Or Else.

That's my "seriously displeased" face, and I make it a lot when I get woken up. (But especially when there's nap-interruption.)

An old TRS coming out of my secret vault.

Because I'm lazy and don't want to draw tonight.

Have a good weekend!

--m

So There.

I love blowing raspberries and making this noise.  'Nuf said.

Also, I've been getting wordy in posts.  I'll stop that soon, I swear.

Really.

Any time now.

Tomorrow, maybe.

--m

My Little Friend

I love spring for all the insects that come out, especially caterpillars.

This is a scheduled post, so hopefully the reading went well. :)

All right, time for bed!

--m

This was a scheduled post, but I wanted to edit it and say I WON that Literary Death Match Thing I read at tonight.  And I won by WEEZER.  Most epic night ever.  Soon videos will be up on their website, and I'll happily link you to them.  It was awesome.

Yea, Fuzzy Robots are a Deal-Breaker

I love the word "mustachioed".

But a robot who's mustachioed, that takes most of the joy out of the whole word.

In the meantime, tomorrow you should check me out at a reading being held.  It's going to be a Literary Death Match--so come watch me get pulverized.  :)

Time to leave this creepy robot behind!
--m

THE ROCKET SCANDAL RETURNS!!

This is a throwback to all my original comics, from the webcomic/doodle I first created called "The Rocket Scandal."

You may remember I posted recently about how these comics were all lost to the sands of time and data corruption.  Well, a friend of mine had copies of all of these secreted away (because he was designing a new TRS website for me), so the jpgs at least were not lost (the original PS documents, yes).

The first comic is the VERY FIRST THING I drew with my tablet.

The second is a personal favorite of mine, "Manatee in Manties," a vocabulary post about manties.

Periodically you'll see some of these classics popping up here on Octopod Adventures.  Some of them will be marked not-safe-for-work because of swearing.  Or I might go back and asterisk a letter.

Anyways, this was the icing on top of my weekend.  I hope yours went as well!

--m

Ode to Dr. Koehl

All night long I've been working on a final project for my Biomechanics class (Me? Do work?) and so I've been drawing a lot of copepods as illustrations for my presentation.

I'm covering Reynolds numbers and what they mean for small marine life--specifically by looking at source literature on copepod feeding mechanisms (which are super neat). Most of this work was done by Dr. Mimi Koehl, and really, the research and experimental design are so good I squee and have fangirl moments.

I've met her before and seen her present her research (not on copepod feeding) and I'm pretty sure some day I want to be as smart as her. And maybe have people think that my research is as cool and groundbreaking and EPIC.

In the meantime, I drew myself as a calanoid copepod. (And I realize I'm not a tremendously accurate copepod at that, so my plankton friends will hopefully resist the urge to flay me alive.)

--m

P.S. Here's the paper I'm talking about, if any of you want to see how cool it is: Koehl and Strickler, 1981
P.P.S. This is the site I was using for taxonomy and image references

Just Because You're Paranoid, Doesn't Mean They're Not Out to Date You

Yep. It's true.

Maybe it says something about me that I worry about this sort of thing. It probably does.

I blame this week's current zombie obsession on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a novel of epically awesome proportions. I love the original of this book, but the zombie version is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend it.

Have a good weekend!
--m

Kung Fu Crab Is Gonna Kick Your A...Nevermind.

Another Softer World re-make comic.  All photos in this are, again, by me.  Whenever I look for photos to make comics out of, I seem to fall in love with the crabs.

As I did drawings of them in little water dishes, this is always what I liked to anthropomorphize them as thinking.

Check back tomorrow, maybe I'll reward you with a drawn comic.

--m

P.S. if you haven't been to the store, go check it out.  I'm a needy person like that.  Every item you buy I get proceeds from (which allows me to have noms like burritos--this is important).
P.P.S. mouse-over text on this one would be "Kung Fu Crab Is Gonna Kick Your A...Nevermind."

It's a Gummi Tragedy!!

The gummi bears are gone.  WHY ARE THE GUMMI BEARS ALL GONE?!

Also, for those interested, there was a large store update today--go check out new items!  (Including a shirt with yesterday's comic on it!  Yay Tardigrades!)

For now, I must find some place that's a) open all night and b) has gummi bears.  Or my head will explode. That happens to me sometimes.

Night all
--m

Tardigrades: Best Epic Mount Ever

Phyla Tardigrada: possibly the best, most cuter-est thing to ever survive the vacuum of space.

I love these little dudes so much.  And I've decided that when I do become a fully fledged mad scientist, I'll have to develop a shrink ray that would reduce me to < 0.05mm long.  Just so I can ride a tardigrade around in our watery paradise.

I mainly used this site for my image reference, and there you can read all about the cool things "water bears" do.

