Well, if you haven't noticed I like to play around with flashlights. I've always been into gadgets, but lately flashlights have grabbed my attention mainly because it is a way to play with the latest and greatest in LED technology. Something about the fact that these new LED's can generate so much light, while using far less power than incandescent bulbs, is interesting to me. It is fun to keep up with the technology and realize we are getting closer to the point where LED's will light our homes, our streets, replace our car's power hungry headlight bulbs, etc.

For now flashlights are still a useful thing to have around the house, on your keychain, in your car, etc. I would be surprised if people didn't have a flashlight or two around their home somewhere, incase the power goes out, etc. Take the recent events with hurricanes. Millions of people were without power, and some probably still don't have power from Ike. What kind of flashlights are these poor souls stuck with? Battery hungry incandescent flashlights that start to dim minutes after turning them on? Maybe they are lucky enough to have some form of LED flashlight, but unless they have something with cutting edge technology it probably isn't that bright and may not last as long as something newer.

So I thought I would recommend some basic flashlights that use cutting edge LED tech which are very efficient and provide long run times, more light, etc.

For those who want a keychain style flashlight, I recommend the Fenix E01. This light will run off any 1.2v-1.5v AAA battery and it will run at full power for 10-12 hours before dropping to a dimmer mode that will still put out useable light for an additional 10+ hours. I have one and I got over 40 hours of light out of a single battery. Now this light isn't extremely bright, it's about 8-10 lumens. The light it puts out has a purplish tint to it. This is designed as an emergency light that will give you enough light to get around in the dark.

It's available in a bunch of colors here:

Fenix E01

It runs $15 shipped (free world wide shipping). It's a tough little sucker too, with a hard anodized coating, water proof, etc.

For those who want something a little more exciting with a lot more output check out the Fenix LOD, which is listed on the same page. I keep one of these on my key chain, and our forum mod Osamarama (Sanjay) also picked one up and has been having fun with it. At $46.50 it may not be for everyone, but it's a fun little flashlight that will impress people when you fire it up on TURBO (high). You can run rechargeable NiMH AAA's in it. You can read the specs here:

Fenix L0D-CE

There are some special batteries available that can turn this 75 lumen flashlight into a 200 lumen flashlight, but it will void the warranty and you do run some risk. If someone gets this light and is interested in super charging it with a 3V lithium ion AAA, PM me. :)

There are all kinds of other cool flashlights on that site as well, but I just wanted to point out these two as they are small and easy to carry on your keychain and may help out when you find yourself in the dark. :)

This isn't intended to be a sales pitch. I am simply trying to pass along some helpful suggestions from what I've learned in the world of flashlights. After hearing about some of our users going through Gustav, Ike, etc, I wish I had done more to recommend things like this that may have helped them out.

Well, the other day it happened, my big dorky wireless headphones broken beyond repair. Well, at least beyond my repair, or beyond what I'm willing to try and fix. If anyone has seen me on cam on Paltalk you may have seen me wearing these giant cans on my ears. I've had them for years now, use them pretty much everyday. They allow me to listen to all the horrid things on Newgrounds, Opie and Anthony, XBL, etc, while not allowing my family (kids) to hear. I patch my XM radio into them, my computer's output, my TV's output, XBOX output, etc. Over the years they have broken from time to time and I have been able to super glue the broken plastic parts back together. The other day however they broke again, but this time the wires got snapped. I was rushing to the phone and sat them down. Probably when I tore them off my head I cracked them where they were previously broken and killed them. At first I was going to solder the wires back together, but soon realized there were very thin individual wires inside the casing of what I thought was a single wire. These wires are so fine and thinly shielded I didn't bother trying to repair them.

Considering I use these on a daily basis I needed to replace them, even though right now money is tight. So I went looking for the same pair, but Best Buy no longer carried them, even though I saw them still there within the past year. So I found a pair of Sony's that are similar, hopefully they'll work out as well or better.

RIP giant dorkey wireless headphones.

UPDATE: Looks like this won't be happening. The storm should stay out to sea and not impact the USA.

Some computer models are showing a Hurricane hitting New York City this weekend. Obviously it's far to early to be certain, but this developing situation should be paid attention to by those living on the Eastern Coast of the USA. New York City can sustain significant damage from a Hurricane depending on the strength and track. It's not a matter of if it can happen, but when it will happen. That's all we need right now, so hopefully this system will stay out to sea.

If this happens, it probably won't be above a Cat 1 Hurricane, but powerful Hurricanes have hit New England in the past. Here is a graphic showing some stats on the 1938 Hurricane:

Thanks to everyone who educated me about the International aid that was sent to the USA to help those that were hit hard by Katrina. After seeing all the aid we received I wouldn't be surprised if we saw similar aid for those hit by Ike, but the fact that we received so much aid for Katrina from other nations is enough to prove me wrong about my views. Part of the reason for my rant was that we have Newgrounds users who were hit by Ike, may have lost their homes, jobs, etc. We hope that they get the support they need to pick up the pieces and get themselves back on track.

