マットサイエンティスト Maddosaienteisuto

A month or so ago I got a note from someone at etsy, saying the Japanese magazine Mono was asking for high res photos of some of my freakish animals. I sent on the goods and heard nothing until I got an email showing me pdfs of the published version.

Lots of etsy folk are included in the issue, as well as other online shops with mostly bizarro stuff.

It's Mono Magazine, issue 6/2/2009, (the translation "thing magazine" or "stuff magazine" works here as far as I can gather).





And here's my blurb, from page 72.

I was especially having trouble translating the long katakana word that was included, マットサイエンティスト, because I'm pretty bad with long katakana words, and easily give up because my brain just can't handle it. I was thinking it said something about "design taste", because I was reading "dosaien teisuto" out of it, but I knew that wasn't actually making any sense based on the characters. And also I'm not sure of the proper romanization with some little characters added to others.

So I emailed K-chan and here's her translation (she also she told me she bought 2 copies and will send me one, which is super cool):

The body is a spider, and the head is a cow(ox?).
Here comes an eccentric monster, which is probably
created by a mad scientist.

So, yeah, マットサイエンティスト　　Maddosaienteisuto = Mad Scientist. I guess I'm honored to essentially be referred to as a Mad Scientist in a Japanese magazine of which K says: "It's a very popular magazine, especially with men."

Now that I might get some Japanese customers to my etsy shop, I really ought to do some shopkeeping: lots of my stuff has expired and I've been totally neglecting everything. I haven't made a flipbook in months, (not sure I feel like doing it at all, production-wise) and am realizing more and more I'm liking the conceptual part a lot more than the labor-intensive part. What to do, what to do...?

* * *

In other news, related to mad scientists, or more like one furry mad genius....

Patches totally taught herself how to turn the knob on her automatic feeder. This is the feeder that actually came (off eBay) missing the part (dome over the timer) which now I realize was very valuable. I kept noticing the time was off, and was thinking the battery was being funky, but then one day I heard the knob gear turning (it's rather loud - click click click) and I went down there and there she was----turning it! I've been wondering how hard she thought this over (for months?) before figuring it out, and if at one point something happened and she was like "Aha! Now I get it." It's a little frightening.

This is like living with the rats of Nimh.

After one low-quality failed attempt to secure the situation with a rubber band and shoddy plastic basket, I got out the real tools (including the power drill, and it was serious business).



Materials/techniques include: half a plastic Christmas ornament thingy, drilled holes, eye screw (clipped and bent), wire, a washer.

I hope this holds up. If she gets into it now, she's getting nominated for some kind of cat intelligence prize.

from the past

Last night I watched Portrait of Jennie.

Next time I'm unable to work on projects, have writer's block, or something of that nature, I hope that a strange person from the past will come be my muse and inspiration.

It's odd that I saw that movie, because just previously I had watched part of Somewhere in Time which for some reason I can't stop watching even though I've seen it a million times and we joke about the agonizingly slow scenes of Christopher Reeves staring into space. As far as time travel goes, I think the self hypnosis sort of technique used in Somewhere in Time is intriguing because you'd actually be able to do it without having a lot of scientific gadgets, flux capacitors or mail order catalogs. Well, if it worked, that is.

Bromine- Periodic Table Print Project

Bromine, element 35, BR, is my submission to the Periodic Table Print Project.

I can't even begin to recount the horrors I encountered in trying to get this screenprint done. Let's just say it involved the sun doing me wrong, my lack of skill in measuring water, and other errors that seemed to multiply without ceasing. But they did cease, and it's finally done. And I'm glad because I think the whole project is awesome to begin with. Great idea by azure grackle --look, you can go visit her etsy shop.

Also you can see some of the prints finished/in progress (including 2 more versions of bromine) on the project group photo pool. There are some really amazing ones.

Now that that's done... I absolutely have to start on my next project which is deadlining in July. I think I might start with a drill and hope for the best.
To be continued...


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