What's it mean when you win a badge in cyberspace?

An army of cats took over deviantART for April Fool's Day. Random thumbnails were replaced propaganda posters and clicking on anything pretty much meant you were going to get some weird fact about cats. Did you know that a cat's jaw is designed in such a way that makes it physically impossible for it to grind its sharp little teeth? Well, ya do now.

When I first saw it, I was sorta meh on the whole deal. Cats? Really? Not a fan. The mudkip invasion was much better.

Then I saw The Note. And The Note said that anyone who submitted a cat picture would get a cat BADGE. Oh, and there was something about getting 15000 submissions in order to release the dA logo from captivity, but the important thing here was the BADGE.

I saw The Note late. I hadn't drawn anything in a year and I'd certainly never drawn a cat. I thought briefly about making my brother wear my neko-ear cap and taking a photo, but then realized he would have put a pox on all our houses if I posted it. So I figured I'd draw the Cheshire Cat. Pretty easy, yeah? I mean, most of the time he's all face anyway.

Drew the line art. Had fun with the eyes. Remembered that my scanner has been broken since January. Took a picture with my phone and uploaded the sucker anyway. For some reason it's on its side and I have no idea why. It's quite well-behaved on my computer. Cheshire tease.

But I got my badge! Everything I dreamed it would be -->

I love internet badges and stickers. You can tell that just looking at my stories page. Every time a reviewer awards a badge or sticker to one of my books, it is on my site as fast as I can code it. Often in varying sizes depending on the page. I make a conscious effort to not learn exactly what GetGlue is because I see all my twitter friends earning stickers there and I have a feeling I'd never leave. I would definitely never write again.

But back to the cat badge. Once I got it, I figured I should at least finish the original picture. So I did. Remembered *again* that my scanner is busted. Sighed loudly in that frequency that only moms can hear.

She asked me what was wrong. I told her about my scanner (she was there when it bit the dust so my story of yearning packed quite the angsty punch) and suggested I try it again and see if it works now.

My words were literally, "Yeah, Mom. Maybe Jesus will come down from on high just to give my scanner a sweet, gentle kiss, raising the machine from the dead because it's Easter."

I laughed. She laughed. We both laughed.

So anyway here's the scanned pic:



Cheshire by ~rpm77 on deviantART

It was, ah, posted on the day after Easter. Scanned on Sunday.

Heh heh heh.

Heh heh.

Heh.

There you have it. There is a God. Although considering the absolute creepy nature of the image, I'm sort of inclined to believe that it was the devil making sweet sweet love to my scanner. That or Holy Humor has a bit of twistyness to it. Makes for an interesting afterlife, either way. ;)