http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:mpudifoot&section=today deviantART RSS for by:mpudifoot en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:55:22 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/22554219/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/22554219/ Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:30:16 PST
Meantime, new submissions in the near future! Like, actual things that I actually made for people because I wanted to instead of because they paid me! I mean, making money is great, but making gifts is far better for the soul. Yay!

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/22443161/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/22443161/ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:36:31 PST Photos from the wedding
The relevant pictures are on pages 11 and 14.

I didn't actually get to see it because I was busy trying not to be sick and they cut into the cake before I managed to make it over to see. Thank goodness for the insane amount of pictures that were taken...even if I quite wish a few less had been taken of me. But whatever. The cake looked rather nice, and the bride looked amazing, and I got to spend time with some of my best friends, and that's really all that matters to me at this point.

Now that that's over, I have a stack of new stuff to post and really will get around to replying to stuff stacked up in my inbox soon, I promise.

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/21981011/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/21981011/ Sun, 14 Dec 2008 22:36:04 PST LiveJournal)

I'm in a complete funk at the moment for reasons I won't go into here, and one of the things that makes me happy at times like these is doing things for other people. So, because I apparently don't feel like I'm making enough Hogswatch gifts for people these days, I've decided to offer the following little contest/literary scavenger hunt thingie:

I'm writing my paper for Medieval Literature, and I keep envisioning Jamie Bamber, Jane Leeves, Carole Ann Ford, and one of the Gators' former center/forwards.

The first person to tell me what two texts I'm writing about gets her/his choice of either a Sculpey figure or a box of homemade cookies (like the ones I made for Captains Savvy and Chaotica). Starting tomorrow, I will add one hint every day until I get a correct answer.

Now, back to my paper, after which I will be almost done with this semester and able to reply to some of these comments and such that have piled up lately. Happy hunting!


UPDATE: Captain Savvy asked a very good question that didn't dawn on me when I dreamed this up during one of my brownie breaks (I finally got some baked ^_^), so I've decided to clarify/modify the rules in the following way:

1) Participants are allowed one guess per 24 hour period. Because I don't feel like worrying about time zones and working out the times that comments are posted on DeviantArt and all that, I will base said 24-hour period on the time between postings. So, if Biz Op guesses at 8:03 tonight, then she can guess again at 8:03 tomorrow night; if Hillary guesses at 10:47 tomorrow morning, then she can guess again at 10:47 on Tuesday morning.

2) Because there are two texts involved, there will be two prizes. I considered offering cookies for the more well-known one and a figure for the more obscure, or letting the first person to guess correctly choose, but there's really no reason to worry about that; it's not like I've only got one box of cookies and one Sculpey figure. So, the first person to correctly identify the first text gets to choose a prize, as does the first person to identify the second. If someone identifies both, that person gets any combination of the two prizes. If you want two boxes of cookies, so be it.

3) As it's Hogswatch, I am willing to giftwrap prizes and/or ship them to someone else, if you want to use it as a free shopping trip sort of thing.

And now it's time to get back to the paper. I've got to learn to FOCUS.

12/15 Hint #1: My class is called "Studies in Middle English Literature," but my professor assigned a small handful of Latin texts (translated, thank goodness...) to show the literature that might have influenced the Medieval works we studied.


UPDATE: Another new rule - I will answer one question per person per day, so long as it is asked in either the comments here or on the LiveJournal entry. I reserve the right to refuse to answer any question I deem too specific, but I will try to vaguify as many of these as possible.


12/16 Hint #2: The poems are both retellings of much older stories.


UPDATE: The fantastic identified the first text as "Apollo and Daphne" from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Far from resting on her laurels, though, she rather surprised me with her second post of the day. Is the Supertemp going to win the whole thing?


12/17 Hint #3: Just over three months ago, I posted an entry on my LiveJournal account about my professor and mentioned his last name. Something tells me this is just about over, now.


And it is! Captain Savvy's research classes may have seemed pointless and interminable at the time, but today they have paid off...in so much as they helped her to win a hunk of clay that will probably break before it gets to her. She correctly identified the second text as the "Pistel of Swete Susan" (or Susannah, as my professor mysteriously called it on the syllabus), an anonymous fourteenth-century poem based on the thirteenth book of Daniel...which I found out after a somewhat heated quasi-argument with my sister and one of her church buddies is not in Protestant bibles. Oh, apocrypha...

For those of you still pondering that bit about the Gators, the star basketball player the two years UF won the NCAA title was Joakim Noah. I know this... ]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/21034756/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/21034756/ Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:27:52 PDT
Anyway, this is just a quick update to say that, between grad school apps and MicroP labs and so on and so forth, I got some stuff made for 's birthday on Wednesday and therefore have things to show off in the coming days. And I may be getting another commission for the cross stitch shop soon, so that will be good.

Meanwhile, I have had no time at all to work on Who figures, but I will most definitely be getting back to that just as soon as I can.

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/20576453/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/20576453/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:09:02 PDT
]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/20140695/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/20140695/ Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:25:12 PDT the cake topper is done.

Okay, I lied. It's not done. There is a bit of reconstructive surgery that still needs to be done. But, other than that, it's done. Now, aside from my little sell-out project* and my extremely daunting course load for this semester, I'll be able to get back to my Who project. And many old favourites will be revisited.

This is my excited face.


* And, by the way, I'll soon be joining the serried ranks of the dirt-poor English grad student**, so, in preparation, I am officially selling out for real...if it's possible for a sculptor of kitchy crap and fanart TO sell out: If there's anyone out there who for some bizarre reason wants to commission me to make something, drop me a line and we'll chat. I will not trade in licensed characters as I have _some_ lingering respect for copyright laws, and, while I've decided to charge $1 for the little button things, I have not even thought about what something like the cake topper would cost (hint: a lot...which is why I haven't even thought about offering this before and certainly don't expect anyone to take me up on it). So, yeah.

** Assuming of course I don't instead have to join the somewhat less serried ranks of the EE grad who is unemployed but refuses to even apply for an engineering job because she would harm herself or others.

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/19452617/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/19452617/ Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:21:41 PDT
It would be bad enough if I were just sculpting a friend for kicks...but this thing is going to be on display for his whole family.

So. Weird.

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/18843344/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/18843344/ Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:00:12 PDT
And now she has commissioned me to make a topper for her cake. Perhaps I'm just being my usual pessimistic self, but I foresee several different kinds of potential doom. I suppose we'll just have to see...it'll certainly be a challenge, at least. And it's a good thing I will have had so much experience making multi-layered suits, eh?

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/18391114/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/18391114/ Sun, 18 May 2008 22:17:46 PDT
ANYway, I should hopefully have at least One (and hopefully Ian and Susan, as well) done in the next month or so, assuming everything goes according to plan. In the meantime, the questionnaire is still open.
(And, again, many thanks to all of you who have already put in your two cents. I really do appreciate it, and I've found out some interesting things in the process.)


* I am SO not looking forward to parts of this trip... Urg.

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/18249067/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/18249067/ Fri, 09 May 2008 21:32:19 PDT , and I'll gladly oblige her because she's awesome. I can't be bothered to tag anyone myself, though, so if you want to do it, consider yourself tagged. If not, don't worry about it.

Anyway, eight (rather random) things about me:

1) The first time I moved cross-country, I was two weeks old. That pretty much set the tone for the next decade and a half.
2) I have participated in math team, science team, marching band, pit orchestra, Girl Scouts, open mic coffee houses, an after school discussion group, and an online satire paper. So, you know, I'm an all 'round dorkface.
3) I have extremely sensitive skin and can only wear sterling silver or plastic jewelry.
4) When left to my own devices, I revert to a nocturnal sleep schedule.
5) I started painting my toenails iridescent dark blue in high school, and now I can't stand to not have them painted a dark colour because they don't look like my feet that way, and it weirds me out.
6) I would love to have a cat if they weren't so fond of eating small, furry critters. It's hard to be a cat person if you're already a rodent person.
7) I love fruits and vegetables, but I am extremely picky about them. If they aren't just the right colour or texture, I don't want them in my mouth.
8) That stupid Go-Phone commercial with Meat Loaf singing "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" as a duet with his "son" haunts my dreams.

And there's still plenty of time to voice your opinion in my little Sculpey questionnaire thingie...

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/18205695/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/18205695/ Wed, 07 May 2008 01:49:55 PDT
Anyone can participate in this little poll thingie - knowing the characters helps, and having seen the particular episodes mentioned probably helps even more, but I have provided illustration, so you don't have to know anything at all about The Doctor to opine. So, y'know, take it if you want; ignore it if you don't.

