Ask requested, by a some, my squirrel video. I had the camera like 2 feet away from this guy. I was surprised how tame it was, but maybe it was rabid or something. At one point when it kinda stood up and looked at me I was thinking, this thing could leap on me and start attacking, but it didn't.

Was taking the trash out tonight when I noticed a couple of young skunks in the backyard. Crappy video because it was with my little digital camera and a flashlight:

Here's a northern water snake I pulled out of my parents' pond. They go after their goldfish, etc, so they don't want them around. I relocated him to another area, hopefully he won't find his way back. I had to reach under water and feel around under a rock to get him, hoping it wouldn't bite my hand as I couldn't see anything. Kind of like noodling for catfish. If you don't know what noodling is, look it up. These are also the most aggressive snakes in north america, they will try to bite you if they have the chance. They are not poisonous. Many people mistake these for copperheads, etc.

I thought I'd share a picture from the 2008 Newgrounds.com Mod Meat.

Came across this friendly fellow today while I was out for a walk with the family at our local State park.

Well, not sure if snapping turtles are really worth saving, but it was just a "cute" little baby! I saw it crawling onto my town's bicycle / walking path and figured if I left him there he'd get squished or stomped, etc. So I picked it up and carried it nearly a mile down the path and put him in an area that I thought would be safe for it, a little cove along the creek where there isn't a swift current to sweep him away. I plopped him on a little stick at the edge of the water and continued my stroll with the kids. I was pushing the kids in their stroller.

After watching Iron Man I was at WalMart and was checking out the Iron Man toy that lights up, talks, etc. I decided to pick one up, you know, for my kids... (cough cough)
So anyway, the annoying thing with this toy is the light in the chest, and the light on the hand, were YELLOW! WTF! In the movie they were white. I kept thinking I could try and swap out the yellow LEDs for white ones. Well, today I decided to go for it. The nice thing with this toy is it has screws and it was easy to open the arm and get to the yellow LED in the hand. It was a standard 5mm LED, and I was able to swap it for a white one with some simple soldering. It worked great! Much brighter than the yellow LED, white, etc.

Next I decided to try the LED in the chest. This was a much bigger challenge for me. I took out the screws, and his body didn't come apart... Here there was a plastic plug that looked like part of the shell's mold, but it wasn't. I was able to carefully pry it out and access the hidden screw. Those sneaky bastards! Once the screw was removed I was able to start opening the body, but it was tough. I think there was some glue around the shoulders, or it was fused together some how. Eventually it popped / cracked open. Inside were more wires and circuit boards than I thought there would be. I unscrewed and pulled back the first plastic piece which exposed another circuit board. I unscrewed the next circuit board and pulled it out (still attached to the rest of the body by a lot of wires) and found the yellow LED. Uh oh! This LED is different! It's shorter, and flat. Hmmm. Hopefully the voltage and current to this LED are the same as the one in the hand, or it might not have enough juice to power my white LED. I figured I'd just go for it. I took out the LED, unsoldered it from the circuit board, etc. Now for the white LED, uh oh, it doesn't fit through the hole. I got out my dremel and removed just a little bit of material from the circuit board to make the hole larger and the white 5mm led fit! I didn't want to push it all the way through though because it was longer than the LED it was replacing. The LED is in the middle of a switch, similar to what is under your keyboard keys, but round like a donut, the LED in the middle, the contacts in the circle around the LED. This fits right behind the white button on the front of Iron Man's chest. If I stuck the LED through too far it could prevent the button from pressing in far enough to activate the switch. So I winged it, put it in about halfway, and soldered it in. My next worry is that when I put it back together the cover over the circuit board won't fit because the new LED protrude more than the previous one. However, it all fit back together! Got to love it when things go smoothly, but it could have easily have turned into a real bitch.

So I put it back together and it works! I now have a white light in his chest, which is his glowing power source, and a white thruster / blaster in his palm! I took a video, but I didn't take a video of the yellow LED in the hand, I took the video after I swapped out the yellow LED in the hand, but the yellow LED was still in the chest. Then I show both white LED's. The one in the hand is pretty bright, and throws a nice beam of light, as you will see when I have it by a wall.

A powerful cyclone hit Myanmar, formerly Burma, and has left tens of thousands dead and missing. Many more may die in the aftermath due to disease, dirty drinking water, etc. Aid has been slow to get to those in need, supposedly due to the Myanmar government. I don't know if we have any fans in this part of the world, or if other areas were impacted by this storm. Hopefully aid will reach those who need it before it is too later. The storm hit with wind speeds of 120-150 MPH.

Okay, I'm actually just testing out this embed video thing with a really boring video of a snow/sleet storm we had over the winter...

He said, "A lot of people think midget is the correct terminology. Actually, that is so wrong. It's a very, very slang word to the Little People society and reason being is that word originates from the early 18th century when they used to do the circuses and fairs and they would put little people in situations as part of a 'freak show' and they would title it a 'freak show.' And that it is why it's so unacceptable to little people."

Wade said that there is an appropriate way for others to deal with those who they think are different than them.

"I want people to say, 'That's a little person or dwarf,' and then I want them to come up to me and introduce themselves because I want them to get to know Ethan Wade and who Ethan Wade is."