Legion

As promised, pictures form my SF Museum adventures o=

First off is the Legion of Honor:
This guy looks like a Minoan piece to me. The label only says South Italian from around 335BC. I like it because it has crazy sea creatures, and is that an eyeball in the center? I think so :D







The next piece also has a lot of critters. It is from the fancy porcelain room at the Legion by a man named Bernard Palissy in 1500s France. He liked to make casts from dead critters to make his decorations, and he liked natural things as you can see by this platter. It has oak leaves, fern leaves, grape, acorns, shells, a snake and a lizard probably cast from the real thing. The colors are a little bit blotchy, but I must say, I love this guy XD.




The porcelain room had a lot of what I'd call bug-wear. That is to say many of the plates, cups, and dishes were decorated by some sort of insect. This tureen was the granddaddy of them all however. It was made in Chantilly around 1735-1745 of a low fire porcelain (called soft paste porcelain). Not only does it have the awesomeness to be a three dimensional pumpkin with vine handles and a pomegranate finial, it is also covered in different types of insects. Epic.

































I felt that a note must be made about this painting. It is wonderfully executed with watercolor and graphite on paper, but the subject matter is also enjoyable. It is called Love and Its (His) Counterfeits and was painted in 1904. You've got a line of characters with their various riches, tales, and vanities in front of a woman's door. Her expression is priceless - a silent "good grief" to all this hullabaloo. It is at this point I found the painting was indeed made by a woman, Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, who lived from 1872-1945, and I felt a general sense of kinship :B

It seems that blogger has eaten my other photos as well as being dumb in regards to post editing (it is not logical! D:<), so I'll leave the De Young museum for later XP

Something Amazing!

The average everyday plant-like crinoid not only walks about, it swims!

Crinoidea is the fancy name for feather stars and sea lilies. They look very plant or coral like but are actually relatives of the starfish. They tend to have feathery arms in multiples of five, and they sit on stalks (in sea lilies) or have little feet called cirri (in feather stars). Feather stars can walk around on their cirri, or they can swim about using their ten arms (it's crazy!). Check out the videos for more.

An informational video by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. A good overview of the Crinoid order. It finishes with a breathtaking shot of a swimming feather star.



For those of you with ADD, here's the short version:



Bonus song: Help I'm Alive by Metric. It's what I'm listening to while I type :B

A Scarf Spectacular!

I often do searches on Etsy to see what the best tags are for my products, which words get the most visibility, etc. While looking to see where my Tentacle Scarf listings were showing up, I found a veritable cornucopia of geekery for your neck. Here is some of what you find when you are searching for a scarf under the "geekery" tab.

First on our list is this lovely number from Creepling:














This is the octopus to my squid :B



Next is an exciting combination of micro and scope by KatyAndZucchini:















From micro to macro, these ants are pretty spiffy as well.


UrbanPrincess brings us some old school pixels:


















WindOfTheStar makes a scarf with a familiar blue box:











This could be made even more awesome by the presence of a Dalek and/or David Tennant (or John Sim).




This next one by Crrysstall goes out to my brother and R. Stevens:












Bacon is now a scarf, enjoy!





The Geekiest thing out there award goes to AlysaMerle's custom work:







Your name in binary! Epic. Only slightly less geeky is the Pi scarf :3






Not seen here are the numerous boobie scarves (numerous!), Doctor Who scarves, animal scarves, and a couple of scoodies which were cute, but I've already spent too much time on this :B

To the sea!

A couple of interesting ocean related things.

Yay Target!
Target has decided to stop selling Atlantic farmed salmon and will be stocking Pacific Alaskan salmon instead. This is exciting. "Why should I be excited?" You ask. Alaskan salmon are very well managed. They cost a bit more, but you'll still be able to buy them in fifty years. They contain only natural ingredient (free of pink dyes used by farms to make the flesh pink), and they haven't been swimming in their own concentrated excrement most of their lives (MMmmm farmed salmon D:). Also, salmon farming practices produce a great deal of waste and pollution directly in the ocean (see excrement).

