darkoshi

Video title: An unexpected Bobwhite Quail in my yard
Date posted: 2024/08/11

These dandelion heads growing in my yard looked like they'd make good brushes.

The bottles of red and green ink are practically ancient. A part of the ink had separated out into a thick semi-solid layer inside the bottles.

Watch on Vimeo

Gulf Fritillary

Long Tailed Skippers

Video title: Butterflies on Lantana
Posted by: Darkoshi
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hqJqCYPzcg
Date posted: Nov 25, 2020

Taking an up-close look at this pretty lily in the yard, I discovered a cute little cricket. When I pointed the camera at it, it got nervous and tried to hide.

Video title: Little Lily Cricket
Posted by: Darkoshi
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa2uckCc9ng
Date posted: May 23, 2020

That was over a week ago. This week, I took a closer look at one of the few remaining azalea blooms (the coral red ones tend to last the longest), and again discovered another cute little cricket. Maybe it's the same one? Are they even crickets, or something else?* This one also got nervous and started moving away from my camera.

*They look somewhat like meadow katydid nymphs.

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Video title: 2019 Halloween porch decorations
Posted by: Darkoshi
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZdhCecTLQc
Date posted: Nov 3, 2019

A storm blew through at 6:30pm, just as it was getting dark outside. But the rain lasted under 10 minutes.

9 kids come by trick-or-treating, in 3 groups, plus my mom, niece and grand-niece.

I gave out the following candy:
Candy bracelets, Goldenberg's dark chocolate Peanut Chews, ZotZ fizzy candies, Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids, mini Bottlecaps and SweetTarts, Nerds (grape and strawberry), Laffy Taffy (banana & strawberry).
Also a sticker of a festive llama for each kid, and some My Little Pony stickers for those who wanted them.

"Dogs after lights-out" (Watch on YouTube)

Video title: Dogs after lights-out
Posted by: Darkoshi
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OClbYiPhILU
Date posted: 2019/11/01

Here's that short clip of the "Loose Ends Featuring Jane Eugene" concert last week. Also a short clip of downtown sounds & music as we were walking to the Latin Festival.

"Music in the park and downtown" (Watch on YouTube)

Video title: Music in the park and downtown
Posted by: Darkoshi
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks6SqsNuQT0
Date posted: 2019/08/31

A very relaxing, almost hypnotic sound for me with that insect chirring in the foreground. This was the evening after the summer solstice.

(no video, only audio)

"Frog Chorus & Insect Chirring, 2019/06/21 evening" (Watch on YouTube)

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHQoLH3p4u0

And yet many other ongoing repeating kinds of noises annoy me. It makes me wonder if there is really any intrinsic difference in sounds that I like and sounds that bother me, or if it is only based on mental & emotional associations I have for the sounds.

My mom's neighbors found this baby goose in their yard, with no adult geese around. They didn't want to leave it as they were afraid it would get run over. So they took it to the lake, but there were no geese there. My mom called me to come help... we put it into a bucket and walked around looking for any adult geese with younglings who might be missing one, or willing to adopt it.

We finally found 2 geese with no younglings a house down from Qiao's. They were skittish and headed off towards the lake as we approached. I set the baby goose down by the dry edge of the lake bed behind Qiao's house, for them to see it. It started following me back, so I quickly walked away (feeling irrationally guilty, like I was abandoning the poor little thing). One of the adult geese had lifted its head up high and was staring towards there. My mom and I went inside the house and watched from the kitchen, so that the adult geese wouldn't be afraid to come forward. I felt anxious, not knowing if the adult geese would be friendly to the young one, or if they might attack it, or if they had really even seen it, or if the little one had kept walking away into the brush, getting further lost.

From the kitchen, we couldn't see the little one at all. But we could see the adults here and there between the trees and bushes.

The one adult goose walked closer to where I'd left the baby. We could see its head popping up and down and it moving around some, but not much else*. After a long time, we finally saw the little one again, walking near the adult. They headed for the water and went in.

That felt like a success to us. I hope the little one is ok now.

*At one point, a small black cat walked along our fence on the lake side, coming from the side where the geese were. That worried me. But it kept on walking towards the other direction.

"gooseling" (Watch on YouTube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm26ux0tHtM

A mobile I put together at work over the years, bit by bit. And changed bit by bit. With paperclips, staples, bug bash bugs, gifts from co-workers, and more.

"around and around she goes" (Watch on YouTube)

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0ctPusLJhM

The CD balanced in the middle was the latest addition, with the small ladybug and glass drop riding on it. In the past, the small ladybug was in a different place.

"Halloween Ghosts" (Watch on YouTube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnjlyTQ9vVo

One thing I hadn't considered is that the netting I used to make the ghosts can be a hazard to flying insects. I rescued a beetle that I noticed seemed stuck between the layers of netting.

I posted my first video on YouTube about 11 years ago.
In that time I've posted 95 videos.

The ones with the most views are:

41K Fitted Sheets - How to Easily Replace Elastic
20K T-Kingdom Model 690 Binder review
19K Kneeling chair / yogachair
11K Hand-sewing flags for flagging
10K Anode rod, impact socket, impact wrench
10K Dysthymia - or Not? Part 1
5.6K my gender - androgyne / non-gendered / genderqueer
3.5K A short BDSM story: "The Question"
3.5K Hodge-podge, Awesome balloon, Broom
3.4K How do I stop this dog behavior?
2.8K Condom breakage
2.2K Dysthymia - or Not? Part 2
2.2K BlueAndrogyne (this one is no longer public)

The hodge-podge one seems sort of an anomaly; doesn't seem like something people would search on. But based on the video analytics, most of the traffic for that one was from "Suggested videos", after someone had viewed another video with a singing happy birthday balloon.

My old videos are so low quality and pixelated it is hard to even view them now.

Here are 2 videos I took recently.

2018/07/21 - Reeds swaying in waves at Charleston Waterfront Park.

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Video title: Reeds in Waves
Posted by: Darkoshi
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE3aE3gl06g

2018/08/16 - A chorus of frog song at the lake.

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Video title: Frog Chorus
Posted by: Darkoshi
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aGS-uA-8TQ

Watch on YouTube

Turkey vultures hanging out by the pond, with Canadian geese swimming in the background.
The quality of the video isn't good, I know. I had to use zoom to take this, because if I go too near to the vultures or if they even notice I'm watching them, that usually scares them away.

Watch on YouTube

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUDEbIo3o7Q

I've had this radio since about 1981. It still works well. It's much more viscerally satisfying to scroll through stations by turning the tuning knob, compared to modern radios with their seek and scan buttons. And it sounds just as good to me as my larger stereo receiver system does.

The clock display is blank in this video as the button battery went bad and I had to remove it. But after cleaning the battery compartment out and putting in a new battery, the clock still works too.

"Sanyo M1950F Clock Radio Cassette Player" (Watch on YouTube)

Video title: Sanyo M1950F Clock Radio Cassette Player
Posted by: Darkoshi
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qExlCPD_Ypk