Showcasing: The White Throated Sparrow

I was sick this past weekend, which gave me a lot of time to just look at the birds at my feeder. It gave me the idea that it would be interesting to write some posts showcasing various bird species that visit my little "bird café". This week we have the white throated sparrow. It's easily recognizable by it's white throat and crown. In fact many bird names are very "creative" in this aspect, for example the white breasted nuthatch has a white breast, a purple martin is well... purple, mourning doves make mournful sounds, and so on. However some birds have names that give a false impression of how the bird looks. Take the purple sandpiper for instance; the name makes you think that it's purple obviously. But, if you're at the beach anytime next winter check the rocky jetties for a plump, brownish, long-billed bird probing the crevices, you just might be looking at a "purple" sandpiper. If you use your imagination, and the light is juuuuust right, you might see a very slight purple gloss in their plumage. Anyway, back to the white throated (WT). They are ground feeders and scratch among the fallen leaves for food. My mom and I make sure to throw some seeds and cracked corn on the ground for the WT, mourning doves, juncos, and others. The WT has two morphs. They either have a bright white eyebrow, or a tan stripped eyebrow. WT's have a distinctive yellow lore (area in front of the eye). A fun fact about the WT is that for a while it was believed that the tan striped morph of the WT was simply the juvenile plumage, but recent studies have shown that white striped adults usually mate with tan striped WT adults. Well, what can I say... opposites attract! You can search for a WT in your back yard or as you walk along Sligo's wooded paths. They're present winter, spring, and fall.

A white throated sparrow with a white eyebrow

 

The WT's blend in with the ground (left), unlike the cardinals

A PVP Server

I haven't done a Minecraft post in a while, but I want to share a pvp server that my friend introduced to me recently. I've attached a narrated video of me showcasing the server's features. As I get ready to post my entry, I realize that some might find the Minecraft vocabulary objectionable. The words "kill" and "die" are used to describe events in the battles between two teams of Lego-like characters. There are no guns, no blood; but bows and swords are used in combat. As video games go, Minecraft doesn't contain graphic violence. In my own life, I support peaceful solutions to problems in our world. I spent yesterday working at the Little Friends for Peace organization in a D.C. neighborhood that is plagued by violence. You may have read my earlier post after the Newtown tragedy, about attending a vigil to end gun violence. I don't think my interest in gaming conflicts with my personal values or philosophy about living an ethical life. I, like most avid gamers, know the difference between fantasy and reality. I hope you take my post in the spirit that was intended, and that you have you have a hobby that you enjoy as much as I do mine.

The Great Backyard Bird Count

I've been a birder for a long time. My mom has had me birding since I was 4 or so.  Recently my mom started telling me about this thing called the great backyard bird count (GBBC) so I decided to look into it. The GBBC is where someone can just sit at their window and count the birds they see. They record their results and send their findings to Conell University of Ornithology. It's citizens' science! This is amazing to me because I love to just kick back and watch the birds come and go. Earlier today I filled up the feeders and started recording what I saw. I saw a lot of the birds that I just love, like a flock of dark eyed juncos, a cardinal, and two varites of woodpeckers (1 red bellied woodpecker, and 2 downys). This was a great way to say goodbye to Maryland as I pack my bags to spend president's day weekend in Pennsylvania. I hope I will have time to do more of this in the future, because as I've said many times in this post, I LOVE birds!

I just spent the last 30 minutes looking at birds out my window.

Eggs

Mr. Mayo challenged us to a make a 60 second video focused around a mystery prop. It was exciting and a little nerve wracking knowing that whatever item we pulled from the black plastic bag would be the inspiration for our show. One group got a bloody severed head, so we knew we had to be prepared for anything! Our "anything" turned out to be a birds nest with three eggs in it --- maybe not as exciting as a decapitated head, but we knew we could work with it. After a lengthy brainstorming session, we decided on a theme of suspense. Would the itty bitty birdies survive the fall from the treetop or end up a scrambled mess on the pavement below?
We used sound effects and music to add both drama and humor to our film. And of course Ross came through with a brilliant performance. This one minute film, from conception to final editing, took us many hours to produce. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.
The experience will be helpful with our upcoming CAP Hollywood Project because it was a good exercise in using our skills and imaginations to create a concept and captivating story in a limited amount of time.

I took a shot...

I've always loved acting. I did a little at Imagination Stage when I was younger. I enjoy writing skits and creating characters and doing voices and accents. But I was too intimidated last year to try out for either of Blair's plays. I went to see The Three Musketeers and Les Miserables, and they were fantastic!
This fall, my parents challenged me to audition for The Taming of the Shrew. I used to run into Ms. O'Connor in the drama room she shares with Ms. Jeral. She seemed cool and very nice. Anyway, I finally got up the nerve to put my name on the audition schedule one day. Mine was actually the last name on the list of 84 hopeful students. I figured I was "safe". By the time the O'Connors got to my presentation, they'd surely have already found all the actors they needed, or maybe if I was really lucky they'd just sleep through my tryout. Who did I think I was, anyway?! To my surprise, they were wide awake and enthusiastically watching my and my partner's every move. I even made Mr. O"Connor laugh out loud.
The rest of the story is that I won a small role in the Shakespearean comedy. It's been even more fun than I imagined it would be. I feel really lucky to have had this experience and I hope to participate in future MBHS productions. Come out and see the play this weekend. I'm the guy who gets his butt kicked, literally.

Oh, and if you've been thinking of joining a club or trying out for a sport or the play --- JUST DO IT! You'll be glad you did.

What Silver Spring is to me

I'm going to have to write this post quickly. I have had a hectic past 2 weeks, what with my Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close project, and exams. But now that I'm done with this my schedule should be free. I'm probably going to have a good next few weeks with the play and the British students. So to quote Paul Revere, "The British are coming, the British are coming!" I have always wanted a reason to say that. Anyway. the video may seem a little choppy , but that was only because of the constraint on the time. Also the fact that a few clips are missing... well that's the reason  need to type  quickly. I tried to re-upload the video, and restore the video files, but my computer came up with a blue screen of death. So as I'm writing this my computer is a ticking time bomb for another blue screen and potentially an unfixable one. Hopefully if I shut it down for the rest of the night the problem will go away, and i realy hope this problem will not persist and that  the computer isn't doomed. Well untill then I better give my computer a rest.

Minecraft 1.4.6 Review

I finally had the time to do something Minecraft related! It's been so long since I last posted something Minecraft related on this blog. So today I will treat you with a visit from a long awaited minecraft video. And before you ask, no it's not a machinima. I've been having a hard time coordinating a time that my friends can log on and be actors, and when I finally coordinated a time that worked for everyone, the universe decided that that would be a good time for my server to crash making me unable to film. Well I got around it by recording my review of the new minecraft update. Remember the last update review with the picture gallery? Remember how it took up so much space? well now that I put that in a video this post will not be as long as the 1.4 update review. I did forget to mention in the video that the Minecraft programmers added a Christmas surprise that only took place on the 24th and the 25th, they made the chests in minecraft look like Christmas presents. For some reason blogger is not letting me post a picture, so I will get you a picture of that when I can. There really is not that much to cover because this wasn't as major of an update as 1.4 was. So without any further ado here's the review video. I hope you likle it!