American Spanky

One of the "komar.org fans", MikeR from Australia, has sent me a handful of pictures/commentary in the last couple of months, and I especially liked the picture (see below) of his pet "Spanky" (the office monkey) with the HULK - I wish my Hulk was that big!

So Mike was enjoying the halloween webcam and asked if I could wave to the webcam for his office-mates in Australia. I offered to do it "one better" and put an American Spanky out on the driveway. I thought the kids had a monkey in their toy stash, but I couldn't find it, so I pulled out a snowman, a duck (on top of a truck), and a white tiger.

We set this up for Thursday night, October 7th, 2004 at 2030 - lunch time in Australia! I was heading over to a neighbors to play pinball, but I first "locked out" the webcam so only Mike's computer (or IP address) could use it, and then wandered down the driveway, smiled for the webcam, and placed a couple the toys (and flashlights for illumination) in the middle of the driveway. I returned a few hours later - fortunately, nobody had driven up the driveway and while they looked a bit lonely, the American Spankies were no worse for the wear! ;-)

BTW, while I don't mind suggestions for stuff to put out and/or things people want me to do for the webcam, I probably won't do much of it, although you never know unless you ask! First, webcam picture quality leaves a bit to be desired - even with this state-of-the-art webcam. Also, timing stuff is really hard - when I'm walking down the driveway, waving to the webcam, etc. I have no idea what web serfers are doing to the webcam, although I can see lights blinking on/off if they are controlling them. Finally, my wife isn't as "enthusiastic" about this whole thing - she says my forehead says D-O-R-K across the top of it! ;-)