Minecraft Mod Review Episode 1 Custom NPCs

I want to create YouTube videos of Minecraft stuff.  My mom showed me how to use WeVideo to capture my screen and save the session to a video.  Check out Episode 1 which walks you through using the Custom NPCs mod.

Ponds

Hello, my name is Johnny. I'm going to be telling you about ponds. A pond is a small mid-deep body of water which is full of life. There are a few ponds around where I live. The ponds are Yates Mill and Simpkins pond. I visit these ponds a few times a year, and I like to study the fish and tadpoles that live in them.

Now I'm gonna tell you about some of the plants that you could possibly see at a pond. My favorite plant that lives in a pond is a cattail. Cattails are plants that look like a real cat's tail. They are very tail and at the end of the stem is a large brown area and a red spike. Another plant you may see is a lily pad. They are quite often found in small house ponds. They allow frogs to be in the middle of the pond without being under water. Lily pads sortof look like a green circle with a V cut out in the front. The next plant I'm gonna tell you about is duck weed. Duck weed is a plant that is sortof like a lily pad. The difference is that it is much smaller, and there are many different platforms growing from the plant. Other plants like trees, flowers, vines, and bushes grow around the pond including one you don't want to run into called poison ivy.

Ponds also provide a home for many different types of animals. Some animals are also born in ponds. Ponds might have tadpoles and frogs. If you look closely, you may see some frog eggs or tadpoles in the pond water. Ponds are also a home to small fish called minnows. Minnows are extremely common. The next animal I'm going to tell you about are water snakes. At Yates Mill, there is a reserve area where Northern Water Snakes live. Sometimes if you look in the water, you will see shells. These shells are from mollusks or tiny clam like animals that live in fresh water. The next animal I want to tell you about is also related from the sea. It is a fresh water jellyfish. These animals are very similar to ocean jellyfish. We often see turtles sitting on logs in shallow pond water. When we walk by, the usually jump into the water. Sometimes we see turtles swimming too.

Now we're going to talk about a few insects that live in or near ponds. Diving beetles live on top of the water but will sometimes dive into it too. Another very common pond insect is the dragonfly which is loved by many especially my mom who loves to take pictures of them. They sortof look like dragons combined with wings and an insect body. Related to the dragonfly is a damselfly. Damselflies are smaller versions of dragonflies. Here's a bug that you might hate. It is called a mosquito. Every time I go to a pond, they make me itchy.

I want to talk about birds at ponds now. My mom's favorite bird from a pond is the Great Blue Heron. It's a large, blue bird with long legs that stalks fish. We often try to take pictures of them. Recently, at Yates Mill, I got within 10 feet of one. He wasn't very afraid of me. Another bird is the Kingfisher. Like the Great Blue Heron, he eats fish. Instead of stalking, he dives into the water and grabs fish with his beak. Cormorants are another bird we sometimes see. They sit on tree trunks and rocks in the water and are mostly black. They also eat fish. Ducks and geese are other birds that live around ponds. They eat plants and bread if you offer it to them. They lay their eggs near the water, and after the eggs hatch, the mothers teach their babies how to swim.

As you can see, ponds are a very, very busy place filled with many different plants, animals, insects, birds, and amphibians. The next time you go to a pond, you should try to see all of these lifeforms. They are really fun to study. Maybe you can even take a few pictures like me.

Me and my brother and mom went to the library and did a event. We built a machine that protected a egg (the goal of the event). The picture is original the machine but it was repaired because when Ms. Lora (a librarian) dropped it from a 3 foot ladder it got badly damaged. My egg survived! I'm gonna eat it the weekend of 6/19/2014! It was a lot of fun!

Cube World Radica

Hi! Me and my Mom found a Cube World Radica at Snapdragon Thrift. My brother Joey was so excited about the Cube World Radica he nearly flipped his head off! We got a Purple Bar Lift Cube (Slim).


We have a book called "Cool Stuff 2.0" that has a page about Cube World Radica.
I know that we can combine and connect Cube World Radica with magnets. 4 cube guys can fit inside a Cube World Radica!

For $1, this is the best toy ever! Joey and I are hoping to get some more so that we can watch the cubing action!

The Lego Mindstorms EV3 Robot

SmugMug Link

For Christmas, I got a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot kit from Santa.  And I was excited! I love robots! So, a couple of days later, mom and I started putting it together and programming it.

SmugMug Link

Mom installed the EV3 software on my computer and her computer.

The EV3 robot came with a bunch of sensors and demo programs.  The program in the picture is one of the programs I wrote that uses the touch sensor.  So far I have written programs using the touch sensor, the color sensor, and the sound sensor.  I also wrote programs using the medium and large motors.

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I like it when Kitty is in the room with me and mom.  Mom took this picture when Kitty was next to EV3.

SmugMug Link

The first robot we built was the Track3r.  It started out with a propeller on the front, and mom kept swapping out the motors and sensors.  Today, I added some Technique Lego bricks that I had in my Lego bin to decorate it.  Mom was impressed.

Mom has made videos of our progress.  Check them out!


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I am looking forward to building the Rep3tar robot next!

Silk Hope Old Fashioned Farmers Day

I have always loved John Deere tractors. Yesterday, I went to a tractor show in Silk Hope NC.
Mom talked to a guy and he let me sit on his tractor.

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I asked mom to take a picture of me between two tractors.  Look how little I am between the two tractors.

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Mom also took this picture of me and a nice cow.

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Here is a video of me honking a horn on a model T car.




Here is a video of a lumber mill.



I had a good time.  I'm glad Mom and Mr. Don took me!

My Trip to the Durham Museum

Mom took us to the Museum of Life And Science in Durham.

In this picture, we were making plankton like creatures. We were doing it with a person named Ms Nancy. We wanted them to be in the middle of this tube. Mine was too heavy; it kept sinking.

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The Museum Of Life And Science is doing a rubber ducky fundraiser. They are ducknormous. There are smaller racing versions for a race in October. I thought this was very cool.

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At the museum, they added this exhibit were you can make your own movie. I only made several.  I arranged the items on the board, took a picture, moved the items just a bit, and took another picture.  I pressed play movie and then posted it to the museum website.