Jens Lekman “Black Cab” Video, live performance in Hobart, Tasmania – I apologize for the quality and the angle. I filmed it from my lap because we weren’t supposed to video the concert, and I didn’t want to get caught. The audio, however, is excellent. This is a nice acoustic rendering of my favorite song.

View from the top of Mt. Wellington in Hobart, Tasmania – Here’s the view from the mountain I cycled. It’s 1500 meters high and a 21km bike ride down. Pictures available here.

Tropical Cyclone Larry in Cairns, Monday, March 20th – Video of the storm moving down the street. Category 5 storm (at the point I took the video, it was downgraded to 4).

Keg Mover in Cascades – High-tech booze mover.

Migrating Birds – Video of a bird migration we took a boat through. No one got crapped on (sadly).

Koala Videos
Koala Bear Video 1 Koalas are marsupials, not bears.
Koala Bear Video 2
Koala Bear Video 3
Koala Bear Video 4

Dingo Video
Dingos Fun Dingo Fact: The dingo differs from domesticated dogs in that it doesn’t bark.

Penguin Video
Penguins Video of Fairy Penguins.

Wallaby Video
Wallaby Wallaby feed cam featuring my arm.

Echidna Video
Echidna Echidnas eating dinner.

Zoo Sounds
Zoo Sounds The sounds of the animals made me laugh.

At the Sydney Aquarium, all the fish start to look the same. The only thing I found was more reason to never ever swim here. After seeing a box jellyfish and then walking through the shark tank viewing area, I decided the ocean really isn’t worth my limbs.

But it wasn’t all a disappointment. When I took a moment at the zoo to squash the cynic inside me and patted the head of a wallaby, the inner child emerged. I also switched on an unknown “girl mode” and possibly allowed a few it’s-sooo-cutes and awws slip out when I saw the koala bears and wallabies. If you aren’t familiar, wallabies are like baby kangaroos (somewhere a wildlife expert cringed). They look the same, but they are soooo cute! I decided kangaroos are kind of gross. Most of the pictures I took at the zoo were of wallabies. I snapped a few shots of the ‘roos, but I think I would rather eat a kangaroo than look at them.

Wombats, a cousin of the koala, are still my favorite Aussie animal. They look like the offspring of a hamster and a koala, but are the size of a golden retriever. They are rather large and stubborn. Despite their size and small legs, they can run around 20 to 25mph. However, because of their mass, stopping isn’t one of their strong points. I read a few stories about people domesticating wombats, and the animal took out a door trying to get into the house. They will try to go through an object long before trying to find away around it. Wombats live in burrows most of the day to escape the heat. Most of the pictures I got of them at the zoo were of their burrow with the rump barely visible. Oh and that rump… let me tell you. The wombat has an extremely tough hide. In case a predator comes and attacks in the burrow, the tough hide protects the wombat, and it can use its strong legs to smash the intruder against the roof of the burrow.

I love wombats.

The pictures from the zoo and aquarium are posted at http://www.chimpsahoy.com/australia/

Videos of koala bears, wallabies and other strange creatures to come.

-Ryan is the spittin’ image of video game star Max Payne! Try not to confuse him for the gun blazing shoot-em-up cop!
-Dave is Patrick Fugit’s twin! Maybe you thought you saw him in Almost Famous?
-Sonath looks just like the mailman!

And with my resemblance to Orlando Bloom, we could start a tour of no-talent pop culture phenom look-a-likes!

August | Heber, Arizona
Camping trip – chock full of stories about hunting lil’ birds with a potato gun, sleeping in a river, eating blackened hotdogs and drinkin’ Dos Equis.

Read about it here.

August | Tempe, Arizona
Steve and I avoided posting about something we did in August, although we did put a picture in the chimp cam for a few days that generated what some might call “less than positive results.” We moved into our house in Tempe in August, and several things were left here: old chairs, tools, drool-stained pillows, Junior High yearbooks, stuffed gorillas, and old rusted bikes. It was the bikes that pissed us off because there were three of them stored at our house. We didn?t know who?s they were, so we did what anyone would do: we rode one of them into the pool. Unfortunately, a Chimps Ahoy reader who will remain unnamed, owned that bike:

Video 1 (Steve)

Video 2 (Greg)

It wasn’t so much the “riding a 10 speed into a pool” that was the best part; but the whole course of events that followed.

September | Tempe, Arizona
When Sonath asked Steve, “Do you like Wheat Thins bangin’ on your chin?” After asking, he about passed out and fell over laughing. This is a big inside joke, but it ranks high on the moments of 2003.

September | Tempe, Arizona
I was having a lackluster day at ASU, and wouldn?t you know it, the system paid off and I experienced one of the better disasters in ASU bike riding history. In one corner, an Asian student riding eastbound on Tyler Mall. In the other, a Middle Eastern student heading west on the same route. They could tell they were on a collision course: one would bank right, and unfortunately, the other student turned the same direction. They moved back in forth in a death dance, did the final “wobble” and then collided full speed. Both flew over their handlebars, and much like the skateboarding incident Brad and I witnessed, I couldn’t stop laughing. I’ve never denied being a bastard; I know what it’s like to biff on a bike at ASU.

October | Tempe, Arizona
I left my Halloween post unfinished, and I apologize for that. As you may already know, I went as Legolas for Halloween, capitalizing on my resemblance to Orlando Bloom. So, I dropped $70+ on a costume and had make-up and ears done. Better moments of the evening:
-The makeup transformation…I look like an idiot.
-The marriage proposals
-Getting kissed by a lesbian. Well, I found out she was a lesbian after she explained (among other things) that I was the first guy she had kissed out of 19 total.
-Shannon getting checked out and hit on by a girl.
-Nick making children cry
-I was walking close to a fence and someone started screaming, “Legolas! LEGOLAS! I need a picture.” I stood in front of the fence for a picture, and afterwards, she asked, “Do you want to party with us?? And then a guy dressed as Raggedy Anne leans over her, and in a gruff voice says, ‘Yeah, come party with us.’”
-The best moment of Halloween however is when a girl ran up to me in a costume I couldn’t quite discern and yelled, “Legolas! It’s always been my dream for you to shoot me with an arrow!? I didn’t ask questions, I just told her to start running around because I needed a moving target. She ran about ten feet away and pranced around while saying, “I’m a lesbian dinosaur, shoot me with your arrow!” Her costume finally made sense.

December | Tempe, Arizona
I capped the year off with a LAN party, and while that in itself ranks in a different category (see Nerdiest Moments of 2003), one specific moment stands out from that three-day extravaganza of fun. We were playing Battlefield 1942 (a game where you kill people and drive vehicles), and the object of the map was to capture and hold a hill. Steve and his team currently were fighting to hold the hill. My team was trying to take it back. I climbed into a transport truck and started driving towards the hill. A scout on the other team spotted my truck and yelled out my position, so I pulled the truck around and drove through a forest and behind some hills. After I was safely out of view, I pulled out of the forest and booked it full speed up the hill. While I was evading detection, I hear Steve frantically screaming, “I can’t find him! Where is he?” I couldn’t see him either but as I made it to the top of the hill, my truck caught air, and lo and behold I found Steve right under my chassis. I blew my horn just in time for him to turn around and get driven over. He screamed, “NOOOOooooo!” And I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair.

Now that I read that, I realize that I truly am a huge nerd.

Natalie and I had a good time (even though I look like I am about to pass out from heat stroke).

*Featured Trunk “Monkey” in the video is actually a chimp.

See the video…