It’s Leslie Nielsen!

With their eyes aligned, Romney’s mouth is much, much lower than Newt’s, leaving very little chin on one image…

…and a Jay Leno-esque chin on the other.

As I said…they’re just so different!

After realizing that M was a showstopper, imagine my surprise when I figured out that I could write my last name, too! Radium-Samarium-Uranium-Sulfur-Selenium-Nitrogen!

At this point, I had come too far not to make little periodic table boxes with the atomic number and weight of each element to line up like Scrabble pieces. But what format to use? Periodic table boxes vary wildly, with different fonts, text alignment, and which values are included. ptable.com has a very impressive dynamic HTML periodic table, with various facts as you hover. periodictable.com went with pictures of each element. Pure substances are shiny!

Eventually I found this list of periodic table PDFs available for downloading and printing. The first one on that page is the standard one for the California Standardized Test. As soon as I saw it, I was immediately thrust back to my lab bench in Chemistry class calculating moles and reaction yields. I had my format!

So here we go…

And finally, in her highly radioactive two element glory…

I might have to make some t-shirts of my own…

It might be nice to have a president, for once, that can crawl up walls.

Photo of the politician by Gage Skidmore. Photo of amphibian by Eric Highfield. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

That’s a big girl!

I did, however, get a cute shot and anecdote from my experiment.

This is one of my attempts to capture her in dance pose, but my hand is covering her arm too much.

When I was folding up the tripod to put it away, Nora declared that she was “going to get her camera”, which turned out to be the toy phone from her playhouse. She set it up, leaning against the wall, “pressed a button” to set its imaginary camera timer, and then ran over to me to pose. “You have to be here, like this,” she’d instruct. When we were posed, I would click my tongue to simulate the shutter noise, and then she’d run over and “set up the camera” again. We did this about fifteen times. Do they make toy photography tripods? She already took her first photo with my iPhone last week.

It was creepy for a while with him gazing around as I went about my now-awkward daily routine. I wore a glove outside to not attract attention. It seemed like a condition I could live with.

And then he began to talk.

He’s a sharp tongued, sarcastic little jerk, I must say, always finding some commentary on what’s going on, criticizing how I tie my shoes or brush my teeth. When he gets really annoying, I punish him by using my left hand exclusively for scratching places you’d rather not put your nose. Strangely, though, he rather likes the ointment I’m using to treat my condition. Perhaps his appreciation of irony is greater than any desire for self preservation. The doctor expects me to be cured in a week or two.

I call him Wilson. He’s not amused. Looks pretty good larger, too.

He’s such a drama queen. View larger.

That’s enough armchair babble for now. I think I’ll sit for a bit on this bench and soak up the last of the summertime rays.

It’s worth viewing larger. The first two pictures were slightly blurry, so I actually had to digitally blur the third one to match the others.

A close-up of just the changes in the last twelve months. Although she is a bit taller and her hair is longer, the biggest changes have happened between her ears.

Looks like there’s one more spot on the couch for a 3.5-year-old…

Walking along the wall by the church.

Heading back home.

A quick clip of Nora walking on the wall, followed by some panning across the above photos.

Curious as to what the heck this thing was invading my domestic domain, I did a little research. The stories are actually pretty interesting, albeit laden with post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacious reasoning that our species is so prone to. First of all the cat is called Maneki Neko, and my favorite of the stories goes like this:

A long time ago, during the Edo period (17th Century) of Japan, there was a poverty stricken priest, who was the keeper of a run down Temple in the Western part of Tokyo. The kind priest shared what little food he had with his pet cat and companion Tama, whom he cared for despite his poverty. Life was very difficult for the priest. The cold winds whistled through the Temple and chilled his old bones, rain poured in through the dilapidated roof, and he ached with hunger and exhaustion, yet he always remained dedicated to his duties, and grateful for what little he had.

On one particularly dreary day, the cold was cutting through his damp clothing like a million tiny knives. He went to make himself some tea, in hopes to warm himself, when he was crushed to see that he had no tea to make. His good nature turned to utter despair and sadness, and he slumped down in a corner and began to weep.

Concerned, his beloved companion Tama went toward the man to see if he could possibly comfort him. The priest exclaimed in frustration “Oh Tama! I am so very poor, and yet still I keep you! Could you not one day, do something for this Temple? Do something for me?”. His head fell into his hands and he wept quietly until he went to sleep.

Tama was puzzled, and decided to go to the outside of the temple for a while. He sat in front of the door and began cleaning himself, as cats do, licking his paws and rubbing them on his face.

Just then a very wealthy and powerful man was passing by the Temple as the gentle rain grew stronger and a violent thunder and lighting storm erupted. Large droplets of icy rain poured down and pelted him as he took refuge by a large tree. “This place will provide adequate shelter until the storm subsides” he thought. At that moment, he noticed a cat in the doorway of the old temple, cleaning his face with his paw, gesturing as though he were extending an invitation. This gesture puzzled him so, that he just had to have a closer look at this cat, who seemed to be beckoning him forth.

Cold and wet the man quickly approached the cat and entered the building. Moments later, the tree he had been using as shelter was struck by lightning and caught fire. The tree broke with a loud crash and flaming pieces of it’s shattered trunk fell precisely where the wealthy man had been standing.

The man was extremely grateful to the cat, for having saved his life. He was immediately compelled to find the owner of the cat and reward him. He entered the Temple, looking to find Tama‘s owner, and found he old priest, living in such deplorable conditions. He soon befriended the priest and showered him with gifts. The wealthy man used his influence to bring many wealthy people to the Temple, and it soon became very prosperous.

The cat had not only saved a life, but also relieved the priest of the burden of his poverty. When he died, the cat was honored by being buried in a special cemetery, and a statue was made in his likeness, reflecting the beckoning, raised paw that had brought so much good fortune and prosperity to his owner. As word of the events spread, people began placing figures of cats with raised paws in their homes, shops and temples, believing it would bring the same kind of prosperity into their own lives, that Tama had brought to the Priest.

Cool story, huh? Not entirely unlike our western oral stories than end in, “And that’s why we believe X!”

The other interesting thing about the Maneki Neko is that the gesture is a cultural difference between the East and the West. In the East, an arm movement like that of the cat, with palm down, is actually a beckoning “come hither” gesture, whereas in the West, that’s a “go thither” gesture. As a result, some Maneki Nekos manufactured for the West actually flip the paw around…which seems like a bad idea, as that makes it resemble another insulting western gesture, but the Chinese manufacturers probably don’t know that.

In the end, the damn thing is somewhat growing on me…at least to the point where I don’t actively want to throw it into the dumpster. We have it sitting on our bookcase next to my golf trophies. The other day it caught my eye, reflecting off of my pewter golf trophy mug, and it dawned on me that it would make a great cinemagraph subject, especially with the reflection.

May this animated gif bring you prosperity…or at least relief in the knowledge that your house is free of perpetual golden cat gestures.

Marga does a back flop.

Paul belly flops swan dives. This one is actually worth viewing a little bigger.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with the results of my first attempt at this technique. I will have to keep my eyes out for other subjects apt for this process.