Sculpey!Who Questionare

Many thanks.

Oh, and I shall be posting the rest of the last wave of figures and responding to all of the lovely comments I've gotten fairly soon. Thanks for your patience.

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/17984461/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/17984461/ Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:29:07 PDT
I have been extremely productive on the Sculpey/random art-ish projects fronts, though, and as soon as I hear from my buddy that she has gotten her gifts, I'll have some pictures to show off. Yay!

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/17418847/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/17418847/ Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:12:17 PDT
I was featured, along with lots of other really wonderful Whovian artists! Go check 'em out – they're great! And under appreciated! Yay!

(Exclamation marks were half-price today! Can you tell?!)

If you are looking for under appreciated art of under appreciated Doctors - something that is severely lacking in the above collection, though for rather understandable reasons - allow me to direct your attention toward , , and . Of course, there are _scads_ of others; those three are just the ones I thought of off the top of my head. Just...pick a neglected Doctor and start browsing - DeviantArt is chockablock with brilliant Whovians, and there's a lot of love out there for all of the Doctor's incarnations if you're willing to look a bit.

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/17355954/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/17355954/ Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:24:58 PDT
But, for now, I'm happy to have finished up my first of two Marthas. Yay!

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/17106979/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/17106979/ Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:41:26 PST
I'm sure I'm not the first person to announce this, nor will I be the last, but...

To further prove that Neil Gaiman* is one of the coolest people alive, he has convinced his publishers to host his absolutely fan_tas_tic novel American Gods online, free to all, for one month, starting today.

I know reading novels online is not exactly ideal, but it truly is a wonderful read; it's easily one of my favourite books of any sort from the past couple of decades. If you've never read it before, I strongly encourage you to**, and if you have read it but it's been a while, this is as good a time as any to revisit it.

If nothing else, we should all show our appreciation to the poor Harper-Collins intern who had to scan all 600+ pages.

“This isn’t about what is. It’s about what people think is. It’s all imaginary anyway. That’s why it’s important. People only fight over imaginary things.”

Also, work progresses on Martha #1. It would be progressing faster if her ear didn't keep breaking off.

* Who recently won the Jim Henson Creativity Honor because he's just that awesome.

** ...with the caveat that there is quite a lot of strong language and a couple of rather graphic sex scenes, as well as a reanimated corpse and other such things that might potentially ick you out.

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/16391998/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/16391998/ Sun, 13 Jan 2008 17:25:57 PST
I just so happen to have finished compiling pictures of one artisitic(ish) endeavour the same weekend that I got word that my latest Sculpey project gift was received...which also coincides with the weekend before the premiere of the second series of Torchwood. So I figured, what the heck, let's have an art dump! Assuming of course any of the garbage I posted today can be considered "art"...

Anyway, there's a little something for everyone this weekend, so long as you're either a Whovian/Wholigan, a Duranie, or a fan of bizarre and slightly gruesome fantasy scenes created out of things scavenged out of my parents' pantry.

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/16006636/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/16006636/ Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:43:17 PST
I am miserable at foreshortening. I'm actually pretty miserable at drawing, period, but foreshortening will be the death of me. I'm stuck in that horrible rut between drawing the faces and colouring where I have to do all the really unpleasant bits, like hands and arms and backgrounds and, y'know, _everything_. But, if I can just finish it, I'll have something new to show off, and I'll be able to get back to my Sculpey project. Woo hoo.

Oh, and I was moving my files from Lex (my old laptop) to Ianto (my new laptop), and I discovered a somewhat humourous picture I took this summer of TARDIS production. I've posted the picture in my scraps.

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/14846694/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/14846694/ Sat, 29 Sep 2007 20:10:31 PDT
This isn't really the right place for this sort of thing, but I have this irresistable urge to shout it from the proverbial rooftops so everyone will know that they misrepresented the character and spat in the face of everyone on the planet who isn't heterosexual.

If you care to read more about what was done, I've posted a reaction, as has my good buddy Cap'n Savvy

Also, I've put up my final (for now) bit of Who craftiness. I'll post pictures of everything all together later when I'm not so ticked off.

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/14458631/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/14458631/ Sun, 02 Sep 2007 16:03:55 PDT
For now, give the Doctor's latest incarnations some love.