Here are some photos of the storm and the aftermath:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/
09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html

Hannah should be striking the US sometimes on Saturday. It's still uncertain how strong Hannah will be, but it should make landfall as a Cat 1 Hurricane, possibly a Cat 2 if it can rapidly gain strength. Either way, it will effect the East Coast with wind and heavy rain. For my area, probably just some wind and rain, but the wind gusts could be strong enough to cause power outages over the affected areas. I will be well prepared with my flashlight collection, but everyone may want to keep a flashlight handy as most of us will be dealing with the effects of Hannah during the night time hours, you know, when it's dark outside.

Hurricane Ike's track is still yet to be seen. Now it may wind up in the Gulf, or it may strike Florida, or it may still sneak up the East Coast. If Ike makes it up the East Coast it may impact us worse than Hannah, at least wind wise. If Ike goes into the Gulf, it may head over for LA or Texas. Good luck with that. Hopefully it won't end up taking the New Orleans worst case scenerio track. Even Katrina didn't take the worst possible track.

So good luck with these storms everyone. Stay alert, stay informed, get prepared.

Well, it's that time of year again, and the tropics are very active right now. If you live in hurricane prone parts of the country, or world, start paying attention to the weather/news now and get prepared. Gustav is taking aim at Texas/Louisiana, at least that's the long range projection, but there is another possible hurricane developing that may head towards Florida's east coast, or up the east coast. Then we may see one or two more storms develope in the Atlantic behind that which have potential to make landfall in the US as Hurricanes or tropical storms.

If Gustav does track through the Gulf and heads towards Louisiana or Texas it shouldk be a major hurricane as the Gulf waters are very warm right now.

http://members.tripod.com/weatherman91 1/index.html

I've had some users requesting more OH SNAP posts, with pictures of critters, nature, etc. I was at my parents' house last night for dinner and I usually find lots of good OH SNAP material in their yard. However, like an idiot, I forgot to bring my camera. However, I had the iPhone's camera and a pocket magnifier which lets me take close up shots with the iPhone. They come out kinda crappy, but with a little adjustment in an image program, it's acceptable. So I found this big toad there, this picture really doesn't do it justice. I wish I got a shot of the whole toad because it was really fat, looked kind of like those Pacman frogs. Here it is:

Well, I broke down and decided to get a 3G iPhone for the wife and I. We went with the 8GB versions to keep the cost down. Our old Verizon contract was up and we were due for new phones. It looks like the iPhone plan may end up being a bit cheaper than what we were paying with Verizon. The main reason I went with the iPhone is due to new App Store and all the cool apps that keep coming out.

The new Simplify Media app lets me connect to my home iTunes library and listen to it away from home. This means I don't need a huge iPod that can hold all of my MP3's in the unit. There is also AOL Radio, Tuner, and Pandora which let me stream music as well.

However, there has been a lot of news lately about poor 3G performance. So if you happen to have a 3G iPhone, how has it been performing for you? I just put in 2.0.2 so I haven't had a chance to try the latest update in a 3G area, I only have Edge around my house.

For those who didn't know I was away on vacation this past week in Chincoteague, VA. We went to the beach, we saw wild ponies, I got to meet Misty the famous Chincoteague pony that was featured in a popular children's book, Misty. To bad Misty died like 3 or 4 decades ago, but they stuffed her, and her daughter Stormy, whom I met too, the dead stuffed version...

Click here for pics from my trip.

Before I left for vacation, actually the night before, I went and saw The Dark Knight with one of my friends. I'm glad I did. It was awesome and I really want to go see it again. When Heath Ledger died I was kinda shocked and surprised, but I didn't really care that much. However, when I saw his performance in The Dark Knight I realized what a great actor we lost.

So who here has seen The Dark Knight? What did you think? It's breaking all kinds of records. Right now it has its sights set on Titanic's record for total gross of over $600 million. It is already over $300 million and is seeing a lot of repeat business, and a lot of people are telling everyone to see it. I can see why, and I'm also telling people to go see it.

If you're not aware, this is a great movie. This is something you really should go and see as movies like this don't come along very often. The Joker steals the show and you just keep wanting more Joker as you watch the film. When I heard Heath Ledger should be nominated for an Oscar I was like "Yeah, give the dead actor an Oscar as a silly tribute..." but when I saw the film I realized he deserves at least the nomination dead or alive, and I wouldn't be surprised if he won it. He is probably one of the biggest reasons this movie is such a force, so why shouldn't he win the Oscar? His performance has resulted in this movie shattering records and people raving about him. If that isn't Oscar worthy I don't know what is.

Anyway, if you haven't seen the movie, go see it. If you have already seen it, go see it again. Fuck Titanic! The Titanic needs to be sunk a second time, but not by another ice berg in the night, but by The Joker in The Dark Knight.

WARNING: Comments may contain spoilers!

LOL! You want more wildlife videos, here you go. This was from my parent's outdoor surveillance camera, they have some set up to watch wildlife, crazy NG stslkers, etc: