A little more than a year ago, we here on the blogs were celebrating the Year of the Dog. The celebration featured my favorite dog and admissions mascot, Evie Cummings.

This initial photoshopping of Evie spawned a mini-contest, initiated by Ben:

As you know if you follow Matt's blog, my colleague Joanne's dog Evie is somewhat of an office mascot. What you may not know is that Joanne is, like me, a die-hard Lost fan. Not only does she love the riveting storylines and character development, she also thinks Sawyer is cute. So last week, I combined her two loves into a desktop for her computer:

Some of last year's entries: 1 2 3 4 5

Now, as New Year approaches, so begins another mini-contest.

This coming year is the Year of the Pig. So, as has become the tradition, we'll celebrate it with my favorite pig in the world! [I promise you, the below biography is true]

Peggy ("Pigasus")

Peggy grew up in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and started her ascent to stardom by starring in the Abercrombie & Fitch Summer 2002 catalog. Following her print appearance, she played a cameo in the first episode of CSI: Miami. She spent the following year touring to libraries and charity events and finally decided she was exhausted with the "glam" life and retired to the mountains of South Carolina where she currently enjoys walks in the backyard and eating acorns.

Ian Brelinsky '06 (EE) was an active member of the Dormitory Council and the Simmons Hall community. He currently lives in Washington, D.C. and works as a technology strategist in his days and is an active Educational Counselor for MIT in his spare time. Ian and Peggy have been best friends since 2001.

Here are some pictures of Peggy, starting with one from the famous A&F catalog:

Without further ado, I present this year's New Year favorite animal mini-contest.

The objective: Create imagery celebrating Peggy.

The categories:

1. Peggy and the Year of the Pig (similar to New Year Evie above)
   
2. Peggy in a interesting or funny scenario (similar to Lost Evie above).

   We'll have winners in each category.

The rules:

• Remember, Peggy is my favorite pig in the world. No demeaning or defacing her.
  
• You can submit a photoshopped picture, something hand drawn (comic style, manga style, whatever), a Flash animation, or whatever you like.
  
• If you're photoshopping Peggy, use the images above (they're the best Ian had available). I'm hoping to see some fun photoshopped images!
  
• I'm also hoping to see some nice hand drawn entries... points go to a cute manga Peggy. You'll have to scan it in yourself, though.
  
• Submit your entry either by leaving a link to it in the comments, or by emailing me your file. My email address is my last name at mit dot edu.
  
• This will have no impact on your admissions application. Don't enter just to butter us up; also, don't fear that entering will harm your application.
  
• There is no prize for "winning" except that I'll publish your entry here on the blog.
  
• I'll publish some favorites on New Year, so get me your entries by midday on this Sunday, February 18.

Have fun! (And, in case you're curious, I have no idea what we'll do next year)

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

Sounds like fun! I'll likely submit an entry. I'm no artist, but I've photoshopped quite a few pictures for our school newspaper.

As for the year of the rat..
How about a contest with beavers? The beaver represents MIT, of course, and there is already an association between beavers and rats because of the brass rat. According to Wikipedia, a beaver is technically a rodent, too.

Posted by: Adam S. on February 13, 2007

Matt, I will admit to being confused when you referred to Peggy's picture in the A&F advertisement. It took me a couple seconds to realize that you weren't referring to the hot guy. Anyway, did you hear about how the Chinese government has banned advertisements featuring pigs, out of respect of Muslims? But, in any case, I can't wait to see what creative designs people come up with for the photo competition!

Posted by: Melis on February 13, 2007

Random, but whatever.
I learned in Japanese class 2 years ago that they say pigs go "Buu Buu". Hahahaha. (As opposed to the American "Oink Oink"

Posted by: Josh V on February 13, 2007

wow- You guys got to this post as soon as it was made! I guess I don't get first post. But I'm glad Matt posted again so s'all good. I really want to do this, but I have to be working on my research paper... Hmmmm, I have an idea though that might work and be pretty fast.... I'll have to use paint unfortunately, but what they hey.

Posted by: ElizabethWo on February 13, 2007

Adam--That *may* have been sarcasm. I don't know, though. Maybe.

One other thing, how good are Stanford's EPGY summer programs? I'm thinking of going there because that's one of the only programs open to sophomores that I've heard of, but it is slightly expensive, as well as far away.

Year of the pig...are videos ok?

Posted by: Kiran on February 13, 2007

Wait.. was Matt being sarcastic about having no idea what he'll do next year? Haha, wow. I have absolutely no ear for sarcasm.