For more fun food facts, and to see the best choices in seafood, check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program. You can print out a pocket guide, or checkout the bestest seafood for you and the oceans :D
/plug


Yay Octopus!
Did you know that octopus use tools?... Actually, if you've spent any time at all reading about octopus, this should come as no surprise to you, but here's a cute little guy who carries around a coconut shell. The veined octopus (from Indonesia) picks out coconut shells discarded by humans. The cephalopods carry them along until they feel a need to hide. Then they make like a turtle and climb into a little coconut shell box. Silly Cephs o=


Pacific Travelers:
Finally, I give you the real time tracking site, TOPP for tags on Pacific pelagic animals. You can see the tracks of different species of sharks, seals, albatross (ALBATROSS!), and a sea turtle. Also some maps of sea surface temperature and chlorophyll-a. I recommend pushing all the buttons :B


Other News:
The continuing saga of my moving has found me opening some boxes I haven't seen since I packed them a year an a half ago when I left Davis for parts unknown (the East Coast). I have found some lovely things such as my pencil cup, my floppy disk collection, three stuffed animals, artwork, notes, drawings, and some old cartoons. Over the coming weeks and months, I'm going to share some of these since they are either cool or hilarious, so stay tuned.
Otherwise, I have about three commissions and an auction I'm juggling amongst other things. I'm putting some pieces together for The Works Anti-Valentine Auction in San Jose... I must buy a frame tomorrow.

Dude, I think someone might read this o.O

Did you know I have comments?!
... I didn't <.<;;

But seriously folks, thanks for stopping in :3


And now for today's entertainment I give you Science!
Meet the Elements:

An introduction to what goes into an elephant by They Might Be Giants.

For a more thorough take, try naming all the elements:

A delightful song by Tom Lehrer. I have a version on CD in which he says "there will be a test on this later" in the middle :P

Why the Sun really shines:

Refuting their previous statement that "the sun is a mass of incandescent gas," They Might be giants are going with the now hip, "the sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma" o=

I'd also urge you to check out "I am a Paleontologist", "The Mesopotamians", the original "Why Does the Sun Shine", and of course the ever classic "Istanbul" by They Might Be Giants. Enjoy :D

Holy Buprestidae Batman!

Some things just stop you in your tracks. I found myself engrossed in aquakej's Etsy shop while checking on the best tags to use for my items. Here I've been trying to mimic insectine beauty for years, and this woman has simply used the insects themselves!















In addition to just looking awesome, the use of real insects can be environmentally beneficial. Instead of cutting down their land to grow corn or graze cattle, an insect farmer usually requires a rain forest to stay in place. In the examples which I have read, a farmer grows an abundance of the desired insects food plant, and the insects lay their eggs in this patch. Some of the chrysalis' (chrysalises? chrysali? chrysalie? chrysalahhh-haa!) are gathered up to pupate in controlled circumstances while some are left to grow into a wild adult which will later lay eggs in the farmers patch (we hope).
An alternative to this method is to propagate host plants in a more controlled environment and keep a breeding stock supplemented with wild populations. This generally requires a stable stand of native plants including host and non-host varieties (for various reasons, one being so you can control the population growth of the bugs your breeding), and a stable wild population.

Anyway, the jewelry is cool, bug farming is interesting. Check it out :3

More stuff you can't live without :B

As usual, you can click on the images to go to the original listing.




A Beardaclava by Freight. Sometimes this mustache thing goes too far :P









Catnip Eyeballs by Hannapt. I do enjoy a good eyeball. Their shop byline "and maybe a stick too" is also a source of amusement to me.











Princess and Pilot inspired Kokechi dolls by Temple7e. The workmanship on these dolls is lovely. Some folks are even getting custom sets for their wedding cakes o=










I'd also recommend a stop by the Antiquity Gamecrafters on Etsy. They have some beautiful reproductions of ancient games. I wants to play them all! D:

I just bought tea from the interwebs o.O

I know it sounds hazardous. For all I know it could be laced with arsenic, but Teaman has apparently sold hundreds of teabags to people, and it's free (less shipping), so I thought I'd give it a go. I went with the Decaf Chai :B


Has everyone been to WikiHow? It is an excellent source of information you never thought you needed, such as how to make Tootsie Rolls with your microwave, the basics in Lock Picking, or the time honored art of Furoshiki (or how to use a square cloth to carry anything).
I started by looking for the Furoshiki article. Some people have been using the techniques to wrap presents for the holidays, and I was curious. Now, I want to get some silk scarves and cut my hair in an interesting manner :B


Has anyone noticed that you can now click on a link and have it open in a new tab or window automagically?! This has been made possible by using my mad hax0r skillz (aka Bobo the Circus Squirrel telling me what to do) :D

My Brains! My Brains!

