For you task-a-day types, the challenge of this era is to claim the crown of Interrex.

But we slow-taskers have been given our own challenge: complete one task in twelve days. I'm proud to have succeeded.

Hooray for badges. Hooray for BLUE mini-eras. Hooray for unretired whimsical old tasks that I can't believe no one completed the first time around. Farewell, glasnost. Hello insatiability.

And now, on to the main feature.

In animal taxidermy, the soft parts of the subject are removed and replaced by artificial materials: a metal armature, petrochemical dyes and preservatives, glass eyes, wooden or plastic risers, etc.

If an animal is mounted using bits of technology, it seems that a technology ought to be mounted using bits of animal.

In this instance, I took an old portable CD player and replaced its inner parts with rabbit skin, chicken bones, fish vertebrae, and turtle shell.

I then mounted the specimen on a chicken bone armature and placed it on a base made from some old scrap wood. Since the finished piece is pretty fragile, I also made a little display case for it using some clear acrylic fished out of a dumpster long ago.

All that remains is to find a location in which to install the piece. I made a very rushed, unplanned attempt in a university museum this afternoon, but was thwarted by staff. I did, however, manage to hold on to the specimen.

So, there's the mystery still to come: where will it wind up? Will it be seen by anyone? Will they understand it, or assume it's a lame attempt to envision the cd player as a life form in the flolloping mattress sense?

Since the task doesn't explicitly require public placement, I'm going to submit it anyway and claim my badge. Eventually, I'll find a suitable public place to install it, and will update this praxis. I'll also add some commentary on the ethics of turning living things into silly guerilla art, and a rant against global museum operating hours.

But before that happens, I've got to throw a bunch of stuff into a backpack and head for the airport.

So long, friends, foes, and neutral acquaintances. See you all in the mysterious future.