Posted by: Adam S. on February 13, 2007

I will will try something. Hey mind you, it is not a promise.

Posted by: Solomon on February 13, 2007

I thought he was, but I don't know. I use sarcasm so much that I'm kind of hypersensitive to it. I see it when it's not there.

Posted by: Kiran on February 13, 2007

Awesome~!祝新年快乐～！

Posted by: Amy on February 13, 2007

Matthew, may I post the link here?

Posted by: The madman who makes people fly on February 13, 2007

And again, are *.mpg, or *.avi -s OK?

Posted by: The madman who makes people fly on February 13, 2007

Ok, so I think I just fail recently at typing my name. Two times ago I typed Josh there on accident, then up above here I posted ElizabethWo. Ummmmm... what is wrong with me? I promise I'm the same person!

Posted by: Elizabeth on February 14, 2007

wait, so do we have to use the given picture of a pig or can we get one for ourselves?

Posted by: jasmine on February 14, 2007

Matt:

I mailed the file to you, and here is another link, would you mind clicking on my name?

You can also click here

Posted by: The madman who makes people fly aka Captain SS Wan on February 14, 2007

Another link : I post this link to support this project : wikiupload

Posted by: 0 on February 14, 2007

http://img462.imageshack.us/img462/9872/peggyzo2.png

Peggy gets a salute. Too bad this picture isn't from China.

Photoshop newbie. Sorry. I would have written a song but I'm not sure that's allowed in this contest.

Posted by: Jeff C on February 14, 2007

Checking in briefly while reading applications... yes, you can submit video or audio files. Entries should include Peggy, but Peggy need not be the only pig present, nor do you have to use the provided images (that is, you can create your own rendition of Peggy). Thanks to all who have submitted so far, this is fun!

Posted by: madmatt on February 14, 2007

would u kill me matt..if peggy is defaced..a bit ,...jus a li'l bit... i mean if i have to make her look funny n n since she's so so breathtakingly beautiful..i will have to do that ...will that be fine?

Posted by: kanika on February 15, 2007

Dear Peggy,
I love you.
Sincerely,
Z.

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/5940/chinesenewyearpignn0.jpg

Posted by: Z on February 17, 2007

heya matt...

so here's my rendition of the ' breathtakingly beautiful , enigmatic . charismatic , mellifluous--PEGGY ' ..but oops !!! i played havoc with her ...but she looks all groomed up to hit da screens right away..no kidding ..really..hope you like it matt !
here are the links
http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/5242/picture3nw6.jpg


http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/531/picture4ps0.jpg

--
adios...^^^^^^^^^^

Posted by: kanika on February 17, 2007

n oops!!! i forgot to mention that those are hand drawn...lol

Posted by: kanika on February 17, 2007

Good luck with every competitor! It's mid-night now here in Beijing -- and the first day of the New Year! 向诸君拜年了！@.@

Posted by: Shanwei on February 17, 2007

Here is my submission. That is a picture of Peggy helping Professor Walter Lewin demonstrate that the period of a pendulum is ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY independent of the mass hanging from it to the 8.01 students.

I got the original picture from the page with the 8.01 video lectures. If you haven't already watched some of the video lectures, you should! It's awesome being able to actually watch the lectures.

I'm thinking about making another picture later.

Posted by: Adam S. on February 17, 2007

Oh man, this is incredible! Peggy does in fact make a 'ha-ha-ha' sound and, to be quite honest, seeing her swing from a pendulum and blast into outer space makes me laugh right along with her! Awesome job - keep it up! Send more in! -- Ian

Posted by: IanB on February 18, 2007

Can somebody please tell me how to post a web in here. I made a photoshop image and then changed it to jpg. but i don't know how to post it.

Posted by: Sabina on February 18, 2007

Sabina-
Either email it to Matt at (his last name)(at)mit.edu or upload it to one of various photo upload sites. A common uploading site to use is ImageShack. After you upload it, just post the link it gives you here. Post here if you have any trouble, I'll check back pretty often.

Posted by: Adam S. on February 18, 2007

I agree with Adam S. on making the MIT beaver stand in as a rat.

After all, the Chinese zodiac sign for next year is the earth rat... and beavers live on the ground, yes? and thus, since beavers are rodents, they are good for standing in as (albiet huge, furry, big-teethed) earth rats.

Okay, maybe I'm stretching the analogy a bit too much... But Matt, you should really consider it for next year. It's a good idea. Hats off to Adam S. for coming up with it!

Posted by: Michelle on February 19, 2007

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