Oh, the Possibilities

You know you want a Roomba just so you can say that you have a robot. And then you can leave it dust bunnies on the floor so it can feed. Helping take over the world saps a lot of energy.

--m

The Perfect Cover

"Crime" is such an ugly word.

--m

Someday You'll Leave, But That's Okay

I know someday you'll want to leave to go terrorize bigger and better places, but I'm glad you're here with me now.

(Whitney, my housemate, moves out at the end of the week. I'm going to miss her. A lot.)

--m

And a close-up of the goggles in this, because they're awesome mad scientist goggles.

From My Treatise on Bathtub Crayons

Fig. 1: A bad photo of my shower wall after tonight's adventures in bathtub crayons. Results of experiment suggest that they are fully awesome, and most people would benefit from regular use (of both shower and crayons).

Fig. 2: Cleanliness of artist relative to number of bathtub crayons. Current study implies a correlation between these two factors, and the author thinks with further work, this could be found to be a causative relationship.

I'd like to thank the following institutions for supporting this research: the International Committee on Crayon Use, the Foundation for a Better Tomorrow, and the No More Smelly Artists Society. Further thanks to all those who came before me and to my housemate, the great pretzeled narwhal, for putting up with me during the course of this research.

--m

Speaks for Itself

It's a sea turtle with a jetpack. It pretty much speaks for itself.

If you've actually been reading the blurbs, you know that this is the 200th post on Octopod Adventures! Yay! I've figured out what I'm going to do, but I will be doing it tomorrow rather than tonight because I need to sleep.

Anyways, enjoy your night! :)
--m

It's Not Too Late

I love explodingdog and decided to take one of the titles of a new drawing and try drawing what I imagined for it without looking at the image first. The full title of his was "A follow up letter. It is not too late," and you can see it here.

In other news, today I spent about five minutes hugging a box of cereal when I found out I could it after all (see: food allergy girl).

--m

Microwave Olympics

Before I begin, let me say do I no way endorse you or anyone else holding their own Microwave Olympics. It's a dumb, dangerous idea. You use the microwave at your own risk and Octopod Adventures takes no responsibility for anything (ever, really).

That said, the little pyromaniac/mad scientist inside me wants to hold a Microwave Olympics, wherein I would test various items inside the microwave and observe, record, and rate the results. I did it accidentally last week with a lime (results: fun smelling, but very pulpy in the explosion), and I've been fighting the good fight since.

--m

Think Before You Nuke

This is an Octopod Adventures PSA about those lovable nuisances, the super/mega/giant GM animal/monster. Just because it's terrorizing your city/country/planet, doesn't mean that it doesn't have a scientist-creator somewhere who only wants it back home, safe and sound.

Think before you nuke: a message from Friends of the Man-Eating Monsters.

(Also, is there a Godzilla film where you see baby Godzilla? I want to know.)

--m

Tet's New Robotic Dinosaur

That last dinosaur was riddled with anatomical mistakes and no fancy photoshop coloring. Not so any more, my friends! The new one even comes with an accurate scale bar! The height of fashion among all the super-hero paleontologists, this robotic Daspletosaurus sp. could be your sweet new ride for 6 low minimum payments of $999,999.99(USD).

Call now and we'll include a free army of genetically engineered hamsters*! Call in the next five minutes and we'll double your hamster order and even give you a dozen cultures of mechanical baby sand dollars!

Call now for a deal you can't afford to miss! The robotic Daspletosaurus sp., the double army of hamsters and 12 cultures of mechanical plutei**! That's a $5 million in savings, but this deal won't last long!

*Hamsters have been genetically engineered for cuteness and lasers. Some international restrictions may apply.
**Plutei offered are diagonally asymetric but may wander in the morphospace.

--m

(Sorry about the length of this post, I really got into that sales pitch.)

It's All in the Goggles...And the Plotting

Mad scientist goggles: $17.19

Rent for sweet, evil lair: $670.00 (plus utilities)

Scrap metal for building robots: $200.00

Paperclips, rubberbands, lasers and misc. office supplies: $342.43

Speedy internet connection for youtubin' and blogging: $64.75

Opensource program to livetrace your campaign poster: $0

World domination: priceless.

--m

(The impetus for this comic: I love that my best friend got welding goggles and that I got to take a photo wearing them. Also, I like making pop culture references.)

Mad Scientist or Super Hero: Does It Matter?

The answer is no, it doesn't matter.

Tonight's comic is dedicated to the only male student in my class (of ten students). In real life he's even more amazing than his fictional character (Dr. Mastadon, despite the fact that he works with dinosaurs, not mammals) and he did breed an army of hamsters.

Basically, this is an inside joke that I put on the internets because I don't want to slave over a hot tablet tonight. Call me lazy.

--m

I Do Highly Technical Scientific Research

Working on figures for my paper tonight, I kept imagining this. I also think I see hammer pants on my embryos. Again this is my study species, Arbacia punctulata.

So I made this for you. Photo credit to me, and sympathies to my poor, poor advisor.

--m

Robots Make the Best Best Friends

Today my best friend said to me: "I'd be okay with having a robot for a best friend."

Sometimes I love her so much I can hardly talk about it. (Note: she is not the robot, I am probably the robot.)

--m

Science Win!

When there's an experiment that works, this is how it feels. A bunch of our embryos today look like duds, but my culture of some sand dollar babies is moving right along and that makes me feel okay about myself.

--m

P.S. Tomorrow I'm taking off, so have a good weekend.

To The Fantasmic People I Know

I know a lot of really amazing people. I'm leaving for Washington (state) next week for the summer (and the next year) and I was really nervous/upset about leaving home, but tonight thanks to all of them, I feel a lot better about it.

You guys are awesome, just FYI. <3

--m

(When I have my evil, mad scientist uprising, I will make sure my giant robots spare you.)

I Will Prevail AND Have a Robot

I've been learning how to solder, and so far I've learned:
1. Ow, that's #$*@ing HOT!
2. Teehehe. Poop.
3. "Those are all perfect solder joins...it's not level on the board, is it?"

Tomorrow I finish the last assembly on the robot I'm putting together (that is a true sentence...weird). It's from a kit, but end result: I will still have a robot.

Go follow me on twitter to find out everything I'm doing. At all hours of the day.

--m

Humboldt and I

Humboldt squid, Dosidicus gigas, actually travel in shoals, but after 2.5 hours of work on one squid I was not up to drawing more. This was all freehand (fun!) using primarily this image as reference. The dots are bioluminescence, which there is a lot of in the ocean.

Just wait until I get my auxiliary gills.  Just wait.

--m

I Dream of Rocketships and Jetpacks

I was rereading old Exploding Dog tonight, so you get some of that madness. I always feel vaguely inadequate after reading this comic, so I'm probably going to have to boost my ego by playing Minesweeper.

Thanks to Maker Faire this weekend, I have the beginnings of my evil robot army. Jetpacks and rocketships are next on my list. Still stalled on the phylum-change serum.

--m

P.S. My trackpad art still leaves a lot to be desired, but I think I'm improving. Tomorrow I'll be home and real art (derisive snort) will resume.

I Am Never Productive

...And being as I was moderately productive today, I have some serious concerns that I've actually been replaced by an android. An android with all my memories...and a work ethic. (Gasp! The horror!)

So, basically I need someone to bring me an EMP device and bacon.  STAT.

--m

Also: there's a huge nerd programming reference in this comic. (pseudo-COBOL what what)

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