--m

P.S. Yes I have seen them in person under a microscope, and yes I did "Squee" like a fangirl meeting David Tennant.

ETA: This comic now has a shirt in the store!  Go buy it!  Keep me in burritos! 

The Zombie Apocalypse: What A Way To Go

Today I had a conversation with a friend about which kind of apocalypse would be best. We decided that zombies did have a certain je ne sais quoi, and I attribute this to a "joie de brains."

For those of you old-timers (who read The Rocket Scandal, my first comic) you're aware that most of those original comics are no longer online. Bad news: when trying to find them (to use here) tonight I discovered they were corrupted on my external hard drive. So, I'm sorry, no more TRS. I am sad too.

On that note, have a good zombie apocalypse.

--m

Kupcake and M in Oz

Today: Me as Dorothy. Punk-rock Dorothy, no less. With ruby colored studded-belt.

AND KUPCAKE, GOOD WITCH OF THE SOUTH! (Check out that mad tiara, yo.)

She makes my life. And Kupcake told me that whole first sentence verbatim tonight.

And now, to sleep.

--m

I Don't Get Even, I Get Odder

No, seriously. Why are you looking at me like that?

Do you ever have the realization that someone is looking at you like you are totally insane and if they trusted you enough to take their eyes off of you they would be searching for the nearest exit?

No?

Maybe it's just me then.

The comic title comes from a rotating group of desk placards in my advisor's office. This is one I strongly identify with.

Side note, I just realized in this comic I am dressed like Ed from Cowboy Bebop. But with a unicorn platypus on my shirt. And a briefcase with chemicals and a yo-yo. And a rubber ducky strapped to a rocket.

On that note, see you tomorrow!

--m

"Stand Back--I'm Going to Try Science!"

Some of you know that while I strive for true the "mad scientist" career track, I do also, in fact, do regular science. This semester I'm finishing a second semester of independent study on sodium hypochlorite's effects on early sea urchin embryo development.

As of today I have counted (give or take 50) 9,200 embryos. I only have 400 more to count and I'm exhausted.

Because of this, tonight I'm just linking you a video clip from my ALL-TIME favorite film, Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus. For future reference this is what ALL science looks like. ALL SCIENCE.

--m

P.S. if you haven't seen this movie, it's on Netflix Instant and it's incredible. (Ignore that 3/10 star rating on IMDB. Those idiotic reviewers don't know what they're talking about.)

P.P.S. the comic title is from xkcd.com

But The Cuddles Are Kind of Nice (An Homage)

A tribute to A Softer World by Emily Horne and Joey Comeau. This comic makes the emo side of me (which is all of me) so happy/morose. Which is the emo side of me's favorite way to be.

The mouse-over text on this one would be: "But the cuddles are kind of nice." (All of the comic titles are the mouse-over text, I believe.)

--m

P.S. photos are credit of me--the crab is a Hemigrapsus sp. taken in Friday Harbor, WA.

Mmm...Tacos

This is pretty much me whenever I'm trying to draw a comic, but I am especially hungry (and bereft of ideas) right now, so this is what I got.

I need to keep some kind of "In Case of Emergency, Break Glass for Taco/Burrito/Chana Masala" box around here somewhere. That would be brilliant.

Spazzerina suggested a comic about socks, but that idea didn't pan out (due to my inadequacies, as one would expect).

That's all for tonight, folks. See you soon!

--m

Perfection is One of the First Clues

I can't be the only person who thinks this sort of thing...right?

Anyways, it's a source of much relief to me, because imagine what a romcom/Terminator mashup would do to your friend's emotional health. Talk about therapy bills.

/shudder

That's all for tonight, see you all soon!

--m

P.S. I seem to get burnt out when I try and do every day, so every other day is what I'm shooting for as of late. If this isn't often enough for you, you can email me comic ideas which I will attempt to draw.

ETA: Why does no one tell me when I have a glaring typo in the comic itself?! I've fixed it (like a week late /facepalm). Really. I wrote "Sometime's"! I need to proofread better, obviously.

My Mad Scientist Efforts Continue

They aren't really wearing purple hammer pants when I look at them under the microscope, that's just a dramatization. But they do look like they're wearing little parachute pants.

I work with sea urchin embryos (Arbacia punctulata pluteus embryos, to be specific) looking for abnormal development when the embryos develop in chlorinated water. If you're really interested, my advisor and I did present a poster of our work at the 2010 SICB.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've had a busy day breaking the french language and redefining calculus theorems. A mad scientist needs his/her rest.

See you all à demain!

--m

Kites

I was out today downtown with some friends of mine and we flew my oft-neglected parafoil (not technically a kite, but close enough).

It was a great day, really.

Sorry this wasn't funny or witty. Maybe tomorrow.

--m