They're melting out my ears D:


Goodness, but I'm tired! I spent this evening at the Monterey Bay Aquarium at my apprentice guide training class. I am going to be an apprentice guide :D It shall be awesome. Tonight we got to play with the touch pools. I think I enjoyed petting the urchin the most, but I also learned about handling the animals, kelp defenses, and plankton. Additionally, one of the epic level manager types gave a talk, in character, about working at the canneries back in the day.

I spent a bit more time with one of my group members who is quite young and significantly less jaded than I am. It was kind of a weird backwards mirror. It makes me think I need to be less cantankerous, but it also makes me think of how I was naive in so many places (and still am really) before I went to school o.O
More on this later.

BugsAndMonsters:
I have put a couple of Valentine's Day cards up on my Etsy. Check them out!

More designs to follow.


Beware the thrall of science:
I went to LiveScience yesterday to look at an article about photosynthesizing nudibranchs (sea slugs). While I was there, I became interested in articles about how the particular areas where fat accumulates can have serious health effects, and how cell phones may save us from Alzheimer's among other things.

But back to the nudibranchs (or nudie brancs if you like ;). These are wacky creatures. Many nudibranchs contain stinging cells as a defense mechanism, but they do not produce the cells. They eat anemones and somehow conscript the cells into their own tissues intact! This article describes a new kind of sea slug which scientist have found to conscript chloroplasts (those are photosynthesizing cells from plants and algae). Even more, these slugs have taken the genes to make chlorophyll (the pigment plants use to photosynthesize), and put them in their own DNA. They don't need to eat if they get enough sunlight. All they have to do is get themselves a bunch of chloroplasts and go. They've become the terminators of the ocean!

Funny Things Are Everywhere

I like to look at what people like, who also like my stuff... that is to say; If you heart something of mine on Etsy, I will most likely take a look at the things in your favorites. It often begins a journey through an eclectic and epic series of shops which I sometimes feel a driving need to share.

Exhibit #1:

An airship steampunk grenade! It even has a little wick at the bottom. Tell me that is not made of win?















Exhibit #2:

Molecular model jewelry! It would be cool if they expanded beyond drugs and water molecules. I can think of a few benzene rings which I would enjoy (TNT anyone?).





Exhibit #3:

A magnet set featuring an international man of mystery. I enjoy the bazaar images in this set, but I enjoyed the description even more.








In other news:
I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium tonight for a volunteer informational meeting. I'm hoping that I'll get to be a volunteer guide this next year.

There Will Be Blog

Why Hello Thar!

I once wrote a goal oriented essay about finding a topic for my goal oriented essay. I feel much the same as I try to figure out a proper introduction to this blog, so please bear with me (or bare with me, whatever suits your fancy).

Me:
I am what you might call a jack of all interests. Many things arouse my curiosity. I am also a practicing artist and a pretend scientist - I have degrees in both and a job in neither. As a result, you'll find all kinds of oddball things here. There will be updates from my Etsy shop, notes on what I'm working on, some tutorials (I hope), random musings, and cool stuff I have dug up from the interwebs.


News From BugsAndMonsters:

I just listed a cool tentacle scarf which I'm very excited about. It was inspired partly from the works of Creepling on Etsy and real squid tentacles. I'm working on some more which I will list soon (if I haven't decided to keep them all for myself!).

I also have some other stuff in process: drawings, cards, squids, etc.

I still haven't gotten to cleaning out the sewing machine. It has so much fabric fuzz in there, that I'm afraid to use it at all until I've taken it apart. Look forward to pictures of its innards :D


Cool Stuff:

Did you know that you can download pictures from the Hubble Telescope website? You can get your own free copies of the Deep Field shots, galaxies, cool nebula, or a hovering sombrero. Check it out :3