* I've decided that "Wholigans" are fans of the new series and "Whovians" are fans of the original. This is probably not at all valid and possibly even heretical - I don't know, as I've been avoiding the fandom almost entirely in my (largely failed) efforts to spoiler-proof myself - but it's the system I'm going to use. So there.

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/13671606/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/13671606/ Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:13:50 PDT
For now, take a look at what I spent the first half of my summer doing! [link]

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/13003501/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/13003501/ Fri, 18 May 2007 16:37:44 PDT
Production has ground to a bit of a halt on the Sculpey project because I've been getting distracted by an as yet utterly fruitless job search and a few other random things. I did get an opportunity to test the circuit for the one part, though, and after a wee bit of debugging (they really should find a better way to indicate which direction LEDs and BJTs are aligned...) it worked fantastically. One more trip to Radio Shack and the crafts store, and I should have everything I need...except the time. If anyone ever finds a place that sells that, let me know...

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/12834721/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/12834721/ Fri, 04 May 2007 00:35:49 PDT
The point of all this is I have been steadily working on my mystery project, and I should have it done, gifted, and ready to post here in the relatively near future. I have five of the ten figures completely done and the sixth just needs arms and hair. Also, I have purchased the hardware for the additional things I'm making - I'm actually putting my very limitted EE skills to work on this one. Also also, if you live in the Florida panhandle, I apologise in advance if I knock out a power grid or two...

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/12587938/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/12587938/ Sat, 14 Apr 2007 00:12:44 PDT
Oh my goodness, I am so freaking excited about my current project... By the time I'm at liberty to show them off, I'll probably be over it. But for now...
::sigh:: I don't mean to tease, but I just can't help it.

...I feel kind of (or _really_) guilty about being anything but miserable right now because my personal issues are still quite serious. But you've got to have _something_, right?

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/12504176/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/12504176/ Sun, 08 Apr 2007 01:30:49 PDT
In any case, I'm waiting. I've got an appetite again, which is good, and I'm at my parents' house for the weekend, which is better. But I know that this period of relative calm won't last long, so I took the opportunity to finish up that sketch and to reply to things that have been in my inbox since August. And now I'm completely exhausted, so I should probably go get started on my nightly ablutions.

* True fact about mpudifoot: The only household pests commonly encountered in Hawaii or the southern United States that she cannot tolerate are centipedes and millipedes. It's not that she _likes_ black widows or brown recluses or scorpions or whatnot, but the only things that will send her into shivering fits of incapacitation are the little wriggly ones with dozens of legs [shudder]

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/12447520/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/12447520/ Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:49:41 PDT
So, I just wanted to check in and say that I _will_ have stuff to show off soon...stuff that you might enjoy if you are interested in British science fiction. And hopefully between now and then, I'll have gotten my act together and finished the sketch I started a few weeks ago. Also, I'm hopelessly behind on responding to comments and deviations once again because I'm a loser like that. I'm not ignoring people, I just want to be able to respond in a properly appreciative/attentive way, and I'm afraid this is not the time for that.

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/11967276/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/11967276/ Sun, 25 Feb 2007 21:00:30 PST
That being said, I hate my stupid apartment complex. I'd love to stick around and explain why, but the water dripping from my overhead light fixture and splooshing in the bucket I've had to set up underneath it has made me really need to go to the bathroom.

At least the toilet is finally flushing again, I guess...

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/11642103/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/11642103/ Wed, 31 Jan 2007 23:34:37 PST
I've also got a couple of drawings I did for people for Hogswatch to post eventually (though you only get the sketches... the coloured ones are just for the people I drew them for), and I've actually got an idea for another drawing, so maybe that will happen some day, too.

Of course, I'm still holding out hope that either one of my best friends will turn out to be from Alpha Centauri, or that the TARDIS will make a surprise visit to my front yard. If either of those things happen, you can forget about me ever finishing any of that other stuff...

]]> ~mpudifoot http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/10629868/ http://mpudifoot.deviantart.com/journal/10629868/ Sun, 05 Nov 2006 20:23:16 PST
I owe a handful of people thank yous for faves and watches, and I have a small army of deviations to comments on, but I'm afraid tonight's not going to be the night...and next week probably won't be either. But someday. I promise.

For now, I'm watching the best episode of Smallville ever (because there's so much competition, right...?), I'm eating the most amazing frozen desert ever concocted, and I have a Sherlock Holmes story to write for my Victorian Lit class.

Legolas will get done eventually, too.

]]> ~mpudifoot