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My great passion: Clay target shooting :)
 
Myself and the wife chilling on the deck at one of our office parties.
 
A painting of Mr. Hendrix himself, lifelong hero of mine. Does not come across well in avatar, but he is exhaling smoke (of some variety). As I have always considered him a man ahead of his time, I would like to think he would be an avid vaper if he was still around to grace us with his presence. I tend to pull a very similar face when I get my hands on a fresh bottle of Paulie's Pistachio Ice Cream.
 
I'm a REO Fan and the national animal of REO's is the North American Porcupine because Robert O'Neil the owner and maker of Reosmods has a family of Porcupines living on his land and they are tame and walk in an out of his house as tho they own the place.
 
My avatar is a photo I took of the Colosseum in Rome a few years ago.
I spent many hours trying to take a good photo there - right through sunset and into the evening.

Then while walking back to the hotel, I saw this pic (from the other side of the iconic building), mounted my little camera on the hand railing to keep it still and it turned out to be the best one of the lot. Very unexpected.

It reminds me to expect the unexpected...
Always thought its downloaded. thats 1 great shot then if its not
 
I am a high school Biology teacher and when i coached the U/16 rugby team I thought it best to sponsor T-shirts for warm-ups before games.
I had some gutsy players that made me think of a pack of wild dogs.
But we are a Afrikaans school and decided on a "WilleHond" logo for each t-shirt. Purposely spelt wrong so the kids can read it. :)
Needless to say it did the trick because we beat the opponents during Interschools that specific year.
The logo is nostalgia representing the qualities that form the foundation of success and sad to say ........ most youngsters have lost these days.
 
I am a high school Biology teacher and when i coached the U/16 rugby team I thought it best to sponsor T-shirts for warm-ups before games.
I had some gutsy players that made me think of a pack of wild dogs.
But we are a Afrikaans school and decided on a "WilleHond" logo for each t-shirt. Purposely spelt wrong so the kids can read it. :)
Needless to say it did the trick because we beat the opponents during Interschools that specific year.
The logo is nostalgia representing the qualities that form the foundation of success and sad to say ........ most youngsters have lost these days.

Great logo and great explanation @KZOR !
Thanks
 
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Was a photo op day to take some pictures of my '73 Elvis Stingray show car that had been selected to be Miss August in the 2006 International C3VR Corvette Calendar.
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Decided to try a change of avatar since some folks here still don't realize I am not in SA when they message me.

The Stars and Stripes should be self explanatory. The added art feature symbolizes what has been just one of the serious hobbies of mine since about the mid 1950's, this one being studying the life histories of plants and animals in their native wild habitats to advance the understanding of the species better, to preserve their habitats and them from extinction. This Hyalophora cecropia x gloveri hybrid is a perfect species for that as I have been a serious amateur Lepidopterist from the start. From my teens until I could no longer do the field work anymore by my early 60's I traveled far and wide to hike deep into wilderness desert, high mountain, arctic, etc habitats for many weeks to months per year; reared up to 25K a year at home/in wilderness camps to restock wild populations in decline; worked on projects to raise funds to buy and preserve natural habitats (mostly in South America); did many specific research projects for natural history museums and foreign governments in many countries. I was considered a world authority of four large families of Lepidoptera, but when I visited a place I recorded the findings of all species found there. I wrote a book about a specific wild place in high alpine/arctic mountains that I spent 3 successive summers camped above tree line at and presented my findings to other Lepidopterists' and the public at a noteworthy Natural History Museum. My last field projects here from 1998 until 2008 were many of the species found in the Spring Mountains north of Vegas that were only found at specific places in those mountains and no place else on earth. Sadly almost all of them have either become extinct or are highly endangered and will most likely also become extinct. For a change their loss will be more at the hands of nature than those of mankind due to habitat loss from the many lightning started wildfires during the monsoon season here that eliminated their larval host plants. All my field journals, rearing journals, permits, research papers I wrote, etc and my worldwide synoptic collection are in the hands of the executor of my estate, will eventually be placed in a specific natural history museum collection for future generations to learn from.

One of my specialty families was the Saturniidae that there are something over 2000 species of them worldwide. Thought maybe you'll like these pictures of the life cycle of one of them (Attacus atlas) that is the next to largest species with about a 10" wingspan.

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Female left, Male right
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Female size comparison.
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Post of the month @Spydro ! I had to read it to my wife as well! Man I would love to share a beer or two with you, you have such cool stories to tell!
 
Thanks @Stosta & @Warlock. Lepidopteran field and lab work was some of the most enjoyable times of my life. And I took the bull by the horns with some of it by pursuing some of the rarest species that the least was known about.

For example, on the three summers project above a quest for a species that had only been known to have been seen "somewhere" there 4 times in recorded history. The first year was a bust, but I found them the second as the 5th Lepidopterist to find them, and from the life history discoveries I made that summer found them again the third. As far as I know they have never been "discovered" again for a same reason the others before me didn't disclose their location, nor did I ever report the life history discoveries I made that simplifies finding them to protect this very small colony from the hoards of "pretty butterfly collectors" and those that would sell them on the Black Market as they would most certainly drive them to extinction within a year or two if they could find them.

Another 7 year project was for one of the rarest species on earth (a Sphingidae, another of my specialty families) that might well hold the record for the number of times it has been declared extinct only to have another one reappear up to 5 decades later from three specific small locations on Kauai, HI. Kauai has far more different species of endemnic plants than any of the other Hawaiian Islands. Most was lost in 1992 when Hurricane Iniki destroyed much of the islands forests, so it was assumed this moth would never be seen again. Almost nothing is known about it's life history other than what months they have been recorded, not what their larval or nectar food plants are, no livestock (ova, larva or cocoons) have ever been found to know what they look like. First discovered in 1895 it has only been recorded 15 times total, the last time in 1998 for a total of about 2 dozen individuals seen in 126 years. While I did complete the "White Monarch" project in Hawaii those years (Danaus plexippus fm nivosus), I did not discover anything new about this rare moth.

Picture of a live specimen that someone luckily attracted with bait.

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@Silver , thanks for your comment on my avatar in the other thread.

Thought I'd explain it here. It is symbolic of my relationship with my 2 year old daughter. Fierce, but so gentle...
 
@Silver , thanks for your comment on my avatar in the other thread.

Thought I'd explain it here. It is symbolic of my relationship with my 2 year old daughter. Fierce, but so gentle...

Epic!

Wasn't expecting that for an explanation!
 
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