your new band’s album title. I got the quote, “After all is said and done, a lot more will be said than done.”: Step … Continue reading →

ME!!! This is my third visual assignment and it was called “Find Yourself“. Sure, I probably could have been a little more creative in finding letters that spell R-O-B in the environment, but this place has a story with me. When I was growing up, my family used to play a game on car rides to find each members name on a store or such. My name NEVER came up. (I guess people named Rob or Robert aren’t big entrepreneurs) We would always see Mark, Bonnie, and Dan while driving around on the East Coast, but never a Rob. I kinda just figured there was no place named “Rob’s”. Glad … Continue reading →

So I was clicking the good old “random” button on the Week 5 assignments and came across, “Draw It.” I figured, “Hey, I used to use Photoshop in school all the time and I remember there being a filter to just change it! Too easy!” Well, turns out, GIMP does not have that feature.(Or at least I couldn’t find it) I wish I knew where my Photoshop CS2 CD is…even though it is majorly obsolete by now! But I used the tools that GIMP gives and from what I remembered, and a little prodding on GIMP Forums, I was able to create this: Okay, so he isn’t actually MY dog, … Continue reading →

endlessly clicking assignments.ds106.us/randomvisual and making a list of fun ones I plan to do! #ds106 #favoriteclass #betterthanspanish — Rob Skoczylas (@sgtsocks) September 26, 2012 — Rob Skoczylas (@sgtsocks) September 26, 2012 Well here is one I couldn’t resist! This assignment is “Your very own Spubble“! As soon as I read it, I knew the exact picture I was going to use: After some weekend training and PROPER use of equipment, us rescue folks like to have a little fun. What I’m wearing is a Stryker Speed-Sheet. We ordered a bunch to test them out. They are used to ease patient transfer from our stretchers to a hospital bed or such. … Continue reading →

This is the end of Week 4? Holy cow have I been busy, I feel like I’m halfway through the semester with all the work I’ve been putting into my classes! It’s Sunday night and I still have to meet a group to do an audio recording for Spanish(hey it’s audio week everywhere!) and study for a geography test! Note to self: Do not wait until Sunday to finish DS106…or any class for that matter. And also, give yourself a break soon! Week 4 was our introduction to audio. Audio storytelling, using sound effects, creating bumpers, so on and so forth. So without further ado, I present my work for … Continue reading →

This week we were challenged to make a short audio story using only sound effects. I wish I had more time to do this assignment.(yeah we had a week, but I’ve been super busy) I had fun listening to all the free audio/sound effects I could find. ...

Let me start by pointing out that the NHL is going into a lockout for the 2012-2013 Season in approximately 3 hours….Okay, now that that is out of the way, let me give you the rundown for my third week of Digital Storytelling. Wait, what is Digital Storytelling, you ask? What a coincidence, I have the answer here! Okay, that may not be the actual answer, but it’s my answer and I’m sticking to it!! And since you’re here, you must care about what I think, so read up! Now, we’ll move on to the creating the Shape of Stories assignment…PLEASE BE AWARE THAT IF YOU CLICK THIS LINK, IT … Continue reading →

****!SPOILER ALERT: I RUIN THE MOVIE TED IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT!****   This week we had to watch a video by Kurt Vonnegut telling the “shapes” of stories. I thought this would be another dull video, but to my surprise, he was actually pretty funny and presented his information with a sense of humor. After enjoying the video, I took a peek at the work by Maya Eilam. I laughed at the sight of Harold and Kumar in the category of “Man in Hole”.  Her graphics inspired me to create this lovely image here: Which I hope everyone can see!(Just shoot me a comment if you aren’t able to … Continue reading →

Thanks to being a poor college student, an almost empty fridge, and most importantly, being hungry, I get to share this story: I thank the Primanti Brothers for the inspiration!